The Great Captain America

I can't help thinking about the great Captain America: The First Avenger which I saw over the weekend. My son, wife, and I have caught all the big summer movies together, from Thor to Transformers 3 (except HP7, only because I think the storyline is too dense for my almost 6 yr old to enjoy). We had planned to see it opening night, but with the insane heatwave gripping NYC and my son coming off a stomach virus, we waited till Sunday, and it was well worth the wait.

While the trailers and the commercials looked pretty cool, I didn't have great expectations. Yet I loved the concept of telling the story as it should be--in the WWII era--because although I was a fan of Captain America from the 70s and 80s (when I first started reading the comic), he was always part of the Greatest Generation.

Joe Johnston did a wonderful job directing. He did an excellent job on the underated The Wolfman last year and had honed his craft in effects and art direction in the original Star Wars trilogy and Raiders of the Lost Ark. He did direct Jurassic Park III and Captain America definitely had a Spielbergian pace and feel to it. In other words, it felt like Indian Jones with Superheroes which is infinitely cool.

Yet the best thing about the movie is that it focused on the essence of Captain America as a hero. It was the proverbial 90 lb weakly, Steve Rogers, from Brooklyn that was the hero. He is the one that never gave up, who kept on fighting against the odds. Who tried 5 times to enlist in the Army but was turned down because of his medical issues. Who would freely give his life to save his comrades. That is true heroism. Not the fantastic feats, but the strength of character in willing to sacrifice oneself to save others. That is Captain America. His superpowers accentuated the hero within, it didn't create it.

I'm excited about The Avengers with the teaming up Captain America, Thor, Iron-Man, and the Hulk coming out next year, but I'm a little saddened that we won't be seeing Captain America back in WWII. Iron Man, played masterfully by Robert Downey Jr., is the Superhero of our time. In other words, Iron Man is the Superhero of who we are, but Captain America is the Superhero of who we should be.

Welcome Home, Atlantis

At 5:57 am this morning, the Space Shuttle Atlantis landed safely at Florida's Kennedy Space Center, marking the end of the 30-year program. According to CNN, the shuttle program has sent 355 people from 16 countries to space, with 5 shuttles on a total of 135 missions.

The first shuttle, Columbia, launched on Sunday, April 12, 1981, a little less than a month before my 9th birthday. It was an exciting day because that was my first taste of real space exploration. Being a big Star Trek and Star Wars fan I dreamed of the stars. I was just an infant when the last Apollo mission launched, so I had never scene anything like this. Yes, there was Skylab, but the last manned mission to that space station was when I was 2 years old and what I remember most about Skylab was my fear that a piece of it would crash on my house when it came crashing to Earth 5 years later (luckily, it disintegrated in the atmosphere).

Of course, there is Tuesday, January 28, 1986, the day the Challenger exploded. I was in 8th grade and the nuns turned on the TV to watch the broadcast during class. The two things I remember most from then are the iconic image of the smoke plume and President Reagan's touching tribute. The closing lines stay with me:

We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and 'slipped the surly bonds of Earth' to 'touch the face of God.'

So 25 years after that tragedy the shuttle program ends. NASA does not have concrete plans as to what will follow it. There is talk of a manned flight to Mars or even a return to the Moon, but that is just talk. I hope we return to space soon and not just unmanned missions. Humanity has always dreamed of the stars and I hope that the end of the space program doesn't mark the waning of that dream.

From DRACAURUM to DRAGORO

“A rose by any other …” Wait, no. Actually, John and I have been mulling a title change for the book. The word Dracaurum is Latin and forms part of an old saying in the novel while it is translated by the characters into their native Castilian (Medieval Spanish) as Dragóro. It makes more sense that the common term be the title of the book. So, the book is now known as DRAGORO.

And with that, I’ve finished my revisions and sent on the revised manuscript to John (Yay!), with the new title. I’ve also updated my website accordingly. As my reward for finishing the revisions quicker than I anticipated I’m treating myself to HP7.2. As Bart Scott would say: “Can’t wait!”

Happy 50th Wedding Anniversary, Mom & Pop!!!

On steaming hot July 15, 1961, Americo Cordero married Marion Ildefonso at Santa Cecilia Church in El Barrio, New York. The reception was at Marion's parents' apartment, which was too small for the festivities, so the party had to spill into the street.

That was fifty years ago today and I thank you Mom and Pop. I love you both dearly. I pray you had a wonderful day.

