phywriter.com|Prone to occasional grandiloquence

Katie Weiland was kind (or reckless) enough to interview me for the AuthorCulture blog. She asked fun questions, and I replied with what may be considered provocative answers.

In the interview, I talk about the genesis of Ray Gun Revival magazine and my “Adventures of the Sky Pirate” serial novel, as well as the challenges of writing a serial novel, the importance of writing out your million words of dreck, thoughts about the fine line between piracy and obscurity, and the vision I predict for for the future of the publishing industry.

AC: The publishing industry is daily growing more and more digital—something you’ve tapped into with RGR. What do you visualize for the future of the industry?

JC: There was a time that you had to go to a music hall or church or listen to the radio to hear music. The invention of vinyl albums changed that by allowing common people to collect and keep their own collection of music. It was that way for decades. However, today, the vinyl record is a largely historical technology. Few current works are pressed and released, and the only people who continue to seek them out are hardcore fans.

As strange as it sounds, I think we’ll see books as we know them today go the way of the vinyl album; something that was once venerable and ubiquitous that has been bypassed by technology and finally exists only as a rare occasion product. I’m a little surprised that well-meaning government types haven’t already passed regulations to prohibit dead-tree books for the sake of preserving the environment or something.

But necessity if the mother of invention, and I think we’ll see development of as many different kinds of inexpensive digital reading devices tomorrow as we saw portable music players yesterday. I think new generations of readers used to reading content with multiple levels of metadata will find actual paper documents both flat and quaint.

Thanks to Katie and AuthorCulture for the interview, and please do let me know what you think!

It’s not V. Will it be The Prisoner with Jim Caviezel and Ian McKellen? The reboot of the clever 60′s spy / psychological thriller with Patrick McGoohan looks very promising, and headlines two titans in a war of wills as they play around with the fundamental idea of what is freedom.

An update to the cult favorite series from the 1960s about a government agent who is kidnapped and sent to a remote island known as “the Village”.

The Prisoner, on AMC

I am extremely sad to report that the rebooted ABC sci-fi series V is neither fresh nor bold, but is instead merely vapid¹ and vacuous². I know, that sounds harsh, especially considering the show’s ‘MASSIVE’ ratings, but it is what it is.

Look, I knew within the first five minutes that Joss Whedon had a brilliant show when I watched Firefly, and I knew equally quickly that this show was, well, a rock. (As Halloween has just passed, I’m thinking here of Charlie Brown. When trick-or-treating, while everyone else is getting candy, Charlie Brown’s refrain is ‘I got a rock.’) The pilot episode was one clunky cliche’ after another; the divorced cop parent with the rebellious teen, the ambitious upwardly-mobile TV anchor, the Catholic priest who’s questioning pretty much everything, the buddy partner with a dark secret. Even the special effects were cliche’. The alien capital ships hovering over city centers were done better in Independence Day or even the prior V series. (Serieses?) The dialogue was predictable and cringe-worthy, and the Big Reveal was exposed what felt like twelve minutes in.

I mean, really? Steve Davidson didn’t give it more than A Passing Glance, but he spent enough time on the show to rip it a new one.

Yawn o-rama. City sized ships. Way, way advanced aliens. All your diseases cured. Mein Fuhrer, I can valk!

O sweet whatever you invoke during moments of total incredulity:

Chad: “You mean ‘universal health care’”?

Anna: “That’s what your people call it.”

Been there. Done that.

I’ll repeat here what I wrote over there:

I mean, I’m probably the demographic they’re going after, but could you be any more ham-fisted and obvious? The only surprise in the entire first episode was just how cliche’ and clunky everything was. I laughed out loud when divorced FBI mom stepped in front of her son to protect him as they stared up at the green screen.

Look, I’m all for serious discussions of, well, all these issues. But this isn’t a loving canvas painted by a master. It’s a mass produced paint-by-number set that we’ve already seen before. I’m a Theist, and even I hate preaching to the choir.

I’d rather go back and watch reruns of Firefly. Again.

That’s not to say the show is completely hopeless. Showrunner Scott Peters (4400) was replaced after four episodes by Scott Rosenbaum, a former executive producer for the quite excellent show Chuck. After these first four episodes, V will go on hiatus until March. I’ll give it another shot then to see if it’s gotten any better. At this poing, it really can’t get any worse.

If you’re in the mood for smart, more serious science fiction, give the new Stargate Universe series³ a try. SciFi author John Scalzi is a consultant for the series, and the questions they grapple with feel genuine, something anybody in that situation could be faced with. There’s even some geeky humor provided by a genuine geek.

1. Vapid
   –adjective
   1. lacking or having lost life, sharpness, or flavor; insipid; flat: vapid tea.
   2. without liveliness or spirit; dull or tedious: a vapid party; vapid conversation.

   Synonyms:
   1. lifeless, flavorless. 2. spiritless, unanimated, tiresome, prosaic.

   [↩]

2. Vacuous
   –adjective
   1. without contents; empty: the vacuous air.
   2. lacking in ideas or intelligence: a vacuous mind.
   3. expressing or characterized by a lack of ideas or intelligence; inane; stupid: a vacuous book. [↩]
3. Stargate Universe follows the adventures of a present-day, multinational, exploration team unable to return to Earth after an evacuation to the Ancient spaceship Destiny, which is traveling in a distant corner of the universe. [↩]