". . . you've given up on writing anything important. . ."

I'm comfortable with my identity as a writer, but there's often a moment of hesitation before I answer the question of what I write.

When I talk about writing genre fiction in general and science fiction/fantasy in specific (and that's even before I mention working in young adult. . . ) I often get a dismissive response.

As if the kind of stories I write aren't 'important' enough.

So I was thrilled that I got linked to this video of Mike Wallace interviewing Rod Sterling in 1959 about the show he had in production: The Twilight Zone.

It's a 20+ minute interview, and well worth watching in its entirety. The beginning deals with censorship and sponsors. But it's somewhere past the 10 minute mark where Wallace starts to throw his zingers.

He says about Sterling's production of The Twilight Zone:

". . . you've given up on writing anything important for television."

 And Sterling rejects that assertion. He also goes on to reject the notion that something commercial can't also be artistically strong.


When he talked about the importance of never being ashamed of what one has created, I wanted to stand up and cheer.

Thank you, Mr. Sterling. Thank you. I am proud of everything I have written--all the work of fantasy and imagination I have created and have yet to create. These are important. They matter.

And I will not let anyone dismiss them.

Why Continuum is my new favorite TV show

It's a rare thing, indeed, to find a television show that is smart, morally complex, surprising, supenseful, and entertaining.

It's even rarer to find said show revolving around a female lead who has power and agency and is emotionally resonant as a full human being.

That is why I love Continuum.

Here's the pitch on the show's 'about' page:

When a group of fanatical terrorists escape their planned execution in 2077 by traveling back in time to 2012, they inadvertently take City Protective Services officer Kiera Cameron with them. Trapped in a more “primitive” past, Kiera infiltrates the local police department to try to track down the terrorists before they change the course of history.

But this only tells part of the story. The brilliance of this show is in the moral dilemma it presents. 2077 is a world where the corporations have won. They control world governments and make all the decisions. It's not quite a Hunger Games dystopia--we see snatches of life from 2077 where people live the way people have always lived, but democracy is a quaint idea whose time has essentially come and gone.

The terrorists (Liber8) are people who fight against corporate control and while we clearly don't sympathize with their methods, it's hard to argue with their desperation and beliefs. They believe they are fighting for democracy and freedom.

When Kiera lands in 2013, her goals are to apprehend the escaped terrorists and try to find a way back home, both for her own sake (her husband and young son are in 2077) and for the sake of bringing the terrorists to justice.

But (and here's where the show edges into uncomfortable and important territory), she starts to see where their ideals and hopes are not necessarily the evil she has fought all her career.

The show doesn't make it easy to sympathize with Liber8. The group's members include amoral killers and manipulators, but the line between fully right and fully wrong isn't so easily drawn.

The other reason this is on my must watch list? Kiera, the lead character. She's resourceful, smart, skilled, brave, and thoughtful. Many of her actions are morally ambiguous (lying, stealing, taking liberties with her future tech to get answers) and yet we root for her. She's struggling to make the best of a difficult personal and societal situation. Plus-a-million to the showrunners for NOT doing the typical love interest story around her 2013 police partner.

So, if you're looking for a new show, you could do a lot worse than Continuum. I'm just not sure you could do a lot better. And it's been picked up for season 2. Yay!

True Confessions of a Serious Doctor Who Fan

I have been a Doctor Who fan since the Watergate era.

Truly.  This is not hyperbole.

I was a kid during the televised hearings and there was nothing on network TV except the hearings. These were the days of 3 networks, 1 public TV station, and a few local channels that replayed syndicated content.  That was it.  No cable, no interwebs, no on demand.  (Yes, I'm that old.)

So, there I was, a bored kid, channel flipping a hand-me-down black and white TV trying to get away from endless talking heads and I found this weird guy in an opera cloak flying around in a police box.  It was so bizarre and so unlike anything else I'd ever seen and I was hooked.

Jon Pertwee was my first doctor, but I grew up in the Tom Baker era.  (And yes, I wanted to grow up to be Sarah Jane Smith, sigh.)  I watched faithfully through the Peter Davidson era, and then got lost into other interests and pursuits, but I never lost my love for odd old episodes of the show that I would catch time to time.

