So, things are different now and we don't do the TV gabfest around here so much, but I feel the need to create a spoilery haven for discussion of the movie (which we just watched on Amazon streaming, and I will probably watch again later!), if people want to.
Ye olde Veronica Mars Talk returns.
Let me know what you thought in the comments, if you're so inclined.
So, I think it's time for a little preorder contest for THE WOKEN GODS, which is out on September 3, less than a month! This is a contest where you win IF you preorder, basically. And I even made a video. If you are not the sort of person who delights in watching awkward author videos (or if you are!), the details are all below too.
The details…
Things to know about The Woken Gods relevant to the contest:
The contest:
Pre-order anytime by midnight August 15 (UK or US) and you will receive a shiny The Woken Gods postcard with a relic and its story typed by me on a typewriter and signed. The first 25 people (and maybe a few more if I go nuts) will get a custom relic and can even pick their pantheon, and I'll choose a god and type up the specific relic for them. Everyone else will get a shiny postcard with one of a few relic stories I'll create specifically for this. Old school! Typewritten! In the mail!Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound | Powells
I wanted to do something a little bit different to reflect the book, and hopefully you guys are into it. And please do share the video and spread the word, if you're so inclined.
Also, hey, the book is starting to get some early reviews. Here's one from the weekend that made me happy:
Ink Scratchers: "I can't recommend The Woken Gods enough, the world, the writing, the action and the characters are all so awesome. This is a unique concept that you have to try even if you aren't a fan of the YA mythology genre. This book is political thriller mixed with mythology which doesn't sound like it should work… yet strangely they go together like cookies and cream."
*Unless you go out of your way to seem like a grifter…which seems unlikely, but just caveating.
**If you don't want the postal relic, but preorder anyway, well, that is just fine too, obviously. As is purchasing when it's out (or asking your library to order it). But I wanted to offer a fun thank you.
So TCM had a mini-Cary Grant marathon the other day, and one of the films included was Topper (which is also available on DVD, of course). Justine and I were bandying our love for it around with Ari, who had set up a timer but never seen it… And then Justine had the marvelous idea of live tweeting a simultaneous watch party from our respective corners of the world.
I'm stealing Scott's post about the relevant details, because lazy! but also busy! Here goes:
Next week I’m going to be live-tweeting an old movie with various friends around the world (namely, @justinelavaworm, @readingincolor, and @gwenda (ed. note from G–@scottwesterfeld is the other relevant twitter handle, of course). In other words, we’ll all be putting the DVD in at the same time, watching it in sync, and tweeting VERY witty things. Or just crapping on about Cary Grant’s amazing car, more likely. Why are we doing this? Because it seemed like fun, and @readingincolor hadn’t seen it yet.
The movie is called Topper, and is a screwball comedy about dying in a car accident and then messing with your banker as a ghost. (Seriously. People laughed at some weird stuff back then.)
If you’re on the twitter machine, please feel free to join in.
Time: 8:30PM US EST
Date: Tuesday Dec 27
(Sydney Time: 12:30PM Wed Dec 28)
Hashtag: #Topper
Join in if you like. It should be fun. After all, what is twitter for if not live tweeting old movies?
Today I'm over at Heroes & Heartbreakers talking about The Hunger Games movie and casting Katniss:
Is there anything* that sets the heart racing—whether in hope, terror, or outrage—faster than the news that a movie version of a favorite book is in the works? Magnify this in intensity if: (a) a series is involved and the question’s still open whether multiple books will get smushed into one movie; (b) the movie(s) are likely to be unfaithful (oh, why even bother, Dark Is Rising and Blood and Chocolate adaptations?); and/or (c) it seems likely the movie might actually, y’know, get made, and actors’ names start floating around.
…and it goes on from there. Please do drop by and share your thoughts. I'm especially interested in any answers to my last question: Who should play President Snow? (Which I think is the next most important role to cast, obviously. And the boys: Peeta and Haymitch. And I guess Gale, too. I GUESS.)
Today I am busy with many things, including an overdue auction critique, so this will be short and silly.
Remember when Kelly was on her blog tour and she proposed combining Bringing Up Baby with paranormal romance? This is kind of like that.
As a sidenote to a conversation at World Fantasy with Ted and Christopher, I realized that the computers in Desk Set and WarGames are–more or less–the same computer.
Joshua
meets
EMERAC.
Would you like to play a game, Bunny?
*An occasional series.
A short movie for M.T. Anderson's* The Suburb Beyond the Stars. Complete hilarity ensues:
The Suburb Beyond the Stars from Sang Lee on Vimeo.
(Via Leda, a brave soul who lives in the land of Vermont.)
*That is one spiffy website.
We saw Avatar, which I enjoyed for the most part but don't plan to talk about in depth. So pretty, and yes, some of the visuals really did remind me of Nnedi Okorafor's fabulous novel Zahrah the Windseeker, which I highly recommend if you haven't read it. Anyway, my favorite in movie moment came near the end during protag's rousing speech*:
*NOT A SPOILER BECAUSE THERE IS ALWAYS A ROUSING SPEECH. OR FIVE.
ME: This speech is pretty weak.
::on screen crowd rouses to frenzy::
CHRISTOPHER: The translator is improving it.
Whip It is such a fun movie, and with a heart as big as Drew Barrymore's seems to be. What's not to like? I am sad that our local team's season just ended.
But, hey, let's come up with derby girl names anyway. I'm liking Candy Carnage and Erin Breakovitch at the moment.