I Dream of Dragons

Victory!

2011-11-30T22:41:00.001-08:00

With 90 minutes to spare I finished the body of the novel, which came in at 50, 150 words or something like that. The final count includes some extras which will be incorporated into the next draft.

The biggest change I made from last year was to start at the beginning and mostly work my way forward through the story. The result needs work, but it is a complete story, not just a patchwork. I feel really strongly about it. It may be my most accessible novel yet.

The end came out really happy with everybody rocking. I just felt that way this year. There is so much angst in the story that it was a relief to just have things resolve in a big fanciful rock and roll love fest. Demons and amazons, oh my!

So, after many months of dreaming a few hours of planning, and 30 days of literary abandon, Amazon Blade, a super-powered rock and roll romance, is born.

42,460

2011-11-28T21:13:00.001-08:00

I have just under ten thousand words left to write. Looking back at the blog from last year, I am actually ahead of then, though I am quite behind. However, 10k in two nights is very do able. Though I think I'm going to write some more tonight.

The start to finish method is still working for me. There are a few thorns here and there, or places where I realize I will need to add a bunch to earlier sections, but that's ok, as 50k is a pretty small novel to market.

In any case, it is fun and challenging, and the story is rocking my metaphorical bobby socks off. Hope the other nanos are having as good a time.

The Adventure Continues

2011-11-23T00:00:00.000-08:00

31,054

That's my word count right now. I'm a bit behind, but I still have time. Very confident about it. This novel is coming together well, with surprises even for me. I am enjoying writing from beginning to end. In the past I've written pieces here and there, focusing on the parts I was most interested in, of course. The results were disjointed, mostly-finished, Franken-novels that I would love to clean up... But it's very daunting.

Writing from start to finish, so far, has resulted in a more cohesive first draft. That's good.

Tonight, after getting home from playing in Jeffrey Skidmore's excellent Traveller campaign, I relaxed and came up with some fun ideas for the ending. Hopefully by the end of the weekend I will have it pretty much wrapped up.

Time for sleep.

Goodbye, Polly Pocket. (1996-2011)

2011-11-19T15:24:00.000-08:00

Polly Pocket was an orphan kitty at Summit Veterinary clinic, where my ex worked at the time. She was so tiny the ladies at the clinic named her Polly Pocket. She traded a hands a time or two after the breakup, but for the last 10 years or so, she's been with me, living in my dad's room, keeping him company. She was looking really old and frail recently and was due for a visit to the vet. But she died sleeping on the end of the bed last night.

Goodbye, little kitten. We'll miss you.

The Adventure Begins!

2011-11-02T22:00:00.000-07:00

yippee kayay

Nanowrimo started last night, but I had a game to run. Weird Wars: WWII. It was great, but I start the month a day behind. Tonight was good, however, and the noveling is off to a roaring start with the birth of Anaea, the Amazon Blade.

Anaea began life as a dream.

Restless from an eon of wrangling in the courts of Olympos, the goddess Athena slept fitfully, dreaming of a dark-eyed slayer who solved her problems with deadly action, rather than patience and wisdom. When Athena has a dream—or a nightmare—it is born as an amazon warrior on the island of Athena’s dreams.

Anaea was not the first. Far from it. Cyrene was the daughter of Athena’s first dream upon the stage of reality, and queen of the amazons.

When the storm-clouds gathered, Cyrene and the amazons gathered together to pray and tell stories and sing songs, around a roaring fire. They made special dishes, reserved only for the occasion of a new amazon’s birth. The party lasted through the night and the next day. By dark that night, the women were exhausted for the most part. Some lay unconscious on the steps of the temple. Then the storm unleashed its worst, battering their homes and whipping away the curtains and extinguishing the temple fires. It grew dark and very cold on the mountaintop where the amazons reveled for the coming of another among them.

Lightning blasted to the earth, scorching homes and felling trees. The strikes grew closer and the amazons began to run for cover. The frequency of the strikes grew more intense, into a rain of lightning focused on the temple itself. The amazons, trained warriors to a woman, avoided the blasts for the most part, and drew back in to witness the conclusion of the lightning dance. A single arc, as wide as an oak tree’s trunk flashed up from the copper bowl which sat in the lap of the temple’s statue of the goddess, reaching into the sky for an eternal moment. The air grew dry and sharp with the smell, and then the stench of burning cloth and paper.

The lightning column flickered and went out. The rain had stopped and the wind had died. The only sounds in the temple was the soft sound of the amazons breathing in relief. A baby’s cry pealed through the darkness. It was a question, followed by a breath or two of silence before cries of true dismay rent the night. “Fire!” called Cylene. “We must see what the goddess has sent us on such a storm.” A flame appeared in the dark, floating above the hand of Philosphene, an amazon possessed of gifts for handling and calling fire. The sandy-haired amazon blew a breath on the flame and it broke apart, flying to the fallen torches in the room, lighting them, and setting them back in their places. The temple was a disaster. But for the bodies, Cylene would have sworn a battle had taken place here. She swooned with the realization of prophecy, and her friend Antimache caught her.

“My queen, what ails you?” Antimache asked in near panic.

“It is a vision, my friend. This is not the last time our temple will be so distraught. But, help me, Antimache. Where is the child?”

Other gathered around in the gloom, until a torch was brought closer. They all could hear a baby crying, but the bowl in statue-Athena’s lap was empty.

“Look,” cried Evadne, who was good at spotting things, “the bowl is moving.”

In fact, as Cyrene looked at the bowl, she did see it shake slightly as another ear-splitting cry bit her ears. She reached into the bowl with her eyes closed, remembering the movement she had made a hundred times, to pick up a newborn amazon. Just as she remembered, she felt the soft skin of a baby and found it’s neck and it’s bottom. Lifting the invisible infant to her. She could feel a full head of hair on the child already as she cradled it in her arms. The crying stopped and after a moment, the baby gasped and sighed. Cyrene wiped the baby’s face with her dress, by feel, saying, “Welcome, little one. These are your sisters, the amazons. And I am their queen, Cyrene. Be welcome with love.”

The baby sighed and Cyrene gasped along with her sisters as a dark-eyed baby girl slowly appeared in her arms. Some of the amazons shied away from the alert, distrustful gaze the baby set upon them. When finally the too-dark eyes turned upward and fixed on Cyrene, her heart was filled with dread. Finally, she thought, Athena has sent our doom.

“A hunter, we have been sent,” Cyrene cried, looking up to circle of confused faces. She held the baby high. “And her name shall be Anaea!”

NaNoWriMo is coming!

2011-10-24T18:46:00.000-07:00

Just a week away. I have a great anniversary weekend planned, and then a month of literary abandon. Yes!

The Great Geek Hunt

2011-09-15T00:52:00.000-07:00

Greetings, fellow gamers.

After 25 years as a GM, I find myself with time for a regular group and too few local gamer friends to form that group. Other than playing a few games a month or so, my evenings are free. I'd like to find a group to play on a weeknight from 6-10, though I am open to lots of ideas involving the right group of players.

However, I no longer enjoy most combat intensive miniature games, so I don't run 4E anymore. I would like to run Savage Worlds, Fate, and a smattering of other games of the indie/story game variety, like Don't Rest Your Head, Primetime Adventures, Icons, Wushu and Fiasco. In terms of content, I am ready to run anything from Weird Wars: WWII to Spirit of the Century, Vampires, Werewolves or Star Wars. Super heroes? Bring it. As long as I can use a rules-light, story driven system. I am looking for a group that is willing to try new games and who enjoy characters and story over killing and looting. Those things are cool in small doses, but I am ready for a big dose of drama, player participation, creativity, and cinematic action.

I am willing to travel for the right group, but ideally we could meet within a half hour of Sacramento. If any players out there are interested, please reply, post or send me an email and we can put a game together. I can probably rally one or two people to the table on my own, depending on the night of the week.

Thanks for reading.

Published works:

"Cold Snap" in Lords of Justice

"Blood, like Roots" in Flashing Swords #12

Celesticon 2011

2011-09-06T23:06:00.001-07:00

If Celesticon lacked anything for being a small con, it made up for it with the wonderful vibe and crew of great staff, players and GMs. I for one did not miss waiting in line for the elevators, checking in, or registration. For once, I had a room very close to the elevator, which was just really convenient. The hotel was beautiful and the staff was very nice. I ate at the restaurant a couple of times and the food was excellent, if pricey. I consider myself extremely fortunate to be able to afford a weekend like this, and to be a part of such a positive and creative community.

Big thanks to Kris and Lisa and the whole staff. It was a great experience.

Here are my game reviews. I hope the grading system does not seem to harsh. It’s all Shannon’s fault. I swear.

FRIDAY

Brian W’s Dresden Files RPG Casefile: Night Fears

a FATE game of small town horror

B GM Preparation

B GM Presentation

B Player Dynamics

B Payoff

B Overall

I had been waiting a long time to get into a DFRPG game, and I was stoked to get into this one on Friday night.

In spite of being a “Dresden Files” game and a free download from the publishers, this scenario actually concerns a group of youngsters about to enter high school. So rather than wizards, powerful fey, and ruthless vampires, this was a story of young people coming to terms with their powers and/or the fact of supernatural phenomenon. (I knew this going in. I only mention it to help explain the scenario.)

On a dare, all the characters arrived at the neighborhood haunted house, the Stanton Place, to spend the night inside to prove how cool they were to each other. I won’t spoil the ulterior motives that may have existed within the group.

There was some pretty creepy ghostly stuff happening in the house. Our characters, with a few exceptions, seemed bent on exploring the place throughout the game, so much of the evening consisted of us exploring, making search and occult checks to put the story together or find important items.

My only complaint is that the pacing of this game was very slow. I think I was amped and ready to rock, but this was a more stately scenario. I understand that horror takes time to build, and there were certainly payoffs in terms of character depth, I just think that a bit more urgency in the first half would have made the game more exciting and kept if from running over by more than an hour. Now I am just as bad as the next GM at pacing, but it is something that I am working on, and look at very critically in other GMs.

However, there was a good amount of cool character interaction and the players got along well. There were some great laughs and genuine chills. The players gelled as a bunch of 13-year-olds very easily. Morgan J as the Bookworm, and Rodney as the Shepherd were standouts for me.

The finale was exciting and compelling, if a bit late in coming. It also was only a resolution to the plot, and not so much one for the players. After spending so much time getting into these fun characters, I didn’t feel like there was a solid arc for each of us. And as late as it was, there was no time or energy to devote to that.

Brian seemed pleased with the group, and it was an enjoyable game overall. A fine introduction to the DFRPG. Thank you, Brian!

SATURDAY

Matt Steele’s Kuiper Station L7

a Chthonian Stars game of terror in space

A GM Preparation

A- GM Presentation

A Player Dynamics

A+ Payoff

R Overall (that’s way higher than an A)

Originally, I had planned to play Apocalypse world on Saturday night, because I am really eager to try that game, and I thought this was a scenario I had played in before. Though I still want to try AW, I’m very glad Matt corrected my mistake and I got into his game.

The setting for Chthonian Stars is a few hundred years in the future, when mankind has successfully colonized the solar system, all the way out to a series of stations in the Kuiper Belt, the ring of debris and plutoids (among other things) at the far edge of the solar system. It takes 6 months to travel to one of these stations, most of which is spent in bio-stasis, enshrouded in a bubble of muck and electrodes.

Our characters were special agents sent to investigate problems on one of these stations. Matt provides pictures and brief descriptions of each character, but you don’t get all the juicy details until you make your choice. The draft was by die roll. I rolled 2^nd highest and chose the obsessed female scientist with ulterior motives, but all the characters seemed interesting.

Matt always adds something to really help the players really home in on the character personalities. In this case, each person keeps an item on a pedestal outside their stasis chamber to help them ground themselves back in reality when they come out of hibernation. Apparently, it’s like dreaming for months straight – does strange things to your consciousness. So these objects, give each person a chance to define the character and let the other players know what is important to him or her. Very cool and effective.

Once we arrived at the ummm. .. cold spot…. things got really interesting and twisted but, as is common in RPGs, the debate about how to proceed went on a bit longer than was strictly necessary. There was a newer player at the table who was a strong voice for caution, which is great in real life, but not the ingredient for the most fun in a roleplaying game. So, just to be consistent with my harping on pacing, I dinged Matt a little for the game running over and choking a little bit on the debate. But I enjoyed myself the whole time.

However, the party was a very good mix of personalities, and there was some great banter. The revelations were awesome and the horrors terrifying. The game’s horror mechanic was fun and pretty brutal, with people soiling themselves, going insane for short periods where they were dangerous to themselves and others.

To my pleasant surprise, the game runs on the new Traveller system. I happen to play in a Traveller home game right now, so I was able to provide some technical support when it came time to fight, since my character was basically a non-combatant. However, I’m not entirely sure it made the game more fun, as the effectiveness of our automatic weapons seemed to keep the friendly body count down. Again, realistic, but not necessarily fun in a horror game.

The team made some good tactical decisions and we managed to survive the incident with only one person totally insane, and no deaths! I did not feel that outcome was a given. The threat felt very real.

About half way through, my character got to doctor up the heroic, fearless Jason Statham character, and I decided she was going to jump his bones if they survived. Matt was kind enough to let me toss in just such a scene, or at least the implication of it, after the credits rolled on his exciting space-horror adventure.

Thanks for another awesome game, Matt.

SUNDAY

Michael Garcia’s Exodus: Fate Between the Stars

a Fate game of high-stakes hard science fiction

A GM Preparation

A- GM Presentation

A Player Dynamics

A+ Payoff

A Overall

After meeting Michael and June at Kublacon, I was stoked to see his game scheduled at a perfect time for me to play and have time to relax before my game. Add to that a version of fate (Diaspora) that I own and have been hankering to play, and it was practically a done deal. What I got was even better than I hoped, especially in terms of drama and moral complexity.

The scenario, in brief, involves two ships, the Fortune and the Destiny, which carry the sum of humanity’s technology and hope for survival beyond the solar system. Our characters were the command team on shift during the turn the ships must make to prepare for the decades long breaking maneuver that will take them to their new home, 22 light years from earth. Something goes terribly wrong, and it may not be accidental. The focus of the game is on survival and responsibility, with plenty of tension and action to focus the conflicts.

After some brief discussion with Shannon, I convinced him to let me play the rich, sinister guy, for a change. This turned out to be extra fun, because of my character’s dark secret.

The players as a whole gelled really well and got into the groove of the hard sci-fi drama. As a wealthy, charismatic character used to getting his own way, I was a bit at a loss at first for how to help. However, since I also maneuvered myself into the command position, based on my character’s previous experience, I soon found myself in the thick of things. This was the most like a starship captain I have ever felt in a game. People were willing to roll with it, as I mostly gave commands to help get people involved, and never to do things against their nature. It was a pleasure to play with that team, especially a fellow named Anton, who ran the first game of Fate I ever played. He was spectacular as the blue-skinned Genymedian chief medical officer.

My only criticism of the game is that the session started out slowly and Michael seemed a little disorganized at first. So that’s just a slight presentation issue. But he provided exactly the information we needed to customize our characters and understand their complex histories without information overload. And once the story began, all was golden. The rules were virtually transparent as the drama, action, amazing scientists, and moral weight of the situation descended upon us.

This game had it all. Social combat, physical combat, high stakes skill checks, and solid characterization. I never felt overwhelmed by the science jargon, though the knowledge of my fellow players was surprising and cool. I suppose there could have been more compels and more focus on the characters, but it was clear from early on that the story was the focus here, and even my selfish character was moved by the sacrifice of one NPC. In this case the story truly was bigger than all of us, and it was a pleasure to take part in it.

Worth the price of the con. Thank you, Michael. Now I really want to play in one of your DRYH scenarios.

My game, Spirit of Metal

a Fate game of imagination and heavy metal mayhem

C GM Preparation

B GM Presentation

A+ Players

B Payoff

B Overall

The premise of this game is that a group of flawed individuals from the mortal world are transported to the Realm of Metal where they must fight to save all of reality from the nihilistic machinations of the Loc-Nar, a green force that is the sum of all evil.

I’ve run a lot of very high prep games in recent years, with tons of custom maps and figures and elaborate plots. This game is my attempt to indulge my previous style of gaming, in which I would run games with just a few notes. All my prep time for this was just spent in priming my creativity and trying to hone the character sheet and handouts to be useful at the table. My goal was to create a universe of characters and realms at the table and then wreak havoc upon them in a scenario custom designed for the players and their interests.

Turns out everyone was interested in mayhem and violence. Perfect.

