You Blankety-Blank

I saw a story this week about the film "The King's Speech" being edited in order to have its rating changed from "R" to "PG-13." I loved the movie and, although not a fan of the "F" word, it did not turn me off in the context that it was used in the film. In fact, I think it is kind of silly that changing the number of uses of the word from 15 to, let's say 6 or 7 should make the difference in whether or not it gets an "R" rating.

It brought to mind the old argument for those of us who think cursing should not be part of one's conduct - is it ok to use cursing in your writing if it is necessary for the story? Is it ever really necessary for the story?

I recently finished reading "The Maze Runner" by James Dashner, a dystopian tale of a group of young boys forced to live in a place called The Glade, an enclosed structure with no way out except perhaps through a maze with boundaries that change daily. Mr. Dashner took an interesting approach to the language dilemma by inventing a new slang language for the boys, with some terms very similar to contemporary curse words. This artistic choice still led to some controversy.

When it comes to swearing, one of my favorite characters is one who wouldn't curse, but was even more frightening because of it - Annie Wilkes from Stephen King's "Misery." The words "dirty bird", "Mr. Man," and "cockadoodie" may not seem too bad in isolation, but just wait till you hear them coming at you from a frumpy middle-aged woman who is holding you captive and wielding a sledgehammer.

A-Mazed

I'm basically stealing this news from our friend Graham Chops, but in case you hadn't heard, James Dashner's Maze Runner is being made into a film:

http://bit.ly/e6EgHD

Kudos to Dashner, especially for negotiating the right to adapt the screenplay himself. A wise move, I would say.

This book has been on my "to read" list forever. I think it will be next.

The Schedule is Up!! LTUE 2010

So I didn't know what to blog about this week, mostly because I'm under deadline for the newsletter and that's a lot of deadline. BUT then inspiration hit in the form of the Life, the Universe & Everything conference schedule for the FREE writing conference in February at BYU!! It's gonna be so fun. See the schedule here.

And check out these totally awesome tidbits from the schedule:
Thursday Main speaker: James C. Christensen...enough said.
Friday afternoon Dan Wells is giving a workshop on his pacing and story structure program. PEOPLE! This is one hour of hard core writing organizational boot camp. Can't wait.
Friday main address: Marty Brenneis. I had no idea who he was, so I googled him. It turns out that if there has been a cool Sci-Fi or Fantasy movie in the last 20 years he has worked on it. You can find info on Marty Brenneis on IMDb.
Saturday Main speaker: Brandon Sanderson...enough said.
This year the conference planners seem to have chosen a major artist, filmmaker, and author for the three main addresses and let's face it that just rocks!

Awesome authors and Publishing folks planning to present:
The aMAZEing James Dashner, bright newbie Karen Hoover(debut author), the multi-talented author/editor Lisa Mangum, the Fable-istic Brandon Mull, the fantabulous Tristi Pinkston, the queen of romance Julie Wright, scary but likable Dan Wells, the extraordinary Stacy Whitman and many many more.

Here is the tiny disclaimer...all scheduling is tentative at this time. Still I can't wait.

The Maze Runner, by James Dashner

To be released on October 6, 2009, by Random House Children's!

James Dashner's The Maze Runner felt like an enjoyable collage of all the reasons I like dystopic novels so dang much. It was a Farenheit 451 meets Ender's Game meets 1984 meets Lost meets Lord of the Flies meets City of Ember meets Little Women (okay, maybe not so much Little Women, but a guy can dream, can't he?).

Young Thomas finds himself with no memory of himself or where he came from--only that he's been dumped out of a box onto the hard ground and a bunch of kids are looking at him like he's their new leader (enter Lord of the Flies). He's inducted into their survivalist society and is told that he can hang out in their digs and all, but he must never venture out of the big, scary doors, lest bad things happen. And they must type in a code every twelve hours into a computer with a DOS-like screen, otherwise more bad things will happen (okay, this last really doesn't happen in this way, but take my word for it . . . Lost is written all over this with permanent marker; I keep expecting Hugo to come out of one of the shacks with a jar of peanut butter or something).

So these marooned manchildren have a society going on, but everything goes hog-wild the day after Thomas comes when a GIRL (gasps, shudders, cootie-repellent spraying) comes hopping out of the box and tells them the end is near. Well, of course the end is near, guys. Whenever a girl pops out of a box and starts ordering you around, run for the HILLS! CUT YOUR LOSSES! ALL IS LOST!

So is that teasy enough without giving out any juicy spoilers?

The creatures working against the Lords of Flies and such are the Grievers: a combination of your friendly neighborhood mechanical bloodhound (enter Farenheit 451) enmeshed with a big ball of gelatinous, green goo that must slow them down some, since they're not as fast and wily as those friendly neighborhood mechanical bloodhounds. But don't stop pouring on the fear, because these grievers have needles and mechanical grindy things that will tear and rend. ACK!

Thomas is one of those characters who is smart and save-the-day-heroic but he downplays his abilities with false humility so that he can get along with the rest of the guys (enter Ender's Game). He and Teresa have interactions that are fairly surface level, and I'm hoping their relationship is more extensively developed in the sequels. A great framework is set up for expanding this as well as the relationships between all the guys, including Winston (enter 1984), Minho, Alby, Chuck, Newt (enter Amphibians), Gally, Frypan, and all the other Lost Boys.

Each of the Lost Boys has a job to fulfill in this dystopian existence (enter City of Ember): some butcher animals (which are delivered by the Box), others are runners, who explore the land outside the gates in the great maze. Dashner gives some great insights into what children act like when forced to be adults, grown-up far too early in order to simply survive.

Listen. If I were to recommend any book to read this fall, it would be Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson's first book of a two-part final 12th book of the Wheel of Time, The Gathering Storm. If you can make it through that Leviathan of a book and still have the energy to read more, then check out James Dashner's well-written, engaging, Lord-of-the-flies-from-the-seat-of-your-pants The Maze Runner. You'll love it!


The Maze Runner, by James Dashner. October 6, 2009. Random House Children's. 384 pp. $12.74 (PB--discounted online at B&N).