(no subject)

[cleolinda]

Before I go to bed, I thought I'd confirm for y'all that the WB is running the extended version of FOTR tomorrow tonight. Granted, they're running it over two nights, but yes, it is the EE.

And for those of you still traumatized by the "What are you afraid of?" entry, think happy Galadriel thoughts. Not scary Galadriel thoughts. Unless scary Galadriel makes you feel safer. Either way. Particularly since Cate Blanchett seems to have a dual role in the movie that I was not aware of:

Cast: Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Liv Tyler, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin, Cate Blanchett, Cate Blanchett...

(Another weird thing: I've started thinking of Dominic Monaghan as "Charlie" instead of "Merry," and it actually seems strange to see him running around in a wig and big feet.)

Hmm. I'm putting off going to bed, because I'm so happy listening to my new CD rips and want to get a few more songs in. So... let's wander over to the WB forum for the movie broadcast:

IM THE BIGGEST LOFTR FAN!!!!

Lord of the... of... Lord of Fucking the Rings? I don't know. He's not the biggest fan of correct punctuation, I know that much.

(Most awesome reply ever: "Oh yeah, well I've been to Middle Earth! So I'm the biggest fan!")

Who hates this movie probably never watched it

I can't decide if this is supremely Tolkienesque diction or just a rebel without a clause. (Don't shoot me! I want to live!)

Who's hotter, Aragorn or Legolas?

And yea, verily was great blood shed over the question of the ages. Even though it's sort of the Middle Earth equivalent of "Chocolate or vanilla?"

I already own all the Movies!

Wonderful! What else do you own? There must be tons of things we'll never have to air again!

Amazing show on an amazing network!

Why, thank you, wb_3mpl0y33pl4nt!

Dont mean to sound dumb but what is LOTR about?

I... wow. She goes on to say that her best friend loves the movies but she (the OP) doesn't know anything about them. But clearly, she can't actually ask her friend or communicate with her in any meaningful way. I'm still not sure how she managed to miss all trailers, commercials, conversations, and pop cultural mentions of the movies in four years and yet... end up at a TV network message board.

whos better

I thought this would be one of the endless "who's hotter" questions, but the first post reads, " i like harry potter better." Yes, but Harry Potter only likes good children who capitalize. Sucks to be you.

Is this board a nerd-fest or what?

Word, SmallvilleFan12. Word.



Oh, and they'll also be running previews of Tony Hawk's Something or Other, Ocean's Twelve: The Twelvening, and The Polar Express: Totally Not of the Lord during the broadcast. Whee.

Comments

[vladimirsever.livejournal.com]

Wheeeee!

Your procrastinating skills are a thing of beauty.

*giggles while drinking his first morning coffee*

[dishuiguanyin.livejournal.com]

Hmm,
Procrastination = snark = happy readers.
Enjoy your FOTR EE fest. Those of us in less differently civilized countries will look on in envy.

[are-there-stars.livejournal.com]

Those are the people who go into Gay Chats on AOL screeching, "OMG UR ALL FAGZ HAHAH LOL@ U" and then go in on another screen name asking for love.

P.S. I LOVE the commercials they've been airing for FOTR! They're so mystical and makes it almost feel like there's another one coming out this Christmas. ..This Christmas is going to suck without our perilous Frodo. =[

[eruvadhril.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm gonna be suffering withdrawl symptoms next year. Cause this year RotK EE comes out. So no symptoms next year. According to those DVDtown pics, we get Saruman confrontation, and Voice of Sauron. WHOOT!

[are-there-stars.livejournal.com]

NO WAY I missed hook nosed Saruman! I also want to see Faramir/Eowyn ultra action. xD

[malsperanza.livejournal.com]

Is that perilous Frodo or perilized Frodo? I mean, is he a perillor or a perillee?

[are-there-stars.livejournal.com]

Lmao, is perilized a word? Well, he seems to attract danger so I'd define him as perilous. BUT! He's a very scared little hobbit, so perilized must be true too. I think all he needs is some more lembas. xD

[carebear080787.livejournal.com]

Niiiice. The Extended Edition. I don't own that because at the time it came out I was broke and alrday had the theatrical version. And since then I've been too lazy to go get it... even though I have TTT : EE and I plan on getting ROTK : EE. Which would probably be a good time to get FOTR : EE.
Um. yeah. So in conclusion, I haven't seen the FOTR : EE in a really long time. So, yay!

