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Every year around this time I like to make a list of the things—movies, TV shows, books, events, et cetera—that I’m most looking forward to in the year ahead. It’s then fun to look back a year later and see if those things were worthy of my anticipation.
In no particular order, this year’s list includes:
New TV shows: Or more specifically one new TV show from Joss “Buffy/Angel/Firefly” Whedon! Premiering February 13, Whedon’s Dollhouse stars Eliza Dushku (from Buffy), Amy Acker (from Angel), and that guy from BSG who plays Helo. Production squabbles with Fox aside, the concept is a cool one and I have the utmost faith in Joss. So this is something I’m cautiously optimistic about.
New movies: My three most anticipated movies of 2009 are Terminator: Salvation, Harry Potter 6, and the new JJ Abrams’ re-imagining of Star Trek. Normally I couldn’t care less about Trek (I’m more of Galaxy Quest kind of guy), but JJ is just a notch behind Joss Whedon on my must-see list, and that trailer looks incredible.
New Fiction: Three of my favorite genre authors have new work coming out in 2009: David Anthony Durham’s The Other Lands (a follow-up to his beautiful fantasy debut, Acacia); George R.R. Martin’s A Dance With Dragons (book five in the Song of Ice and Fire series); and Tad Williams’s Shadowrise (the final volume in the Shadowmarch trilogy). I’m also somewhat guiltily anticipating the arrival of Indiana Jones and the Army of the Dead, the first new Indy novel in a decade.
New Arrivals: Have I mentioned we’re having another baby? We’re currently calling him/her “Sprout” and he/she is due in August. Our little family is growing!
Family Milestones: Ethan’s 2nd birthday rolls around in March, and my 10-year wedding anniversary comes this September. Monumental events, all.
Year of the Rattlesnake: I make no promises, but things are looking good toward getting a playable demo—and maybe even the entire first chapter—for my always-in-progress adventure game Rise of the Hidden Sun: A ‘Rattlesnake’ Jake Dawson Adventure out the door before the end of the year.
And last but not least…
The Second Annual Outdoor Movie Night: Last summer’s first annual Outdoor Movie Night featured Raiders of the Lost Ark on a 20-foot screen in our back yard, and it was awesome. This year I’m aiming to make it bigger and better! More people, more food, and more cheesy ’80s movie goodness. I’m thinking either The Princess Bride, Back to the Future, or Ghostbusters on the big screen on a warm July night.
Yes, I’ve been a little grumpy lately. (What’s that? You noticed? Really?) I’m stressed, I’m tired, and I’m irritated. All the more reason to remind myself of things that make me happy, though.
Obviously, my family is at the top of the list. Penny and Ethan make me happy in ways too numerous to count. I love them every day, but lately I’ve been less demonstrative about it than I should be. My goal starting right now is to change that.
Writing makes me happy. I like the way it feels to build a story from scratch, to put characters into action and watch as they do things that surprise even me. I like the sense of fulfillment I get on the days when I actually accomplish my word count goals. I like that I’m creating something from my imagination.
Not surprisingly, reading makes me happy, too. That’s the biggest plus to taking the train to work every day: It’s like I’ve been given an extra hour or two per day just to read. I love it.
My TV shows make me happy. Yes, I’m shallow, but so what? I love good TV. Hurray for the DVR!
The fact that my friend Eric recently sold his first story makes me happy.
Spider-Man comic books make me happy.
Entertainment Weekly makes me happy. It really does. Good magazine.
The fact that I have a job that I actually like, with coworkers that I actually like, makes me happy.
Cool, cloudy, windy days in October make me happy.
The fact that the word truthiness is in the dictionary makes me happy.
Getting an email out of the blue from a friend I haven’t talked to in ages made me pretty happy.
The Red Sox being in the playoffs again makes me happy. (For now, anyway.)
Last but not least, the fact that Ethan likes to run around the house yelling “HAPPY! HAPPY! HAPPY!” makes me happy, happy, happy, too.
From time to time I like to use this space to write about books I’ve just finished reading. Not every book, just ones that are noteworthy for one reason or another, if only to me. This time, the book is Careless in Red by Elizabeth George. Though I don’t read a lot of “crime fiction,” I do enjoy a good mystery every now and then, and that’s what this one is: a good mystery.
About 10 years ago I discovered Elizabeth George’s first Inspector Lynley novel, A Great Deliverence, while stocking the Mystery & Suspense aisle at the bookstore where I worked the summer after college. Careless in Red is the 14th and most recent in that series.
The actual murder investigation that drives the plot here takes a back seat to the development and reinvention of Lynley as a character after the life-changing events of the previous novel, With No One As Witness. That’s what I enjoy most about these novels: There’s a lot more to them than your average mystery. They are, for lack of a better term, “literary.”
The Lynley novels are best read in sequence. If you’re looking for a good British mystery, start with A Great Deliverence and settle in for a great ride.
From time to time I’ll be writing about books I’ve just finished reading in a new series of blogs I’m calling, uh, “Just finished reading.” Catchy, no? It won’t be every book I’ve just read—just the ones that are noteworthy for being either exceptionally good or bad.
Read this book!
I’m kicking things off with The Terror by Dan Simmons, a monster of a book that clocks in at 769 pages and focuses on the real-life disappearance of an arctic expedition led by Sir John Franklin in 1845. It follows the voyage from its early days to its bitter end, imaging along the way a “what if” scenario of human tragedy and supernatural events that attempts to explain the fate of the missing sailors. Terror is both the name of one of the ships and the name given to a mysterious predator that seems to be stalking the British sailors—and picking them off one by one.
The story unfolds through a mixture of flashbacks, letters, journal entries, and multiple viewpoints that reads like a literary version of LOST. It’s an incredible achievement of the imagination. What could have been ponderous in the hands of a less skilled writer becomes both a heartbreaking and thought-provoking page turner under the direction of Simmons. Not many thrillers take the time to explore the human condition with such depth and subtlety.
As for the ending… it left me pleasantly puzzled. I won’t spoil anything by saying that there are several ways you could interpret the revelation at the end, and a quick glance at Amazon’s discussion boards reveals that each one has its backers. It’s a fitting ending to one of the best novels I’ve read in years.
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