Doomsters and Cassandra and Smart Alecks

I wish Fox Business would provide the embed coding for their videos, but all I have is this link to this an interview I did on Tuesday with Dennis Kneale.

This would have been a really good interview, except for the fact that I tried to get cute at the very top. What I remembered of Cassandra from ancient Greek literature was her predicting that Agamemnon would be killed by Clytemenstra. So when Dennis read his into and mentioned Troy, I tried to prove how smart I was. Dumb.

But, I am nothing if not honest. So I looked it up, saw my mistake, and later tweeted this out to Dennis:

Hey, @denniskneale. So, I was thinking of this http://t.co/YkZPtc5dSn but turns out she predicted Troy, too. http://t.co/sgSB82KKKx
— Paul Vigna (@paulvigna) October 29, 2013

@denniskneale Hate when I try to sound smarter than I really am!
— Paul Vigna (@paulvigna) October 29, 2013

That said, I really don't remember her being mentioned in the Iliad, or the Odyssey for that matter.

'Gold Rush' Days

Jack and Todd Hoffman of the reality-TV show "Gold Rush" did the media circuit in the city today to promote the program's new season, and one of their stops was my show (it's nice to know we're on the publicist's list of stops).

I'll be honest, I thought I asked some pretty good questions, and I thought their answers were also very good, very illuminating. Sharp guys.

I had a lot of fun with this one.

Writing is Not Hard

Writing is not hard.

Writing well is very hard.

Writing so well that every single word is not only in the perfect, correct place, but every single word is the perfect, correct only word that could work in that exact, specific spot, so much so that the words become a moving image, the entire story becomes this living, breathing thing that burrows in your mind is so difficult that to my knowledge, the only man who's ever achieved it is James Joyce.

'The Walking Dead' is Back

"The Walking Dead" is back, and so are my recaps, which will appear every Sunday night right after the show ends on the Journal's Speakeasy blog.

Here's an excerpt from this week's recap. I also wrote a piece about the show, its fans and the economy.

"The Walking Dead” returned to AMC on Sunday night for its fourth season. The show that was apparently too bloody and too gory for the genteel folk at the Emmys is back in all its blood-soaked glory, and it’s finding new ways to dump zombies right into our laps.

No kidding. Tonight’s big set-piece involves an abandoned supermarket, zombies on the roof, and an Army helicopter. It’s not just a bloodfest, though. There is some very nuanced story telling here, and as we’re re-introduced to the characters, we see how much has changed since the Governor mowed down his own people and left Rick Grimes in control of the countryside around the West Georgia Correctional Facility – and how much hasn’t changed.

The Carrie Telekinesis Stunt

So, I'm not in the habit of doing movie studios' marketing for them, and I'm not sure if the world needs another Carrie, but this video made to publicize the new Carrie movie is pretty damn clever.

My only wish is they cut a version of it that would be just one continuous shot of the actual stunt itself. But seeing how they set the whole thing up is a good idea, too.



I'll be back with a post about my latest story idea, which involves time travel, and Hitler, and seriously unintended consequences.