Character generation went fairly well, though it went long. Also, I did not take proper care in looking over their aspects to make sure I could really compel them along. This is a disappointment, as grabbing the compel reins was my primary goal going into the game. It turns out giving yourself half an hour to design a scenario that will equally spotlight 6 characters, each with a significant villain, is a bit much. lol So in the scuffle to keep my imagination rolling, I failed in my goal of mastering compels. I’ll keep working on it.

However, everyone made very metallic, unique characters with lots of aspects taken from metal titles and lyrics. It turns out I was the only currently active, dedicated metalhead at the table, but everyone understood what I was going for and created a character that rocked.

Iron Mullet – Gil’s meth addicted trucker turned armored drummer of doom. Nothing I had heard about Gil’s roleplaying prepared me for the reality. lol

Rob Daily – Duane’s not-Lemmy Kilminster, with the explosive bass powers

Whiplash – Bob’s Metallica inspired lightning-wielding guitar wizard

Den of Earth – Straight out of the movie, Alan so totally nailed this character, including geek-voiced inner monologue.

Sgt. D34TH – Jerry’s technomancer, a Blue Oyser Cult inspired, Tarot card wielding summoner.

Trixx – Matt Steele’s Japanophile über-ninja with the power: Decapitate!

This was my first time running Fate. Creating my own version of it had mixed results. Not all of my custom Aspects were really helpful. I tried to include some rivalries in the group, in imitation of Dovi Anderson’s kick ass Star Wars game, but it didn’t add much. The nature of the overall scenario (save the universe from annihilation) doesn’t leave a lot of room for internal drama.

Also, my character sheet had a confusing stress track, based on my own design error. And I really need a better grip on GM fate chips and how the economy can actually work in play. I think the main problem was that I was just trying to shove too much in too little time. An earlier start and a little more time would have helped. When I looked at the clock and found that time was technically up (2:00AM!) with only half the players’quests done, I had to shrug off the truckload of FAIL I felt.

Luckily, my players soldiered on for nearly two more hours to see things through. They were awesome and funny and totally brought the mayhem at every turn. They were so entertaining that it didn’t feel like a nearly 8 hour game to me. But that’s no excuse to not actually USE a f’ing clock for pacing, my own personal biggest pet peeve. Doh!

I had a great time and the players laughed a lot. It was exactly the crazy, creative experience I hoped for, but the pacing and technical issues really bother me.

MONDAY

Fiasco with Shannon, Dovi and Bob

I own Fiasco and have read a lot about it, but never played. So I was thrilled when Dovi offered to facilitate a game.

We played a WW2 maritime horror scenario. Basically we were on an American submarine, caught between the horrors of the deep and the Nazi’s vying for control of an island with ruins of great and horrible power.

It was awesome. The other players were creative and fun, and the laid back atmosphere was perfect for Monday. Don’t get me wrong, the game was exciting and horrifying and interesting, but the atmosphere out of game was just a mellow, creative vibe. Very nice.

I think in retribution for taking the conniving leader in Diaspora, Shannon handed me my marching orders early on. This is totally a kind of character I dig, so I was glad to oblige. She was an American occultist, willing to sacrifice anyone to secure the power for the US. Shannon required that I play her as:

1. Super hot.

2. Very sensual and charming.

3. Says all the right things.

I did my best. How was it Shannon? lol

The story played out in many very satisfying ways and whole experience was very fun. I would easily make Fiasco a go-to game for Monday pickup sessions.

It was an awesome con.

Kubla Con 2011

2011-06-02T22:52:00.000-07:00

So here's my Kubla Con report. I hope my grading system doesn't offend anyone. Please take it as the big bear hug on geeks that it truly is.

Friday
Shannon McNamara's Here be Dragons
a Call of Cthulu game set in 9th century AD Briton
A+ GM Preparation
A- GM Presentation
C Player Dynamics
B Payoff
B+ Overall

This was my first time playing in one of Shannon's games. I knew what to expect in many ways and I was really looking forward to some great roleplaying in a historical setting. I got it. The amount of information was pretty hefty, but not unbearable. Shannon took the time to meet with each of us to discuss our characters. Generally when that happens, there's potential for intrigue. I wasn't watching the clock, but it seemed like I had the right amount of time to understand where my character was coming from by the time the game got underway.

Shannon demonstrated solid knowledge of the setting and rules, enough to teach us neophytes and fend off the inevitable macho history buff at the table.

The big problem was a lack of chemistry between the players at the table. I am sure Shannon will lay down the full details, but basically we had one person who was mostly asleep or not really participating, and another who was a strong knowledgeable gamer playing a bully a bit too well. At least he was sharing and interacting with the group. Then both these cats leave 2 hours before the scheduled end of the game due to tiredness and diabetes. No judgement on that, but as a GM, I have a hard time with people who won't stay for a whole game well within it's allotted time. It's also a good idea to talk about that at the beginning of a session, to make sure your whole group is on board for the full ride.

However, the story and the creepiness and the grime of the age were excellent. Our old priest, Godwine, was hysterical with all his old-man-isms and the revelation of his ultimate goal. June was awesome as Gwyneth the Hag. She really kept the game entertaining. I got totally creeped out by her and some of the dark discoveries we made. The change in group dynamic after the two guys left was remarkable, with a lot more energy. But it also really deflated some of the drama we were in for. While I understand Matt's reservations about long games, I totally would have stayed longer if the group energy had been kickin.

Even so, the twists and revelations at the end were pretty mind blowing. I got to play a complete narrative arc with a character, and have him face supernatural and existential fears that led to a satisfying conclusion. That's what I play for.

Saturday
Dovi Anderson's Have Ship, Will Smuggle
a FATE game set in the Star Wars rebellion era
A+ GM Preparation
A GM Presentation
A Player Dynamics
A Payoff
A Overall
Dovi Anderson knows Star Wars. But his game Have Ship, Will Smuggle is an awesome story, rather than a boring lecture. We had six characters to choose from, the crew of a ship, which we named The Long Shot. The character portraits were excellent, featuring Eric Bana as the pilot/captain and Willem Dafoe as a dark, horned alien. From there, we had some room to customize our aspects, our gear, and our history through a small number of pertinent questions Dovi posed to us. He suggested we develop some strife with the people opposite us at the table, as well as the usual connections to the people next to you at a Fate table. This helped foster a greater level of communication and roleplaying, I think.
The visual goodness continued, with an introductory video recreating the awesome intros of the Star Wars films, customized for our game. Further, every major NPC, ship captain, ship, and even some of the crew, had pictures, which he taped up for all to see. They had plastic covers, so we could write their aspects right next to the pictures. Soon we had a cast of several ships and their crews, making the scenario feel really big, without a ton of back story.
I don't want to give any spoilers, but the opening scene really had a great Star Wars feel, and the narration of both GM and players was very evocative. Basically we were one of many ships competing in a grand smuggling race, which challenged our piloting, combat and social skills in really satisfying ways. My big warrior guy, Kayn K'sarr, never got to smash anyone, but I never lacked for entertainment. Sometimes, it was challenging for me to make him relevant, but I opted to make him instigate plans, even if he wasn't the best suited to carry them out.
Our engineer was a jawa and the love story in the scenario was a jawa romance. Need I say more? It was excellent, humorous and perfect for the setting.
Dovi ran a great game, with memorable locations and NPCs, and it was a fine bunch of players, ready to give and take and work with each other to help create a cool story. It succeeded.

My game, Fallout: Road Warriors of the Wasteland
a mash-up of Fallout and The Road Warrior
This is the 4th time I've run this scenario and also the best. I had an eager, committed group of players who stayed the extra hour needed to end it right. They all embraced their characters, even though a couple are obvious stars. The story is basically an homage to the movie The Road Warrior, but with a magnificent six, instead of just one hero.

I had a great time playing Humungus and the Legions for this group of Road Warriors.

Sunday
Lord Mohr's The Giggler Strikes Again
a dark fantasy crime investigation using heavily homebrewed Savage Worlds
B GM Preparation
D GM Presentation
C Player Dynamics
D Payoff
C- Overall

This game had some cool players, but we never got the chance to develop the characters we spent 1.5 hours making because the GM was too wrapped up with the lurid details of his world. At one point, the GM spent 20 minutes at the table with one player working out an S&M scene with one of the establishment's prostitutes. The scene got very, very dark. One player left the table but came back. Unfortunately none of us felt comfortable objecting out loud, though I learned later that I was not the only one repulsed.

Lord Mohr had a detailed culture and could impart knowledge without lecturing. But he suffered a very common GM problem, in addition to his public obsession with kinky sex, a difficulty with pacing. It happened to me this time as well. Basically, many games begin at a stately pace and end up being rushed at the end. The villain is cool, if very (very) adult in nature, but the pacing and the porn factor were a deal breaking combination.

In any case, on both a meta and story level, it was not very fun.

Morgan Hua's Trick or Treat
a Grimm game with a Halloween theme
B GM Preparation
A GM Presentation
A+ Player Dynamics
A+ Payoff
A Overall
I was feeling really ill by the end of the earlier game (psychic vampirism? >.> ), and didn't get into any afternoon games. By the good fortune of being part of this GMing group, I learned of Morgan's game and stumbled over to it in my bear feet. The room was cool and the company awesome. I felt better the moment I walked in.
In Grimm, you play kids. In this case, we were 3rd graders (about 9 years old). We chose characters from a set of archetypes and then got to customize their personal details, specialties and stats, to a satisfying degree. Morgan stumbled a little with the mechanics, but he more than made up for that with his vast enthusiasm and subtle roleplaying. While there were very few visual aids, this was truly a game about the characters and their lives, in our imaginations and the faces of the other players.
Initially, the game was set in modern day, on Halloween Night. Our somewhat mismatched group was out trick-or-treating together. But I remember going out on Halloween with neighborhood kids that weren't necessarily my usual social group. Besides these kids are 9 and they all go to school together.
Our troupe of players was hysterical, devolving into childish antics and attitudes with magical ease. Once again, June rocked, playing the juvie kid as a bully with a compelling emotional wound. Shannon killed it with the popular kid, dressed as Justin Beiber, and crooning out his taunts. Wilson was the outcast, a country kid who could never get the attention she craved. I was playing the dreamer (go figure), as a little girl with her head in the clouds and a broken home, loosely based on Ari from The Name of the Wind.
A couple of fellows, Wade and Lance, showed up that no one else seemed to know. I had some self consciousness, as a fat, scraggly, middle-aged man, about roleplaying a 9-year old girl in front of them, even though I'd never met Morgan and hardly knew anyone else, either. To our great enjoyment, they rocked as the Normal kid and the Jock.
A lot happened in this game. Like most story games I've played, the action moved really quick and almost everything that happens is dramatically important to the characters and the story. It was a hilarious and often moving game, full of wonders from Morgan and the story, and from the totally unreserved group of players.
We negotiated with a seriously cracked, but powerful, Humpty Dumpty. Scratch that, our Jock character negotiated with the big bad egg. How cool is that? Morgan was very sly and calculating. Quite entertaining. All the characters were important and played as real and present personalities. And I really adore a game that lets you create things with your Imagination trait.
This was a wonderful gaming experience that made the whole con worthwhile.

Monday
Patrick Riley's Justice Squad: Old Flames
an Icons game of super heroic melodrama
A GM Preparation
A GM Presentation
A Player Dynamics
B Payoff
A- Overall
Patrick runs great super hero games. He is a really energetic and clever GM. All the characters and major NPCs have illustrations. His pre-generated characters have depth and connection to the world. In this particular game, they are all members of a hero team that was based at a Xavier-esque school on the west coast, and have romances and strong ties of friendship and history with one another. I had played in the previous chapter, and dodged another game to crash this one, perhaps to the detriment of the game. Due to techno-failure on my part, I woke up late and was not the bright eyed, eager gamer this story needed, and that I wanted to be. I think I came off badly at the start of the game, and I'm not sure I ever fully recovered credibility at the table.
I'm a big Icons fan, even though I've never played. I have a character, Frostwitch, in the first tome of NPCs for the game. So, it was a bummer not to be more helpful.
On the other hand, one of the most entertaining players from the previous chapter had returned, and even though I was playing a different, and less interesting character (having arrived last), it was still a blast to see the progression of the characters and take part in their further development. The rest of the group was very involved and on top of it. It was an all male table and group was basically three couples, but the guys did a great job of roleplaying without any self consciousness.
It was a pretty tough adventure in comparison to the others at the con. Patrick is not a "Yes" GM, as is the current trend. He makes you work for it. Icons as a system relies on your heroes failures to create dramatic combat, and the battles were intense. The villains were a serious threat. There was some pretty intense investigation and roleplaying and just enough explosive super combat to rock the house. In the end, we faced an enemy that was pretty much invulnerable, and we had spent our last point of Group Determination without fully containing him. So there was a bit of a deus ex machina, though the way it was handled made it very significant for a couple of the characters. The story ended on kind of a sad note, which was not as rewarding as the triumphant end of the previous chapter. While this was an entertaining game, the previous chapter was a bit richer, in spite of using the Mutants and Masterminds system. Some of that may be due to my own low energy this time around.

The bottom line however, is that anyone who enjoys super heroes has scored big time to get into Patrick's games.

Eulogy

2011-01-27T00:42:00.000-08:00

Dear friends,

This week, and for all my weeks to come, I will mourn the death and cherish the life of my grandpa, Francis Coomes.

He grew up during the Great Depression, reminding me often how bad things could be. He taught me to appreciate the finest things in life: a spouse, a home, a family.

In World War II, he served in the Navy, and then, feeling he had not done enough to help the United States defeat the Axis, he joined the marines. He taught me the meaning of duty.

With my grandmother, he raised 6 kids, and a few of his dozen grandkids. I mowed his lawn every weekend for ten years and used the money to pay for guitar lessons.

After 25 years with the post office, he had taken one (1) day off. And that was to have surgery. He taught me what it means to take responsibility.

Last year, his beloved Giants finally won the World Series.

My grandpa died on Sunday, January 23, sitting in his big, comfy chair, watching football on his giant TV, in his own house at the age of 90.

A wonderful life, and a peaceful death. What more could one ask for?

His parenting, though sometimes harsh, helped prepare me for the world as it really is. The one thing he could never prepare me for is life without him.

Thanks for all of your kind words and thoughts.

Yours,

Bryan

I even FEEL like a Winner

2010-11-30T00:15:00.000-08:00

At the beginning of the night, around 6pm, I had 41,311 words of my nanowrimo novel done. I contemplated cheating. There's a word counter, but it doesn't take much to cheat, so it's really a word of honor type thing. You don't win anything other than a banner to put on your blog or web site, and of course bragging rights.

But I didn't cheat. I also didn't really want to give up my Tuesday night game again. I wanted to finish. I wanted to get the damn thing done.

So I did. My fingers ache. There are tears of joy streaming down my face. I can't really believe it.

8,739 words, and a great deal of sex, death gigantic battles, bloody vengeance and a zombie apocalypse later... I have completed my third National Novel Writing Month. I am a Wei-nar!

The very very very rough draft of The Necromancer's Apprentice has been born. Some day, it might even be ready for someone else to read. lol

Half Way...

2010-11-15T20:39:00.000-08:00

Great day for writing. Reached the halfway point, after being a couple of days behind for a while. I was home sick today and spent a lot of time sleeping/dreaming about the characters and events to come. That sort of thing is essential to my process, as I write mainly to set up and create the scenes I've imagined in my head.

The big romantic plot is now established. The last piece I wrote was the main character's proposal to his lover, the prostitute Celestina. I'm pretty pleased with it. Celestina is a bit two-dimensional, a hooker with a heart of gold. But there's time to fix that. Severo, the main character, is more interesting than I first thought he'd be and that is a good thing. He's kind of an ass at first, but he's a kid with a huge religious and military responsibility. It's only after his powers are gone and he's faced with spending the rest of his life as a monk that he gets more interesting.

All good. Now the hammer falls and I start breaking down everything I've built, and Severo goes to the dark side. Muhahahahahaha.

A Big Nanowrimo Night

2010-11-13T23:44:00.000-08:00

It's been a good damned day. Got to play Savage Worlds with some of my favorite gamers during the day at the Sacramento Area Gaming Enthusiasts meetup.

Then tonight I had a 4000 word writing session, lasting just over 3 hours. Blammo! Now I am only a day behind in my average word count, with a total of a hair over 20,000 words. Almost half way there. Now, this isn't deathless prose by any means. I am a big proponent of getting the ideas on the page, so I just dump a bunch of roughly formed clay onto empty pages of Scrivener. I wouldn't show this crap to my worst enemy, but at least its there.

I wasn't really enthusiastic about the next chapter when I began the night, so I skipped ahead to the first big battle, put on Seven Kingdoms and let it rip. I just love their newest album, and it was perfect for the epic battle of knights vs. zombies that I wanted to created. Now I'm psyching up to write the big romance scene tomorrow. Mmm boobies.

