by Melinda Snodgrass | Dec 15, 2011 | Blog
I’m counting on the ACLU to challenge this hateful provision in the defense authorization bill that allows for indefinite detention of American citizens on American soil. Basically it removes legislatively the ancient common law right of habeas corpus. I’m a big Obama supporter, but on this he caved to political expediency. He knew if he vetoed this bill the Repubs would beat him up next year about being “soft on terrorists”, and not wanting to keep...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Dec 14, 2011 | Blog
There was one more thing that really annoyed me about Fable II. The reason I remembered it was because I had a dream about the hateful character, Reaver and how badly he treated my poor hero. This was the most interesting character because it was voiced by Stephen Fry. So here’s the background. The guy made a deal with the Shadow Court that he would never die, but the evil Shades destroyed his home village in exchange. Now Reaver has to send in someone young and...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Dec 14, 2011 | Blog
The reason I haven’t been posting on Facebook is that every time I try my computer goes into lock down, and give me the little spinning Rainbow of Death which is the Apple version of Windows Blue Screen of Death. I then have to hold down the power button to turn off my computer to get out of this endless thrashing. And to make this extra-special it’s happening on both my desktop and my laptop. I have no idea what is causing this. Maybe a virus that targets...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Dec 5, 2011 | Blog
Andrew Sullivan has a link to a new Newt Gingrich ad. I watched to see what the Newtster is up to, and wow. Apparently America only has white people and cowboys in it now. Who knew? And when he talks about how poor kids (read black) in the ghetto have never seen any one work unless it’s illegal. Wow. Yes, there is crime in the inner city, but there are also a shit load of people working three jobs to try and make ends meet. This seems to just be...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Dec 1, 2011 | Blog
Went and saw Tower Heist last night. Not a bad little film, and I enjoyed it more than I expected. I thought it was a little slow to set up, but after that it moved along quite nicely. There were clearly some scenes that got cut that showed the thieves recruiting a few more of the employees of this N.Y. posh apartment building, but I filled in the blanks without any trouble. One last point, they didn’t adequately explain Eddie Murphy’s character turn where he went...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Nov 29, 2011 | Blog
I finished the main adventure in Fable II. Oh, lordy, what a mess. A WARNING: THERE WILL BE SPOILERS IN THIS POST. ********************************************************************************* So I’ve ranted about how the Very Bad Man (hereinafter referred to as VBM) kills your sister and shoots you in the opening 20 minutes of the game because you’ve got Hero blood, or something. This was supposed to make me care, but since I’d...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Nov 19, 2011 | Blog
I’ve thought long and hard about whether to write this post, but after listening to pundits and people on the right describe it as “no big deal”, and “why can’t these women just take it as a compliment?” I felt I had to. So, here goes. I went to law school in the first big wave of women entering the profession. A number of our male classmates actually thought the woman would type their briefs for them (our vehement refusals, and out Dean put a...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Nov 18, 2011 | Blog
Tor books is doing an ebook promotion on the new Wild Card books. If you want to get a sense of the new characters before the movie check it out. It’s also a real bargain.
by Melinda Snodgrass | Nov 18, 2011 | Blog
Maybe this is a disease caused by being a writer, or maybe I’m just a tiny bit cracked, but I find myself considering the broader ramifications of a game universe or the back stories of characters I really like in TV shows, etc. It was Mass Effect 1 & 2 that got me thinking about dancing. Bear with me on this. Dancing styles change over time. The Regency line dances and gavottes became square dancing, and the waltz led to ballroom dancing which begat the foxtrot,...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Nov 4, 2011 | Blog
Late in my life I have finally started listening to pop radio stations instead of just my classical music station. I’m liking a lot of the music and thanks to ITunes I can buy a single song that I like without being stuck with an entire album. But I have noticed something interesting. On the pop stations the songs are primarily by women. Over on the country stations the majority of songs are by men. I quite like Taylor Swift, but she’s been largely absent...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Nov 4, 2011 | Blog
But there appears to be nothing new here. It’s never a good sign when you can identify every episode of a new show by the movie they are ripping… er, borrowing from. I miss tivoing the pilot, but since the premise is pretty obvious it wasn’t hard to just start watching. Episode two was an “homage” to Hitchcock’s The Birds. At least they did have a clever solution to the problem, and the crusty military commander didn’t just...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Nov 1, 2011 | Blog
I’ve noticed that a lot of people report that George and I are going to be “co-producers” on the Wild Card movie. That’s not actually correct. We will each be Executive Producers on the film. Now this may sound like a distinction without a difference, but there is actually a vast difference. You see, in Hollywood these different titles imply various levels of power and responsibility, and of course, money. In television the only title with...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Oct 28, 2011 | Blog
I can finally report on the big news I’ve been keeping under my hat since mid-July. SciFy Films, a new division of NBC/Universal has acquired Wild Cards as their first property. I will be writing the screenplay, and George and I will be Executive Producers on the project. I acquired the option on Wild Cards nearly six year ago, and have written a spec script, various different pitch stories, and have made countless trips to L.A. in an attempt to set up this amazing project. I...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Oct 16, 2011 | Blog
My friend, Connie Willis, gave me the first season of PRIMEVAL for my birthday last year, and since then she has become my pusher. I started watching the show because I have enormous respect for Connie and her abilities as a story teller, and if she liked the show this much there had to be something there. I immediately liked a number of the characters, especially Cutter, Conner and Lester so I ordered up seasons two and three from Netflix and kept watching. Only to discover that...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Oct 13, 2011 | Blog
I had lunch with my old law professor and his wife who was a classmate of mine at law school. They are both brilliant people, and they’re what I call “Country Club Republicans”. Socially liberal — pro-choice, indifferent to gays, not religious. It’s all about money for them. But this current field of Republicans has backed them to the wall. They declared they have never been “single issue voters”, but this year if the Republican...
