Saturday, December 29, 2007

California Days

The trip to California has been interesting. On thursday, I drove up to Northridge to visit David Gerrold for a few hours. Despite picking the one day a week where I can't park in front of his house due to street cleaning ($50 parking ticket to prove it) the visit was productive.

We spoke a great deal about a project that is coming together for the film company, the details of which I'm not sure how free I am to discuss. (Unless you want to invest in the film, then we can talk.) We also discussed each others' current and future projects. He thought it a good idea that I am putting together a collection of my published fiction, so I am forging ahead with that project. He liked the premise of my upcoming novel. There are some other projects we discussed which I won't disclose for reasons of either confidentiality or jinx-prevention.

We also talked some about several of the Star Trek actors from the original series. That was interesting since I have never met any of them. Clearly his opinion of some of the actors is different from general opinion.

Yesterday we visited El Capitan theater on Hollywood Boulevard. We saw Disney's "Enchanted." After the film, there is an 'experience' on the lower floor where you can take pictures and the kids can play on movie-related play equipment.

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Monthly Update

Seems I only get on here once a month anymore. Too much life interferes with what I want to do. Anyway, here I sit in Fullerton, CA waiting for my wife and her cousin to return with dinner.

I've spent the past two months doing research for my next novel, Rigel Kentaurus. I had intended to start that back at the beginning of November, but the more I thought about it, the less comfortable I was using the plastic villians I had conjured up. Since these folks will show up again in future novels, I wanted to give them some depth. For that, I turned to a book that had been sitting on my shelf for several years, "History of the Goths." After reading the early history of the Gothic tribes through the third time Alaric was encircled by the Romans, then released, I have the aliens significantly more fleshed-out than I had them in October. While I still have a large chunk of that book to finish, at least these antagonists now have a name.

They are a mish-mash of Gothic, Hunnic, Roman, and original. I took to the sound of the area in Europe called Thrace, and that is what I named these aliens. I am now sketching a history of the conflict between the Thrace and the Betels, the other major race in my future history. As things develop, I will post updates here.