The movie genre is drawn randomly for each team. We drew ‘Horror’. There is a prop, character and line of dialog required in all the movie entries. This year, the prop was a sandwich, the character was Karen or Kevin Schnabel, an Expert and the required line of dialog was “I hope they decide soon.”

Christina and I have participated in the 48-Hour Film Project for several years. The group we worked with in previous years decided to take a break this year, so Christina and I decided to try by ourselves. Christina Produced and Directed the video. Together we wrote the script and edited the video.  I also got about an hour to add music score and sound FX. (Like I said, not much time for luxuries!) I also make a cameo in the film as the enigmatic Kevin Schnabel.

It was a lot of work for two people! But we did have some help. Jessica Mallon volunteered to be our starlet, appearing in the film as Karen Carlson. Reid Rejsa did some post-production audio mixing and mastering. Both of them did a fantastic job. Thanks much to Jess and Reid for all their help!

I attended the screening of the films selected by judges as the “Best Of” and after the screening, they listed the award winners for ‘Best Picture’ and such. There were a lot of really great movies this year, and all the awards were well-deserved. It was also nice to see the creator of the event, Mark Ruppert, come out to flyover land and oversee the showing and awards, and congratulate the winners personally.

Our entry was titled “Locked”. It didn’t win any awards, but that was never our goal. We had a great time, learned a lot, and completed the project on time. We made a video in 48 hours that stood its ground against the other entries. In that respect, our movie was highly successful.

You can view “Locked” here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVtHBqK-45Q Feel free to rate and comment on the movie!

-Zero

Neil Gaiman posted on his blog recently on the topic of Audience Entitlement

A fan named Gareth, irate at the author of a series in progress, wishes that the author would hurry up and get the next book in the series out the door. Gareth asks “…what responsibility does he have to finish the story?”.

Have you been there? I know I have. I remember just settling into Stephen King’s ‘Dark Tower’ series when King took a break from writing it to pursue other projects. I thought to myself, “What happens now if he gets hit by a car?”

He did.  Thankfully it didn’t stop him from finishing the series, but it certainly stopped me from ever starting on a series that wasn’t completed – a situation I called “The Dark Tower Fiasco”, but we can also call it a more generic term: “Incomplete Series Malaise.”

Mr. Gaiman lists “life” as one of the things that can get in the way of deadlines, but “death” can too. There’s plenty of other reasons books in a series might *never* get published. An author’s imprisonment, career change, drug rehab, spiritual awakening or legal issues can leave an unfinished series unfinished forever.

Audience Expectations vs the Fickle Muse

So what’s the answer to Garth’s question? What responsibility does an author have to their audience, (even to the *world*) to finish the series?

Mr Gaiman answers in no uncertain terms: The author does not work for you.. Actually, that’s only partly true. He said:

The author is not your bitch.

And I agree.

Despite my own frustration at the large pause in the Dark Tower series,  it never occurred to me to get upset at the author. Any author/artist/musician can tell you the creative spirit which possesses them is fickle. Force it and it seems…forced.

I’d rather that Stephen King take a break if he’s burned out. I’d rather he shifted gears if that’s what he needs to do. Because if you really want to write a crappy story, simply write one you don’t want to write. And if the author’s heart NEVER comes back to finish the series or the genre or even if the author never writes again… that’s the way it is, and I’d imagine the author is far more disappointed about it than any fan would ever be.

How the Multi Book Publishing Deal is not helping…

Aggravating the issue is the fact that both authors and publishers LOVE to work the series. They layer multi-book-deal upon multi-book-deal with no end in site, treating their works like a television show. Laurell K Hamilton, Jim Butcher and many others have made multi-multi book deals, and who could blame them? Multi-book deals are a security blanket for authors who normally live from book to book.

Given, some writers will write books in their series as separated tales in the same universe. This is how I approach it myself with the Demonslayer’s Handbook, but some writers are pumping out  a 1,200 page epic saga and parsing it out over three or four books, and publishers (and fans) are eating it up. This is only going to make Incomplete Series Malaise more common.