[are-there-stars.livejournal.com]

I'm almost positive that I own the regular versions, (I couldn't wait for EE to watch it at my leisure!) along with each EE. xD But who could wait, right?

Have u seen ROTK extended edition trailer?

[dinorider.livejournal.com]

That one is really really cool...about 1hour of more footage. wow.

[highlystrung.livejournal.com]

Hey hey Cleo. Um, this is totally unrelated to your post, (though I will pause a moment to roll my eyes at the delightful array of topics presented) but I actually wanted your advice.

...

Oh Gods. I feel like one of those really annoying fans you meet at coventions who go 'I'm a huge fan of your work. Will you read my stuff (and publish me, hint hint)?'

Bleh.

Actually, I don't want you to 'read my stuff' because I'm hoping to get published in a completely different medium. And becasue I haven't actually secured the right to be published, this may be somewhat pre-emptive, but you're the only person I know who's been there, so I'm asking anyway.

1) On the question of aliases or psuedonyms, how would you go? I know you're getting published as Cleolinda Jones, and I post stuff at ff.net, etc. under a username, because I don't want online people to know me. (Paranoia is the key!) But when it comes to real life publishing, which way would you suggest going? Because I'm not sure I want to reveal who I am either (once again, the whole 'Oh no! People may not like my work!' syndrome), but once I've made the decision to remain anonymous I'll probably have to stick with it, which may prove awkward later.

2) You mentioned ages ago the question of how strong a language to use, etc. Well, the content of my work revolves around a gay couple, and though I have no issue shoving this under the noses of the wider public, it's again the case of 'would I be OK if my grandmother read this?'. ... I know you can't actually answer that, but any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

... Anyway, I've just realised I should probably have asked you if you'd answer the questions first, but hey, I'm into ritually humiliating myself, so why bother?

Hope you can help out,
highlystrung

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Sorry it's taken me so long to reply--I was a couple of paragraphs in, and had to stop and do something else, and finally was able to come back and finish.

1) Hmmm. Pseudonyms. I had two factors that tipped the scales for me: not wanting to use my estranged father's name on general principle, and people being totally insane. The latter was something I found out after "Movies in Fifteen Minutes" got vaguely popular--I realized that if I was getting ugly flames and stalkative people (like people stalking me on IM services and not taking "I'm sorry, I only use IM for people I'm close to in real life" for an answer) when only a thousand people were reading the damn things, what the hell was going to happen when the book was actually published? And I think that being female on the internet has a lot to do with my choice as well. Basically, if you can handle the rudeness/demandingness/neediness of strangers (again, not a simple question like yours) well--and I don't think I do--you might do okay under your own name. You might have totally different considerations for wanting to publish under a different name, but those are mine.

2) The language issue. I'm still dreading the day my sweet Baptist grandmother proudly asks to see a copy of the book and opens it up to "YOU UTTER FUCKWIT." But here's what I've decided: I have to go with what works--what is, in this case, funny. Sometimes a lesser curse word is funnier. This example is from the FOTR 15M, and as it stands in the manuscript right now, it reads, "You utter tookwit." You know what? It's not funny. It's too close to the actual line, making it redundant, and "fuck" picks up the short U sound in "utter" better. So I would say, go through and write two versions of anything you think is questionable. The less "offensive" version might actually work better, and in that case, you've improved your own work and saved yourself a little discomfort. But if it honestly works better the "profane" way--and you may need friends or beta readers to weigh in on this--you should probably keep it. But I know from experience that it's way too easy to rely on the vulgar, if only because it's the obvious.

Now, from the way you asked the question, I'm guessing that it isn't verbal profanity that's so much your concern--it's the sexuality angle. I don't have any moral problems with explicit sexuality in a book or a movie--I mean, I'm not all like, "Ewww, that's dirty!"--but I tend to prefer scenes that are more oblique or discreet on the grounds that they're more erotic, not less. This is sort of convenient in that you can put some really erotic stuff in there but when someone calls you on it, you can point out that you didn't actually state much happening. This is the same principle of better-writing-through-not-relying-on-the-obvious/vulgar.

That said, there will always be times when it's more effective to be explicit, but if you save up those moments for just the right moment in the story to create a climax or crescendo, you've kept the reader on his toes and not dulled them with a constant stream of all-graphic, all-the-time.

That may not answer your question, though--does that help?

