#267. Reading List: 1812 - The War That Forged a Nation

#267.

The latest on the Reading List is:

1812: The War That Forged a Nation by Walter Borneman, which focuses on, of all possible surprises in the universe, the War of 1812, perhaps the most famous but least known conflict in US history. I've got a story based on it that I hope to at least have started by 2012 (and hopefully be published otherwise before then), so this is unofficially a bit of research material, but also keeping with the trend I was speaking of earlier in the List.

#266. Reading List: Israel Potter

#266.

Next on the Reading List:

Israel Potter by Herman Melville, one of his last novels, which is partially based on a eal historical figure, a survivor of Bunker Hill, one of the defining conflicts of the American Revolution, who actually wrote his own story at the time of the monument that commemorates that battle, several decades earlier. The veracity of Potter's own narrative was suspect enough, but Melville weaves a story that may reflect on his own fallen literary status, but which provides a fascinating look into the formative United States experience. Melville himself was descended from distinguished members of this generation. Part of what's so fascinating for me is that, without intending it, I'm reading this book after Johnny One-Eye, a far more contemporary, but no less irreverent, look at the same period in history. Glossing over the rest of the Reading List, I'll be delving into a lot of interrelated works, and again, through no conscious intent.

...And I work in a bookstore where people can't even find a single book on their own...Speaking of which, I'm once again giving credit for this book (via linking) to my employer, which has the exact copy I'm reading readily available on its site, which Amazon hasn't. I may be using Borders more often for this blogging of my ongoing list...

#265. Reading List: The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, Mr. Palomar

#265.

Currently on the Reading List:

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie, a collection of interrelated short stories painting a portrait of life on an Indian reservation. I originally read Alexie in college, a book called Indian Killer, which wasn't very good, and as it turns out, not really all that reflective of his writing. This stuff's far better, and helps demonstrate how he'd become a noted literary voice.

Previously, I read Italo Calvino's Mr. Palomar, a series of existential observations, basically thought-provoking material. I may read the author's more famous If on a Winter's Night a Traveler, a book I was supposed to read in college, but didn't get around to, later on, when I've made it further along in the list (i.e. completed it).

Melville's Typee was pretty good, but far from his most literary work. It makes sense, what happened to his career, after reading it.

#264. Hall Bros. Entertainment, Ecce Homo, Moxie, John Morrison

#264.

It's been more than a month since I last posted here! I've completed several books since 10/14, but I'll get back to that later in the week. Today I'm just gonna shoot the breeze a little. I don't know if I mentioned this already, but I got accepted into a Hall Bros. Entertainment anthology, which was pretty awesome. Work on Ecce Homo has been a little spotty of late, partly because of a trip to Maine two weeks ago. I was able to belt out five chapters in one day immediately before that, however, and have done a lot of story development for the remaining half (at least), which to me is just as good as writing (though writing is pretty good, too), given that I'm still trying to get Finnegan published. I don't know if I had done so already last month, but I might as well mention that I've sent it off to a couple of publishers, continuing a year-long effort to find a home for it.

I'm also interested in writing about Moxie! I'm in the preliminary stages of a book proposal that'll cover people's opinions about the oldest and most obnoxious more-or-less original taste soft drink in the country, which happens to be featured in my home town of Lisbon Falls, ME, both at the Moxie Store and the annual Moxie Festival. The working title is This Book Has Moxie!, while I hope to set up This Website Has Moxie! and other tie-ins as they become appropriate and/or relevant.

Really excited for the apparent push John Morrison is getting. Dare I hope for a WrestleMania main event? Also really happy that Mr. Anderson is getting recuperative time off for his concussion, glad that it's being taken very seriously, very publically. And you can't possibly blame the man for this injury.

...But, as I said, I'll be back with more later in the week.

#263. Bound for Glory 2010, John Morrison, EcceHomo

#263.

