Monthly Archives: August 2021

D&D Movie

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The Dungeons and Dragons movie has wrapped up filming. Now I suspect they’re moving on to the ‘zillions of special effects bits that need to be created in order to make a world of fantasy come to life. Got the news from this article:
https://gizmodo.com/the-dungeons-and-dragons-film-has-wrapped-production-1847535005
I’ve written about this before, but I think the author of this article sums up my fears in a single phrase,

“…but with the caliber of people involved, maybe this one will turn out to be watchable.”

Why is it so difficult to make a fantasy story on film that is both a good story and NOT some variation of King Arthur (there are at least 15 variations / versions I can come up with)? There’s so much good material out there. Let’s hope for a real fantasy boom. Think Avengers quality. I’d love to see so much more variety. Give me a wizard that is NOT Gandalf or Merlin. Please.

Flaming Sphere!

Big Day

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Big days are weird things.

It’s Tuesday morning as I write this. The 24th of August. To a vast majority of the people I know, that’s all it is. It’s Tuesday morning and there’s work and maybe a list of things that need to get done at the end of the day or a show to watch tonight. I know at least one person who has a birthday today, so that might be a little special moment with a dinner or a gift, but generally nothing very exciting.

For us… exciting might not be quite the right word, but it definitely IS a big deal for us. Today is flight day for my daughter. She is leaving the country to study for the next 10 months in France. I’ve written about parts of our journey here before. We’ve done tons of preparation to get to this point, but today is it. Today is the Big Day. Flight day.

Nobody slept well last night. I set an alarm, but was awake two hours before it was scheduled to go off (despite staying up extra late in an attempt to be more tired when heading off to bed). I got up and have been pacing the house for more than an hour. I’ve played all the vapid games on my phone. I listened to the news, checked the weather radar and reloaded the flight status page twice so far. There is this driving urge to do something, do anything and there’s simply nothing left to do. We finished the laundry yesterday for my daughter’s things. The bags are packed. The phone is charged. The friends have been visited. The family has been hugged. We’ve looked at the airports websites. We’ve done as much of a virtual walk as we could to get a feel for how the journey will go. My daughter has been in touch with her host family and they’ve told her who would be meeting her at the other end of her travels.

I’m still pacing.

This is anxiety.

Today is also an uneven day. As a parent I’m anxious and pacing, but ultimately my part in this will be over by lunch time today. We’ve got to get the kiddo TO the airport and in line for the security check. That’s it. Then we wander out of the terminal, pay for parking and wonder what the rest of the day brings. My daughter will be boarding a plane here, flying to Chicago and gathering with other kids from the program who will be on the same flight with her. Then after a short layover it’s off to Paris. Long flight, landing and meeting a rep from the exchange student program on the other end of the flight. That person will pack her onto the train and head her off to her host family. When all is said and done she will have been traveling for more than 20 continuous hours. She has snacks. She has a water bottle. She’s got money to grab a meal when she gets a chance ~ and we’re going to be sitting here at home unable to be with her, help her or join her in the experience. There is no doubt that I’ll sleep terribly again tonight. I’m going to be a distracted mess at work tomorrow morning until I get a notification from her that she has landed safely. I’ll only be truly relieved when she lets us know that she has arrived at the train station where her host family has met her and she’s safely headed to their home to start her adventure in France.

It’s also a sign that I have written more here out of anxiety than I’ve written in two weeks on any other subject. I’m not sure how other creative types deal with what feels like the opposite of the muse. Distraction. Inability to sit still.

This is it. As so many others know it… it’s Tuesday. It’s a Big Day.

You Should Be Watching

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This was originally published in Watch The Skies fanzine, August 2021 issue.

Nestflix

It’s the dog days of summer. The doldrums. Media is scattered far and wide but people aren’t focused on sitting down and watching whatever they can scrounge. Folks are squeezing in one more beach trip or working hard at getting ready for back to school time. Reruns and re-watching old movies is the kind of relaxing thing that can fill gaps between all this summer activity. But when you do the re-watching, do you notice the world inside the world? Do you catch the shows that are on the screens in the background?

This is not a true “what to watch” in the sense that these shows don’t actually exist, except in an alternate world. When you’re going back to an old Futurama episode, do you recall anything about “The Scary Door”? How could you miss a show with a description like this;


“You are entering the vicinity of an area adjacent to a location. The kind of place where there might be a monster, or some kind of weird mirror. These are just examples; it could also be something much better. Prepare to enter: The Scary Door.”

There is a fun site out there that lists more than four hundred of these magical shows inside shows. Have you noticed a show within a show? Do you have a favorite? When you get a few minutes head on over to the Nestflix site and check out this crazy collection.

Back in the Driver Seat

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It’s been a while since I’ve run a D&D game. The schedules of adults combined with a pandemic crushed that creative bit of things for a long time. I’ve posted on here about being invited to play. The game turned from fantasy to horror and that’s not exactly ‘my jam’ as a friend would say. Yes it was fun and there are memorable stories from the few sessions we’ve run. Once again, the schedule of adults looked to wreck that gaming chance. I volunteered to step in and attempt this long distance gaming thing as the game master.

I’m glad I volunteered. The rest of the players seemed to be on board with the idea. All I needed to do was figure out how 5e worked compared to what I knew, work with everyone on character creation, design the adventure, tailor it to the characters, figure out how the online tools were going to work and THEN actually run the game. Easy peasy, right?

Oy. I must have forgotten how much work it is to stay ahead of a handful of very sharp players. I was (and am) glad that I did this. We had a couple of bumpy patches in our first session. A couple of communication errors (mostly on me) and some adjustment to the online environment, but all in all I think it went as well as could be expected.

The best part was that we’ve already come up with a bit of story that’s going to stick with us. A gift that will keep on giving as this party of intrepid adventurers continues to move through the game world. Fear the grain shortage and buy your bread now! You should watch:

Here we go!

Victory

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Love this color!

Victories Greater Than Death by Charlie Jane Anders

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I have been meaning to pick up one of the works of this author for some time now. I’m glad I picked this book up and got into it. It took me a minute to get into the story, but once I was in, I finished the book in a day.

The characters were very believable. They were real. I could easily picture them in my mind’s eye. The world building was slightly off to me. I might have missed something early on? I’m not sure. The beacon could easily fit into a ‘current day’ scenario, but I’m not sure this was supposed to be ‘current day’ and that’s where my disconnect happened. It was not enough to pull me out of the story, so I just rolled with it.

I have figured out that heroic stories work for me. I know this about myself and I try to temper my reviews with that understanding. The characters in this story were absolutely heroic… but absolutely not in the old school / traditional sense of the square jawed action man. It was delightful and refreshing to see this in a story. I don’t want to go deeper into the differences for fear of spoiling it for anyone else.

My one and only quibble is something that I understand is completely on me. This does not have to do with the work or the author, just me. The constant pronoun thing was annoying. I know I’m old and this is something that should be part of normal – but it’s not that for me. As I said, minor quibble and all about me, not the work.

This was a fast read, and exciting story and a lot of fun to ride along with. I intend to recommend it to my fan group and hope it makes the selection list!



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