by Melinda Snodgrass | May 23, 2013 | TV & Movies
Star Trek. Well, where to start. *********************************************************Here Be Spoilers*********************************Spoilers********************************************************** It had a really terrific cast. Chris Pine has definitely grown into the role of Kirk. Quinto is amazing as Spock. Benedict Cumberbatch has become one of my favorite actors working. Unlike many I like the Spock/Uhura pairing. There’s something enough off kilter about it that just works for...
by Melinda Snodgrass | May 19, 2013 | Blog
I was cruising around the BioWare social network, and came across a link to an interview conducted with Messers Hudson, Everman and Gamble. It wasn’t quite an apology for the dreadful ending to Mass Effect 3, but it certainly had the feeling of people who were deeply chastised. Here are a few select quotes from the interview. From Hudson. “One thing that really stood out for us is that we underestimated how attached people would become to the characters.” Everman said,...
by Melinda Snodgrass | May 18, 2013 | Blog
I had a very bad, no good, rotten day today. I woke early since I was due at the barn by 7:30, and went to bring my old dog, Nikki in from the garage where she sleeps. She is usually waiting for me, but this morning there was no sign of her. I called. Still nothing. I went into the garage and found her lying on the concrete between the cars. She barely reacted when I spoke to her and petted her. Nikki is a big dog, 64 pounds, and at 14 she is very, very old for a big dog. Pretty much every day...
by Melinda Snodgrass | May 15, 2013 | Blog
For those of you who are fans of the Wild Card series I have great news. There is a new story up on Tor.com by one of our terrific writers, the amazing Cherie Priest. Do check it out. It features one of our more… er, interesting jokers — The Button Man. And George and I are getting ready to set the line up for our next Wild Card book, one of the “mosaic novels”. This one is called HIGH STAKES, and believe me the stakes have never been higher. You can find...
by Melinda Snodgrass | May 12, 2013 | Blog
I’m not talking about the sex scene. Truthfully, I don’t enjoy writing them. I have this theory that sex is really only interesting and not absurd when you’re one of the participants. There are writers who can do it brilliantly. Diana Gabaldon in her Outlander series can really write a hot sex scene, my friend, Sage Walker does an amazing job, but it’s a hard tightrope to walk. Too clinical and it’s off putting. Too cotton candy — what you find in some...
by Melinda Snodgrass | May 11, 2013 | TV & Movies
I’ve been chatting with someone over on Facebook about Skyfall as compared with Iron Man 3. There was criticism over the fact the first half of the movie is about chasing after a hard drive, and that’s when it struck me. The hard drive is just a McGuffin, not just for the movie, but for the villain as well. The hard drive is the bait to get people to come after him and incarcerate him in London so he can go after his real target — M. That is classic Second Stage Rocket....
by Melinda Snodgrass | May 11, 2013 | Blog
First, HP printers suck. I bought this big printer, fax, copier barely a year ago. I went to print out the Wild Card script for my files, and it refuses to print it out with the black ink cartridge. Instead it has somehow managed to mix the colors so it came out a dull red, rather like dried blood. Which might be appropriate for a Wild Card script, but it’s annoying as hell. My old Canon lasted for years upon years and never came me a bit of trouble until it just upped and died. I...
by Melinda Snodgrass | May 9, 2013 | TV & Movies
THERE WILL BE SPOILERS *************************************************************************************************************************YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! I went to Iron Man 3 with great anticipation and equally high hopes. All the pre-release buzz had presented this movie as better then even the first movie. Which was high praise indeed. The first Iron Man movie ranks for me as one of the top five superhero movies that have been made thus far. We expected a...
by Melinda Snodgrass | May 5, 2013 | TV & Movies
I’m watching a show implode which is making me sad because I had enjoyed SMASH, but it is also offering some interesting lessons in What Not To Do. Smash is a television series about taking a musical based on the life of Marilyn Monroe to Broadway. I was a singer, I performed with the Civic Light Opera, I love Broadway and try to see a couple of shows every time I go to New York. The show was created and run by a woman who has, in fact, taken shows to Broadway so it was a look behind...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Apr 29, 2013 | About Writing
Well, I have just emailed the second draft of the Wild Card script. My deal with Universal guaranteed me two drafts, and now they can decide whether to keep me on the project or turn it over to some other writer, or abandon it all together. I think it’s one of the best scripts I’ve written, and I have to give a shout-out to my terrific studio exec, Gregory Noveck, the head of SyFy Films. Together with his associate, Heather they have given me tremendous guidance and notes that...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Apr 22, 2013 | Blog
Last Sunday Connie and Courtney Willis stopped by for an early brunch after the Williamson Lectureship. They were on their way home to Greeley, but stopped for an hour to visit and eat quiche with me. Courtney collects antique sewing machines, and old slide rules, and because of his interest in sewing he has started making quilts. Now, I can’t sew on a button so I wanted to get his opinion of the two quilts I inherited from my mother. One was made by my grandmother, and the other by...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Apr 19, 2013 | Blog
First, let me say that my heart goes out to the victims of this bombing and their families. The first responders were amazing, and it’s through their work and dedication that there weren’t more casualties. So many of the injured could have died but for quick action by EMT’s, firefighters, police, soldiers running in the marathon, good Samaritans among the crowds watching the event. I think the F.B.I. and law enforcement ran this investigation like clockwork and they...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Apr 13, 2013 | The Craft of Writing
I’ve spent three days in the company of brilliant writers and I am humbled and inspired, and educated all at the same time. The past few days I was in Portales New Mexico, site of the Williamson Lectureship. The Lectureship was founded by Jack Williamson, Grand Master of science fiction, and man who sold his first story, The Metal Man, in 1928, and his last novel, The Stonhenge Gate, was published in 2005. Other little facts about Jack; he added words to the English language by...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Apr 8, 2013 | Blog
I just bought Carrie Vaughn’s latest Kitty book, KITTY ROCKS THE HOUSE, and I realized that over the next few months there is an avalanche of amazing books on the way. If you haven’t read the Kitty books I urge you to run out and buy them. This is one of the most powerful and interesting female protagonists I’ve ever read. Next up is the final book in the Milkweed Triptych by Ian Tregillis. The series began with BITTER SEEDS, the second book was THE COLDEST WAR and the...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Apr 8, 2013 | Blog
On the BioWare social network I was involved in a long and very interesting conversation about promises made, and endings and writing and emotional resonance, and this one person who posts is a professor and really brilliant, and he talked about myth. Which sent me off to read an essay by J.R.R. Tolkien about Fairy Tales and why the endings are so satisfying. While we may use the phrase fairy tale as a dismissive thing that’s actually rather foolish. These stories are woven out of our...
