Moe Lane's Blog, page 749
May 2, 2021
Got in a game of FENG SHUI 2 today.
Via Discord: the GM was my best man at my wedding, and I was his at his. I’m playing the Killer archetype, heroic version. Which means, apparently, that I’m not killing mooks and am at least trying to convince the named bad guys to reform before I shoot them in the head.
I also informed the GM that I didn’t care what my character sheet said: no self-respecting Killer Feng Shui character would ever use any autoloader handgun besides Mr. Browning. I mean. The very idea.
05/02/21 Snippet, LE ROI EST MORT.
This one actually is almost done. I really mostly just need to put in another five hundred words or so and format the rest properly.
Patreon!But small or large, powerful or weak, all who choose to shelter under the Emperor’s watchful eye are here tonight. Flutes pipe as dancers gyrate in reflected torchlight — the Fellows set their mannikin to dance, too, and is it not droll! — and in the clear night sky a light appears on the horizon. People gaze upwards, amazed. It is a comet! A glorious golden comet, where no the savants of Earth would say no comet should be. As you look up, you feel a new emotion stirring beneath your breast. You decide that the emotion is hope, and smile at the thought.
No.
You smile, you chortle, you laugh, you keep laughing until the coughing begins. You caper and dance, leaping up your heels at the sight of the majestic comet! You cheer and huzzah, holler and hoot! Your joy fills you with wildness, filling the dark with your shouts and revels! No words! No thoughts! Only the comet, come for the Golden Emperor!
It comes to kisses and blows in the crowd, but only for a few moments. Everyone remembers their purpose, tonight, and retreats from the glorious, bestial freedom herald offered by the sight in the heavens above. But the relief you feel now? It is real, and it is welcome. Not just by you: the throng now feels less grieving, and more alive. You even see Sam Clemens himself straighten his back, wipe the blood from his hands, and gaze upon the comet, shrugging away Bob Stevenson’s gently offered arm. “Well, Halley my son,” he says with a flash of his oldest wit, “better late than never.”
Patreon Microfiction: “Operating Parameters.”
I dunno if “Operating Parameters” really works, on review. It’s too open-ended. What’s stopping the entire thing from collapsing after all? Ach, well, they can’t all be masterworks.
Patreon!May 1, 2021
SpaceX Splashdown tonight.
Or early tomorrow morning? It’s complicated.
SpaceX’s first long-duration astronaut mission is coming to an end, with a Crew Dragon capsule undocking from the International Space Station and headed for a splashdown off the coast of Florida early Sunday (May 2).
Strapped inside the Dragon capsule, called Resilience, are four astronauts who will make the first U.S. night water landing in more than 50 years. The crew, NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker and Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi, is wrapping up a six-month mission to the station.
Good luck and Godspeed, folks.
Book of the Week: Motivation: Justice Wing Halcyon Days.
Motivation: Justice Wing Halcyon Days is written by Eric Burns-White, who is my dude. I believe that this is how the youngsters put it these days, right? Yeah, he and I, we go back. And I’ve been telling him to publish his stuff for years.
05/01/21 Snippet, FROGMAN PRINCE.
This one is gonna need a definite rewrite, methinks.
Patreon!I took another look at the castle. Even from my inn window the damned thing looked just ridiculous as before, complete with gargoyles, weathered battlements — and, according to the War Office, half-submerged catacombs below. I couldn’t see those, but even in my current form I half-fancied I could smell the stagnant water.
Although that might have been the town. Bremerhaven is a dreary place, still picking itself up from the War; alas, it’s a dreary place with an excellent harbor on the coast of what used to be Great Bavaria. Match that with the usual mad Baron von Barking Madman that seems to crop up regularly in post-War Middle Europa, complete with plans to spread his particularly malignant influence through the region, and you end up with what could be one Devil of mess on your hands.
And, really, why was there even a castle here to begin with? This town is barely older than I am. Honestly, that someone went to the trouble of building an actual castle should have itself long since convinced the sages in the War Office that something was up. Then again, that was why I was here, wasn’t I? Mother’s Little Helper, what-what?
In the mail: My Concellation coin!
Concellation 2021: a virtual convention that started as a joke and is now a Facebook group. And admittedly, a lot more jokes. And a dealer’s room!
It’s a nice coin, too. It’s got a good heft to it without it being too heavy. I like it.
April 30, 2021
Wow. It’s almost May. Plans continue…
A bunch of things happening in May. Mostly they involve the next novel, but there’s going to be an announcement next week about a quick project that I’m doing while other stuff is going on. I still think I can get both MORGAN BAROD and TINSEL RAIN out this year with generated income, but everything past that is going to probably require funding. There’s nothing like self-publishing to make you appreciate the value of cash reserves, let me tell you…
Patreon!
