http://www.deadline.com/2010/05/del-toro-leaves-the-hobbit-and-evidently-peter-jackson-wont-be-next/#more-44536

I think he would have brought a terrific visual interpretation to Middle Earth. I wonder who they’ll get now? Sounds like Peter Jackson is already committed to other projects so he’s out.

I’ve been remiss in not saying hello to my German readers as the German language edition of Darkness just came out there. I’ve visited Germany a few times, mostly as a historian on battlefield tours and once to visit a girlfriend…let’s just say the battlefield tours had less, um, battle in them. Most of my travels in Germany followed the western Allies push into the western part so unfortunately I’ve yet to visit Berlin. It’s one of the major cities of the world and steeped in history which, naturally, makes it incredibly interesting to me.

Still deep in the long weekend here in the US. The birds are chirping in the trees out front of my building which is much nicer than car alarms and fire trucks.

If you aren’t familiar with this convention, it’s a gathering of publishers and related industries and professionals from around the world and include printers, librarians, agents, distributors, authors etc. There was a time when it was just a mass of free signed copies of new books and lots of other giveaways, but that has been dropping off the last few years. Now I’d say it’s much more business to business in its orientation. Today I’m going to scout around and check out the graphic novel area in between meetings.

In other news, Gallery (the new name of the imprint at S&S that publishes the hard cover editions) have settled on the teaser chapter from Ashes of a Black Frost to place in the mm of The Light of Burning Shadows. I was trading emails with my editor and we’ve got it nailed down…I think.

I’ve always been introspective, but lately I’ve been working to go beyond simply dissecting my life and why I live it the way I do and instead trying to craft some meaning and purpose into it. It’s actually mirroring what’s been going on with my main character. For the first two books Konowa has essentially been a slave to his emotions. He reacts to external forces and they, not Konowa, dictate his responses. Now as the trilogy reaches its climax he’s finding out who he is and choosing how he responds. What I can’t tell is if my character is inspiring me, or I’m inspiring my character (and yes, I’m aware that only one of us is really real…uh, me, right?) Whichever way the energy is flowing it’s working for both of us.

In other news I do not hear voices and twin ghost girls are not appearing down the hall. I am a little concerned, however, with the red paint in the elevator…

I go in phases with watching television. In the past ten years I’ve lived a few of them – intermittently – with no television at all. Turns out life does go on. In fact, it improves. Every time I turn the television off I rediscover so many things that I otherwise would have missed. I’m girding myself for another stretch of no tv and the challenges are significant.

First, I live alone, and having the tv on as background noise helps fill up the space. Second, I spend all day every day reading, writing, and editing, and my brain needs a break and television is soooo easy. I imagine I could come up with more reasons, but I don’t want to. I want to turn the box off and keep it off and use my powers for good and that sort of thing. Of course, television is really a gateway drug to something far more sinister in its ability to eat up time. The internet. It’s like tv except with several billion channels. I used to read one actual newspaper in the morning, maybe two. Now I can surf the net and read the news from around the world. In the span of an hour I can bounce from BBC to CBC to The Times of India to The New York Times to Der Spiegel to Le Monde and on. Despite all of that I don’t know if I’m well informed or simply stuffed with data.

It’s not going to be easy, but the rewards are great. I’ll never make it to the Luddite hall of fame, but in my own way I’m trying to take back my 24 hours a day and use them on my terms, not that of network television and internet providers. So, guess I’d better turn this thing off and get –