Moe Lane's Blog, page 713

06/09/21 Snippet, WOLFGIRL KIM AND THE HOA OF DOOM.

Not much done today on this project. I’m okay with that. The story’s going well.

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But speaking of smells, there was one here I’d never smelt before — but before I could focus on it the detective intercepted me before I could go mucking about in the water. Bradner looked better than he had sounded; when we shook hands his left arm had only a twinge of lingering stiffness in it, and I couldn’t smell any bandages or medicines. He did look a little frazzled, but I wasn’t sure if that was normal for him.

I gave him points for neither freaking out at having to shake hands with a werewolf, nor lingering over the physical contact (he wasn’t too bad on the eyes; but judging from his wedding ring, somebody else had noticed that already). “Thanks for coming by on short notice, Ms. Simon—”

“Please, Detective Bradner,” I interrupted. “Kim is fine.”

That got me a smile. “All right. Kim, then. But thanks. I know this is your day off.”

“It’s a three minute walk for me, Detective,” I replied. “And my superiors have already cleared me to help you.” Which was weird. “So, what’s going on?”

I need to figure out how to get QR codes for my Amazon Author’s Page and my Patreon.

Title says it all, really. I have an Amazon page, and I have a Patreon. How do I get the QR codes for them? I want to have them available to be scanned for Galactic Con on Saturday.

The LAST DAY of the Kickstarter is here!

I’m sure everybody’s very grateful for that. The A proper picture for my ‘Pickman’s Model!’ Kickstarter ends tomorrow, at 11 AM EST. Hopefully I’ll be able to get the final art soon after that, which will let me get the short story out to the public in a reasonable amount of time. Can’t wait for people to read it!

The First (Timewatch)

This is a long-term project: I need to not forget how to write gaming material on the regular.

The First

(This writeup is meant for use with the TimeWatch RPG.)

Bright eyes in a dirty, heavy-browed face. A constant poking of things with sticks. The smell of flowers from a sun-baked meadow.

Defense: Hit Threshold 4, Armor 3 (paradox), Health 20

Offense: Scuffling 4, Shooting 4, Damage Modifier (Club +2, Rock 0,)

Abilities: Reality Anchor 8, Tempus 30

Special Abilities: Blink (cost 2), Clock Out (cost 2), Psychic (Telepathy) (cost 2), Regeneration (cost 0 – between scenes)

Misc: Alertness Modifier +2, Stealth Modifier +2

Description: 5’6”, 140lb, stocky build. She wears her brown hair tied back with sinew, and wears a woven grass skirt and primitive bra. The First invariably has the biggest, sturdiest stick she can find; she also carries a series of heavy-duty canvas or plastic handled bags, which she uses to carry whatever interesting and portable items strike her fancy.

‘The First’ is what Timewatch calls her (her name for herself is ‘this one’). She is most likely from the species Homo heidelbergensis as it began to evolve into Homo neanderthalensis. In fact, some researchers suspect that The First is the mythical ‘missing link’ between the two species, because she has an unique mutation: she is the first human with the innate ability to travel through time (she also has the ability to read and project thoughts, but it’s limited by her own intelligence, which is not… profound). She is also extremely curious about the future, indifferent to personal or societal boundaries, and prone to hit things with sticks.

The problem for Timewatch is that The First is also the direct ancestor of every human with innate time travel abilities. At some point she will tire of her chronal wanderings, return back to her own time period, and pass along those genes. Until then, the timestream itself protects her. Shots go wild, or hit her enemies instead; when she does get injured, there always seems to be  a natural source of healing nearby for her to tap into.

Communicating with The First is possible, thanks to her telepathy, but she’s honestly not that smart. She’s extremely curious, and likes looking and poking at things; but she simply can’t do math, and has a vocabulary of about four hundred words. She thinks the future is weird, and barely understands that it has rules. She certainly doesn’t follow those rules unless she feels like it.

Fortunately, she’s not so much dangerous to Timewatch as she is exceptionally annoying. The First isn’t personally malicious or violent, as long as you don’t attack her. But she will get in the aircar with you, then push all the buttons, just to see what happens. Or shove a stick into a set of complex gears, if they’re being too loud. Or take a closer look at a hippopotamus, which again usually involves shoving a stick… well. You get the point. 

By now the official Timewatch policy is to ‘grin and bear it.’ Surreptitious attempts to make The First genetically redundant always seemed to start well, but ended up collapsing under the weight of too much Paradox. It’s best to just let her wander around, try to fix whatever she’s meddling with, and wait for her to go away. That can sometimes take a few days, so mind your temper.

On the bright side, though: if you’ve been friendly to her, and you get attacked by enemies, she’ll probably help you out. She’s pretty good at suddenly appearing and hitting people from behind with a stick. It’s even hilarious to see, when it’s not happening to you.

‘Barracuda.’

Barracuda, Heart

Well, I *had* a post scheduled here…

…about a crowdfunding project; but I haven’t heard back from the makers yet about where their stuff is being made. You gotta disclose that sort of thing now whenever possible, folks. Especially when it comes to luxury goods like games.

Moe Lane

PS: Nope, ain’t gonna say who.

06/08/21 Snippet, WOLFGIRL KIM AND THE HOA OF DOOM.

Figured out the crime!

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Only Aya brought down the phone, which meant it was a problem. “Here she is, Detective Bradner,” Aya said into the receiver, then mouthed the word “Police” as she handed it to me. That made me blink, and also feel a ridiculous stab of guilt. I mean, the pack hadn’t done anything! Lately. And even when we had, it wasn’t bad enough to involve the cops. Believe you me, werewolves know where the lines are in modern society.

“Hello, this is Detective Winston Bradner. Is this Analyst Kim Simon?” asked the male voice on the other end of the line. He sounded in his mid-thirties, at least five-ten, and — well, he wasn’t quite in as good shape as he had been, but he was definitely trying to get back to there. There was a slight strain in his voice that suggested a recent injury, but that could have been everything. Oh, and Detective Bradner didn’t have that certain tone in his voice that my kind associate with the imminent arrival of a torch-wielding mob.

Wolves have excellent hearing. Werewolves take it to a whole other level.

Merchant supplies for Galactic Con have arrived!

Bags, boxes, hand truck, business card holder… and, God help me, a hernia brace. Getting older is so much fun – still, I pretty much have all the supplies I need for Galactic Con this weekend. Stop by the Flying Koala Publishing table, if you’re there!

Otherwise, just buy my books.

The ‘Bad Luck There, Chaps’ BLOOD RED SKY Netflix trailer.

Oops.

BLOOD RED SKY drops July 23rd.

I would… start rethinking any current dependencies on PRC manufacturing products.

This isn’t political, per se: it’s just an observation that current geopolitical events may have an effect on a variety of American industries in the very near future. This absolutely includes the gaming industry, which has become extremely reliant on cheap PRC manufacturers and printers. There may be disruptions in the near future.

Note the repeated use of May. I have no insider information (those links are cold, and dead). I could be imagining things. But I wouldn’t recommend counting on the PRC not to lean on the USA by mucking about with American retail supply chains.