Monthly Archives: November 2016

LosCon Next Weekend

Next weekend is Thanksgiving Weekend here in the United States and for me that mean the Los Angeles Area Science Fiction Convention, otherwise known as LosCon. I think I may have attended every LosCon from 1997 until now. It is one of my favorite conventions.

My very first turn at being on a panel and not simply in the audience was at a Loscon when I was drafted for an on the spot Firefly panel. (That was a blast.)

Now for the last several years I have been a panelist for local San Diego Conventions Condor and Conjecture. This year I will be on several panels for Loscon as well.

I do not yet have the rooms, date, or times for these panels but here is where you can find me at LosCon

 

Redshirts and Bodycount

Description: Star Trek, with its many generations and recent reboot, gives us the opportunity to consider the way stakes and violence have been portrayed in media from the 60s until today. Is it possible to have high stakes without violence? Is the threat of death always necessary? How does an exceptionally nonviolent movie like Star Trek IV hold up today? Is sanitized violence in fact more offensive than ‘honest’ violence? And is there actually any reason to strive for nonviolence, if the audience is enjoying it?

 

Science, Fiction, and Politics: Shaping Reality

Description: Come join our panel of people working in science and science fiction for a discussion of how science, and science fiction affects politics – and vice versa.

 

The Politics and Socioeconomics of Space Exploration

Description: How do politics, economics, culture, and space exploration affect each other?

 

Roddenberry’s Forgotten Dreams

Description: From the TOS episode “Assignment: Earth” until Star Trek: The Motion Picture Gene Roddenberry attempted to launch a number of SF television programs that never progressed beyond an aired pilot. Join us as our panel discusses the shows that might have been

 

In addition to the panel discussions I will also be leading a critiquing session either Friday or Saturday evening.

 

Rogue Read & Critique

Description: Bring 1200-1500 words of a work in progress. In a supportive environment we’ll listen and give feedback.

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Wish Me Luck

This weekend, instead of working half a day on Saturday, I will host the lunch for the local beta readers. (To those of you dispersed across the country I wish you could be here and you have my deepest thanks.)

The Beta Reader Lunch is a tradition of mine going back to the first novel I completed as an adult. (We shall not speak of the novel written in high school.) It’s my way of giving a little back to the people who endured the rough first draft of my novel.

The outcome of these feedback sessions has been highly variable. Sometimes massive restructuring and rewriting happens. Like splitting one book into two or dropping three chapters of meetings. Sometimes there are very small changes, just a point of clarification here and there. And sometimes a book does not survive the beta read process. After the feedback I declare the manuscript dead and file it away as an experiment that failed.

What will be the outcome Saturday? I haven’t a clue. One of the books that died during a luncheon was one that as I wrote I adored ad thought it was one of my best. That’s the point of the beta readers, an observation with some distance, the writer is too damned close.

This is also why all the readers, those at the lunch and those who can only submit responses to my surveys are so vital to the process.

If you did a test read of Phaeton’s Phoenix; thank you.

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Just a Few Words

I had thought that I might speak a little on the election, now that a week has gone by but I find the subject too painful. The election of our first carnival barker president – and that’s gravely close to insulting carnival barkers – is a low point for the Republic. However I also believe that the Republic will survive and that the long arc of history still bends towards justice, even if we have to fight backsliding from time to time.

It will be okay, but only if we fight to make it okay.

So there a few words on the election’s outcome. I wish I had more to say but today has been a rather difficult day.

I awoke at 2;30 am, my sinuses over-pressurized and a migraine exploding behind my eye. The slight motion of the head set of waves of agony and needless to say I did not go to work.

I am feeling somewhat better. The migraine and sinus meds are doing their thing and I believe I will return to work tomorrow.

So there you have it. I have nothing much to say, I remain slightly depressed only now I have added pain to the experience.

 

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Space Zombies? Really?

So veering onto an entirely new track here s a quick post about making sure that your world-building and the your metaphors work and play together.

There’s an instance where it really falls down and that occurs in the fan favorite and short lived SF TV show Firefly.

(Yes I am taking my life in my hands by pointing a glaring flaw in the beloved series.)

