Inception

I finally saw "Inception". Okay...I was behind the times on this one. I suppose everyone else has seen it.
Usually, this sort of reality-bending, thought provoking story is right up my alley.
I was left feeling a little flat after Inception. Here are the best parts:

• Awesome fight scene with no gravity. Very, very cool.
• Cinematography and locations were fantastic
• Great cast
• Cool action
• Thought provoking enough to keep me watching after most of my interst had faded AND it led to a great discussion about the movie with my wife.

So why didn't I like it? I guess, to me, the dream state idea has been done a lot and it always leads to the question, "what is the dream and what is reality?".
I know Inception tried to take a different tact at it, but I don't think it was all that different. I have my own interpretation about what the ending meant. It's ambiguous so it's meant to be interpreted multiple ways, but what is important is that (spoiler) Cobb walks away from the spinning top to go be with his kids. He has stopped caring whether he is awake or asleep and he is just accepting "the now".

Alignment

Read a good post on alignment today. It is really, really important to align your goals with what you can reasonably expect. I'm not talking about giving up on your dreams of moving out of "small business" status to "big business". I'm not talking about lowering your expectations, just making them aligned with where you are headed.
An example - GGE write speculative cross genre fiction. I don't think anything we do will EVER be featured by Oprah. I don't see us winning a Newberry Award.
What do I hope for? That there is some number of people, between 1 and 1000 who would also like to read books about Superheroes, Zombies, Monsters, Dragons, Wizards, Cowboys and/or Ninjas when they all exist in the same world. A world where magic can happen and the unbelievable becomes more commonplace. I hope someone else thinks stories about King Arthur should be re-written like modern fantasy stories with modern fantasy elements and maybe a bit less of "who was he really?"
Steven Pressfield maintains that the Artist, like the Warrior only has a right to the labor/work he or she is doing, not the fruits of that labor (he's paraphrasing the Bhagavad Gita). What he is saying though is right in line with my post about alignment. The artist or creative does his or her art because that is what he or she is. If rewards come, great, but if not, then the professional artist (highly paid or not) understands that the art is what it is all about.

Don't get discouraged and never, EVER give up on our dreams. Just align your expectations with your most likely results...and whatever those aligned results look like? Double your expectation.

Alert: Life Changing Book!

So I bought "The War of Art" by Steven Pressfield yesterday. The best review I can give it is to say that I finished it less than 24 hours after I bought it. It is a short book, true, but that's not what caused me to voraciously devour that book!
This book is a life changer for anyone who has ever wanted to launch anything. It doesn't have to be a creative endeavor. Your "art" according to Pressfield is something only you know. The still, small voice in your head knows what it is and whispers it to you all the time.
The book is motivational in the extreme. It encourages to go, create, do, be, write, paint, sing, dance, act! Be the "you" that you are meant to be!
It's a little scary too. What will people think? What if I am wrong about my purpose in life? What if people laugh?
Read the book...all of those concerns are meaningless.

Arthas

I know this book has been out awhile, but unfortunately, I accumulate reading material far faster than I can read it.
Still, I like the whole World of Warcraft that Blizzard has created. Not just the computer games, but the graphic novels are beautiful, the roleplaying game seems relatively popular, the action figures are super high quality and the fiction has been really good!
Arthas is no exception. His story, told so well in Warcraft III and added to in World of Warcraft is covered well in this novel and it is a really good read!
I like that Blizzard, despite having a dedicated fan base, still put a lot of focus into their products. Their fans would probably buy anything they put out, so how great is it that they have such attention devoted to making good stuff!?!
The action figs are by McFarlane Toys who, in my opinion, are the best in the biz. The books are written by Christie Golden, Richard Knaak and other notable fantasy authors. The graphic novels are written by none other than Walt Simonson of Thor fame and the artwork is stunning!
So, WTG Blizzard!
My advice for today - pick up Arthas and read it. Then go look at other Blizzard products. It's not just your typical game tie-in schlock. The products are rich fantasy products and the world is well developed, immersive and just plain cool.

Crank out the art!

Seth has it right this morning when he talks about staying small by choice because it might just be better. GGE is here right now.
No, the goal is not to stay small if you are creating art, but it might not be a great idea to take out a loan on your house and invest in looking huge before you have the art to ship. Your first goal, and ours, should be creating products that people will talk about.
Until then, stay small. You will have more fun, more freedom and a lot less overhead.

