Contagion (Spoilers!)

I went to my local theater yesterday and ate copious amounts of popcorn while watching Contagion.  Gesundheit!

Thanks to IMDB I have been watching the trailer for this movie for months now.  I can see why all the people in the CDC were so anxious to see how Soderbergh visualized the pandemic described in the trailer.  The movie is a very clinical approach to dealing with the outbreak of a deadly swine flu disease that kills its host within days.

With such a talented cast and director, I was expecting more of an emotional connection with the characters.  There were moments, don't get me wrong, and some of them were quite powerful; though for the most part, this is a plot driven story that really only grabbed me in the very middle of the film, when the epidemic had reached its peek and chaos ensued.  People become like animals and we see mankind at its worst.  To that regard it delivered, be it ever so briefly. 

After that, there is a cure and a sappy sweet ending.

That was my biggest problem with the movie: there were no repercussions, except for the least developed part of the story in Asia when a village takes a WHO employee hostage for the cure and receives a placebo instead.

Jude Law's character was an intriguing one, especially those teeth -- they too should get a credit in the movie.  I would have liked to see the film focus more on Matt Damon's struggle in dealing with his wife's infidelity; it's acknowledged in the end almost as an afterthought.  Granted, he is focused on his and his daughter's survival.  When he steals the shotgun, I thought he would have to use it, but I don't remember him ever having to fire it.

My writer instincts are always looking to find things that I might have done differently.  In this film, with the particular characters given, I would have written a version where friends and neighbors turn on Damon and his daughter, after finding out from Law's blog it was Damon’s wife who brought this hell to America.  That would have allowed the film to toil in the animal nature of desperation for a longer spell and forced him to use that gun.         

This is a good movie, not a great one.  It was much better than Outbreak, yet also too similar in some regards.

While the popcorn was buttery and delicious, the break from writing was worth the price of admission alone.

-aap   

Stage One Update

Yesterday, Stage One reached a deadline.  If you can't keep to them, then don't make them, right?  Some people are averse to having to work on a deadline.  I'll admit there are times that they can be a nuisance, when so many things can pop up any given day.  Yet, for me, at least right now, deadlines serve a very important purpose.  This has been a tumultuous year; I have been put to the test on many fronts, and to still be able to meet my writing deadlines, to this point, despite all the tribulations, is a frickin' awesome feeling.  I'll have to write another book just to describe the gauntlet I've had to run just to reach this point in Monarch.  And what point is that?

Yesterday, I sent Stage One to my editor.  By doing this I have reached a point of no return.  From here on out it's self-published e-book or bust.  While I am anxious to get Stage One back in my hands, I am also glad for the opportunity to momentarily step back.  It will afford me a few days to focus on Stage Two.  Then, once I have received my notes on Stage One, I can make the necessary changes and polish it all up before the biggest deadline of this year, the release date for Egg.

Until I get those notes back, I shall reward myself for reaching this deadline by going to see a movie.  For those of you who are interested, I shall be seeing Contagion this afternoon and consuming copious amounts of buttered popcorn.

-aap

Monarch‏ available for Preorder

Today begins the Preorder for my first novel.  Two months and eleven days from today I will not only be releasing Stage One: Egg, but I will also be meeting with a literary agent.  That is one of the reasons I have decided to do a Presale.  If I have crafted a good enough story to go along with good sales over the next couple of months, they may be more open to representing Monarch; thus, increasing the chances that there will be a paperback and hardcover version next summer.  My second reason for doing an early sale is to give my friends, family and those who are keen on the story a break on the pricing of the book(s) before I raise them in November.

It has been over a year since I started on Monarch.  Actually, work began over a decade ago when I wrote a screenplay called Cipher.  Some of you have likely seen the movie trailer that I and others made years ago.  I did little to promote the story and soon moved on to other endeavors, chalking it up to experience, but I never forgot it.  Ten years later, in January of 2010, I was contemplating what artistic undertakings to try to tackle for the year, as I do every year around that time.  That was when it occurred to me: I might attempt something new, while incorporating something over a decade old. 

The much-maligned day of December 21, 2012 was right around the corner; and having witnessed the hysteria back in 1999 over Y2K, I began to construct a plan.  The plan was to bring back the decade-old story of Cipher, and incorporate it into another story.  So, after a year and a half of work, Monarch is almost ready.  She's warming up in the wings, nervously awaiting her chance upon the stage. 

My plan for Monarch is to release it in four separate stages - named after the four stages of the Monarch Butterfly life cycle.  This allows me to do the story like the old serials of yesteryear, a perfect fit for the eBook format that I shall be using with Amazon.  Now I know some of you may be saying, "Well, I don't have a Kindle."  Neither do I, but the beautiful thing is the Kindle is also a FREE downloadable application for multiple devices: Windows PC, MAC, Blackberry, iphone, ipad, Android, Windows Phone 7.  Once you have downloaded the App you must then register it.  As long as you have an account with Amazon, you can now go ahead and purchase kindle e-books.  

If you have the Kindle App on several devices, you can also switch between them.  You can start reading on your PC and then get in a few minutes at lunch with your smart phone.  Pretty Awesome!  We truly are living in a digital age.  Oh, almost forgot Amazon's newest gizmo, you can even use the Amazon Cloud Reader, which allows you to read a book while online.  And then on November 11th you can start reading Monarch. 


This is very important.  Just so you know, when you purchase Monarch online there will be a document sent to your device.  It is not the story.  THAT DOCUMENT WILL NOT AUTOMATICALLY BE REPLACED ON NOVEMBER 11th.  You will receive an email from Amazon, probably a few days prior to the eleventh, which will ask you to click a link to replace files.  Click it and Monarch: Egg will supplant the other document.  I will keep you posted on my blog. 

To find out more about the story or to place an order you can either go through my website at monarchthenovel.com, which will send you to Amazon, or go to my Amazon page. 

Thank you for the support.

-aap