I'm on a real Star Wars kick lately. Well, I guess it's not really a kick since I'm always tuned into the saga, but still. The obsession kind of comes and goes in waves, and right now I'm fast approaching this particular wave's crest. Also, I'm not sure why, but I keep finding great SW related stuff popping up online. Must! Share! If you are of a non-nerdy stature, steel your hearts, friends!


Darth Vader's Actual Voice

I met David Prowse (who played... the body of Vader, I guess?) many moons ago at two different Star Wars conventions. I don't have very many memories of him, only that he had a weird accent, and wasn't nearly as nice as Peter Mayhew, who played Chewbacca. Also, this video of Vader with Prowse's voice? hi-larious.



- I keep forgetting that they're actually going forward with a live action TV show, after years of Lucas denying he would. If this is the first time you're hearing about it, it's going to be set in the period between Episode III and Episode IV, and I think a large component of it is going to be the Empire hunting down the remaining Jedi. FUN TIMES. The article I linked gives me hope that the show will be more of a character drama than let's-blow-crap-up-in-space fest like the prequels. I would kinda really love to see an Imperial Academy era young Han Solo, writers. Just throwing that out there...

The article also brings up another point about continuity issues. Although most people probably don't know this, there are dozens and dozens of Star Wars novels that comprise the "Expanded Universe." I think most of these were created with Lucas' approval, but they both go back in the timeline and hundreds of years forward. I've always said that this would be one of the main reasons why Lucas would never do Star Wars VII, VIII, and IX films. (Also because, bless them, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill are old, and Harrison Ford has been over this shit for years.) Lucas would have to use narratives already established in the novels, or explore other characters/families. Or go entirely 3-D and not use actors at all.

Anyway, TheForce.net puts them in their place.

(And while we're on this topic, the "f" in Force is always capitalized, and there's a hypen in Obi-Wan. Just saying. Fan Girl Grammar Nazi moment over.)

- HOW COOL ARE THESE POSTERS??? You could almost get away with hanging those around your house and not having visitors give you weird looks. Almost.

- Have you guys heard of the movie Fanboys? It's basically a love letter to the SW fandom and very funny (also slightly depressing when you realize you know all of the answers to the quiz they get at the end), and Kristen Bell is somewhat randomly in it.



- And finally, Star Wars Action Figures Doing What They Do Best. Ah, sweet memories of trying to hunt down a Blue Snaggletooth figure and Plastic Cape Jawa figure for dad...

Happy Superbowl Sunday! I hope whatever team you’re pulling for wins! I thought about rooting for the Saints, as they’re now my friend Carlin’s team, but they beat the Cardinals and I’m a little vindictive, so I think it’s better that I cheer for no one…

I had another little idea nugget come to me today while I was trying to clean up the little hell hole that is my room. While some of you have been buried under Snowmaggedon, I’ve had the worst cold known to mankind. I didn’t leave the apartment at all on Saturday, which was probably for the best as I didn’t really have a voice. But today, with my idea nugget in mind, I went to do some work at the Union Square Barnes & Noble. Talk about a zoo! I keep forgetting that the Superbowl is on later here than it is back in Arizona, so I definitely underestimated the crowds today.

Anyway, while I was scribbling down some thoughts about the idea, and skimming through some potential comp titles for a few work projects, I realized that… I’m kind of burnt out on reading. I know that sounds terrible given both of my professions, but I really just have… so little patience when it comes to books these days. If it doesn’t hook me in the first fifty pages, I’ll put it down and never pick it back up. This is a total change from my pre-college days, when I would finish a book even if I didn’t really like it. In college I had no free time to read for pleasure, so maybe I just fell out of the habit?

Or I read so much for work that the last thing I want to do when I come home is read for fun?

I’m going to try to make a goal to read one book every two weeks. Lord knows that I could definitely use a break from the ten thousand TV shows I’ve become emotionally invested in. I really do need to fill some of the major reading gaps I have (including, but not limited to: The Giver, The Hunger Games, Fire, books by Robin McKinley, To Kill a Mockingbird, etc.–apparently I rebel against popular books…)

ANYWAY. This isn’t so much of a downer as it is an FYI, but for everyone that’s been inquiring about a Brightly Woven sequel, I have no news for you. I have plenty of ideas for where the story could go, but I think, to be brutally honest, that the likelihood of my publisher asking for a sequel entirely depends on the sales of Brightly Woven. But the GOOD news is that I finally got to see the finished map that’ll be included in the final copies of the book and it is super spiffy and lovely. I’ve uploaded it over on Tumblr for those of you reading ARCs or just wanting a peek.

Right now I’m working on developing a few different projects with my agent. And by different, I meant everything from more traditional fantasy like Brightly Woven to Urban Fantasy to Sci-Fi. I suppose it was kind of inevitable that I would get around to trying Sci-Fi given my not-so-secret shameful past as a Super Fan:

My dad called me yesterday JUST to tell me that he had booked all of our flights and hotel reservations for CELEBRATION V. After five Star Wars conventions, I’m a little convention-ed out at this point… but I am TOTALLY PUMPED FOR THE GRAND OPENING OF THE WIZARDING WORLD OF HARRY POTTER!! My dad knows exactly how to bribe me.

