by Melinda Snodgrass | Oct 10, 2014 | General
I’ve been watching the fight that has erupted between Sam Harris and Bill Maher and various pundits who consider their remarks on Islam to be bigotry. I can see points on both sides. To arbitrarily damn all members of a faith for what is written in their particular holy book is unfair. On the other hand there is an awful lot of very ugly stuff that’s written in virtually every holy book whether it be The Bible or The Koran. The question is whether the people who subscribe to a...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Oct 9, 2014 | Blog
My friend Len Wein has started a new Tuesday night tradition. After I finish at the barn I drive over to his and Christine’s house, I have a long soak in one of their amazing big, deep bathtubs. I read and relax. Then we fix dinner and after dinner it’s time for Agents of Shield and Person of Interest and now we have added The Flash to that line up. Basically we watch shows from 8:00 p.m. until 11:00 p.m. First, it’s a lot more fun to watch television with other people....
by Melinda Snodgrass | Sep 15, 2014 | Blog
I want to love Dr. Who again. I really do. But it’s getting hard right now. I admit Matt Smith just never quite worked for me. The manic delivery, and the very strong sense that the solutions to the various problems were less solutions then just frantic hand waving didn’t help. He did get better toward the end, but when Amy and Rory left the show my interest began to flag. Carpaldi is a terrific actor, but right now his arrogance is playing more like a petulant twelve year old which...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Sep 4, 2014 | General
A couple of weeks ago my dear friend George R.R. Martin underwent the Ice Bucket Challenge to combat ALS also know as Lou Gerig’s Disease. I lost my half brother John to this horrible disease when he was only 60. It attached his throat first so he was soon unable to eat, but he refused all extreme measures and faced death with a dignity that I hope I can emulate when my time comes. One of the hallmarks of the Ice Bucket Challenge is that you challenge others to take the cold dunk...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Aug 27, 2014 | General
Yesterday I flew home from Britain, and it was not an experience I want to repeat anytime soon. The day before — Monday — I had gotten soaked in the rain, but didn’t think much of it. On Tuesday I got to the airport in plenty of time, got on my flight, ate my dinner. I set to work on my Edge 3 edit. Then not quite four hours into a ten and half hour flight I became desperately, vilely ill. The first thing I discovered is there were no air sickness bags in the bathrooms...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Aug 25, 2014 | Blog
So here are a few things that I’ve learned on my last day in London. Never, ever try to go to a museum, particularly the Victoria & Albert on a bank holiday when it is raining. The line literally went around the block. I opted to save this for another trip. Harrod’s is the Mother Ship of department stores, and it is filled with very expensive and really very gaudy and tasteless things. Here’s a small sample. The Tea Room is first rate so I’m betting all the...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Aug 24, 2014 | General
After the War Rooms I found myself at an impressive building that housed the Horse Guards. I’d never visited that museum so I rushed in and spent another hour studying the history of the Horse Guards. They were founded basically in a reaction to the Civil War and the beheading of Charles I. The rooms were filled with uniforms and mirror bright cuirasses, sabers, elaborate gold and silver helmets. And tack. The horses wear doubly bridles for their parade duties, and the curbs have...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Aug 24, 2014 | General
I set forth on my wanders at 10:30 this morning, and got back to the hotel at almost 5:00. All of this was done on foot, I might add. After consulting a map I struck off in the general direction of the Imperial War Museum, and shortly came upon St. James’s Park. There are so many impressive buildings, but instinct or luck led me to the War Museum. I hadn’t ever seen Churchill’s War Rooms so that was the first order of business. I ended up spending almost two hours in the...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Aug 22, 2014 | Blog
Despite being fundamentally solitary creatures I think writer’s have a great need for community. Getting to spend a few days in the home of fellow writers Emma Newman and Peter Newman has been bracing and rejuvenating. It’s like being at a convention without all the stress or in a writer’s room in Hollywood without all the stress. We’ve talked about the business of writing, the craft of writing, run ideas past each other (thanks guys you helped me immeasurably with the...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Aug 22, 2014 | General
I’ve been in Britain for the past week and a half. The first part was spent at the World Science Fiction Convention in London. (Largest Worldcon ever). I met my new editor from Titan books, and the owners of Titan. Caught up with old friends, made new ones and that was lovely. Then I took the train down to Somerset to visit with my friends Emma and Peter Newman. Emma is the author of the SPLIT WORLD series. You’re heard/read me burbling about how great they are before so if...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Aug 5, 2014 | General
As I’ve watched the world in general and the Middle East in particular go up in flames I’ve found myself thinking about the power of social media, and the weakness of the theory that democracy can be sprayed onto a culture and a people. Or in the case of the Iraq war — delivered by the barrel of gun. First social media. Once upon a time the world was big. How people lived in countries on the far side of the Earth wasn’t readily available. In the States every family had that...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jul 28, 2014 | About Writing
I’m having one of those days where I am questioning everything about this current novel. I finished a book that is just one action event after another, and my book has none of that because it’s set in the first year at a military academy, and it’s establishing all the relationships and the world and setting up all these hooks that will pay off later. The violence will take place on the sports field, and in a duel, and training exercises gone wrong, but the big kabooms...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jul 3, 2014 | About Writing
I had an interesting experience on Tuesday. I went to work in the morning, and started rereading the scene I had written the day before. The scene had been fighting me, and I couldn’t figure out why. As I reread I suddenly realized that this particular professor wasn’t giving a standard lecture. He was reacting to a profound change that had occurred at this military academy, and that this was off the cuff. I went back and just subtly changed the emphasis and the focus. Most...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jun 13, 2014 | TV & Movies
I never thought I would write these words, but the Toby McGuire Spiderman 3 was a better movie than the current incarnation playing in the theaters now. Not to say Spiderman 3 wasn’t an impressive shit sandwich, but The Amazing Spiderman with Andrew Garfield is so much worse and so horrible on so many levels. Why did I see it? I was taking a young relative who has crush on Andrew Garfield, and who am I to cast stones with my mad crush on Tom Hiddelston? There is also the fact that for me...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jun 11, 2014 | General
So good ole’ Louie Gohmert, Congressman from Texas took it upon himself to school pastor Barry Lynn who is the executive head of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. At one point in the exchange Gohmert said the following: “Do you believe in sharing the good news that will keep people from going to Hell, consistent with Christian beliefs?” When Lynn demurred that policy forcing beliefs on others was perhaps not wise Gohmert went on to add — “So, you do not...