Fast forward a bunch of years, and I had the great pleasure to introduce my kids to the Doctor Who reboot with Christopher Eccleston.  I hooked them too and we now watch as a family. I loved the interactions between Tennant and Simm and I love the complicated darkness they brought to the show's universe. And I enjoy Smith's incarnation of the Doctor as well.  He has this ability to be absolutely goofy and absolutely deadly serious at the same time.

But I have decided I am not a Steven Moffat fan.

While he is wonderful at creating snappy lines and dialogue, he spends too much of the show's energy on plot twists that exist simply to shock and surprise the viewer.  As a writer, I do not believe that is the way to raise the stakes.  The viewer wants to feel the characters' shock and surprise and often this is best accomplished when the viewer knows more than the characters. 

Think how much more suspenseful it is to see a character walk in a shadowy place when *we* know there is something lurking, stalking him in those shadows.  When we don't see that, and the monster jumps out, we are startled, we get a cheap thrill, but there is no essential connection with the character.

I also feel as if all the stories are rushed and for the sake of getting to the 'gotcha' moment at the end.  Slow down, Steven.  Build audience tension by cranking it a milimeter at a time.  Let us see our beloved heroes struggle as peril builds around them.  We should be heartbroken with our heroes, not blindsided.

I think back on what was possibly my favorite story of the new Who:  Tennant's "The Family of Blood" 2 parter.  It was heartbreaking to watch "John Smith" fall in love as a human because *we knew* what was going to happen.  That's what made it so heartbreaking, so absorbing and why I can watch that story over and over, seeing fresh nuance each time.

Please, Steven, less 'gotcha' and more heart.

Why I love "Justified"

First of all, let me start by saying I'm really not a television watcher. With the exception of Red Sox games and Dr. Who (which are both family bonding rituals), I might watch an hour or two of TV a week.

For the most part, I find that TV shows take the easy way out. Characters and plot seem like just a collection of cliches to me. As if the writers take all the convenient shortcuts so the viewer doesn't really need to be engaged in the story telling or meaning making.

(And yes, I'm hell in movies too. I frequently predict the endings, which drives my husband and children insane. I've had to learn just to shut up.)

When my husband is watching TV in the evenings, I'll often sit with him, reading or writing in a parallel play mode. He channel flipped to a cable show called "Justified," in the middle of an episode, in the middle of a season.

It didn't matter.

I got hooked.

It's a show about a US Marshal being reassigned to his small town Kentucky home after a mob shooting in his prior posting. The character of the Marshal, Raylan Givens, is based on a character by Elmore Leonard and is played with nuance and grace (not to mention sex appeal!) by Timothy Olyphant.

I don't really read Leonard's genre--westerns and crime thrillers--but something about this show is utterly compelling.

The characterization is solid. The characters' motivations influence every plot turn and decision. The dialogue is crisp, without a wasted word or gesture. The plot turns are fresh. They are neither predictable nor random.

Last night was the season finale and I have to admit that I was utterly engrossed and emotionally invested in the story and its characters. The fast that it *was* a story faded into the background and I was entranced.

It's been a long time since I've been able just to be absorbed in such seamless story telling.

Kudos to Justified and I can't wait until next season.

So the verdict on the new Doctor?

Matt Smith rocks.

Totally.

Over and out.

And when I grow up, I want to be a script writer for Dr. Who.

Just putting that out there. . .

Dr. Who!!! US Premiere!!!! Tonight!!!!

OMG, I'm such a Dr. Who fangirl. I'm giddy! In 3 hours from now, we get to meet the new Doctor! (Thank you, BBC America!) I've been reading all the spoilers and semi-spoilers posted on io9 for weeks and it looks like it's going to be epic.

Just so you know, I won't be answering the phone, the cell, or emails between 8 and 10pm. (8-9 for the Dr. Who special, 9-10 for the premiere!) It's nothing personal.

It's just the Doctor.

I think this is the most exclamation points I've ever used in a blog post, or anywhere else, since I was maybe 12 years old.

