Project #1: Three pages into a planned ~30 page short story.  I've got about 90% of the scenes and details already fully mapped out in my head, just have to pound them out.  Should finish it this weekend.  Finish the first draft, that is.  After that, touch it up a bit and send it out to my betas.

Project #2: 0% on rewrite of 11 page prologue for a full novel.  Since I originally wrote the prologue last year, I've substantially revised the plot for the story, so I've gotta do a pretty significant rewrite of the prologue.  I've redone the outline and made new notes, but haven't approached the story itself since the revisions.  Planning to start this in the next week or two.  Once I rewrite the prologue, I'll send it and the updated notes/outline to my betas.

Project #3: At this point, I've got nothing on paper.  This was originally the first story idea I came up with 15 years ago, but totally didn't have the ability to even think about writing the story back then (I was 10 at the time), and lately I've revisited the idea and am mentally seriously revising it, trying to see if I can hash out a workable idea.  If I can, I'll start writing up the notes/outline and maybe the first chapter after I ship off the prologue in P#2.

I think they could manage it, too. I'd just very much hope that they'd follow something a lot more like the way Game of Thrones is being done for HBO, rather than the way they handled the original material in the first show. GoT tries to stay very close to the books, and as such, they're pretty much as good as the books are. They did ten episodes to tell the story of the first book in the series. The Dresden show made one episode approximating Storm Front. And for the rest of the show, they seemed to be trying for a monster-of-the-week thing. Why bother using source material as good as the Dresden Files if you're just going to ignore almost all of it?

So, if they try to make another Dresden TV show, I hope they match it a lot more closely to the books, rather than following the creep-of-the-week format.

At some point last year, we had a big discussion on how we'd approach the show if we were starting over from scratch.  Don't remember which thread that was in or if it's still around.  Anyway, my idea would be to have HBO or one of the other premium networks do the show as a season of 10-12 one hour long episodes.  The first season could contain the first three books, the second season could possibly cover the next three, but after that it'd cover two books per season, giving each book a solid 5-6 hours of screen time.  These books aren't nearly as long as GRRM's, so they wouldn't need a full season per book, as squeeifying as that would be.  If the books got the premium network treatment in that general format, I think it would most likely be a phenomenal production.

Alternatively, if a regular network picked it up for a ~20 episode a season schedule, they could do three books a season.  Provided a decent budget, that could also be quite a good production.  I absolutely agree that they'd need to follow the books, though, none of that random monster of the week crap.  You know, I don't mind if they make some slight creative changes to the stories to make them work better on screen.  Like changing Murph's first name.  No problemo.  Heck, they even can add in or drop some ancillary characters or locations and it doesn't bother me.  Just when it gets to changing around entire settings, characters, and storylines, that's when I lay down and throw a spectacular hissy fit.

Ooh, if they wanted to torture us and force us to surround the network HQ with barrels of tar and bundles of feathers, they could turn it into a half hour sitcom and have it be told from Harry's POV a la How I Met Your Mother, except it would be Maggie sitting on the couch and the show would be called How I Killed Your Mother.  'Course, that would only cover the first half of the series, up through Changes, but hey, it's an idea.   

I've had the writing bug ever since I was 10 or so.  Got the bug from my dad and one of my sisters (I've got three older sisters).  When we were kids, my dad wrote these action/fantasy stories in which we were each the main character.  Don't remember a thing about mine, except seeing him type it on his mom's old school Royal typewriter, bind it in a green folder, and then read it to me before bed--all I remember about the story itself is that the name of the main character's was just my name spelled backwards.

That was 1991/1992, and I was 5ish.  Fast forward a few years and I started reading voraciously.  Drama, historical fiction, sci fi, fantasy, Westerns, thrillers, etc.  I read 'em all.  I read Les Miserables when I was 8.  By that time, I'd read Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit at least four times.  My mom home schooled us, so I had tons of time to read.  All four of us were voracious readers, though I had the biggest appetite for books of us kids.  Still do.  Anyhoo, my parents must have spent a small fortune on buying enough books to keep our appetites sated, since by the time I graduated high school, we had something like 1500 books in our house.  And on top of that awesome collection, I was a biweekly fixture at the library, coming out with armfulls of books each time.

