Christopher Keene's Blog, page 9
June 8, 2017
Share and Win Free Books
[image error]I’m helping my publishers with this promo where you can get free books if you share this link. Not sure how it works, but I want free books myself anyway so this will help me in the long run.
http://www.futurehousepublishing.com/giveaways/win-a-library/?lucky=334
Now fly my monkeys! FLY!
June 2, 2017
My Grand Scheme for the Next 3 Years
[image error]My main goal for the next three years is simply to become a distinguished fantasy author.
I’m not deluded enough to think that I’m going to be one of the few lucky authors who gets picked up by a major publisher with a six figure deal in the first couple of years being an author. To be realistic, I know I needed to build up both my skill and credentials before getting recognized, and that’s what my goals for the next 3 years are going to focus on.
Presently I’m going through a period I like to call “Cleaning out my closet” where I’m taking all of the older novels I wrote before I was published, polishing them up and seeing if I can get any hooks with the credentials I have built so far.
Here is a catalogue of the books I’m hoping to have published in the next three years:
[image error] Dream State Saga
1. Stuck in the Game 2. Back in the Game 3. Glitch in the Game 4. Death in the Game
Super Dungeon Explore
5. Wrath of the Midnight Queen
[image error] A Cycle of Blades Trilogy
1. Gods of the Mountain 2. The Poison Crown 3. Ending the Cycle
[image error] The Tandayum Duo
1. Shatter Sphere 2. Shattered City
Along with several other novels that aren’t yet under contract, these are the books in my closet that I’m going to clean out before 2020. After this, with all of the experience and skills it will give me, I’m going to start writing under a pseudonym that will coalesce everything I’ve learned into a series of novels for marketing to one of the big five (Simon & Schuster, Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Macmillan Publishers, Hachette).
Obviously the books not under contract are the ones that will get the most attention after those above are published, after I’ll be what my friend called a, “dozen books deep” and have enough credentials under my own steam to add to my more marketable sales pitch.
It’s a gamble, but an educated gamble, and whether or not it pays off will determine whether or not this hobby becomes a realistic career, a dream I’ve had since I was a child.
Hobby => Career => Dream.
May 28, 2017
New Book Contract
[image error]Phew! Just signed a publishing contract with Solstice for my epic fantasy series. 350,000 words, 5 years and a heck of a lot editing signed away in less than a minute. I feel lighter for some reason.
The real question is: Do any of my readers out there enjoy the epic fantasy genre? I have a feeling there’s a few of you on on my list. Even if you don’t, if you enjoy any kind of fantasy (which I assume you do if you’re following this blog), I’m going to be relying on you to give this book a fighting chance when it’s released.
Anything from a review to a comment, from sharing it to telling your friends who like fantasy; I appreciate every bit of support you have to give. And hopefully you enjoy the book as well, this has been a passion project of mine for the good part of five years and I think anyone who reads it will be able to tell.
I haven’t been given a release date yet, but I’ll be sure to post an update with it’s coming up.
April 14, 2017
Why eXistenZ is the Best Gaming Movie
[image error]David Cronenberg is a pretty well known director, his fame and style having been passed onto the younger generation from the term used for the freakish mutants in Rick & Morty. Despite being one of his later films, eXistenZ was the first of his films that I watched and I was surprised by the elements that coincided with LitRPG books, where the uncertainty of reality and being in-game is used as a central mystery that many cyberpunk films have used since. Unlike most of Cronenberg’s earlier films that cast James Woods, Jude Law is given the hero’s role, and for something that was overshadowed by the Matrix, I still think this is the best video game centered film not based off an already existing property.
We follow Ted who is trying out the new game pod with a group of people including the game designer, Allegra Geller. It’s an organic gaming system and controversial enough for the game designer to need security. In Cronenberg’s body-horror style, many of the elements in the game are disturbing, including the weapons and indeed the very gaming system itself, which seems to be alive. The story goes in and out of the games, and games within games, with both the audience and players never truly aware whether they are in the game or not, the story of the game having the characters sent to destroy the people who made the games, but where they don’t control their own actions to do so all of the time.
