The Score as Symphony: John Williams’ The Last Jedi (2017)

Williams’ new score for The Last Jedi is his eighth Star Wars score, an almost bewildering achievement for the now eighty-five year-old composer. Though he probably doesn’t view this achievement with quite the applause that Star Wars fans do (he recently said in an interview that he doesn’t remember writing anything particularly memorable for the films!), it has created an entire language for the saga—a language that extends into every byproduct of the original trilogy (shows, games, commercials, etc.). To see Darth Vader is to hear his music, and to even think Star Wars is to hear the iconic theme come blasting across the screen. It’s a considerable achievement to live up to, and even the most cynical composer must have thought twice before penning a new trilogy—or rather, a third new trilogy! 

Star Wars for the 21st Century: The Last Jedi

Whenever I see a Star Wars movie in theaters, I’m immediately watching it as the 8 year-old kid I was when I first experienced them in theatres in the early 80’s. I have vague memories of watching The Empire Strikes Back umpteen times (movies were so much cheaper back then), and I vividly recall when my mom took me to attend the opening week of Return of the Jedi shortly after school one afternoon. I’ll never forget how people booed as Darth Vader came striding down the ramp in the half-completed Death Star, or how people cheered when he threw the Emperor down the seemingly bottomless shaft. I would feel ashamed today to even applaud after a movie’s closing credits...I last remember that occurring after Fellowship of the Ring in 2001. 

A Wattpad Review: Caitlin E. Jones’ Shoppe Walpurgis

One of the fasting-growing subgenres of fantasy is the fairy-tale retelling, which has spawned a number of popular books and a slew of indie fiction. One of the biggest criticisms of these stories, however, is how little is left to tell: since everyone knows the story, there’s no real surprise left to uncover for the readers (and isn’t narrative drama one of the true hallmarks of the novel?). To make it work, an author has to take a familiar story and treat it like a myth that can be transported to different characters and lands and help us see something about our own world through the ‘old’ frame. Most re-tellings, frankly, feel a bit like literary exercises, a chance for the author to stretch their wings even though they have nowhere in particular to go. We might even enjoy the trip, but once we’re there, the book is instantly forgotten and we can only remember the original tale—which, frankly, taught us a lot more to begin with. 

Fanny Price--Austen's Greatest Heroine? (a re-reading of Mansfield Park)

Of all of Austen’s novels, Mansfield Park (1814) gets precious little attention—and far too little love. Why? Actually, I’m somewhat at a loss myself, since I’ve always loved this novel and decided to re-read it after 8 or so years to make sure my judgment is sound. In fact, I recently re-read all of her novels, and taught most of them, too, with unparalleled delight. Nothing is more fun that taking a group of college students through the wonders of Jane Austen’s quicksilver prose,  her devastating yet subtle satire, and her effortlessly character arcs. But I had never taught Mansfield Park, largely because it’s on the longer side for a novel most people seem to dislike. Yet if you take a step back and look at some of the basic elements of the novel, you can’t help but wonder why this isn’t hailed as her greatest novel, or at least the most beloved.

[Spoilers ahead…] 

Writing is Writing it Over Again

Every writer—if you’ve written long enough—knows this moment: the moment where you’re watching a movie, or perhaps just reading a book, and there it is. Your story. Your idea. Your character. Your dialogue. Not that it’s been stolen from you, but you both lucked on the same source of inspiration; they just beat you to it.

For me, it was a situation—a humorous moment that two characters found themselves in, which led to very awkward dialogue that made the situation even funnier. And I had imagined it all. Some contextual details aside, it was more or less the same scene, with quite similar dialogue, though with a slightly different conclusion. My story—almost my words. And now I couldn’t use them. Or I could, but it would forever be in the shadow of the previous work, which would lead to a profoundly guilty conscience. 

Is Genre a Four-Letter Word?

Here are the plots to three novels: can you tell which are fantasy novels?

* The son of a twisted duke is killed in a bizarre accident, and his innocent fiancée finds herself a prisoner of a haunted castle, pursued by the duke himself. Only the strange, twisting corridors of Otranto can save her now, where statues cry bloody tears and giant helmets exact their unholy revenge.

* A sailor is shipwrecked on an island and wakes up to find that ant-sized people have captured him. They dub him the “Man Mountain” and force him to do various menial tasks (like saving the entire kingdom with his own urine), until, terrified by his potential power, decide to kill him and parcel off his body to various parts of the kingdom. But the “Man Mountain” has other ideas...

* Two knights are captured in battle and thrown into a dungeon for life. Through the bars, they glimpse a garden outside tended by a beautiful woman: both of them fall madly in love with her, and vow eternal hatred on the other, since only one can lay claim to her heart. Eventually, one night is pardoned while the other manages through subterfuge to escape. Once free, the second knight prays to Mars to assure him victory, while the other prays to Venus; both god and goddess grant each one success in love and battle. This causes quite a debate in Olympus, and Jupiter has to stand in judgment as to which lover will live with the maiden—and which will die in defeat.

Sam Reeves Reads The Dark Backward!

