Categories: books, general-stuff
Tags: Pixar, Messenger, Messenger book, Sylver
Date: 17 February 2009 12:07:30
Now that comment almost got unapproved I can tell thee.
And, on a similar subject, just noticed that last year Cars 2 was announced for 2012. Woot. On reading more of the thread that the (old) news was contained in I noticed that there was a lot of criticism for Cars, more so that any other Pixar project, which surprised me greatly. I can think of negatives that can be laid at the door of their films but mostly tiny, fractional things rather than big, meaty issues. Bugs LIfe had too many characters, Toy Story had no depth perception in the external scenes (almost certainly a technical/time limitation) and so on and so forth. The casualisation of violence in Incredibles - even in the soft way it was portrayed - was suited to the story but not always to the audience I felt, but again that's more me than others maybe. Nemo is the one I have the most difficulty with as I still believe that the end can be read two ways and that, in ways, makes the film both better and more affectingly sad.
Cars however was a labour of love and, I felt, strong in nearly all areas. I avoided it at the cinema, assuming - wrongly - that it was a rip off of Doc Hollywood and, although I can't remember the time itself, but given the choice of going to the cinema I think I was on one of my low ebbs watching things with my son next to me. So I missed it and caught up with it on DVD and realised just how good it was. So a sequel, bearing in mind also the merchandise from the original film which I understand is still strong, always seemed on the cards. A rematch between Chick and Lightning always seemed to be the logical progression as well. Surprised it's been so long in coming.
Talking about sequels: Sylver 3 is on the way and, I realise, that for a blog about books and writing this does very little about both so a brief word about that if I may:
Messenger came out late last year and it's been busy fitting that and other things in. Work wise I still have two part time jobs that think they're both full time but, ((spoiler alert)) one finishes, mostly, in April. I haven't told everyone involved with that decision just yet, but aim to do so soon as April is pretty close all things considered. I also had the added complication of a family illness and other issues to deal with so the end of 08 was... roller coastery. One project that I was emotionally attached to found itself shelved and, on top of everything else, that was a bit of a bummer.
Which led to a certain amount of creative block in the tail end of the year. Sylver 3 was the thing I was working on and, even though only 10% of it was needing fixing it still couldn't come.
The past few days (hmm checks notes, from the 9th) the fixe to the issues have all fallen onto the page and it's been great. I had to cut one part of the book - which'll find itself into a following project in some way as it's one of my favourite ... well, most haunting parts of the story anyhow, but it can wait and deserves the room to breathe all on its own. So at least one question that people want answered in Sylver 3 will not be, I mention that now. Also two questions that people should have been asking but have not done so yet won't be answered.... Everything else is tied up though.
((in fact I'm pleased that one puzzle from Sylver 2, fully explained but hidden in the background, was only picked up by one person who asked me what was going on with one of the characters... I was getting worried at the time if it was too obtuse but the person who noticed had picked up on all of the clues and knew exactly what was up. So that's cool. Also - to re-add one hint that's been given a couple of times - we all know the name of 'the bad guy', the one who's going to bring an end to everything if he/she has his/her way - because it's been in the books from a pretty early point yet, so far, no-ones sussed it and nobodies asked if he/she is going to act out his/her motivation... ))
You know what I can't wait to see what people think of the next Sylver book I really can't.
But, getting back to what's currently on the slate I saw someone reading Messenger (available now from Play, Amazon, Wesley Owen etc :) ) and I was delighted. It was really cool to see it out and about and, again, I want to know more of what people think about it. Some have come back to me and said that a couple of the net-isms (Messenger is written entirely in instant messenger speak) were confusing but it's surprised me how much the story has been communicated between people who see it as a different language. Nice, but, again, would prefer to see it a little more noticed... Sometimes I feel like a little fish in a huge pond with few people noticing my efforts, although I dare say that's true of many people all over the place....
Anyhow, time to take a break, been editing since early on and, on a half term break that's not really fair. Time to down keys and spend some time playing...
But really... Garfield 2? Not watched it (although do own it surprisingly - son boy was very fond of Garfield 1) but classic sequel? really? My mood on it may be coloured by the fact that one summer group all of the kids called me Garfield (including my Goddaughter grrr) so I tended to avoid mention of the other orange cat. That said: on mondays, lasagne and sleep he and I are in complete agreement so maybe I should give it a chance.