Moe Lane's Blog, page 120
December 2, 2024
Pre-ordered: @exjon’s SINK THE RISING SUN.
Jon Gabriel, an old buddy of mine from the Before Times, has written a book! SINK THE RISING SUN, a World War II submarine novel. No supernatural or fantastical stuff in it, but I pre-ordered it anyway.
Also: Jon’s a brave man. I personally quail at the thought of writing a historical war novel. There are just too many people out there with opinions on the smaller details, and they look upon new historical fiction writers as fresh meat…
#commissionearned
Self-Tweet of the Day, This Is Apparently Real edition.
(H/T: @iowahawkblog) The thing is, I don’t know who should be more offended (and possibly contemplating a trademark suit): DC, or Mattel.
It's the Malibu Barbie Batmobile! https://t.co/IRl3bGGCPJ
— Ogiel (Moe Lane) (@Ogiel23) December 2, 2024
Spider-Man meets Thomas the Tank Engine!
I saw this a couple of days ago, but GeekTyrant reminded me of it. You’ll need to have watched both SPIDER-MAN 2 and THOMAS AND FRIENDS to get the full effect, but getting that combo is easier than it sounds. You just need to be a geek who has kids.
#commissionearned
12/02/2024 Snippet, CALL OF THE MOON-BEASTS.
Lack of art!
Patreon!He looked around, blinking unconsciously at the strain of standing up suddenly. Grabinski kept a neat room, even by the standards of the increasingly resource-starved lunar colonies. He had a bed, a perfunctory shower/bathroom combination stripped down to the fixtures, and a desk. There were no personal touches. Not even a toothbrush.
There was also no art. “Check me, Asenath,” Tobias wheezed. He could feel his entire upper respiratory system loosening up under the sudden humidity, only it wasn’t actually pleasant. “No sign of Grabinski drawing on the walls themselves, right?”
Correct, Commander. Do you see the discolorations on the wall?
“Yeah. Grabinski must have been hoarding sticky tape.” He bit down on the sudden spike of white-hot, murderous rage the thought had triggered. “Or maybe he had something else. Anyway, either he didn’t do any painting here, or he took it with him when he left. When was the last time he was here?”
December 1, 2024
The Shadowrun 4E MEGA Bundle of Holding.
I always wanted to play Shadowrun, but it never quite worked out, scheduling-wise. Ach, well. The Bundle of Holding looks tempting, at least.
Moe Lane
PS: I should finish those video games, though.
12/01/2024 Snippet, BANSHEE BEACH.
We continue.
Patreon!“Alan Smithee? Never heard of him.”
Bananas Foster was one of those guys who it takes only five minutes to know all your life. At least, if you were in the habit of hanging around short, kinda rat-looking, jittery chain-smokers who was clued-in about all the hinky deals out there, but didn’t have the scratch to get a piece in any of them. Which describes what the Old Americans would call my ‘working environment,’ right down to the cheap cologne Bananas wore. Weirdly, it didn’t even smell like bananas. More like burnt wood, old tobacco, and booze so raw, it practically bubbled.
Yeah, yeah, I know: I need a better class of business acquaintances. Who are you, my mother?
I shook my head. “Bananas. Look, I know I’m new around here, but you really gotta try to sell me on the lie. I ain’t just some tourist down from the City. See the hat?”
He peered at it. “What about it?” He sounded genuinely confused, too.
Truly, I was a pilgrim in an unholy land. “It’s a Shamus hat,” I explained, trying to ignore Lucas’s manful attempts not to snicker. “Tell me you’ve heard of Shamuses, Banana.”
12/01/2024 Snippet, TIMMY AND THE BAD PLACE.
TIMMY!
Patreon!“I am uncertain of this assignment, young Mister Timothy.”
That made Timmy jerk his head up. The Headmaster didn’t use that word a lot. As he liked to say, it was his job to know what was really going on.
The Headmaster didn’t mind being asked questions, as long as you understood that he didn’t care if you liked the answers or not. “Is it because of me, or the task?”
“Oh, the task, I assure you.” The Headmaster gave a smile that Timmy at least found reassuring, and not at all nightmarish. “If I thought you were incapable of handling an operation this simple, you wouldn’t be here in the first place.”
“It did seem pretty easy. There’s somebody where he shouldn’t be, we need to yank him out of the realm he’s in, and the people running the place don’t even want him there, so I can just go in.” Timmy frowned. “Oh. It’s too easy?”
Patreon Microfiction: He Wasn’t Really Fitting In.
Patreon!“He Wasn’t Really Fitting In” isn’t about Even Evil Has Standards. It’s about Even Evil Recognizes That The System Has To Work. There are times when the best thing an entity can do for an organization is to explode, in a fashion that takes out a few of the enemy, too.
November 30, 2024
Quote of the Day, He’s Correct, But For Not Quite The Right Reason edition.
From the alt-text of a Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal cartoon of a few days ago: “Anyone who thinks AI endangers poets should first prove that there exists a poetry journal with more readers than contributors.“
I actually looked up the AI poetry project that this comic is referencing, and I have good news, for given value of ‘good:’ while most of the population may not be able to recognize an Allen Ginsburg or Sylvia Plath poem if it bit them on the ass, but the ones who can will be the ones who actually decide what poems get published in the aforementioned journals. As for flooding the commercial market: joke’s on you, Scooter Magee! There is no commercial market! Good luck trying to make a living on AI verslop when nobody pays money for poetry anyway!
Books of the week: FROZEN DREAMS & TINSEL RAIN.
Lame? YES! Also necessary? …Also YES! It’s even legitimate: this was Thanksgiving week. I spent most of it either dealing with the aftermath of my cold, taking care of my eldest who was having one, or cooking. The FROZEN DREAMS & TINSEL RAIN Black Friday sale is the most interesting book-related thing from all week.
#commissionearned
