Artist: Jong Min Lee – https://www.artstation.com/jongminlee
“This is clearly my next evolution. I am a troll, I belong on the interwebs…”
“No. Please. Just put the phone down.”
“But the screaming goats…”
“No.”
Flash Prompt – Internet Troll
Monthly Archives: July 2020
Psuedo-mood
One of my favorite authors once said, “I don’t have a muse, I have a mortgage”.
I struggle with this constantly. I really am a mood based writer. It’s terrible because there are times when something springs forth from my forehead as if a Greek god headache has produced something whole and complete. There are other times when I simply can not force myself to sit at the keys and work.
I think that’s a significant part of this. It IS work. There is time and effort and a willingness to give up a piece of yourself to the consumption of others. It is draining to me. I’ve heard of others that are energized by the completion of some piece of their art but when I am finished working on something like this I am spent. Pouring out some of myself onto a page is a challenge, but I really do love to tell a good story.
I’ve got a story that’s been “in production” for a quite a long time now. No, not the 2 novels that I’ve been so called writing for a decade now. A story. I know there’s a seed of a good idea in this story, but it’s just not working.
Today I think I caught a little of the right mood. I listened to a scary story. I know – sounds childish to say it that way, but that’s what it really is. It’s a scary story. There are a large number of other scary stories where I found this one. The particular scary story I found happened to be ‘Take a Walk In The Night, My Love‘. It’s from the podcast Pseudopod as presented by Escape Artists ~ folks who deliver some genuinely excellent content all the time. I mean consistently over years. Go, support them.
I’ve never been good at telling a scary story. I’ve got an excellent handle on the ridiculous. That’s easy, I just have human interaction, mess it up the way I normally do and then write that down. Easy. Scaring somebody? Scaring somebody is a far more challenging concept ~ at least to me.
So here, on a bright, sunny summer afternoon I sit behind the keys and attempt to tell a scary story. I’ll let you know if it turns out to be as scary as I hope.
You Should Be Watching
This post was originally published in Watch The Skies fanzine – July 2020
Netflix has been dominating in the production and release of new works. It has recently released two comic adaptations, and I am going to recommend one of them. Warrior Nun was released at the beginning of July and it has committed the most egregious of transgressions. It just stops. You invest, you watch, you reach the 10th episode and it just stops. There is no ending and there is no part two. Netflix as a network churns shows at a massive rate and even reasonably successful shows never get more episodes made. I can’t in good conscience recommend Warrior Nun. Instead, I can and will say that you should invest two hours and watch the movie The Old Guard.
The movie tells part of the story of Andromache the Scythian (Andy), an immortal warrior and the other immortal warriors that make up her small team. These warriors join various battles across time working toward some unknown, unclear goal. They fight, sometimes they are killed and every time they survive to move on to another battle in another place at another time. There is no competition between them, there is a connection and a drive to find others. They may not understand the goal, but they do understand the battles. The film itself takes place in modern times. A new immortal warrior is found and the team sets out to fight a new, modern battle.
The movie is self contained. The story, the clips of history, character motivations and action all fit neatly into the allotted time. The acting, the action and the emotion is all extremely well done. The writer of the comic was also the writer that adapted the story for the screen. I believe that genuinely helped make this tight package successful. The actors were all fantastic. Fair warning for those that don’t like action / violence / fighting – there’s a lot of it in this movie. They are after all warriors. Fighting is what they do, and they are very good at it.
Another part of what makes this story work is that we buy in on what the characters are feeling. They are numb to the violence that surrounds them, but they’re all still searching. Living for hundreds and hundreds of years has not dulled the need for them to connect. They have each other, but connections to others slip away as people age and die while the warriors stay as they have always been. Pain and loss are constant companions. Searching for family and a place to fit with others gives this decidedly action flick enough depth to keep non-action fans on board.
The movie isn’t perfect, but it’s easily worth the time to watch it. Yes, there is a set up at the end for more but you can be satisfied with the ending as it stands. I hope the film is successful enough that they decide to produce more. I would love to see the old guard in action again. This is definitely a movie you should be watching.
