by Melinda Snodgrass | Jan 9, 2017 | About Writing
I’m re-reading Tolkien’s brilliant Lord of the Rings trilogy for, I think, the eighth time. I first read the books when I was a kid visiting Los Angeles with my father. My dad had business meetings and in an effort to keep me amused, Rodney Pantages’s wife, Lois, took me off to a bookstore and said, “Pick any book you want.” I fixated on those amazing covers and cajoled until Lois agreed to buy me all four books, The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings. I then...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Dec 22, 2016 | About Writing
So I’m working on the fourth EDGE book — tentatively titled THE EDGE OF INFINITY. I’m writing on the plane coming home to New Mexico and I suddenly realize that this book is set about fourteen years after the events in THE EDGE OF DAWN. All three of these books have been very closely tied to the real world, and real world events and I suddenly realized that Donald Trump will be president and that is going to have a profound effect on the state of the world in 2031. Advances...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Oct 18, 2016 | About Writing
Reality is so damn unforgiving. I’m working on the third book of the IMPERIALS Saga, and one of my main character is the heir to the throne. Her aides aren’t going to let her go into actual combat unless it’s absolutely unavoidable, and she’s not stupid enough to lead the charge. She’s also now an admiral in command of a large battle group that’s going in to rescue some captured soldiers. So, she’s on the bridge, giving orders and others are...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Sep 6, 2016 | About Writing
There’s a saying in writing that you have to be able to “kill your babies”. Which means that sometimes there is a scene or a character that you just love, but it has to go. It can’t stay in the narrative. I’ve faced two of those in the past week. Both times, on the Wild Cards story and on the novel, I wrote a scene or in one case a set up, and in the back of my head a tiny little voice went “Ah, come on!” It behooves writers to listen to that tiny...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Aug 14, 2016 | About Writing, TV & Movies
Over the past two weeks I’ve seen two movies. STAR TREK: BEYOND and last night SUICIDE SQUAD. I only went to see the Trek film because I had been asked to do an interview about it. I had been actively looking forward to Suicide Squad. My reactions to both were polar opposites of what I expected. NOW THERE ARE GOING TO BE SPOILERS!!!!!!! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED I ended up enjoying Beyond far more than I expected, (I kept murmuring to myself, “why oh why couldn’t we have had some humor and...
by Melinda Snodgrass | May 3, 2016 | About Writing
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 market. It’s not that I don’t know where I’m going — the elaborate outline is off to my left, scrawled across my white board, the colored pens showing the arc of the three POV characters I have in this...