What to do when an author gives you ‘Incomplete Series Malaise’

It’s difficult when the author takes a break from a series you really love, and begins working on other things, but just keep in mind that there’s plenty of other people in the author’s life/career who want other things from her/him. (The publisher being one of them; an obligation I’ll discuss in a future post)

Because of these practices and my own experience with the Dark Tower Fiasco, I vowed not to start reading a series until the author is one or more of the following:

• Finished with the series
• Dead

I’ll catch the finished version when it’s actually finished. Like Mr. Gaiman said, there are plenty of other books to occupy you in the meantime.

But what else can be done? What if you get sucked into a series and you simply cannot wait one more day for the next book? (I think this is why Scott Sigler calls his fans “junkies”…) I think the best thing you can to to help motivate the author is to tell her/him how much you love the series. Threatening might work.  (Read “Misery” by Stephen King.) Bribery might work, but I wouldn’t count on it.

Sorry if that’s cold council, but this is the danger of getting hooked into an unfinished series. You have to keep in mind that the author does not work for you. The author can’t please everyone, and you are part of that everyone.

In the next post on this topic, I’ll turn the discussion around and we’ll see how what the author *does* owe to the audience...

Back in Mar 2009, I tripped across a call for submissions to an anthology titled ‘The Blackness Within’.

The idea sounded refreshing and I needed a break from The Demonslayer’s Handbook. So, I took a week off to write up almost 5000 words, and sent it off, thinking no more about it than the fact that I should clear a virtual place for the rejection e-mail I was sure to receive.

On 2 May, I discovered that I’d made the “Short List” whatever that means, and on 5 June I received the following:

‘Big Game’ is a great story, fast paced and quite different…I’d love to accept the story for inclusion in ‘The Blackness Within’.

Like I said, it’s not supposed to happen this way. The first story I’ve shown outside my circle of friends and relatives, written in a fit of spontaneity… not to mention my first submission ever… accepted?

The princely sum of 15 Pounds is probably enough to buy myself a copy of the book when it comes out, with enough left over for a lovely cuban cigar to smoke while I read it. But the real prize is that I will forevermore be able to say that Conrad Zero is a published author. (And I just might refer to myself in third person when I do it. Adds to the importance, don’t you think?)

So now, with a 100% acceptance rate, I’m terrified to ever make another submission. Don’t want to tarnish that perfect record, eh?

Fuck it. I’m going to call it ‘beginners luck’ and press on.

Meanwhile, the anthology of The Blackness Within should be out later this year by Apex Book Company.

Stunned,

-Zero

No joke. Here’s the list of songs.

• Night Ranger – “Sister Christian”
• Guns n’ Roses – “November Rain”
• Bon Jovi – “Wanted, Dead or Alive”
• Journey – “Faithfully”
• Scorpions – “Winds of Change”
• Poison – “Every Rose Has Its Thorn”
• Ozzy Osbourne/Lita Ford – “Close My Eyes Forever”
• Styx – “Come Sail Away”
• Heart – “Alone”
• Meat Loaf – “Anything For Love”
• Aerosmith – “Dream On”
• Mötley Crüe – “Home Sweet Home”
• Lynyrd Skynyrd – “Freebird”
• Queen – “We Are The Champions”

The talent behind this show are amazing. Dieter Bierbrauer, Randy Schmeling and Katy Hays are spot-on singers. The songs are done pretty much note for note, in some cases better than the originals. All the performances were stellar, but ones that stand out: Dieter’s rendition of Ozzy in “Close My Eyes Forever” was top notch, and likewise with Randy’s cover of Meatloaf’s “Anything For Love”. Katy’s cover of Heart’s “Alone” was worth the price of admission. The musicians are all pro: Mike Menard on Bass/Guitar, Jon Ehresmann and Mike Krajewski on Guitars, Dennis Curley on Keyboards and Andrew Thornbrough on Drums… This is not some lame bar band playing a kegger. These people are truly admirers of the genre, and you’ll be amazed at how close they get to the originals.

