The new TV season has started

Every fall, my PVR is kept busy recording the season's new shows. And every year, after the first episode or so, most of those timers are deleted.

It appears that Sleepy Hollow will be the first casualty of this season. It's a shame--I had high hopes for it. Unfortunately, the plot is like swiss cheese and the pace of the first episode could only be described as frenetic.

The result came across as disjointed, with too many characters and subplots, and no time to get more than a drive-by past any of them. We found parts of it hilarious, but not in a good way.

I love that TV has finally discovered the world of spec fiction and is exploiting it for all it's worth. But I wish they'd learn the lessons taught by the successful productions. The lower echelon has been siphoned off into the world of reality shows. The rest of us want intelligent, well-written plots with strong characters, rich back story and depth in the presentation. We don't want stuff chucked at us as if it was on steroids. 

Finally broke down - and watched The Hobbit

I procrastinated, I put if off, I told myself I'd wait until the DVD was out. And then I put it off a little longer.

Why? Because I'd heard not-so-positive reviews. And while I take such things with a grain of salt--I want to form my own opinions--it wasn't encouraging news.

The remember the first time I read The Hobbit. I was a child, maybe eight or nine. I'm not sure of my exact age. But I do remember that I loved it. It quickly became one of my favorite books. In fact, it took me about a year before I could get into Lord of the Rings. Initially, I was disappointed, because it wasn't about Bilbo.

When I heard that they'd turned the Hobbit into three movies, I hoped they'd done similar things as they had with the extended versions of LOTR, which I find less choppier than the shorter versions.

My daughter suggested there would be a lot of epic walking.

Well, I guess someone else was concerned about that. It looked to me like they tried to address the problem, but didn't really understand their audience.

They did some things really well. Where they expanded on existing back story, it worked.

And for the most part, they handled the dwarfs with taste and dignity, making them characters, not caricatures. But then they failed to capitalize on what they'd built.

They had a great opportunity to explore these characters, to make us really care about Bilbo and his new friends. Instead, we got too much unsupported action, with an unnecessary villain, a fight between mountains inserted where it really didn't make sense, and endless scenes of CGI-fueled conflict.

It was as if someone had taken one of those dreadful, car-chase-and-blow-everything-up movies, and transported it to a fantasy setting.

I was disappointed, enough that I don't know if I'll even bother with the next installment.

The World Didn't End - But all is not lost!

If you're already missing the heady thrill of having the world come to an end, the bad news is, it's just the beginning of another Mayan age.

The good news is, you can get your fix for free.  My friend Nila White has released her first anthology, The End--Visions of Apocalypse.

Writing Prompts Consolidated

For convenience, I've consolidated last year's writing prompts into two lists. 

Here is the first one.  Merry Christmas!

1. Your heroine is exhausted.  On top of her demanding job, she’s juggling the additional demands of three overexcited children.  She’s been up to midnight many nights in a row, finishing costumes, making cookies for bake sales, fielding the demands of relatives, planning holiday menus, and wrapping gifts.  Now, with only a few days to go to Christmas, she’s running a fever.  It’s time to resort to desperate measures.  She pulls out the small vial her grandmother gave her, of fairy dust.  Her grandmothers’ last words were, “It’s powerful stuff, dear.  Use it only in great need, and only one grain at a time.”  Your heroine opens the lid, and sneezes … 

2. Your hero has met the girl of his dreams.  This will be their first Christmas together.  He wants to impress her, but he doesn’t have a lot of money.  He’s been through the malls and the specialty stores, but nothing has caught his eye.  And then, a small fellow with a white beard, wearing a green felt suit, offers him … 

3. Your heroine, a busy professional, has decided to make her life easier by hiring a buyer to handle her Christmas list.  She goes to the meeting prepared with all the information she thinks the buyer will need-- ages, sizes, genders, hobbies, and interests, for her family and friends.  The buyer doesn’t even look at the information.  All she wants is a photograph of each of the intended recipients.  Your heroine is shocked when …

4. Your hero walks to the door.  He has a bottle of wine in one hand, and some gifts in the other.  His friends have invited him to share their celebration, but no one answers his knock.  He tries the door and finds it open.  Inside, the oven is still on, and pots are boiling over, but no one is around.  Something has spilled on the kitchen floor, something brown and syrupy.  There are tracks in it.  They look like the prints of a giant bird claw …

5. Your heroine is a solitary soul, with no close friends or family.  Christmas is a difficult time for her.  For many years now, she’s spent the holiday alone.  She owns a family heirloom, a large snow globe.  It’s so big she needs both hands to lift it.  There’s a whole village inside that globe.  When the sun goes down on Christmas eve, something magical happens.  Then, and only then, she can enter the world of the snow globe, where she can stay for twenty-four hours.  This year …

6. Your hero is single.  He has a good job, but lives on the other side of the country from his family.  For the past several years, he’s flown home for Christmas.  This year, he decided to take the train instead.  He’s enjoying the trip.  It seems like a civilized way to travel.  He’s relaxed, with a drink in hand, and he’s enjoying the scenery.  The train enters a long tunnel.  It seems to go on, and on.  When the train finally comes out into the light ...

7. It’s Christmas eve, and on the rooftop, there arose such a clatter, your hero sprang from his bed to see what was the matter.  He put on his boots and a coat, and he ran outside into the snow.  What he finds is supernatural, but it isn’t a jolly, old elf with a sleigh …

Here We Are!

Well, we've got here, to the totally ridiculous, made for the credulous, end of the world.

The obvious thing to do is to have a party. So, I thought I'd scoop a link to a band that got its start at kitchen parties, and their very appropriate song for the day. Thank you, Great Big Sea!

Four Days to the End of the World--Or is it?

You've got to love it. World leaders are making speeches to reassure the populace.

And people are buying bottled water and candles.

Personally, if I believed the world was ending, I would not be going for bottled water and beeswax.

I'd be making reservations at the most exclusive place in town. And I'd charge dinner to my credit card.

And it's the end of the world!

Alternatively, of course, it might just be where the Mayans ran out of wall space.

Well, it might not be the end of the world, but it's the end of my 2012 challenge. As of this post, I'll have completed a year's worth of writing prompts on silly ways for the world to end.

I've tried several approaches, including serial silliness, piggybacking on the silliness of others, and using news stories to inspire my silliness.

For December, I decided to go with fiction to inspire my prompt that might inspire more fiction.

You may have seen reports that the new 48 fps movie format is nauseating some viewers.  

That story inspired this, my last silly, world-ending writing prompt:

All over the world, movie-goers find that, after watching one of the new format movies, they leave the theatre nauseated. The feeling doesn't go away. In fact, it gradually gets worse, until it becomes life-threatening. And it spreads, fast, even to those who haven't been to the movies.

Your hero has to mobilize forces and coordinate internationally, both to protect those not yet affected and to figure out how to stop the spread.

Happy December, everyone.

Last year's Christmas writing prompts are available here.