Check out Sam Reeves reading Chapter One of The Dark Backward (my new book) on his You Tube channel. Sam is known for being the voice and brains behind The Rabid Bookworm which not only reviews books but often performs them for his viewers. Today, he took time to read the first chapter of my book, allowing Hildigrim Blackbeard to finally speak out in a clear, bold voice. Thanks so much for honoring my book, Sam!

Click on the link to watch (it's about 9 minutes): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNlKLtGcISA&feature=share

When We Fall Out of Love With Writing...

The romance of writing is that sudden flush of inspiration, when a story, character, or idea grabs hold of your entire soul until you have to rush to your paper or keyboard and write it down. “Romance” is the correct word to use, too, since it’s not hyperbolic to call it a love affair. Sometimes it’s merely a crush, but at other times it’s truly love at first sight: a woman whose eyes make you dream of being better than you are, or a man whose voice gives you goosebumps when you imagine him speaking your name. Anyone who writes can relate to that feeling, after having written five or six pages in white-heat, when you look up from the page and think, “my god, I’m actually a writer! I’m in the middle of writing a book!” The whole world makes sense, or at least you do, as you float through it, no longer seeing a distinction between the world outside your door and the one in your mind. It’s all grist for the mill, raw material to construct the elaborate castles and cathedrals of your imagination to stand for all time. 

Kill the Cutpurse! is Free to Download this Wed-Thur on Amazon

You can download my first (and newly revised) novel, Kill the Cutpurse! on Amazon today and Thursday. All you need is a Kindle or a free Kindle app to read a short, fast-paced novel of humorous epic fantasy centering on a trio of thieves who are comissioned to steal the largest clock hand in the kingdom...and end up dismantling the very gears of the thieving community! Check it out in the link below:

https://www.amazon.com/Kill-Cutpurse-Joshua-Grasso-ebook/dp/B01ETWWL0G/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

The Technology of Storytelling

Writing is a form of technology: the book is a tool which more accurately (or perhaps, definitively) records a story for all time and space. Before writing, we still told stories, and these stories changed every time they were spoken, since a good storyteller would take the ‘frame’ of the tale and embellish it like a literary game of Telephone. The oral works which have come down to us in writing, such as those by Homer, or Beowulf, or any number of myths and religious texts, represent the oldest technology in existence: a thousand tale-tellers and their dreams kept the stories alive through sheer force of will, telling stories over and over again lest they fade into the twilight (as many stories undoubtedly did; we’ve probably lost more stories than we preserved). With the advent of writing we discovered new tool that would preserve a story, intact, for all time the second the ink dried on the page. Some feared it would make us lazy; perhaps we wouldn’t see the need to tell stories at all. After all, once we wrote them down, couldn’t we just read them over and over again? What need to keep making up new ones?

Collaborating With the Dead

Early this month, The New Yorker published an article entitled, “The Complicated Backstory To a New Children’s Book by Mark Twain.” The book in question has the rather unwieldy—but very 19th century—title, The Purloining of Prince Oleomargarine (c.1879). Now before you get too excited, expecting something along the lines of Tom Sawyer or The Prince and the Pauper, here are the facts: sixteen pages of notes were unearthed by a scholar at the Bancroft Library in Berkeley, notes which were not a finished story but a mere outline of a tale Twain used to entertain his daughters. Worse yet, the outline was unfinished. The scholar who uncovered it, John Bird, stood face-to-face with the find of a career. But what should he do with it? Publish it as is, perhaps in a journal article with contextual notes about the circumstances of its composition, its relation to other stories in his canon, etc.? Or actually complete and flesh out the sketch, so that everyone could enjoy a forgotten piece of the Twain puzzle—incomplete and insubstantial though it is? 

Download Two Kindle Books for the Price of None!

My two novels, The Dark Backward and The Winged Turban are free to download today (Friday) for all Kindles or with a free Kindle app. The links and blurbs for each book follow...

The Dark Backward: "A cynical thief has to apprentice herself to a sly magician, but the thief doesn't believe in magic...and the magician is already dead." https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Backward-Joshua-Grasso-ebook/dp/B0756526L5/ref=pd_sim_351_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=VH9EY825B43YZE51B0R3

The Winged Turban: "The young Countess of Cinquefoil is haunted by a painting of a strange woman in a turban: the former mistress of the house? Or her own self-portrait lost for two hundred years?"  https://www.amazon.com/Winged-Turban-Joshua-Grasso-ebook/dp/B015DQEHMW/ref=pd_sim_351_4?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=EJ3J5FZC2N8GHXF52S8C

The Myth of Posterity

In 1945, the great Finnish composer Jean Sibelius prepared a major bonfire of several of his unpublished works, including his still-incomplete Eighth Symphony (which he had promised to a variety of American orchestras for well over a decade). It was a major loss for music, since Sibelius remains one of the most innovative 20th century composers and symphonists. However, some sketches and possibly even a complete score of the Eighth remained—glimpsed by some—on his bookshelf. But he consigned this to secrecy and made his family promise never to release it to the public. He died in 1957, and no mention of the symphony or any subsequent material appeared, despite repeated requests to his estate. Some rumored that at the turn of the 21st century new works would materialize, but other than some found sketches among his published papers and notes, no discovery was forthcoming. Today we only have 3 minutes of music that may have been intended for the Eighth Symphony.