Say Whaaaaaaat??!!

We interrupt this regularly schedule blog day for an important announcement. How many of you like that movie, the Dark Crystal?

Okay, I thought there would be a few of you. Now, how many of you would like to write a Dark Crystal novel and make your writing debut?

That’s what the Jim Henson crew is offering. Whether published or not, you now have a chance to compete to write a Dark Crystal novel. Check out the details more specifically on this site.

The idea is you write a “7,500-10,000 words that represent the story you would tell in a full-length Dark Crystal novel.” The deadline is between October 1 and December 31, 2013. They want the final novel to be somewhere in the 50,000 range, so try and make yourself a nice, tight-knit story.

They’ll also be posting all of the lore and world details on DarkCrystal.com, but all the creativity is up to you.

What do you think my hearties? That many words is about 14-18 pages, depending on your spacing, font, etc. We’ve got until October. I guess my thinking is why not? What better exposure for your work than writing the new Dark Crystal novel? And even if you don’t make it, it’s good practice, especially if you’ve been laboring on the same novel for years (like me).

I’m going to check out the website and see if I become inspired. We’ve got this peeps!

UPDATE: Thanks to a few good writing cohorts, I was made aware of this blog post. Now, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. If you are published with the Henson company name, I’m sure agents and publishers will be clamoring for your next book. But it’s good to know exactly what you’re getting into. I guess this contest is much like the Amazon one when it comes to rights, but read this post carefully before you submit. Also the official RULES.

Get Curious About Yellow

Have you ever come across something strangely wonderful?  You don’t know why you like it, just that you do.  There’s something appealing about it.  Maybe it’s nostalgia, maybe it’s a charmingly campy, maybe it’s just bizarre enough to spark your imagination—whatever the reason, it appeals to you.

A number of years ago, a friend showed me a video called Yellow.  No, it isn’t the Coldplay song.  It’s a strangely wonderful video about the color Yellow.  Here, take a look.

I’ve always loved this video ever since I saw it, but that’s where it ended and it’s really a shame.  I didn’t let my curiosity take me further into what made Yellow.  I suppose I figured it was a crazy, strange video that just happened to be made and thought nothing more of it.  Probably some of that false genius just happens attitude I was still living under at the time.

But what if I had gotten curious about yellow?  What would I have discovered?

Well, let’s start with the video.  Who is Ken Nordine?  Why should I care?

KEN NORDINE

It’s really a shame I hadn’t gotten more curious about yellow sooner, because I might have discovered Word Jazz faster.  So who is Ken Nordine?  He’s someone you might know better hearing his voice than hearing his name.  He’s been used as a voiceover for many TV commercials and movie trailers, and as you’ll find if you Google search his name, best known for Word Jazz.  Check out his command of story craft.

This prompted me to search out further Ken Nordine videos, which were familiar somehow even though I could recall ever hearing them before in my life—aside from that first Yellow video.  Something about the way they were constructed reminded me of something.  It didn’t take long until I found the connection.