by Melinda Snodgrass | Mar 27, 2015 | Blog
So this is what happens when you’re friends with George R.R. Martin. A few months ago I was home in New Mexico and stopped by the Jean Cocteau theater. George had really urged me to come by because Sibel Kekilli who played Shae in Game of Thrones was in town filming a segment for the French/German show Durch die Nacht or Into the Night. It was a pleasure meeting Sibel, but the next thing I know George has me on camera and he’s urging me to tell tales about filming my pilot STAR...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Mar 21, 2015 | Game/Writing
Back on my analysis of what made Inquisition such a terrific and satisfying game, and also using it as a way present writing tools that are useful to any story teller be it for games, TV and movies or books. In my replay I’ve recruited Blackwell, and this time I’m taking him along a lot more often as well as Vivienne since they both got rather short shrift last time. I found Vivienne to be an unrepentant bitch and Blackwell to be dull until I discovered otherwise to my shock and...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Mar 15, 2015 | Game/Writing
As always the caveat that there will be spoilers as I continue my replay of DA: Inquisition and continue my musings. ************************************************************************************************************* So last night I tied up most of the Hinterlands adventures. Just one more fade rift to close. I had been holding off on shutting down the rogue templars until I had the damn Inquisition banners requisition handled. Last time I didn’t get to finish it and it...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Mar 11, 2015 | Game/Writing
I want to start jotting down my thoughts about Dragon Age: Inquisition, but let me first put up a warning. I can’t really talk about this game without spoilers so if you haven’t finished, or haven’t started the game — maybe don’t read my musings about the game. *********************************************************************************************************** Okay, now that the disclaimer is out of the way…. I really loved this game. I...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Mar 1, 2015 | TV & Movies
As I’m trying to process the news of Leonard Nimoy’s death I found myself reflecting back on original Trek, and what it was about Mr. Spock, our beloved Vulcan science officer, that so touched generation after generation of viewers. For me Star Trek was the first visual evocation of what I had read and dreamed about almost since I learned to read. The stars, other worlds, alien civilizations, space ships. But where Spock was concerned I think it went deeper then that. It did...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Feb 25, 2015 | About Writing
So I’m writing a very emotional scene in my current Wild Card story and George R.R. had given me a note to add in thoughts and mentions of another character and earlier events in a particular exchange. I was trying to answer the note because it’s a valid note, but it was a jarring leaden intrusion into the flow of the scene. So I went looking earlier in the scene and found the perfect place to insert this call back to previous events. That’s one of the harder lessons to...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Feb 25, 2015 | Blog
I got some very interesting advice from a friend and fellow writer yesterday over lunch. She said my essays here on my blog are too long. She explained that people don’t tend to scroll. That made sense to me, and gave me an enormous sense of relief. If I don’t have to craft such long thoughtful posts I may be more inclined to post here. So I’m going to try it.
by Melinda Snodgrass | Feb 5, 2015 | Blog
It’s common among younger women to say “Oh, I’m not a feminist”. Which kinda drives me crazy since a lot of us fought very hard to get into law schools and medical schools and not have to be secretaries, nurses and kindergarten teachers any longer. I think in some ways this new generation thinks these fights are over and it’s all been settled. Weeel, it doesn’t look that way. Yes, the right has always been opposed to abortion and I agree it is a complex...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Feb 1, 2015 | General
This morning I was doing my usual scroll through various news sites to see what was going on in the world, and I ran across Mike Huckabee opining on how he could have gay people as friends — big of him. I gather this was him moderating his position that the states had the right to ignore a Supreme Court ruling on same sex marriage. An issue that was settled by a little event called the Civil War. Then I read this statement: “And as a biblical issue, unless I get a new version of the...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jan 31, 2015 | Blog
Last night I watched AMERICAN SNIPER. There had been so much heat and very little light around this movie that I had been feeling ambivalent about seeing it. It’s absolutely worth seeing. It’s a masterful piece of film making with Clint Eastwood getting out of the way and letting the story unfold in all its brutal detail. Bradley Cooper did a phenomenal job of portraying Chris Kyle his loss of humanity, his grief over that loss, and his fight to regain it cut short by the...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jan 31, 2015 | Blog
Yes, I have been obsessively playing Dragon Age: Inquisition, and loving it. Great companions. A worthy task that seems far more noble and important then the problems set out in Dragon Age 2. There was a power to Dragon Age: Origins in that you are basically a kid with out any support who has to save your country. You basically grow up and have to deal with not only the Blight, but a civil war that threatens to tear your nation apart. It also felt like a big world. Then along came Dragon...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jan 11, 2015 | The Craft of Writing
I want to give a shout out to Pat Rothfuss index.asp. There is a very valuable writing lesson in his novel A WISE MAN’S FEARS. I had read THE NAME OF THE WIND when it first came out, and now I finally picked up Wise Man’s for my trip home to New Mexico for the holidays. I’m very much enjoying this book. Kvothe is a terrific character, and the framing device selected by Rothfuss works beautifully. But today I’m here to praise a choice that he made in Wise...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jan 11, 2015 | About Writing
Hey, the new edition of ACES ABROAD, the fourth book in our Wild Card series is now available from Tor books. It also has extra crunchy goodness with two new stories. One by Carrie Vaughn www.carrievaughn.com, and another by Kevin Andrew Murphy Kevin.A.Murphy. Do check it out. The Wild Card series has often set stories in diverse places around the world, and our alternate history can be both fun and alarming.
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jan 5, 2015 | TV & Movies
Last night I settled down to watch my screener of the Benedict Cumberbatch biopic on Alan Turing, THE IMITATION GAME and the heavy hand of less than good Hollywood notes was evident in many, many scenes. I’m not sure if I should both with spoiler warnings since most people know Turing committed suicide at age 41, and the world lost one of its foremost minds to a ridiculous prejudice. But just to be on the safe side I will do so. I also know a lot of people have complained the film is...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Dec 19, 2014 | TV & Movies
For obvious reasons I’ve been following this Sony flap over THE INTERVIEW. I have no idea if the film is brilliant and funny, or lame and silly. It is unfortunate that threats have led to the banning of a piece of art and because they “won” this will probably lead to more efforts to force companies to back down on controversial content. Based on this episode the companies will back down. If somebody had been willing to show the film I would have gone just to make my small...