Given the result of the main event of TNA's Bound for Glory, and who I've been talking about in this blog, you might assume that I'd be a tad upset. But it couldn't have been more brilliant. In fact, the heel turn and championship turn by Jeff Hardy may be exactly what the company needs to reach the next level. This is a purely storyline piece of work that seems to have connected with the target audience. It isn't merely making someone champion who'll please that audience, but rather, and unlike the Main Event Mafia or Jeff Jarrett's runs, not a contrived attempt to elicit heat. This is exactly like Hulk Hogan's NWO moment. Hardy has a legitimate claim to be TNA's Sting, actually (A.J. Styles being, as the company finally realized, its Ric Flair). While he hasn't been an original company man, a lot of his biggest moments as a solo competitor are going to be remembered as a part of the TNA roster. Anyway, this is good, good news, even for Mr. Anderson, who stands poised at least to stick around the main event, because a lot of the work he's done with the company to date has been with Jeff Hardy. So I'm pleased on a number of levels.

John Morrison, meanwhile, finally seems to be capitalizing on his unique parkour technique, much as Daniel Bryan has been benefiting from all the goodwill he generated as the underrated "rookie" in the first NXT season (but see how well that first season has turned out for pretty much everyone involved?). I think, barring unforeseen circumstances, this will finally push him to the next level. Same with former partner The Miz, who seems to be building some legitimate momentum of his own, most notably on this past Raw, when he actually stood toe-to-toe with John Cena, who himself is reaching another platform by actively working with a new generation of competitors. It's the exact opposite of what Randy Orton is doing right now (and ironically, how he got back to the championship in the first place, because of his apparent willingness to do this; his lack of actual commitment to any one new star has hindered his own efforts), and why Orton's title reign is completely meaningless.

***

As I mentioned recently, I've started writing my third book, Ecce Homo, and once again, it's turning into a revelatory experience. Everything I learned the first two times, it's helping to craft something unique and special. I can't speak highly enough about NaNoWriMo, the challenge that provided the impetus of the three acts that comprise my first book. last year I challenged myself to do it over the course of two months, and it worked out really well. And so I'm doing that again, and finding new ways to represent my style of writing. I'll know just how successful it is if I complete the book by the end of the year, which is my goal, and should be easily attainable. I'm giving myself more time this time. I like the pressure keeping a small timetable provides, but I'm realizing, more and more, I can be a little lax, and it's not the end of the world, or the book. I'm a writer who likes to think. Sometimes that means I get very little writing done. But more importantly, it helps bring on new depths and innovation to my writing, which are traits I value almost to anything else.

I'm also working on a story called The Two Caballeros, in conjunction with a comic called Liberation, TX. I'm always ambitious. I figure at some point, all this hard work is bound to pay off...

#262. Reading List: Typee

#262.

Next up on the Reading List:

Typee, Herman Melville's first and most popular book...y'know, in his lifetime. I've read most of his later works (still haven't gotten around to his poetry, which is what he sustained himself on creatively during the last part of his life), and recently picked up a collected edition with his early works, so at some point, I will finally be able to say, I've read all of Melville. And darned proud of it.

#261. Ecce Homo

#261.

Would you believe that I started writing another book? Crazy, I know, because I have written two already, and neither have in the technical sense been published. But when the idea of Ecce Homo occurred to me, I couldn't resist. It combines a recurring element of Finnegan with my inability to write typical descriptive fiction. In other words, it's another stream of consciousness kind of story. It's fun to get back into what amounts to my routine of writing long fiction, which was honed pretty well over the course of the time it took to write Finnegan and Cloak of Shrouded Men, the first drafts of which took a combined five months. Not that I'm bragging...

...Or, shooting myself in the foot. Where's all the wood in the internet?

#260. Reading List: Dave Barry Slept Here

#260.

Next up on Reading List!

Dave Barry Slept Here, and I forget the author, but he's going to show up a bunch more times on the list. I've been reading him for more than a decade now. Never gets old. I'm also constantly coming up with word groupings that Would Make A Great Name For A Rock Band. Kurt Vonnegut and the Slaughterhouse Fives, for instance...

#259. Reading List: On Writing

#259.

Next up on the Reading List:

On Writing by Stephen King, someone I have been inadvertently chasing most of my life. I attended the same high school, the same college, moved to Colorado, ended up reading after years of believing he wasn't for me. I had the teacher who famously told him he couldn't write. Well, this book probably explains, or makes that belief, all the more baffling, because here he finally gets to explain what he thinks writing is all about. So far, I've been able to ascertain that perhaps Mr. King and I have a few different ideas about that. I still think he's a pretty good writer, but maybe this book helps explain why he isn't perhaps a little better, or more consistent. I now believe he's as motivated by all the B-movies he watched growing up as by a desire to write legitimate fiction. I don't mean to sound like I'm knocking him, because The Stand, among the many things he's written that I've loved, is among my all-time favorites of any author.