Not sure how it will all work out, but I have no patience with forcing myself to write transition scenes or really anything. I figure, if its a chore to me, a reader surely won't find it interesting. If there is boring shit that needs to be communicated, I either need to liven it up, or slip it in to some cooler scene. Anyway, it was a great night, even if the image is still lumpy and misshapen.

Back in to the Fire

2010-11-11T21:54:00.000-08:00

Well it's been a long time. I lost my job. I was unemployed for nearly a year and now I've been employed for over a year. Too long.

In any case. I'm writing again. This year's Nanowrimo novel is The Necromancer's Apprentice. It's going pretty well so far. Building up a lot of tension and expectation. Soon the zombies will really start hitting the fan. The story concerns the rise and fall of a religious prodigy, the chosen one of a deity, who finds himself at odds with everything he has believed in, and throws away everything for love... with a dead woman. Well, he wants to bring her back from the dead, and ends up allying himself with his mortal enemy to make it happen.

We'll see how it goes.

Grandpa and Daily Kos

2008-10-30T13:49:00.000-07:00

I don't want to blog about politics here, but I thought I'd at least post a link to a diary I wrote on Daily Kos about my grandpa and the values I learned from him.

On Basilisk Station by David Weber

2008-10-29T15:42:00.000-07:00

Recently, a friend passed a bunch of books to me. (Thanks, Sean!) Among them were some military science fiction novels by David Weber which feature his popular character Honor Harrington. Knowing I was going to write a science fiction novel, and generally liking books with female protags, I set these aside. Not long ago, I finished the first in the series, On Basilisk Station, which introduces Honor and her milieu.

It was great. I was a bit put off at first by the jumps from one point of view to another without breaks, but I got over it. This helped me realize that the modern emphasis on single points of view is not the only way to tell a story. The setting was well done and believable, with consistent scifi science and a believable political world. The best thing about this novel is the heroine and the way her relationship with her new crew develops. Some of the politics reflected contemporary struggles and ideologies that almost got annoying, but never got quite there. Weber manages to present the situation from the characters' points of view without making you feel dissed whether you are a conservative or a progressive. Politics is definitely a background issue.

The plot manages to be big and bold without shattering the setting entirely. Honor Harrington is the new captain of an old battle-ax of a warship. Somehow she and her crew manage a strong showing during a wargame at the beginning of the novel. However, in doing this they manage to piss off the wrong people and get themselves sent to Basilisk Station, the watchtower of a backwater world. Meanwhile, an enemy government based in a different part of the galaxy has its sights set on Basilisk Station for strategic reasons. Unfortunately for them, the most dedicated, brilliant officer in the Royal Navy is on a collision course with the planned invasion. =) The last part of this novel features an edge-of-the-seat, omg, wtf, kick-ass space battle that stands up easily to the classics of the genre in film or print.

Honor Harrington is a great character, way more real and interesting than Voyager's Janeway. In fact I hesitate to even make that comparison, but if you think Star Trek had untapped potential and would like to check out some science fiction that kicks ass and lives up to the hype, check out On Basilisk Station.

Bottom line: An inspiring protagonist, interesting supporting cast, hair-raising battles, intrigue and scifi goodness.

National Novel Writing Month 2008

2008-10-28T22:37:00.000-07:00

Yes, that's right, Demons of the Neverwoods is on hiatus for the time being while I devote myself to National Novel Writing Month 2008. My intention is to show this blog some love as well. I want to broaden the scope a bit to talk about the music that inspires me.

The year for nanowrimo, I'm writing a science fiction novel called Birthright. It is inspired by the song of the same name by the band Celldweller. It will have elements of cyberpunk and space opera, I think. In preparation I've been reading a couple of science fiction novels by Tanya Huff, David Weber, and Frank Herbert. I recently got the audiobook of Hardwired by Walter Jon Williams, and I'd like to check that out again. Currently I'm listening to the Deathstalker
by Simon R Green.

Again, this one deals with some dark stuff. The protagonist lives on the streets, a hardcore addict and more. But the action begins when people start to take an interest in him for no reason he can understand, kidnapping him and hurling into a deadly intergalactic power struggle. Lucky for him, he's the bastard son of a technology guru and has a super computer buried in his brain. =) I know there's going to be a surly captain of a spaceliner called Black Rose who has an interesting relationship with the ship's AI.

I should re-read some Gibson maybe. Definitely want to go for the glitz of mega-interactive-advertizing over the festering ooze of Blade Runner.

b.out

Seventy-thousand words

2008-09-09T21:51:00.000-07:00

This may get boring, but right now I am focusing on some real basic goals. My weight is one. That's going good. As of this week, the other goal, writing, is going well, too. Tonight I made it to 70k. There are two sections for a total of just over 30 scenes left to write. The good news is all that is plotted out. I always leave room to riff and embellish, but I've known where the story was headed for a long time.

If the writing gods smile upon me, the "prologue" to the novel will be in the November issue of Flashing Swords magazine. Since Lords of Justice is "delayed", the Neverwoods story will be my first published tale. Keep your fingers crossed.

More to come. I'm just getting warmed up again.

It's life, Jim, but not as we know it...

2008-09-08T22:01:00.000-07:00

Ok, so if nothing else, I am nearing the 70k mark. That should happen tomorrow night. I will celebrate a little then. For now, it's just another night's work.

Today I finished On Basilisk Station by David Weber. It was a fun and interesting book. The tone was similar to the Temeraire novels of Naomi Novik, in as much as they both draw inspiration from the Horatio Hornblower novels. The Honor Harrington novels, of which Basilisk Station is the first, are military science fiction, with a female protagonist. She's great, stronger and more interesting to me than Janeway on Star Trek. The plot and setting were well detailed.

The most interesting thing about Basilisk Station from a writing standpoint was the POV. It skipped from paragraph to paragraph sometimes, even between people in different places. But it all flowed quite nicely and gave the impression of an action film cutting between all the different pieces of the story mosaic. I'll be reading some Herbert soon, and I am interested to see if this omniscient POV is something that is more accepted in scifi writing, as it is very much poopooed in my usual writing hangouts.

More words...

2008-09-03T21:38:00.001-07:00

Two days and three thousand words or so more on the Neverwoods novel.

So what distracts your humble wannabe writer? I mean, besides working for a living.

Well, recently I had an extreme bout of video game addiction as I played through Mass Effect. Its an amazing game, like playing through a great season of Star Trek, with a bit of Rainbow Six for the action.

Lots of excuses, not a lot of words.

But here is the new goal: Finish the Neverwoods in September. Read some science fiction in October and spend November writing a scifi book for NaNoWriMo. That makes 2009 the year of the edits! It sucks to miss my original goals for the year, but it's time to just move on and keep writing.

More to come.

Where the Hell have you been?

2008-06-14T10:03:00.001-07:00

Good question. I fell of the reading/writing wagon there for a while. I have quirky interests and basically between being a political junkie and a video game freak, I kinda got into those interests hard core for a while. Now I need to take a break from politics and the games. My wife is a she-geek and so it is really easy to get into the teamwork and fun of playing vids together, as opposed to the solitary life of the writer.

Anyway, I have managed to put a couple more thousand words on Demons of the Neverwoods. That's good. Now I want to keep working on that, finish up my reviews of Return of the Sword, and get back into reading.

Oh, and I worked on a little website for Flashing Swords Press. =)

"The Hand that Holds the Crown" by Nathan Meyer from Return of the Sword

2008-04-24T21:33:00.000-07:00

This is the story of a battle to the death between two armored warriors for the right to rule their land. More than just a duel or some sort noble spectacle out of Ivanhoe, the setup is clever and the point of view twists with the story, until the brutal clash of arms.

Meyer has written an awesome fight scene, pulling off the neat literary feat of giving us the fight from both men's perspectives in a battle that crackles with visceral force. HIs ease with the details of armor and sensory descriptions really bring the scene to life.

There's not a great deal of characterization or backstory here, but there were some tantalizing details that spelled out interesting motivations and history between the two combatants. "The Hand that Holds the Crown" is a rocking tale with much more to it than I can give away here. Check it out.

There were a couple of printing errors. One part seemed like it needed a section break, but it may be I was just catching on to the way the PoV would shift. It was hardly a distraction at all from the action, though. This is a story I will read again, and one of the best in an excellent volume of action stories. I hesitate to call this one fantasy, because it could very easily be historical fiction. The only magic is at the end, but it is of an entirely human nature. ;)

Buy the book! The Return of the Sword: An Anthology of Heroic Adventure
EE Knight's Announcement
A Review

"Guardian of Rage" by Thomas M. MacKay from Return of the Sword

2008-04-17T22:20:00.000-07:00

The next story in Return of the Sword is the prologue to a novel, though it tells a complete tale. It's a good action piece that brings us back to the Elder Darkness themes of swords and sorcery fiction. Jack, the hero of this tale is well drawn, a fighter as well as mystic, though I was so caught up in the chase and vivid setting (a dark ancient sewer) that I never quite got what exactly Jack was doing, the bigger picture. I'm sure the novel will help flesh that out.

Jack's situation has two major complications. First he's being hunted by a group of wicked cultists with freaky monsters at their command, who want the relic he possesses. Second, he has a six year old girl in tow, who's family were killed by the cult. The girl could have been more fleshed out, she was more of a complication than another human being, but that is an afterthought. As I said, the adventure and the gruesome details really held my attention. The story built effective tension with the chase through the dark sewers and the... creature .... thing. heh

The magic was well done, exotic, yet clearly presented. And it was essential to the story, which is in large part about Jack's meditative resolve being eaten away by his frustration and rage. Could be a very interesting character to follow.

Another fine story.

Buy the book! The Return of the Sword: An Anthology of Heroic Adventure
Thomas M. MacKay
EE Knight's Announcement
A Review

"To Destroy All Flesh" by Michael Ehart from Return of the Sword

2008-04-15T23:09:00.000-07:00

This story has a lot of humanity in it. That's the best word for it. From the agonizing deaths to the moral question at its core, this story looks at the human costs of the magic, mayhem and pure human malice that make up heroic fiction. The hero, Ninshi, is Ehart's titular hero from the novel Servant of the Manthycore. In this tale, a group of mountain bandits stand between her and the herb she must have to free herself from the Manthycore's arcane shackles.

As complicated as that would suggest, Ehart handles it all skillfully. His choice for the point-of-view character works perfectly. We get the back story with just enough detail to set the stage, without burdening us with boring memories. And instead of two dimensional bandits, we get real human beings with circumstances that make this more than just a hack-em-up tale. I love those, but when a story delivers with theme, a textured world, and characters that seem alive, well that's a kick-ass story. This is one of them.

Ehart goes for the throat with a gripping, desperate fight right at the opening. From the stark clarity of that scene, the situation gets murkier and more complex, in all the right ways. I recently read Ken Follet's masterpiece Pillars of the Earth and though "To Destroy All Flesh" is orders of magnitude shorter, it manages to hit on some of the same historical and emotional revelations I felt during that novel.

The previous Servant story, "Stand, Stand, Shall they Cry" was good, but did not move me the way this one did. From his posts on the SFReader forum, I get the impression Ehart takes historical research very seriously. That's a strong selling point for me. Now that I have seen more of the sense of humanity in this character, I'm sold. I've ordered his novel Servant of the Manthycore.

Buy the book! The Return of the Sword: An Anthology of Heroic Adventure
Michael Ehart's blog
EE Knight's Announcement
A Review

"The Red Worm's Way" by James Enge from Return of the Sword

2008-04-14T22:24:00.000-07:00

I'm already a fan of James Enge's stories about Morlock Ambrosius, a gnarled sorcerer whose magic seems largely to be the art of giving the semblance of life to golems... and their parts, though his knowledge of the world and its mysteries is also vast. In this tale, Morlock is down on his luck, and winds up sitting watch over a corpse to protect it from flesh eating creatures, some of whom might be the very townspeople who hired him to sit watch.

It's impossible to be impartial here, as a new Morlock tale was one of my chief points of interest in the book. See, I'm partial to the sorcerers. Even given the dark fates most sword and sorcery mages meet, I'd still go with the sorcerers if I were ever sucked down the magic vortex. Even as a skeptic, I've always quested for a sign of the supernatural. Maybe that's why fantasy has so much appeal. Enge's Morlock stories provide an excellent foil to the warrior tales so far in this volume. Where it's refreshing to have a hero who thinks his way out of trouble, like Sigurd from Jeff Stewart's "Mountain Scarab, with Morlock, all he has is his mind.

Any time magic is involved, the rules become an issue. James does a great job of establishing the kinds of things Morlock can do, just a twist of magic, without making Morlock a demigod. The world also benefits from the deft writing, plumbing historical periods and myths a bit off the beaten path. This particular story has a bit of italian flavor, and I get the sense in general that Morlock's world is roughly European, after the fall of the roman empire. It's a fantasy world, but this story has a rustic, old-world feel. The magic provides an extra layer of surprise, and as with other Morlock stories there are some pleasant switchbacks at the end of this one, particularly the crow coin. ;)

One great thing James does in this story, is deliver elements of Morlock's history, without telling us all the details. This let's us see into Morlock's motivations, while still giving him an aura of mystery, keeping the reader wondering about the "rest" of the story. I'm really hoping to see a Morlock collection or novel someday. I already see that knowing more of Morlock's past won't spoil these stories, it will enhance them.

For my money, Morlock the Maker is one of the truly iconic characters to emerge from the current struggling renaissance of swords and sorcery fiction. This story is another strong reason to pick up Return of the Sword.

Buy the book! The Return of the Sword: An Anthology of Heroic Adventure
James Enge's site, full of Morlockian goodness EE Knight's Announcement
A Review

"Storytelling" by E.E. Knight from Return of the Sword

2008-04-10T23:37:00.000-07:00

I was a bit skeptical of an essay on storytelling in the middle of this anthology of swords and sorcery stories that is just cooking along. But as usual with Return of the Sword, I was in for a surprise. Knight strikes a mentor's tone, but leavens it with a ton of humor. My wife was giving me annoyed looks I was chuckling so much during the reading.

The best thing is that the humor highlights an excellent perspective on writing fiction, and the writer's life. I read an embarrassing amount of process books. Knight echoes and distills a great deal of advice I've read in other sources, while laying out the basic building blocks of storytelling in a clear, concise manner. It's an excellent essay, and I can't wait to discuss it and use the ideas there for our discussions at SFReader.

"Dump truck of despair..." what a hoot!

Buy the book! The Return of the Sword: An Anthology of Heroic Adventure
EE Knight's Announcement
A Review

"To Be A Man" by Robert Rhodes from Return of the Sword

2008-04-09T22:48:00.000-07:00

Wow. Return of the Sword hits another high point with this tale of a red-maned warrior woman. As summaries go, I can't do better than this one from E.E. Knight's blog.

“To Be A Man” - The thief Vasili has enjoyed a rich and ribald life with his partner, the notorious Titania Brashnova. But when Titania finally goes too far, Vasili must attempt his greatest con yet: ending their partnership ... without ending himself.

So, I've been keeping up with Red Sonja through Dynamite's comics line and frankly I'm pretty disappointed with the stories, mainly because Sonja is so two dimensional. In this story we are treated to a lusty tale that recalls the passion and intensity of Howard's Swordswoman. Titania is way larger than life, but it's such a refreshing take. You see, instead of being a chaste ice-princess, Titania is an insatiable love-tiger.

This is the first story in the collection to use first person narration. I haven't been so keen on this style for a while now, but it works so well here. I just glanced at the first few sentences and I was caught up. Vasili's personality is so vivid, the narration confident and playful. In fact the humor in the story camouflages a strong theme and dramatic development of character as Vasili wrestles with his conscience. This story has a moral core that caught me off guard and lifts it from the realm of pure entertainment. It's sexy and mature, and that is part of the artfulness of the tale. What could possibly go wrong with being the partner to a beautiful, ass-kicking, sexually insatiable amazon? The answer may surprise you.

Fantastic!

Buy the book! The Return of the Sword: An Anthology of Heroic Adventure
Robert Rhodes
EE Knight's Announcement
A Review

"Lair of the Cherufe" by Angeline Hawkes from Return of the Sword

2008-04-08T16:38:00.000-07:00

If I didn't know better, I would say this is a story from the classic age of pulps. It has a fun style that reminded me of Fritz Leiber. Our hero, in this case, is Kabar of el Hazzar and the setting is a mythic middle east. The tale really cooks along, establishing character and setting while Kabar is being summoned by the local king, an old fighting buddy of Kabar's, whose daughter has been kidnapped. She is to be sacrificed to some gigantic monster in a volcano, unless Kabar can save her.

