Catch-Up

Hi again. It's been awhile.

I guess I should start with the big reveal: "The Secret Project" I've been mentioning was a collaboration between my cousin and I. Around the beginning of summer, he brought up the idea of working on a short story together as a wedding present for our cousin Erin. I thought it was a touching thing to do, and to boot he even had the basic premise of a story already in his head, which was awesome. He told it to me, and I readily agreed to work with him on it.

But writing is such a lonely job by description, so how are two people supposed to go about crafting a story together that reads coherently under one "voice"? I was worried, but I knew if I were ever to work on a TV show or big-budget film, I'd definitely be working with other writers, so why not start out with another writer like my cousin who is humble, talented... and best of all... patient! I knew that whatever challenges we'd face, that I was on a good team.

So I asked him about it, and he found a great entry on Neil Gaiman's Journal about how he works with other writers. We liked the bit about them taking turns sending each other sections of the story. It reminded me of reading a serial novel in sections, and I liked the idea of looking forward to trying to surprise each other with each section.

So we tried it out. And guess what? We finished it in time for the wedding, and were pleased with the entire experience. When talking about it, we both mentioned how the story went in directions neither of us could have foreseen. It was definitely a treat watching a story take a life of its own, and carve a narrative that was unpredictably satisfying.

The funniest thing was trying to explain to my friends why I couldn't go out some nights due to meeting a deadline.

"What deadline?" they would ask.

"Um... I can't... actually say," would be my only response.

"What do you mean you can't tell me!?"

I've discovered since that secrecy, no matter how clear-hearted in intent, is still an outright slap in the face to some. My apologies to those people! I was just keeping a promise to remain secretive about it while it was being written. No harm intended.

If you want to learn more about the project, check out my cousin's writing journal. There's a good chance he will write about the experience too from his perspective. And even if he doesn't write about it, check out his journal anyway. His entries are always charming and witty to read.

Artwork

My current emotional state is approaching ecstatic delirium. The root cause of all this happiness is simple: Magic in Dogtown will have cover artwork. Not only will it have cover artwork, but the person designing the cover happens to be one of my favorite people on the planet.

I'll undoubtedly dedicate an entire post about her later on, but here are some facts:
-Yes, she has done prior professional work. I checked it out the other week. It was amazing.
-If the miraculous occurs and the book is published, my desire is to have her artwork featured in the final print.
-She is an intriguing character herself and one of the most fascinating people I know. If I write about her in a later post, people reading the descriptions will probably doubt her existence and therefore my sanity.
-Regarding the fact above: yes, she is actually real.

I'll talk about the artwork more later on as it develops.

---

Yesterday I went to a housewarming party wearing a T-shirt my cousin bought me that depicts a fictional construction company called "Steel Erection." Other details about the company are equally lewd. Later into the night it aroused discussion.

Girl: I can't stop staring at your shirt. "Steel Erection"? That's gotta be fake.
Me: No, it's real. My family's in construction.
Girl: But it's obviously referring to a penis.
Me: (feigns dumb) What are you talking about?
Girl: That can't be an actual company. It's a joke about an erection.
Me: (looks down at picture on T-shirt showing a very phallic-looking crane) If you think penises are composed of steel, then I pity you.

The host of the party has a tendency to tear off his clothes, run around, and generally wreak havoc when excited. I thought it wise to escape a bit early to avoid this situation, but Tropical Storm Danny decided to unleash on me on the way home. It saddens me to report that my steel erection T-shirt did not hold up well in the monsoon.


Stay dry,
Corey

Vibrations

Saw District 9 on Friday -- having been wowed by Neill Blomkamp's short film Alive in Joberg -- and was really impressed. Thing was, I put my phone on silent in the theater and forgot to reset it afterwards... causing me to miss all my calls on Saturday and most on Sunday before realizing the mistake. Yeah, I'm just brilliant like that.

Today I got to switch offices. Or, I should say move back into my regular office and out of my summer workplace. When I got there, I had the unusual feeling that I was walking across the bottom of the ocean, the silt stirring and swirling beneath my fingertips. It was that dusty and untouched.

And yes, I'm still writing away. I'm on a fun chapter, and it shows in the writing. I'm trying to start each chapter on a fresh beat to keep things jumping, but I'll only know when I finish the rough draft and read over everything if it works or not.

I saw this music video and suddenly started thinking of a new part of a back story for the main character in the book, but it doesn't relate at all to the song or the video. Strange how the brain works sometimes. Connections that aren't really connected at all. Still, I thank the artists and the creators of the video for the inspiration!

