This how relationships end

Nine years ago I was fortunate to find a really high calibre writing group. Four years ago I found a different, yet equally excellent, second group.

Prior to these groups, I’d been bumbling around trying to find people who could help me develop as a writer and hadn’t found what I was looking for. Just at that moment when I was deciding to actually start working towards publication, I finally found them. I feel very lucky.

What I’ve come to realise though, as 2013 has progressed, is that what I need has changed. It made me very sad to realise this, because it’s the natural precursor to me leaving them.

There are great people in both groups who I’ll no doubt only see at the occasional convention or book launch once I do. I will miss those wonderful guys and gals.

But, I’ve made some great friends who I hope I’ll know far into the future and that’s really been the added bonus of my writing group experience. I’ve grown as a writer and I’m proud of where my craft is at – very much thanks to all that feedback – but I didn’t have any writer-friends ten years ago and that’s a revolution in itself.

Favourite movies #18 – Romeo and Juliet

So if you know me, then you know I like Shakespeare. Probably no surprise then that there’s one film version on the list, right?

Hands down it has to be Baz Lurhman’s crazy envisaging of Romeo and Juliet. The cast, the music, the look of it and I’d say pretty much ‘the everything’ are to love.

If Shakespeare’s language isn’t your thing then this probably won’t help you much, but if you’ve only ever tried reading it on the page then this might just change your view of the bard. As might the Richard Loncraine version of Richard III, which is also excellent, but Romeo and Juliet holds a special place for the success of the modern setting.

I still think it’s the best work that either Leonardo DiCaprio or Claire Danes have done and the use of music is inspired.

Thoughts on a classic

Jane Eyre is one of those classics that I read and watch from time to time and, to be honest, I never give it a great deal of thought.

One of the side effects of my con-cold (now thankfully over) was that I watched the BBC version again, and this time I found myself pondering why I prefer this version to the recent movie.

The truth is that the recent movie doesn’t give you any real reason to like Rochester. He’s a moody, manipulative arse and – as one reviewer said when the movie came out – why do women find him romantic?

So that was the jumping off point for a minor epiphany about the story. Rochester is something of a hard sell as a romantic lead, because he’s pretty much as the recent movie plays him, but the interesting thing about the book is that really it’s not a romance.

If you know the story then you’ll know that quite a chunk of the book is Jane’s formative years. Not uncommon in literature of the period, but uncommon in romances.  And why is St John there? He doesn’t offer Jane romantic attachment at all.

It’s in the contrast of the two relationships that I found my reading of the text. The entire story is about Jane’s personal journey and how she develops to be the woman we want to see happy at the end of the book.

Jane asserts her will when she calls herself Rochester’s equal, but does again even more so when she leaves Thornfield. With St John, she knows that he is a man she has the greatest respect for and who’s offering her the opportunity to do much of what she wants in life. It’s not his offer of marriage that turns her off, it’s what she knows she’ll become if she marries him.

When she seeks out Rochester at the end, it’s because she knows herself completely and knows she controls her life. That God has rendered Rochester repentant and humble (and conveniently disposed of poor Bertha) is just a mechanism to make her choice simple.

I think that’s why the book ends with St John, rather than leaving him to his fate. The story is about her, not so much about her love, and so St John’s fate is important.

So, not exactly a groundbreaking flash of brillance, but it was interesting to look past the fact I’ve always known Jane Eyre as a romance and see that really it’s not.

How refreshing!

In a random bit of DVD hiring, I stumbled across a fantastic sci fi series called Real Humans (made in 2012). I’m only a few eps in so not sure how well it will progress, but thus far I’ve found it just so refreshing.

It’s not an action series, which is unusual enough for sci fi, but it’s also focused on what good sci fi should be… human responses to technology.

Set in an alternate now, where robots are revolutionising society, it explores the different impacts on humans through a series of human and robot characters.

It’s original Swedish title is Äkta människor.

Perspectives

It’s not uncommon to hear people in the writing business say that the US markets don’t much care for books not set in the US.  Which is a strange thought to anyone from a country as outward looking as ours.

At the convention one of the things Marc Gascoigne said was that the UK markets are the same and this is such a sad thing to hear.

Not only because those of us who love Australia’s unique environment want to write about it and not feel that is a limitation, but also for the thought of all those places British and American readers will never get to read about if this belief prevails. But I suppose it is the right of dominant cultures to acquire such habits!

Then again, I think about Alexander McCall Smith’s success and wonder…

Favourite Movies #17 – Constantine

Someone has found the ‘spear of destiny’, and the devil’s son is planning something big… but really this is Constantine’s story.

He’s a fighter for good; banishing demons and keeping the half-breed demons and angels in check with the help of his gifted friends. His is the only soul the devil will come to collect personally and the devil will come, because Constantine is damned.

A great story. Constantine is a great, tormented character. Gabriel is a very naughty angel. The devil, when we finally meet him is played beautifully by Peter Stormare.

The film has a good balance of humour, action, creepiness and drama. It has a solid cast. It also looks amazing, with almost everything staged like it would be drawn in a comic book.

Convention and convention colds

So the convention last weekend was four whole days of delicious writerly funs. And then the con-cold got me. Well, technically, I think it was the first-week-in-new-job-cold but as it started at the con I’m calling it a con-cold!

The con. was great… lots of interesting publishing related chat and lots of meeting new and not-so-new writerly folk.  Too many late nights and a lot of nice food… well, what’s a con. without nosh ey?

Highlights for me were the sheer number of local published authors who were there sharing their experiences, and Marc Gascoigne from Angry Robot who was likewise passing on lots of interesting bits-and-bobs.

Very glad I went.

No doubt there will be some con. related posts to come, but for now I’m heading back to bed for another sleep. (Stuupid cold!)