Procrastination: a powerful thing

[netmouse]

So, this weekend I was mostly focusing on copyediting a book for Subterranean Press. So of course I finished reading Sporting Chance, by Elizabeth Moon, The Get Fuzzy Experience, by Darby Conley, and also read all of the issues Laura had of the comics Girl Genius and Buck Dodgers, which are by Phil and Kaja Foglio and various other artists.

Saturday evening I took a substantial break and had burgers with atdt1991 and watched My Name is Modesty with him and Laura; it's a low budget picture "presented" by Quentin Tarantino, who is reportedly very interested in making a Modesty Blaise movie himself. This is one of only a couple movies of Modesty Blaise, who was one of my favorite comic strip characters when I was younger. The series of comics (and later, books) were authored by Peter O'Donnell, who retired from writing them in 2001. Neil Gaiman actually write a script treatment for O'Donnell's book I, Lucifer, but according to the wikipedia article O'Donnell has gone on record saying that he does not want to see more movies using the Blaise character. Neil tells me that O'Donnell is a very nice man who really was screwed (by the movie studios, I think? unclear. We didn't talk long about it. Neil had called me to get a phone number and had to go catch a plane.), but I think it sure would be nice to see more Modesty Blaise movies, especially if Tarantino got to produce one.

I also made a point of having lunch Saturday and Sunday with the_leewit, who is moving out of the house this week to move in with her mum in Chicago. We went to Yamoto for sushi and to the Parthenon for greek food. She also cooked a delicious dinner of pork chops and rice last night that we shared with shadowriderhope. I shall miss Laura for many reasons, but one of them is admitedly her cooking. Laura lead me through her bookshelves so as to loan me things before she packs them up, too, and I am now reading The Witches of Karres, by James H. Schmitz, the book that the_leewit takes her username from. I'll get a slow start on that, though, since I still have more editing to do. Also, tomorrow night we're having a block party for National Night Out, to try to help the neighbors get to know one another. As Neighborhood watch block captain, I've been organizing it. I hope people actually come.

Comments

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

I'd love to see a *good* Modesty Blaise movie, but I'd rate the odds at poor-to-none. They're just the sort of thing where movie people would leave out all the good parts and insert gratuitous stupidities and ruin everything.

I'm sure Neil would do a good script, though. Maybe movie making is opening up enough that there's a better chance for things to be done right. Although the Patrick O'Brian movie didn't do anything to improve their reputation.

(Martin Schafer pointed me at the Blaise books.)

I've seen one collection of the comics, and from what little I looked at it seems like the comics version is missing most of what I like about the books.

[encorecrazay.livejournal.com]

On a completely different topic, did you send some flyers for ConFusion to Armadillocon? If not, you can email me one and I'll print out a couple of 11x17's to put up.

[sarahmichigan.livejournal.com]

Wow! This is so cool. I read "The Witches of Karres" when I was 12 or 13, and it made a huge impact, but years later, I could never remember the exact name or author. Now I'm going to have to pick it up and re-read it.

Thanks!

[jeffreyab.livejournal.com]

Watch out for "The Witches of Karres" it will suck you in!

Its the main thing Laura and I have in common and one of my favourite books.