The show is a hybrid SF/Western set in a terraformed solar system where dozen of worlds and hundreds of moons have shirt-sleeve environments. (never mind the science issues here – Joss and Science have never been a particularly strong match.) Inspired by the U.S. Civil war our heroes are plucky rebels who stood up to the central powers and lost. They now live on the frontier moons, scraping out a living running cargos and doing odd jobs, often of questionable legality, while trying to remain a few steps ahead of the suffocating core worlds. This is all and good. The set up allows an interesting exploration go the clash of cultures that happened with the U.S. Civil war without the overpowering evil of slavery hanging over everything. The transformed frontier moons allow a wild west feel without the native aliens so he side steps the American Native issues as well. Right from the pilot a threat is revealed in the form of ‘Reavers.’ Humans who it is said had gone mad at the vast emptiness of space and now travels from moon to moon, killing, raping, and wearing the skins of their victims, should they be so lucky as to have it occur in that order.

The show ran a few episodes before Fox killed it, but gathered enough of a fan base that Universal bankrolled a modest feature film that allowed Joss to resolve some incomplete plot lines.

On the Blu-ray bonus materials Joss explains that the Reavers, who play a central plot point, are in fact supposed to be basically ‘Space Zombies.’ (Because there is no escaping the zombie genre – anywhere.) The reavers are unbridled and uncontrolled expression of human anger and aggression, incapable of expressing anything other than violence and destruction. A metaphor for what goes wrong when you try to meddle with human nature, but within the world-building there utterly ludicrous.

Reavers when they appeared display no thought, no planning, nothing but naked savagery. They run and chase down their victims, tearing into them, tearing them appart, and then chasing after the next. Okay – that’s pretty zombish, but how the hell do they fly spaceships?

Seriously I would love to have Joss write me a scene that takes place aboard a ship piloted and controlled by reavers. How do they manage to make it go from place to place, piloting and landing safely while unable to think?

It is an aspect of the show that one has to ignore and if you are unable to ignore the issue the entire story falls apart.

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Movie Review: The Eagle Huntress 2016

Something a little different with today’s review as this film is a documentary. The Eagle Huntress is about a young girl, 13, who is following in her father’s footsteps as a Eagle Hunter in the mountains of Mongolia. Hunting with eagles is an ancient tradition that supplies the families with fur and meat during the cold, hard, Mongolian winters and it is a tradition that usually passes from Father to Son.

1-eagle-huntress_0The film, narrated by Daisy Ridley of The Force Awakes, introduces us to Aisholpan who has been fascinated by her father’s eagle hunting her entire life. Believing that girls and boys are equal, her father defies tradition and takes her under wing to teach her the ways of eagle hunting.

We watch as she learns the basic of the craft and even as she scales the side of a cliff in an attempt to get an eaglet of her own to raise. Aisholpan is a fearless girl, besting others with her courage and commitment.

The movies breaks out into three major sections, much like acts in a fiction work. The first part deals with he home life and her training to become an eagle hunter. In the next block we follow her and her father to the Eagle Festival where Eagle Hunters compete in Olympic-like games and Aisholpan is the first girl ever to compete. The final element of the film is following Aisholpan and her father as winter has hit and they voyage into the mountain to discover if she has truly become The Eagle Huntress.

Except for Ridley’s narration the film in subtitled and appears to present the people it documents fairly. (Not always the case with documentaries.) I thoroughly enjoyed the two hours I watched this film in the theaters. And as a comment you are to hear quite rarely from me – I love that jacket she is sporting the photo.

For people local to San Diego – we saw this movie at the Landmark Theaters on 5th ave and they have been seriously renovating the place. The seating is now over-stuffed recliners allowing you to watch the movies in great comfort. It creates a very limited audience, by my count the theater only seats 26.

This was a fun, moving, and heartwarming story of traditions kept and broken.

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Veterans’ Day’s Thoughts

Today is Veterans’ Day, originally Armistice Day to celebrate the end of The Great War, World War I, the war that to tis day still greatly shapes out world. First let me salute those men and women who have served and are serving in our nation’s armed forces. Even in peacetime it is a tough job and our states of constant war makes it even more so.

Some of you may know that I briefly served in the United States Navy; from 1979 until early 1982. If you know anything about naval enlistments you’ll see that my term of service is odd.