If there is one thing that puzzles me, its the presence of two other characters, Kabar's brother and a friend. They don't accomplish much and I think the story would be shorter and sweeter without them. However, looking at Ms. Hawkes website, it seems this is one of many stories featuring these characters, and in this case, her fans would probably like to know what's going on with these two. That's understandable, especially from an established author. It's an interesting group, and I could certainly read more of their stories.

There's another magic blade in this tale, the Singing Sword. That's pretty familiar territory, and in fact there are few surprises here. The hero is very confident and it comes as no shock when things go his way... mostly. =) But overall it is an entertaining yarn that stands out for its unique and fully-formed voice and its classic pulp feel.

Buy the book! The Return of the Sword: An Anthology of Heroic Adventure
Angeline Hawkes
EE Knight's Announcement
A Review

"Mountain Scarab" by Jeff Stewart from Return of the Sword

2008-04-07T21:15:00.000-07:00

This is an excellent tale with the feel of the old Conan stories. It starts off in the midst of a caravan raid:

The first guard died with an arrow in his throat.

Bam! That got my attention.

We soon meet the northern sailor Sigurd, who is embroiled with a group of raiders. When a young woman is captured during the raid, he finds himself torn between his personal honor and the need to keep his skin. The plot moves along effortlessly. Each step makes sense, without giving itself away. The two leads, Sigurd and the girl Simone are fully realized, as well as a couple of supporting characters. The setting is concise and vivid. I could see the yellow firelight on the faces of the encamped raiders as they watch events unfold.

Unfortunately the beginning is a little uneven. My major gripe, really, is that the author uses the word "wiry" to describe the Peshmerga raiders at least three times. A little thing, but it cooled my initial excitement at the story's dramatic opening. When the hero first enters, I would almost prefer a more removed description. The word Valkyrion is cool, but it sounds pretty austentatious when the character is introduced, larger than life. When what we get is a believable, down on his luck viking/barbarian who relies on his wits as much as his axe.

But the story gripped my attention and I was eager to find out what would happen to Sigurd and Simone.

On the craft side of things, this story is told in third person omnitient. I was a bit jarred at first when the point of view would move between characters, but it worked. I found myself thinking that my only real problem with it is that so many people tell you not to write that way. It was good enough for Frank Herbert, though. Ultimately, I enjoyed being able to see the story from the different perspectives. I'd be very interested to read what others think of the story and its mode.

Buy the book! The Return of the Sword: An Anthology of Heroic Adventure
EE Knight's Announcement

Infected, a novel by Scott Sigler

2008-04-01T20:25:00.000-07:00

Back in the fall of 2005, followed an apple email to the new iTunes section with podcasts. A bit like a radio show, podcasts allowed me to catch up on things that my busy life (tm) left little time for. My mainstays are Democracy Now, Escape Pod, and Scott Sigler.

Some time soon I will rant on the whole "webscabs" thing, but right now I can say one thing about it. Scott Sigler has given me four free audiobooks in podcast form. The fifth, Nocturnal is in progress. Scott's books simply kick ass and I freakin' love the guy. He's earned a fan for life, who will buy every book he puts out, the day it is released, no questions asked. Scott Sigler books are thriller-scifi-horror stew with gnarly fucking monsters, realistic characters, heroes, villains and lots--AND LOTS-- of violence. But we're not talking one dimensional gorefests here. Scott builds the horror with the bricks of real science and an intense narrative voice.

Today, Infected hit the store shelves. It's Scott Sigler's first hardcover, so I am celebrating and honoring the future high overlord's demand for photos.

The Borders I got to in Stockton, CA. I know I'm not supposed to like the big chains, but I like this particular store.

What no Sigler?

Okay, Scott. For all the kick ass stories, here is me embarrassing myself in front of the internet and a friendly Borders clerk. Sure glad my wife loves me for my brains. =P

I humbly suggest that the bookstores get big stacks of Infected and display them prominently. The cover image is truly striking, and the book delivers.

Congratulations, Scott. You've been working your ass off to entertain us. The least I can do is buy your book.

Bryan Hitchcock,
Original Junkie

"Deep in the Land of the Ice and Snow" by Ty Johnston from RotS

2008-04-01T20:11:00.000-07:00

This story didn't do it for me. The hero Belgad of the Thunder Clan, his opponents and other characters suffer in comparison to the preceding stories. I don't want to belabor the point, because it is a good action piece, and there's some twist to it at the end, but the story didn't bring anything new or deliver the goods with any particular flare. Wolves? That territory's been covered.

I was very intrigued by the witch Belgad is sent to slay. When I think of a witch in a frozen wasteland with an odd hut, I'm thinking Baba Yaga--something twisted and cool. Unfortunately, this witch is no Baba Yaga.

It will be interesting to read what other readers have to say about these stories.

More words! A break for progress.

2008-03-27T22:04:00.000-07:00

My major preoccupation these days is my novel Demons of the Neverwoods. Tonight I managed to hammer out another 900 words or so, which is a major achievement for me, lately. It's very rough, what I call zero draft, material, but I am determined to hit the 100k mark with this one. Then begins the major Odyssey of editing, but that's a ways off.

So anyway, I'm just glad to get a bit more of the story written.

"Fatefist at Torkas Nahl" by David Pitchford from RotS

2008-03-26T21:33:00.000-07:00

A large cast of characters and an epic storyline give this tale grandeur and depth. The world seems so much wider than the city and battleground of the immediate setting. Fans of Steven Erikson will surely enjoy this piece, though it may leave them itching for more. I make that comparison because of the way Pitchford just dunks the reader into the world with its exotic names, as well as the detail he devotes to the varieties of military units within the competing armies.

There is a bit of a curveball, in the tradition of some Conan stories, in that the title character makes his appearance after the story is underway. Arnoux Trav, the Fatefist from the title is an interesting character. Bound by a vow of silence in his first scene, he seems to be undergoing a kind of spiritual and social transformation, from a monk-scholar of war and wisdom, to an outright warrior. Indeed, we first see him shrouded in a robe while later he is outfitted in custom armor. It seems a bit odd at first that an "un-blooded" soldier could be so proficient, but Pitchford serves the battles to us as intellectual puzzles for Trav to solve, and it works. Very interesting to read about a hero whose wits and wisdom are more important than brawn. There are some truly funny moments as the wise monks advise an impetuous young prince more eager for glory than assuring victory.

Again, we are treated to a magic blade in this story, though this time it is in the hands of the piece's biggest villain. This makes for a great battle at the end, but if there is one thing I would have liked to see, its a more vivid introduction to Rajan Vace and the sword Angra Mainyu. There is a report of his body count from the first day, but it is almost too high to be believed. "Fatefist at Torkas Nahl" is one of those short stories that is completely satisfying as a short, but is rife with implications and possibilities for a longer work. There are a few places where the dialog is a bit too cryptic, and even after a re-read I wondered exactly why some things happened, but that kind of fits with the "wiser-than-mere-mortals" mystique of the Mikari.

As a writer, I think this story excels at providing a sense of a much wider world through the exotic names and the writer's fearlessness with diving into the thick of things with people and places that demand we step into that world. The emphasis on combat as a struggle of body AND mind, also makes it stand out. I know of Mr. Pitchford as part of the Pitch-Black team. Now I know to keep an eye out for his writing, as well.

Buy the book! The Return of the Sword: An Anthology of Heroic Adventure
David Pitchford
EE Knight's Announcement

"What Heroes Leave Behind" by Nicholas Ian Hawkins from RotS

2008-03-24T21:30:00.000-07:00

In this story, we meet Tolasun, an aging hero. He's a memorable character and the story conveys the toll of the years on his body as well as the weight of his deeds on the world. Songs are sung for this guy, but he knows the end is coming, so when an old flame comes with tidings of an evil that has taken root in the ruins of a crumbling fortress and endangers a local monastery, he jumps at the chance to go out swinging.

There are excellent scenes with minor characters, the old flame, the monk, that pass information as well as giving us a sense of who these people are. This is a lesson to remember and a story to come back to. Even the "minor" characters have personality.

This story has it all: fast, brutal action and a fully realized characters. Even the captured raider has grit and history. Nice touches. The biggest strength is Tolasun, who has a lot of history which comes out naturally in the story, and his physical struggles. Fighting a horde of raiders seems an easy feat compared to the ten hour march up the mountain! Tolasun's struggle with his age was spot on. Tolasun is like a hero from myth, or from a D&D game, who just does what he does because he is needed. But, the barren results of his nomadic, bachelor ways bring him vividly to life.

Add an epic final battle of mythic scope and blam! That's a kickass story.

Buy the book! The Return of the Sword: An Anthology of Heroic Adventure
Nicholas Ian Hawkins
EE Knight's Announcement

"The Battle of Raven Kill" by Jeff Draper from RotS

2008-03-19T23:41:00.000-07:00

The first "barbarian" hero in Return of the Sword is Oth, a warrior who chooses to make a rear guard stand on a narrow stone bridge over a deadly river as his clan flees. That much becomes clear right away. That could be a hard premise to swallow, but Draper's crafty hero uses a shield to great effect. What follows is a detailed and exciting battle. You know Oth is doomed, but he's such a cool character, you're rooting for him to pull it out somehow.

I love it when characters name their weapons, but it can be overdone. Here, there is no magic apparent in Oth's weapons, but his names for them elevate them beyond generic tools of destruction. The sense of humor and the artful thematic descriptions also make this story more than just a retread of old Conan territory. The premise seems familiar, but the delivery is fresh. The battle is vivid, brutal and exciting.

More than any of the stories so far, this one points to much more going on behind the scenes, and I for one would be interested in reading more tales of Oth and his adopted daughter. The author has a deleted scene and an interesting post about his writing process on his blog.

Pros: Intriguing hero, scarcity of steel is well presented, world building in action, feels like one exciting point in a larger story

Cons: Feel like I missed something in regard to the small amount of magic in the story, could have been clearer. Where were the bows and arrows? Good battle, but at times the enemy seemed cursed by their own stupidity.

Links:
Buy the book! The Return of the Sword: An Anthology of Heroic Adventure
Jeff Draper's Blog
E.E. Knight's announcement
SF Reader Forum

"The Last Scream of Carnage" by Phil Emery from RotS

2008-03-18T21:57:00.000-07:00

This was a trippy story, the editor's choice as "the most powerful tale in the anthology."

It is very artful and that was the most impressive thing to me, that this story exists and it found print here. It plays with line breaks and indents like poetry in places, making a visual interplay with the text. Much of it has the feel and flow of an epic poem. It has a formal beauty that emphasizes, but also transcends the subject matter.

It reminded me, in that way, of a recent story from Every Day Fiction. "The Journey, Archetype in a Pop Song Structure" by Daniel Ausema, in spite of the pretentious title, was a really entertaining story with breaks between the "verses", a bridge, and tiny "choruses" that almost worked as some kind of prog-rock epic. It was highly entertaining and opened my mind to a lot of new possibilities for story structure.

"The Last Scream of Carnage" evokes an older style of epic story, in spite of the angular line breaks that would scream "Ferlenghetti" in any other setting. I'm not going to bother trying to recreate any of the text play, this is a story worth reading for yourself, because I think that is a portal to the larger issue of the plot and theme of the story. This is where I feel the piece is weak. At one point, the hero's torch goes out, and I think the guy is just so mean that it doesn't matter, but it didn't work for me. If it weren't for the beauty of the execution, the story would almost be a flat hack-em-up, though it does have a some spin at the end. I'm willing to debate all that, you just have to read the story first. =) Much to talk about on the forum.

Links:
Buy the book! The Return of the Sword: An Anthology of Heroic Adventure
E.E. Knight's announcement

"The Wyrd of War" by Bill Ward from RotS

2008-03-17T22:47:00.000-07:00

I came to this, the second tale in The Return of the Sword, with high expectations because Bill Ward's story in Flashing Swords #9 was so good. I was not disappointed.

"The Wyrd of War" is like turning on the Lord of the Rings just before the battle of Minas Tirith, swooping in on the wings of a carrion bird to find the formations assembling for the humanity's last stand against the twisted necromancies of the Animus. The soldier and sword, for once again the weapon is a crucial part of the story, which take center stage are doomed from the start, but as the story shows with vivid prose, there are fates worse than death.

This story has a perfect blend of epic fantasy and horror for my taste. That monster... you'll know the one after you read it. That's just sick. "The Wyrd of War" nails it, on so many levels.

Narration:

Now, on the last day, the Animus brought forth its force of beasts and bestial men upon the parched earth of the ancient battle-plain, and there made war for the fate of all.

and later...

As one body the Wyrdkin sprinted into the oncoming line, striking the unmen with a force not seen in the turning of an age.

If that sounds like a lot of hot air, you coudn't be more wrong. Get the book. Read the story, and tell me it does not come through on the epic promise of those words, in spite of being well under ten thousand words. I dare you. It's consistent in its mythic tone and yet it delivers on a visceral level. There is some serious bloodletting here, told with style and clarity so you feel the gritty ashes in your mouth.

Ward delivers a gut punch of an ending and ... damn, that was a good short story.

Links:
Buy the book! The Return of the Sword: An Anthology of Heroic Adventure
"Mightier than the Sword" by Bill Ward
from Flashing Swords #9
E.E. Knight's announcement

"Altar of the Moon" by Stacey Berg from RotS

2008-03-17T09:20:00.000-07:00

I received my copy of The Return of the Sword on Saturday. The cover looks even better up close and soon I found myself digging in to the introduction and the first story. In the next few weeks, I plan to post my thoughts on one of these stories each week day, until I have covered them all. There will be no spoilers, but as usual I will be looking mainly for things I can learn as a writer by examining my reactions as a reader. After reading the first few stories it became clear that the hype is well deserved. So let's get to it.

Altar of the Moon by Stacey Berg is the first story in The Return of the Sword. Bam! A magic sword and the blessed/cursed warrior who wields it. This sword had a hint of Arthurian tragedy and a great twist on the magic sword trope, with a tip of the hat to Moorcock. A fun, brief read.

For my taste, the character names in this story were a little plain and it took a little effort to overcome real world associations with the names. If they had been a little more fantastic, I think it would have helped with the 'other-worldly' feel of the piece. And one last nit, the second paragraph is actually the one that grabbed me, I feel like the story should have opened with the sword and dealt with the travel description second.

Buy the book! The Return of the Sword: An Anthology of Heroic Adventure
Further reading at E.E. Knight's blog

"The Whited Child" by Mike Canfield from Black Gate #9

2008-03-12T23:33:00.000-07:00

Black Gate #9

The White Child is a mind blowing story for the language alone. It's' told in third person, but with a sentence pattern that is striking and easy to understand. Check out the link for a sample of the story and you'll see right away what I mean. Then add a story as stark as the barren mountainside where the story takes place, but with a sense of natural forces and social bonds that transcend the lives of individuals. It's shamanistic and clever and sometimes pretty funny.

It's a great story and pretty much established my respect for the magazine.

"The Thrall" by Mike Schultz from Black Gate #9

2008-03-12T22:31:00.000-07:00

Black Gate #9

The Thrall is an example of a story that makes me wonder why fantasy novels need to be so long these days. It sweeps you into this world where certain people are gifted with the ability to Thrall others, bend their minds to the will of the most powerful mind. It's set in a rustic fantasy earth, which is something I really like, I'll admit. Within the space of one short story, major things happen to the main characters, a woman and her child who is especially gifted, and their people. Epic, but on a very personal scale, if that makes any sense.

There were some things to learn from this piece.

First is to just go for it. This story hits you with this one main idea, the Thrall, capitalized and just makes it real. bold and well done. Reminds me of Zelazny or Card in that way.

Since even those who have no Thrall power can still feel it, the story brings a whole other sense into play, created out of our cultural gestalt of mental powers and a compelling logic of power and consequence. In fantasy, you're not limited to just five senses to elicit experiences. Excellent.

The power is developed quickly, as the mother and child are introduced, trying to evade pursuit by guardsmen. Bam! The rules are laid down to provide the premises for the conclusion of the story. Very little info dump, just tight third person perspective through the eyes of a vivid and compelling character.

No Genius: An Update

2008-03-11T09:17:00.000-07:00

Okay, so it didn't take a genius to see where Nocturnal was headed. Did I ask for a prize or something? No. Now that things are coming together, I am going to refrain from further potential spoilers and let Sigler work his magic.

I'm a bit behind on my blogging, with a few Escape Pod episodes and a short story or two to go over. Reading-wise, I am knee deep in Ken Follet's Pillars of the Earth and really enjoying it. I carry Steven Erikson's Gardens of the Moon around with me, but I am stalled about a third into it.