Of course it’s not possible to look back on some of this stuff and laugh, especially the hair. You will see Katy attempt to run her hair through the “way back machine” in about 30 seconds (in exactly 30 seconds). You will see Randy put on a giant wig and cowboy hat and perform a minty rendition of Poison’s “Every Rose Has It’s Thorn”. You will see Dieter in a rowboat-turned-spaceship-pulled-by-aliens while singing “Come Sail Away”. Now I’m no Styx fan, but that part of the show had me laughing so hard, I was literally in tears.

More fun highlights: Free lighters (with built-in bottle openers) to hold up in a non-stop tribute, and some fun facts between songs about the bands that made these songs what they are. A medley halfway through the show touched on what was and was not a power ballad. There’s a T-Shirt Cannon, and if you’re really lucky, they will pull some person out of the audience to answer Power Ballad Trivia who is so drunk she scares the performers. (Hey, they only had to deal with her for a couple minutes. I sat right in front of her for the entire show.)

Oh, and for the grand finale: THREE FREDDY MERCURY’s. Top that.

The show runs through June 28th. Get tickets at the door or the official website, www.powerballadz.com There are no assigned seats. Drinks are served in the venue – CASH ONLY so come prepared. Unfortunately, the discount code I have to get half price tickets is only good for opening weekend, but if you are going, keep an eye out for specials and discounts.

The LAB theatre used to be called the Guthrie Lab, but after the Guthrie moved, now it’s just called The LAB.

Click here for the Google Map to the LAB Theatre

If you saw the show, let everyone know what you think in the comments. If you liked the show, spread the word!

What is Speculative Fiction?

You can read the wikipedia entry here, but I think the term was invented to handle stories that included both elements of Fantasy and Sci-Fi. What genre label can you put on a book that has dragons fighting against military spaceships?  Time-traveling elves?

Speculative Fiction is a broad genre that is more defined by what other genres won’t include. Put a time-traveling elf in a Romance or a Mystery or a Western, and those genres will kick you right straight out. But Speculative Fiction is the ‘Island of Misfit Stories’. Which means they don’t mind a Horror author in their midst. I just tell them my writing is “Dark Fiction”. 

Writers Group Discussions:

The writer’s group has several functions. First, there are discussions based around the subject of writing/publishing. These discussions would benefit any writer, not just writers of Speculative Fiction.

The latest group discussion focused on the beginning of your story (aka: the Hook). The group organizer brought examples of famous story openings and we talked through whether we thought they were good or bad, and why.

Topics for future discussions are often brought up by suggestions.  Next month’s discussion is “What authors do you love/hate and why?”

Writers Group Critiques:

The primary function of the group is critique. People submit their writings to the group website.  The group prints out and reads the submissions, and critiques them, highlighting mistakes, pointing out logical errors, mentioning things that were confusing and things they liked/didn’t like. Word count of submissions is limited, so people often post sections of writing. The number of submissions is also limited each month.

The more you … participate with the mindset of helping others to become better writers and letting others help you to become a better writer, the more you’ll get out of it.

Once per month, the group gathers and we go around the room, each person presents their critique to the author. The author is expected to bite their tongue until each person has had their say. Critiques are limited to 3 min per person. After each person has critiqued, the author then has their chance to thank, explain and rebuke the critiques.

At first blush, it sounds like an opportunity for a new author to get seriously lambasted by a snake pit of experienced writers. That would depend on the members of the group, and I can tell you that our group is very positive and supportive. Very few things get thrown, and the only weapon I’ve seen available is a stuffed snake. In other words, no one is mean and no one gets hurt. The more you are able to check your ego at the door and participate with the mindset of helping others to become better writers and letting others help you to become a better writer, the more you’ll get out of it.

Other Benefits of a Writer’s Group:

Getting diverse and objective opinions on your work is only part of what writers groups provide.

Groups like MNSpec are the “writing community.” They truly understand what it means when you say you finished your story, or got accepted, or published, or rejected. Someone else at the meeting has the same questions you do. Someone else there has the answer because they had that question before.

Writers groups will test your public speaking skills. If you are nervous speaking in public, here’s your chance to practice with a limited and sympathetic audience.