I was not a good sailor. I had not yet achieved a level of responsibility that would allow me to succeed in the military. Like I have already said it is a tough job, even during a period of peace and quiet, and I was not at all ready for that. So in early 1982 the Navy instituted ‘Operation Upgrade’ to allow less that stellar sailor to leave before the end of enlistment and that offer was extended to me.

I do not regret my service. I made good friends, I saw a chunk of the world, and I got a first hand look at people, both my fellow sailors and civilians around the world, that opened my eyes of the incredible diversity of the human race.

The novel that landed an offer of representation in y email box is a military SF adventure and certainly my military background, however scant it is, informed that piece. I have a lot more military SF to write. I have friends that did the full twenty years and achieved retirement and though it was a career path that did not work out for me, I have the utmost respect for those who solider on and carry the weight I could not.

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Missed Opportunities in Marvel’s Doctor Strange

First off since I am writing about missteps in the latest MCU film clearly there will be mild spoilers about the story and how it unfolds. I will try avoid any if the major wow moments of the movie but I will be discussing the villain, his motivations, and ways that might have been handled by the writers. So, if you want to go into the film unspoiled skip this post.

 

Still here? Okay let’s get into it.

 

1-mads-jpg-crop-promo-xlarge2Mads Mikkelsen plays the film’s central villain, Kaecilius a man obsessed with avoiding death. For Kaecilius even the heat death of the universe is too soon, unlike Voldemort Kawcilius truly wants to live forever. Given the macguffins of the movie and such this is a perfectly adequate motivation, in fact the missed elements that I keep thinking about all revolve around this powerful motivation.

We are introduced to Kaecilius in a rather standard scene where he and his band of zealots murder a librarian to gain access to the spells that they believe can give them a shot of truly infinite life. The murder itself is typical bad guy behavior and right there is a missed illumination of Kaecilius’ character. They didn’t have to kill him, They overpowered him easily enough that they could have taken what they wanted without murder and Kaecilus could have left with a vague pronouncement that the librarian would die soon enough. At this point we the audience would interpret that as a villain’s threat about the coming nastiness, but later once Kaecilius’ real motivation were unveiled his words would become about character and not plot.

Second missed chance: Kawcilius’ zealots. His has a few followers, all expecting the same eternal life, and we are never given a chance to see who they are as characters. They end up being just nameless thugs for the heroes to overcome. Even a few lines of dialog would have gone a long way to revealing that these are sad desperate people propelled by their utter fear of dying. We could have that these were dangerous men and women who still were objects of pity.

Third Missed shot: Strange kills one of the Zealots and we get no reaction from Kawcilius. This was a man he was leading to eternal life. This was a man who trusted him to avoid this exact fate. This was someone who trusted him and now the up-start has killed him. I would have loved to have seen a scene where the villain of the piece lectures/berates the hero for his killing; for the villain to remind Strange of his oath to do no harm. Then we could have Mordo later try to convince Strange that he did the right thing and that would have set up a stronger conflict between Strange and Mordo and helped establish Mordo eventual fall.

I think these small changes would have opened up a deeper more character driven view of Kaecilius. But all this is more in the vein of ‘go write your own story, Bob’ than a just critique.

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Election Thoughts

Well. This was not the result I wanted. Mind you I have serious reservation about Hillary Clinton but I firmly believe that Donald Trump is the least qualified person to ever assume the office of President. But assume the office he will. The thing looks settled and there is naught to do but ride the dragon.

I thought he would never actually run. He Did.

I thought he would never win any primaries. He Did.

I thought he would never get the nomination. He Did.

I thought he would never win the general. He Did.

I think he’ll be a disastrous President. Perhaps I will be wrong again. The future we cannot know and we are living in interesting time.

To me the vital question is why did it go this way? Why did so many – but not a majority and not even the most – people selected him?

We don’t know the answer to that yet. We do not have the data. I caution everyone to wait and try to look around your filter. Do not go for the easy answer that confirms what you already believe. Dig down, question everything, and try to see it objectively. There is a mood in the country that neither the Republican and Democratic establishment have figured out but Trump did. It is vital we understand it

I have faith that our long established institutions are strong enough to withstand a Trump presidency. There may be rough waters and lots of trouble but I do think we will survive this and the arc of history will continue, with fits and starts, to bend towards justice.

