This is basically me, if I were a Mad Scientist.
You only need to watch the first two minutes. I do listen to lots of other music, but I also have a Roger Dean desktop background.
Archive for November, 2009
Basically Me
Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009Blog Title
Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009Geoff came up with the title of the Blog. He likes it and it’s kinda growing on us, which is dangerous because it’s probably stupid. There’s a well-known tendency in Dialog Recording called “Temp Love” whereby the people who need dialog in the game or movie or whatever right now just grab anyone at the developer and have them record the lines and use those until the real dialog comes in. It sounds terrible, but the people working on the project get used to it and then freak out when it changes and an actual actor is put in instead.
There may be some “Temp Love” going on here with the title.
Geoff likes it because in The Business, which is to say Hollywood, when an actor or director or very rarely a writer is bigger than the project he’s currently developing, the movie is referred to as “Untitled Will Smith Project.” In some cases, it’s known by that name for months after everyone knows the real title, because the real name is stupid, and Will Smith is obviously bigger than the movie.
It amuses Geoff to have an Untitled Matt Colville Project because my name is bigger than nothing and that’s the gag.
The subtitle is him quoting me in an IM discussion wherein I said…well, you can see what I said. I was casting about for Clever Names. I liked;
Deservedly Underrated
Because I thought it was a seemingly clever bit of nonsense. But I thought it was too cynical and he agreed.
I remembered Josh Friedman’s wildly popular blog, titled I Find Your Lack of Faith Disturbing. Probably given the quality of his content, any name would have been fine, but he picked that one because, he said, it was his favorite line of dialog.
I wondered “What is my favorite line of dialog?”
There are many contenders but the first one that struck me was one of the first lines in Deadwood.
“I may have fucked my life up flatter than hammered shit, but I stand here before you today beholden to no living cocksucker.”
Obviously that’s too long a title, I thought “Flatter Than Hammered Shit” would be a good title, but Geoff persuaded me out of it because he felt it perhaps gave the wrong impression about the content of blog.
So it remains The Untitled Matt Colville Project which I, a non-ironic fan of The Alan Parson’s Project, kinda like.
But we’re open to suggestions.
Coffee Writing
Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009I love writing. There are few things I love as much as sitting outside as the sun sets on a cool summer evening, having something artificially sweetened and heavily caffeinated, while I tappa-tappa-tappa on the Lappy.
The Lappy isn’t named yet. It should be. Windows annoyingly won’t let me give the Lappy a really long name like GSV The Anticipation of a New Lover’s Arrival. And unfortunately the Internet has yet to attempt the mammoth task of cataloging the names of all the Gods and Elementals in the Eternal Champion books. And clearly I’m not going to name it something obvious like Arioch or Xiombarg. So for now it’s Lappy.
Now, the process I do not love. It’s work. It can be a lot of work. Trying to work out Why Something Happens, or Why This Doesn’t Happen. I’ve never had writer’s block, but I have had Outlining Block where I’ve stared at the outline for an hour trying to figure out why the Hero wouldn’t just shoot the guy he would obviously fucking shoot.
This is something I can talk about for, literally, hours and that’s a good indication I should under no circumstance do so. (more…)
About This
Monday, November 2nd, 2009I have updated the About page! Check it out and let me know if you think it’s inaccurate. I’m always hesitant about how best to describe the book so, those of you who’ve read it, if you have a better idea, chime in!
Also, Geoff added social networking buttons! It’s great having two people working on a site, stuff just suddenly appears by magic.
The Novel
Sunday, November 1st, 2009I wrote a book. A novel. A fantasy novel.
When I tell people this, the reactions vary wildly. Absolutely I get “well it’s about time,” as well as “I want to read it!” But equally absolutely, I get “why would you want to do that?” And “Well that was stupid.”
In many ways this experience is very like telling people I listen to Rush. You get the same spectrum and quality of response. And, like listening to Rush, I don’t think I could really enjoy the process if I didn’t completely understand and sympathize with all the responses. I think you either accept it all, the good and the bad, and just smile and shrug and say “what can you do?” Or you give up. And I’m not giving up. (more…)