Tomorrow is the first day in my Research Week for NaNoWriMo. I'm excited about it, but I'm not entirely sure that the setting for the fantasy story I'm planning to run with is going to be all I want it to be. It's not really helping that I've been on a science fiction kick lately, what with watching Earth 2 episodes on the Blockbuster account and reading more sci fi than fantasy in class. Right now all of the limitations of fantasy are apparent in my mind, and I'm worried that I might get to day four and suddenly feel like I'm out of ideas. However, as Scott McCloud reminded me, the thing about genres is that they grow old and thick with cliche until they're barely able to stand under their own power - until someone comes along and rediscovers what it is about the genre that draws us to it, reinvigorating the genre for a new generation of writers. Or something along those lines. Besides, it's NaNoWriMo - it doesn't have to be great. It doesn't even have to be good. But hopefully it'll at least be entertaining.

So, for the time being, I think I'm sticking with my fantasy setting. That means I have to research a bunch of things this week like what would actually be required to live underground for generations, biological data about beetles and cockroaches, and fun stuff like that. I also had cheery, warm visions of going to a coffee shop and typing away on my story on a laptop, but alas, I have no laptop, and they're expensive enough in general that it doesn't look as though I'll get one anytime in the near future (and mentioning that I wanted a laptop primarily for word processing elicited the equivalent of a rolling of the eyes in Marilyn). I guess I'll have to make do with pen and paper when I'm away from the apartment, just like the vast majority of humanity in the modern age. It's just that I type faster than I write, see...

Marilyn and I went shopping this weekend, and we spent a fair amount of time trying to decide what to do with the anniversary money Mom and Dad sent (thanks, Mom and Dad!). We talked about a couple of electronic devices around the apartment which could probably stand to be replaced, but then we decided that they weren't fun enough, and I was determined that this money would be used for fun. So we ended up getting a few different items. One of the things I got was the above-mentioned Scott McCloud's book Making Comics, which finishes his trilogy of comics-theory graphic novels. It's a very good read. One of the things I most like about McCloud's books is that when I read them, they make me want to make comics more than anything else. There are times, such as when we came home from Wizard World, when I despair over the seeming impossibility of landing a job making comics that I can live on, but McCloud's enthusiasm and optimism are infectious.

What else? We watched "Tristam and Isolde," (okay, "Tristam + Isolde" is the official title, which makes it look like a Baz Luhrman movie or something you'd carve into a tree on Lover's Lane) which was directed, as it turns out, by Kevin Reynolds, the same guy who did "The Count of Monte Cristo," which I quite liked. "Tristam + Isolde" was set in the early middle ages, in the historical Arthurian period immediately following the fall of Rome, and they certainly kept to a historical look for things. It's the Dark Ages, and the movie wants you to know that, with everyone bundled in gorgeously-made but muted layers of clothing and a blue filter on the entire film that makes everything look cold and dark. If that doesn't turn you off too much - and you stick it out through what first appears to be a political drama akin to the beginning of "Braveheart" - you're rewarded with an honest-to-goodness tragic tale of noble desires and really bad decisions. It should rate high on the Slusser-ometer, as it has his favored type of ending (the protagonist is left a hollow human shell, weeping bitter tears of helpless rage, or something like it). I recommend it.