Happy Halloween! Hope everyone had a wonderful day of creeps, ghouls, and goblins! Mine didn't start out that way, since I had to work at the day job, but it's sure ending on a much better note.
See, I thought by working that shift today, I was going to miss out on something I'd been looking forward to for months officially, and twenty years unofficially. But I came home, checked On Demand, and there it was on the main page. I went into it hopeful but not expectant. I was rewarded. I immediately started it up and for the next forty-five minutes or so sat on my couch with a grin that wouldn't go away.
I'm talking, of course, about the premiere of Ash vs Evil Dead on Starz tonight. After seeing the trailers and hearing everyone talk about it, I was psyched. After hearing the feedback when they debuted the first episode at New York Comic Con, I was delirious. Now that I've actually seen it, I'm ecstatic.
Ash is back, and baby he's better than ever. Well, not really. He's actually worse of an idiot than he was in Army of Darkness, but isn't that what we wanted? He's older, but not really wiser. Unless it's about fighting Deadites. Then there's nobody better.
It's been thirty years since Ash faced the armies of the dead and saved the day. He lives in a run-down trailer and is still a stock boy at ValueMart (who we can assume bought out S-Mart at some point). He spends his nights looking for that one last lonely drunk woman at the bar just before closing time, and doing stupid things with the Necronomicon that even he regrets. When the result is the return of the evil he thought he defeated, the results are carnage, slapstick, and buckets of the red stuff.
Seeing how this plays out, I have to wonder how long Bruce Campbell, Sam Raimi, and Rob Tapert have been wanting to do this. It's obvious they're having fun revisiting this world, and it's also obvious they're trying to do things right while not taking anything too seriously. From Sam's frenetic camera movements to Bruce gleefully chewing the scenery every time a camera's pointed at him, it's that taste of the familiar in a whole new way.
I don't want to go into too much detail and spoil it for any of you who haven't been lucky enough to see it yet. What I will say is that when the credits rolled, I applauded from my sofa, laughing my head off, and drew some strange looks from my beagle who I apparently woke up with my enjoyment. The weeks will not go fast enough between these episodes, and I definitely see myself binge watching the entire ten episode run at the end of all this. I'm sure even that won't be enough, but not to worry! Starz has already renewed the show for a second season, even before the first episode hit the airwaves.
Will it go on for a long run? I doubt it, but then again, why should it? This is the Evil Dead 4 we could never have dreamed of in a million years. What I am curious to see is the impact this has on television in the future. If it's anywhere close to what Raimi and company did for the horror movie industry since that first low-budget splatterfest in 1981, we horror fans should be in for an interesting time to come.
Bottom line: stop reading this review, go find the show, and watch it. When it's over, watch it again, then you can wait breathlessly for the next episode like the rest of us!
Saturday, October 31, 2015
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
Another One Done, Another Begun: A Status Report
The Journal of Jeremy Todd has now officially landed in the "Completed" category. It ended up weighing in at just over 64k words, or just enough to make it hard for me to classify. I'm going to stick with "short novel" instead of novella, since the formatted and printed version I gave my wife to read (since she gets 'em all first) was right at 200 pages.
As with the Cochran books, there's no release date set on this one yet, though I think it will be the next one I submit to Samhain once they give me a response on Consequences. Time will tell. I'm going to let it settle for a while before I start on the second draft, mainly because it ended up being such a dark book that I need to play with something lighter for a bit.
To that end, I'm now working on the third Cochran book. It's called Blood Games, and the case is already laid out. Now Cochran just has to see it through.
On the later draft fronts, I've finished the second draft of Demon at the Window, and am now working on the edits for One Last Dance. Once those are done I'll go back and do the third draft of DatW since I should have some feedback from the betas on it.
If you're curious, here's my timeline for what I'll be working on, and when it might be finished. Pay attention to that "might" in there, since I'm not actually setting deadlines for myself yet. These are only estimates based on what I've been doing up until now:
Blood Games, First Draft: Expected completion around the beginning of December.
One Last Dance, Second Draft: Should be done sometime around Thanksgiving.
Untitled Standalone Novel, First Draft: The idea's there, and I'll start on it right after BG, so let's say New Year's at the earliest.
Demon at the Window, Third Draft: shooting for Christmas to have this one done.
The Journal of Jeremy Todd, Second Draft: It's shorter, so the second week of January is likely. I'm also thinking this will be the final draft of this one. If I fiddle with it too much, I think it'll stop feeling like it was written by the narrator.
Untitled Cochran #4, First Draft: I've only got the barest idea of a story for this one, but hopefully it will manifest by the time I'm done with the standalone. Let's go with the beginning of February on this one.
One Last Dance, Third Draft: Also shooting for late January / early February on this one.
As you can see, I plan to stay busy for a while.
Now for a couple of not-so-good news announcements.
First, as you can see by the removal of it from the progress meter, Justicar is back in a holding pattern. I don't want to abandon it entirely, but I've got too much running through my mind in the horror genre to be able to fit it back into my work schedule. If nothing more demanding pops up, I'll try and get back to it after Cochran #4, but no promises, either to you or to myself.