The best news is that I made some progress on Demons of the Neverwoods last night. I've been kind of stalled over Laeleh's section, but I had a breakthrough with part of the plot and then the words came tumbling out, about 1800 of them. I feel much better about her section now and that means the book as a whole will work better. I don't want to get too far ahead with any of the characters, and I think I may wait to finish the Gilthani characters until Jaek and Laeleh are done. We'll see. More writing tonight.

My Guess: Klauser is a Nocturnal

2008-03-06T09:55:00.000-08:00

So, Episode 17 of Scott Sigler's Nocturnal was such a freaking tease. Just a little bit with most of the characters. All build-up. But that's what this whole serialized fiction thing is about, right? Keeping us dirty junkies wanting more.

Anyway, I've been suspicious for a while now that the protagonist, Bryan Klauser, is one of the Nocturnals. The evidence:

Supernatural strength and healing. The dude just ain't human.
Who is his mother? I don't remember a lot of details, but she isn't around anymore. Could it be that Papa Klauser was a donor to the Nocturnal Mother?
The dreams. So far in the story, the only other person who has the wet dreams of the killings is little Max, and he's the chosen one or whatever.

At first, the hopeful part of me thought Bryan might be related to Savior, but there is just no connection there. I think his purpose is to kill Savior once and for all. This would not be the first time a Sigler protagonist has descended into madness and become the "bad guy." The fact that we want Bryan to rock and get Robin back and kick Nocturnal butt will make it all the more horrifying when he goes rogue.

Whatever happens, I have the feeling it is about to get very messy.

On another Sigler note, he launched the new version of Infected today. Sounds like there is a lot of new material and some of the characters have been more fleshed out. That is great news. Also, it seems like there is more information about the scale of the infection. In the original version, the battle at the end came out of nowhere. Already in the new version we have more hints about the convergence. "They can walk there themselves!" Classic. I hope Audible.com gets the full version. Gotta have that director's cut. =)

Lords of Justice available for Pre-Order

2008-03-05T15:36:00.001-08:00

At long last, Lords of Justice is available for pre-order. Looks like it will ship in the first week of April. It would be great to have a copy to give to Sigler when I go to see him with a handful of his books to get signed. I have an audio ad I need to send out to some podcasts to help promote the book, and I suppose its time to finalize a promotional agreement with Escape Pod.

In addition to the main cover, there are going to be limited editions of covers with the four heroes individually.

On another note, I get my computer out of the shop today so I can get back to work on all my projects. No more Oblivion for me! Heeya! Time to get back to work.

The Game that Lives: a Eulogy for Gary Gygax

2008-03-05T00:05:00.000-08:00

I was stunned by the news yesterday that Gary Gygax, one of the creators of Dungeons and Dragons, passed away. March fourth, the gamer geek holiday known as GMs Day. How appropriate. In years to come it won't be just GMs Day, it will be a day to remember the man who brought this iconic game, along with so much fun and thought, into our lives. Partly I was saddened by how little I knew about the man. Never met him, had no idea he was sick, or that he had a wife or children or anything. No, for me, it was all about the game. I don't think he would have minded a bit. D&D is not made for people who have to be in control of the message or the situation. It's a great big party of a game where laughter is as much a part as strategy, character building and interacting with friends old and new.

So, this is not really about the death of human being, but a life well lived and millions of lives affected, whole genres reinforced with the butresses of games that challenge the mind, in a world that just wants to keep us dumb. I can't be sad for long when I think of all I've gained from this man's work in my life. From the age of about twelve, I was captured by D&D. The drive to read and understand the rules strengthened my critical thinking abilities. Kant and Hume weren't that tough after working through the combat rules of AD&D. And the vocabulary... Sure I was a smart kid, but I'm pretty sure the words I learned from the DM's Guide got me into the "gifted" classes at school. I was gifted all right. Gifted with a cool mom who read The Lord of the Rings to me as a child and let me spend my allowance on gaming books with words like "initiative", "primordial" and "thaumaturgy". The skills I learned as a player helped me in drama classes, in creative writing, feeling confident with math, and gave me a peer group I am still very proud to be part of. As a DM I had to learn how to manage a meeting, prepare an outline and stick to it or roll with the punches when things got whacky, how to deal with obnoxious people in the group, and how to wrangle people with busy schedules into a room for some challenging, humorous times. All these skills have served me well in my working life, particularly by giving me a sense that any problem can be solved if we only think hard enough and work smart enough.

I am not a religious person. As much as sentiments like "He's gone to another adventure" appeal to me, I would be false to myself if I repeated them. No, to me the true magic is language and art and music. Words. Writing is magic. And it is in his words, his thoughts, the game (and all its children) that will be played for generations to come, that Gary Gygax lives on.

Tally ho!

Links:
Order of the Stick
Penny Arcade

Return of the Sword

2008-03-04T11:07:00.001-08:00

Return of the Sword is now available for pre-order at the awesome price of only $14 with free shipping! This looks to be an amazing anthology of swords and sorcery fiction.

Give yourself a break from the suburban angst and inexplicable semi-weirdness of today's big name genre magazines with a good dose of classic style adventure fantasy. Like Glen Cook, Stephen Erickson or George RR Martin? I guarantee you these stories will be closer to those writers than anything you will find in Realms of Fantasy or F&SF. Wonder where all the warriors and wizards have gone in fiction? Here's your treasure chest. You may not know these authors by name, but this is your chance to get a dose of the adventure you crave, without having to wait 3 years and wade through 250,000 words to get to a battle.

I've ordered my copy. Help us prove that swords and sorcery is alive and well. Order yours today!

LORDS OF JUSTICE

2008-03-03T12:58:00.000-08:00

I am so excited I can hardly focus on work. It looks like Lords of Justice is going to be a reality. The pre-order page is up here.

A lot has happened since I wrote Cold Snap, and I am sure some of the writing will make me cringe, but I still think it is a great story with a killer ending. Hope the readers agree. In addition to showing off the book to my co-workers and friends, I am really looking forward to sending a copy to Suzanne Swift, the young woman whose story inspired some of Frostwitch's background in the novelette. I have no idea if she will like the story, but I hope the sentiment of it will bring her some hope. The time since I wrote the story has only increased my outrage at the treatment of women in the military.

The other stories look very interesting, and I am looking forward to reading them as a fan of super heroes, too.

Sharpe's Triumph

2008-02-25T10:21:00.000-08:00

I just finished Sharpe's Triumph by Bernard Cornwell. I've read a dozen books in this series now and really enjoyed all of them. There are only a few left to me, including the climactic Waterloo, but I saw there was a newer book covering events earlier in Sharpe's career, so I took it up before pressing on to the defeat of Napoleon.

Triumph concerns the Maratha War of 1803, a time when the British were still battling in India under the leadership of the newly minted general Arthur Wellesley, whom the world knows better as the Duke of Wellington and the man who defeated Napoleon. Sharpe is a sergeant when the novel opens and the book tells the story, now famous for Sharpe readers, of how this fairly green sgt. saves the general's life and earns himself a rare field commission for bravery, thus becoming an officer.

The novel was spectacularly absorbing. Cornwell uses a third person omnitient viewpoint to great effect. Through this lens we get not only the perspective of Sharpe and his enemy Sgt. Hakeswill, but Wellesley himself, three of the enemy leaders and several other minor characters. The shifts never seem abrupt to me, as Cornwell effortlessly draws the "camera" back between close-ups into the minds of the characters.

No one does battles like Bernard Cornwell, and even after the spectacular descriptions of sieges and skirmishes from other books, his depiction of the Battle of Assaye is exciting and detailed, with great respect shown to the bravery of the Scottish soldiers whose professional performance and ferocity routed an enemy seven times their number. These books are not for the faint of heart (yeah, yeah, what am I doing reading them then? lol) and there were times when the brutality was almost overwhelming. Cornwell delivers war that is both heroic and beastly, a great waste and a great triumph in all its chaos and carnage. As bloody as it gets, Cornwell writes with a a brutal poetry of death.

Like most of the Sharpe books, Triumph does follow the familiar pattern, with a beautiful woman who Sharpe beds, of course, and ending with a battle. But once again the tropes and familiar plot devices are minimized by great storytelling and writing.

Bernard Cornwell's advice for aspiring novelists.

Playing for Keeps

2008-02-22T12:10:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I listened to the final episode of Mur Lafferty's podiobook Playing for Keeps. Mur is the inspirational podcaster of I Should be Writing. Some of her short works have been amazing, like the Escape Pod story "I Look Forward to Remembering You". So I eagerly subscribed to this podiobook, her first novel, I believe.

Playing for Keeps is a super hero novel, which is a pretty rare breed. It's set in the fictitious Seventh City and the supers are members of an acclaimed organization called The Academy. The main characters, however, are a group of slightly powered super rejects who hang out at a bar called named after its owner, Laura "Keepsie" Branson. She is called Keepsie because her power is that no one can take anything she owns. They freeze in place, paralyzed. Other humorous powers include a guy who can fire feces out of his hands, a fellow who is super strong for just a few seconds before having to rest, a cook who knows exactly how people like their food, and a waitress who can balance anything on a bar tray.

This motley cast is thrown into a situation where the "heroes" seem pretty ruthless and corrupt and the super-villains don't seem so bad.

I enjoyed the novel quite a bit. It was a fun take on super heroes and it kept up my interest. If it sounds appealing so far, you should definitely check it out. However, there were some problems for me and part of what I am doing with these reviews is trying to learn from the things I read.

Number one, there was just way too much bouncing back and forth from the bar to the academy to the bar to the park to the bar to the academy to an apartment to the academy, etc. All the while the characters are bickering about what to do. Not saying it wasn't realistic, it just wasn't the most entertaining part of the book.

Second, and this is more an issue of presentation, the "Story so Far" segments at the beginning of each episode were not that helpful. I could usually remember what was going on from week to week. Where I needed help was remembering who everyone was. There is a large cast of characters in this book. The supers were easy. What does White Lightning do? Give you one guess. But it took me til the 3/4 mark to be able to remember which of Keepsie's friends was which and who had what powers. Some were easier than others, but this is one area I think the podiobook presentation could have been improved.

Overall, Playing for Keeps was well worth my time and I listened to each episode within a day or so of getting it, usually the same day. For some reason this was one I liked to listen to on the way home, as opposed to Sigler's podcast novels which are always at the top of the list for the drive to work. *shrugs* Still a fun, interesting change of pace, especially for a first novel. Great job, Mur.

Goblin Jumper Cables

2008-02-21T14:19:00.000-08:00

Tonight I start writing again. Between battling depression and preparing for the con, I have not written a word on Demons of the Neverwoods in a couple of weeks. Bad writer! Bad! Listening to Scott Sigler today really got me pumped up. Damn, that guy has so much energy. Can't wait to meet him on his book tour. By that time I darn well better have novel #3 done, at least the rough draft.

It helps that I am running a Neverwoods campaign right now, so there is even more incentive to get into the world and immerse myself in their strange culture. No excuses tonight. The bills are paid, the chores are done, I'm recovered from the Con. Yup, its back in the saddle again.

Gittee-up!

Roger Zelazny

2008-02-20T09:03:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned below, I played in a game of Amber the Diceless RPG on Sunday at the con. This game reawakened my love for the Amber books and for Zelazny in general. For most of my teen years, the Amber novels were far and away my favorite series. His story For a Breath I Tarry is my all time favorite short work, and I think it may be partly responsible for my descent into Philosophy during college.

So, in between chapters of Nine Princes in Amber I wrote to Mike Stackpole (just because I know he is a Zelazny fan and might have some pull somewhere), to Audible.com and to Ann Edenfield at American Publishing Inc. They own the rights to recordings of the first five Amber novels read by Zelazny himself! I think these should be available to Amber fans around the world, and not just as cassette tapes.

I don't know what will come of my activism in this regard, but I will keep bugging people until I see unabridged versions of Amber and other Zelazny classics on Audible.

DunDraCon wrap-up report

2008-02-19T10:38:00.000-08:00

After missing the last three years, I finally made it back to DunDraCon (DDC for short) this past weekend. I had a blast. The con is very well run and even after three years away, it was easy to get back in the groove. Having said that, the biggest disappointment was the game masters, though I still had a great time.

Friday I arrived way early and got the room and into my first game choice. I think it was Echoes of the Past, a 5th level D&D 3.5 game. I will now know to avoid "DM may provide characters" games all together. I had made a special version of Renz, my favorite sorceress, for the game, as well as a sheet for Svanhilde, a rogue from WoW. No one else brought a character. I heard several people complain about the time it takes to make characters. Doesn't anyone else own a computer? Gods, it takes like 15 minutes with any one of a number of free online generators, let alone things like Character Gen or Crystal Ball. Anyway, the DM didn't have any characters made either so we spent the first 90 minutes getting characters. Then there was the 13 year old who sat next to me and was a total spaz, in spite of it being a "mature themes" game. The DM took NO steps to keep the kid in line or help him wiht his character. So who is the nice person to help out with that? Me, of course.

Note to DMs: Please please please do not allow the loudest, most obnoxious players to monopolize your time and attention. It's called Everybody gets a Turn! Really easy. I use Social Initiative and let everyone roll using their Charisma bonus, then take turns in that order. Really easy and it actually helps build tension and keep the timing straight.

I almost walked out of this game a couple of times, but I didn't want to be a dick. I had some fun. It was great to play Renz and as usual, kind of get my own story going on the side. There was this cute bard, see... lol And the player had no problem RPing in spite of the fact that I am the polar opposite, physically, of Renz. That was fun.

Saturday I got to run Cauldron of Shadows, the game I ran for my friends and novelized for Nanowrimo. It was a great time. No women players, but the guys I had were great sports about the whole thing. The power gamer from Friday's game even showed up and seemed to have a fun time with the roleplaying. Everyone stayed to the end at 3am, and everyone lived. I will have to do something about that. I think giving the Strega each a level of Witch is a good direction for that. Otherwise the feedback from my home team was very effective in moving the story along and plugging some of the holes. I was very well prepared and surprise surprise! the game was done in under the scheduled time and everyone had fun. Imagine that.

Several games of Magic and a few hours of fitful sleep later I played in a game of Amber for the first time. Amber is a diceless system based on the works of Roger Zelazny, who is one of my all time favorite writers EVAR! This was more of a LARP than and rpg. Two experienced players came in fabulous costumes that made me feel even grungier and lumpier than usual, but they were beautiful, especially the lady, and played the game like true Amberites. It was fun to play with my friend Sean on the other team. However, the GM was less than fully prepared and much of the time was spend sitting around waiting to speak with him. I think another GM would have helped. IT was still a fun experience, but it went 2+ hours past the alloted time and generally felt pretty disorganized. Having said that, I intend to play Amber again, and come in costume next time, if it is appropriate.

As a further boon, the game re-awakened my love for the Amber novels. I am looking forward to reading them again and then learning more about the RPG.

All in all, a great time and another invaluable learning experience as a GM and player. But geez, GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER, GAME MASTERS! There is just no excuse to not be ready. If life is that rough, cancel your game. I would.

Dundracon!

2008-02-13T13:50:00.001-08:00

This weekend I will be attending Dundracon in San Ramon, CA. This will be my fifth time, though I have missed the last couple. I am excited to get away for the weekend and immerse myself in gamer culture and play some games. New magic cards, yipeee!

I am also running my scenario "Cauldron of Shadows" on Saturday night. I first ran this a few months ago for my friends. Their feedback was excellent and I am looking forward to running the new and improved version. Can't wait to see what a different batch of people do with the characters. Should be really interesting.

Dragon Song by Anne McCaffrey

2008-02-08T15:15:00.000-08:00

It's been20 years since I read any of the Dragonriders of Pern novels, but since I have been loving Naomi Novik's books and I am writing "pet fiction" of a sort myself, I figured I would check them out again.

The beginning of this novel was very frustrating, as it seemed so contrived and unfair that "girl's can't be Harpers." Hello, the human voice (especially women's imho) is one of the most expressive and beautiful instruments in the world. It just defies logic, especially in a future setting, to so handicap your society with these kinds of limitations. But there is a twist here. It wasn't until the book was mostly over that I realized Menolee's parents were the villains of the story. Her dad is a big ass, but even her mother is despicable in the way she treats Menolee's hand injury.

By the end, I was truly moved and involved with the great protagonist and the world of Pern. There is a lot to learn here for my Neverwoods novel in terms of the society and the attitude of young people. The huge influx of new characters at the end was a bit mystifying at times, and the details about the drama between the dragon riders did not seem relevant to the story at hand, though I am sure it will make more sense when I have read more of the novels.

