Atlas Shrugged is my favorite book. I read it a few years ago (during the last presidential race), and it spoke to me in a way no other book has. It was right after this that I started “seriously” writing fiction.

So when I found out they were making a movie(s) out of the book, there was a lot of trepidation mixed in with my excitement. I mean, the book is epic. There are over 1100 pages in the paperback. I felt some relief when I found out they were going to turn it into a series of movies. But I was still worried. I mean, there was so very much that could have gone wrong. And I still remember what happened when they adapted Stephen King’s Dreamcatcher (don’t even get me started on that one; we almost walked out of the theater).

Then I watched a “making of” featurette online. I felt a lot better then, since the director (Paul Johansson) seemed to have a great vision for the film and seemed to get what it was about. But I still had some reservations, since he’s not exactly known for making great films. In fact, prior to this, he’d directed one TV movie, a few episodes of One Tree Hill (of which I am most definitely not a fan), and a short film.

But finally, this weekend, it opened in a theater that is only a two hour drive from where I live. I was still nervous, right up until the final credits rolled. All in all, it’s a good movie. Here’s a rundown of what I thought (warning, there are some minor spoilers here, though nothing major and nothing that’s not in the book): Read the rest of this entry »

As a writer, I read a lot. Not as much as I’d like, but not a day goes by that I’m not reading some book or other (not to mention everything I read online). I have varied reading tastes, too. On my bookshelf (okay, bookshelves) is everything from chick lit to Stephen King to Ayn Rand to fantasy to sci-fi. I think there’s even a mystery or two in there somewhere. It’s easy to see who my favorite authors are by the number of books I have by each. (Neil Gaiman: 5; Stephen King: 9, though I’ve misplaced a few; Sophie Kinsella: 4; etc.)

But some books have been much more influential for me than others. Here’s a list. Read the rest of this entry »

First of all, let me say I can’t believe it’s already May! This year is flying by for me, probably because I’ve been so busy with all these different projects.

I don’t have a whole lot of news to share this week, as I’ve been busy again. But here are some highlights.

With the financial crisis what it is, it doesn’t surprise me that Atlas Shrugged and Ayn Rand are seeing renewed interest. Atlas Shrugged is my absolute favorite book. I only read it last year (and my copy is currently loaned out to a friend) but it had such a profound, life-changing effect on me. If you haven’t read it yet, I would strongly recommend you do.

The Espresso Book Machine has launched in London. This machine has the potential to completely change the publishing industry, making it possible for book stores (and any other business) to carry a virtually unlimited variety of books. Basically, the Espresso is a print on demand machine that prints and binds a book in less than five minutes while you wait. Since books are stored electronically, there’s virtually no limit to the number of books a shop can carry, including out of print and self published titles. If anyone has actually laid their hands on one of the books printed by this machine, I’d be very interested to know the quality of the finished product (feel free to post in the comments).

There was an interesting article written by Leo Babauta (of Zen Habits) over on Write to Done about copyright and why it actually hurt artists. I’m not entirely sure I agree with him on this issue. I may put my own views on the matter into a blog post at some point over the next week or two. One of the biggest issues I have is that once a work becomes really popular, the chances someone other than the original creator will be the one profiting from it increase (probably exponentially). I’ll have to look into it all a bit more before expressing a definite opinion. In the meantime, go read the article Leo wrote.

On a related note, Leo wrote a post over on his own blog, Zen Habits, about a certain author contacting him claiming he’d infringed on her trademarked book title. What was that particular phrase, you might ask? “Feel the fear and do it anyway”. In this case, I have to agree wholeheartedly with Leo. The phrase as he used it had nothing to do with her book (or any book) and was simply a reference to something a friend of his said on Twitter. Sometimes the whole copyright/trademark thing does go a little bit far. People need to use some common sense. To me this smells of an author trying to get a little free advertising on a very popular blog (though I could be wrong). And no, I’m not going to add the legalese this woman was requesting of him either. If you want to know who the author was, click through to Leo’s blog.

Writing forward had a great post on using questions to come up with writing ideas. It’s got some awesome information, so I definitely recommend you check it out.

Yesterday was supposed to be the (self-imposed) deadline for finishing the first draft of my new non-fiction book. I have three chapters left to write. A bunch of paid work popped up at the last minute and consider it’s the end of the month, I had too much other work to get done. So my goal is now May 3rd (this Sunday) for finishing the first draft. I’ll post as soon as it’s done!