2013 - The Year Of The King Clan

This entry is sparked by a wonderful interview, where the logistics of getting all these very busy members of the King family in the same location must been immense, that appeared recently in the New York Times Weekend Magazine.

You can find it here - Stephen King’s Family Business

2013 may very well represent the apex of the Stephen King Writing Clan in terms of output.

By the time this year ends we will have had:

1) Stephen King:    Joyland
2) Owen King:       Double Feature
3) Joe Hill:             N0S4A2
4) Stephen King:    Dr. Sleep

and by extension of being Owen King's wife:

5) Kelly Braffet:     Save Yourself

Will this alignment of releases in the same year ever occur again within one family?  Hard to say.  We know S. King has two more books nearing completion - Mr. Mercedes and Revival.  His output the last few years has been amazing!  Can the kids keep up?

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With the imminent release of Stephen King's sequel to The Shining - Dr. Sleep, I decided to reread The Shining since it had been over 20 years since I had read it least.  Partly because I want to reread some of King's earlier books because it has been 20 plus years for a lot of those books.  And partly because the impact that Kubrick's adaptation of the book has had within pop culture is so pervasive- how events played out in his movie versus the book have become blurred. Writer & King expert, Bev Vincent, made this observation and I agree with him.

And I am very glad I reread this book.

The Shining by Stephen King

Well I'm all set for Dr. Sleep.

It's been over twenty years since I last read this book and as good I thought it was since then, it's even more powerful than I remember.  No doubt because in the twenty intervening years I have become a family man and father myself. My focus on this story has shifted from the horror elements to the characters.

Twenty years ago the visceral thrills that the Outlook Hotel gave have been dulled due to the ever expanding boundaries of what horror books/movies etc have shown and told us.

What stands out more in The Shining are the ghosts we carry around inside of us.  These ghosts have the potential to be far more damaging and/or terrifying than anything a possessed hotel can throw at us.

The Cover Version of The Shining I First Saw And Still My Preferred Version

Jack and Wendy Torrance are damaged goods trying to cast off the ghosts of their parents.  Jack fails and with Wendy it is unclear how she fares moving forward from the end of the book.

And Danny?  Ah, poor Danny.  With his gift, or curse, of The Shining - the weight of his ghosts is ever so much heavier.  Will his ability ultimately help him conquer his demons or will he crash even harder than his father?

Come Sept 24 with the release of Dr. Sleep, answers should be forthcoming.

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Save Yourself by Kelly Braffet

One feels guilty when you read in a day, a story a writer put a lot of work into. But it is also sign of a great book and Kelly Braffet has pulled off a particularly difficult feat.  She created a very sad world with characters beaten down by events out of their control. Yet Braffert writes the characters in a way that makes you empathize with them.  You may empathize with certain characters over others and that's perfectly fine. There are enough characters in the story that more than a couple of them will probably get their hooks into you.

The subtext of the unquenchable human thirst for the hope of being a better person flitters on the edges of every page. The only caveat is the characters end up where you think they will. The surprise is the price they have pay to get there.

Shining Some Light Into The Darkness

Star Trek Into Darkness

Two years too late describes how best I feel about this sequel to the highly enjoyable 2009 reboot of the adventures of Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock.  Two years earlier and my expectations would not have been as demanding.  Two years ago another exploration of these characters before they started their 5 year mission would have been something agreeable.

But 4 years later, my expectations were higher.  A highly polished script and a brand new adventure to go boldly once again were want I wanted - and I suspect a lot of the fans of the Trek franchise before this reboot started.  Instead we get a perfectly serviceable summer blockbuster that the general movie going public and critics have found enjoyable.

As a summer blockbuster movie I found it enjoyable.  And instantly disposable.

As a long time Trek from when the original series aired I found this a mediocre Trek movie that recycled elements from the original series and the second movie.  The recycling lacks the impact from the original iteration because the events that take place in The Wrath of Khan work so well because of what transpired in the original Space Seed TV episode.  Khan works as a threat in the movie because he and the crew of the Enterprise have a shared history.  In STID, Khan means nothing to these new versions of Kirk and Spock et al.  So their moments together have no way of carrying the same dramatic tension.

I remain hopeful the next movie will finally deliver some new and original ideas.  The cast is fantastic and they really deserve their own adventure.

