So editors look for stuff that's a twist on vampires or werewolves, and you get some ... interesting stuff.

Like were-dinos.

::bangs head some more, goes off to look at Tom's link::

That's it! It gave me the perfect idea!

He's a lonely pirate werewolf on a mission from God. She's an orphaned Buddhist hooker with a flame-thrower. They fight crime!

Like were-dinos.

Make it were-dino vampires and I think you are on to something.

Today celebrate the 40th anniversary of Douglas Englebart's Mother of All Computer Demos.

I wonder if the dark gothic shape-shifter, when confronted by a kick-ass heroine, shifts the shape of its own ass so that it cannot be kicked.

Heh!

Loved this guest column from the NYT "Typing without a clue."

Make it were-dino vampires and I think you are on to something.

How about the epic battle between were-dinos and vampire dinos? That would be an almost unparalleled opportunity for bad CGI.

Loved this guest column from the NYT "Typing without a clue."

While I certainly agree with him,

The idea that someone who stumbled into a sound bite can be published, and charge $24.95 for said words, makes so many real writers think the world is unfair.

Has he met the world? It's pretty unfair in general.

Or, or, were-dino robots vs. vampire dino astronauts!

There needs to be cyborg cavemen and their pet were-poodles....

Since the were-poodles belonged to cave men, their fur would be all matted and dirty, covering up most of the pink color underneath.

There's a pretty interesting argument going on about that column on one of my writers loops-- this one comprised entirely of published authors. There are people who think "Thank you, Tim Egan for saying this!" while others are grousing about the fact that he's just another elitist schlub who would turn his nose up at the majority of commercial fiction that also allows publishing houses to take chances on five hundred page novels comprised of a single sentence and translated from the French. (True deal, btw.) because he mentioned Twain and Dostoevsky and Didion as his examples.

Me-- I think I fall more on the side of what Egan's saying. If he's elitist or not, I have no clue and I think that's another argument altogether. I think he used examples like Twain and Dostoevsky because they're more immediately recognizable to the majority of the American public and come on, it's a column for the New York Times after all.

I do think his point about most writers toiling in obscurity and that most writers don't sit down at a computer over a weekend, peck out a hundred pages and expect to get a six-figure advance is certainly valid, whether he's an elitist snob or not.

And speaking as a writer who's neither fish nor fowl in that I don't fit the genre mold and I don't write Iowa MFA or Breadloaf Workshop literary material, I can't help but feel those ridiculous advances being doled out to Barbara Bush's dog and Joe the plumber is money taken away from taking chances on writers like myself-- who don't fit any particular mold.

Could be I'm just fooling myself, too.