Helloooo...ooo....ooo....ooo....

Is there an echo in here?

For some reason I've made a subconscious decision to leave at least a month betwix postings on my lonely old blog here. It could be laziness. It could be an unhealthy interest in computer games recently. It could be suddenly-unemployed related depression. It could be because I'm getting very little actually writing done (when it rains, it pours--and when it's dry, it's a drought).

I was working on a short called "The Mercenary Cook" for a while. I intend on finishing that up and sending it to Writers of the Future. I'm also going to submit to BYU's writing contests again in a couple of months, but since I've won first, second, and third now in various catagories, I don't know exactly what I'm eligable to enter. We'll see.

My friend and mentor, Brandon Sanderson, hit #21 on the New York Times bestseller list. Congratulations to Brandon and his editor Moshe, and to Tor and, well, all fantasy writers out there. Viva la fantasy revolution.

Whooooooooa Laziness

With a slightly misleading title I bring you the first post in a month. While it's true my writing has fallen off a bit, I've had plenty to do.

Since Worldcon I've done less writing than I should (as I usually do). I have done some good reading, and I started working on a whimsical short story this week. It's the first step to getting back at the novels. Yay!

I started school again, so that's fun. Except its not. Motivation flits out the window faster than I can eat a bag of red vines, especially now that I'm at a place where I feel confident about selling my writing. Only 6 classes left to go though. I have to power through it. Despite my being so close, I can't get over the feeling that my first editor will never ask my GPA...

Worldcon Wrap-up

I just returned from Worldcon, which was a roaring success for myself and several of my friends that attended.

Honestly, I don't want to talk about most of it until after something has come out of my contacts (anything at all: offer, rejection, rewrite request, etc.). So I'm just going to leave it at that. It was a great time.

I did get to meet some great people, including several up-and-coming authors, a couple agents, a couple editors, and a couple published authors. The most exciting of the authors was Patrick Rothfuss. I still haven't read Name of the Wind, but Michele has. She's probably the biggest fantasy snob out there and she loved it, so Name of the Wind is definitely on my list. Patrick has an admirable beard, by the way.

I can't remember if I mentioned this in the last post and I'm too lazy to look: the working title of the Hero project is "Drums of War."

I updated my Library. I've gotten in some good reading, and my list of books to read in the near future has gotten longer. My long-distance list is much, much longer than that, rest assured.

Where Do I Start?

Before I say a few things about The Dark Knight, I'd like to let everyone know that Michele and I welcomed home a beautiful new baby. He's got blue eyes, likes to sleep in my lap. And he's already litter box trained!

There's little to say about The Dark Knight. Mostly because everything has already been said. Half the blogs in the United States are probably buzzing with excitement after opening day.

I honestly didn't expect anything to pass up Ironman for my favorite movie of the summer, I saw the Dark Knight on Friday and I'm still kind of reeling from the experience. Ironman was great, Hellboy II was cool, Hulk was fun--but Dark Knight blew them all away.

I did tell my dad not to let my mom watch The Dark Knight. It's just such a surreal performance on the part of the Joker, this thing is gonna give kids nightmares. Not that my mom's a kid, but you know...

I have to admit: despite the fact that Dark Knight was amazing, and I've never seen anything like it, my heart skipped a beat when I saw the James Bond trailer. That's just cool stuff.

Have I mentioned that the Bourne movies and Casino Royale have redefined action movies as we know them? Dwayne Johnson backs me up on this theory (crap, I can't find the article). I might go ahead and stick Dark Knight on the list.

Have I mentioned Dark Knight enough? No?

I read an article at Slate Magazine about how Dark Knight is some huge allegory over 9/11 and terrorism and the Bush administration. Take a look at the article yourself, but I think it's idiotic. Few people in writing that don't write creatively really understand the concept of entertainment. That includes high school teachers, college professors, and journalists. I don't want to take away any message that Nolan was trying to infuse his movie with, but hell, it was a GOOD MOVIE. Not a giant allegory. Oh yeah, and the article said that there was no hope, no real vision of good triumphing at the end of the movie (I paraphrase, obviously). The entire point of comic books and heroes and villains, even one as sadistic and chaotic as the Joker, is that good triumphs over evil.

Then I'll also say... sorry, I'm done. Nothing else to give. The flick was great.

Libraries of Death, and the Profession of Summer Break

I'm trying out a library of my own. Yes, I ripped the style off from Sohmer. But his is way cleaner and more useful. Which begs the question: if you copy someone, and do it worse, is it still some sort of infringement?