It's time for them to see what's out there.

~~~

 Black Hills aka Paha Sapa by Dan Simmons

This book totally caught me off guard and blew me away. Plain & simple. Partially because it does not seem to garner the same attention Simmons's other recent books do.  And partially while I enjoy reading Simmons's books, he favors world building to that of character and I always find his characters somewhat cool and aloof.  Not so with Paha Sapa. What a remarkable character and what a remarkable story Simmons tells about and through him.

I found the integration of his story with the history that was taking place during his life, plus the glimpses into other times, the most compelling of any book Simmons has done to date.

In some aspects, and I mean this in the most complimentary way, this is like Simmons's version of Stephen King's - The Dead Zone. The tragedy that Paha Sapa endured for the majority of his life was heart breaking and I loved how Simmons handled his life after meeting his granddaughter.

The recounting of the construction of Mount Rushmore, the Chicago World Fair of 1893, the building of the Brooklyn Bridge, the exploration of George Custer and his wife, plus the glimpses of the world past, present, and future; all so engrossing and fascinating.

Just looking at all the research material and people Simmons conversed with is staggering.

And it all comes together so seamlessly to so poignantly tell the life story of this Sioux, or Lakota or Natural Free Human Being.

This is now my favorite Simmons book.

Red Planet Blues / Green Planet Glory

On Tuesday, April 3rd I went to Audrey's Book Store in downtown Edmonton to see SF Writer - Robert J. Sawyer do a reading from his new book - Red Planet Blues - a mystery noir set on Mars.  I haven't been able to attend on of Rob's readings since we moved out west so it was a real treat to see and hear him again.

We chatted for a few moments - he actually remembered who I was! - and compared notes as to what we had been up to lately.  His reading was excellent.  Quite funny in fact.  Rob joked around that he had learned that the best way to entice readers was to make sure his reading selection included nudity and action.  I thought he was just kibitzing with the audience but Rob was telling the truth. His reading contained both and a lot of humor too.

There was a question period afterwards which was interesting. His nex project is based on, 'The Psychomatic Zombie.'  Sounds like Rob is trying to tap into the serial killer/zombie craze.  Fascinating stuff.

I have his latest book on my To Be Read pile.

RJS entertains with his reading.

~~~

So we went west for Easter Weekend and stayed at an inn in Lake Louise.  The trip was gorgeous and the roads were practically deserted.  The first shot below is typical of the both scenery and traffic.

If you scroll back to my previous post you can see what Lake Louise looks like in the summer.  This is what it looks like in the winter.  Truly gorgeous.

We ate very well - too well for me, I felt like the 10 pounds I have lost since the start of the year all came back that weekend.

A splendid time was had by all and we plan to visit Jasper in the summer.

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Off to my first writer's group meeting with the Edmonton Writing Group tonight.  They meet twice a month and do group reviews of each other's writing.  Looking forward to hanging out with some other writers and sharing thoughts and feedback.

Giant Red Shirts

RedShirts by John Scalzi

A fun, quick read.

It niftily skewers the model of TV writing that grew out of shows of the original Star Trek and it's ilk. TV writing often operates under the dictum of, 'Don't need it good, need it Tuesday.'

Definitely a fun read but my biggest laugh was Scalzi's afterword where he boasts that Stargate:Universe, which he worked in, was a better written show than the Star Treks. S:U may have given its Redshirts more meaningful deaths but it had so many other writing problems.

Clever of Scalzi to take an oft discussed TV trope and turn it into a novel.

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Ewan McGregor, Ian MacShane, Stanley Tucci, Bill Nighy, and Bryan Singer.  When you write it down, such a list of talent leads you to believe that this will be a project of some import.  But, alas Jack The Giant Slayer is an instantly forgettable 3D effort that retells Jack and The Beanstalk.  It's rather amazing that a well acted and polished effort can lack any sort of emotional spark.  Goes to prove that story telling is an art and not a science.

~~~

My short piece came back from my beta reader with great results and only a few minor suggested tweaks.  Sent the story off and thinking about the next story.My short piece came back from my beta reader with great results and only a few minor suggested tweaks.  Sent the story off and thinking about the next one.

To date, I've written a mirco-piece of 200 words and a flash fiction piece of 1000 words. Time to tackle a more traditional length of prose.

2013 Book Readings

1) Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz

2) Shadows & Tall Trees - Volume 4 - edited by Michael Kelly

3) The Twelve by Justin Cronin - partial - finished the last quarter.

My thoughts on the book from 2012:

"Only made it 3/4s of the way through this one before I had to return it to the library. I'll have to reborrow to finish it but with an upcoming Christmas vacation that likely won't happen till next year.The shifting timeline that occurred in the first book is back this time to even more annoying affect. At least in the first book it was in chronological order. In the second, it jumps back again with characters whose fates we know and don't care about. The first book left us with a certain group of characters and then when the second picks up with them it is some time after the first book ended. Rather off putting and a momentum killer. 300 pages plus in and it was only then the book felt like it was gathering steam. On the plus side I really do like Cronin's way with characters.


Completing the book reinforced my previous points. I found the book's jumbled timeline a real momentum killer but Cronin's craft with creating characters I care about is such that I was quite emotional during the final few chapters.

If it wasn't for that, I would not read the third book. And I fear a long revisit into the past in the third book maybe in order to flesh out Zero. Another annoying trend was Cronin taking the story up to moments of conflict that had been well setup only to jump forward and then tell what happened after the fact. Not a fan of that style of story telling.

This series had the scope and potential to become the next big thing Apocolyptic novel but as of this point in the story, this series will not supplant The Stand for me.

Curious as to what the general reception for The Twelve has been and Cronin's reaction/book sales have been.

For me, The Twelve is definitely a disappointment."

Completing the book reinforced my previous points. I found the book's jumbled timeline a real momentum killer but Cronin's craft with creating characters I care about is such that I was quite emotional during the final few chapters. 

If it wasn't for that, I would not read the third book. And I fear a long revisit into the past in the third book maybe in order to flesh out Zero. Another annoying trend was Cronin taking the story up to moments of conflict that had been well setup only to jump forward and then tell what happened after the fact. Not a fan of that style of story telling. 

This series had the scope and potential to become the next big thing Apocolyptic novel but as of this point in the story, this series will not supplant The Stand for me. 

Curious as to what the general reception for The Twelve has been and Cronin's reaction/book sales have been.

For me, The Twelve is definitely a disappointment."