Getting back to the 1990s, the middle of my three older sisters was writing a series of short stories (just for family consumption, she never tried to get them published).  I'd read hundreds, if not thousands, of books by that point, but had never tried my hand at writing.  When I read a book, I really get into it, kinda like being plopped down into a Star Trek holodeck program.  I wrote my first short story, a really bad, totally unintentionally funny Western in 1999.  While that was a ridiculously horrendous attempt at writing, it flipped a switch in my head.  Instead of just descending into a holodeck every time I opened the pages of a book, now the holodeck programs started writing themselves in my head.  I've always had an extraordinarily vivid imagination, and that first attempt at writing shifted it into hyperdrive.  Unfortunately, the next seven years of story telling attempts (if my count's correct, I tried 9 different novels and 4 short stories during that time span, all unsuccessful) were not sufficient to enable me to put these awesomely vivid ideas down onto paper.  Civilizations rose and fell, space empires thrived and collapsed, men fought against fuzzy giants, a race of leopard-people aliens appeared in NYC, ancient Druids fought against the Romans, men walked among and fought with the gods, and a single teenager began a dynasty that stretched over thirty planets and 4000 years, all in my head, all in vivid Technicolor and surround sound.  None of it survived the transition to paper.

When I went off to college, I threw myself into studying history, mostly the American Civil War (or the War of Northern Aggression...  ) and put writing aside.  During one of the many visits we made to Civil War sites (forts, sites of battles, stuff like that), I found out that if I physicially touch the remains of a site, I can envision it in action.  I made that discovery when we visited the remains of an earthenworks position the Confederates had erected on the edge of a swamp.  All that remained of the fort were two of the earthenwork walls, now completely overgrown with trees and shrubbery.  I touched it and felt myself in the middle of the action that was that fort's claim to fame, when the Northerners tried to attack the fort from the swamp at around 2:00 in the morning, hoping to take the Confederates by surprise.  I could feel myself slogging through the swamp, feel the light chill of the night air, feel the damp wool, so on and so forth.  I mean, it was like I was actually there.  I spent a summer in college studying in Spain.  Visiting the sheer number of historic sites there was like shooting up.   

After that, my creative juices began flowing again, and I started my hand at writing once more.  First two novel attempts were flops, but my writing ability has greatly improved.  As I read, I get more and more ideas for my own writing.  Now I even literally dream up ideas for stories.  In fact, the short story I'm writing right now is actually 95% pulled straight from a dream I had a couple weeks ago.

...Um, so why do I write?  I write because I love it!  My head is overflowing with ideas, characters, entire series of books, and it gives me immense pleasure to (attempt to, at least) put them on paper.  At any given moment these days, I've got anywhere between four and seven different short story/novel/series ideas floating around, spanning genres from sci fi to fantasy to historical fiction.  That's why I write, to try and put them down on paper as they appear in my head.  So far, my success rate is hovering right around 0%, but the process is more important to me at this point than the result is.  I'd love to get other people to read my works...but it might help if I actually finish writing one so they'll have something to read! 

I'm currently trying to hash out this one short story, and if I'm finally successful (after 15 years and about !), then I've got a whole series of short stories planned.  I've also been toying with a novel, but won't really sink my teeth in it till I (hopefully) finish this short story.  I'd love to be able to publish these stories and keep them coming, but it's very decidedly a work in progress.  For years, my dream career has been swim coach/author.  At this point, I can't support myself on either one, but it is my (years away) end goal!

Downey would be perfect if he were tall enough,...but he's considerably too short. The Fillion Guy is not even close to Harry in any way in my opinion.

Jackman would be solid,...but i don't know if he could pull off Harry's special brand of snark which is actually hilarious.

To be honest i think the best guy for the part is probably an unknown.

But if i had to go with a "name" actor,...i'd have to go with Chris Evans or Ryan Reynolds. Outside of Downey, they are the only other actors listed here that have the acting "chops" and or wit to portray Harry as closely as possible to the Novels.

And though they are not exceptionally tall,...they are not short. With the proper shoes you could get them up to 6-4 or better.

Physically, the actor I think of for Harry is Zachary Levi.  He's 6'3 or 6'4 and can do the snark.

But if I'm thinking of pure acting chops, I'd say David Tennant hands down...but he's not very tall, around 5'10, I think.

Bachelor's of Science in Industrial Engineering
Master's of Science in Operations Management.

Married to a girl with a GED, who became a C.N.A. first, then a phlebotomist.

Going a bit off track here, for the longest time, I thought phrenology and phlebotomy were the same thing.  I couldn't figure out why hospitals and other medical facilities were hiring people to measure the skulls of the patients... 

Tell me this does not SCREAM Harry and Thomas.

Eh, not in the slightest.  He doesn't look at all like what I've pictured Harry as (then again, we all picture Harry differently, as this thread is ample proof).

However, for Thomas, I believe we've got WoJ that he pictured Matt Bomer, and many of us on this thread have agreed:

It is now sticky, as I have had so few opportunities of late which allow me to run mad with power.

Thanks a bunch, PG!

Woohoo, I am the proud owner of my very own sticky!!