"Wasteland" & "Bleak House"

My review of the BBC's Bleak House TV series/DVD is out today on Monsters & Critics (www.monstersandcritics.com). Just scroll down the front page and look under reviews. For the record, I damn well cried twice while watching this fabulous Dickens adaptation. Granted, I can be a big ball of mush, but this is a mini-series done right. I highly recommend renting or buying the DVD to enjoy it.

My second column of "Notes from the Wasteland" is also up at M&C. From the front page, click on TV (on the upper right) and then scroll down. I babble on here (hopefuly in an entertaining fashion) about just how TV works as a writer's medium. I've long been amazed at how little folks know about how television really works. But then I work in the medium, so it seems like second nature to me. I think next week I'll get a bit jazzier, go the Entertainment Weekly "list" route and do a "Top Ten Reasons to Watch TV in 2006" column.

It's interesting how hard it is to write this sort of thing. It's like writing a term paper -- you've got to have a thesis and then back it up. And then you have to make it fun. College was never like this! So far the fun part is my big challenge. I think I have a fun writer's voice, but the challenge is to let it through and not edit it all away and be all serious and pretentious and boring. Guess I'm still finding that voice. I'm hoping all this dang writing will help me dig it free and set it loose on the unsuspecting inhabitants of this planet.