Wednesday, March 14, 2018

The Movie List - 2011

The long anticipated Mel's Movie List of 2011:


Top 10:

Source Code
Hugo
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (7.2)
Help, The
Thor
Battle: Los Angeles
Adjustment Bureau, The
Sucker Punch
Super 8
War Horse


And the rest in alphabetical order:

Adventures of Tintin, The
Arthur Christmas
Atlas Shrugged: Part 1 (Mostly Yuck)
Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, The
Captain America: The First Avenger
Cowboys & Aliens
Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2): Rodrick Rules
Gnomeo & Juliet
Hanna
I Am Number Four
In Time (2011)
Johnny English Reborn
Limitless
Mars Needs Moms
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol
Mr. Popper's Penguins
Pirates of the Caribbean (4): On Stranger Tides
Puss in Boots
Rango
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Rio
Smurfs, The (Yuck)
Three Musketeers, The
Transformers (3): Dark of the Moon (Yuck -- except for awesome opening scene in 3D)
We Bought a Zoo

Saturday, March 10, 2018

2018 Checkpoint #1 -- Why I'm Slow to Submit

For my two-month checkpoint, I'd like to share some thoughts.

I am slow to submit stories to magazines. So far this year, I've only submitted twice. However, I may be okay with this. I've come to realize why it is I don't submit as much as I "should."

Let's talk about this.

When I started this blog eight years ago, I was all gung-ho about breaking into the business. I read up on what I was supposed to do, so that I could make sure to do it all right.

Part of this was to follow Ray Bradbury's persistence advice. Writing one story and submitting one story each week was the key to success. It worked for Bradbury, so it could work for me. I saw getting published in magazines as a rite of passage for those on their way to becoming established authors.

I tried it for a while, but all it seemed to do was to get me more rejections faster.

Then I saw a particular X-Files episode where the Smoking Man really wants to get published -- funny, right? After years of trying, he finally gets a hit. An obscure magazine decides to take one of his stories. He's so excited that he decides to quit his nefarious day job -- that is until he realizes the magazine changed the ending to fit their own purposes.

You can check out the clip here ...



But then, this also hit me: how many people actually read the magazines that I'm submitting to? There are a handful of sci-fi buffs who watch movies, TV shows, comics, books, blogs, etc. But what are they not reading? The short stories in sci-fi magazines!

I think that's it.

#1) The magazines are looking for specific stories and styles that fit their mold -- thus rejecting good stories while accepting others that might not be as good.

And #2) If my potential audience isn't even reading where I'm submitting, how exactly do I get to them?

If one thing, the pile of rejection letters I've received has toughened me up and taught me how to react like a professional, and how to understand the business concept of "no deal." Each rejection I receive has a little less sting in it.

However, the pile in total sends a strong message -- the 'zines aren't interested in my style. It becomes difficult to spend that 20 minutes putting together a package to send to a magazine, knowing it's just going to be rejected -- wasting both my time and theirs.

Then again, my sci-fi friend tells me, "It costs nothing to submit to a magazine. If you have the stories, go ahead and submit."

And then it hit me: it's not the submitting that's important, but rather it's the writing. It provides practice for writing bigger projects, and the stories can always be compiled into anthologies.

It's been a while since I've written a short story. That's where I need to be focusing my efforts. I can keep submitting to the 'zines and pile up the rejection letters -- but when the time comes, I'll end up self-publishing if I have to.

It's not recognition I need, but rather volume.

Saturday, March 3, 2018

The Movie List - 2012

Here is my movie list for 2012:


Top 10:

Life of Pi
Les Miserables
Dark Knight Rises, The
Cloud Atlas
Skyfall
Hunger Games, The
Avengers, The
Looper
Brave
John Carter



And the rest (in alphabetical order -- I believe I liked all of these to some degree):

Amazing Spider-Man, The
Argo
Bourne Legacy, The
Flight
Hobbit, The: An Unexpected Journey
Hotel Transylvania
Ice Age: Continental Drift
Jack Reacher
Lorax, The
Red Dawn
Total Recall
Wrath of the Titans