Sherlock Holmes

I feel a bit ashamed that my discussions for the past week or so have been limited to Jane Austen and Doctor Who. Both very interesting topics, but not what I want my overall focus to be. This is an alert that TCM (Turner Classic Movies) is having a Sherlock Holmes marathon from this evening at eight until tomorrow at eight featuring many of the films they've never aired before.
Monday my brother and I are going to see the new film with Robert Downey Jr. which looks to be delightfully steampunk in terms of style. I must admit I haven't read mcuh of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's stories. Mystery was never my genre, it was my grandmother's. She read all the Holmes novels, everything Agatha Christie ever wrote, anything suspenseful she could find. "A Book Every Night" was her policy, so at least you know I get my addiction honestly. Perhaps I should add some Doyle to my 2010 list? That list has the potential to be far too mammoth for one year that will no doubt be quite busy besides. A continuous reading list for my life in general may be required.
As far as Middlemarch is concerned? I think my compatriots are losing heart. I posted my thoughts on the first book (the novel is divided into eight... or nine maybe?) on the 16th and have had no one else confirm making it to that point in their reading as well. I'm trudging along, but don't want to be too far ahead of my fellow readers. However, I have the depressing feeling that they may no longer be my fellow readers. That makes my resolve to continue for the next 650 pages considerably weaker now that I'm on my own.

Oh Good Morning

Last night I couldn't sleep so I tried to continue with my Middlmarch reading. This morning I woke up and remembered nothing of what I read. So now I have to read it again. I wrote five pages of my new story today, I feel like a wuss, this would not cut it in a NaNo situation. The shifting weather patterns have been giving me migraines though.
The sun was out for a little while, it's going away now. I woke up to this:

Too Much Doctor Who

If there is such a thing.
Last night I watched the new Doctor Who animation "Dreamland" on YouTube. It's very... weird. The animation is a little stilted, not much expression from the characters. "Infinate Quest" is superior in animation in my opinion. Besides it has Anthony Stewart Head, the Doctor as a renegade running from library fines and impersonating a pirate, and light sabers. A win all around.
I say that maybe I've had too much Who lately because last night I actually dreamt about "The End of Time." I saw on IMDB that both Matt Smith and Billie Piper are appearing in the finale, in spite of the attempts to keep some things shrouded in mystery IMDB resumes reveal all. (So we will get to see 10 regenerate into 11, essentially.) Anyway, I had a really strange dream about Rose and the Doctor reuniting, they were in a huge pool of water, it was very peculiar. Being one that often remembers their dreams I sometimes try to analyze where different elements have come from. Water has been a constant underlying theme in DW- River Song, Jackson Lake, "The Waters of Mars" with Adelaide Brooke, the new companion will be named Amy Pond. There is a heavy significance placed on water with Doc 10. Does this mean anything? No idea. Just making a speculative observation.
Tomorrow is US premeire of "The Waters of Mars" and I am very excited. After that I swear I'm taking a break from Doctor Who until Boxing Day, when part 1 of the finale is aired.
I chalk it up to research, though. Since my new story is SciFi/Fantasy I need to educate myself about the genre, beyond DW I really don't usually watch or read any thing like that. To write well one must read well, that I firmly believe. I've just been to the library and have my hands full with reading over the holidays, Middlemarch included, it's like the book that never ends I swear.

New Scheme Has Lift-Off

The first entry of the Epic Book Blog is up. It has been a trial to get everything together and organized, as of a few hours ago we were waiting for our third to sign in, but none the less, it's a go. I'm a few chapters into Middlemarch, it's not bad, but there is so much of it to go! The "Literary Amazon Warrior" feeling during the after glow of NaNoWriMo that helped spur this on has faded a little bit, and I can't help but wonder how high the book's word count is.
Is there a database for such things?
At least I won't be alone and will have time off.
Oh, hey, speaking of new projects, I've decided to stash my historical fiction for next year's NaNo, and work on another idea I had recently. There have been so many ideas lately, I can't keep up. At least they have assuaged my fears that I would be a one story writer. This one is quite different from anything I've ever written, and different from what I normally read as well. It's sort of SciFi/Fantasy and uses some of Joseph Campbell's outlines for the hero's journey. I'm actually really excited, in a way it's like the opposite of my historical piece as far as the freedom I have with it. I can create everything, make it any way I want to.

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters; and Withdrawal

I just saw a television commercial for Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. It was a shortened version of the book trailer I saw on Austenblog a while back. For some reason every time I think about these Austen/Monster Mash-ups I can't banish the image of the creative(?) team behind this franchise with their feet up on the board room table crushing beer cans against their heads and laughing. Probably unfounded, but I can see the conversation going something like this:
1- Dude, let's do something really funny, like a parody.
2- Of what?
1- Ooh, something really boring and old that no one, like, actually reads.
2- What about that movie with Keira Knightly? Pride and Prejudice, I heard it's also a book.
Again probably unfounded, but I chuckled inside at the image. I'm sure the people behind this are very deft bussiness men, they are certainly making a lot of money, but for their Sea Monster scenerio may I suggest that Persuasion is more nautically oriented, though not as popular so I suppose it would fall down in the money part of the scheme.
Also chalk this up to the possiblity that I may actually be suffering from NaNoWriMo withdrawal of all things. I don't have any novel to come home to at night, and I finished the novel I was reading this afternoon, so I don't have that to come home to either. I'm waiting to start reading Middlemarch because two of my friends want to get in on that too, we might start our own book club blog so we can all discuss it together, I'll link it to this site. Feel free to join us if you want to climb that mountain over the winter holidays as well, or if you already have.
It's not even December yet, I have got to pull myself together, but I have always hated that feeling when I'm between books. I need a life- though this weekend I spent an evening playing Rock Band with some friends. I suck at guitar; the strumming and button pressing at the same time really gets me. I used to play a bit of piano which involved both hands, but the strumming was ridiculously hard for me to accomplish simultaniously.

So I Watched It...

I watched the final part of Place of Execution and I was not dissapointed. The moral ambiguity is captured so well; a particular line stands out to me (not quoted exactly) "In this case truth and justice are not the same". It was definately worth the watching- if you missed it check out the videos on pbs.org.
As I wrote that I swallowed my gum. Fantastic.
NaNoWriMo is seriously kicking my butt. Current word count is only around 11,000. Very shabby considering it's the 13th. I knew how hard this would be with my current schedule this month, but I was optomistic- that was my first mistake. Next week my theatrical obligations will end and then I will have to seriously buckle down on this. I already have an idea for the script writing challenge in April, I'm very excited about that.
Oh, and I have a new project for the holiday season (mid-December to mid-January I'm thinking): Reading George Eliot's Middlemarch. It is a beastly long book, but I've been meaning to read something of Eliot's for ages and haven't done it. A friend of mine is also planning on climbing that mountain and we have decided to have weekly sessions (on Skype if not in person) to check up on each other's progress. I'll journal about it on here as well to make me feel more obligated to continue with it.
I still want to do a series about film adaptations as well... that might be too much for one month, we'll just see how it goes.