Anyway, that aside, I have to report having given up on China Mieville's The City & The City. Turns out he had a far better concept than he could write.

#258. Reading List: The City & the City

#258.

Moving right along, the next book in my
Reading List is:

The City & The City by China Mieville, which just won a Hugo. Given this and Sacred Games a few months back, you might think I read a lot of detective fiction, but I really don't, only when it has literary or historic (The Maltese Falcon, which is another one I read recently-ish) value. Anyway, I work at Borders, and the biggest perk is the occasional advanced reader I get to put my grubby little hands on. Usually I read those at work, on my lunch breaks, but this one I've been saving, and more than a year later, have finally gotten around to.

Age has only made it appreciate in value, thank you very much.

#257. Reading List: The Great Snape Debate

#257.

Up next on my Reading List is:

The Great Snape Debate (Orson Scott Card, Amy Berner, Joyce Millman), a collection of essays probing the character of the famous anti-hero from J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books. (Strangely, Borders printed it exclusively, but only has it available at its Marketplace, while Amazon has it available, and I could have used that page, which I typically do in these entries.) I don't read a lot of scholarship on literature, possibly because in school, even though the teachers were always pretending that they wanted my thoughts, they really wanted a reformatting of some other people's, which I never understood. But I do like essays, and this one is a pretty ambitious collection, one of the great artifacts of the craze over the boy wizard that by all rights should only be in its infancy. I'm of the mind that Harry is a creation for the ages, and something like this is an early testament, beyond the fan commentaries and reports of all the initial enormous sales, that his world has plenty of critical merit as well.

#256. Fan Companion, PWI Female 50, Snape

#256.

Fixed Fan Companion's format a little. For some reason, the archive links had looked terrible previously, but now they're at the bottom of the page and look better there. It may prove pretty interesting once I begin the Film Fan in a few weeks. I plan to detail 50 movies a week, broken into 25-block intervals, with a total of 500, plus (as I'm currently planning) a few spotlight posts for particular trends within the list.

***

So I missed the PWI 500 issue with my subscription, officially. It shipped last month, and I got my first issue a few days ago, which has the Female 50 (Michelle McCool deserves the top spot, and she did last year, too, even though she didn't get it). But I finally took a look at the ranking, and I'm pretty pleased with the names I was looking for. AJ Styles, as I noted a few months ago, certainly deserved his top spot as well. In addition, CM Punk, John Morrison, and Mr. Anderson also got some pretty good spots, which I was happy about. This is weird, because usually I don't end up agreeing with just about any of the rankings (I could provide links for the posts in years past where I've talked about them, but I'm lazy).

I will have to acquire the issue at some later date.

***

Having finished Jerome Charyn's brilliant Johnny One-Eye, I've now moved on to the Borders compilation The Great Snape Debate (which this post will be below very shortly in my usual Reading List entry), which has gotten me thinking. (And this is also pretty neat timing, because I'll be reading this shortly before the first half of The Deathly Hallows movie is released in a few months, just as the book was released in anticipation of Rowling's final effort.) I think I actually think better of The Little Book however conveniently Selden Edwards ended up tying his story up, because it still calls to mind some pretty deep ideas about the meaning of impressions. Snape turned out to be a good guy after all, but this book reminds its reader that some people weren't as convinced as others that this would end up being the case. Like The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (or even All Star Batman and Robin, Frank Miller's extreme, polarizing take on the early Dark Knight), "when the legend becomes fact, print the legend." People like to hold onto their impressions, because it's far easier to accept things in simple terms than to consider their complexities, no matter what they may be.

***

Anyway, that's all for now. I can understand the allure of writing everything you think when you're on the web; even though I've maintained this blog for eight years, and have a Facebook, I still don't see the point. If I wanted to do that, I'd keep a journal, and let history judge it...

#255. Mr. Anderson, Film Fan

#255.

Really pleased that Mr. Anderson emerged as the only winner of the semi-finals at No Surrender last night, which means he is technically the headliner of Bound for Glory next month. If he faces Kurt Angle or Jeff Hardy, there are already built-in possibilities for both, so that's all the more awesome. This is by far the closest he's ever gotten to a company building itself around him.

