X-Men Apocalypse
**************************************************************HERE BE SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!***************************************************************************************** Saturday night I took myself off to the Cinepolis to see the new X-Men film rejoicing in...
Stasi Anyone?
If only it were a delicious frothy drink. Or a fun game to be played at picnics. But it's not. The Stasi (Ministerium für Staatssicherheit) was the secret police of East Germany. The organization that had neighbors spying on neighbors and citizens reporting each...
And The Dreams Die
I'm still trying to process yesterday's horror. What I can't understand is the retreat to the political corners and simplistic binary choice -- it's either guns or it's terrorism. As the President pointed out this morning in his statement from the Oval Office -- it...
Fast Forward
When I was five or six grownups asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I said a jockey. They laughed at me and told me "girls can't be jockeys". When I was ten grownups asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I said an astronaut. They laughed and me and...
Captain America: Civil War
Saturday was my day to finally see the latest Captain America movie though it really wasn't a Cap movie. It more of an Avengers movie. I liked it -- with reservations -- and feel like I need to see it again. One thing it did very nicely was start a passionate...
The Confluence of Hollywood & Prose
I started my new novel (book 3 in the Imperials Saga) a few days ago. Starting a book is always the hardest part of writing for me. I circle the computer warily. I sit down, stare at the screen, remember I should really do some laundry, or wash my hair or go to the...
Gender Differences in Casting Choices
I can't watch every show that out there. Not with some 144 scripted dramas currently showing on various platforms, however, in the shows I do watch I'm noticing a trend that is bothering me. Extremely interesting and charismatic male leads, and woman characters that...
More Magicians
I guess my blog is viewed by more people then I realize because my lyrical post about The Magicians landed me an interview/discussion about the show for Wired. Here's the link where you can listen in while David Barr Kirtley interviews Andrew Liptak and me about the...
A Heartfelt Plea
I generally don't get political here. I talk about movies and games and books, writing, riding, etc. But as this long (too long) campaign season winds toward its conclusion I have to speak up, and plead with Democrats and Independents and progressives to think very...
Breaking a Story
There have been questions about how I plot and outline. I learned this technique when I was working on Star Trek: The Next Generation, and it's used on every television show. I use it for the movies I write as well. And then it occurred to me -- this could work for...
