© by Gerald So | 6:30 AM
Tom Clancy's Navy SEAL CIA operative John Clark is one of my favorite novel characters, and I think Without Remorse is Clancy's best human interest novel, driven by Clark's strength of character instead of military hardware, protocol, and geopolitics.
Movies of Without Remorse had been in development hell since the late 1990s, stars like Keanu Reeves and Tom Hardy dropping in and out. Michael B. Jordan seemed to have a good shot. Then the pandemic wreaked havoc on movie theaters and Paramount sold the Jordan project to Amazon.
With more than twenty years passed, the novel's plot had to be updated to nigh unrecognizability. Worse, though, the movie is basic, predictable, forgettable, overshadowing the actors' performances.
Friday, April 30, 2021
Thursday, April 29, 2021
Whose Life is it, Anyway?
© by Gerald So | 6:30 AM
Hemingway claimed, "If a writer knows enough about what he is writing about, he may omit things that he knows," his iceberg theory. I've said my Every Day Fiction piece "Say Cheese" began in 1995, my senior year of college, in a mystery novel workshop. Here's more about the 'berg below the surface.
I'd been a reader of mysteries for two years when I started the novel with John Falco as narrating protagonist, an Italian restaurateur whose college crush talks him into catering their tenth-year reunion. There, John becomes suspected of poisoning her husband. I stalled out trying to complete the novel the next two years.
A 2016 food-themed noir anthology inspired me to turn the novel idea into a short story. Among the aspects I had to change with the times were the crush's name, Kim, and her husband's last name, Jenner. Originally Jenner's killer was a veteran phys. ed. teacher who, years before, carved a heart in a fabled tree on campus, a tree threatened by plans to build a new gym with Jenner's name on it. For the 2016 reboot, I made John an ex-cop and his crush the killer.
When that version was rejected, I tried outlining the story with Ronald B. Tobias' 20 Master Plots and Chuck Wendig's Damn Fine Story. That helped me see the characters and story less biographically, but instead I became attached to plots I outlined: John fails to suspect his crush; she confesses to him and he convinces her to turn herself in; she confesses to him and they run off together...Several rejections later, I revised John to never being a cop at all. I didn't want to perpetuate the fictional good cop stereotype in the face of real police misconduct.
With John no longer the good cop, his crush didn't have to be a killer. I'd had enough trouble casting them in those roles. They didn't fit. Ultimately I accepted the better story wasn't John's, but his crush's. She deals directly with her husband. John only hears what she's done and doesn't know her husband like she does. Once I decided to change protagonists, I was still intimidated about getting deeper than ever into character of John's/my crush. One vote of confidence was that a previous female-led story of mine, "Fred", turned out well. Sure enough what I learned from "Fred" helped immensely in reframing "Say Cheese". Like "Fred", "Say Cheese" stops short of first-person narration, yet uses a very close third. I wanted to pull off an effect very much like the I of first person, readers identifying so deeply with the protagonist, I didn't need to name her.
Hemingway claimed, "If a writer knows enough about what he is writing about, he may omit things that he knows," his iceberg theory. I've said my Every Day Fiction piece "Say Cheese" began in 1995, my senior year of college, in a mystery novel workshop. Here's more about the 'berg below the surface.
I'd been a reader of mysteries for two years when I started the novel with John Falco as narrating protagonist, an Italian restaurateur whose college crush talks him into catering their tenth-year reunion. There, John becomes suspected of poisoning her husband. I stalled out trying to complete the novel the next two years.
A 2016 food-themed noir anthology inspired me to turn the novel idea into a short story. Among the aspects I had to change with the times were the crush's name, Kim, and her husband's last name, Jenner. Originally Jenner's killer was a veteran phys. ed. teacher who, years before, carved a heart in a fabled tree on campus, a tree threatened by plans to build a new gym with Jenner's name on it. For the 2016 reboot, I made John an ex-cop and his crush the killer.
When that version was rejected, I tried outlining the story with Ronald B. Tobias' 20 Master Plots and Chuck Wendig's Damn Fine Story. That helped me see the characters and story less biographically, but instead I became attached to plots I outlined: John fails to suspect his crush; she confesses to him and he convinces her to turn herself in; she confesses to him and they run off together...Several rejections later, I revised John to never being a cop at all. I didn't want to perpetuate the fictional good cop stereotype in the face of real police misconduct.
With John no longer the good cop, his crush didn't have to be a killer. I'd had enough trouble casting them in those roles. They didn't fit. Ultimately I accepted the better story wasn't John's, but his crush's. She deals directly with her husband. John only hears what she's done and doesn't know her husband like she does. Once I decided to change protagonists, I was still intimidated about getting deeper than ever into character of John's/my crush. One vote of confidence was that a previous female-led story of mine, "Fred", turned out well. Sure enough what I learned from "Fred" helped immensely in reframing "Say Cheese". Like "Fred", "Say Cheese" stops short of first-person narration, yet uses a very close third. I wanted to pull off an effect very much like the I of first person, readers identifying so deeply with the protagonist, I didn't need to name her.
Wednesday, April 28, 2021
"Say Cheese" at Every Day Fiction
© by Gerald So | 1:30 AM
Published a few hours ago, here's the story I hyped in my previous post, twenty-six years in the making. I hope you enjoy.
