Honey, I Blew Up the Box Office & update

2 billion dollars in box office and counting…

But is Avatar any good?

Take the technology of, say, Epcot's Honey, I Shrunk the Audience and bring it into the 21st century. Borrow liberally from other movies, including your own, and tick every box in the Hollywood Blockbuster Checklist and you have James Cameron's latest masterpiece. It’s a movie that will literally take your breath away with its visuals (believe me, it will), but it's the filmic equivalent of Frankenstein's Monster – aesthetic impact with no real soul. Therein lies the problem: almost everything about Avatar feels like a simulation, a copy, albeit an improved copy of something else you've seen. There are elements of Ferngully, A Man Called Horse, Return of the King, The Abyss, Aliens, and so on. What this creates is a movie in which every single plot movement (the general flow and progress of the storyline) is predictable well in advance because there's a good chance you've seen it somewhere before, though not so gorgeously rendered. So, at 162 minutes there are no surprises. Jaw-dropping visuals? Absolutely. Make no mistake, this is the most visually stunning film of all-time. But I'll repeat: 162 minutes. Once you get comfortable with that glorious 3D you're in for a lot of sitting around watching CG paint dry. Harsh? Maybe. But if you're anything like me, you'll emerge from the beauty of Pandora oddly ambivalent about the whole experience. I recommend watching Avatar solely for those visuals - don't wait for the DVD/Blu-ray release; you must see this in 3D on the big screen to appreciate its strengths - and you will be transported and you will be astounded. But you might be a little bit disappointed too.

If you don't want to hand over the price of a ticket to see Avatar why not pick up the latest issue of GUD Magazine for $3.50 (PDF) or $12 (print). Includes my story, Lost Lying on Your Back. You can read a preview here. Go on, it's not like James Cameron needs the money.

storySouth's Million Writer's Award 2010 is now open and accepting nominations from editors and readers alike. I have two stories eligible for consideration:

The Bug in the Suit at Electric Spec
Sand Between a Dead Boy's Toes at Nossa Morte

Later.

Sand Between a Dead Boy's Toes at Nossa Morte

The latest issue of Nossa Morte includes my seventieth publication, a dark fiction entitled Sand Between a Dead Boy's Toes.

I remember (as a kid) imagining my bed was a boat and the carpet a sea. The sharks in the tale came to me in a dream. As for the dead boy - he dropped himself into the story... If you want to read the result, pop over and take a look, only please come back and tell me what you think...

Finally, a GUD home...

After a difficult four-year journey, my short story, Lost Lying on Your Back, will finally see publication in Issue 5 of GUD Magazine (Autumn 2009). Lost Lying is dark, literary, written in 2nd Person, and deals with some pretty heavy subject matter. A tough, tough sell, in other words. But I always felt it was one of my best and therefore worth the effort. I’m really happy at the moment, and hope to build on this success by finding homes in 2009 for my two science fiction stories, The Bug in the Suit and Clean Until the Final Act. Onwards.

Also, Sand Between a Dead Boy’s Toes, has now survived a painstaking third draft. Minor edits aside, it looks ready to submit. I’ve got pretty high hopes for this story, too (don’t we have high hopes for every one, though?), so watch this space.

Coming soon: my story-by-story review of the Stephen King collection, Just After Sunset.

Starts with a sigh, ends with a high (of sorts)

*sigh*

On the workshopping site I frequent, Clean Until the Final Act has gone down like a sack of onions. I would have said potatoes but onions have more layers, which if you read on will make a little more sense. It appears all the subtleties have been spectacularly overlooked and the story is just a predictable revenge tale. Rather unfortunate, to put it mildly. But I don’t see the point of trying to explain. After all, can I be there to point out to every potential reader that, for example, there may be a reason why Triggerman Joe’s speech is all italicised? No. Or that one of the themes is the (ab)use of religion as a means to an end (in this case violence)? Again, no. So, um why bother? Besides, maybe the story, which I had high hopes for—the highest, in fact—does indeed stink. I don’t think so, but then I wrote the damn thing. Time or rejection slips will tell...

My usual reaction to a small disaster such as Clean Until is to do an about turn and head in the opposite direction. So, my densely-written treatise on religion/religious motivation segues into a simple tale about a boy who sees sharks. Oh, and dead people. Well, actually it’s one dead person. His brother. Anyway, instead of taking three weeks to write the first draft of this story, it’s down in just two sittings. Admittedly, it’s rough, as in unreadable-to-anyone-but-me rough, but all the elements of what I call the surface story are there, in place. All they need now is some care, attention, and much polish. The title, if anyone is interested, is probably one of my best: Sand Between a Dead Boy’s Toes. I think the finished story may live up to that and at the same time heal the wound caused by the response to Clean Until...