Raymond M. Rose
Virtual Home of a Fictional Author
Target’s Number One… Target: Geek Daddys
So the other day I was in Target… (what the heck am I saying? I’m always in Target! Sometimes I feel like I should just wear a red shirt when I go there and get it over with. People already ask me for directions inside so I might as well look the part)
…with my boys (2 and 3 years old) buying diapers (what else, right?) and I strolled through the baby area (where they sell baby clothes, not babies). Usually I find all kinds of great deals (clothes, not babies), especially in the clearance area. I once got my oldest these two classic cartoon t-shirts for a $1.48 a piece. One was a Tom and Jerry and the other a Jack Kirby Captain America.
Mal Doesn’t Always Mean Bad
The post you are (hopefully) about to read was originally posted at Larissa’s Bookish Life.
Growing up, Han Solo was my hero. I never had any sports heroes or, other than my dad, local ones. For me, those on the silver screen were the way to go. And there was no one better than Han Solo. He had a cool spaceship. His best friend was a tall, hairy toddler who could rip people’s arms off. And he was a badass.
(Just for clarification: I’m talking New Hope/Empire Han Solo. Not Return. I don’t know who that guy wearing the Han Solo suit was in Return of the Jedi but he sure as hell wasn’t the same guy). Read More
Harry Potter and The Film Translation
Yesterday, I saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part Two. Before you ask, let me say that I loved it. Although a few liberties were taken, I thought it was exciting and very true to the film franchise. It was a great translation but, moreover, it was a great finale to the film franchise. I have felt since Prisoner of Azkaban that the films have separated from their source material and become their own thing.
But enough of my review and the point of this blog post…
My First Comic Book
So over at Civilian Reader, I just did their first-ever Author Guest Post. I feel honored. I also wanted to put the post here also so everyone can join it. Enjoy!
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We pulled into the dirty parking lot of a 7/11 in Willow Grove, PA on our way to New Jersey. My sister, who’s bladder had been secretly switched at birth with an incontinent 80-year-old woman’s, had to use the bathroom. I had forgotten to bring a book so I followed them in, hoping to find something to read.
It was 1984 and I was nine years old.
Inspirations and Interruptions AKA Children
When my first son was born, my life was massively changed. I wasn’t just a man or even a husband anymore. I was a father. It was huge. It completely changed the way I thought of myself because I wasn’t just responsible for myself now but also this little creature (well, and my wife, because post-partum is like all the ‘fun’ of pregnancy but without a good excuse to eat whatever you want). It wasn’t just me anymore. I wasn’t just a… guy anymore.
I was a dad.
So I’d have to be mature.
Therefore, my writing had to be mature. Read More
Diana Gabaldon and The Shape of Things
Years ago I was reading one of Diana Gabaldon’s posts on her blog and she mentioned the shape of the current novel she was working on. My first thought was WTF? Shape?
Yet, as I read on, she told her readers how each of her novels begins to take a shape on. “All my books have a shape,” she says “and once I’ve seen what it is, the book comes together much more quickly…” She goes further to state that “OUTLANDER, for instance, is shaped like three overlapping triangles: the action rises naturally toward three climaxes: Claire’s decision at Craig na Dun to stay in the past, Claire’s rescue of Jamie from Wentworth, and her saving of his soul at the Abbey.”
As her books get more and more complicated, so do her shapes. For instance, her last book, Echo in the Bone, was in the shape of a caltrop. Now, you might be wondering what the hell is a caltrop? Here. It’s a nasty piece of warfare.
But, weapon-shaped books aside, her idea of the shape of her novel got to me. It got the old cogs in my brain turning. See, Diana Gabaldon doesn’t write linearly. She writes bits and chunks of her book in different order, then sets them down, looks at the all, and figures out the shape of her book. It’s a very different way of telling a story but, hey, it works for her. I adore her books and take pretty much every bit of advice that she gives as coming from God’s mouth.
So when she started talking of shapes, it got me thinking. Read More
Pilots and First Novels
Today, I was surfing through Netflix and found Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Not sure if you remember the show; it only aired for one season. But it had Matthew Perry, Bradley Whitford, Amanda Peet, and many, many other talented people. I liked the show when it was on the air… let’s just get it out there: I’ve got a big man crush on Aarron Sorkin! Sorkin is a god among men. He writes like a poet. We’ll just leave it there before I embarrass myself anymore.
As I was watching the first episode, it occurred to me that first episodes (especially, pilots) are like first novels. Ask yourself, how many shows have you liked that started off really great but kind-of went downhill after that? How many writers do you like that their first book is your favorite?
Yeah, I thought so.
So, then, why is that? Read More
Apathy and Epiphany (and Michael Chabon)
Recently, the bookstore that I have worked at for the past 2 ½ years closed. Although I’m not completely saddened by this (Why? Because this company, in many ways, deserves its fate for crimes purported against its customers, the book industry, and, most importantly, its employees), I have found it utterly sad to watch a place I spent so much time making a wonderful place picked apart like carrion on the side of the road. Not to mention pissed off to see employees who have worked for the company for so long (one of them was just shy of 22 years) tossed aside like unwanted-but-still-functional socks. But when sadness and anger subsided, I found that I was left with something much, much worse: apathy.
Sadness and anger… well, they are manageable.
Apathy is a whole different beast. Read More