How best to utilize our time

GGE is in a bit of a "phase" right now. For the first three years of our little venture, we have been creating, brainstorming, planning, writing, drawing, etc.
Now, we are trying to decide how best to put our next foot forward. Here is what I mean.

With a handful of projects developed and in a viewable form do we:

• Submit them to publishers, gatekeepers, industry folks and hope that we become "the chosen"
• Do we "choose ourselves"?
• If we choose ourselves, which sounds great, what does that look like? Independent press status? Small press publishing of our own books and comix?
• Or do we put content online for free so we aren't bogged down with sales figures, reviews and things like that?

Maybe it's a little of all of that. Some free content to test it out. Some items produced by GGE so we can garner some reviews and some sales and see how we stand. It's all a learning experience.

If we choose ourselves, and we choose well, then the industry gatekeepers either come and find us...or their choices become less essential.

Imaro

I am embarrassed! A fantasy series snuck by me while I was not looking! Imaro was published between 1980-1985, just when my interest in fantasy was really taking off! I knew nothing of it until I read this review of the fourth novel, which is finally been released (to much applause from Imaro fans every)

ALL PULP: FORTIER REVIEWS MODERN FORGOTTEN PULP CLASSIC!:

As it turns out, the title is a bit misleading. A quick web search will show that Imaro is anything but "forgotten".
So, I looked into this a bit and I found another review by Ron Fortier back in 2006 when Imaro was re-released.

So, based on this information, I simply have to read Imaro and the subsequent volumes! I will start with the 2006 re-release of the first book, Imaro. I will the move onto the other books in the series, but I am really looking forward to the recently released fourth volume (I used it's cover as the image for this post. The cover image rocks!)

As always, I'll let my dedicated readers know what I think.

Failure!

Great post on Seth's blog today about "How to Fail". As a "Creative" or an entrepreneur, we should be prepared to fail. In fact, we should seek it out. I remember seeing an exhibit on Tim Burton's work a couple of years ago.
I was shocked by the amount of failure. I assumed that once someone became Tim Burton, life was just one success after another. Not so.
Tim fails. A lot. Every year. Still today.
What's different? He keeps launching, keeps going and keeps delivering products. He learns from failure and moves on and eventually he succeeds. Big time.
If you haven't failed lately, then you probably aren't moving towards your big success.

Note: I take this lesson to heart as well. I need to launch a couple of things in the next year so I can fail...or maybe not, but there's only one way to find out.

Inspiration

Inspiration is everywhere out there. I think motivation comes from inspiration.

An example: I was in a slump on my Sanction blog. Life was just in the way. Then I picked up a copy of Mark Millar's excellent "Ultimates 2" graphic novel. It is inspiring in a major way! Sure, some people say not to read while you are in the creating process, but I read to be inspired, not to mimic, copy or steal. Then again, all art has a bit of a mimic in it. As Seth Godin points out in his post on originality, if you create something that is truly unlike anything else, and thus few people relate to it, then you are considered a whacko more often than you are considered a genius. So I seek out inspiration, and when I find it, I use it!

Another example is Arthas by Christie Golden. Very inspiring for my work on "The Matter of Britain" (My Pendragon story).

I watched "Season of the Witch" as well. I loved it and it sets a great tone for fantasy writing.

If you aren't inspired today, seek out the stuff that you know you like. Watch it, read it, listen to it. Repeat until inspiration strikes...then, go!

Superhero Tournament Championship!!!

Well, after posting out Superhero tournamentfor the last couple of weeks, our championship match came down to Superman Vs. Thor.

Here's the recap of the semi-finals:

• Sweet Sixteen
• Elite Eight
• Final Four
• Championship

So in our epic Superman vs. Thor battle, it comes down to several factors:

Superman is amazingly strong, durable and with accelerated healing. He has heat vision, super speed and icy breath. He is also vulnerable to kryptonite, which Thor does not have, nor would he use. Superman is, like all Kryptonians, very susceptible to magic, which Thor has in abundance when he wields the hammer Mjolnir.

Thor, on the other hand has no weaknesses other than being separated from the hammer. Superman is fast...and strong and he might be able to get his hands on the hammer, but I don't think he could separate Thor from it. Not for long anyway. The Hulk wasn't able to capitalize on this weakness.

So, I think this comes down to a major slugfest. Both parties beat the crap out of each other with some serious collateral damage. both heroes literally do not know how to quit, but I think this one tips in Thor's favor! As the Odinson says, "As long as there is life, there is hope!".

Our championship goes to The Mighty Thor

What a nifty piece of marketing for Thor since his movie comes out on May 6th! Go see him in action!