Coming soon, a post on how I revised the plot and characters from aborted novel to finished flash, perhaps relevant to stundent writers.
Published a few hours ago, here's the story I hyped in my previous post, twenty-six years in the making. I hope you enjoy.
Coming soon, a post on how I revised the plot and characters from aborted novel to finished flash, perhaps relevant to stundent writers.
Monday, April 19, 2021
Turning a Page
© by Gerald So | 7:30 AM
In 1995, a fan of mystery fiction for two years, I started a novel in my final undergrad writing workshop, a mystery workshop led by Sam Toperoff. The novel's setup, inspired by unrequited feelings for a classmate, involved a restaurateur narrator talked into catering his college reunion only to be suspected of poisoning an old rival. The first 60 pages got me an A for the course, but I stalled out trying to finish the next two years.
I moved on to other writing until 2016, when a submissions call for the Level Best Boooks anthology Noir at the Salad Bar inspired me to revise the novel idea into a short story. That attempt was rejected, but instead of abandoning the idea again, I went back to it in my spare time, submitting revisions to Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Shotgun Honey Presents: Recoil, Black Cat Mystery Magazine, the Bouchercon 2021 anthology...
Yesterday morning I read an acceptance email from Every Day Fiction. Later this month, they'll publish "Say Cheese," a 544-word story from the classmate character's perspective. Elmore Leonard advised that writers remain invisible behind their stories. In switching main characters, I disappeared from "Say Cheese". Then again, using the fewest words to the greatest effect is very much my style.
In 1995, a fan of mystery fiction for two years, I started a novel in my final undergrad writing workshop, a mystery workshop led by Sam Toperoff. The novel's setup, inspired by unrequited feelings for a classmate, involved a restaurateur narrator talked into catering his college reunion only to be suspected of poisoning an old rival. The first 60 pages got me an A for the course, but I stalled out trying to finish the next two years.
I moved on to other writing until 2016, when a submissions call for the Level Best Boooks anthology Noir at the Salad Bar inspired me to revise the novel idea into a short story. That attempt was rejected, but instead of abandoning the idea again, I went back to it in my spare time, submitting revisions to Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Shotgun Honey Presents: Recoil, Black Cat Mystery Magazine, the Bouchercon 2021 anthology...
Yesterday morning I read an acceptance email from Every Day Fiction. Later this month, they'll publish "Say Cheese," a 544-word story from the classmate character's perspective. Elmore Leonard advised that writers remain invisible behind their stories. In switching main characters, I disappeared from "Say Cheese". Then again, using the fewest words to the greatest effect is very much my style.
Saturday, April 10, 2021
The CW's Kung Fu
© by Gerald So | 6:00 AM
I watched the pilot on the CW app and was pleased to see the cast of almost all Asian actors. More than the martial arts action, I look forward to the show's depiction of contemporary Asian Americans.
I watched the pilot on the CW app and was pleased to see the cast of almost all Asian actors. More than the martial arts action, I look forward to the show's depiction of contemporary Asian Americans.
Tuesday, April 06, 2021
Readiness was all.
© by Gerald So | 5:00 AM
I received the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccination yesterday, the culmination of a week checking for appointments at all hours once New York opened eligibility to my age group.
Anticipating an afternoon line at my nearest Stop & Shop pharmacy, I dressed early, shortsleeve shirt and light windbreaker for easy access to either arm. Catching a ride with my brother, who's been working from home, I arrived five minutes before my appointment. I thought there might be a lot of people getting vaccinated, but there were only two customers ahead of me, neither there for the shot.
On my turn, I had to wait ten minutes as the pharmacist prepared the shot. After, he informed me of all the potential side effects and ways in which the vaccine wouldn't protect me, points well taken. Twelve hours later, I have nothing to report, but in twenty-four and forty-eight, who knows? I have a dental cleaning Thursday morning I hope to keep.
I received the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccination yesterday, the culmination of a week checking for appointments at all hours once New York opened eligibility to my age group.
Anticipating an afternoon line at my nearest Stop & Shop pharmacy, I dressed early, shortsleeve shirt and light windbreaker for easy access to either arm. Catching a ride with my brother, who's been working from home, I arrived five minutes before my appointment. I thought there might be a lot of people getting vaccinated, but there were only two customers ahead of me, neither there for the shot.
On my turn, I had to wait ten minutes as the pharmacist prepared the shot. After, he informed me of all the potential side effects and ways in which the vaccine wouldn't protect me, points well taken. Twelve hours later, I have nothing to report, but in twenty-four and forty-eight, who knows? I have a dental cleaning Thursday morning I hope to keep.
Sunday, April 04, 2021
Tomorrow
© by Gerald So | 10:00 AM
I know. Easter is today, but tomorrow is my appointment for the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine. The forty days of Lent recall Christ's suffering, but the year of loss the world has suffered is fresh in my mind, and the vaccines are the key to ending that suffering, an Easter analogy I'll remember for life.
I know. Easter is today, but tomorrow is my appointment for the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine. The forty days of Lent recall Christ's suffering, but the year of loss the world has suffered is fresh in my mind, and the vaccines are the key to ending that suffering, an Easter analogy I'll remember for life.
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