Flash Prompt – The Angel
The desire to soar like an angel was overwhelming. Driven to madness by continual failure to achieve the glory of divine flight extreme measures were needed. The faithful would see. The faithful would understand.
I shall soar in the light. I will bask in glory.
Love the purity of my being.
Watch Party
The longer I go, the more I accept that I enjoy doing many things on my own. I am clearly headed directly to the land of curmudgeon ~ however there can be something said for a shared experience. Having the musical Hamilton released on a streaming service lately brought that into focus for me. During these trying days of “shelter in place” and “social distance” to avoid the plague those shared experiences can be difficult to find. To enable that, some people have turned to technology. What did we do for Hamilton? A Watch Party.
You can’t have your friends over to watch a movie any more. So? Jump on your streaming service of choice and have a watch party… except.
I like the concept of the watch party for certain circumstances. Those circumstances are remarkably similar to when I’d actually like to go and see a movie with somebody… that is to say not very often. A watch party exacerbates the one thing I really hate about watching a movie with others. You’re listening intently in the middle of a deep and moving scene and the person next you says, “Wait. I thought she didn’t like that guy…” or “I think I missed something. What’s he doing that for?”.
Rage.
Just watch the movie. Nobody knows because we haven’t seen it before. Shut up and pay attention. Stop distracting me from my experience. NO, I don’t want to chat about it now, I’ll wait until the end thank you.
Now – If I’ve seen the movie in question before and we’d like to all watch it together to talk about various parts of the film, that’s fine. If it’s a goofy comedy and you’re tipping a couple of adult beverages back on a Saturday night and you want to share that with some friends, excellent plan.
Technology then becomes the barrier.
Are you all on the same streaming service? Are you all in the same region? Yes – services like Netflix change what they have to offer by region. Are you in the same time zone? My daughter is communicating with some students in other countries and they’re off our time by 6 hours. When can we all actually do this? Schedules are still a real thing, even if you can’t go out to do certain activities anymore. Technology is the main barrier here. What platform will you use for watching? Are you all on Discord? Oh, wait, I thought we were doing this through the Chrome app… But what about Facebook? Wait – I run my streaming service through a Roku, how does that work? I don’t want to sit at my computer screen when I have a large TV in a room with a comfy recliner. There are lots of folks out there making this work, but it is very dependent on shared tech and preferred method of consuming media. I suspect this shared preference will not be something that happens to me much as we go forward.
I am not opposed to the concept of the watch party. I don’t suspect I’ll find myself participating in many. I like to view a film and talk about it later, perhaps watching it again for a more nuanced view. Enjoy the entertainment for what it is. Get drawn in by a good story. Go along for the ride… tweet about it when you’re done. Your phone won’t miss you and ‘yousuckland’… I mean twitter, will be there when you’ve got time.
In the end, you could also try reading a good book and joining a group to chat about that. Those don’t seem to have changed as much as the movie going society.
Calculating
The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Book 1 of the Lady Astronaut series telling the story of the first lady astronaut deserves the praise it has garnered. Following Dr. Elma York’s journey in a post apocalyptic alternate history where a meteorite has slammed into the earth and wiped out most of the eastern US.
The story is set in a time when many cultural norms do not fit the views of our current society. This put me very much in mind of the movie Hidden Figures, set in something close to the same time period (off by a few years I believe). The author does not shy away from the norms of the day and her writing is such that the outrage is felt through the page. I was quite frequently angry with characters on the page – and that is a sign of damn good writing. They’re not real. It’s a made up story – and I was still irritated with these “people”.
I downloaded this book for free when it was offered by the publisher and I’m glad I did. I will be going out and getting the rest of the series (just as they hoped). This book is absolutely worth your time to read if you’re a fan of science fiction / alternate history. IF you’re not, I would also suggest reading some of the author’s other work. I am particularly a fan of ‘Shades of Milk and Honey’ in the magical / fantasy category. I love this author’s work and hope she continues to write for a very long time.
View all my reviews
Flash Prompt – The Oracle
The tipping point.
All the struggles, all the sacrifice to get here. Her past was as ruined as the temple where she stood facing the oracle. Now, in that moment she hesitated. There was no going back once the question was asked.
Could she go forward?