My Dirty Little Writing Secret

James Cameron’s TITANIC inspired my writing career. No, seriously, it did. Here’s how the story goes. I’ve always been a creative person. Growing up I could draw, paint, sculpt, things like that. I’d do all that in relation to the stories I’d come up. The drawings or sculpts would be for the characters I created and I’d invent worlds for them, but for one reason or another, I never wrote out these stories.

When I was in high school I wanted to be a comic book artist, but my parents wouldn’t pay for college for me to pursue such a career so I chose architecture. Well, that lasted for 1 year. I dropped out in 1991, joined the Army, and followed a career path in law.

Back in November 1997, I took my then girlfriend (now wife of 9 wonderful years—yes, she reads this blog), to see TITANIC. When the final credits rolled up I turned to her and she was an emotional mess. I had shed some tears as well. I really loved that movie. Still do, so don’t hate, okay? I’ve been a Cameron fan since THE TERMINATOR. Anyway, I took her home and went back to my place.

I started thinking about the movie and realized that if I would ever make a movie of such scope it would be just like TITANIC. It was the GONE WITH THE WIND of that time. (Snickering is not welcomed, okay?). It was the epic love story.

Now, you may ask, what does that have to do with me? I was in my second year of law school and my career in the arts was never meant to be. I sat down in my living room with a bottle of Bacardi and started drinking. God had given me these creative gifts and I had been wasting them. I had to make peace with God. Bacardi straight would do that to you.

I bawled for a couple of minutes, composed my drunk self, and ended up drunk dialing my girlfriend. We talked for a bit and after I hung up I vowed to take my writing seriously. I had to finish law school first. That, of course, was my number one priority. Yet I promised myself that after I graduated, passed the bar, and got a job I’d take some writing courses and start writing. And that’s what I did … right after I bought a car. Hey, I’m a guy.

A Shout Out from Miss Snark's First Victim

As all we current and past queries know, Miss Snark's First Victim, aka "Authoress" runs a monthly contest called, appropriately, "Secret Agent Contest" where writers post the first 250 words of their manuscripts in order to be critiqued by other contestants AND the Secret Agent. I've been reading Authoress' blog for sometime and finally built up the courage to enter her contest this past May.

I entered with the 250 words of DRACAURUM and although I didn't win, as we all know, that story landed me an agent.

I emailed Authoress to thank her and she did the awesome thing of giving me a shout-out on her blog.

Thanks, Authoress!!!

Congratulations, Derek Jeter

As a life long Yankee fan I was beyond ecstatic that the great Derek Jeter did what no New York baseball player has ever done (no Yankee, Met, New York Giant, or Brooklyn Dodger) in getting his 3000th hit. He did it in spectacular fashion as we all know.

I devoured all the online articles about it and the best is by Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated. His closing is spot on and poignant:

The sports world is drastically changed from 1995, when Jeter collected the first hit of his major league career. That Jeter, in all ways that count the most, is remarkably the same in that changeable environment is, like the threshold of 3,000 hits, a rare achievement to be celebrated.

The best thing about Mr. Verducci's article is that he avoids what the other writers were prone to do. Even when lauding Jeter, they do so by saying what he is not, in that, he is not like the other great Yankees or players because of his lack of power numbers. It's a ridiculous in its backhanded compliment sort of way, similar to the criticism of Jeter now for his skills diminishing.

Hello? He's 37 years old. Jeter's decline is NATURAL, what every non-performance enhancing drug using ballplayer has gone through at a similar age. Sometimes it's as if the media critics (the same that vilify Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens for their PED use) would rather have Jeter hit .340 now with 35+ homers. That doesn't happen to a clean ballplayer at Jeter's age. I suspect he'll get his average up to the .300s eventually, if not this year than in the coming seasons. Yet mainly he'll be in the .270 range. That's natural for a ballplayer who's been clean all his life. A ballplayer who is one of the all-time greats and the best I ever had the pleasure of rooting for as a Yankee fan.

When I was very young my favorite Yankee player was Lou Gehrig. A mythological, tragic hero who performed great feats on the ballfield in the shadow of the iconic Babe Ruth and was cut down in the prime of his life by a terrible disease that now bears his name. Of course, I never had the honor of seeing Gehrig play since he died well before I was born. I lamented the fact that I would never root for a Yankee on par with Gehrig. Thank you, Derek Jeter, for proving me wrong.