Originally published at alexandra bracken. You can comment here or there.

So! While my job is usually not all that glamorous, one of the occasional perks of it is that I get to see advanced screenings of movies based on children’s books. You might remember that I had a chance to see Where the Wild Things Are a few months back, but it was a screening specifically for people in the publishing industry and librarians. When I went to see Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief last night, I thought it was going to be the same deal. Except it wasn’t. It was the actual NYC premiere, and we only discovered this because my boss, my coworker, and I rolled up to the theater at the same moment Pierce Brosnan did and got to listen to all of the photographers scream, “Pierce!! Pierce!! Will you sign autographs, Pierce!!!” (Former Mr. Bond is much shorter in person than I was expecting.)

We ended up having to wait in a longish line out in back of the theater to pick up the tickets that we had reserved. That took QUITE some time. After we finally made it upstairs, we were ordered to “surrender” our cellphones (I should have just lied and said I didn’t have mine!! That was dumb of me.) to the little plastic bags in the big plastic tubs outside of the main theater. The main theater that was, unfortunately, already full. I’m trying to think of how to explain the set up since aforementioned surrendering meant that I couldn’t snap any pictures for you guys. They split the upstairs hallway lengthwise so that there was a continued red carpet up there, where all of the stars were posing as they walked into the main theater, but they were blocked by big backdrops. We ended up in a much smaller overflow theater, which was fine by us!

I wish I could give you a review of the movie, but I’m not terribly familiar with the Percy Jackson series. In fact, I’ve only read the first half of the first book. But! From that I can tell you that there are a number of major differences, none of which I will spoil for you, except to say that they aged all of the kids up so that they’re 15-16 instead of 12, the monsters are pretty scary, the special effects were very cool, and the gods were great (Poseidon is a ginger Kevin McKidd, so that’s automatic 10+ in my book)… but it seemed like they took A LOT of liberties with the story and characters. So basically, now all of the Percy Jackson fans will know exactly how the Harry Potter fans have felt for years. I think people coming to the film with no real background on the series (much like me) will enjoy it, weird plot holes and all, but the diehard fans might be disappointed. The Greek mythology aspects are explained well–I thought the Lotus Eaters bit was especially clever.

Oh, and Logan Lerman? I thought he was great. Very charismatic, with good comedic timing. He kept reminding me of a young Chris Pine, otherwise known as Chris Fiiiiiine.

To be honest, I was pretty worried about the movie to begin with, since February is usually where studios send horrible movies to die. I have NO IDEA why they aged the characters up, though. Was it to capture some of the Twilight audience? I really hope they don’t alienate the book series’ actual 8-12 audience, though I do think the boys will find Percy very cool and the girls will find him very cute. I wouldn’t bring kids under 8 to the film, though. I was surprised by how scary and nasty many of the film’s monsters were.

Originally published at alexandra bracken. You can comment here or there.

I think I’ve talked about this before, but every morning I get the LIMITLESS pleasure of riding an over-capacity L train on my journey into work. (I’m actually really pissed after reading that Wiki page–runs every four minutes during rush hour my ass!) Because it runs through Williamsburg and Bushwick (two neighborhoods of Brooklyn), it’s earned itself the nickname “The Hipster Express.”

Do you know what I’m talking about when I say Hipster? They’re most definitely not unique to NYC. My baby brother goes to school in Orange, California and I almost passed out when he rolled in wearing a plaid shirt (but never with two pockets on the front, because that would be “farmer” and not “hipster”–thank you Daniel Bracken), tight jeans, and converse. They’re pretty easy to identify: often super skinny (especially boys) kids who wear ironic clothing, plaid everything, skinny jeans, black converse all stars, wayfarer sunglasses (and now, apparently, using their frames for normal glasses), swear they don’t buy into mainstream trends, shop at thrift stores and American Apparel (and, though they’d slit their wrists before admitting it, Urban Outfitters), ripped leggings… Oh, look, I found a How to Dress Like a Hipster guide for you! While I really like some elements of the Hipster dress aesthetic, it can sometimes come across as looking… a little homeless chic? The whole point is to be ironic, I guess. I don’t know, it seems like a whole lot of effort to put into your dress when you’re supposed to look like you didn’t give two farts when you got up that morning and threw on whatever you found on the floor.

Anyway, THIS is the mental image I have of “Hipster”:

Which is why I laughed when I saw this in Publishers Weekly’s review of Brightly Woven:

Between [Syd's] sharp tongue and emerging powers
and North’s grungy appearance and hipster attitude, they make a charismatic pair.

I’m pretty sure they’re referencing THIS kind of Hipster, but now I have a rather excellent mental image of North kicking it in skin-tight skinny jeans and a rainbow plaid shirt, sipping Pabst Blue Ribbon instead of his usual ale.

All of that is just to say that I got my first professional review!!! It was pretty much all positive, but had the usual one line zinger, of course.

Anyway, have a wonderful night! May a shaggy-bearded hipster guide you sweetly to dream land.

Originally published at alexandra bracken. You can comment here or there.