A couple of days ago, I shared my New Years Resolutions with everyone. That was meant as the first in a three-part series of return posts. To continue looking forward, I also wanted to share a few of the things I am most excited to see happen in 2013.
It should be obvious by now that my tastes run more than a little on the nerdy side. It’s hard to argue, though, that science fiction and fantasy are where you’ll find some of the most innovative storytelling of our time. Just look at Cloud Atlas from last year - I can honestly say I’d never seen anything like it. This year holds a number of very exciting new possibilities in the world of fiction. These are my personal picks for the most anticipated books, games, series, and movies of 2013.
Book - Untitled Sandman Book
When Neil Gaiman announced that a new Sandman book was in the works there was nothing else he needed to say. I am already sold on the fact that this will be the best thing I read all year, barring some unforeseen circumstances. That being said… I’d really like to know more about it, soon! A title, story details, or a release date would be quite nice.
Runners up - Dresden Files #15, Saga
Game - Ni No Kuni
Studio Ghibli is one of the most innovative pioneers in the animation industry, rivaled only by Pixar in my opinion. So when they collaborate with a talented videogame company on the design and writing of a game, it catches my attention. If this turns out to be as beautiful and whimsical as Studio Ghibli’s film outings then this will become an instant classic. It comes out next week, so I won’t have to wait long in order to find out!
Runners up - Bioshock Infinite, Tomb Raider, Injustice: Gods Among Us
TV Show - S.H.I.E.L.D.
Joss Whedon returning to television is reason enough to celebrate. But Joss Whedon bringing the Marvel Cinematic Universe to television? That’s a recipe for fan boy rabies. Yes, I’m frothing at the mouth. Bringing Phil Coulson back only makes it worse, too. Watching the adventures of humans having to cope with a world full of superheroes should make for some incredibly fun drama. I hope they also manage to tie it into the films the way Marvel has expertly balanced bringing the films together. The occasional cameo from a famous hero (I’d say, at most, once or twice a season) could also be a lot of fun.
Runners Up - Arrested Development, Spartacus: War of the Damned, Game of Thrones
Movie - The Man of Steel
I’m a Superman fan. Anyone who knows me is well aware of this. But for those of you who don’t know me, let me tell you a little fact which may make it clear to you. I was one of the people who camped out, overnight, to see footage of The Man of Steel at San Diego Comic-Con in 2012. For a long time I was very lukewarm on this movie. The cast just didn’t feel right, and Zack Snyder is a very hit-or-miss director. But that footage which debuted at Comic-Con was jaw dropping. Now in a year that will include Star Trek Into Darkness and a second Hobbit movie, I’m most excited to see Superman’s origin story again, because it looks like they’ve made it pretty incredible.
Runners up - Pacific Rim, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Star Trek Into Darkness
So those are my most anticipated things in the upcoming year! What are you looking forward to most?
On Sunday there will be one last article, which shall detail the new release schedule for all of my stories! You can expect concrete release dates for new chapters to be announced for Warm Stone, Spiderman: Revenge, and Mass Effect: Babel.
*******
Official Author Page - http://www.facebook.com/julliangmortimer
Friday, January 18, 2013
Thursday, January 17, 2013
"My News Years Resolutions" or "2013 Starts When I Say It Starts"
This article is very late, and I’d like to start by apologizing for the delay. The end of 2012 and beginning of 2013 were both quite eventful. I spent all of December in Arizona visiting with old friends and family. Then when I made it back up to Washington, I had to move within a few days, which created a whirlwind of packing and preparation.
The end of the year is always a great chance to look back. 2012 was very crazy. To call it an eventful year would be an understatement. We had a ton of fantastic films, great books, an election, not to mention the various personal events that happened in my everyday life.
For me, resolutions are not just “goals” for a year. They are meant to represent what I want that year to be. I don’t just go “I’m going to lose 10 pounds” and call it a day. I look back on the year before and see how fulfilling it was, which always informs what I decide to do going forward.
That said, I can’t really list my resolutions for 2013 without first pointing out what I managed to accomplish in 2012.