George Carlin, dirty comedian, died last night at the age of 71. I'm pretty sure it was negative energy that killed him. Funny, yes. Positive outlook on... anything? Not a chance.

That's fine, I think Lewis Black is a pretty good stand-in for "funny pissed off old man." Lewis is quite a bit funnier, but I try not to talk smack about the recently-deceased.

I grabbed a couple of books at Borders tonight, in an effort to kick-start my own creative juices: Lies of Locke Lamora and Fool Moon. I have started the Hero project, but I haven't gotten very far with it. Funny how hot summer days can just kinda slip by reading webcomics, playing Civ IV, going to the pool, walking the dogs, and working part time.

I am a professional time-waster.

Brian's Library

On Tap

The Blade Itself Joe Ambercrombie
He was up for a Hugo (and a Campbell, I think) this year and I've heard great things.

Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians Brandon Sanderson
I consider Brandon my mentor yet I still haven't read this one. I'll get to it, though.

The Yiddish Policeman's Union Michael Chabon
Chabon won the Hugo this year and I really loved his Gentleman of the Road.

Stormcaller Tom Lloyd
Something about this struck me when I saw it at Worldcon.

Crossover Joel Shepherd
I was told this is "Ghost in a Shell" put into book form, basically. That sounds rockin'.

What I'm Waiting For

Toll the Hounds Steven Erikson
Book 8. He really has great, ominous titles. This is a series I will get my claws on as fast as humanly possible as the rest come out.

The Wise Man's Fear Patrick Rothfuss
King Killer's Chronicle, day 2. The sequel to Name of the Wind. Another book I'll gladly buy in hardcover.

The Hero of Ages Brandon Sanderson
Mistborn book 3. Ok, I've already seen an early draft. It was really, really good. I'll be buying it in hardcover as soon as it's out.

My Library

Storm Front Jim Butcher
Book one of the Dresden Files. Modern day Chicago--Dresden is the only wizard in the phone book, and solves whatever mysteries that come up. How is that not awesome?

Fool Moon Jim Butcher
Nice, quick read. I'd guess it took me four hours. One of the guys I wished had been at Worldcon.

Proven Guilty Jim Butcher
Book 8. Just as fun as the others. Easy read, and bloody and intense.

White Night Jim Butcher
Book 9. Butcher is really a popcorn-novelist, but he's way better at it than some. Worth the read.

Shadowfall James Clemens
This took me two tries to get in to. At first glance it's just another crap bit of fantasy epic. I learned, however, that this is not true. Once I did get into it, I found a rich world and some good writing, and I'm looking forward to the next books.

Chronicles of the Black Company Glen Cook
I got this three-book collection at Worldcon and finished it in about three days. It's tough military fantasy, told in a simple way, without the extreme amount of history, geography, and anthropology of Steven Erikson. I quite liked it.

Gardens of the Moon Steven Erikson
Book one of the Malazan Book of the Fallen series. It wasn't a huge grabber, but enjoyable--and the rest of the series takes you much further.

Deadhouse Gates Steven Erikson
Book 2, you might want to start the series with this one. Intense is a good word.

Memories of Ice Steven Erikson
Book 3. Paired with Deadhouse Gates, this may be the best one-two wammie I've ever read in a series.

House of Chains Steven Erikson
Book 4. The first third of this book is deceptively boring, but turns out to introduce one of the most interesting characters in modern fantasy.

Midnight Tides Steven Erikson
Book 5. Erikson introduces a whole new country, culture, and set of characters and somehow still keeps your attention.

Bonehunters Steven Erikson
Book 6. In reality, I probably only read 2/3 of this book. Some characters are awesome, and some aren't very interesting. I still love this series.

Reapers Gale Steven Erikson
Book 7. Yes, the series just keeps going. Once again I skipped a bunch of parts, but loved the book overall.

Eifelhiem Michael Flynn
Historic science fiction. Weird, I know. Cool premise, cool setting and characters. Very philosophical, so don't get into it unless you're ready to take Philosophy 252 again. It takes place during the bubonic plague, so it gets pretty dark (and gross) in some places.

The Lies of Locke Lamora Scott Lynch
It took me three tries before I finally got into this one. It was a weird read, too, because I ended up skipping around a lot because I was more interested in the past plotline than the present one. In the end, it was quite good, and I'm looking forward to the next one.

The Name of the Wind Patrick Rothfuss
Enchantingly good. I kept putting it off and putting it off, and when I picked it up I read it in about 9 hours straight.

Elantris Brandon Sanderson
His first book. I'm obviously bias, because Brandon is a friend and mentor to me, but this is a great book. I started reading it at 9 PM and polished the thing off in about eight hours straight.

