In search of a British invasion

Kelly and I have about 100 DVDs in our Zip.ca queue, and a certain percentage are things we added so long ago we have both forgotten why we wanted to see them. These are invariably the ones that get shipped out to us. This leads to a bit of forensic investigation: checking out the cast and discovering we rented it because it has Callum Keith Rennie, or Carrie Anne Moss, or Damien Lewis. A few things we throw back right away; others we age a little.

When we watch them, it’s often a good thing. We saw the Korean vampire flick Thirst this week (on your rec, Indigo?) and it was bizarre and hilarious.

But a few days ago it became obvious that both K and I are mostly in the mood for lots and lots of BBC mystery and costume drama, and so we parked everything else on the list. We will watch that other stuff, in time, but right now I want me my UK accents and my Benedict Cumberbatch spy dramas and a second run at The Forsyte Saga.

One thing that did turn up this past month was Nature’s Most Amazing Events, narrated by Sir. David Attenborough. It has an entire episode about the salmon run! I wouldn’t say this series is quite as good as Planet Earth or the various Life ofs. The photography will overload your mind, but the narratives are on the one hand sadder and on the other, not quite as compelling.

However, it was incredibly interesting to see how they filmed the salmon run, an event I’ve seen twice now with my own eyes. I felt as though they somehow missed the specific cool of it, which for me is bound up in the OMG, fish, fish, fish everywhere. And it’s not as though they didn’t shoot all that fish, not to mention they had an insane Canadian cameraman who swam with a fish-juggling grizzly (have you never seen Grizzly Man, you nut?). But it was a good reminder of what we all know–that if you can’t go to Africa or to BC to see the salmon run, top-rate nature TV gives you a taste.

But it will never top being there.

Having said that, being there can sometimes be scary! This is the case with the most amazing shot, in the last episode, which should probably be watched with a defibrillator.

Pull my Leaper strings…

Over on TOR.COM, I am close to wrapping up my favorite rewatches of Season Five of Quantum Leap, and have asked fans of the show for their picks. The popular candidates so far:

“Honeymoon Express”
“The Boogeyman”
“Deliver us from Evil”
“Last Dance before an Execution”
“Lee Harvey Oswald”
“Future Boy.”

There’s still time to weigh in… here is fine, but here is even better.

Meanwhile, back on Favorite Thing Ever, I tell you all of my love for Corb Lund and the Hurtin’ Albertans, while Kelly gives you two reasons to love opera.

2011 Fiction Plan

My 2011 fiction writing plan is vague in the same way last year’s was: it’s composed of a lot of “drop everything,” as in:

If X hits my desk, drop everything and do it. If Y comes in, ditto.

In other words, I still have a lot of stuff in progress and lines in the water.

In 2011 the priority will be on turning around completed works as they are given to me. BLUE MAGIC is scheduled for 2011, for example, so it’s certain to hit my desk three to four times before November. Meanwhile, I have three other big projects that might go forward soon, or later, or possibly not. In theory, three or even four drop-everything projects could land on me at once. How I will deal with that, if it happens, will be interesting.

What’s more likely (she said optimistically) is that the priority stuff will stutter in in dribs and drabs over the next two to three years, and I will have some downtime for working on other things. The goals for this hypothetical allotment of time are:

1. Finish either of the two novels drafted in 2010.
2. If 2010’s proposal is unsuccessful, write a 2011 Canada Council proposal and thirty sample pages of another new novel.
3. Finish the outstanding short stories from 2010.
4. Draft short fiction rather than novels in 2011 until some of the above projects shake out.

The upshot, if I’m not buried in drop-everything projects? Six stories drafted, three finished and to market, and a novel finished.