Big Tidbits - 3/24/12

It's been quite a while since I've updated the 'ol blog, mainly because I was pretty busy trying to penetrate the short story market. I've decided to give it up. I'm really terrible with short stories, anyway; don't let people tell you that writing them is easy, because they are not, let alone trying to sell them. My big plan was to introduce my "franchise" characters within the stories until later when they are properly introduced within the novels proper. However, with no one wanting to buy them, I've decided to hang this part of my master plan up.

However, I will continue Wedding Blitz if more people are interested. The character of Gossamer/Mariah Grey plays a giant role in my future novel, and stupidly, I took the risk of introducing her freely to the internet. But hey, if it can get someone reading the story, its cool, right?

Work and research continues on my first novel. Originally, I wanted to write a novella series concurrently with the novel, but I decided that my confidence was not up for the task. Also, I don't think there would be any buyers without name recognition. Thus, novella series banished to the backburner. And to probably give you an example of what a hard sell it could possibly be, it involves lesbians(in a fantasy exploitation vibe) and lots of bizarre erotic situations. Can't risk revealing more...Mariah Grey is enough.

I plan to start the novel in May. I still have tons of research to cover, as well as building the fantasy world infrastructure.

And man...I'm waiting for Sleeping Beauty with Emily Browning. It's a film from her native Australia about her as a college student named Lucy, who basically ends up in a position as a sex worker providing services to clientele by falling asleep(hence the title) and letting them have their way with her.

And she gets naked.

I've been lusting after this gem since it came out at the Cannes Festival last year. I'm a huge Emily Browning fan...I'm possibly infatuated with her. She has gusto, man...going from the spectacular exploitative siren that was Babydoll to displaying her pixyish birthday suit in Beauty. Yeah, I know the movie is supposed to be for the artsy crowd, but I could care less. I have a confession to make...Emily Browning inspired the main character in that novella series I mentioned earlier. Call me a creep, a pervert, whatever...but Browning, in my selfish, low-brow opinion, would have been awesome as a genre actress...like a scream queen, battling monsters and showing them who is boss.

Well...I can simply write the novella series later on with my take on this Aussie goddess.

Speaking of scream queens, I plan to break out my Tiffany Shepis movies soon. I have The Hazing and Nightmare Man on tape, and I hunger for more. But with no Blockbuster, I have no more access to this wonderful woman:(. I definitely plan to write her in a horror film of my own one day.

On the big screen front, John Carter was awesome. It was somewhat surprising that Disney would release a movie filled with so much violence and mature themes. I only say somewhat because they did release Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time a few years earlier. Although not grindhouse gory, this did come from a company whose main live-action forays were duck sports teams and singing princesses.

Anyway, the film introduces us to the titular character, created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, who also gave us that "crazy white man" as Richard Pryor puts it, Tarzan. One of the fabled inspirations of Superman, John Carter begins with our hero, a shell of a man after fighting for the Confederacy in the Civil War, somehow encountering a strange man within a cave. After dispatching the man with a well-aimed shot, Carter is teleported to Mars(revealed by the various natives to be known as 'Barsoom') where he develops astonishing leaping abilities and superhuman strength.

He is soon caught up in a new civil war between the various factions of Barsoom, including the city of Helium, where Princess Dejah Thoris resides. If you are a fan of Star Wars, this film touches the same vein that makes Lucas's galactic fairytale so special. It's not just a space hero story, but has that combination of genre elements that conjures a unique presentation. Just as Star Wars drew inspiration from chanbara(samurai cinema), John Carter draws from Westerns. It is very fun to watch. Here is hoping that there will be a sequel!

I apologize for the brief blurb on the movie. I'm going to admit it, I'm being lazy at the moment.