Challenge: Books into Films

For the last two years, I've been taking part in the Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge over at Long and Short Reviews. (The first link will take you to the list of topics; the second one goes to the homepage, where you can find a post with everyone's responses each week. Feel free to join in!)

This week's prompt is "book I wish they'd make into a movie or TV series" and let me tell you, I didn't even have to think about it. 

It's Martha Wells, of course, but it's not Murderbot -- I honestly don't think that a movie could do Murderbot justice. No, it's The Books of the Raksura. It's got everything:

• A cranky protagonist.
• An even crankier mentor-figure.
• A matriarchal society of were-dragons.
• Flying ships. 
• Ancient mysteries. 
• Strange magics.
  
• A sprawling fantasy world in which none of the races are human, and which owes more to Nature Channel documentaries than to medieval Europe.
• Dangerous enemies. 
• Amazingly cranky queens.
• Some surprisingly sweet moments and all the little details that make the world come alive. 
• Five full books and two short-story collections to work from. 

Seriously, the Books of the Raksura are just begging to be made into a TV series, and someone should have optioned them ages ago. 

Can't Post Today

Sorry, Exit Strategy comes out today. It's the fourth of the Murderbot Diaries. I will not be posting anything until I'm done reading it.

Story ideas born from memes...

Over on her Livejournal, Martha Wells is experimenting with a meme: tell me about a story I haven't written, and I'll give you one sentence from that story. Which looked like fun, so I thought about it and posted this:

Once there was an air-captain whose sailbeast got caught in a sudden storm, and crashed atop one of the great mountain-turtles that circle the edges of the civilized lands. Trapped in the strange high wilderness of the Upper Shell, she would need all her ingenuity and courage - not only to survive, but to forage for her sailbeast until its gas-bladder healed enough to fly again.

And, of course, having casually dropped that in the comments, I found myself thinking, I should write that story. It would be a young adult adventure - probably - and quite a lot of fun.

So, I copied it over to help me remember it for later. 'Cause it really would be fun to write.

And if anybody wants to try that meme out here, go ahead. Tell me about a story, and I'll give you one sentence from that story.

Second Draft - progress, or another false hope?

I had one of those funny little moments where, owing to the juxtaposition of two unrelated influences[1], I suddenly got a new handle on the fantasy novel I've been writing for... I dunno, way too long now. I say "writing," but actually I finished the first draft, and that's where I stalled. As a result, I have the first draft... and then I have about twelve versions of the second draft, ranging in length from three paragraphs to three chapters.

So suddenly having my head back in the right place to work on that project is kind of a big deal for me. Only...

That was two weeks ago. I now have three paragraphs and a section break. This is not what you might call steady progress. On the plus side, I've managed to keep the boys fed and bathed, the laundry bin is substantially less full than it has been, and the stove and countertop in the kitchen are no longer a potential biohazard. So it's not like I haven't been getting things done. It's just that, from a writing perspective, I've been getting all the wrong things done.

Strangely, I'm still enthused about coming at this project again. It's going to be tricky, because we're dealing with a mess of problems right now. They're First World problems, to be sure, but they're still extremely distracting. Parenting consumes a lot of time and energy all by itself, plus we're coming up on the beginning of school next week, plus I'm trying to cover for the Beautiful Wife, who appears to have pinched a nerve and really shouldn't be lifting anything with her right arm. There just isn't much room for writing time (or anything else) in my schedule.

I have hopes that things will shake out, though. Firstborn is going to sleep on his own again - albeit, admittedly, with much wailing and gnashing of teeth. Secondborn is feeling clingy and wants to be held, but I think that's partly because he just got another round of immunization shots, which left him feeling slightly ill.[2] And I have no idea what the beginning of Kindergarten will do to our routine, but if I can get Firstborn back in a regular bedtime routine which leaves me some time in the evening, there's a decent chance that I can actually squeeze some writing in there.

This is more or less how the writing process works for me: I get enthused, I start working on something, and then either real life interrupts or I get stuck for other reasons. But right now I'm on the cheerful side of the cycle, so I'm just going to go with it.

[1] Martha Wells' The Cloud Roads and an old SquareEnix video game called Drakengard. If you're not already acquainted with Martha Wells, and you enjoy reading well-written fantasy (or, for that matter, if you can even tolerate reading the occasional fantasy novel) go out and buy everything she's ever written. Do it now. You won't be disappointed.

[2] Note to any random passers-by who might feel tempted to comment on how Immunizations Are Evil: my mother had polio as a little girl. She has been unable to move her legs since she was about eight. Our kids are getting their immunizations. Do not try to argue the point with me - I will take it personally.