Monday's almost over, everyone. Stay fun.

Adaptations

I have internet at home again. I am satisfied that my life can now be overwhelmed by various online shenanigans as usual.

I've been meaning to write about adaptations for awhile, because I've noticed a lot of misconceptions about them in my life. After all, these days one sees adaptations springing up every weekend. In the past twelve months there have been a few big ones: Watchmen, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and The Time Traveler's Wife, just to name a few.

In any case, there's something important I think everyone should know:

Adaptations are usually not direct translations between different forms of media.

Instead, I prefer to think of them as spiritual cousins, in a way. For example, one of my favorite adaptations is the movie Thank You For Smoking, which springs from Christopher Buckley's novel of the same name. I read the book (normally a sure sign that will make someone immediately scorn the movie) and thought the movie was superb. I think the secret to its success was that it didn't attempt to follow Buckley's novel verbatim. Instead it focused on the main character's constantly evolving relationship with his son. If I remember correctly, they only had one quick interaction in the novel.

In this way, it didn't degrade the spirit of the novel by trying to recreate the exact same ideas on film (how could that compare to what readers already constructed in their imaginations?), but instead took a new and interesting route in the world the novel created. Novels are typically hundreds of pages long. It's not a good idea to try and "condense" one down into 80-120 pages of script.

I think the filmmakers behind the Lord of the Rings movies were smart about this as well. Fantasy fans can be pretty harsh critics, and the Rings epics are classics, so it would have been insane to recreate the novels word-for-word on the screen. Instead, the films are different enough to be exciting and surprising to fans of the novels, but familiar enough to appease die-hards.

So, here are two rules I think every adaptation should follow:

1. Don't try to make the movie an exact replica of the source material. Instead, they should be separate, but definitely related, ideas.

2. More importantly, the original creator or author absolutely has to be on board with the adaptation.

For example, Watchmen was an intriguing adaptation, but author Alan Moore was very much against the idea of it being adapted into a movie. As much as I admire some of the talent behind the film version, I never like to hear about instances like this where the author's requests were ignored.

I've never really been keen on the idea of adapting, but two stories in particular prove to be the exception:

****Neuromancer, by William Gibson -- Filmmakers have been trying to adapt this for years. I think Gibson himself even penned a script at some point. The story, set in the future, follows a hacker who is trying to recapture the glory of what he used to be... at an extreme cost. Basically, I'd love the chance to adapt this, because frankly, it'd be really damn difficult. The novel's brilliant imagery would be tough to capture in a script, the characters are morally compromised in a way that would be difficult to make them sympathetic in a shorter media form, and the plot is complex to such a degree that it's near impossible to weave into a 90 page script. So yes, my desire to adapt is partly due to the sheer sense of awe I feel at Gibson's story, and partly due to artistic masochism.

****World War Hulk, by Greg Pak, Peter David, John Romita Jr., and Gary Frank -- Okay, don't knock it, please. A lot of people scoff at me when I tell them that the Hulk is one of my favorite characters in any form of media. "Where's your sense of good taste?" they inquire. "Didn't you have a concentration in Literature in college?" When questioned about this, I usually ask them if they have ever actually read any Hulk comics, to which the answer is begrudgingly in the negative.

When written well, Bruce Banner and his green alter ego can be very, very compelling. Try reading some of author Bruce Jones' arc in The Incredible Hulk series if you don't believe me. Whenever I let a cynic borrow some issues of this arc, they never, ever fail to get sucked right in despite themselves. Anyway, the World War Hulk story line ensnared me because none of the characters are really good guys. It's akin to watching an episode of "The Shield" for me, because I wasn't sure who to root for, but was glued to my seat nonetheless.

I always pictured it becoming a direct-to-video animated release (I wouldn't kid myself of trying to go theatrical), with the amazing voice-actor Keith David (Gargoyles, Spawn the Animated Series, Coraline, Platoon, Crash, etc) voicing the cunning, intelligent Hulk of the story line. Many people associate the Hulk with the feeble-minded ogre depicted in the movies who has a penchant for speaking in the third person, but in the stories I've read he is anything but.

Unfortunately, it is unlikely that my dream of adapting this comic will ever come to pass, because the prequel, Planet Hulk, has already been made. And if you watch the trailer, I'd bet you a drink that that amazingly badass voice of the Hulk is voiced by none other than Keith David himself. Isn't funny how things develop, sometimes?

---

Is there anything you want to see adapted, or would want to try to adapt?

Still In The Lab

So all of my stuff is in the new apartment. Is all of it unpacked? No. Is it all organized into a cohesive living environment? Not really.