In no particular order, here were my resolutions for 2012 -
1. Get a girlfriend
Accomplished! We also broke up after six months. I should have rephrased that as “KEEP a girlfriend”. Still, on a technical level, I can check this one off.
2. Get a sailing license
Failed. The summer just sort of evaporated, and that’s really the time to try learning to sail in Seattle. I may give it a try again in 2013 though!
3. Learn to scuba dive
Failed. This was part two of my plan to get a sailing license, learn to dive, and then to explore the area around the Puget Sound.
4. Sell a novel
Accomplished! There will be further announcements about this as the year continues onwards. But it is a Young Adult Fantasy novel, and I’m quite proud of it.
5. Finish a novel
Accomplished! I wrote the above book in the period from March until December 2012.
6. Read one novel every month
Accomplished! This one was really downright accidental. I just love reading. In fact, I’d say I over-achieved and probably read at least two books each month.
So I managed 4/6! Not bad, if not exactly perfect either. Oddly enough, it feels as though I mostly excelled at the resolutions which were (at least in some context) outside of my complete control (getting a girlfriend requires meeting the right girl, and selling a novel requires a stroke of luck).
What do I want 2013 to look like? Well I’m scaling back the number of resolutions from 6 to 5, but they are still pretty ambitious.
1. Sell another novel
This one seems pretty self-explanatory. I am a writer, and wish to continue being a WORKING writer. I know that it should be about the art, but who doesn’t want to make a living while doing what they love? That is the ultimate goal here. Because life is a fusion of ones personal and professional lives. A person must find passion in every day, even the days spent working.
2. Write another novel
Speaking of spending days working, I wish to continue writing! Part of being a working writer is the constant doldrums of editing, blog maintenance, article writing, and so on. All of those do hold a certain element of appeal to me. Still, my favorite part of writing is the rough draft. Yes it always tends to be messy and need months of work. That doesn’t change the fact that it is my absolute favorite part of the writing process. It’s the moment where anything could happen in the story. That’s where the excitement always seems to be, for me.
3. Go somewhere unexpected
Obviously this is quite vague. Unfortunately it is meant to be that way. Not because I’m trying to make it easy to accomplish, though. In fact I would say quite the opposite. I want to be somewhere I’ve never planned to be, to wind up in a place entirely different and unexpected. Basically, I want an adventure, I want that sense of newness so often pushed aside due to the unimportant requisites of everyday responsibility. This is the resolution on the list that I most want to accomplish.
4. Get up to 500 Facebook “Likes”
Clearly one of my more ambitious goals, since I’m only hovering in the area of 100 at the moment. A great way to help, if you’re reading this and new, would be to go to my Facebook Author Page and click “Like”! If you aren’t new, then recommend me to your friends! At every milestone (100, 150, 200, ect.) I will be doing a contest or giveaway. If we make it to 500, then there will be a BIG giveaway, something awesome and expensive.
5. Finish NaNoWriMo
The past two years I have participated in NaNoWriMo, and both years I failed to finish. In 2011 it was because I just wasn’t motivated enough. As for 2012, I had to balance apartment hunting, holiday shopping, and other daily responsibilities. In particular, the apartment hunting is what killed my momentum. So my goal in 2013 is not only to participate in NaNoWriMo, but to finish it, as well!
So these are my goals for 2013. They show the shape I’d like the year to take, the path I want to walk - which is primarily growth in my career. I want this to be the year that I finally make my big break as a writer. I know this is a task which requires a bit of luck. I know it is, in many ways, outside of my power. But that doesn’t mean that I can’t do some things to propel myself in that direction.
I’m happy to be back and updating! This is actually the first of three posts I intend to put up over the next week. Stay tuned for my “Most Anticipated of 2013” and updates on all of my stories.
*******
Official Author Page - http://www.facebook.com/julliangmortimer
The end of the year is always a great chance to look back. 2012 was very crazy. To call it an eventful year would be an understatement. We had a ton of fantastic films, great books, an election, not to mention the various personal events that happened in my everyday life.
