'like Charles Dickens meets Emily Brontë, written by Edgar Wallace'

Happy St Patrick's Day! It's also Patrick Brontë's 244th birthday.

Broadway World interviews Miriam Pultro creator of the new Brontë family-inspired rock musical.

Glass Town is an exciting new rock musical featuring the famous Brontë siblings as band members: Anne as the modern, feminist neosoul star; Emily as the alt-rock prodigy; Branwell, singing the blues; and Charlotte, the passionate rocker frontwoman.

Written by Miriam Pultro and directed by Daniella Caggiano, with musical direction by Katrien Van Riel, Glass Town is a creative, non-traditional, staged concept album exploring family dynamics, isolation, grief, musical expression, and more. [...]

How did you decide that having the Brontë sisters as band members was going to be the best storytelling vehicle for Glass Town?

I listen to a lot of indie rock, and a lot of the bands I listen to are siblings and sisters and female trios. So, HAIM is a band, there's a band called Joseph, there's a band called Eisley that I listen to. And coupled with that concept of family members making music together, there's also this idea that still permeates the music world of, 'the girls have to be the front-people'. So, if there are boys in the band, they're the quote, 'real musicians', they're playing guitar and they're kind of backing up the pretty girls who stand in the front. Which I think is contrasted, interestingly, by these groups where they are playing all of the instruments, they are absolutely generating their own content. And it just kind of overlaid in my head with the Brontes because they had a brother, who is also artistic, and he is not nearly as successful as any of the three women. So, it was this really abstract idea of, "If they were alive today, they probably would be an indie rock band!"

How did you find the sound for Glass Town?

I thought pretty early on I wanted each of the siblings to have a different musical voice. Because even what they produced in literature was very different. They made their own imaginary worlds together as siblings, and then they all branched off and wrote their own stuff. I very much aligned myself with Charlotte early on. And I thought, "She's probably a rocker. She's very straightforward, she's very passionate." I've kind of got a mid-range belt voice and I love that kind of music.

Branwell essentially drank himself to death, so I was like, "Well, he's obviously a blues musician. He plays guitar and he wails in the blues." Anne, for example, famously most overlooked of the sisters, but probably the most feminist and forward-thinking. So, I was like, "She probably is going to have a more modern sound. She's going to be a very contemporary, social justice type person, how do I find music for that? What's more popular right now? What's doing really well?" It's a lot of black-influenced music, it's a lot of soul and R&B, that kind of stuff. (Chloe Rabinowitz)

Tor discusses 'The Cruel Optimism of the Gothic: Wealth, Class, and Villainy in YA Fiction'.

After Heathcliff from Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (1847) acquires his wealth through means unknown, he systematically exacts his vengeance on his enemies through a series of marriages, wardships, and property acquisitions. (Allison Saft)

Vanity Fair interviews humorous writer Jen Spyra:

In recent years my biggest influences have been classic noir films and fiction, Jack Handey, Miranda July, Shirley Jackson, Simon Rich, David and Amy Sedaris, and P.G. Wodehouse. Before that—and to this day—there’s 19th and early-20th century American and British lit. Edith Wharton, Thomas Hardy, Brontës galore!

I don’t often hear the Brontë sisters cited as a comedic influence.

With the Brontës, I love how they go for juicy, high-stakes plots and then really stick the landing. Same with Hardy. I’m thinking of Tess of the d’Urbervilles, which has such a great, blowout ending. I love the confidence of that type of writing—where the writer sees the premise through to a risky, bold finish. I didn’t mention Tennessee Williams, but he’s another of my favorite writers who doesn’t make you think “comedy!” I love the type of conflict he goes for: the fish out of water premise, or the mismatched roommates premise. Streetcar is almost a laugh-out-loud mismatched roommate sitcom. (Mike Sacks)

Looper comments on Dragons & Dungeons 'iconic character alignment system'.

If you've never played D&D before, the alignment system is a way to define a character's behavior and motivations. Characters are defined on two axes: good vs. evil, and lawful vs. chaotic. While the alignment system works well enough when creating a D&D adventurer, it also works as a handy way to define characters from practically any other stories, whether it's Friends, Star Wars, Wuthering Heights, or practically anything else. Turns out, most characters fit into one of the system's nine categories. (Jim Rowley)

Chronicle Live has an article on the 50th anniversary of the film Get Carter.

Fifty years ago, a new X-certificate gangster film Get Carter was screening at British cinemas.

Released in March, 1970, it starred Michael Caine as London gangster Jack Carter who returns to his native North East to avenge the death of his brother, Frank.

Not only is the stylish, hard-edged thriller, a seminal English crime flick, it also captures our region on the cusp of change.

Director Mike Hodges was grabbed by Newcastle’s gritty urban environment. [...]

After filming on location in 1970, Caine himself perhaps rather harshly, remarked: “I had never witnessed misery like this in my own country. It was like Charles Dickens meets Emily Brontë, written by Edgar Wallace.” (David MortonTim McGuinness)