I walked to the park this morning and set up shop on a bench overlooking the Great Lawn. The sun was shining, the shade was cool, and a soft breeze was gently furling the papers of my notepad. I sat there for an hour and a half writing, people watching, contemplating life, and wishing I’d brought a snack. All in all a very enjoyable way to spend my morning. It was amazing how fast and easy the ideas flowed. Maybe I was just ready for a breakthrough, but I think the setting had a lot to do with it. Weather permitting I plan to make the trek to the park as often as I can from now on.

I’d heard great things about it so walked across Central Park to the Lincoln Center near Columbus Circle as that is the only theater in NYC that’s playing it. Oh, here’s a link to an overview of the movie: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1483831/

I won’t reveal any spoilers, but I will say it wasn’t quite what I was expecting. It was clear what the director was going for, but the execution didn’t quite pull it off. It’s been described as Das Boat in a tank, and that’s fairly accurate except Das Boat is a superior film. Still, there were elements in the claustrophobic environment of the tank that I thought superb. One of the best was the narrative device of the disembodied voice of a commander heard over the radio. It’s no easy feat to make a movie that takes place almost entirely inside a space about the size of a 10×10 closet. What gripes I have are more with some of the acting. I thought a couple of characters were a bit over-wrought at times.

In the end, I do recommend this film. The banter between the tank crew is quite hilarious at times and there’s one great story told about a teacher and a father’s death that while seemingly out of left field is a fascinating bit of story telling.

Do you read to challenge yourself? Do you prefer to read for fun only? Do you ever pick up a book on the theory of something/anything and try to wrap your brain around it? Do you read outside your favorite genre? My view is that it’s healthy and probably even essential to read well beyond your genre and comfort zone if (and this is a big if) you want to be a published writer.

Seeing as I brought it up, I’ll share my current literary workouts (and I’m leaving out the mss I read for work as that’s a separate issue).

First, the easy one. I’ve just started the 1,100 page monster bio on T. E. Lawrence titled aptly enough, Lawrence of Arabia, The Authorized Biography. I’m fascinated by Lawrence and this should give me lots to chew on. I would categorize this as being well within my comfort zone.

Now here’s the really challenging one that has me nervous. I’m going to start reading Kathryn Smith’s Let The Night Begin. It’s a romance…with vampires. In my life I don’t think I’ve read a book that could ever be classified as a romance, and nothing with vampires either. I have no idea what to expect. Love, romance, erotica, sex…where’s the cavalry charge and hand grenades? Some readers have been kind of enough to offer comments on the “romance” between Konowa and Visyna and I’ll admit, it’s a rocky one. And I’ll also admit that’s part by design, and part because I genuinely am not sure just how one makes a romance work. So, long past time I started to do a little research. It could be that a vampire romance isn’t the one to start with, but in fact I think it’s exactly the one I should start with. Now where did I put those scented candles and garlic…

Not sure if I’m the last person on the planet to see it, but I finally watched it last night. I played it on my flat screen at home and paid attention to the story…I’m thinking the real focus was meant to be on the 3D. Some neat special effects to be sure, but I’ve clearly missed the hype. I’m not being contrary for the sake of it, I happen to like a lot of pop culture from anything Pixar makes to anything NIKE makes, but for me Avatar never rose above the special effects. It was clearly all about the visual. I think I’ll try it again at a theater in 3D and see if my opinion changes.

This Thursday the S&S UK mass market edition hits stores in the UK (and I believe NZ and Oz) and includes for the first time anywhere (drum roll please) a teaser section for Ashes of a Black Frost. I do plan to post some of that eventually, but for now you can find it in this edition (and I believe online in the “Look Inside” feature at places like Amazon.co.uk).

Cheers,

Chris