Members will share and discuss opportunities and events going on in the local community. Author readings, radio interviews, newspaper articles and more; if it’s going on in your area, the author’s group is the grapevine for spreading that news.

The submission deadlines of the group are… deadlines. They will help to motivate you, if you are the kind of person who needs deadlines to get motivated.  And the knowledge that your writing will be read by others will make you realize that you are NOT writing for yourself.

Another advantage of critiquing the work of others is that it sharpens up your Inner Editor. When we re-read our own material looking for errors or ways to make it better we are really Editing. Evaluating other peoples work gives your Inner Editor the skills to do a good job on your own work later.

What if there isn’t a Writer’s Group in my Community?

Trick Question. If there isn’t a writer’s group in your area, then YOU START ONE.

Meetup.com is painfully simple to use. Yahoo Groups too. Craigslist, Myspace, Facebook, Twitter. Need I say more? If you can write an e-mail then you can start a writers group. And if you can’t write an e-mail, that’s a skill you might want to work on before you go starting a writers group.

But don’t forget to look in the real world, at people and groups in your local area. If you’re in school, I bet your English Dept would be thrilled to support a writer’s group. Post something at your workplace, or local bookstore or coffee shop. Think of places readers and writers would hang out in your area.

The trick is to pick a neutral meeting ground. Don’t have meetings at your house. It could be as simple as your local fast-food hangout or coffee shop, or the local library. Libraries often have public meeting rooms that are free to use.

The new theater production at the LAB (Formerly the Guthrie Lab) will be a cultural awareness event of epic proportions.  The show is called Power Balladz, and runs from May 28 to June 28th 2009. It includes teased hair, colored lights, fog, spandex, and no less than THREE Freddie Mercurys.

The 50% off code for shows between May 28 and May 31 is ROCKSTAR.

Tix list around 30 bucks, but my sources have provided me a discount code that will knock HALF OFF the list price for shows between May 28th and May 31st. The 50% off code for shows between May 28 and May 31 is ROCKSTAR. Simply enter that code when buying your tix and you get them for half price.

Read the American Rockovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 at www.rockstimulusplan.org and know that you are doing your part to help stimulate the American economy.

Then, get your tix at: www.powerballadz.com

50% off Power Balladz tickets for the May 28 – May 31st shows at the LAB. (previously the Guthrie Lab) The 50% off code is ROCKSTAR.  www.powerballadz.com

May 28 through June 28, Power Balladz is a rock n’ roll extravaganza featuring some of the greatest songs ever written by man, woman and/or beast. The show skewers and celebrates 80’s rock – the musicianship the glam, the poetry and the spandex.

Three great rock singers, a full band, lots of lights, a fog machine, video projection and more knowledge about power ballads than is necessary (or recommended). Throw in some comedy, teased hair, three Freddie Mercurys and a t-shirt cannon and theatergoers will leave the show if not cultured, certainly entertained.

The song list includes the following classic hits:

• Bon Jovi – “Wanted, Dead or Alive”
• Night Ranger – “Sister Christian”
• Guns n’ Roses – “November Rain”
• Poison – “Every Rose Has Its Thorn”
• Mötley Crüe – “Home Sweet Home”
• Styx – “Come Sail Away”
• Journey – “Faithfully”
• Heart – “Alone”
• Ozzy Osbourne/Lita Ford – “Close My Eyes Forever”
• Scorpions – “Winds of Change”
• Aerosmith – “Dream On”
• Meat Loaf – “Anything For Love”
• Lynyrd Skynyrd – “Freebird”
• Queen – “We Are The Champions”

The show will also feature a medley of other favorites as voted on by fans on the show’s web site, www.powerballadz.com.

Those who haven’t been holding their breath must not know that the fourth installment of the Terminator series will be released this week. Here are the trailers:

• Trailer One
• Trailer Two
• Trailer Three

This Tarot Tuesday reads the cards for the summer blockbuster Terminator:Salvation.

The Cards

Here are the cards in a standard past-present-future layout.

• Eight of Wands
• Two of Swords
• Ace of Wands  (Inverted)

Analyzing the Spread

Eight of Wands implies positive results through the use of speed or efficiency. Here, the Eight of Wands occurs in the past position.

