A speculative mind

Willing suspension of disbelief is a phrase that refers to what we all do as readers. For example: we know there are no such things as werewolves, but we are willing to go with it in a story. That being said, that willingness to suspend our disbelief can be stretched to the breaking point. I have read novels (I won’t mention any names) that were so over the top as to be unbelievable. At that point I either must decide if I can enjoy it as camp or simply not worth my time. Back when I was in college in my first phase of attempting to be a writer of science fiction, I was given some good advice. I was told that you were allowed one “wonder”: one thing that wows the reader even though it may not be quite scientifically plausible. Wrapped around that wonder though, everything has to make sense. Things need to be consistent as they relate to the wonder. For example, you could have time travel in a story. It is pretty much universally accepted in the real scientific community th...

Ever remember seeing something on television or a movie that was kind of terrible, but kind of intriguing at the same time. Sometimes it can be chalked up to youth. Shows that I thought were great when I was nine or ten, somehow didn’t hold up very well once I reached adulthood. One example of this is the Time Tunnel, an Irwin Allen production. In fact, you can pretty much lump all of Irwin Allen’s 1960’s TV shows into this category. But the Time Tunnel looked awesome to my eight or nine year old eyes. I even learned a bit of history along the way. The show left fond reminiscences in my memories. I probably had not seen an episode in thirty years when I rewatched the pilot a couple of years ago. I made some observations: the show really did look good. One thing I will say for Irwin Allen, he pulled out all the stops to make the special effects realistic and the sets were a thing of beauty. Just look at the design of the tunnel itself. It’s fantastic. The other observation is that the...

How important is a name? If the name is the title of a book, or play, a song, a story, or even a non-fiction article, one would tend to think that it is pretty important. After all, the title is likely the first thing an audience will see about the story. In some cases, all the reader knows about the story is the name until they read it. You could argue that the name or title is the first piece of marketing. Shakespeare had Juliet say, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” In other words, if instead of calling it a rose, you called it a skunkflower, it would still look and smell like a rose. The name does not change it. Did Shakespeare believe names were unimportant? Further, Shakespeare gave seemingly trivial names to three of his better comedies: Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like it, and What you Will. These names do not say anything about what the plays are about. They almost sound like he is saying, “these plays of mine are ...

I think I may have mentioned that I am involved in a playwriting project with my local community theater company. It has to be Christmas themed. As I was casting about for ideas, I came up with one that I believe will follow the guidelines for the project. The play is called “Elevator Time.” Though the title is simple, I like it. It is a nice double entendre. I don’t know yet if they are going to produce my play. Time will tell. This is actually the fourth play I have written. The other three were all performed by the same theater company. The first two were a part of the Original Scripts project. And the third one was in a project called the 24 Hour Theater (no, the project lasted 24 hours, not the play). Writing a play is different from writing a novel or a short story. Writing a play is all about dialogue. Playwrights do put some other stuff in there that is not dialogue. That stuff is called stage direction. The thing is, the director and actors are required to hold t...

What will books look like 50 years from now? We have seen quite a change in the way books are read in the past 15 years or so. More and more people are reading with ereaders of one brand or another.   When my novel came out this summer, the ebook came out first with the paperback to come out in October. It wasn’t my choice; that’s the way the publisher wanted to do it, and  that was okay. But a lot of my friends told me that they would be waiting for the paperback. “I just can’t read on one of those things,” I heard over and over. That is fine with me. I just want people to read my book. I don’t care how they read it. There are certainly advantages to ebooks over conventional books. They are less expensive. One device can carry hundreds of books. On the other hand, I find, and I know there are others who will agree with me, that paper books are easier on the eyes. Nevertheless, this may be viewed as a generational divide as I suspect ebooks are more likely to be favo...

A bit of a change of pace this week. Back when my son was in high school in the school band, I got roped into becoming co-president of the band boosters. Among other things this meant that I would be a chaperone on the trip to the Starlight Parade in Portland. Yay. I was savvy enough to take notes about what happened that day, and I thought I would share them with you, lo these many years later: I arrive bright and early along with Mr. M.   (the band teacher) and the other chaperones. We start organizing things and loading equipment on the equipment van. I begin going over my checklist of things to make sure we brought Band-Aids, scissors, duct tape, etc. I ask Mr. M. about some of the things on my checklist. He says we need extra reeds and goes upstairs to get them. Some students still don’t have permission slips, so we have to watch out for them and grab their parents before they leave. It is now 11:00 (our scheduled departure time) and students “A” and “B” have not yet...

As I may have mentioned before, I do community theater. It is a pastime that mostly keeps me out of trouble. It does take time and work. For me it is fun, but it is also an art form, a craft. Most of those who do it with me take it seriously. We may all be amateurs, but we don’t want to look like amateurs. If we are in a good play (and we do it right), we can affect an audience. We can make them feel something. From an audience perspective, there is really nothing like live theater. It beats movies hands down. So the other day I was in rehearsal for the next show I am going to be in. It is Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I am certain that this production will be unlike any production of MSND that has ever come before. That is mainly because of our director who also adapted the script (meaning she actually rewrote parts of the script) and adapted the music and is also the choreographer, as well as doing the marketing (okay, she is an over achiever). This show is so differ...