My writing week 2(40)

Hi all,

I'm still editing chapter eight of Stalking Tigers. I'm doing very little writing or reading at the moment due to tired eyes, general tiredness and devoting time to other things, like gardening. Warmer, wetter weather has caused a weed and snail surge in the garden, as well as a rapidly growing lawn. I was only going to plant tomatoes and lettuces over the warmer months so I wouldn't have to spend too much time watering, but I have already added carrots and will soon plant some beans. Oh well, I can consider it research for my novel as some of the story revolves around the stranded characters becoming self-sufficient in food.

Dan Browne has knocked Stephenie Meyer off the top of the bestseller lists. His new book, which has been getting good reviews, sold 126,000 copies in Australia last week.

The new science fiction series FlashForward looks promising. It's based on a Robert J Sawyer novel and like Lost has a continuous story line. Its premise has everyone in the world blacking out for 2mins and 17 secs. During that time they all experience a flash forward to the same moment six months in the future. It's currently on Monday nights at 8.30 on Seven, but probably will be shunted back to 10.30 in a couple of weeks and then disappear from the screens until it turns up on pay TV.

I went and saw two science fiction movies last week - another reason I did not do much editing. Only one of them lived up to their great premises. Surrogate was set in a near future world where the majority of people live their lives through a personal android they're virtually linked to. The movie turned into a pedestrian thriller with an awful ending, one often used in science fiction where some fascist decides that what is good for him is good for everyone. Bruce Willis - its star - should have remembered the lessons from 12 Monkeys (one of the best science fiction movies ever made) where a fascist releases a virus and kills 99% of the world's population.

The other film was District 9, where a huge spaceship stops over South Africa and over a million aliens are accepted as refugees. Years later they are living in a huge ghetto and racism against them is rampant, so the authorities decide to move them far away from the general population (sort of like putting refugees on Christmas Island). It has a gimmick of being filmed in a documentary style for much of the movie and has some of the most seamless special effects I've seen, with the computer generated aliens blending perfectly into real world scenes. Its ending leaves plenty of room for speculation. I reckon its one of the most original and better science fiction movies of recent years.

Graham.

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