But it's clean, yes. And... all my stuff's in it. That's all I really care about at this point.

The writing is going pretty well. Coming to the computer lab after work puts me on a more refined writing schedule, which helps productivity in that department a ton. Maybe I should continue doing it this way even after Internet is restored to my apartment...

... Oh wait, one of the lab employees has just informed us that they're closing early today, so nix that last thought. I'm used to the academic year hours, which are 24/7. Oh well. I got a lot done this afternoon, so I'm pretty satisfied. Exhausted, though. I might just chill with a DVD tonight and recline for a bit. That actually sounds kind of nice, even if it a Saturday night tonight.

Some exciting but secretive stuff is in the works. I'll update about it when I am able to and it isn't so top-secret anymore.

Ugh, if my fractured thought processes -- evident by my scattered sentence structure -- is any indication, I'm completely exhausted. Hopefully I'll make it all the way through the DVD before conking out for the night...

Anyway, I hope your night tonight is more exciting than mine. Have fun and stay cool in this sticky weather.

Good night.

Channeling Hank Moody and Being Assaulted by Hazardous Chemicals

The full realization of my Internet dependence hit me when I realized I would be without it at home for a few days. In the process of moving to a new apartment, these things happen. Yet, I'm still amazed at how much I basically use my home computer to go online. I catch myself attempting to log on in the morning to check the weather before I head to work, only to shake my head at my own stupidity.

So here I am, writing this entry from a large university computer lab. It makes me fondly recall the episode of "Californication" when Hank Moody -- having smashed his home PC in a fit of writer's block-induced rage -- bangs out his blog entry for "Hell-A Magazine" from a nearby Mac Store. The difference being I'm not getting paid to write this. Nor am I as cool as Hank Moody. And I'm not in California, either.

Okay, so maybe there isn't that much of a resemblance.

I also had to take a break from writing for a few days. I've been cleaning to such an extent (both the old apartment and the new) that at this point I'm pretty much exhaling Clorox and sweating Windex. Yeah, I baked my brain on cleaning chemicals. I wore a filtration mask, but that can only do so much. And no, I didn't actually mix bleach with ammonia. I used to clean rooms for a living, so I've learned that much at least. Regardless, the fumes of the chemicals I was using were overpowering. Even Mr. Clean's bald head would've shriveled under the sheer power of what I was cleaning with.

So after a weekend of heavy cleaning and heavy lifting, I walked into work on Monday and immediately knew I was too ill to be there. Have you ever watched a sane person talk to someone completely out of their mind? The crazy person rambles on and on, and the sane person just smiles and nods those little polite nods, desperately mapping out possible escape plans. I was getting those very same smiles and nods at work whenever I'd open my mouth. Who knows what point I was even trying to make. So after awhile, I brought up the option of taking half a sick day and just going home early. My co-workers immediately agreed. One even suggested that I just take off the whole day.

My poor co-workers. Yet again, strangeness and I are pretty good buddies by now, so they're probably used to it anyway.

So until I get Internet at home, which probably won't be until next week, I'll be doing most of my writing here in the lab. Ah well, writing is writing, regardless of where it's done.

Later, everyone. Stay outta trouble.

Style

It's been a busy week so far. Catching flights, catching up at work, catching up with a few friends, and working out my move to a new apartment are all pretty exciting. Next week holds the promise for more adventure.

Speaking of exciting, I'm coming up to a major event in Dogtown. The big choice I face is, after the event occurs, do I want to switch writing styles -- like third person to first person, etc -- or maintain the current style I'm using? When I'm reading other authors and they pull a stunt like that, I usually find it frustrating or annoying with very few exceptions. I'm mulling it over now in the hopes that I'll have reached a decision by the time I get to the event.

In regards to reading, after finishing Wally Lamb's The Hour I First Believed, and Orson Scott Card's Ender in Exile, two great but also tragic novels, I was in the mood for something comedic. My cousin recommended Paul Neilan's Apathy And Other Small Victories, which turns out to the the perfect balance to the other two novels. In other words, it's fucking hilarious. Reminds me a lot of John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces, another one of my favorites.

For movies, I haven't been to the theater in awhile, but two movies have been recently released that I've been looking forward to for a long time: The Hurt Locker and 500 Days of Summer. So far these films have received nothing but sheer praise, yet I keep hearing people say that nothing good is coming out this summer. Why not check these ones out?

I think the next post will be about adaptations. Until then, "stay frosty" folks. Bonus points to anyone who can guess which movie that line comes from. Hint: J.K. Rowling paid homage to it in her final Harry Potter book.