Moe Lane's Blog, page 741

05/19/21 Snippet, GARY AND THE WENDIGO.

I changed the name because I had it pointed out that “Charlie and the Wendigo” is evocative of a certain author’s name. I wouldn’t have cared if Charlie/Gary turned out to be the villain, since it wasn’t intentional — but since I like Gary, I ain’t going to saddle him with such an unfortunate name choice.

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Gary was on — well, I guess it was his porch now — resting in a rocking chair that’d fit him and enjoying the breeze. Only he wasn’t enjoying it all that much. It’s hard to read a Bigfoot’s face because of the hair, but he wasn’t sitting real easy. He was bristly, too, like he was getting goosebumps all over. I didn’t care for that. Bigfoot or human, when we see somebody get nervous our monkey brains tell us we should get nervous, too. Just in case.

At the time, I figured he was a little scared and homesick from living in the cabin. I would be. Or maybe he didn’t like having human neighbors so close. That’s… fair, although we’re peaceable, here in the backwoods.

So I decided not to take it personal and just got out of the truck with a wave and a nod. “You’re Gary, right?” Like there’d be another Bigfoot in another cabin around here. “I’m Shirley. Shirley Lee, from down the mountain. Pleased to meet ya.”

‘Take On Me.’

Take On Me, a-ha

Got some art back from Ben Fleuter for the “A proper picture for my ‘Pickman’s Model!'” Kickstarter.

Rough sketches, but enough to give me an idea of what he was thinking. Truth be told, I liked two of them, but had to make a hard call… hrm. I wonder: maybe I can make it another stretch goal? Like, an variant illustration thing? They do those, right?

I need to think about this more.

Self-Tweet of the Day, No, Really, This Is Going To Be My Position On The Issue edition.

Background: there is a dispute over who really created Flamin’ Hot Cheetos.

I've decided to ACTIVELY not give a sh*t, either way. Not just passively; I'm going to believe the most recent person who gives their opinion on it.

— Ogiel (Moe Lane) (@Ogiel23) May 19, 2021

I am being perfectly serious here, for given values of serious. There is something refreshing and clean about deliberately not using my valuable brain cells to make a judgement call here. I don’t have to have an opinion. I don’t have to have an opinion.

Freedom!

Amazon looking to buy MGM.

Because the world of our youth is gone. Like dust in the wind…

Chatter that Amazon (and other tech and media giants) have been sniffing around MGM has circulated for some time. But sources indicated that Amazon’s interest in acquiring the studio has taken on a new tenor beyond the usual rumor mill. The deal is said to be being orchestrated by Mike Hopkins, senior VP of Amazon Studios and Prime Video, directly with MGM board chairman Kevin Ulrich, whose Anchorage Capital is a major MGM shareholder.

(Via GeekTyrant) The offering price is reported 9 billion, which coincidentally also answers the question Just how much money is MGM’s library worth, anyway? Despite the melodrama above, I’m actually more or less unbothered by this. More accurately, I recognize that the current model of as-close-to-endless-copyright-as-we-can-manage requires that all streamable movies and TV shows will end up being owned by some corporation — and I already have Amazon Prime. So shine on, you crazy diamond.

The MONEY PLANE! Honest Trailer / Pitch Meeting.

You can’t quite justify MONEY PLANE! getting the Honest Trailer treatment. Nor can you, for Pitch Meeting. But damn if it doesn’t work when you lump the two together. I guess it’s the shared sense of horror*?

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*Although you get the impression that they kind of liked Kelsey Grammer’s performance.

05/18/21 Snippet, CHARLIE AND THE WENDIGO.

It’s an interesting conceit, and apparently people are down on the idea.

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I dunno why people keep acting like Bigfoot’s this big mystery. We got ‘em all over the place here. Hell, I’ve even got a hold of a couple of the papers, tried to set ‘em straight, arrange an meeting or two. They told me to stop calling.

Maybe it’s because they stay out in the woods? The Bigfoots, I mean, not the papers. But, yeah, the Bigfoots like it out there in the woods, especially in the national parks. Everybody leaves ‘em alone out there. Well, everybody human.

What? Oh, yeah, Bigfoots, they’re not the only weird folks out there. And, hell, weird or not: you can still call Bigfoots ‘folks.’ There’s critters out in the woods and lonely places that aren’t nearly so amiable.

Regular posting tomorrow, I hope.

I am feeling a good deal better: plenty of sleep, hydration, and a bacon cheeseburger from Five Guys. I suspect that last was the most important one. Anyway, I’m gonna go to bed soon, and start everything else back up in the morning.

I’ve unpublished FROZEN DREAMS from Smashwords.

Well, it was a good experiment, but Smashwords simply doesn't generate the revenue that KU does. I've unpublished FROZEN DREAMS from the former.

— Ogiel (Moe Lane) (@Ogiel23) May 18, 2021

I gave it a year, but honestly it’s Amazon or nothing, folks. I’m not entirely thrilled about this, but I gotta be practical. FROZEN DREAMS is by far my best seller so far, and I was leaving money on the table by not having it on Kindle Unlimited.

The second shot is *hammering* me today.

It really is a lot worse when you get the second shot. Fatigue, my arm hurts, and I think I may be running an actual fever?

On the other hand, I woke up this morning saying Wait! Morgan Barod needs to kill a monster made of slime and human vertebrae! Which is correct: he did, and it fixed a chapter nicely, I think. So yay, vaccine-induced fevers.