I was reading an anecdote in a recent WWE book where Santino Marella remembers Anderson and Randy Orton (who would later go on to put the final nail in Ken's career in that company) hilariously sing along to "Bohemian Rhapsody," which reads so more interestingly and funny when you consider where that particular relationship ended up (read that other parenthetical phrase again).

And so it's all the better knowing that he's finally made it, and unlike Christian or Angle, he's not a former WWE star who was hopscotched to the top (Hardy is the only other one I can think of right now, and there are some big reasons why that would be), so his ascension would truly be earned, not just from his prior accomplishments and popularity, but for what he's been doing all year long.

I understand that there's lots of controversy around him, some of which explains why he's in this kind of position to begin with, the injury and drug issues (which might be tied up as cleanly, the former anyway, as he sometimes insists, and which might explain the latter as well, which he would be stupid to try and explain, one way or another, because right now, no one would really want to hear it in any kind of positive sense), but I've always stuck behind him. He just seems like an all-around nice guy (despite being an Asshole), who has long deserved success in the ring.

Hell, if anything, any obvious comparisons to The Rock are only intensied in that regard. WWE tried to push him so hard so fast, the fans had little time to adjust, and neither did he, which I think is what really screwed him over. But because he absolutely knew his character, there was no way of outgrowing that original resentment by becoming his own version of The Rock. WWE gave up, focused around a few of the guys they had already been working with, and so he had to look for other opportunities.

Thank god for TNA.

And thank god...for Miiiisterrrr Anderson.

Anderson.

***

Sorry, got a little carried away with that one.

Anyway, I finally finished ranking the 500 movies that will be featured in the Film Fan Companion, the follow-up project to the Star Trek Fan Companion I've been doing since June. I had the top hundred ranked for a while, but when it came to the next four hundred, even I was a little daunted, and I've been doing a version of this list for about the last five years. 500 will be the biggest yet, but I feel pretty confident about it. But there'll be more information on that later.

#254. Reading List: Johnny One-Eye

#254.



The latest in my Reading List:

Johnny One-Eye, by Jerome Charon, who appears to be another of the wildly unappreciated literary greats working today. The book itself is an irreverent look at the Revolutionary War from the perspective of George Washington's bastard son, who happens to call a brothel in Manhattan known as Holy Ground home. It's such fresh writing, whatever you may find offensive about that, you really shouldn't care, because this book is wickedly good.

The Little Book by Selden Edwards, meanwhile, was pretty good, but probably was better at one of the many drafts ago. Edwards buffed the whole thing into such a streamlined product after decades of working on it that he simplified everything to unbelievable proportions. Or at least that's my working theory. Still worth a look, however.

#253. Modern Woe, A.C. Hall, Paperback Reader?, Mr. Anderson

#253.

I recently completed the "official" tally for Modern Woe, at a hundred poems, but I recently learned that a "lost" poem was posted at the Fan Companion in error, so that makes it 101, and then I'll be writing one more, "Being 30," to complete the "Pulling 30" sequence, after I reach, well, 30 years old, next Wednesday to be precise.

So that's pretty awesome. My adventures trying to convince A.C. Hall to publish me in his new venture weren't completely for naught. I decided I liked writing the style I'd adopted for the two attempts so much that I will probably be doing more of that in the future. My latest one, Bound by Blood, can be found at the Comic Book Resources forums, where I post as Tekamthi. I don't get there often, unfortunately, but recently figured it'd be good exposure for my writing.

I may start writing for Paperback Reader again soon. Bart Gerardi's long-standing comics site recently converted to Wordpress, and I've been mulling going back for a few weeks now. I already like Wordpress, because that's what Lower Decks uses (where I'm currently posting the Fan Companion simultaneously, which is only about eleven Star Trek films away from completion; I'll be working on my 500 Film Fan Companion afterward).

Now that RVD is no longer TNA champion, Mr. Anderson is in a good spot to finally get the big belt. I hope it happens.

Summer Slam looked like a really good PPV, so I'm looking forward to seeing that when it hits DVD. Chris Jericho's set is due about the same time, so I'll have some fresh wrestling to enjoy.

Did I mention how glad I am that Daniel Bryan is back?

#252. Ricky Steamboat, Mr. Anderson, Black Harvest

#252.

