Movie review, and an excerpt of Dragonbreath 2, just to prove an unrelated point!

For the record, "Sukiyaki Western Django" is an unbelievably awesome movie.

Judging by the reviews, you either love it or hate it, so I recommend it in the understanding that you may have to be a colossal surrealist spaghetti-western lovin’ dork to enjoy it, but since my readership arguably contains a larger than normal share of those, go forth and watch this flick. Seriously. It’s a Japanese spaghetti western (god I wish I’d thought of that) and the costuming is gorgeous and it is deeply absurd and quite gory and there is a seriously hot ass-kicking grandmother* and Quentin Tarantino has a cameo as a master gunfighter and sukiyaki maker and if all this is not enough to convince you, let me just utter a phrase that you are unlikely to EVER have heard:

Anasazi bugle player.

One of these days–y’know, when I’ve done all those OTHER projects, the ones I’m getting paid for and the ones on the shelf for a million years and that one cool alternate universe of birds (this is the problem with being a writer–I had to invent a comic book in Dragonbreath 2 for one character to loan to another, and so I came up with the following:

"A comic book?" Danny rolled his eyes. "I didn’t know you read girl comics. What was it, Lizard Sparkle Princess or something?"

"It was Empire of Feathers," said Wendell, with dignity.

Danny paused. He had to admit, Empire of Feathers was actually quite respectable reading. It was about an alternate universe where birds ruled the world, and it was dark and gritty and had lots of battle scenes and intrigue and poisonings and magic, and a clan of rooster assassins that wore cloaks made of their victim’s feathers. He’d borrowed all the trade paperbacks from Wendell. In fact, if that was what Suki was reading, there was a stain on the last two pages where he had spilled root beer at a moment of high excitement.

"Is that the one with the root beer–?"

"In the back, yes." Wendell glared at him. "At least Suki knows how to treat books."

and the problem was that was a total throwaway line and now I totally kinda want to write Empire of Feathers, in all that free time I don’t have, or at least a couple of panels of rooster assassins in feather cloaks lurking under avian heroic statuary) and anyway, the point was that when I do ALL THOSE OTHER THINGS–and possibly Goatrude’s story–I have always wanted to do something in a fantasy Western setting because the old west is totally underused in fantasy and while I’m at it, I want steampunk kachinas, goddamnit, and I occasionally wish I would STOP HAVING IDEAS so I could get some of these things done.

Also, have I mentioned that they want Book 3 of Dragonbreath in May? (By the way, they’re buying book 3, if I haven’t mentioned it here. It will involve were-hot-dogs, and I am hoping to call it "Dragonbreath and the Curse of the Were-Wurst," but we’ll see.)

In conclusion, go watch Sukiyaki Western Django. That is all.

*This simply would not happen in an American movie.