Wednesday 18 September 2013

Joss Whedon Is The Literary Quivalent Of The Wolf From Pulp Fiction



Wouldn't it be ... words fail me and I'm going to go with indescribably, unspeakably, frickin AWESOME if Joss Whedon were on hand to give advice when we ran up against a brick wall of ideas--or lack thereof.

You know what I'm talking about, right? You're writing along, everything's great, and then it's all NOTHING and no idea where you're going.  Except, usually, there's the vague idea that something isn't right.

Well, tonight I took a moment to envy Alan Taylor after I read this:
"Whereas normal people are forced to slog through their days just accepting the stilted dialogue and strained exposition, director Alan Taylor has at his disposal the Marvel studio machine—and thus its most valuable resource, Joss Whedon. Speaking to SFX Magazine, Taylor discussed how a couple of problems on Thor: The Dark World led to him calling in the big, quippy guns, whereupon Whedon “basically got airlifted in, like a SWAT team or something” out of a scene that Taylor couldn’t make exciting to save his life. Instead Whedon did that for him, rewriting the script on the spot and—after Taylor says he grabbed Whedon before he could get back to his plane—playing fixer on two more scenes he was having trouble with, presumably just nonchalantly tossing the edits over his shoulder as he swaggered down the jetway.

"According to Taylor, those Whedoned scenes were “were just much better and much lighter on their feet… much more fun, much more surprising than what we had been trying to do,” which is definitely what you airlift Joss Whedon in for, if you can afford it. Hopefully Whedon will soon get to the point where he can devote himself to philanthropically flying around the world visiting the less fortunate, swooping in like a guardian angel to punch up their lives a little."
That quote is from Joss Whedon was airlifted in to fix Thor: The Dark World.

I realize most of the article was tongue in cheek--check out the photo they went with, Joss Whedon flying through the air, attached to a rope, dangling from a helicopter, equipped with Captain America's shield. (Though I'm sure that's pretty much how Taylor saw it!)

Maybe if I play my cards right, one day ... 


Tuesday 17 September 2013

H.P. Lovecraft on Crossing The Line Into The Boundless Unknown



I just came across this quote from H.P. Lovecraft:
"Only the human scenes and characters must have human qualities. These must be handled with unsparing realism, (not catch-penny romanticism) but when we cross the line to the boundless and hideous unknown--the shadow-haunted Outside--we must remember to leave our humanity and terrestrialism at the threshold."
Now that's writing.

The quotation is from Lovecraft's Selected Letters, edited by August Derleth et al.

Photo credit: "Woper Cthulure"

Saturday 5 January 2013

One of my stories was published!


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Big news! One of my stories was published today.

I regret not blogging more. Life has been crazy. But I have been writing, snatching 10 or 15 minutes a day, sometimes on the way to work.

I'm excited to have one of my stories published. Sliverland Press is offering it through Amazon's KDP Select program so I'm not allowed to post any of it.

It has been uploaded but Amazon hasn't published it yet so I don't have a link for you. When that happens if you search on "M.R. Harris" at Amazon.com you'll find it.

Now I just have to keep writing and submitting my stories.

Being published is a great feeling!