Sold! To Flashing Swords

2008-02-04T15:14:00.000-08:00

Well, since the contract came, I guess it's time to announce that I've made a sale. "Blood, like Roots" the Neverwoods story of Raana the hunter sold to Flashing Swords e-zine and will appear in the November edition.

Woohoo!

They have a great crew there and the community of swords and sorcery writers that hang out in the forums are wonderful to chat with and learn from. I will be posting reading summaries of some FS issues in the future. Good stuff!

Escape Pod: Flaming Marshmallow and Other Deaths

2008-02-01T13:43:00.000-08:00

EP143: Flaming Marshmallow and Other Deaths by Camille Alexa.

This was a really fun story with a great reader. What a thrill to hear a story by an author who posts over at the SF Reader forums!

Flaming Marshmallow and Other Deaths is the first person story of a girl turning sixteen. In her near future high school, cliques are formed around the Cause of Death that a person can learn, with their parents approval, at age sixteen. A very interesting take on the rite of passage. The language and style of the piece was perfect, as evidenced by the number of people of different age groups posting their praise on the EP forums. Seems high school never really changes much as an experience. =P

The really interesting part, to me, is after school when the narrator's dad shows up to take her out for her birthday. His reluctance about visiting the CoD kiosk was really well done and gave the story a ton of heart, which is something I really like in a story.

Personally, this story has great relevance as part of my WiP deals with a bunch of adolescent warrior/atheletes in the Neverwoods. Every step outside their home territory is a brush with death and a glorious end is revered in their society. So in a way, this story provided an example of a believable culture of death. It sounds morbid, but to the kids in Camille's cliques and to my young Gilthani, it is glorious and a way to find distinction and acceptance in a harsh world. Plus the teenie-bopper tone is just perfect in this story, which reinforces the attitudes I've given my characters. A lot to learn from in this story.

40,144

2008-01-31T22:23:00.001-08:00

40,144

That's my word count on Demons of the Neverwoods as of a few minutes ago. I almost stopped at 39k, but I still hadn't gotten to some of the core images I wanted to hit. Tonight I wrote about Kirya's Trial of Thorns, where she has to climb down and prove herself to the heartmind of an ancient thorn tree. I am not sure all this stuff will be interesting to a reader, but it sure is cool to finally document the ritual and the experience that I have had in my mind for over a decade.

W00t!

Flashing Swords Swag!

2008-01-31T14:25:00.000-08:00

buy unique gifts at Zazzle

Empire of Ivory by Naomi Novik

2008-01-31T14:13:00.000-08:00

Damn this woman! A cliffhanger? A cliffhanger!

heh At least the next book is due out this year.

In Empire of Ivory, Captain Laurence and Temeraire journey to Africa in search of a cure for a consumptive disease that has struck the dragons of Britain. As you might imagine this brings the issues of slavery and abolition front and center. To paraphrase my wife 'the societal norms that Laurence has always accepted before wither in the face of the simple truths of Temeraire's perspective.'

Love these books so much. Highly recommended. The audio books from Audible.com are tremendous and the reader gives weight to the story with his beautiful accent and excellent characterizations.

Sabriel by Garth Nix

2008-01-30T14:33:00.000-08:00

Last week I finished Sabriel by Garth Nix. It was easy to enjoy, as I got the audiobook version from Audible and Tim Curry was the reader. He did an amazing job, especially with Mogget. There is a lot of excellent imagery here and a really well done magic system that manages to draw upon magic systems from history and literature without seeming derivative, especially the bells used in Necromancy.

I felt like the story drug a little bit sometimes, especially at the beginning, but mostly it really moves along. The action ramps up to a terrific and sometimes terrifying degree near the end, with some things that seemed really brutal. The romance elements were perfect and Sabriel is a crystal clear, understandable and very likeable hero. I am not sure I will read the rest of the trilogy, as this novel stands on its own pretty well.

Escape Pod 142: Artifice and Intelligence

2008-01-29T11:31:00.000-08:00

EP142: Artifice and Intelligence by Tim Pratt
This was an entertaining story which shifted between a small handfull of viewpoint characters. That's no small matter in a story as short as this one. Nevertheless we are introduced to at least three well conceived characters. Each section manages to convey a piece of the larger puzzle and then all the characters come together near the story's conclusion.

Contrary to the consensus at the EP comments, I appreciated the story's brevity and the punch at the end. Of course I could read more of this world and the scenario, but I think it might lose some of its originality in a longer form. As a short, it presented an idea and then twisted it, then twisted some more, in a thoughtful way. I have mixed feelings about the plot, such as it was. It is difficult to pinpoint the central conflict of the story, but there was enough banter between the characters to keep me interested.

Back in the Writing Chair

2008-01-28T21:46:00.001-08:00

Woohoo!

Gotta celebrate the small victories, right? Well after more than a week of struggling with the same damn demons I am out of the slump and writing again. Tonight I passed the 1/3 mark.

Once I get writing, it's pretty easy. Starting is the hard part. Every time I face the page again, I feel like somehow the words are going to fail me, but they do not. That is a good thing and I should show my gratitude by writing every chance I get.

There is some reading to catch up with tomorrow. For right now, I am just glad to be writing again.

Battling Depression

2008-01-23T11:57:00.000-08:00

Writing is not happening right now, much to my further dismay. Depression is like a swirling drain, sapping the will to create which leads to greater feelings of worthlessness which continues to sap the will... etc.

There are a million things to blame, but it doesn't to really matter.

Alive or just breathing?

For now, just breathing.

Escape Pod 141: The Color of a Brontosaurus

2008-01-18T11:07:00.000-08:00

This weeks Escape Pod was The Color of a Brontosaurus by Paul E. Martens.
It was a good EP story. As Steve alludes in his intro, it is a science fiction story in the classic style, with a scientist as the lead character. As the story came to a close it seemed to me a parallel in some ways to a certain amazing time travel novel that is being made into a movie. TO tell which one kind of spoils this story, which I will avoid. The end was surprisingly moving. I always admire story tellers like King and Martens in this case, who can telegraph an ending, but still make it punch. Not quite as moving as "I look forward to remembering you", but more science-y, so that's okay.

Another winning episode of Escape Pod.

Jim Baen's Universe, Dec. 2007

2008-01-18T10:24:00.000-08:00

Here is a brief review of the last Universe, though I haven't read all the stories yet.
Laws of Survival by Nancy Kress
This was a great story of a woman struggling to survive in a post holocaust world. She gets picked up by an alien robot with a strange fixation on dogs. I was hooked in right away and then the story just became more and more compelling. There is a lot to learn from here. Spot on first person narration, expert weaving of the woman's personal struggles with her current conflicts. Lots of action with backstory and memories woven in without bogging things down. This was worth the price of my subscription. I wrote to Steve Eley at Escape Pod to suggest this story. It practically reads itself.

The other stories I've read so far from this issue were in the Fantasy Stories section.

Fossilized Gods by J. Simon
This was a fun story with multiple points of view, a neat take on gods and their power, and lots of references to great fantasy writers like Lovecraft and Zelazny. It brought to my attention a novel of Zelazny's that I had never heard of A Night In The Lonesome October. *bonk* Got to find that. Anyway, this was a good read.

Second Banana by Way Jeng
I think Way Jeng is a member of the OWW so that is really cool that s/he got a story in Universe. This is a very quick, flashy science fiction story (in the fantasy section!) about a sabateur and his pilot. They are trying to disable a warship. The action was great and the interaction between the two characters was well done, in so far as it went. I'm all for short stories, but this one felt too short to me. I could have used more information about the setting as well as about the two characters and their relationship. Fun but not entirely satisfying.

The Art of Memory by Barry N. Malzberg and Jack Dann
This was a trippy story about a man who dies in a car wreck and lingers as a ghost. It was poignant, especially when he goes home and sees his wife. The story was very frank in the way it dealt with his sexual feelings for his wife. It reminded me of the film Jacob's Ladder, in a very oblique way. I read it as his dying dreams, but that doesn't really fit all the elements of the story. Wistful, strange, sad.

Escape Pod 140: Astromonkeys!

2008-01-11T16:47:00.000-08:00

EP140: Astromonkeys! by Tony Frazier.

Today's Escape Pod was awesome. I was a bit taken aback at first, with the bar setting and the banter between the narrator and the bartender. It was a super hero tale, told first person, after the fact as a bar story. The structure is deceptive. It seems easy, but I know for a fact that these kinds of stories are more complicated than they look. In spite of the first person perspective, the story still built a sense of mystery and anticipation. I realized part of the end very early, but it still held my interest and then just delivered a knockout finally. Humor and humanity, and chili sauce.

F'ing brilliant.

Nocturnal Thoughts

2008-01-09T16:09:00.000-08:00

At the behest of the future high overlord himself, I am blogging my thoughts and hunches about Scott Sigler's latest podcast novel, Nocturnal.

I wrote the high overlord a few weeks ago with questions about the urine at the crime scenes. I am very interested to know what kind of urine it is and if there is anything else it will tell us. The overlord punted! Merely pointing out that the case of the missing mob lords is different than the other crime scenes, the people from the school. However, the Ninja went to that at least one of these crime scenes. My feeling is that even if Brian and Pookie are working a different case, if you're going to send them to the crime scene and bring up the urine, we ought to find out a bit more about that investigation. Maybe we will. I am just impatient.

So, we have a few threads going on. The scion of an old crime family using the creatures of the night to take out the competition. Students and faculty of a private school being killed and our star is having dreams about it. We haven't seen the kid recently. Wonder what he's been up to. Then we have the "Savior."

I'm not certain if Savior is helping the freaky Marie's Children to keep things quiet or if he is hunting them. My gut right now is on the latter. I think there is some ancient organization that is fighting them and I think Brian has the genes for it. The dreams he has are meant to help him hunt the beasts. That's my hunch. On the other hand, he could be turning into one of them.

Then there is this whole police cover up and conspiracy. What is the deal there? It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Don't the bad guys know that offing curious cops just never works out? If you have to start killing people to keep your secrets, its a good sign that the secrets are on their way to the light of day. Just saying.

Random notes: Pookie's monotone grates on me. Even people who have annoying voices have some variance. Doesn't this guy ever speak quietly? Ever? Don't get me wrong, I love the character and the way he interacts with everyone. I also like the romance. Hope Robin and Brian see some action before the novel is over. The scene with Brian's dad was classic. I hope it makes the final cuts. The fletchers are very interesting, too. Especially the young guy. Come on, a tattooed multi-degreed rocker who builds custom bows and arrows for a living. That rocks. This guy could be a main character. Hope he gets some more time in the novel. Hell, maybe he is Savior, though I doubt it. Looks like Brian is staking out Savior's house right now.

How will we survive an extra week of waiting for the next episode? Gah!

Escape Pod 139: Acephalous Dreams

2008-01-08T15:10:00.000-08:00

EP139: Acephalous Dreams by Neal Asher

Last week's Escape Pod was an unusually graphic story about a criminal in the future who becomes the subject of an experiment by the AI in charge. My biggest problem with the story was structural. The beheading scene basically happens twice and I think that is unnecessary. I think there were better options in terms of narrative structure to tell this tale. It is getting a lot of feedback about how repulsive the story is, but I feel there is a larger picture being missed.

To me, the sodomy scene is as symbolic as everything else that happens. The story is a kind of brutal scifi meditation on power. By the end, I kept thinking of this Tool piece that begins with a preacher praying for the lives of the carrots.

And the angel of the lord came unto me, snatching me up from my place of slumber.
And took me on high, and higher still until we moved to the spaces betwixt the air itself.
And he brought me into a vast farmlands of our own midwest.
And as we descended, cries of impending doom rose from the soil.
One thousand, nay a million voices full of fear.
And terror possesed me then.
And I begged,
"Angel of the Lord, what are these tortured screams?"
And the angel said unto me,
"These are the cries of the carrots, the cries of the carrots!
You see, Reverend Maynard, tomorrow is harvest day and to them it is the holocaust."
And I sprang from my slumber drenched in sweat like the tears of one million terrified brothers and roared,
"Hear me now, I have seen the light!
They have a consciousness, they have a life, they have a soul!
Damn you!
Let the rabbits wear glasses!
Save our brothers!"
Can I get an amen?
Can I get a hallelujah?
Thank you Jesus.

*sheep and farm animal sounds*

This is necessary.
Life feeds on life feeds on life feeds on life feeds on........

I guess the point of the story, to me, and in its most banal form is that sentient beings screw each other, eat each other, kill each other. That's what we do and the cycle is infinite. I would like to read a print version of this story to analyze it more carefully. Even though this story was not as enjoyable as most, it left me thinking and wondering, and feeling that there is a mystery there I did not quite grasp.

Again, I think the key is power.

The Scar by China Mieville

2008-01-07T13:37:00.000-08:00

China Mieville is one newish author whose name and work are always mentioned with a kind of awed reverie. Indeed The Scar is an ambitious and very different kind of scifi-fantasy novel. It would be hard for anyone to live up to the hype this guy gets, but I'll admit it came damn close.

I read a bunch of interviews before I read The Scar, which was good, because I realized that the real person is way cooler than just "the next big thing." He's an unabashed fan of the genre. That's always good. I hate writers who write genre and then pooh pooh it. This guy is the real deal. It was also really refreshing to read about someone with up front leftist values, and then read those values at work, informing a novel.

Blah, blah, blah... What about the novel? Well, first off it gave me a new understanding of the term Urban Fantasy. That usually means vampires and other hoodoo creatures on the streets of X modern American city. Not here. Here urban is used in contrast to rural or rustic fantasy, the kind I usually eat up, set in idyllic agrarian feudal societies where some pestilence is about to throw the quiet country folk into turmoil. Think LOTR. Think WoT.

The story centers on a translator named Bellis who is migrating to a colony across an ocean, on the run from the Militia of her home, the monolithic city, New Crobuzon. The ship she contains a few interesting characters, including an ocean biologist and a hold full of "the remade". These are people who have commited crimes in NC and are punished with disfiguring surgeries designed to make them into more efficient workers AND banishment to indenture in the colonies.

The ship is hijacked by pirates from a floating city called Armada and that is when the adventure really begins. This is a huge (200k) sprawling novel with a vivid, memorable setting and characters. One, Uther Douhl, has an incredible item called a Possible Sword. The buildup is slow, but when this guy finally takes action, it is pretty amazing. The same goes for the novel as a whole. There is a lot of buildup and then three (not one, not two) but three, exciting climaxes. Intrigue, betrayal, politics and massive sea battles ensue. And I am not talking about a few sailing vessels lobbing bombs after each other and struggling to turn slowly about in the winds. "All hands on deck!" No. This is an entire floating city v. naval fleet. Bad ass.

After that, I felt like the climax had been reached, but there were still 100 pages to go. Luckily, even when I thought he couldn't top the battle, he did. This novel has an amazing array of special effects. Very visual and extremely powerful. Scary even.

Speaking of scary, there is some gross shit in this book. Not all the time, but when it happens, it is awful. There is a whole theme of ecological disaster here that slowly builds. It is never beating you over the head, but at some point I was just like, "Wow, these people are fucking up their world just like we have."

My biggest gripe with The Scar is that it felt longish, especially in the first half. Now I know David Gemmel is about as far as you can get on the fantasy spectrum, but I just read Ironhand's Daughter not long ago and just in terms of getting the story told, Gemmel is a master. At 100k, that novel was compact and powerful. I realize that Mieville has a lot more going on in terms of world building, but I still think he could handle that more compactly and still get to the same powerful conclusions.

For example, one thing I noticed Mieville do over and over again, is to come at a scene two or even three times. You kind of get these sweeping pans across the city with a slow close up of a meeting or interaction. Then he starts over and comes at it from the PoV character, and then maybe from another character. This works well during the big battles where there is a lot going on. Those were superb. But in other areas, it got old and I wished his editor had told him: One Scene. Make it one scene and make it brilliant. There was no need to make two or three starts at it.

The second stylistic thing that bothered me, and where I believe the novel drug again and again was Mieville's penchant for summarizing the atmosphere of the city. I'm sure his timelines worked out, but the jumping from general to particular often left me out of sorts. For example, an event takes place. Then comes a section with a phrase like "for the next few weeks the atmosphere in the city was _____" and further general description of the kinds of things happening. Then he goes to (paraphrasing) 'two days after [event]' Bellis was reading in the library." I understand why he did this, it helped give a sense of life to Armada as a whole, but the jumping around was a trifle annoying.

Overall, The Scar is beautiful and ugly in many of the right ways. No question China Mieville is an amazingly gifted writer and I will be looking into Perdido Street Station soon.

2008 Writing Goals

2008-01-04T10:36:00.000-08:00

Last night I added another 1000 words to my novel Demons of the Neverwoods. It felt great to get back into it and revisit the characters. Working on the story about Raana over December helped keep the Neverwoods in my mind. That story will hopefully make it into Flashing Swords some time this year.

