Saturday, September 26, 2009

The Official Book Of My Plane Trip To London

Hopefully.

This book comes out Tuesday... I fly on Tuesday AM.


I need to find a book store that will slip me a copy before the official release date. So far, that is not the 3 Borders I went to and the Book Star on Ventura.

Should have tried Dark Delicacies... but it was too hot to ride to Burbank today. Maybe tomorrow, if I can get my surprise class written up.

CHILD OF FIRE by Harry Connolly...



“Child of Fire is excellent reading: a truly dark and sinister world, delicious tension and suspense, violence so gritty you'll get something in your eye just reading it, and a gorgeously flawed protagonist. Take this one to the checkout counter. Seriously.”—Jim Butcher, author of the Dresden Files

“Cinematic and vivid, with a provocative glimpse into a larger world. Where’s the next one?”—Terry Rossio, screenwriter, Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy

“Classic dark noir, fresh ideas, and good old-fashioned storytelling.”—John Levitt, author of Dog Days

“Redemption comes wrapped in a package of mystery and horror that hammers home the old saying ‘Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time’ . . . and even then you’d better check the yellow pages for one bad-ass exterminator first.”—Rob Thurman, author of Nightlife

“A fine novel with some genuinely creepy moments. I enjoyed it immensely and hope we’ll see more of Ray Lilly.”—Lawrence Watt-Evans, author of the Obsidian Chronicles

And all kinds of great reviews so far... but the main reason I'm trying to grab it for my long flight to London is that Harry is a friend of mine (met him on WordPlay), a Script Secrets reader, and a talented screenwriter who decided to switch frustrations and try to get a novel published... and ended up with Del Rey's big fall release and the first in a series. Del Rey shipped him to ComiCon and put him on a panel and had him sign autographs. So I not only want to see what clever/exciting/disturbing stuff he's come up with, I want to *buy* a copy of the damned book so that it can climb the best seller's list and Harry will become the new Stephen King and then I'll have one more person who won't return my calls.

So, congratulations to Harry!

CHILD OF FIRE at Amazon.

Be a real pisser if I don't get a copy before I leave... a 10 hour flight without the book I want to read!

- Bill

Screenwritng Classes On CD - Recession Sale! - $5 Off!

SCRIPT SECRETS: LONDON - October 10 & 11, 2009 - BIG IDEA class, using GHOST as our primary example and it includes the new Thematic element!

IMPORTANT UPDATE:

MONDAY'S SCRIPT TIP: Something
Yesterday's Dinner: Panda Express - the sweet & spicey chicken breast.
Bicycle: To Arnold's copies, too hot to ride too far.
Pages: Never ending class prep!
Movies: SURROGATES... Blah. Mild spoilers... Big problems:

1) Concept is stupid. Okay, so everyone sits at home in their PJs while a robot drives their car to the office and *punches a time clock* and works their shift before the robot drives home... Um, why not just work online and cut out the middle-robot? Throughout the whole movie I kept wondering why you would go to the trouble and expense to have a robot drive anywhere.

2) What I learned from this movie: Having a serrious dramatic subplot in a movie about robots is okay... as long as it is never discussed. This is an action flick, when they had some dead serious conversation about their marriage or their dead kid, it just killed the momentum. Knowing he has a dead kid is enough. Knowing he and his wife are having problems is enough. Don't yap about it!

3) Um, they got the husband & wife characters mixed up. This story *can not work* if the wife digs robots and the husband doesn't much like them - both characters have nowhere to go, and that makles them boring and static. The husband has to think the robots are the greatest things in the world so that he can learn otherwise.

4) Ugly people - another concept flaw. Okay, the whole world has these sexy robots, while they are basically shut ins. Um, have you seen real people? When I'm shopping at K-Mart (the store of my people - white trash), not a single person in there is under 300 pounds (okay, except for the stick people). But the *concept* of this film is to eventually show us the people behind the sexy robots... and they are all hot actors & actresses! They put some dirt on Rosamund Pike, but she's still hot. All of the regular people look... GREAT! And, they have to - due to the concept. If the wife without her robot is some 400 pound ugly-as-hell woman, we will never want her to come out from behind the robot... But the plot requires us to see the real people and find them attractive. The concept kills itself!

5) The only actor in the world who can play crazy robot builders - James Cromwell (I ROBOT, and now this)

6) When you have a chance for Ving Rhames to tell Bruce Willis that we never talk about this again, ever... you're a fool not to take it. We expect something like that.

7) Needed more cool robot action scenes.

8) Had a couple of twists... and then a non-twist at the end where it needed a twist.

9) I just don't get beauty parlors for robots - that was a dumb idea.

10) You know, I miss Ah-nuld Sci-Fi movies like TOTAL RECALL...

- Bill

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bill, I'm sorry to hear that you haven't found the book yet. I've heard from two people in Canada that it has arrived at bookstores there, but those are in Ontario.

I've been telling folks to call the store first, to save themselves the trip. Also, be sure to ask one of the staff about it in case the box of books arrived but they haven't shelved them yet.

Good luck on your trip, and thank you for mentioning the book! I've told you before that I couldn't have written it without your writing lessons.

Harry

ObiDonWan said...

darn, there's an earlier book with the same title CHILD OF FIRE. Might make marketing (or ordering) confusing. Have to add the author's name.

LindaM said...

You need to get a Kindle. It's just perfect for traveling. You'd be able to download the book while you're waiting in the airport. I've just ordered it. I'm working in Florida right now, but I'll get it tomorrow....Yay. Love Connolly. Thanks for the heads-up.
PS: Have a good flight!

wcmartell said...

I *will* find the book today. On Friday I had people at Borders tell me that company policy was no books before their time... but today is only a day early - might be some on the shelves.

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