Called into Book City yesterday (the other book seller in Alice Springs) to say hi. We're having a book launch at Dymocks next week and another one on Melbourne in March, so I thought it might be prudent to reassure them that I loved them just as much at their competition. This proved to be an excellent idea because now they're in the process of creating a shrine to Jennifer Fallon display in their front window.

Anyhoo, there I was, explaining that they should see the new Tide Lords book in store any day now, and the manager gives me this, well... look, and says, yes Jenny, we know... it's here already.

Woo Hoo! says the happy author. Where is it?

You walked past it on the way into the store.

What a twit I felt when I turned around. I'd passed a towering pile of POIDs at the front of the store on my way in! This had the staff rolling about laughing that I didn't notice them, I have to say. They'll be telling customers about that one for weeks:).

So, it's out... and has been for a day or two, apparently, because I got a Google alert this morning from someone who'd blogged on Live Journal that it was "awesome".

I can live with awesome:)

Follow this link if you want to read an extract.

If you can't find it at your local bookstore, after you've finished demonstrating with placards outside the store to express your displeasure, contact the wonderful boys at Galaxy who ship worldwide and will be happy help you out.

*That's the one I can't talk about yet:)

A bunch of us went off to see a western, this week. I am rather fond of westerns, truth be told. I like their absurd, black and white morals and their "a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do" logic and that nothing is so dire in one's life that it can't be solved with a hail of bullets.

But here's an interesting thing. Have you noticed the black hat/white hat visual cues of the original westerns (so we can tell the good guys from the bad guys) which we all laugh at so much now, have been replaced by the much more subtle black teeth/white teeth?

In this, as in most other modern westerns (and yes, including Deadwood) all the good guys have nice, even, often beautifully capped, white teeth. Bad dudes, however, have brown grotty teeth and delight in smiling evilly at their foes, no doubt hoping to fell them with bad breath in case the bullets miss. Watch closely next time you see a western if you don't believe me. Pretty teeth are the new white hats.

And I have to say, that's how I knew Russell Crowe's character wasn't going to be all bad. Despite the blood, gore and random killings, his pearly whites were shining from the get-go. So were Christain Bale's teeth, even though he was supposed to be a dirt-poor farmer who could barely afford to eat. Good to see that the noble people of the Wild West understood the importance of regular dental care. Who needs food? Just gets caught in those gorgeous teeth and rots them anyway:... hahaha

Enough about teeth. Here's the review.

3:10 to Yuma is a remake of the 1957 film of the same name, in which Glen Ford played the outlaw Ben Wade, captured by railroad bounty hunter, Byron McElroy (Peter Fonda), for excessive train-robbing (they’re not so concerned about the murders, apparently) and on his way to the nearest railhead to catch the 3:10 Prison Train to Yuma. Meanwhile, back on the ranch, his gang is in hot pursuit, willing to do pretty much anything to get their leader back.

 

In this version, Russell Crowe fills Glen Ford’s well-worn cowboy boots, with Christian Bale in the role of the dirt-poor farmer Dan Evans, who is so strapped for cash he’s prepared to risk life and his three remaining limbs for the reward money to save his ranch. Complicating the issue is Evan’s fourteen-year-old son, William (Logan Lerman) who tags along for the excitement and who has a serious case of hero-worship going on for the ruthless killer his father is escorting to justice. This is a twist added for the remake for a bit of added angst, I assume. There is no character named William Evans listed in the credits of the 1957 original.

 

Regardless of which version you’re watching, you know, however, that Ben Wade can’t be all bad, because for one thing, they hired Russell Crowe (and Glen Ford) for the part, and for another, Ben Wade stops in his trail of death, doom, larceny and destruction on occasion, to sketch delicate images of birds and pretty girls. With a trait like that you know he must have a marshmallow centre, even if, on the outside, he’s a ruthless killer and proud of the fact.

 

This is essentially a buddy movie where it’s pretty much a given from the get-go that the bad guy - despite all his protestations to the contrary - will eventually do something noble in order to help the good guy restore his honour in the eyes of his outlaw-worshipping son. Personally, I’d rather, well, keep on living, but then I don’t live in the Wild West and I’m not a big fan of the Death Before Dishonour credo. I’m more of a "Dead You’re Pretty Much Screwed Whichever Way You Look At It" believer, myself. 

 

One can’t fault the acting in this film or the production. Directed by James Mangold (Walk the Line) and with A-listers like Crowe, Fonda and Bale onboard, this film was never going to fail. Add a fine supporting cast, (that got a little bit distracting, I have to say, because we kept whispering “Hey! Look! It’s whathisname!” every time we spotted another familiar face), some spectacular scenery, cowboys, Indians, outlaws and the obligatory stagecoach and you have all the hallmarks of a good solid western. And don’t forget the shootouts. And the gun battles (of which there are plenty) during which all good guys are — in the finest western tradition — immune to the hail of bullets (until it’s convenient for them to take a bullet) and all bad guys can be felled with a single shot.

