Moe Lane's Blog, page 689
July 30, 2021
Not the best month, to be honest.
Nothing really horrible, but lots of external stress and the short story launch frankly flopped. Well, relatively[*]. Between the Kickstarter and what sales there were, I was able to pay for it and some more stuff later in the year, but this has not been a great summer for selling books.
Welp. August in a few days. A new month ahead: Excelsior!
Moe Lane
[*Okay, fine, not at all.]
Scarlet Johansson is gonna sue the shorts off of of Disney…
…and I’m not finding it hard to pick a side at all. I mean, the Mouse is never gonna offer me a book contract: but it still behooves me to be against companies casually breaching them*. And, amusingly, Johansson has a net worth of over 100 million — she’s apparently been involved in at least one blockbuster movie series — so Disney’s usual tactic of overlawyering her just ain’t gonna fly. This should be real interesting, and I wonder whether they’re going to try to settle fast.
I wouldn’t… because I wouldn’t have gotten into this mess in the first place. Jesus, just pay people. It’s not a hard strategy to comprehend.
Moe Lane
*As somebody put it: I don’t care if Johansson wins, but I do need for Disney to lose.
Tweet of the Day, “Don’t Say Anything. Your Words Would Be Useless, Maybe Even Insulting” edition.
“Just fly the damn plane.”
After 25 years, mail drop at Calvin’s hideout. End of our story… but beginning another, I want to think. The Days, as they say, Will Be Packed. —bb pic.twitter.com/xlaCDM1rjB
— Bloom County (@bloomcounty) July 31, 2021
07/30/21 Update, July Patreon Pledge Drive. (There’s never been a better time!)
Tomorrow is the last day of the month and a Saturday, which means the trifecta:
A short story!The latest installment of the current RPG setting!Microfiction!Sign up today, and get it all tomorrow! Only a buck a day!
Patreon!
Snippet the last, THE DEFENSE OF WINDERMERE CASTLE.
“Finish that story,” I said. “How hard can it be?” I said. “You know how it’s supposed goes,” I said.
WHEEEEEEEE!
Patreon!The unpleasantries began immediately afterward. Three guards were sent out with torches to look for any ambushers lurking just out of sight (hers were considerably farther away), but Carlotta was too busy being shackled with a long chain to pay too much attention. They did it quickly, without explanation.
After that came a quick examination for cuts and wounds. Fortunately for her modesty, they used women for this. They hadn’t gotten far before one found the bloody, hastily hidden bandage around one arm. The reaction was swift; she was roughly shoved to the ground. By the time she stood up, the women had retreated, one carrying the other end of Carlotta’s chain. Two men with pikes readied them in her direction, in mute warning. And then her chain began to jerk her, slowly but inexorably, towards a cave mouth. Carlotta could almost feel the pikeheads aimed at her back as she followed the chain.
The most horrible thing about it all was how little there was in the way of explanation, exposition, or even gloating. She was now in the grips of some sort of impersonal mechanism, made all the more awful for its basic indifference. Carlotta had clearly been weighed and found wanting, which meant she was already dead to them. Why waste time on outrages to a corpse?
July 29, 2021
‘A Smuggler’s Song.’
Nice, but it skips too many verses.
Quote of the Day, What IS GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE A Sequel Of? edition.
This is an interesting thought.
…I say “proper sequel” loosely as Afterlife more closely resembles a big-screen version of the amazing The Real Ghostbusters animated series that ran from 1986-1991 than the 1984 classic starring Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver, Ernie Hudson, and the late Harold Ramis.
That’s not a bad thing.
Read the whole thing, but the gist is: GHOSTBUSTERS is an adult comedy, THE REAL GHOSTBUSTERS was a kid’s comedy, GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE looks like it’s drawing from the latter, and everything’s fine because the THE REAL GHOSTBUSTERS was made out of awesome. Which it was, although the animation is… well, the state of the art has improved. But the writing was spot-on:
So I’m cool with it. If it’s true, of course.
July Patreon Pledge Drive, Looking for Beta Readers edition.
I’ve gotten my next chapbook (DECISIONS) to a spot where I can unleash the beta readers upon it. Let me know if you’re interested — and feel free to sign up for my Patreon, where these stories typically originate. At least one every month! RPG material, too. Quite the bargain at $1 a month.
Patreon!Snippet the Last, DEEP IN THE HEART OF SEX FISH.
That’s the last one of the new chapbook in the can, as it were. And at last.
Patreon!So when I saw Wanda at the bar I was cheered up more than I expected, you know? It was someone different, who wasn’t part of the weird rut that my life had become. That would be nice…
…except that she almost pretended not to see me.
Believe me, I know what that looks like. And it hurt a little to see a friend do it, particularly one I wasn’t ever even the slightest bit interested in. But maybe she remembered that, too, because she grimaced and came over to where I was sitting.
The first words out of her mouth, though: “This a Trawlr Fishing Hole?” Like she wasn’t going to stay here, if it was.
But I shook my head. “Nah. At least I’ve never met anybody here for dinner. Why?”
She looked at me, pretty steady. “I’m off the app.”
The way Wanda put it sounded weird. Like it was significant, and I should know why.
