by Melinda Snodgrass | Aug 3, 2018 | General
Better late than never. So here are some of my photos and impressions of my tour of JPL on July 17th. It came about because of a chance encounter in the Albuquerque Sunport. I was waiting for my plane back to L.A. when I overheard two young men discussing Marvel movies. I told them they had good taste in the choice of their favorites and we fell to talking. Turns out they were both scientists at JPL and in the face of my bouncing excitement Valentinous asked if I’d like a tour. I was all...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jun 17, 2018 | About Writing, Blog
No, this one is not about #MeToo or complaining about suits or agents or the thousand other aggravations that accompany working in the industry. This is an actual writing tip. Truth is I became a much better novelist after I spent a few years in Hollywood writing scripts. So here is one of those things I learned. It’s called Hanging a Lantern on It, and it works like this. If something is likely to bump a reader or a viewer your best course of action is to forthrightly acknowledge...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jun 14, 2018 | TV & Movies
SPOILERS THERE WILL BE SPOILERS**********************YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED********************SPOILERS AHEAD***************************BEWARE THE SPOILERS******************************************* It doesn’t require much analysis or a degree in English literature to understand that the theme of Infinity Wars is sacrifice. Every reviewer has nailed that on one but I think a number of those reviews have missed the deeper point. They ultimately all end...
by Melinda Snodgrass | May 29, 2018 | General
I really like comic conventions. They tend to be far more diverse in terms of age, race, gender and sexual preference and that’s exciting. I also like being in Bard’s Tower https://www.facebook.com/bardstower/. Alexi always ensures we have a could position and I’m able to watch the cavalcade go past — gorgeous costumes and excited little kids running like Dash from The Incredibles and sounding like twittering birds in their excitement. Grandmothers and grandfathers...
by Melinda Snodgrass | May 15, 2018 | About Writing
I’m writing this big space battle action sequence in The Currency of War. In my head it lays out like a film — quick cuts between the four view point characters reacting to the changing situation. So I decided to try to write it as if it were a screenplay. Which means minimal description and rapid fire dialogue in each cut. Sort of a Aaron Sorkin meets Hitchcock in the shower scene in Psycho mashup that will (hopefully) weave together into a coherent whole. Each of these...
