Moe Lane's Blog, page 458
December 1, 2022
12/01/2022 Snippet, TIMMY AND THE FAT MAN.
TIMMY HAS RETURNED. I love Timmy. Timmy is one of my favorite characters. Getting this one right is gonna be a pain, though.
Patreon!Timmy and the Fat Man
If Timmy was a grownup, he’d have made the Fat Man meet him in a bar. It wasn’t that Timmy wanted to be old enough to start drinking, because he didn’t. All of the bad memories he had about his parents had the smell of alcohol in them. It wasn’t because Timmy thought that bars were cool, or he was cool, either. Bars were smelly and dark and not cool at all. Timmy was pretty sure he wasn’t cool, but that was okay because he was dangerous, instead. No, the reason Timmy would have picked a bar was because he knew the Fat Man would hate going somewhere like there to talk to somebody like Timmy. That was the idea. He wanted the Fat Man to get right from the start where the two of them stood with each other.
Unfortunately, Timmy was only — maybe thirteen, by now? — so there was no chance of fooling people in the bar into not seeing him. Some things are just too hard, or out of place, to ignore. So Timmy picked the food court at a mall, instead. Nobody ever pays attention to anybody else at the food court. You could even be a kid, meeting an old guy. You just had to talk quietly, not look scared, and not make a scene. Timmy was okay with doing all three, even if it was the Fat Man.
November 30, 2022
‘A Christmas Carol.’
I apparently can’t wait to do this one right away.
Doing the Substack thing.
Not a paid Substack, though. As I’m imagining it, I’ll use it as a clearinghouse for some of the stuff I write regularly. That should be useful, right?
Moe Lane Writes Books!: What Moe Lane did in November 2022.https://t.co/yGC6tUvMQQ
— Moe Lane (@Ogiel23) (@moelane) December 1, 2022
The November Patreon pieces.
We’re starting a new RPG setting this month.
Artifacts: Introduction: The Aftermath of Apocalypses . Investigation and weirdness! Seek out the dead relics of destroyed timelines! Chapter 1-3, BANSHEE BEACH . A self-contained Tom Vargas story! It has Lucas in it!
Patreon!When they told me they were making a COCAINE BEAR movie…
…I was happy! And I was sore afraid. I was sore afraid that they would not find it within themselves to make the COCAINE BEAR movie of my dreams. I didn’t know what I wanted, but I knew I would be able to tell you if they got it wrong.
My friends. If this trailer is any indication, they did not get it wrong.
This is going to be so good… and so dumb… and then so good, again.
11/30/2022 NaNoWriMo, BANSHEE BEACH: 636/50013. [Victory!]
I consider this a victory, given that I lost pretty much a week to Covid. Well, four or five days. If I had managed to still have those, I probably would have hit 60K. 50K is supposed to be the target number anyway.
I showed her the drawing of the yapokvil Henry had sketched out for me.. “So, we got this showing up in places it shouldn’t be. This look familiar at all?”
The Banshee scowled at it. “You mean, as a Dominion monster? No. Absolutely not. No sane breedmaster would try.”
“So, you do recognize it?”
“Hold on, Shamus. You don’t?”
“Oh, sure. It’s a yapokvil. Monster from south of here. Only it doesn’t act like a monster does.”
“That’s because it’s not a monster. It’s called an ahuizotl, and it’s a…” Her mouth worked, like it didn’t like the word, either. “It’s a fiend.”
“You mean, like something theurgical? I thought the Dominion didn’t believe in stuff like that?”
“They don’t, Shamus. That’s why the breedmasters wouldn’t dare try to work with ahuizotl. Those things would be immune to every beast control spell the Dominion has. That’s one reason they always kept the breeding pits on the Gulf Coast: in case someone made a mistake, and tried to work with a non-physical monster.”
“Gotcha. So, what are ahuizotl; and if they’re theurgical, how do you know about them?”
The Banshee smiled, and it wasn’t a very nice one — but it wasn’t directed at me. “I know about them because I’m smarter than most of the idiots sent here, so I went and read up on legends on the local area. There was an old religion here, almost a thousand years ago…”
November 29, 2022
GUESS WHAT TIME IT IS!
That’s right! It’s time for the song most of you hate, from the artist most of you hate! Because tradition!
Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town, Bruce Springsteen
#commissionearned
11/29/2022 NaNoWriMo, BANSHEE BEACH: 2018/49377.
Didn’t stay up to finish it last night, but I might tonight. Although ‘finished’ is a nebulous term. I have the framework of the book. It’ll do.
“Good morning, Betty. How did you sleep?”
The Banshee looked up from her coffee and newspaper. “Quite well, Mr. Vargas. What do you need to ask me about?” Her voice was amused.
“Oh, good. I’ve been up most of the night, myself. May I sit?”
“…Yes, please do.” Now she sounded just a tiny bit puzzled. “Since we’re apparently still avoiding the subject, have you had breakfast?”
“No, actually, and that sounds like an great idea. They do old-style flapjacks here, if you haven’t tried them yet.” A waitress had all but materialized by our side. “In fact, Senorita, I’ll have that, a side order of sausage, and just bring a pot of coffee.”
“I suppose I’ll have the flapjacks, too,” the Banshee said. “Ah, please. No sausage, though. Whatever your fried potato dish is, instead.”
“Oh, and put it on my room bill,” I told her, and gave her the room number. “Thank you!”
Now the Banshee looked very confused. “You’re buying me breakfast? I assure you, I can afford to pay my own way.”
“Of course you can, Betty. It just occurs to me that, so far, every time we meet events keeps happening one particular way.” The waitress had returned with the coffee, bless her soul: I waited until she had left again to start talking. “We talk, and I keep waiting for the room to explode, and eventually the conversation’s over and I’m somehow still in the same shape as I was before.” I inhaled half a cup in one sheerly blissful swallow. “I’m guessing it’s kind of a drag to be on the other end of that.”
The Banshee looked at me — and poured herself her own cup. “Well, yes. A little. I can’t say I don’t deserve it, but…”
“Right. But. You’re sitting there, trying to be virtuous, and what are you getting out of it? The only guy in the world who you might actually talk to is counting the moments until he can get the hell out of your way. It’d drive a saint nuts.” I smiled at her. “So I’m working on that.”
Yeah, I’m still not at 100% yet.
It’s not exactly the Covid; it’s the stress related to the Covid. The entire household needs to recharge its batteries after the week we’ve had. My wife in particular got stuck doing everything at once on the holiday itself, then got sick anyway.
So this is gonna be a slow week, posting-wise. Nothing to worry about, though. We’ll all snap back for the Christmas rush.
In the Mail: Little Earthquakes: The Graphic Album.
Tori Amos: Little Earthquakes (The Graphic Album) is actually not going to be commercially available for another week, but I was happy to order an early copy directly from the publisher. Basically, what they did was commission 24 short comics, each based on the songs on Little Earthquakes and the B-sides to their individual singles. Come, I will conceal nothing from you: if you’re not into Tori Amos, this is unlikely to spark your interest. But if you are, this is gonna be some really good stuff. I enjoyed it muchly.
In the mail. pic.twitter.com/S3lwNaCXqK
— Ogiel (Moe Lane) (@Ogiel23) November 29, 2022
#commissionearned