By my birthday at the end of March, I want to have the rough draft of the novel done. I am shooting for 100k on that one. Then I plan to spend the summer revising and expanding my two nanonovels to reach at least 80k on those. I would love to hit November '08 with three completed, revised novels, but I will be happy if I can get one into good enough shape to share with others.

The only short story I have in mind is a swords and sorcery were-story that arose as a kind of challenge on the SF Reader forums.

As far as reading, I have a long list of things to check out, from history on the middle ages and the black plague, to further dark fantasy novels, including Tim Lebbon and Steven Erikson. The fourth Temeraire book is a high priority. I am also looking forward to the print release of Infected by Scott Sigler and meeting up with him and some other fans during his book tour.

Dundracon is in February, so I will need to spend some time prepping for that. I would love to make Dragon Con in Atlanta this year and finally meet some of my podcasting heroes, but its an expensive trip to take as just a fan. However, if I can get one or two novels edited by then, I would feel better about lobbying the wife for the trip to Atlanta.

That's it for now. Here's to a creative new year!

Back in the Saddle

2008-01-04T10:19:00.001-08:00

ho ho ho It was a very merry Festivus around my house. New Year's eve is my wife's birthday, too, so that was fun. We had two four-day weekends in a row, filled with video games, movies and great food.

I am nearing the end of The Scar, by China Mieville, though I did not get much reading done over the weekend. Scott Sigler's Nocturnal is still kicking major ass. There were two new episodes of Escape Pod over the holidays.

EP137: Citytalkers by Mur Lafferty
This was a very interesting story. Mur really knows how to get to the emotional core. This one started off a bit strange. I think the opening could have been stronger. I think the details about the bar patron dressed as an elf were a distraction. Why was the MC drinking by herself in a bar? Other than her job as a TV newscaster, I didn't have a strong understanding of the character. Also, when the odd guy shows up and gives her a gun, it felt like some transition was missing. The story just jolted into overdrive. However, Mur really knows how to close a story, and by the end this one totally had me. I love stories of personal transformation.

EP138: In the Late December by By Greg van Eekhout
This was a very cool, slightly disturbing story. It felt almost like a secular allegory. Instead of souls, the story talks about consciousness clusters. I like that. The whole thing was very existential. For me it was about the quest for meaning in a mechanical world. I love the way Santa infused meaning and therefore reality into the universe. Mecha Rudolph was cool, too.

13 Best Albums of 2007

2007-12-20T10:26:00.000-08:00

Okay, so this doesn't have a whole lot to do with writing, but I listen to music constantly while I am writing. I am a metal fan, so there! Here's the music released in '07 (or late '06) that rocked me through Nanowrimo and WoW and life.

Killswitch Engage - As Daylight Dies
Kittie - Funeral for Yesterday
Evanescence - The Open Door
My Chemical Romance - The Black Parade
Apocalyptica - Worlds Collide
Type O Negative - Dead Again
Bad Religion - New Maps of Hell
300 Original Motion Picture Soundtrack - Tyler Bates
Static X - Cannibal
Ozzy Osbourne - Black Rain
Dream Theatre - Systematic Chaos
Black Label Society - Shot to Hell
Trivium - The Crusade

Throne of Jade: Temeraire Book 2

2007-12-14T11:50:00.000-08:00

This week I finished listening to Throne of Jade, the second in Naomi Novik's series about the dragon Temeraire and his companion, Captain Lawrence. A man and his dragon.

I just love these books. I've admitted before to being jealous of Ms. Noviks' rapid success, but that fell away after the first chapters of the first book. The story and characters are simply awesome, fluidly capturing the language and feel of the Napoleonic era, yet deeply exploring the speculative element: dragons as engines of war.

One cool development is that instead of it being just one rider per dragon, the dragons in this series (and there are many different breeds) are gigantic, supporting a whole crew of men from riflemen to bombardiers. Captain Lawrence is the central human character and he manages to combine nobility, human foibles and great courage. THe series has the best elements of the animal companion books (girl and wolf, boy and dog, etc.) with the gravity of the wartime setting.

In addition to the pure adventure, Novik gives us an incredible character in Temeraire, who questions the treatment of dragons and even other people in a way that opens Lawrence's eyes to a larger moral world, without getting preachy. The world is complex, and the choices are not always bright for our heroes. The cast of supporting characters is just as intriguing. There are side characters, like little Emily Roland, that I really care about and hope to see more of.

Seriously, if you love dragons, military fiction, maritime adventure, or just excellent, fast paced fantasy, you should get these books.

Escape Pod 136: Bright Red Star

2007-12-14T11:41:00.000-08:00

EP136: Bright Red Star by Bud Sparhawk.

Today's Escape Pod story was some hard core military science fiction. While the background premise, humanity at war with an implacable, uncompromising alien foe, is a bit tired, the details of this story were fresh and realistic. The technological elements were handled well, with enough detail that you could picture and understand the gear. But there was enough emotion, enough humanity, to make the story compelling even as the horrible understanding grows in the listener.

Though the story isn't one of my favorites--it's a bit bleak, lol-- the writing here is superior, giving us vivid characters and a fully realized milieu in just a few thousand words.

Seventh Son: The trilogy concludes

2007-12-12T11:49:00.001-08:00

Tuesday morning, I listened to the final chapter of JC Hutchins amazing podcast trilogy, Seventh Son.

I started listening to Seventh Son after hearing the promos in Scott Sigler's podcast novels, coming in toward the end of book one, Descent. What a great ride it's been. Congratulations to JC for writing such an awesome story. I wish him all the luck in the world with his career. I will certainly buy anything he gets published.

For the uninitiated, Seventh Son begins with the president of the US being assassinated by a three year old boy. How is this possible? That would be telling...

Soon after we meet seven men, clones, who are genetically identical, but have led very different lives. They are brought together by an ultra-secret government project, to try and stop the man they were cloned from, John Smith, also called John Alpha. I can't even begin to pass on the excitement and intensity of the story that follows. It is the equal to anything I've read by Crichton or King. It's a modern thriller with a big dose of science fiction. The characters are vivid and memorable and the action sequences are brilliant.

I will miss the excitement of having a new episode show up on my iPod. This was one of the casts I always listened to right away.

Bravo, Hutch. Thanks for the thrill-ride.

Escape Pod 135

2007-12-10T11:34:00.000-08:00

EP135: Stu by Bruce McAllister
This was a very tightly written science fiction story about a youngster, who grows up during the tale, and his father's friend, a scientist working for the US Navy. Great dialog and use of themes from cancer, mirroring the Navies ownership of all the scientist's innovations, to the misuses of technology for warfare. There was a lot of complex emotion in this story, without getting maudlin.

I could have listened for another hour and it would have been interesting to have the tale unfold, but I understand that the point was really the relationship of these two men, as unlikely as it would seem and how we can create miracles if we work at it and remain unafraid to dream. Whether a scientist or a writer, we can change things for the better and bring wonder to the lives of our fellow humans.

A great, understated story and another fine episode of Escape Pod. Steve's reading was excellent as well.

Swimming in a Sea of Words

2007-12-07T12:03:00.000-08:00

I've had this feeling lately. It's a good feeling, but tinged with a bit of awe, like looking out at the ocean or the sky and feeling dwarfed by it. But the ocean I've been gazing at is made of words.

With no less than four serialzed audiobooks going on my commutes, and one for the days when those have no updates, Escape Pod, a print novel, random stories I feel the need to read, news, blogs and then of course, writing, I sometimes feel adrift in story. It never quite gets to being overwhelming except when I start thinking about all the other things I want to read, too.

It's easy enough to turn away from the words and play WoW or watch a movie, but lately I have been enjoying the drift. The last two nights I worked on edits for my tale Blood, Roots, Thorns that might make it into Flashing Swords, because I wanted to. It was a good feeling.

The whole thing, from the vast number of books I want to read just in my own genres, to taking a list of editorial advice and chewing through them, is a tremendous challenge, one that I really want to undertake. Criticism can be hard to deal with, but now I want to make the story so much better, because the editors have given me a path to do that. The community of writers, especially the forums for SF Reader and ISBW, inspire me to become more well read so I can participate more, to write more so I have more news to share and more experience with which to help others.

I am sure there are rough seas in the future and that sometimes it will get overwhelming, but right now I am in love with the vast ocean of words before me, with the process, and with my fellow writers.

Cheers!

Your Fantasy is in my Horror!

2007-12-04T14:16:00.000-08:00

The continued discussion on the SF Reader site is very interesting. The outcome so far has supported my general sentiment that horror and fantasy can work very well together. The upshot is that the characters need to be rooted enough in everyday human concerns that the reader will care about and identify with them. Seems like a no brainer, but it helps alot in facing the issue of non-contemporary horror. This will help with both Cauldron of Shadows, set in a medieval Italianate realm and ON the Black Wings of Night, set in a post-apocalyptic California.

Why not just write contemporary horror? I love Swords and Sorcery, that's why. I like China Mieville's statement:

I'm a genre writer and deeply proud of that. I love the tradition. And I can't sustain interest in writing unless it has a fantastic element.

And, while a professional attitude toward the market is important, I also feel kinship with this statement from Jim Melvin:

I've always been of the mindset -- for better or worse -- that you have to write from the heart and then let the chips fall where they may.

Some further recommendations from Peadar:

The Throne of Bones by Brian McNaughton.

Also, since you have William Hope Hodgeson on your list, you should definitely read this amazing, amazing online novella set in his world, "The Night Land". No previous experience necessary!

Other writers to add to the reading list:
Steven Savile
Douglass Klegg?
Jim Melvin - The Death Wizard
Janrae Frank

Escape Pod 134 and Other Notes

2007-12-03T14:54:00.001-08:00

EP134: Me and My Shadow by Mike Resnick

I really enjoy Mike Resnick's stories and novels. Santiago is one of my SF faves. This story was quite interesting. He has a very quirky, natural voice with the first person and it included what I think of as a Resnick trademark, a conversation with a computer. His novel The Dark Lady had many such information searches. I think the computer here must be an early model of the Snark 3000. =) About half way through I got really into the story and forgot it was Resnick. That's a good thing. THere were a couple of things that nagged at me, though. First, he dropped his wallet but never picked it up. Wouldn't the cops come looking for a guy who's wallet is found next to a brutalized mugger? Second, the idea that he could call the doctor from his home and not worry about being traced seems a little quaint. This felt more like an idea story and though the character reacts and changes, I did not care a whole lot about him. Still a fun listening experience.

Secondly.... the new agenda. I wasn't supposed to have an agenda for December, but Lo and Behold, I still feel like working on fiction. Cauldron of Shadows is still haunting me and I think I will edit it soon. First I want to finish THE SCAR by China Mieville. I am also working through two writing books, ON WRITING HORROR by the Horror Writers of America and SELF-EDITING FOR FICTION WRITERS by Renni Browne and Dave King. I'm taking notes, not just reading them for fun. Still I am mostly taking it easy, playing WoW and relaxing.

Bottom Line: I am NOT just going to let these buggers (my novels) sit and collect dust. If they suck, they will be un-sucked, if they get rejected I will keep trying until they find a home.

Victory!

2007-11-30T09:45:00.000-08:00

Last night at around 9:30, I finished Cauldron of Shadows. It is a very very very rough draft, or as I like to say, Draft Zero. PoV jumps around from character to character. Many of the events are out of order, and I have a vague perception that the continuity is ... not very continuous. At least I started a new paragraph when I jumped into another character's head, though most of the time I actually did a section break.

However, I feel that this one is better than the last one, as far as Zero Drafts go. I really want to get to the editing of my two nanonovels before next year, with the goal of understanding how I write and how I can improve my initial drafts. As I mentioned previously, the zero drafts are mainly narration in need of expanded description and detail. If I can produce a more polished, full manuscript, I can sort of reverse engineer it to get a better idea of how many phases I need and focus on better writing rather than just hitting the word count.

In the meantime.... Yay! I finished. Now I can totally goof off for the month of December. *happy dance*

Fantasy and Horror

2007-11-29T13:04:00.001-08:00

I stepped out of lurking on the SFReader and nanowrimo blogs to ask around about fantasy stories with strong horror elements. So far these are the results of my inquiries.

The main person who gets mentioned most is Michael Moorcock. I will admit that I had a hard time with the Elric stories when I was younger because basically I was too immature to understand the point of Tragedy. I did enjoy the Corum books. I think that is the right name. It's the one with the necromantic hand and eye. As a teenager I wanted everything to have a happy ending. Now that I am much older, the happy ending is still good, but I realize there is much more to life than happy endings, and sometimes Tragedy is Truth.

So, I need to check out Elric again.

Other authors mentioned:
China Mieville - I picked up The Scar and I'm enjoying it already. Need more.
Steven Erikson - I bought Gardens of the Moon and I am looking forward to it. Bauchelain and Korbal Broach books were also mentioned, about some Necromancers.
Tim Lebbon's novels Dusk and Dawn sound like they are exactly what I am looking for, but I have to order them.
Tanith Lee and her books on Paradys?
James Barclay' Raven novels
David Gemmel, of course
Christopher Golden
R. Scott Bakker
Heroes Die, by Matthew Woodring Stover
THE NIGHT LAND by William Hope Hodgson

Someday that list will include Cauldron of Shadows by Bryan Lee Hitchcock!

Escape Pod

2007-11-28T10:58:00.000-08:00

Okay, I have been really lax on my Escape Pod reports, even though I listen to them as soon as possible. So here are my November Escape Pod overviews.

EP130: What We Learned From This Morning’s Newspaper by Robert Silverberg
The Silverberg stories seem dated to me. This was an interesting tale with a twist at the end that did not quite satisfy. It was more ennui than conclusion, though in a fun way. Rather than just slap a moral on the end, Silverberg gives us something more disturbing. Mash up challenge: Follow "What We Learned...." with The Mist by Stephen King. heh

EP131: Hesperia and Glory by Ann Leckie
I enjoyed this story. It had a very 'John Carter of Mars' feel to it as well as the victorian aesthetic which I have found very appealing in such novels as The Prestige. I need to come back to this when I next try to revise my story The Zombie King and Mr. Cooke, which also takes the form of a letter. I learned a great word from the Escape Pod forums: Epistolary is a story in letter or diary format. Cool.

EP132: Sparks in a Cold War by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
An interesting story that brought up a number of questions. It felt almost incomplete, though it did have an ending. I just wanted to know more about the setting, especially the technology. It was interesting that the story just went BAM here we are in the middle of the story, and there was some background, but I feel like just a paragraph or two more of explanation would have been nice. How did the self folding, self transporting stuff work? What was with the cut-grass? I did not get right away that the environment was so harsh. Also, it kind of bothered me that the three trouble-makers were women and then they all had to be killed. It's a woman author, but the story still feels mysoginistic to me. If the story had been written by a man, I think he would have to take the hit on that one. Wierd. I liked the ending.

EP133: Other People’s Money by Cory Doctorow
A little tough to understand the reader, but she had a nice voice. Personally I enjoy the challenge and the exposure to non-American accented English. The story was okay. Not really my bag. Interesting ideas, as many people mentioned on the EP forums, without much action or growth. I think the latter point is the key. It would be okay to have a piece that was mainly dialog, but I want the characters to go somewhere, learn something new... change.

I am an Escape Pod supporter, giving $5 a month. I urge all of my 0 readers to do the same. =)

Final Battle

2007-11-28T10:38:00.000-08:00

Last night I wrote the final battle sequence of Cauldron of Shadows. Surprisingly, I was kind of nervous about it. I had a good idea what would happen, but putting it down on paper is a different thing than just thinking about it. IN the end, I kind of jumped around a lot, rather than sticking with one point of view. We'll see how it works. The whole novel kind of spirals in from big sections about specific characters to the end where it is bouncing back and forth with the action.

However, there is a final battle in real life as well. The last 5000 words. Basically I want to write the wrap up, where at least one more character will be killed and then I need to write a few fill-in scenes I thought up after their point in the novel had already passed. No problemo? Yeah, that's what I said at 40k. I just want to be done at this point. That's not to say I won't enjoy writing the last few thousand words, just that the end is so near I can taste it!

The Buildup

2007-11-27T11:33:00.000-08:00

Last night I completed a penultimate action sequence with zombies and sorcery. It was quite fun and ended with frustration for both the heroes and villains. Bernardo the paladin of Pyrothion is turning out to be the big hero, though Lorallee the witch is also doing good things. My villains are truly vile and disgusting. Writing them has been a lot of fun.