[image error]If that story sounds complicated and confusing, that is one of the appealing things of eXistenZ. It’s one of those films you have to watch more than once, questioning what you thought you knew on your first viewing, who’s in on the plot and who is just playing along for the sake of the game. Despite this, the film is just as immersive as most video games; sucking you in with each discovery and mystery. The uncertainty also gives it a feel similar to films like Inception or the Matrix but whereas the aesthetics of these other films are leather and tech, eXistenZ is one of the few films that can be put under the sci-fi sub-genre of Biopunk, where living biological things are created and used for rebellious means.
[image error]The acting and music all do their jobs well to help create a strange and paranoid atmosphere. The tension pulls you in and doesn’t let you go as the visuals take you out of your comfort zone so much that it’s the normal settings which seem to have the scenes and characters you feel you can’t trust the most. The same can be said about how the characters are acting, as you are never sure who is playing the game, playing out their own fantasy or is as passive as the main character is. This until the end whereby there have been so many twists and turns that it’s hard to tell who the main character is himself and the motives behind what he’s doing, let alone if he’s doing it in the real world or not.
[image error]I would recommend this film to anyone, not necessarily because I think they would enjoy it, but because I would want to see how they would react to it. It’s very confusing and all over the place with a lot of interesting concepts and the freakish style that David Cronenberg is known for, but just because of that. There were so many films like the Thirteenth Floor and Dark City created in 1999 that use a similar world and genre-bending elements but were overshadowed by the Matrix’s success. I feel eXistenZ was the only one unique enough in its Biopunk style to justify people giving it a go as well, and being a realistic gaming world make it feel way ahead of its time.
Score: 8.5/10
April 2, 2017
Why the “White Washing” Made Sense (Spoilers for Ghost in the Shell)
[image error]I’ve watched the Ghost in the Shell film twice now, and although it’s really only just a ‘good’ film by most measures (it’s still far better than any other western, life action anime adaptation so far), anyone who said anything about white washing being bad for this film should immediately swallow their own words upon watching it. Although, it should be rather obvious that anyone who uses such dismissive language wouldn’t give this film the time of day in the first place, ironically making their complaints vacuous from the start.
Makoto Kusanagi is Japanese and this is shown in flash backs in the third act of the film. The question of why she is put into a Caucasian body, Scarlet Johanson, actually makes more sense in the context of the film than if she had been given an Asian body. The first point to eliminate is that she looks Japanese in the anime. She doesn’t, nor does it mention whether her body is supposed to look Japanese or have any connection with her ethnicity. Either way, her being Caucasian in the film makes way more sense in the film than it does in the anime. Why? Because the villain is trying to make sure she doesn’t discover her past! What better way to do this than changing her very identity so she’s less likely to discover who her parents were and what happened to her as a child? Using a white actress made sense in the context of the film, so why are people still complaining?
[image error]That’s the real question for this post, my frustration over infantile, oversensitive, ideologues and their crusade to bitch about things that are actually decent. What is all this jumping-the-gun, white washing finger pointing, reactionary bullshit really all about? I mean even Japanese people, including the creators of the original anime, thought that the casting was fine. So why it is that westerners in particular complain and sulk about this kind of thing so much?
Two reasons: Racism and because people are over eager to use their new buzzwords to show how virtuous they are before they’ve even watched the film. Those people should quite deservedly only be able to watch the films that fall exactly in line with every view they have, thus leaving normal people alone to enjoy actually good films. With no respect whatsoever, anyone who enjoys good story telling in films should tell these people to promptly fuck off. They are not helpful, they produce nothing of value themselves and quite frankly the world could do with less idiots. For those of you who did end up enjoying the film after all that bitching, don’t you feel like morons?
[image error]In conclusion, if you have any problem with the white washing in this film then you have a problem with good story telling in the context of a film, and if you have an issue with good story telling in the context of a film then I have a problem with you, because there are few enough films with good story telling as it is. Stop being a cunt and stop ruining movies for the rest of us. I’ve gotten over Roland Deschain being black in the upcoming Dark Tower movie because the film’s context allows it to make sense, all I’m asking is that you do white actors and actresses the same courtesy. But I bet even that’s too much to ask.