True Confessions of an Indifferent Movie Watcher

I just don't get the hype about the Oscars.  But that's probably because I'm not a big movie fan.  The only movie I saw in the theatre last year was "Star Trek", and mostly because I wanted to take my boys to see what had been an icon of childhood TV for me.  We bought "Up" and watched it at home and I loved it.  But other than that, I don't think I was even tempted to see a single movie nominated for the Academy Awards.

I know--that makes me some kind of weird curmudgeon.  I don't even watch all that much TV.  Major exception:  Red Sox baseball games and Dr. Who.  How's that for a combination.  LOL.

I would rather spend the evening curled up on the sofa with a book to read, or a notebook and pen, perhaps with some music playing than have the television blaring at me. 

Perhaps it is because I'm not primarily a visual processor/visual learner.  Unlike my husband and youngest son, I don't primarily render the world through my eyes.  Rather, I take in other sensory impressions, experiencing the word both kinesthetically and with a poetic (metaphorical) mind set. Movies and television often overwhelm my ability to process the fast visual stream of images.  With reading, I set the pace and get to decide what to dwell on, and how to experience the story.

So, true confession--I did not watch a single minute of the Oscars last night.  The only reason I know who won anything is because of listening to NPR this morning.  Does that make me seriously out of step with most of the US?  Probably.  I also didn't watch the superbowl.  Not even the commercials.

Hey, I still love the feel of a book in my hands.  How odd and out of touch is that?

Only one more month to the new Doctor!

Feeling a little cabin fever?

BBCAmerica has reported that the new season of Dr. Who will air in the US on April 17th!

W00t!

I'm such a fan girl of this campy, long-lived series but what's even better than watching it is watching it with my teenagers.

Priceless.

Double fan girl "squee'

Oh my. 

My little geeky scifi heart is beating double time.*

It looks like Neil Gaiman is writing a script for Dr. Who.

That should be utterly epic, given the scope, vision, and humor of Gaiman's work.  I think he and Dr. Who must be a match made in heaven.

I am also insanely jealous.  Writing for Dr. Who is one of my secret, life-long (or at least since I was 12, which feel like a lifetime ago) dreams.  And Neil Gaiman gets to live it.  *sob*

Okay.  I'm better now.  And I know this isn't a zero sum game.  Many writers have had the opportunity to send the Doctor out in time and space on his adventures.  Who's to say I won't have my chance?

Work hard.  Dream big.

*completely appropriate as Time Lords have 2 hearts.

Happy Anniversary, Dr. Who!

46 years ago today, the first episode of Dr. Who aired.

Yes, the special effects are cheesy.  Yes, many of the 'enemies' are hokey.  Yes, there are many, many non-sequiters and continuity issues with the plot lines.

And yet, I have been a fan since the 1970s.

As silly as some of the plots are, the acting and the characters are compelling.  I can honestly say there have been episodes that have moved me to tears.

Yes--this is the silly Science Fiction series about a Time Lord moving through time and space in his blue police box.  I am not embarrassed about my unabashed fan girl glee about this show.

Long may Dr. Who live, through many more regenerations.

My deep, dark, secret wish

One of my kiddos asked me what I would wish for if I could have anything I wanted.

He ruled out the altruistic 'big' wishes, like world peace, and an end to poverty, etc. He wanted to know what I wanted, selfishly, and secretly.

So here it is.

I want to be a scriptwriter for Dr. Who.

Bet you didn't see that one coming. :)

So why didn't I wish for something related to seeing my book in the bookstore, etc? Because I've come to a place where that is less of a dream than the goal I am moving towards. It's out of the realm of fantasy and wish fulfillment because I truly believe it will happen.

But to be part of the magic of Dr. Who? Well, that's fantasy. I discovered Dr. Who as a child. During the Watergate hearings, there was nothing to watch on the major TV networks, so I found that the PBS channel was showing all these British import shows--Dr. Who, The Avengers, Secret Agent, and The Prisoner.

I became immediately hooked by Dr. Who. (The Tom Baker era and yes, I even knitted myself a 13 foot long scarf. That I still have. That I still sometimes wear. Now stop laughing at me.)