For me, resolutions are not just “goals” for a year. They are meant to represent what I want that year to be. I don’t just go “I’m going to lose 10 pounds” and call it a day. I look back on the year before and see how fulfilling it was, which always informs what I decide to do going forward.
That said, I can’t really list my resolutions for 2013 without first pointing out what I managed to accomplish in 2012.
In no particular order, here were my resolutions for 2012 -
1. Get a girlfriend
Accomplished! We also broke up after six months. I should have rephrased that as “KEEP a girlfriend”. Still, on a technical level, I can check this one off.
2. Get a sailing license
Failed. The summer just sort of evaporated, and that’s really the time to try learning to sail in Seattle. I may give it a try again in 2013 though!
3. Learn to scuba dive
Failed. This was part two of my plan to get a sailing license, learn to dive, and then to explore the area around the Puget Sound.
4. Sell a novel
Accomplished! There will be further announcements about this as the year continues onwards. But it is a Young Adult Fantasy novel, and I’m quite proud of it.
5. Finish a novel
Accomplished! I wrote the above book in the period from March until December 2012.
6. Read one novel every month
Accomplished! This one was really downright accidental. I just love reading. In fact, I’d say I over-achieved and probably read at least two books each month.
So I managed 4/6! Not bad, if not exactly perfect either. Oddly enough, it feels as though I mostly excelled at the resolutions which were (at least in some context) outside of my complete control (getting a girlfriend requires meeting the right girl, and selling a novel requires a stroke of luck).
What do I want 2013 to look like? Well I’m scaling back the number of resolutions from 6 to 5, but they are still pretty ambitious.
1. Sell another novel
This one seems pretty self-explanatory. I am a writer, and wish to continue being a WORKING writer. I know that it should be about the art, but who doesn’t want to make a living while doing what they love? That is the ultimate goal here. Because life is a fusion of ones personal and professional lives. A person must find passion in every day, even the days spent working.
2. Write another novel
Speaking of spending days working, I wish to continue writing! Part of being a working writer is the constant doldrums of editing, blog maintenance, article writing, and so on. All of those do hold a certain element of appeal to me. Still, my favorite part of writing is the rough draft. Yes it always tends to be messy and need months of work. That doesn’t change the fact that it is my absolute favorite part of the writing process. It’s the moment where anything could happen in the story. That’s where the excitement always seems to be, for me.
3. Go somewhere unexpected
Obviously this is quite vague. Unfortunately it is meant to be that way. Not because I’m trying to make it easy to accomplish, though. In fact I would say quite the opposite. I want to be somewhere I’ve never planned to be, to wind up in a place entirely different and unexpected. Basically, I want an adventure, I want that sense of newness so often pushed aside due to the unimportant requisites of everyday responsibility. This is the resolution on the list that I most want to accomplish.
4. Get up to 500 Facebook “Likes”
Clearly one of my more ambitious goals, since I’m only hovering in the area of 100 at the moment. A great way to help, if you’re reading this and new, would be to go to my Facebook Author Page and click “Like”! If you aren’t new, then recommend me to your friends! At every milestone (100, 150, 200, ect.) I will be doing a contest or giveaway. If we make it to 500, then there will be a BIG giveaway, something awesome and expensive.
5. Finish NaNoWriMo
The past two years I have participated in NaNoWriMo, and both years I failed to finish. In 2011 it was because I just wasn’t motivated enough. As for 2012, I had to balance apartment hunting, holiday shopping, and other daily responsibilities. In particular, the apartment hunting is what killed my momentum. So my goal in 2013 is not only to participate in NaNoWriMo, but to finish it, as well!
So these are my goals for 2013. They show the shape I’d like the year to take, the path I want to walk - which is primarily growth in my career. I want this to be the year that I finally make my big break as a writer. I know this is a task which requires a bit of luck. I know it is, in many ways, outside of my power. But that doesn’t mean that I can’t do some things to propel myself in that direction.
I’m happy to be back and updating! This is actually the first of three posts I intend to put up over the next week. Stay tuned for my “Most Anticipated of 2013” and updates on all of my stories.
*******
Official Author Page - http://www.facebook.com/julliangmortimer
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