Dr. Phil's Dreamwidth Journal

Hunting License Approved

Recently Dr. Phil has reached an agreement with Jeffrey C. Silver and his Fourth Floor Productions regarding an option on my May 2009 Analog story "The Brother on the Shelf". Contracts have been signed and a pleasant check received. Jeff has a year to try to find some financing to come up with a movie or television production deal.


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Reality Check

Yes, I know that most options on stories don't go anywhere. That most production deals never make it to shooting. That lots of things which get into production or even get shot never see the light of day. Hollywood is a harsh business. But it is a business. And it needs a lot of projects churning to keep in business.

But Dr. Phil -- this is just a short story! True. But it's a lot harder to shoehorn a novel into a movie script, than turn a short story into one. I was at a panel once where this question came up and one writer said that a typical SF novel is at least 100,000 words, while a typical movie script is 125 pages -- triple-spaced and specially formatted. That's not a lot of room for those 100,000 words. That's why all those Philip K. Dick short stories have been made into movies.

So will we see a movie version of "The Brother on the Shelf"? I honestly don't know. Would such a movie be a True Version of Dr. Phil's 29th century universe? I honestly don't know. But I will say I included in the contract my unpublished novelette "Home Front", from which "The Brother on the Shelf" was pulled from, as additional source material so that at least my vision is on the table. And frankly, I have to say that even if it goes off in a different direction, that's not necessarily so bad. I find the movie version of Starship Troopers to be quite the guilty pleasure even if it's neither Heinlein's story or having any science literacy or military accuracy value. (grin)

So is this exciting? Absolutely. Anyone who has met me or read this LJ on a regular basis knows that I am a huge fan of the movies.

The bottom line is that Hollywood is going to do what Hollywood is going to do. But at least I get to peek in on the process. (huge grin) And for now I get to cash a pleasant check for my troubles. (win!) And should Jeff succeed in getting his project financed, I just might get to fly to L.A. and buy him a very expensive steak dinner. (mmm!)

Dr. Phil

Just Happening

Ralan's is reporting that Analog and Asimov's, both published by Dell Magazines, has editorial/submission address changes. The date on Ralan's for the tip was August 19th, so this is recent.

It's a funny thing. I've got files with submission guidelines for both from February 2003 -- and submitted to both in March 2003. Asimov's got updated, because of an editorial change. But the real thing is that I check guidelines websites on a regular basis -- less often from ones I submit to often -- and cruise Ralan's on a regular basis. Don't assume that addresses stay the same or that markets stay open. Recheck and verify.

By The Way

September is Ralan's donation drive month. If you use this resource, and you can spare some PayPal, send it his way. Because as bad as it is for markets to close, having resource sites close would make things really difficult.

Just sayin'.

Dr. Phil

A Small Amusement

Looking at LocusOnline to see what's up, I saw a familiar looking magazine cover on the link to their March magazines received. Clicky reveals (edited for personal aggrandizement) that the first two listings for Dr. Phil's writing:

Analog Science Fiction and Fact

• Vol. 129 No. 5, May 2009, $4.99, 112pp, cover art by NASA
• This issue has novelettes by Adam-Troy Castro, Alexis Glynn Latner, Tom Ligon, and Robert R. Chase, plus short stories by Shane Tourtellotte, Steven Gould, and Philip Edward Kaldon.

Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine

• Issue 38, Vol. 7 No. 2, 2009, A$8.95, 96pp, cover art by Rachel McLachlan
• This issue of the Australian SF and Fantasy magazine, edited by Zara Baxter, has fiction by Dr Philip Edward Kaldon, Ingrid Banwell, Shane Jiraiya Cummings, EM Sky, Katherine Sparrow, Gitte Christensen, and KV Johansen.
• The magazine's website should have a page for this issue soon.

Yay!

Dr. Phil stories out in the world for your amusement.

Dr. Phil

The Sage Advice Is...

Arguing with reviewers? Don't.

On The Other Hand

Actually, I'm not planning on arguing with reviews or reviewers. I've wanted to point out for some time my thinking on my 29th century universe where much of my writing takes place. Six years ago, in February 2003, my short story "Lines West X4334-W" won Second Prize in the N3F National Fantasy Fan Federation 2002 Short Story Contest. Besides being my very first "pay day" for writing, I was amused by the comment from the judge that he wasn't sure there'd be trains in the 29th century. Well, he's right. There might not be. On the other hand, you have to admit it's a very efficient system for moving large amounts on land -- and there's no Physics reason why transporters or stepping disks will exist in the 29th century or ever, or if they do exist that they'd be cheap enough to use for all commerce. Just sayin'. (You can read a 2007 version of my railroad story here.)

This of course percolated up because of a comment in the first review of my story in the May 2009 issue of Analog:

"The Brother on the Shelf" - Philip Edward Kaldon - a new writer with a very old-fashioned story. This wouldn't have been out of place in ASF in the 40s. But the "dates" got me - I kept on thinking how different lifestyles are today than they were 8 or 9 centuries ago. Why would things be so mid-20th Century-like 8 or 9 centuries from now?

The way I see it, my 29th century has a lot in common with the Technological Age of the late 20th and early 21st centuries -- much more in common than say the non-Technological 11th and 12th centuries. Plus our 20th century culture is going to survive, via recordings, for as long as the media can be recopied and read. Why must it be so different? Provided we're not going to put them in sweatshops, kids growing up in the future will still run around in the summer and still collect odd things, get a cold drink, etc.

A Different Argument

But today I spotted Gary Westfahl's piece Pitfalls of Prophecy: Why Science Fiction So Often Fails to Predict the Future on LocusOnline. Much like the complaints about Star Trek: The Next Generation's "Planet of the California Joggers", Gary points out the fallacies of single-mindedness which show up in a lot of SF. And how much of the future doesn't happen.

Indeed, a refusal to believe in extravagant and extraordinarily new developments in the future is remarkably logical. For, no matter how much we may desire, or fear, a radically altered future, we can observe throughout our history remarkable continuities in human activities and behavior. Consider, for a moment, everything that you did yesterday, and how your day would compare to a similar day 100 years ago. Some of your actions, of course, would be entirely unfamiliar to your ancestors: you used a computer to check your e-mail, you sent out a fax, you called a business associate on your cell phone, you watched some television, you played a video game. However, most of your activities today would be entirely familiar to a person from the distant past: you woke up from a bed that, aside from some space-age materials in it, was similar in design to the beds of one hundred years ago; you ate a breakfast, lunch, and dinner featuring foods similar to those eaten one hundred years, consumed while you sat at a table and employed utensils just like those employed by people one hundred years ago; you spent most of the day meeting, talking, and working with people, just like people one hundred years ago; and if it was Friday or Saturday, you spent your evening at a party, a movie, or a concert, socializing with your friends, just like people one hundred years ago.

To which I say... exactly.

Dr. Phil