My deepest, darkest, most secret wish? I wanted to be a companion. I wanted to step into the TARDIS and go somewhere/somewhen else and have adventures with the Doctor.

Now that I'm a writer, I will wish for the next best thing: to be involved in the series and write a script for the show. Just thinking about it makes my inner fan girl squee. :)

So there you have it. My most embarrassing secret wish.

After watching "Torchwood: Children of Earth"

Spoiler Alert if you haven't seen all 5 episodes.







After years of refusing to get cable TV, I finally succumbed to family pressure this year. Quite honestly, what I like best is being able to watch Red Sox games, as I am a rabid baseball fan.

But my guilty pleasure has become several shows from BBC America and the SyFy channel. One of which is "Torchwood". It's a spinoff from "Doctor Who", a show I began to watch in my childhood and still have a soft spot for, but it's edgier and grittier and goes places "Doctor Who" has not. I haven't seen more than a handful of episodes, but got hooked watching the recently aired "Children of Earth" miniseries.

I suspect other writers have this problem, but now that I've wrestled a bit with issues of plot and characterization, it's hard for me to watch something (or read anything for that matter) without at least part of my brain attending to craft issues.

I found the "Torchwood" miniseries utterly compelling. Where I noticed a plot 'niggle' was in episode 4, where Captain Jack and Ionto confront the aliens, making a moral stand against their plan. That part of the scene was quite intense and emotionally resonant. But when the aliens are nonplussed, Jack and Ionto decide to take out their handguns and shoot the heavily reinforced glass containment structure to fight the alien.

That was a 'WTF' moment for me as a viewer. Surely the immortal and experienced Captain Jack would have thought of something more "Torchwood" than that. Come on, this guy's like MacGuyver on steroids.

It would have set up the sacrifice of the final episode had they decided to open the airlock to vent the alien atmosphere in the room. Yes, it would have killed Ionto and not Jack, but that would have been a more believable plot point. I could even believe Ionto making the decision to sacrifice himself after the aliens locked the doors and distributed the virus. After all, he figures he's going to die anyway--at least he could take the aliens with him.

Then the story could have gone in one of two ways--either they managed to kill the alien in the tank, and the ones in orbit would continue to be a threat, or they would fail to take out the alien in the tank and they would be the continuing threat.

I was also disappointed by the final 5 minutes of the show and the 'goodbye' between Jack and Gwen. It just didn't seem to carry the emotional heft that it might have had.

All in all, I did love "Children of Earth" and hope that "Torchwood" comes back.

Why I Like the TV show "Heroes"

January of "poetmom" blogged about the upcoming (tonight!) season ending episode of "Heroes." I also love this show. And this from a person who watches maybe about 2-3 hours of television a week. (Did you know the national average is more than 4 hours a day for the average adult? Scary statistics here.)

I would rather read or write than watch most television. I find the victimization quotient to be too high for me to handle. It's as if every show is ramping up the adrenaline factor to a point where you can't flip a channel without seeing someone being threatened, assaulted, or murdered. Talk about your climate of fear.

So why do I like "Heroes?"

Is there violence? Yes. (Can you say Sylar? *shudder*) But I don't feel like this show promotes the same sense of fear and paranoia that shows like "24" or "Law and Order, SVU," etc, seem to create. In fact, "Heroes" leaves me with a sense of hope, not terror.

The stories are character driven and the characters are flawed, realistic, despite the fact of their superhero powers. I love the fact that it's not always clear who the 'good guys' are and who the 'bad guys' are. The moral ambiguity makes the show more rather than less compelling. Characters make mistakes, stories don't end up tidily.

The plots are intricate but neither overly convoluted nor predictable.

The stakes are high for the characters and the writers are not afraid to kill off popular/major characters along the way. (Rather than wait for the predictable end of season finale where it is expected that a main character will be killed off or placed in some cliff-hanger peril.)

Sadly, the fact that I'm wildly enthusiastic about any show almost always is a kiss of death for that show.

I'm hoping that I'm wrong this time.

Oh. And don't try to call me tonight between 9 and 10pm edt. I won't be answering the phone.