Moe Lane's Blog, page 830
October 12, 2020
The Dracula Dossier Bundle of Holding.
…Look, whatever the amount on the The Dracula Dossier Bundle of Holding (RPG: vampire spy mashup that features, go figure, Dracula) ends up being, just get the whole damn thing. Totally worth it. You should also consider buying a print copy of DRACULA UNREDACTED, which is… difficult to describe. But worth it to have in your hands as a book, or the mother of all in-game props.
Happy Columbus Day!
As per my usual tradition, I will not sing or reproduce the only Columbus song that I know since it is incredibly filthy. It is also one of the sadder days, since while the kids still had school and my wife had off, well, pandemic. I was not able to take my wife out for a genteel breakfast, alas. I do look forward to those.
Disney retreats to streaming.
Dammit, I liked movie theaters. I went multiple times a year to movies and bought generously of the concession stands, too. I’d even shell out for promotional items, because I knew that every little bit helps and I enjoyed my local Regal Theater. But the writing’s on the wall:
Disney is restructuring its media and entertainment divisions, as streaming becomes the most important facet of the company’s media business.
On Monday, the company revealed that in order to further accelerate its direct-to-consumer strategy, it would be centralizing its media businesses into a single organization that will be responsible for content distribution, ad sales and Disney+.
(Via @IMAO_) Oh, sure, this move by the Mouse has been a long time coming. But we could have still gotten a few more years of respite. God damn all half-assed PRC bio-containment safety protocols…
10/12/20 Snippet, PATCHWORK GOD.
I got some free time now, so why not work on this?
Patreon!“Leviathan? How many times have we heard some new theory about how to hunt it down, again?” I shook my head, partly from frustration and partially because of my itching cheekbones. They’d be unsplintering and knitting back together a lot quicker if I could just get on with my lunch. “Hundreds? Thousands?”
“More than that, surely,” said Pat. “The matter of Leviathan is of equal interest to both sides. Or perhaps the right word is ‘obsession’?”
“Indeed, it is our white whale,” murmured Jack, and smiled tightly the way he does when he makes a reference that I — and, apparently, the Other Side — misses. He reads a lot more human stuff than I do. It comes in handy sometimes.
But probably not here, so I jumped in. “Yeah, we keep coming up with fun schemes to get the bastard. And every scheme hits the same wall: Leviathan made a hole in reality, went through, and pulled the hole closed behind it. Once the hole closes, that’s it. There’s no way to track him, after that.”
“True,” said Pat — and when somebody from the Other Side uses that word, they really mean it. “But you’re assuming that the hole is fully closed. What if it’s not?”
Gal Gadot to play Cleopatra.
Gal Gadot will trade her lasso of truth for a golden crown, playing the legendary queen of Egypt in “Cleopatra,” a historical drama that will reunite the actress with her “Wonder Woman” director Patty Jenkins.
Paramount Pictures won the rights to the project, reportedly beating out other suitors such as Apple, Universal, Warner Bros. and Netflix. Gadot will get a chance to put her mark on a role previously essayed by the likes of Claudette Colbert and Elizabeth Taylor, playing a woman who romanced Julius Caesar and Marc Antony and served as the last ruler of Egypt’s Ptolemaic Kingdom. Taylor’s version proved to be so costly that 20th Century Fox nearly went bankrupt — hopefully this one will be less lavish.
Patty Jenkins to direct, which is also nice. Jenkins navigated what was probably a tricky course in WONDER WOMAN, providing a fun experience that neither pandered nor exploited. I have some hopes for this flick … particularly if Jenkins and Gadot discover a hitherto-unknown codex that establishes that Cleopatra knew how to kick a man’s sword out of his hand from a standing start. Or chariot racing. Chariot racing would be acceptable, right, folks?
Moe Lane
PS: There is no controversy over this, by the way. There are a bunch of people whining about it on social media, an indeterminate percentage of whom are visibly restraining themselves from hissing the word “Joooooooooos.” The difference is subtle, yet profound.
October 11, 2020
10/1120 Update, REVISIONARY: 32900/32000
It’s almost ready to go to beta readers! I have to process “Impurities,” since it wasn’t actually in my novel-writing software, but that’s a two-hour job, max. If anybody wants to take a gander at it, let me know: I’m hoping for a quick turnaround on this one, so that I can have it ready to go as an add-on for the Kickstarter.
Patreon!From “Simmons’ Book”:
September 4: Today was the day I received the letter in the mail. I had been sitting in my office, waiting to see if there were any freshmen stupid enough to really believe in ‘office hours’ (teach ‘em early to stay away, that’s my motto) when the department secretary called to let me know that there was something that I had to sign for. I was amazed that she hadn’t pretended that I was dead, or on sabbatical in Iowa, or something else equally ghastly.
The letter — which I pointedly did not open in front of secretarial snoops — turned out to be a notification of a bequest, of all things. They had executed Harry Blake’s will, and Blake had left me his personal library! How thoughtful of him. Oh, I knew it was going to be mostly trash, but I had some hopes to find a few gems hiding among the junk. And, knowing Hairy Harry, the gems would probably be overdue from various university libraries.
Not my problem, of course.
Tweet of the Day, Note The Subtle Undercurrent Of Looming Disaster In This Announcement edition.
I mean, doesn’t Hulu remember what happened in Jurassic Park? Particularly to the character who they’re identifying with in that clip? I kind of hope that they do, and decided to run with Animaniacs anyway. I would straight-up respect that.
WHATpic.twitter.com/cntbiC5pSw
— JERRY DUNLEAVY (@JerryDunleavy) October 11, 2020
My guest post at Haibane.info!
I was asked, very graciously, to post about my new book FROZEN DREAMS (and other stuff) at Haibane.info: I just as graciously accepted. Here it is: and check out the site generally, too. I miss old-school longform blogging, I really do*.
Moe Lane
*I justify my not writing any of it anymore by the fact that, hey, I’m writing novels, right? There’s just so many hours in the day. Yeah! That’s the ticket.