I did get a lot of wrestling DVDs recently, including the Ricky Steamboat set (the guy was like the opposite of Chris Benoit; and sorry, Jericho, but the Backlash match was pretty good, too), and some TNA collections, including the "Cross the Line Volume 3" set (worth it for Styles/Daniels/Joe II and, if you're a Mr. Anderson fan, Against All Odds), and the set collecting the company's first three official PPVs (which are more pleasantly entertaining than I would've thought).

I've got to reference Mr. Anderson one more time this post, since Randy Orton recently made it his business to once again confirm apparent WWE beliefs that Anderson doesn't belong in professional wrestling, mentioning the incident in Anderson's final night with WWE that he didn't protect Orton enough. Dude, Orton, if you weren't ready to come back yet, you shouldn't have come back. I mean, Anderson was literally returning from injury himself that very night, and contrary to popular belief, he came out just fine. And to claim he should be looking for another career is in pretty stark contrast to his success with TNA in the last six months. The dude has literally proven that he belongs in the main event, and has for a long time. If he doesn't become world champion soon, it's because he literally doesn't need it anymore.

Which is more than can be said for Orton, who has thrown away a face turn that should have taken his career to the next level. I'm as big a fan of Orton as anyone could be, but he's done nothing since 2009, which is just mind-boggling.

It's not as if WWE hasn't given him the opportunity, which is more than could be said for John Morrison, who like Anderson is a textbook case of WWE looking a gift-horse in the mouth.

Seriously, whatsupwitdat?

***

So when not blabbing about wrestling, I also strive for a writing career. The latest shiny idea to come my way is Black Harvest. I legitimately think this may be the one. I would call it my version of Lost, Inception, and Grant Morrison, with no filters needed, and no excuses. Seriously, if I can pull this one off, I think I finally have my ticket.

Corridor, the last idea I talked about here, isn't gone, but has been placed on the back-burner. It may or may not have been a revenge plot against the diabolical A.C. Hall, besides...

#251. QB Midyear Report

#251.

Posted the big QB Midyear Report over at Lower Decks, a ranked listing of my 75 favorite series, stories, and general comics from the first half of 2010, which has been pretty eventful, from the news that the top two books, G. Willow Wilson's Air and The Great Ten have been prematurely cancelled, to waiting since February to finally getting my hands on Andi Ewington's [forty-five]. Anyway, hopefully worth a look for comics fans.

#250. Reading List: The Little Book

#250.

The next book on my Reading List:

The Little Book, by Selden Edwards, one of those truly fascinating books with a fascinating story behind it, too. Edwards is a first-time novelist, and he's been working on this one for decades, a time-travel adventure with true literary ambition.

Gods Behaving Badly, meanwhile, was absolutely awesome.

#249. Pro Wrestling Illustrated, Projects, Inception

#249.

So I ended up subscribing to Pro Wrestling Illustrated, a move I was somewhat reluctant to make, but the PWI 500 is coming up and they've apparently put A.J. Styles on top (a good move). Wal-Mart (at least my local one) stopped carrying the magazine, and I think the subscription price was half off, so it seemed not entirely crazy at the time. I guess I'll find out.

I also got the Ricky Steamboat DVD (at said Wal-Mart), so I look forward to watching that, and got to watch some Raw on Telemundo today, so I guess it was good a time as any to lead off another blog with wrestling.

I've got a comic brewing tentatively called Corridor that is serving as my latest hope at breaking in. Who knows? I'm still trying to sell Finnegan, or The Second Coming (though for what it's worth my mom seemed less enthusiastic about this one than she did about Cloak of Shrouded Men, and so has my older sister, who has been extremely reluctant about reading it, but this one's a lot more cerebral, philosophical than even the first book was). And I'm still writing poetry.

I've taken to the idea that it's better to live in one's own reality than to try and impose yourself on someone else's. It's almost the message of Inception, so I'm not entirely crazy. Or maybe I am.

Time will tell?

#248. Reading List: Gods Behaving Badly

#248.



Up next on the Reading List:

Gods Behaving Badly, by Marie Phillips, a comic novel looking at your familiar Greek pantheon in modern times, the first book not to be epic length in ages, but still quite entertaining. I didn't really know what to expect from this one, other than a premise I found charming, but the writing really is quite good.

Vikram Chandra's Sacred Games, was really quite excellent.