The answer we do not know right now is what sort of president will he be? Will he be content with the pomp and pageantry, letting the GOP deal with all the boring details of running a government? In which case expect the Republican Agenda to sail through. Or will he be an active president and with strong idea, his own, about the right answers?

It is entirely possible that the GOP may truly regret letting the bull into their china shop.

 

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The Joy of a Successful Game

Today’s election day – go out and vote. Thus ends todays political posting.

This past weekend I ran my 5th Edition D&D game and had a success that truly made me feel good.

I had engaged in a bit of an experiment. The week leading up to the game I spent my lunches here at work writing journal entries for a game handout. The journal would cover decades, but only a scattering of entries remained. Some might contain vital clue, others might be mundane, and other might only serve at atmosphere. By the time the week ended I had written 3000 words of entries.

I used three different scrip fonts to represent the different ages of the fictional author and then I cut each entry apart onto its own piece of paper, mixing them up. (The journal was found in a old stone manor house, most of it missing the rest thoroughly out of sequence.)

Game night game and despite missing a few players we managed lift off. When they got the scraps with the journal entries I was quite nervous. I had written them in the ‘pantser’ style, simply making things up as I went along. Would the entries be interesting? Would the puzzle work? Would they have fun?

Judging by the players looked I would say it did work. They poured over the slips, one player quickly seeing the different fonts sorted them accordingly. As they examined the entries they read out disturbing, interesting, and passage that they believe to be clues. His worked out so much better than a skill roll a bullet point of data.

I wish all the players had been able to attend.

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Movie Review: Doctor Strange 2016

The year designation is essential as there has already been a made for television movie that was a pilot for a failed Doctor Strange program and a direct to video animated feature film of the good doctor. (And that’s not counting the 1992 Dr. Mordid – a direct video movie that was very nearly a Strange film but the filmmakers lost the right at the last moment and changed enough names and details to avoid a lawsuit.)

My two favorite characters of the Marvel comics continuum are Tony Stark/Iron Man and Dr. Stephen Strange. The MCU started off on the right foot with a terrific adaptation of Iron Man to the big, silvered screen and continues that tradition with this week’s entry Doctor Strange.

1-doctor_strange_2016-hdStephen Strange is an arrogant, brilliant, surgeon and when his life is turned upside down by a cruel twist of fate and he loses that which he cherished most he ends up on a voyage of self-discovery where he not only learns the value of things beyond self but becomes the Earth’s Sorcerer Supreme. The film is a competent and exciting addition to the MCU. If you enjoyed the other films in the sprawling saga of stories then you are likely to enjoy this one. If you are a fan of the character in particular then again this movie should work for you. Marvel is adapt at keeping the tone of their prosperities right where they need them. Serious enough that the stakes have weight but never forgetting to have fun along the way; a lesson WB and DC have yet to learn. This movie is an origin story but as the general public is unfamiliar with the ins and out of the Strange’s backstory I do not think that this is a misstep. It is presented in a established narrative fashion and perhaps they could have played with that a bit more. In a film where time itself proves to be fluid I think a non-linear approached might have been an interesting thematic take. That said, the straight forward narrative style works just as well.

One knock against the movie I have heard from different courses is that some people feel that Strange’s personal arc feels too much like a repetition of Tony Stark’s arc from the first Iron Man film; arrogant self-centered man suffers a tragic events, learns that his actions have consequences (or inaction in Strange’s part) and by the journey’s end he adopts the mantel of someone who cares about others. That’s fair as far as it goes but this arc is a well established story line, you could always look up Scrooge if you don’t believe me.

That brings be to the performances. Everyone did a good job, particularly Tilda Swinton taking a stereotyped role and giving it some life and depth, but the film either soars or falls flat on Cumberbatchs’s Strange. Just as with Robert Downey jr, Cumberbatch has tons of personal charisma and makes a character who could have been quite unlikeable one you truly care about. This is a very tricky thing for an actor to pull off. Stark, Strange, Scrooge, with all these characters if you don’t see beneath their surface and perceive a person capable of change and one you want to change, the story is going to fail. Either the change feels like it comes out of nowhere and for no reason or they never seemed that bad to begin with. Arrogant jerks are hard film characters to love and now Marvel, with excellent casting, has pulled it off twice. (Three times if you count Thor – but he struck me as immature more than jerk.)

This film is well worth the time for any Strange or Marvel fan.

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