I basically ended as the ragtag group of survivors gathered together to go out and confront the hags and their "son" the gray knave. After two nights of attacks and torment, it is clear to them that they have to strike before they lose even more of their numbers. So tonight and probably tomorrow night, I will be working on the final battle scene, killing almost everyone off and having a blast at it.

Thursday will be for Denoument and having a little party with Mechelle when I finish, if she is still awake. It will be cool to finish a day early this year.

I have a lot of reading lined up and it definitely feels like a heavy reading December coming on. I have books by China Mieville, Steven Erikson and Guy Kay. What a list! I am sure I will learn some things and have a great time reading these books.

The End Game

2007-11-26T11:17:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Sunday and the last day of the Thanksgiving break. I wrote 4k on Friday and 5k yesterday to reach 40,000 words. There were some moments last week when I wondered if I had what it takes to finish, but now that the end is near I am excited to finish. I need to write 2250 words each day this week in order to finish by Friday and celebrate with a night of WoW. No problemo.

Things are really coming together now. I pretty much know the fates of all the characters and it is just a matter of telling the rest of the story as outlined.

So far, I have learned the following things in this Nanowrimo:

Heroes who are just decent, stand up, neighborly folks... are boring to write about. It wasn't until I started to flesh out the villains and give them things to do that the writing really took off and I felt like i finally had a novel's worth of ideas.

My rough drafts tend to be mostly narrative. This is something I will have to work on. For Nanowrimo, I suppose it is okay, because I can't really market a 50k novel anyway. What I have is a narrative framework and in the rewrite, I will have to take certain parts and make actual scenes instead of just explaining what happens. I think I will shoot for 80k on the rewrite, unless I get some brilliant idea to take it to 100k. Something to watch out for when it comes time to write on the Neverwoods again.

Also, I find myself consciously padding the language, using the most wordy possible phrases in order to meet the writing deadline. I hope more practice will help curb this. Next year, I will have a better idea of how many phases or scenes I need to flesh out 50k words. This year it was just over 60. I should look at 2006's nanonovel outline to see how many I ended up with. If I can start November with a solid outline at about the right length, then maybe at 10%, I may have enough subject matter that I don't have to pad everything so much.

Perhaps next year I will give myself a gnarlier goal and go for 80k. I hope to learn a lot in the year of editing coming up, so we'll see.

Six-thousand words

2007-11-19T12:16:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I had a great writing day. There was little to do outside of preparing meals for my family and some minor chores so I got in three writing sessions, broken up by the aforementioned meals and some trips to the battlegrounds of WoW.

I was running behind, but by 9pm I had written 6000 words and put myself back on track to finish. Right now I need to write 2200 words a day, not counting two days off for WoW nights with my family. Not bad. If I have another day like yesterday during the coming Turkey Day weekend, I may even finish early.

The biggest issue right now, is that I really don't have any idea how to make the ending exciting. There were going to be some murders, but I like my angsty couple too much to get them killed. I know who all the players are and now it is pretty much down to the final battle, rescuing the unicorn and the village children. Who will live and who will die?

Time for a bloodbath.

Throne of Jade

2007-11-15T11:41:00.000-08:00

I am stoked today because I picked up the second novel in Naomi Novik's fantasy series. I get them from Audible.com. The reader is excellent and just listening to the first chapter reminded me of all the reasons I love the first book, His Majesty's Dragon. The depth of feeling between Lawrence and Temeraire is just amazing. It's like a wish fulfillment for a perfect friend and companion. Just love it.

I am hooked on Fortress Draconis now, too, though, so I think I will alternate during my commute, until I catch up with Stackpole and have to start waiting a week between each installment of FD.

My short fiction mags are stacking way up, but I can't let it get to me. THere are so many good novels to read. I also just started Guy Gavriel Kay's A Song for Arbonne and I want to get some reading on that done this weekend. I love his books, though they are quite intimidating as a writer.

19

Reading and Writing Update

2007-11-14T10:37:00.000-08:00

I ran a D&D game based on the characters and setting for my nano novel this last weekend. It was a blast, though it ended up running slightly too long. But it gave me some good ideas for things to have the characters do in the novel.

The writing is a bit behind right now. I guess you could say I am in the week 2 blues, but its really more about my own state of mind than any problem coming up with ideas or anything.

Also, I started listening to another podcast novel, Michael A Stackpole's Fortress Draconis. It is quite enjoyable.

I get the feeling that Seventh Son is almost done. New episode today that just rocked, though I am always sad when one of the clones dies. Let's hope it was just a cliff-hanger.

Now.... where did I leave my muse?

Ironhand's Daughter by David Gemmell

2007-11-13T09:02:00.000-08:00

So, my friend Charles has been suggesting David Gemmell to me for years now. I am a very fickle reader. I love books, but I have to be in just the right frame of mind to start a novel and I rarely leave one unfinished. It's strange that I want to write fantasy novels, but I am reluctant to read many of them.

Anyway, I finally picked up Ironhand's Daughter. This one intrigued me because I like female heroes and I wanted to see how an accomplished writer handled such a story. This book KICKED MY ASS! It was so good. It took me two chapters to get into it, but then I could hardly stand to put it down. Far from the big fat fantasy books where every detail is described, Gemmell hits all the important parts and leaves the fluff on the editing room floor, so to speak. I laughed, I cried, I cheered. Ironhand's Daughter had lots of things I love in a fantasy novel and left me wishing for more. Fortunately there is a sequel and Mr. Gemmell wrote dozens of other books before he passed away last year, including novels about Troy and Alexander the Great. Those are going on my Yule gift list this year.

If my Neverwoods novel comes out a tenth as good as this book, I will be a very happy writer.

Works in Progress

2007-11-07T12:10:00.000-08:00

Looking at my work in progress bars on the right always makes me feel like a quitter, but they are not entirely accurate.

On the Black Wings of Night is a completed novel set in a post environmental apocalypse town in northern California. I wrote it for Nanowrimo last year and I want to add another plot and make it 80k, a more marketable length.

Demons of the Neverwoods really IS an unfinished novel. I have the complete outline and I plan to work on it in the first quarter of next year to finish the rough draft.

Couldron of Shadows is my current nanowrimo novel and it is coming along nicely. Hit 10k last night. The only problem is that I am about half way through the story, so I need to take a bit more time describing things, I think.

So, that's the deal. Update complete.

Escape Pod 128, 129, and More

2007-11-06T16:30:00.000-08:00

Well, the last couple of Escape Pods have not been my favorites, but I learn something from every show.

Escape Pod 128: Union Dues - Send in the Clowns by Jefferey R Derego. I appreciate the Union Dues stories. Really. They just get me down. Well written. Wonderful ideas. They kick ass, really. But they're such a bummer.

Escape Pod 129: Immortal Sin by Jennifer Pelland. This was a weird story about a brilliant man who is tortured by his own faith and psychosis. He kills a woman, gets away with it and then creates his own sort of hell as he tries to avoid damnation through everlasting life. It put me in mind of a Bad Religion song "Prove It": There's no such thing as hell, but you can make it if you try.

Other Podcasts and reading: Right now I am reading Ironhand's Daughter by David Gemmel, and enjoying three podcast novels: The final installment of JC Hutchins' great Seventh Son trilogy, Scott Sigler's new one Nocturnal and Mur Lafferty's Playing for Keeps. Really enjoying them all.

Nanowrimo is going well. I was a little behind, but I had a great day yesterday and put in 3k words to bring me up to my goal of 8k. Two thousand more tonight!

NaNoWriMo!

2007-11-01T22:30:00.000-07:00

WTF is NaNoWriMo you ask?

Well, I'll tell ya. That's short for National Novel Writing Month. I won last year and I am excited to try again.

This year's novel is called Couldron of Shadows. It is a fantasy/horror story about a group of war scarred veterans returning home in a rustic Italian fantasy setting. Unfortunately their lovely home has acquired some...pests.

yahoo! yippeee kaiay

The Game Plan

2007-10-26T14:14:00.001-07:00

This is just a statement of goals and purpose for this blog and my reading/writing agenda.

The biggest thing looming is National Novel Writing Month in November. I have a plan for an as yet untitled fantasy/horror novel, so I am going with that.

I want to continue reading, with a focus on fantasy. The Thomas Covenant books are a high priority. It is way past time, and it seems like they are going to be essential reading if I want the Neverwoods novel to be all it can be. That means posts here may be more infrequent, as my reading slows a bit. However, I plan to blog my writing progress for nanowrimo, so we'll see.

December is dedicated to playing games with Mechelle, reading and hopefully a music project with my buddy Sean.

After the holidays, I want to finish Demons of the Neverwoods by my birthday in March. Then I would like to spend several months editing the three novels I will have completed by then and get them ready for an agent hunt before nanowrimo 08. I figure 2 months each to edit, at least for a decent draft I can let others read.

Sounds like a plan.

His Majesty's Dragon

2007-10-26T13:42:00.000-07:00

I was thrilled recently when Audible got the unabridged versions of Naomi Novik's Temeraire novels. I eagerly picked up the first book, His Majesty's Dragon, having heard an interview with the author on the Dragon Page Podcast. At first I was very jealous of how "easily" she has achieved success, but the books sounded so intriguing. I am a big fan of the Sharpe books by Bernard Cornwell, and the addition of dragons to the Napoleonic wars had me hooked.

This book was everything I hoped it would be and more. It just kicked ass. OMG, I can't even express how much. I loved it. I haven't been able to start anything new and I am sorely tempted to get the second book even before my Audible subscription rolls over in November.

If you like Dragons and a bit of history and don't have anything against military fiction, this book will rock you. The dragons are so cool and detailed. The hero is complex, honorable and flawed without being an anti-hero.

Loved it. Highly recommended.

Universe: The Rest of Your Life in a Day

2007-10-19T12:10:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, I read The Rest of Your Life in a Day by Elizabeth Bear.

This was a really interesting story about magic and the fae in the modern world. I haven't checked the word count, but this story had the depth and density of a novel. The relationship between the brothers was believable. I did wonder what the point was a few times before the final conflict developed, but the details of the characters' lives and the ceremony kept my interest.

Pseudopod

2007-10-18T10:24:00.000-07:00

Though I have not yet mentioned Pseudopod here before, it is one of my favorite podcasts. It is the sister podcast to Escape Pod, but for horror stories. For some reason, I do not listen to PD as regularly as EP, though I truly enjoy horror. I think it is because horror requires a certain frame of mind. I am glad Psudopod is there when I am ready for it.

Recently I listened to a few Pseudopod stories. I'm going to log them here and try to catch up with the podcast soon.

Psuedopod 046: The Hanging at Christmas Bridge by David E. Hilton
An interesting story of a haunted bridge, a man, and his car. The characterization here was very good. Also, I liked the way the author feinted and kept the reader in suspense about who exactly would end up hanging from the bridge. Suprise twist at the end. An enjoyable listen.

Pseudopod 047: Akropolis by Matt Wallace
This story kicked ass. It has this Lovecraftian aura of sublime and evil power from beyond, as well as a gigantic scope and a twist at the end. Awesome.

Pseudopod 048: The Disciple by David Barr Kirtley
This guy is becoming one of my favorite short story writers, though this one is not my favorite of his. It is still a good spooky story about a man who is driven by his own losses and sense of mediocrity to pursue powers that "man was not meant to meddle in." Great twist at the end. Excellent buildup and homage to Lovecraft.

Pseudopod 049: Big Boy by Ron McGillvray
This is an interesting take on a zombie story, from the point of view of a nine year old boy. Very well done from that point of view. Chilling and tense. There's a lot of horror here, though I think the author pulled back a bit. Zombie children anyone? But not here, though the adult things going on in the background were nicely handled, as well as the friendship between the little boy and one of his friends.

Pseudopod 053: The Apple Tree Man by Joel Arnold
This story throws a feint at being a supernatural horror story, but the real horror is all real. It is a very interesting technique. The narrator is haunted by guilt in the form of hallucinatory encounters with apples. Tales of the "Apple Tree Man" give a creepy feeling to the setting, mostly an apple orchard. But the violence is all about keeping a secret.

Escape Pod 127: Results

2007-10-18T09:56:00.000-07:00

I'm running a bit behind on blog entries.

Last week's Escape Pod was the story "Results" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch.

It is a very interesting story of a kind I find is growing on my as a reader. I am all for fantastic scifi with technology that defies our current understanding of physical laws. However, I think it is really important to look at how current technology will evolve and effect our lives. Cyberpunk, as a genre, does this; eschewing space opera for an examination of the near future.

In results, the protagonist is nervously awaiting the results of a genetic compatibility analysis of her and her boyfriend. The results give percentage chances of the baby's hair color, creative ability and IQ. In a way, it is finding out the baby's sex taken to the extreme. The story creates a dichotomy between the "natural" or old way of having babies and the new test compatibility method, and between just having a baby and loving it no matter what and the idea that children are something to be proud of and invest our genetic material in. It's a very interesting situation and realistic in light of the growing powers of genetic research.

As a naturalist, this is an interesting question. If we are going to pass on our genes, don't we want to give that child the best chance? On the other hand, should we base our relationships and hinge our love on the chance of having a baby who isn't brilliant? Lots to think about here.

Magic with Thirteen-Year-Old Boys

2007-10-05T16:40:00.000-07:00

This is a story by Robert Reed from the March 2007 issue of F&SF.

GVG's intro to this story was intruguing. Pretty much anything with a "not for kids" warning catches my interest. Perhaps that will change if I ever get a little one.

In any case, this story fits into a subgenre of fantasy stories similar to many I read in Realms of Fantasy. It is a contemporary setting with magic that is not really ever explained. There was one about long distance runners in F&SF not long ago. In today's story, a group of young boy's find a photo album containing very explicit photos of different women having sex with the same man. The catch is that all the photos span decades but the man never seems to age.

The characterization was clear, if a little trite. There's an adventurous, knowledgeable friend, a "by the book" sheltered friend, and the narrator who is right in the middle. However, I enjoyed the way the story unfolded, including a "meta-story" of the narrator telling the tale as an adult. Also, the frank way the story deals with masturbation, boys and the novelty of learning about sex was refreshing.

Personally, I like to learn a little more about how the magic works, though.

Escape Pod 126

2007-10-05T16:01:00.000-07:00

This week's Escape Pod was the story The Sweet, Sad Love Song of Fred and Wilma by Nick Dichario and Mike Resnick.

Mike Resnick is one of my favorites, going back to his novel Santiago. Apparently these guys have an anthology of all the stories they've written together. I will have to look into that.

This story was an enjoyable tale of a pretty plain, boring guy who develops a romance with a "mech" robot "girl." There was a lot going on here, almost a reverse Pygmilion, as their relationship and her level 4 intellect help transform him into a shiny new guy. The sex was well handled and I appreciate the commitment to mature subject matter at Escape Pod.

My basic question though is why guy's always have to cheat? Each individual instance seems to have explanations, but it is getting a little boring to me to have every man in every relationship (at least it seems to me) be unfaithful. Sure it seems like male nature, but as a story-telling device... *yawn*

Nevertheless this was a fun science fiction story with an adult twist.

The Second Rat

2007-09-28T15:21:00.000-07:00

So through Escape Pod, I checked out the site for author David Barr Kirtley and found a link to another free audio show, MechMuse, and his story The Second Rat.

Wow.

My favorite short stories are ones with a different twist to them that somehow make the reader appreciate life in a new and profound way. This was a story like that.

I don't want to give much away, but the basic idea is about a guy who can 'rewind' time and live parts of his life over again, and again, and again, if he wishes. This story blew my mind. So far, Kirtley is 3 for 3 with me. He writes stories that matter in the way I want my stories to matter. Much work to do.

Speaking of which, I am still struggling with The Zombie King and Mr. Cook. Looking at a complete revision. But at least I spent some time on it and rearranged things. I really want to get it in shape so I can focus on NaNoWriMo and the Neverwoods.

Escape Pod 125

2007-09-28T14:38:00.000-07:00

This weeks Escape Pod was End Game by Nancy Kress. It's one of the first EP's in a long time that left me a bit cold. It was clever and well written, but I just didn't really care for any of the characters.

It started out with an off note, from my point of view, by describing human experience as static. I understand what the character was getting at, but I think the metaphor is shallow and inaccurate when it comes down to it. Consciousness only ever holds one thing before its "eye" at a time. Sure there may be a gazillion things going off and tangents and lines everywhere, but only one thing is ever the focus at any one instant. And I'm not talking about people who can do many things at once by reflex and training. The character clearly talks about the jumble of things in his mind and makes it sound as if it is so abundant that it becomes static. Again, I understand the experience, I just dont agree with how it is represented.

Anyway, I have enjoyed Ms. Kress's previous stories and I have one of her books on writing that is very helpful. This one just ain't my fave.