When a VCR Dies

Everyone knows that 'Jane Eyre' by Charlotte Bronte is the definitive Gothic romance. My favourite movie version is the one with Timothy Dalton from 1983. The stage lighting is wretched, but for Timothy as Edward Rochester, I'll put up with anything.

Now a few weeks ago - my VCR died. I know - everyone threw out their VCRs and VHS tapes 200 years ago and I'm the only one hanging onto mine, but I figured that as long as they still worked, there was no reason to replace them. Well, my VCR died in a huge way - eating my copy of 'Shallow Hal' until the tape literally broke in half. Oh well, I only owned about 30 tapes anyway. Not the end of the world. I was going through my tapes and wondering if there were any of them that I wanted to replace. I was surprised at the number I wanted new copies of - hardly any. Here's my list:

1. Jane Eyre
2. Highlander
3. Six Days Seven Nights
4. Decameron Nights

So, I ordered 'Highlander' and 'Jane Eyre'. When I got my copy of 'Jane Eyre' it said on the back that it was the complete unedited mini-series. My old copy was four hours long, but this one was 311 minutes. I looked at it and said, "Wow, that's a lot more footage and I bet there's not even 30 seconds extra of Timothy." I love it when I'm right, but in this case - I really hate it when I'm right.

My copy of 'Highlander' turned out to be the director's cut, too. Yuck! I was actually pretty mad about that because I tried hard to make sure it was the final cut. I had seen the director's before and I didn't like it. I thought that the stuff was that was cut was cut for a reason and I agreed with the decisions in the final cut. There are three main differences - there's more with Connor in Scotland (which is fine - I don't care one way or the other), then there's an extra scene where they show him rescuing Rachel during WWII (I don't have such a problem with the scene itself, but I think that the place they put it is inappropriate and rudely interrupts the viewer's train of thought - making the film appear choppy and bouncy - too much bouncing around) and lastly there is a scene with Brenda at the zoo. I confess that I skipped over it because I can't stand it when Brenda's like, 'Don't lose your head'. ONLY SEAN CONNERY CAN SAY THAT LINE WITHOUT SOUNDING LIKE A LOSER. And that's a fact, but I saw that the scene had a redeeming quality - the way he holds her hand was ... utterly romantic. Why then with the loser line? Cry. Oh, and this new copy has been lightened, so that the whole film is less dark. WHY! AAH! I loved the dark! I loved the angst! And both have been downplayed by the stupid DVD release! ... I know ... I need to mellow.

I also hate the director's cut of 'Blade Runner'. They cut Harrison Ford's narrative throughout the film, which I think is vital to sympathizing with his character, and there's the scene when he dreams about a unicorn - which the back of the box leads one to believe that he's also a replicant. Well, kids - I've read the book. He's not.

I mean, I was frickin' raised on these films and so they're special to me.

Lastly, I went and read a portion of a fan-written bio for Timothy Dalton and they had a quote about how happy he was with 'Jane Eyre'. I don't know why, but it made me really happy to read that it was something he thought well of. It's probably because I always suspect actors of being hopeless snobs who are too good for their own work and look down on the parts they receive - believing that they are better than the work they get. I just think an actor would be better at covering what makes them disgruntled than an ordinary person.

Vampire Kiss

I know it's been awhile and I deserve to be ... oh, I don't know. Can someone else think up a punishment for me, please. So, I haven't been writing in my blogs, and I haven't been writing online, so you probably all thought that I was dead or something suspicious. Well, I'm not dead. I've been trying to write original fiction and it hasn't been going well. It's not that the story isn't going well. It's more that I'm trying to write a 300,000 word novel to market to a publishing company and it's freaking hard because I have no time to think about it. My brain is crammed full of all kinds of serious real-life problems that are consuming my life. So, I'm back to writing on fanfiction.net even though I already decided that I wasn't going to do that. Well, maybe someday I'll have the time to write my big novel and maybe someday I'll be a hugely famous author and you'll all read my books as soon as they're on the shelves and I'll thrill millions with my fantastic stories, but for now, if I don't write something I'll go crazy ... seriously crazy. So, instead I will thrill my hundreds of fans with my new Escaflowne fic - let me tell you about it.

It's called 'Vampire Kiss'.

Someone once told me that you have to select settings you are familiar with - especially when writing contemporary fiction. This is one of the reasons why there are so many high school animes, mangas, and fiction in general - everyone has been to high school. But I didn't want to write another high school fic. Often when I watch high school movies it occurs to me very strongly that the author originally intended for the story to take place on a college or university campus, but the producers would make more money if it took place on a high school campus, so the story is slightly changed and now we're dealing with high school students.

Me? I'm done college and college was a hoot! Whoo! My college was fun anyway and since then I've been employed by a couple different universities. So, I decided that I was ready to write a story that takes place on a university campus. In the story, the university Van, Hitomi and the rest of them attend is the UofA (University of Asteria) - which is hilarious because the last university I worked at was also the UofA (I can sing the school song - really loudly - too. Ah! I have so much school spirit).

The other reason I wanted to start off at a university is because I wanted to shy away from people comparing my story to the 'Twilight' books and anyone who has read my blog in great detail knows what I think of them - PREDICTABLE - which is fine ... for vampire virgins. But, I'm not like that. I've read and watched scads of vamp stuff, so much so that I can guarantee you that what I have in mind for this story is nothing like anything you've read elsewhere. If you think you can guess what is going to happen, I can promise you right now - YOU HAVE NO IDEA. I'm going to blow your minds clean out of the water. And as for my story being compared to 'Twilight' ... BLAH ... it's already happening ... BLAH. But I don't care about any of that. Or at least, I'm going to make myself not care about that. I should just be delighted that people are taking time out of their day to read my story. I'm really excited that I've had so many people return to my stories when I've taken so long getting to them.

So, for the time being - I'm back in the game. Better buckle up cause we're going for a ride.