Mistborn Brandon Sanderson
Even better than Elantris. Brandon has a great, easily read and enjoyed style that is more mature in this book.

Well of Ascension Brandon Sanderson
Book 2 of the Mistborn trilogy. Shifted to more traditional fantasy, what with the trilogy setup and losing the novelty of the "gang of thieves" from the first one, but just as enjoyable.

HULK SMASH and Sociopath Warlocks.

When I saw The Hulk for the first and only time, I was sitting by myself in a near-empty theater catching the early afternoon matinée. While I jump on the The Hulk sucktacular bandwagon whenever it comes up in conversation, I actually kind of enjoyed it. Eric Bana is half-way decent (ok, he's kind of one-dimensional, but I really liked him as Hector) and... that's about all that I remember of the movie. I do remember enjoying it: at least to the tune of $4.50.

Earlier this afternoon I sat in a rather fuller theater all by my lonesome as those green-veined eyes took up the big screen, and I experienced a dash of deja-vu.

I've always been a fan of Edward Norton. Many will say that he doesn't have much of a personality, but his worst-reviewed movie on RottenTomatoes is Kingdom of Heaven (Which, I might add, was a dang good flick). I'm confident that just about everything Ed gets involved with is gonna be good. Either he has a good agent, or he hand-picks all his own scripts, because they're always tailored to him.

Incredible Hulk was no exception. It gets rid of enough of the crumby comic-book silliness of the first one to be enjoyed as a quality movie, while retaining a measure of that same comic-book silliness to make me giggle like a kid when he yelled "HULK SMASH."

I was teetering on the edge with going to see this movie. I like Ed Norton, but comic-book movies are so hit and miss that, after Iron Man's fantasticocity, I figured Hulk could hit rock bottom. But I kept my optimism and enjoyed myself.

I've been reading a webcomic called LFG. If you don't know what that stands for, well, you don't want to read the comic. It's an inside to joke to the tens of millions of MMORPG gamers out there. The comic has a homicidal sociopath warlock. That sings. What more could you ask for?

The reason I bring this up: the author of the comic has his reading list on the website. Stuff he's reviewed, things he's looking forward to, and things he's currently reading. It caught my eye when I saw he was reading Gardens of the Moon, and so I read on, and he has some pretty good taste. I will probably try and catch up with some of his selections, as I have not been reading as much as I should lately.

There's also a sociopath warlock.

Hello all. I've returned from a nine day trip through Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. I was traveling with my parents and my wife, and met up with a number of my brothers and sisters and seventy-odd aunts, uncles, and cousins for a family reunion for my grandmother's 80th B-day.

It was an enjoyable ride, despite spending a good portion of the trip carsick. To be honest, the carsickness was my own fault--trying to play Civilization IV in the back seat of a minivan while on the roller coaster ride that is the Mt. Rainier scenic pass is not really a good idea. Nor is the same attempt while winding along the Colombia River in Oregon.

Now, before you make like my mother and say, "Brian, why aren't you looking at this beautiful scenery," I will tell you that I did, in fact, take in the scenery.

The mountain pass was quite breathtaking. As you're approaching it from a hundred miles off, you see Mt. Rainier and it looks like a single white-capped blade thrusting up into the sky and you wonder, "where are the rest of the mountains." Truth is, Rainier is an active volcano, and therefor built up much taller than anything else around it. But despite the initial appearance of standing alone among the plains, it's surrounded by a mountain range, and you feel absolutely dwarfed by the expansive vistas and the rocky faces that seem to go on and up forever as you ramble up the pass.

Nature doesn't have the monopoly of creating such incredible, expansive sights. It's just better than we are. Part of our trip took us over the Astoria Bridge that crosses the Colombia River near its widest point as it shoots out into the Pacific. The bridge spans 4.1 miles, which while not the longest bridge in the world anymore, is defiantly the longest I've crossed.

We hit up a couple different scenic beaches along the Pacific. It was way too cold for swimming, which is a shame, because I've never swam in the ocean before. I did do some pretty hardcore wading, and we got some good pictures, and Michele and I had a romantic run down through the surf. She chickened out after a minute, though. Romanticism only lasts so long in 40 degree water.

We got back to Orem last night, and Michele is taking her last final for the Spring Semester right now. I'm settling back in, and getting geared to tear into my second book this weekend. Not only did I start the Hero book, but I saw some pretty mind-boggling works of nature on my trip, which do great things to fuel the creative process. Now, if I could only take a trip through Cyprus and the Holy Land to get a knowledge of the landscape as I write Hero...