The Wild Blog in the West

For my previous Things That I Love, read here . I'm always the last one to know. That's an exaggeration, but not a big one.  I usually discover awesome shows only after their awesomeness has been proclaimed to the world.  Such was the case with Mad Men , Breaking Bad , and Homeland .  And such is the case with Orphan Black . The buzz surrounding Season One and early Season Two brought me to BBC America, even though I watch maybe five shows a year, and usually never on channels not named HBO or AMC.  I knocked back 10 episodes in two days -- hooray for On Demand and marathon viewing! -- and never looked back. Orphan Black  is the type of show that could not have worked even five years ago, due to the special effects required.  It is an amazing blend of technology, writing, and acting.  If any of those parts failed, the show would fail.  Fortunately, they seem poised to succeed for quite some time. So?  What's It About? From here,...

A few days ago, the 15th anniversary of a milestone passed: I had my first fanfics published on a major fan website.  They were Daria fanfics on the now departed Outpost Daria, then the mecca of all things involving the MTV cartoon.  I remember trembling when I saw my fanfics listed among the two dozen under the "New Updates" header.  Now it was official!  I feared abusive comments, but mainly expected to be ignored. Days passed and comments trickled in... and not only were they positive, but two of them even came from  Daria fanfiction's top dogs at the time!  I printed out each email and tucked them into a folder, which I still keep around.  The positive feedback left me warm and floaty, and dying to write more!  Burnt out from revising my historical novel (ironically, a proto version of my current one ), I found writing scripted "episodes" of my favorite show to be invigorating. The stories in my head began to multiply and form the bead...

I saw The Book of Mormon back in January and intended to write something about it, but got swept up in my Downton Abbey recapping.  Even though it isn't a movie musical, it likely will be soon enough.  And knowing co-creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker, it will involve puppets… The Book of Mormon premiered in 2011 on Broadway and has been a smash hit ever since.  Its basic premise sprung from the minds of Stone and Parker, whom many know as the creators of South Park .  If you have ever caught a South Park marathon, you are probably aware that the duo has had a fascination with Mormonism for many years, as shown in the classic 2003 episode: "All About Mormons."  Both Stone and Parker grew up in Colorado, where they knew several Mormons, also known as "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints." Most of us know of Mormonism as that religion in Utah.  Or that religion Mitt Romney belongs to.  Or that it's "sort of like Christianity,...

This will shock you: when I sat down to write my neo-Victorian novel , I was not exactly aware of the current market for my genre.  I simply reasoned that if people still liked books written 150 years ago, they would be just as happy to read a more modern take. Turns out that knowing your market is pretty important.  One reason is because when you write a query letter, it is often ideal to suggest that your book resembles Book X, which was written in the past 10 to 15 years and sold bazillions of copies.  I did some Google searches, but the neo-Victorian market was surprisingly sparse -- most well-known books like The French Lieutenant's Woman  had been written decades ago. So I went onto Victorian listserv and asked for some examples of popular recent Victorian novels.  One of the examples mentioned was Michel Faber's The Crimson Petal and the White  (2002).  Since that seems to be the most popular recent example, that is where I will start. ...

In my last novel update , where I gave an overview of the genre (neo-Victorian historical fiction) and plot, I also briefly discussed my plans for selling Rage and Regret . The past month or so, I have been signing up for all sorts of "how to sell your novel to agents" events.  Two involved listening to an agent's webinar and getting feedback on the query letter and opening pages.  One involved attending a local pitch fest and getting to talk to some agents and editors in person. All were informative and gave me a much better sense of what agents want, and the market, below. Pitch Fest Not wanting to spend $500 or more on a writers' conference, I was pleased to learn that for a much more reasonable price, I could attend a smaller pitch fest sponsored by a local women writers group .  Be in a room with real-live agenty people who could give me more specific feedback than "It just didn't grab me"?  Where do I sign up?! So I got up on a rainy S...

This morning, I received a punch in the gut: one of my favorite websites would be going offline forever .  Yes, Television Without Pity, originating the phrase "spare the snark, spoil the network," will mark its last day on April 4th.  (The forums will remain open until May 31st, but that's cold comfort.) I've lost many Internet loves over the years, but Television Without Pity deserves a special mention.  It has been one of my go-to websites for at least 10 years.  I vaguely remember when it was called Mighty Big TV and run by two women, Sarah Bunting and Tara Ariano, instead of NBC Universal. NBC can be thanked for TWoP's demise.  In 2007, Bunting and Ariano sold the website to Bravo, which was part of the NBC Universal empire.  Recently, citing a drop in traffic, NBC tried to sell TWoP to another entity, but found no buyer.  Rather than try a different model, such as a subscription system, NBC decided to shut the doors. It's possible that s...

I thought I would be one of the few to avoid saying anything about Frozen , but I was intrigued by the reasons given for why Frozen  was such a mega-hit while Tangled  was merely a box office success.  So I decided to look at both movies and see whether I agree with some of the prevailing assumptions. First, let me say that there is no loser in this race.  Both movies are good -- really good.  In fact, both even have identical ratings (89 percent) at Rotten Tomatoes .  The only way that these movies "lose," in my mind, is being CGI instead of 2D, but that's for later. Some of the reasons given for Frozen's success include better songs, a deeper and more compelling story, and a rare female-centric storyline. The Soundtrack.   Few would argue that Tangled  has a better list of songs than Frozen .  While Tangled 's "When Will My Life Begin" was clever, the Mother Gothel songs a blast, and "I See the Light" touching mainly for the visual ...