March 23, 2017
March 22, 2017
199 followers… perfect time for a break!
Sorry Gold Five, not this time.
With two books down and another in a completely different series on the way, I thought now was the perfect time to do a course on script writing. Because what better way to celebrate getting my work out there than by learning things that will make me regret every single bit of dialogue that I’ve ever written?
*Sigh*
To get my concord fallacy straightened out, I’ve decided to take a hiatus for this course and many other things I’ve been meaning to catch up on for a while. I also feel I’ve been doing a few too many posts on the LitRPG genre to get attention for my books on the Facebook group that I really need to get over. With so many fantasy books and anime second seasons coming out, I’ll be sure to release more reviews and shit soon enough.
Anyhoo…
What am I hoping to accomplish by announcing this vague break from blogging? My evil plan is get anyone with a sliver of OCD to click follow to get me to that sweet 200 mark, as completely arbitrary as that number is. In fact, the only reason I’m admitting this at the end of this post is to see who actually read it and not just read the title . . . When I was a kid I used to think that because cigarettes were called ‘fags’ I thought ‘faggots’ were just people who smoked. Boy did I get in trouble for calling every smoker I saw a faggot. After realizing what faggot actually meant I always thought the question “Can I bum a fag?” to be a the gayest question ever . . . Sonic the Hedgehog doesn’t look like a hedgehog . . . can turtles have threesomes? Dogs seem lonely when left at home . . . but I guess they are pact animals . . . humping is a funny word.
See ya soon!
March 16, 2017
March 15, 2017
In Defense of LitRPG
[image error]After telling a friend about the LitRPG genre, he asked me, “Why would anyone read a book about someone playing a game when they could just play a game themselves?” This friend was a pretty passionate gamer, for a while it was how he made his living, so I could understand why he would ask such a question. But when thinking of an answer I couldn’t give just one, as I was sure different LitRPG fans enjoyed reading it for different reasons.
Reasons I attempted to convince him of . . .
The first answer that came to mind was that gaming technology hadn’t reach the point that it could create games as realistic as those portrayed in many science fiction books or films. I thought this was a good argument, until my friend countered with the fact that the level of immersion a good game could create through its level of interaction and engagement far surpasses anything that a book could reach. Although I’m not sure I agreed with this, I obviously wasn’t going to convince him with this answer, so I tried another.
[image error]My second answer was that it was simply a modern manifestation of portal fantasy and that with fans of books like Chronicles of Narnia or Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, games were becoming the new doorways at the back of the wardrobe because it’s easier to relate to plot elements in a game than an entirely new fantasy world. Of course, this didn’t satisfy him either. He once again claimed that someone would get a better feeling of being in a different world with game elements by simply playing a game with those elements.
I was beginning to see a trend to his counter arguments. Whatever answers I used to defend LitRPG, he was just going claim playing a game was preferable. I then realized a key difference between games and almost every other medium. In order to play a game a player usually needs to be very active in their level of interaction with it, where with books you can be passive and just sit back with your own thoughts. So my next answer related to my love of watching game playthroughs online. Some people just like to game vicariously.
[image error]For some, the story is the most important part of a game. Even if the story elements they enjoy might be based on the game mechanics or world, it doesn’t mean they’ll enjoy the grind or puzzles one might have to go through to get to that story. I feel this is the reason many people might prefer to read LitRPG than play a game themselves, because, similar to watching playthroughs, we want to game vicariously and get lost in world similar to portal fiction, but in a way that surpasses the technology that gaming systems have today.
Using the different strokes for different folks argument seemed to sway my gamer friend a little, but because of his love for games, didn’t fully convince him of why reading LitRPG might be enjoyable. If you can think of other reasons why LitRPG may be preferable to playing games, I would love to hear them as well as my friend’s counter arguments to them. While on the subject, my LitRPG book has now been mentioned on two LitRPG websites LitRPG Reads and LitRPG if you’re interested in checking those websites out. They have an array of books that might start you on your own journey into the genre.
