9 Mar 1616: Francis Beaumont, playwright, interred in #Westminster Abbey near #Chaucer & #Spenser #otd
#Spenser
So happy to share this new little publication! I've been thinking about #Spenser, #allegory, and #anime for a decade now, and trying to process altogether too much information, so it's nice to see a small part of that thinking out in the world. Huge thanks to the editors for their careful engagement with my argument and for their patience in helping me sort out the key terms.
https://www.spenserreview.org/article/id/210/
The Dairie Queen
Fellow fans of #RobertBParker are welcome to contribute to the discussion in my #Fans of Robert B. Parker public #Matrix room: https://chatterrific.blogspot.com/2023/11/fans-of-robert-b-parker-on-matrix.html
If you're a Parker fan or want to become one, feel free to join.
Edmund Spenser's first wife was called Machabyas Childe. Their wedding took place at a rather grand venue: St. Margaret’s Church, Westminster, which is now the church of the House of Commons.
10 things you might not know about Spenser:
https://topicaltens.blogspot.com/2025/01/13-january-edmund-spenser.html
#Spenser has never been adapted faithfully enough for my liking. There was #TV's #SpenserForHire w/ #RobertUrich and #AveryBrooks, a few basic cable #Movies, and then the Netflix one. That shows there's been a fair amount of interest. I hope someone else takes a crack at it.
#WritersCoffeeClub Dec 13
#WritersCoffeeClub Dec 13: Which novel to TV or movie adaptation was the most disappointing and why?
Tying into my Dec 12 reply mentioning #RobertBParker as my favorite author, I was most disappointed in the 2020 #Netflix movie #Spenser Confidential. Very loosely based on #AceAtkins' continuation novel Wonderland, the movie changed Spenser into an ex-con to suit producer-star #MarkWahlberg. Terrible. Atkins' novels did no such thing.
#WritersCoffeeClub Aug 10: What's your favorite summer read for a getaway/holiday/vacation?
This Q takes me back to the summer of 1993, when I began #Reading #Novels w/ an eye toward writing one. I read #IanFleming's #JamesBond, Gregory Mcdonald's #Fletch, #RobertBParker's #Spenser...I can't pick one favorite book of all I read that summer.
#TomSelleck also said #RobertBParker's work was easy to adapt, that you could just take his dialogue from the books, yet the #Spenser movies Parker adapted himself were far less popular than Selleck's #JesseStone movies.
#WritersCoffeeClub Apr 1: What's your favorite easter egg in your own work and/or another work of fiction?
I don't place much value on easter eggs relative to command of language, compelling characters, and similar concrete measures of writing, but in general I like brief character mentions or cameos like when #RobertCrais's #ElvisCole waves to his neighbor #MichaelConnelly's #HarryBosch or when #AceAtkins had #Spenser in Los Angeles on a case see Crais's #JoePike jogging.
Fellow #RobertBParker fans, here are my early impressions of 2024's announced continuation novels - #AlisonGaylin's 2nd #SunnyRandall and #MikeLupica's 2nd #Spenser: https://chatterrific.blogspot.com/
If you know of any #Matrix rooms for #Fiction readers, I'm looking for recommendations. I started one for fans of #RobertBParker: https://matrix.to/#/#rbp-fans:matrix.org
Re #PennedPossibilities 233, #RobertBParker's #Spenser sees himself as virtuous and moral, tries to be virtuous and moral, and comes off a bit pretentious and full of himself. I want to avoid all that. If my characters act righteously and morally, I want readers to notice. I don't need the characters themselves or their friends to point it out as Parker often did. Perhaps Spenser failed in the past and was trying to make amends. That mitigates his moralizing.
#WordWeavers Feb. 26
#WordWeavers Feb. 26. Do you draw inspiration from other characters? What are your greatest influences?
I don't deliberately emulate other characters, but here's an example of their inspiration. In the #IndianaJones movies, Indy learns to fly but not land a plane. This was unfathomable to me, so I created a 1930s charter pilot.
#RobertBParker's #Spenser is a great influence on me, but again, in the sense I avoid making my characters like Spenser.
#WritersCoffeeClub Jan. 25: How do you feel about writers who write outside of their gender/sexuality/race etc?
It depends whether it's done well and to make a point or points.
e.g. #RobertBParker purposely wrote a Jewish Harvard PhD as love interest for his white male private eye #Spenser. He purposely wrote a black man as Spenser's best friend. He wanted to show the three could complement each other. He also included gay characters. (His sons are gay.) All fully realized characters.
One of my favorite novel series, Robert B. Parker's Spenser, was praised b/c Parker included a prominent Jewish love interest, a Black best friend for Spenser, and several gay and lesbian characters. This was noteworthy, but Parker never wrote from a Jewish female, Black male, or homosexual POV. Maybe he felt it would've been an overstep.
#writephant #SelfPromo I recently created a public Fans of Robert B. Parker room on Matrix. I moderated a Parker Yahoo! Group for many years and am looking to pick up discussion as the Parker estate has continued his series since his death in 2010:
Related to the Dec. 1 #WritersCoffeeClub about poetry included in fiction, Robert B. Parker's poetry-quoting detective Spenser is a favorite of mine b/c of the series' mix of hardboiled sleuthing and literary allusion. Spenser is a well-rounded character in general: an ex-boxer, ex-cop, gourmand...The series is also noted for Spenser's three-dimensional love interest, Harvard-trained psychologist Susan Silverman.
I invite fellow Robert B. Parker fans to join the discussion in my recently-created Fans of Robert B. Parker public @matrix room: https://chatterrific.blogspot.com/2023/11/fans-of-robert-b-parker-on-matrix.html
#RobertBParker #Matrix #Spenser #JesseStone #SunnyRandall #Authors #Books #Movies #TV
New Spenser continuation author Mike Lupica has a virtual appearance tonight at the Poisoned Pen Bookstore (Arizona)'s YouTube and Facebook Live, 6PM US Mountain/8PM US Eastern) https://chatterrific.blogspot.com/2023/11/mike-lupica-tour-for-robert-b-parkers.html
I plan to watch and comment in my Fans of Robert B. Parker public Matrix room.
#Spenser #RobertBParker #MikeLupica #YouTube #FacebookLive #Matrix
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