[highlystrung.livejournal.com]

lol S'okay. I'm just glad I didn't annoy you/freak you out with the whole 'hi! I'm one of your adoring fans you know nohting about! Let me dump a whole heap of shit on you to help me sort through!' thing. ^.^

That was really helpful, actually (and there was a small freebie snippet of the book, too! XD) and I think I can see where you're coming from.

1) With the first one, I think I'll give out my real name. It does limit me in that I still wnat to keep my net-life private, and really, having an outlet where you can just post all those morally questionable, random, cliche crappy little things and no-one knows who you are is great. If I went psuedonym in the real world, I'd be OK sharing that with everyone. But there's also the part where I really hope one day I can maybe get more stuff published, and if that happens I don't want to look back and say, "I can't acknowledge that now, because that'll lead to all sorts of quagmires." I don't know if that makes sense, but yeah. (Oh, I've got lots of potential here. *eye roll* XD)

2) That's really good advice, thanks! I think I know which way to go, and you're right, I can see a few places where I can (and will, probably) tone it down. *sigh* I still don't feel good about my Grandma seeing it though. Or even my dad. No matter how much I tone it down, I know they're not going to appreciate the homosexual angle.


Anyway, thanks for the help! Yes, it really was useful, and I still kinda can't believe you're actually helping me out XP.

.... *attempts to think of witty closing line* ....

Meh. Thanks!

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

No, I totally understand, on both questions. The only people who really gave me shit about wanting a pseudonym were people who had something to gain by my real name becoming famous (i.e., my family), and they got over it once I showed them a dozen "u suck u fagot" (what?) comments. I think I'm in the unusual position of having people actually know a false name better than my real name before I even decided to use it to publish, so everything's pretty much under one banner at this point.

And yeah, I understand about the gay angle. That's always a tough one for writers--probably the toughest, because even way-graphic het sex in romance novels and bloody graphic horror is seen as being more "acceptable" (which is sad, when you think about it). I'm going to be in a pretty sticky situation when the book comes out, but I figure, Grandma doesn't know half, if any, of these movies anyway. It's possible she'll display with book with all kinds of pride but not actually read much of it.

Polar Express Movie = Wrong

[everstar3.livejournal.com]

I want to believe that this movie is going to be as charming and sweet and magical as the book was. Of course, I'm also hoping that Star Wars III will restore my shattered faith in George Lucas.

I don't know. I watch the previews for Polar Express and I see the train sliding wildly across the ice and the roller coaster train tracks and my heart just sinks. Plus they're already selling promotional tie-ins with Ritz crackers or whatever. I'm waiting for the "Free Santa bell in every package" offer, myself. *sigh*

Re: Polar Express Movie = Wrong

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

THANK YOU, EXACTLY. Really, I think the ideal venue would have been an hour-long TV special or something. Maybe even half an hour. Not a friggin' children's action movie.

[jekylls-bast.livejournal.com]

Actually, sad to say, that was NOT the extended edition of the movie. *sigh* I was hoping they'd play the extended, oh well.

So, out of curiosity, and I may have missed this along the way, sort of new "fan" of you, but when are you going to post a new m15m? I know you're working on a book, and I will be eagerly looking for it on shelves when it's released, just wanted to know if you're still posting them at all.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I noticed, even though the Yahoo TV listing clearly says "extended version." Bastages.

I'm not going to stop posting "Fifteen Minutes" online, but with the book, I don't have time to write a new one for fun. Those will come back after I've turned the manuscript in.

[ambiguousreason.livejournal.com]

I don't know how I missed this entry before now. Hrm.

[girlfrom10thave.livejournal.com]

Thank you for perking up my mood with your hilarity. Now if you'll excuse me I have some laughter induced broken ribs to mend.

[kyriadalyn.livejournal.com]

Heh. That smallville thing really cracks me up. lol.

[barrelgoddess.livejournal.com]

(Another weird thing: I've started thinking of Dominic Monaghan as "Charlie" instead of "Merry," and it actually seems strange to see him running around in a wig and big feet.)

Ha! XD I'm not the only one, then.

[suitcasegnome.livejournal.com]

*giggles madly*

[theonlykow.livejournal.com]

Your endless wit makes me wet with love. Higlights include: "The Twelvening", "Harry Potter only likes good children who capitalize" and "wet with love." Details at 9.

[peridots13.livejournal.com]

I think of him as Charlie now, too! Maybe I should just see his as the uber-cool-hot-awesome Dominic Monaghan.