 

I haven’t seen the original, but I image this one is grittier and probably has more blood. And the bad guys have notably poorer dental hygiene. But in the end, it’s still a pretty formulaic western, written in the heyday of formulaic westerns, elevated above its station by the quality of the cast and crew bringing the story to life.

Got an Ask Jenny question the other day which I found thoroughly entertaining, not to mention more than a little disturbing.

I suspect this question is because of my blog entry a couple of years ago (and presumably the list FW is referring to) -Acceptable ways to kill people in fiction.

Apparently I have become the Dear Auntie of serial killers. Cool:)

I am writing a book, well actually, two books about two separate serial killers. One of the killers is very personal, like if you smoke, and that’s one of your vices, he will burn you all over with cigarettes, or if you talk too much, cut off your lips, etc, etc. The other killer is very impersonal. He’s the kind to set up a device, put you in it, and let the device kill you, like in Kay Hooper’s book "Hunting Fear" where he has a guillotine that is timed, or a chair with two blades held up close to the neck not quite touching so when the victim finally can hold up his head no more, he slits his own throat, or my personal favorite where he put a girl in a tank underwater and water slowly dripped in until she drowned…

Anyways, now that I’ve been rambling, I was hoping, as I have run out of ideas, you could suggest some more ways to kill people, particularly of the impersonal sort, because I was looking at your list online and found that most of those wouldn’t quite fit in my stories.

Much appreciated.

Fellow Writer

My answer, Fellow Writer, first up, is to watch the movie Se7en, which explores a very similar methodolgy dealing with vices and the 7 deadly sins. And you must watch Dexter. He's the best serial killer around at the moment. psychotic and loveable. Wish I'd thought him up.

Failing that, how many other ways can I think to kill people?  Hmmmm....

1. Have them try to cash a cheque in a bank. If they don't die of starvation and dehydration waiting to get served, they might turn crazy and kill everyone else in the bank with their sharpened ATM card when they finally get to the window, are next in line, and the teller puts up the "Out to Lunch - Next Teller Please" sign.
2. Make them watch endless repeats of Big Brother. I'd eat my own spleen before I got through the second episode, let alone repeats.
3. Have them try to pay a $20 parking fine at the Alice Springs Town Council. By the time they've been sent away from the front counter becasue the staf couldn't process the fine, spoken to about 14 different people on the phone, only to get told they should have paid it at the front counter of the council offices and the fine was now doubled because it was due a couple of days ago (when they were in there trying to pay it), they will be ready to dismember every living soul within reach by gnawing their limbs off. Trust me on this. I speak from experience:

Firstborn totalled her car last night. She has had a near-new Toyota Yarris. She rear-ended a Landrover Defender on the way to a scrapbooking class (Clearly, arts and craft are more dangerous than you'd think).

Defender 1 - Yaris 0

Her car was completely mangled. There is not a mark on the Defender.

She wasn't hurt, thank god, but she was pretty shaken up, so Dace stayed over last night, at my house, where I had my own little drama when my desktop computer died. Fortunately I still have the Tablet PC, but it was most inconvenient of the computer to decide to snuff it at that particular moment.

Now I have to replace it. I was thinking of getting a Mac (in a month from now when it was supposed to die at a convenient time), but I'm in the middle of an MS with a very tight deadline and don't have the headspace to change to a new  system. And there's no Apple dealer for 1500klms in any direction, which makes after-sales service somewhat problematic. I could buy a Dell on-line, but I've heard lots of horror stories about their after-sales service. I wouldn't buy another Acer, because the one that just died is an Acer and it's given me no end of trouble.

So, I might check out the HP range. They have an agent in town and the Tablet PC is a HP, and it's been very reliable. Or I could check out the little computer shop in town where the guy builds his own machines and get something custombuilt out of parts he probably sourced off eBay - and end up with the most reliable after-sales service in town:)

Decisions... decisions...

But back to Dace... because he slept over last night, he went to bed waaay too late, because I let him play Age of Mythology on Secondborn's computer for much too long. I told him, when he kept reappearing for drinks and other sleep-delaying tactics, that I was going to be very peeved at him if he couldn't wake up in the morning because he was too tried.

Naturally, this morning, when I tried to wake him, he didn't want to get up. When I finally started to get cranky about his refusal to get out of bed and started the "I told you so" routine, he sat up in bed, bright as a button, and told me:

"I wasn't sleeping in because I was tired, Nana. I had to finish what I was doing in my dream."

Well, the first book launch for The Palace of Impossible Dreams is local, thanks to Bev and the lovely staff at Dymocks in Alice Springs.

There's another, national book launch in the works, but that's still kinda secret (kinda - as in putting on my blog isn't exaclty keeping it confidential...hahaha) but I can't reveal the details until they're confirmed with the people concerned.

On the other hand... if you happen to be passing through Alice in a couple of weeks...