The present position contains the Two of Swords, implying a decision.

Inverted Ace of Wands means failure big-time. The Inverted Ace of Wands occurs in the future position.

Interpretation

I’m not sure if the “past” here is pertaining to the movie franchise or specifically to the fourth installment. Since the subject of the question is only the one movie, I’ll run with that. Not a lot of intuition here, it seems the movie was successfully completed in a fast and efficient manner.  (Although the movie was bumped out one week from the initially-listed release date, possibly so as not to compete with the release of “Demons and Angels”)

The Two of Swords points out a decision to be made. This could be the decision of the audience to see the movie or not, or a decision that the producers of the movie made. In other words, “reply hazy, ask again later.”

The inverted Ace of Wands spells trouble in the future position. Tough to say whether this means the movie will suck (technical failure) or if it simply won’t make enough money to break even (financial failure). It’s difficult for a movie to NOT break even now-a-days. Even those that flop at the box office still clean up in pay-per-view and DVD rental/sales.

The overall feeling I get is that the movie will be good, but won’t do well at the box office, or at least it won’t do as well as expected. Perhaps people are being more frugal and actually *considering* seeing the movie, and it’s success will depend on the reviews which will sway their decisions.

-Zero

PS – If you have a different interpretation of this tarot spread or other useful wisdom to share, drop it in the comments below. If you want to perform your own tarot readings, just link them up on twitter.com with the #tarottuesday hashtag. Don’t have a tarot deck? No problem. Go to www.ifate.com and use the free online tarot spread generator.

When looking for Tarot Tuesday’s Subject of the Week, I found my usual sources of ‘buzzworthy topics’ jammed with spam. One-hundred percent of the spam was of the subcategory: porn. I’m calling it Sporn.

I don’t have a problem with porn myself, but I understand why some people do. I have to admit I learned more about sex from Playboy and Hustler than I ever did from Sex Education in High School.

I do however, have a problem with Spam. I read a report recently that something like 3 out of every million people actually buy things advertised through spam, which is enough to keep it a sustainable business model.

I say we kill those three people. A small price to pay for spam-free inboxes.

This week’s Tarot Tuesday (#tarottuesday) reads the cards for the future of Sporn on the internet, despite the very real danger of this blog getting blacklisted for including the words “Porn”, “Spam”, “Pix” “Position”, “Spread”, “Layout” and “Peanut Butter and Chocolate”.  [Note to Self: Double check for any misspellings of the word "Deck" in this post...]

The Cards

During the shuffling, the Two of Hearts fell out of the deck.  It’s often thought that when cards fall out of the deck while being shuffled it has an important meaning. the Two of Hearts means Love, Sharing, Caring, and Bonding between two people or  things. I’ll come back to this later.

I’ll add the picture later when I have access to my camera.  Meanwhile, here are the cards in a standard past-present-future layout.

Seven of Wands

King of Wands

King of Pentacles (Inverted)

Analyzing the Spread

The Seven of Wands implies standing against some force or fighting back. This card occurs in the Past position.

The King of Wands implies a person, someone wise or learned.

King of Pentacles would be a lovely card to see in the future postion…Right-side UP that is. Unfortunately, it occurs upside-down, implying an AIC (Asshole in Charge) A shifty, underhanded person who is really just in it for themselves, and doesn’t care how their actions/decisions affect others.

Interpretation

Like my Uncle Deck says, it kinda makes me want to stop reading the Tarot when I get spreads like this.

The Seven of Wands representation of struggle is obvious. We all get Sporn in our inboxes. We all fight against it daily. Three people  are supporting it in the struggle to keep it in existance.

The King of Wands in the center position? We all know better. We all sit around and agree that Sporn is bad, and that Someone ought to do Something. And we all sit back and wait.

The problem with the future postion  isn’t that we have in Inverted King of Pentacles, it’s that we Dont have an Upright one.  The simple (sounding) solution is for someone to step up and fix this for us.  But Sporn makes money, and it isn’t illegal in some countries, therefore the problem needs a bigger solution. A One World Government perhaps? A discussion for another day, and certainly not worth doing just to kill Sporn.

