Almost Similar To But Not Quite Entirely Unlike...

Good evening, fellow castaways!

I'm pretty geeked out this week. June is turning into a good month here. My fourth book, Lies and Paine, is now available for those who may or may not be familiar with my award-winning series The NADIA Project. You can get a peek by clicking on my "Books" page, but make sure you come back here  when you're done, okay? What's cool about this story is that you don't have to be familiar with the series to get it. As a matter of fact, I went out of my way to write each installment as a stand-alone, so you can start anywhere and not be lost.

The other cool thing that June brings us is the paperback release of the second book in the series, titled Unalive (Check out the Books Page again, just real quick!). Anyway, this is a really awesome part in the series that escalates the whole planet-wide conspiracy thing, and sets up our main character for Lies and Paine, none other than Jenna Paine herself. You'll either fall in love with her (like so many already have) or hate her guts (like so many others have). Bottom line is, I'd love it if you checked out my work.

But that's not why I'm posting this week.

I'm watching The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as I write this. You know, the newest version of the movie. It stands out to me as something of a Hollywood Oddity. It's a movie I enjoy as much as the book, even though it's a very different critter in many aspects. I've seen horrid movie treatments of books (*Cough* Starship Troopers)  that made me want to throw up, throw down, throw sideways for good measure, and then just plain puke. But this one I like.

One of the things that stands out is that the screenplay was written by Douglas Adams. Not everyone  has that kind of opportunity. So the spirit of the story remains the same, in spite of the differences in plot line. So the rabbit trails thrown in just fit right in, like the little side-trip to Planet Vogsphere. It's just as fun to watch as it was to read (for me, anyway).

As for the cast, I don't think I could have done any better if I could have picked the whole thing myself. Alan Rickman is brilliantly depressed as Marvin, and Zoe Deschanel rocks it as Trillian. Hey, Zaphod is played by that dude who played nnn-Guy from GalaxyQuest (Don't remember the fella's name and don't feel like looking it up, but you know who I'm talking about). He has this totally freakishly friendly (ooo, triple adverb!) smile that you just want to punch off his face, but it wouldn't do any good because there's another one hiding right below that one.

I must admit, I never pictured Ford Prefect as a black guy. But I  have to admit, it works.

All in all, still enjoyable, even though it's something almost similar to but not quite entirely unlike the book. I would hope Mr. Adams is looking down proudly that his intent was ahered to closely.

Of course, the story line is so quirky and off-beat, the only people who would even get it would be someone who wanted to stick with it.

So kudo's, guys. And thanks. It gives an author at least a shred of hope that his work, given sufficient value, can be translated with the same spirit, if not the same exact story.

Anybody know any producers?