It's All About Story...

  When I read the synopsis for this show, I immediately thought that this idea would never catch on in the UK.  I have English family, some of them worked for the royal family during 1960's and 70's. Two of my cousins were Pages of Honour to the Queen. They still refer to us as the colonies. The idea of an American Police Constable in Lincolnshire automatically struck me as, no, this won't do. I was right on the perception in the UK part. Sadly, ITV did not renew the series after its initial season. You can watch the show on Amazon's Britbox here . I read some of the reviews from British critics, they were exactly what I expected. I won't offer my detailed thoughts on them, but I think I have enough insight to understand why, and in my humble opinion, they are wrong.  The show follows Bill Hixson, former US Police Chief, played by Rob Lowe, who has a reputation as an efficient, hard, and mechanical leader. He is hired to take charge of the East Lincolnshire Police f

  I am a gamer. I think I may need to start going to AA for gaming, gamers anonymous, do they have that? It's a problem, I particularly have a love for RPGs, but adventure gaming as a whole is for me. Many, many, years ago, when computers had green screens with neon green type blinking fancifully across the monitor, I would sit in my father's offices, wherever we were posted, and play Zork I: The Underground Empire. I would describe this game as the godfather of adventure games. Each time I see, "West of House. You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door. There is a mailbox here," I am flooded with memories, imagination, and the urge to play. If you are interested, there are plenty of emulators out there, look it up and give it a try. As time moved on, I got into 3/4 perspective role playing games, which simply means the gameplay takes place looking down on a map as you navigate your player, and/or party, through the story and en

I always tell my students that there are no new stories, simply various perspectives on a handful of premises. Most of them gasp, think I am nuts, and wonder why, then, should they bother studying our craft. Their doubt is usually assuaged when I bring up Star Wars, The Matrix, Harry Potter, and now Dune. (I did used to mention the 1984 Dune, but no one remembers that one much). I will end the presentation asking which one of them will have the next great take on the messiah story? It really gets the discussion going. At some point the question comes up, "how much can you borrow from another story?" My answer is nothing, it needs to be your own, but there are varying legal precedents for how much one can have similarities with another entity considering my earlier comment about their being nothing new really. Which brings me to two TV series I have recently watched. ITV's "Shetland" (available on Amazon Prime's Britbox) and BBC One's "Wallander,&quo

I wanted to start this with, "what young man doesn't love Sherlock Holmes?" I then thought for a moment that there are probably a lot of young men who have no idea who Sherlock Holmes is. Or at a bare minimum, they picture Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. I am not knocking that series by the way; it is extremely well done. I still prefer the Granada Television series from the 80's to early 90's with Freddie Eynsford... uh Jeremy Brett. Great series and adaptations. I have been reading the Holmes stories since I was about 8 years old. I bought an anthology collection of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock stories at a bookfair while we were stationed in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. I couldn't put it down. I have the same collection downloaded on audible, engaging to listen to, and well produced. Sadly, somewhere in transit over the years the book has disappeared.  Imagine my surprise when my wife recently recommended that I read Sir Arthur's historical n

I wrote about Joe Abercrombie's " First Law " series way back in 2008. At the time, his first book, well at least the only one that had been released in the US, was " The Blade Itself. " I think I mentioned that it took me a while to get settled in, but once I did, I was hooked. As a matter of fact, I read the first book over a period of two or three weeks. I had to have the second book once finished. It was not available in the US. I contacted some of my UK family and asked them to ship me a copy, which they did. I read " Before They Are Hanged " in three days. When finished with that one, I created an account on Amazon.co.uk, ordered the next book, paid the US import tax, and had it shipped here. (Turns out this was cheaper than having my family send me a copy). I read the " Last Argument of Kings " in one sitting. Finished it at 3:00/3:30am. My wife was not happy, but I loved the story, even with the somewhat anticlimactic ending. Imagine

  I saw a New York times write up of the " Society of the Sword " series (well, I think it was the NYT) by Duncan M. Hamilton, it read like this: "The Three Musketeers meets Game of Thrones." I was thinking, "I wish I had written that." It's certainly apropos. The problem is, the write up left out the book to the left, " The First Blade of Ostia ," which is the prequel to the first book in the series, " The Tattered Banner ." The story follows Bryn Pendollo, a young man who dreams of becoming a master fencer, and the title of "First Blade of Ostia." As I was reading through the prologue, it reminded me of how much I wanted to be like Dick Butkus or Randy White on the football field when I was a kid. The world in which this story is set focuses that kind of hero worship, or idolatry, on great master fencers who compete in the arena. They are celebrated martial artists, masters of their craft, who earn riches and recognition