Posts by David Jón Fuller

Submitting your writing, explained in Princess Bride GIFs

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Film poster for The Princess Bride - Copyright...
Film poster for The Princess Bride – Copyright 1987, 20th Century Fox (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It’s easy to become disheartened when submitting your writing. We’ve all been there. Even after all the heavy lifting of writing a story or novel, revising it, getting feedback, even working with an editor, you send it out into the world with high hopes. Sadly, there is no guarantee of success, exception maybe perseverance, but even then you know not every story will find a home.

Take heart! Even great stories can take a while to find traction. Take The Princess Bride, now cherished as a classic film. Upon its theatrical release in 1987, it barely made a ripple, and was considered a flop. (For the inside story on what it was like to work on the movie, I highly recommend Cary Elwes’ book, As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales From the Making of The Princess Bride.) But thanks to home video and word of mouth, eventually the movie found its audience, and then some, becoming a cult classic.

I happen to think that in submitting your writing, as in many aspects of life, The Princess Bride has much to teach us.

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Things I Wish I Could Say to Douglas Adams

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Douglas Adams
Am I a fan of Douglas Adams? Why yes, I am… why do you ask?

I’ve been a fan of Douglas Adams since I was in junior high. A friend of mine thrust a copy of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy at me and said, “If you like Monty Python, you’ll probably like this.”

The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas AdamsHe was right. I devoured the whole four-part trilogy (as it was then) and found that Douglas Adams was one of those rare authors who could make me laugh my head off — and make me think.

I came back to his writing over the years, somehow managing to read his two Dirk Gently novels out of order, but understand them just fine nevertheless, and later howling over nearly every entry in The Meaning of Liff. I’ve recently been re-reading his work, and finding that Douglas Adams still makes me laugh, and think, and look at things in a new way.

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Unique cannot take a modifier 

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UniqueUnique means “one-of-a-kind.”

Something cannot be the most one-of-a-kind or very one-of-a-kind, as in the incorrect phrase “very unique.”

Something is either unique or it’s not.

You cannot modify an absolute.

 

 

Originally created by Mary-Agnes Welch, David Jón Fuller, and Julie Carl.

A blunt look at colonialism: The Outside Circle

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I had the pleasure of reading Patti LaBoucane-Benson and Kelli Mellings’ The Outside Circle as well as interviewing The Outside Circleboth creators for Prairie Books Now. As a graphic novel it’s not only beautifully drawn, it’s a wrenching story of gang life, family and the legacy of colonialism in Canada. I’d say it’s appropriate — and would highly recommend it — for anyone in their late teens through adulthood who wants to learn what Canada’s history and government policies have resulted in for too many Indigenous people, and how reconnecting with family, either chosen or blood, and cultural teachings, can help. The Outside Circle is published by House of Anansi Press.

You might not think a PhD dissertation could be the inspiration for a graphic novel. But with The Outside Circle, Patti LaBoucane-Benson and Kelly Mellings have brought to life in a powerful story Canada’s colonial history and its effects on Aboriginal people today.

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Reasons to love Thor: Ragnarok

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Thor: RagnarokOK, before we get into discussing why you should see Thor: Ragnarok, we’re going to ignore for a moment that the title of this post misspells “ragnarök” as “ragnarok.” I’m sure if it were a section of Taika Watiti’s Thor movie, there would be a “devil’s anus” joke to riff on here. And I’m a bit disappointed that a movie willing to use Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song” not once, but twice, didn’t get an umlaut in its title.

But such petty concerns are beside the point. I loved this movie. It was exactly as fun as I hoped it would be.

And, in its many departures from Norse mythology, it actually uses them to make a point. Unlike the first two Thor movies (which I enjoyed in their own right), Taika Watiti’s Thor: Ragnarok finds a way to make the Marvel superhero Thor both epic and funny. (In Thor, he was funny, but not epic. In Thor: The Dark World, he was epic, but not exactly funny.)

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Canada’s forgotten battle: Hill 70

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I first became aware of the First World War Battle of Hill 70 when researching the 107th Capturing Hill 70“Timber Wolf” Battalion for a couple of short stories I was working on a number of years ago, which were “A Deeper Echo” and “The Wolves of Vimy.” Compared to the treatment of other battles Canada fought in during the First World War — such as the Somme, Vimy, and Passchendaele — it’s almost unheard of today, and I only stumbled across mention of it because the 107th played a part in it. However, as the contributors to the new volume Capturing Hill 70: Canada’s Forgotten Battle of the First World War, edited by Douglas E. Delaney and Serge Marc Durflinger, show, at the time it was seen as equally important as those other battles. I had the opportunity to review the book for the Winnipeg Free Press (presented below in slightly longer form).

Etched in stone on the war monument on Winnipeg’s Memorial Boulevard, along with SOMME, VIMY and PASSCHENDAELE, are the words HILL 70. Yet while Vimy and Paschendaele loom large in Canadian awareness of the First World War, Hill 70 has been forgotten.

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