Word Salad II

(sigh) No sooner did we get back from the Surrey International Writers' Conference -- which was an absolute blast, definitely something we will happily attend again -- that I went down with a really nasty case of the flu (I think I picked it up while passing through Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam: had it been something I'd picked up sooner, I think it would have manifested earlier). Now I'm slowly starting to get caught up with things that should have been going on days ago.

In particular, the new chapter of A Wizard of Mars has gone up for premium content subscribers at the Young Wizards discussion forums. I'm really sorry for the delay: it was due to a hardware issue that I couldn't resolve before we left (dead laptop, material not duplicated / backed up elsewhere, argh!!) -- and then after we got back I went straight to bed. If you've been a subscriber and for some reason find you can't get at the new content, let me know and I'll see to it that your subscription is extended. Also, yes, I know the graphic on the AWoM page says "Chapter 3." Webmaster Lee will be fixing that shortly.

...But today there's other business. Today the Writers' Guild, as some of you will doubtless have noticed, is on strike.

There is going to be a lot of cluelessness and outright crap in the broadcast media about this over the coming days (and, I much fear, weeks...). To those of you who're unfamiliar with the issues, let me point out one crucial fact right away: due to the increasingly vertically-integrated nature of the entertainment industry, the mass media are largely controlled by the same people (the AMPTP) that the Guild is striking against... so don't expect to hear much from the big media outlets except how greedy and ungrateful and unreasonable we rich, spoiled TV writers are.

(eyeroll) A million things I could say about this... except others are saying it better and far more eloquently: have been saying it for days and weeks, and in some cases months. If you want to find out about why writers are striking, read these sources for clear and sometimes (understandably) angry explanations.

The Artful Writer: the website run by Ted Elliott (Pirates of the Caribbean) and Craig Mazin (Scary Movie 3)

News from me: Mark Evanier's website

United Hollywood: a WGA strike captains' blog

And of course, the Writers Guild of America website

Also, for general news and background, Nikki Finke's weblog at L.A. Weekly is a good bet: Deadline Hollywood Daily

(BTW, for those of you who support the writers in this strike and have a picket nearby, please note: the Guild says you are more than welcome to join writer members on the picket lines.)

...Meanwhile, I'm going to go back to bed and Drink Some More Fluids. But I leave you with Jon Stewart's take on the strike. Dry stuff. Go Jon! (snrk)

(See also: Jon Stewart to pay his writing staff's salaries for the next two weeks)

(afterthought. Today's silliest headline: Writers' strike forces students to study ... They're kidding, right? Not even Superman could make that happen.)