Also, at this point it looks like Cochran #4 will be the last of them for the foreseeable future, as much as it pains me to admit that. There's only so many stories I can tell with those characters before it starts feeling like it's cliche or I'm repeating myself. I'd rather keep them fresh and fun. If I try and force it, I'm going to destroy both of those things. I love these characters, and hate to think they've got a final tale on the horizon, but that's how it's starting to look. On the bright side, I do have an Alexis-centric short story I want to tell when the time's right. It'll be a Christmas present to you guys at some point in the future, that's all I'll say about it.
And that's it for now! Another night of productivity complete, now on to the next!
As with the Cochran books, there's no release date set on this one yet, though I think it will be the next one I submit to Samhain once they give me a response on Consequences. Time will tell. I'm going to let it settle for a while before I start on the second draft, mainly because it ended up being such a dark book that I need to play with something lighter for a bit.
To that end, I'm now working on the third Cochran book. It's called Blood Games, and the case is already laid out. Now Cochran just has to see it through.
On the later draft fronts, I've finished the second draft of Demon at the Window, and am now working on the edits for One Last Dance. Once those are done I'll go back and do the third draft of DatW since I should have some feedback from the betas on it.
If you're curious, here's my timeline for what I'll be working on, and when it might be finished. Pay attention to that "might" in there, since I'm not actually setting deadlines for myself yet. These are only estimates based on what I've been doing up until now:
Blood Games, First Draft: Expected completion around the beginning of December.
One Last Dance, Second Draft: Should be done sometime around Thanksgiving.
Untitled Standalone Novel, First Draft: The idea's there, and I'll start on it right after BG, so let's say New Year's at the earliest.
Demon at the Window, Third Draft: shooting for Christmas to have this one done.
The Journal of Jeremy Todd, Second Draft: It's shorter, so the second week of January is likely. I'm also thinking this will be the final draft of this one. If I fiddle with it too much, I think it'll stop feeling like it was written by the narrator.
Untitled Cochran #4, First Draft: I've only got the barest idea of a story for this one, but hopefully it will manifest by the time I'm done with the standalone. Let's go with the beginning of February on this one.
One Last Dance, Third Draft: Also shooting for late January / early February on this one.
As you can see, I plan to stay busy for a while.
Now for a couple of not-so-good news announcements.
First, as you can see by the removal of it from the progress meter, Justicar is back in a holding pattern. I don't want to abandon it entirely, but I've got too much running through my mind in the horror genre to be able to fit it back into my work schedule. If nothing more demanding pops up, I'll try and get back to it after Cochran #4, but no promises, either to you or to myself.
Also, at this point it looks like Cochran #4 will be the last of them for the foreseeable future, as much as it pains me to admit that. There's only so many stories I can tell with those characters before it starts feeling like it's cliche or I'm repeating myself. I'd rather keep them fresh and fun. If I try and force it, I'm going to destroy both of those things. I love these characters, and hate to think they've got a final tale on the horizon, but that's how it's starting to look. On the bright side, I do have an Alexis-centric short story I want to tell when the time's right. It'll be a Christmas present to you guys at some point in the future, that's all I'll say about it.
And that's it for now! Another night of productivity complete, now on to the next!
Friday, October 23, 2015
Another Title Change
After some careful thought, I have changed the name of The Ideal Companion Journal to The Journal of Jeremy Todd. It was starting to bother me that my narrator didn't even have a name, and the original title felt a bit clunky and awkward. This one fits a little better, and gives the guy a real identity.
Strangely, by doing this, I no longer despise him the way I did at first. Maybe because with a name attached, I can identify with him a little more. I still don't like him, but at least I can tell his story a little easier now.
It's on track to be done within the next week or so, so keep watching for more news and to see what's up next!
Strangely, by doing this, I no longer despise him the way I did at first. Maybe because with a name attached, I can identify with him a little more. I still don't like him, but at least I can tell his story a little easier now.
It's on track to be done within the next week or so, so keep watching for more news and to see what's up next!
Wednesday, October 21, 2015
Um, Did That Just Drop?
If you pay attention to the progress meter, you may have noticed that The Ideal Companion Journal moved in the wrong direction tonight. No, you're not losing your mind. It did. And there's a reason for it.
I've been working on this one with the assumption that it would be a novella of around 60,000 words. I was wrong. I just broke the 40k mark tonight, and there's still a lot for the narrator to do. More than 20,000 words or so can convey. So I've had to revise my original estimate.
It's now looking like it'll end up full novel length. That's not a bad thing, but it is surprising to me. It may change again once I start on the second draft; I may end up cutting a good bit of the first act that isn't really relevant to the story, but I won't really know until I go back and actually start on it.
So for now, I'm looking at around 75,000 words on this one. That still might not be enough, but another 35k sounds about right for what all is left to tell. But as I've demonstrated, I've been wrong before.
I guess we'll find out together.
I've been working on this one with the assumption that it would be a novella of around 60,000 words. I was wrong. I just broke the 40k mark tonight, and there's still a lot for the narrator to do. More than 20,000 words or so can convey. So I've had to revise my original estimate.
It's now looking like it'll end up full novel length. That's not a bad thing, but it is surprising to me. It may change again once I start on the second draft; I may end up cutting a good bit of the first act that isn't really relevant to the story, but I won't really know until I go back and actually start on it.
So for now, I'm looking at around 75,000 words on this one. That still might not be enough, but another 35k sounds about right for what all is left to tell. But as I've demonstrated, I've been wrong before.
I guess we'll find out together.
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