So going back to the Two of Cups that jumped out of the deck…  At first blush, the Two of Cups probably popped the thought of sex into your mind. Meh. It could also be the bond of Porn and Spam that makes them work well together like Peanut Butter and Chocolate.

But I think it might be a more subtle clue. The success of Sporn is tied to the way the internet works for the whole world, because there isn’t a One World Power to control it. It’s not so much of a ‘problem’ as it is a ’side-effect’ of the way we do business.

If we have a system of cooking where we leave food out on the counter, we will get pests. The pests aren’t going to go away until we do things differently.  Unless we are willing/able to do things differently, we have to add “killing pests” to our process. Which we already have. The two simply go together.

In other words, the Two of Cups was a reminder that the ‘problem’ implied in my question wasn’t so much of a problem as an aspect of the existing process, and therefore there is no ’solution’.

-Zero

PS – If you have a different interpretation of this tarot spread or other useful wisdom to share, drop it in the comments below. If you want to perform your own tarot readings, just link them up on twitter.com with the #tarottuesday hashtag. Don’t have a tarot deck? No problem. Go to www.ifate.com and use the free online tarot spread generator.

First, I suspect many of you are wondering what the hell #followfriday is. It’s a hashtag for twitter (and if you don’t know what twitter is, check this out and if you don’t know what a hashtag is, look here.)

Follow Friday was started by this guy as a way to expand your twitter network. People recommend other people on twitter as ‘followable’ by posting a tweet with a link to their profile, and the hashtag #followfriday.

For example, if you really really loved me and wanted the whole twitterverse to follow me you would tweet:

I loves @conradzero and so should you! #followfriday

You can read about the rise of Follow Friday at this mashable.com post: The Anatomy of a Twitter Trend.  The popularity of the Follow Friday Phenomenon  has resulted in a spin-off website: followfridays.com.

[Full Disclosure] And of course, #followfriday was part of the inspiration for my #tarottuesday posts!

This week Tarot Tuesday (#tarottuesday) reads the cards for the über-popular twitter trend of Follow Friday (#followfriday).

The Cards

I’ll add the picture later when I have access to my camera.  Meanwhile, here are the cards in a past-present-future layout.

Strength (Inverted)

The Queen of Swords

The Sun

Analyzing the Spread

People are quick to read the ‘opposite’ of a card when it plays upside-down. For Tarot readings, this is not usually the case. In this case, an inverted Strength implies a drawback due to strength, not the lack of it. Here the Strength cards falls in the Past position.

The court cards are traditionally thought to represent people. In this case, the Queen of Swords could be an intellectually clever person, a leader of sorts. A bitch perhaps, but also a courageous decision-maker. This card in the present position means the person’s influence is here already, but perhaps not yet recognized.

The Sun is about as happy a card as you’re likely to find in the Tarot.  Positive growth. Positive change. Positive positivity. Basically pissing rainbows here.

Interpretation

Ah #followfriday! I see love in the cards! Smoochy smoochy!

Seriously, what I get from this is that the idea behind #followfridays is a strong one, but it’s Strength is not in its Strength, if that makes sense. For the moment, most people are just bowled over with what a great idea #followfriday is, and not thinking beyond it.

But there is an untapped potential here. Something that, once realized, people will go “Wow! Why didn’t I think of that?” Well, someone is thinking of that. Someone clever and creative. Probably female, although this could be a group of people.

Most likely, this clever and creative thing has already been done. Some interesting use of #followfriday that just hasn’t risen through the twitter hubub yet. Or perhaps someone used it as a catalyst for something else. Perhaps the #followfriday tags get ported to other social network system like facebook, myspace or linkedin.

Whatever it is, it’s going to let people piss rainbows be amazing.

-Zero

PS – If you have a different interpretation of this tarot spread or other useful wisdom to share, drop it in the comments below. If you want to perform your own tarot readings, just link them up on twitter.com with the #tarottuesday hashtag. Don’t have a tarot deck? No problem. Go to www.ifate.com and use the free online tarot spread generator.