Moe Lane's Blog, page 677
September 29, 2021
Interesting, but how do you make a movie out of OPERATION MINCEMEAT?
I’m assuming all of you can figure out the plot from this: “Netflix has shared a first look at its upcoming World War II film, Operation Mincemeat, and this sounds like it’s going to be a wild and unique film. The film tells the true story of two British intelligence officers who “try to turn the tide of World War II by recruiting an unlikely agent: a dead man.”” Yeah, it’s about the corpse they dressed up as a Royal Navy officer with fake papers stating that the Allies wouldn’t be invading Sicily.
It worked like a charm, too: the corpse washed up on the Spanish coast, the Spanish made copies of the papers and sent them to the Germans, and the Germans didn’t put enough guys in Sicily. Just as expected. The thing is: where’s the drama and tension? The actual action is, “We threw the corpse overboard, and let the current do the rest.” Which is exactly the kind of excitement I want to see out of a real-life clandestine military operation – i.e., none – but it’s not very cinematic, is it?
Oh, well, they’ll probably have people squabbling at each other. Or make up a U-boat attack. That’s what writers are for.
Infrastructure Day today here at MoeLane.com.
I spent the day alternating between finishing up this month’s Patreon short story and applying edits to the RPG worldbook. As I said this morning, having the file makes a lot of things easier, not to mention much less expensive. So much so I might be able to adjust 2022’s print schedule a little. …Might. Haven’t worked out all the details yet.
Anyway: curiously productive day.
Moe Lane
PS: Oh! And I got a haircut.
Snippet the Last, ETERNAL NIGHT OF THE MOON-BEASTS.
I really do need to come up with a new title for this.
Patreon!He woke up, which was a surprise. But he was in a hospital bed, which was less surprising. That every square inch of his body hurt like a sonuvabitch wasn’t surprising at all.
He looked around. There were the usual sensors and other junk draped over his arms, but nothing too restrictive. And there was even a bulb of water within reaching distance! Tobias shoved a box of tissues and a lascalpel out of the way to get at it, and the relief he felt as the ice-cold water went down his throat was pure bliss.
Doctors in the 22nd century didn’t need to hover; Doctor Ward entered the room not a minute later. “Good morning, Commander!” As usual, Ward looked and acted like a mummy trying to keep HR off its back. “Did you enjoy your beauty sleep?”
Tobias closed his eyes — then snapped them open again. Even the muscles on his eyelids hurt. “I could have used ten more minutes, Doc.”
“You were out for two days. So long, I’m doing this coma check.”
“Okay. Five minutes.”
Tweet of the Day, Florida DUDE edition.
“Florida Man” does not have the right connotations for this exhibition of righteous stuff. Somebody buy this man beer and wings.
This is the greatest athletic achievement of the year pic.twitter.com/7OMZszzm4s
— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) September 29, 2021
Via @BrianFaughnan.
Got back pages for THE FERMI RESOLUTION WORLDBOOK.
Work continues!
Got the first-look files for the RPG. It came out well, in my opinion. Oh, the text still needs edits, and extra art added (both are in the process of being finalized). But THE FERMI RESOLUTION WORLDBOOK took a large step forward to publication.
And damn, but that cover is gorgeous.
Moe Lane
PS: Buy my books! …Obviously, this is directed to any first-time visitors to my site.
September 28, 2021
‘John Barleycorn.’
Did it already, and I’m doing it again.
Today was… weirdly productive/unproductive.
I got everything done, eventually, but none of it was linear. We were all running around and disrupting our schedules and the rest of it, so my benchmarks are all off. And, to be truthful: I’m looking forward to the month being over. Because next month is October, and that means Halloween.
And by GOD I’m not going to be the only one doing Halloween this year.
09/28/21 Snippet, ETERNAL NIGHT OF THE MOON-BEASTS.
We’re getting there.
Patreon!And how it looked! There was nothing like a face (although, ask a fly what a human’s looks like), — only a set of connected ovoids, each the size of the hopper itself. Spiraling corkscrews of corruption and violence sprang from them, coupling with the ovoids and each other in an endless, writhing frenzy. It was not obscene solely because concepts like ‘lust’ and ‘decadence’ at least assume a raw desire for life, and a standard of decency to transgress. This thing had neither of those, and as it reached out with its burning tentacles Tobias could feel that the monster welcomed the sensation of finally having its flesh scoured by plasma exhaust.
And scoured it was. The monster burned so terribly that Tobias thought he could smell its charred stink through the suit, the hopper cabin, and the vacuum outside. But it held onto the hopper, despite the way that its flesh sublimated away from the cleansing flame. Indeed, it began to pull the vehicle down, ever so slightly. It was dying — if dying meant anything to this thing — but it would kill Tobias first, if it could. It was only this certainty of death — which flashed across his battered mind in a flash — that drove Tobias to the next step. And even then he quailed as he reached out with a shuddering hand and slapped the emergency boost button.
The shudder was justifiable, because the only thing he could count on now was pain. The boost would give him a 10G burn, for fifteen seconds. On Earth, this would be considered rough, but not horribly dangerous, given the limited duration. On the moon, where humans still struggled to maintain muscle mass and strong bones, it all came down to whether or not his suit could handle the strain.
Agony rippled through Tobias as the hopper burned its way free of the enemy and did its own uncontrolled tumble through the lunar sky. But he smiled nonetheless, for he could feel a great unraveling as the monster in his head lost its grip. And as it fell away from it, the awful cohesion the monster had demonstrated likewise came undone. The strange energies of the plasma drive were simply too eldritch for it to withstand.
Tobias had time for precisely six seconds of savage exultation before the hopper crashed.
Quote of the Day, …Me, Too, GeekTyrant. Me, Too edition.
Ain’t gonna lie, this was exactly my reaction.
William Shatner’s ‘90s cyberpunk sci-fi mystery novel series TekWar might be making a come back with a new animated series adaptation. The nine-novel series has already spawned a TV series, four TV movies, a comic book, and a video game, all of which were released in the ‘90s.
I honestly totally forgot that TekWar was even a thing until this news of an animated series popped up!
I like Bill Shatner, but… I truly remember very little of this.
