My Life In Ruins

I wouldn't normally watch a romantic comedy, except maybe if it was the only alternative to taking, say, hemlock. But there I was on a big plane for 12 hours, on the first leg of the journey to Bouchercon: total transit time a bit over 25 hours in case you're wondering.

I did manage to write two scenes for the third book while in flight, but it wasn't the most inspiring environment, so I had a look at the movies. There was one called My Life In Ruins, about a tour guide who takes tourists around the ruins of Greece and inevitably finds true love.

How badly could they screw this up, I wonder. So I watch it.

I can't comment on the movie, not being a romantic comedy connoisseur, except to say if this is typical then hemlock might actually be the better alternative. But the movie went from Olympia to Delphi to the Acropolis, and to my astonishment, they shot the real sites from good angles. The heroine trots out whole sequences of facts about the sites, and as far as I could tell on the fly she got them all correct.

I'm not sure this is enough to make up for the rest of the movie though.

7 comments:

scaryazeri said...

For some bizarre reason, when I think of my flight to NY next week, I keep thinking that it would be a lovely quiet place for me to try to write some "stuff". And that brings up a question in my head- do I take my laptop with me, or ( oh horror!) try to make some notes by hand? Funny how I used to write so much by hand in my younger days and never imagined any other way. I know this writer back home who still thinks nobody can be creative on a PC. He writes everything down by hand, and then types it up. what do you do?

Lucas Darr said...

Yeah, but was the heroine hawt?

scaryazeri said...

@Anthony: You got yourself a new follower with just one short, but funny sentence. Perhaps, this is a sign of a talent? :)

Gary Corby said...

Hi Scary. I use a pad and paper for places where a laptop is just too painful - which includes economy seats on planes - but transfer to the laptop as soon as I can. But I know of one person who's finished a novel longhand.

Yes Anthony, the heroine was hawt. :-)

Crystal Posey said...

This reminds me of an over-seas trip I took. I was stuck watching Chicken Run over and over and over... I never, ever want to be on a plan for that long again.

Chris Eldin said...

Wow, that's a LONG trip!
I like to bring paper and do edits/sketch minor scenes in places in planes. Not that it's an everyday occurrence...
Hope you're having fun now that you're here!
(btw, the first batch of agents i mentioned last spring... well, I guess you can tell what happened. So I took stock and went back and edited the story, a page one painful sort of edit. And now have 3 agents reading. After finishing said round of revisions, I finally had an "AHA" moment. And if it's rejected by this round, I'm ready to move on to the next project.) I just really want this book to be picked up because the next one in the series uses the setting details from the funeral home. Anyway, I'm rambling...
:-)

Gary Corby said...

Yes Chris, it's a long way, but well worth it to meet the people at the end of the line.

Sad for you on the book, but keep trying!