Moe Lane's Blog, page 849
October 18, 2020
Two more days until the TALES FROM THE FERMI RESOLUTION Kickstarter!
And am I worried? Pshaw! And tut-tut! And a bunch of other nonsense words! I will say that I’ve been needing to regulate my expectations a bit, here: TALES FROM THE FERMI RESOLUTION Vol 1 is, when all is said and done, not my first novel. I have to expect that this Kickstarter may go significantly differently than the last one. I need to do it, because I need to get a backlist up and available and crowdfunding is the best way to do it; but one of my hopes here is to generate enough funds so that I don’t have to Kickstart the next one.
But that’s a consideration for a later date. The important thing is to get this one off the ground. It starts up Tuesday! Hope to see you there.
Patreon Microfiction: Spirits Getting Drunk.
‘Spirits Getting Drunk’ has potential, but I’m not sure I particularly feel like exploring it. Where is the development in Eternity? What conflict can arise when the time of change has past? Or something like that. Still: good for a microfiction. They can’t all become books.
Patreon!October 17, 2020
10/17/20 Snippet, PATCHWORK GOD.
What’s that on the horizon? I suspect it might be… satire.
Patreon!“So, this is a political convention, then?” said Pat as the three of us wandered through the halls. “I’ve never actually been to one. For which side, I wonder?”
“I’m not sure,” I admitted. “We actually don’t do much work in here.” Forbidden Tomes tend to avoid politicians and public figures. Too many humans watching. “I don’t even know if this is one of the main parties. Aren’t there more than two in this country, Jack?”
“Technically, yes,” he said with a shrug. “Practically? No. But this is one of the two major ones.” He then told us which one, but I honestly don’t remember it now. From my point of view, humans are easy to imitate and almost impossible to understand. I’m sure the event was all very important to them, of course. To us it was just one more weird human shindig.
Sic Transit Gloria Tab.
Another victim of this damnable pandemic.
After nearly 60 years, Coca-Cola is discontinuing its first-ever diet soda, Tab, which acquired a huge fan base in the ’70s and ’80s and maintained a small but devoted following through the years.
“Tab had an amazing run,” said Robert Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition and a longtime Tab enthusiast. Bixby said messages of condolences have been pouring in. “As a business decision I can understand it, but it’s a very sad day … I do feel it’s like losing a friend.”
And yes, I actually drank the stuff, although I got out of the habit when I moved here and couldn’t find it anymore. I’m not ripped up about it – it’s just a soft drink – but I did legit like Tab. But “the Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on,” and all that.
Book of the Week: The People’s Choice.
The People’s Choice is by Jeff Greenfield, and it’s a little obscure, I guess. Written in 1996, it’s a satirical novel about a real oddball situation where the President-elect of the USA dies between the election and the convening of the Electoral College, thus producing an unique situation in American politics. I know, I know: real unlikely stuff, here. The country would have to be in the middle of an amazing string of low-probability events, most of them bad, before that could even seem remotely plausible.
Still: improbable or not, so far it’s holding my interest.
Outlines! (PATCHWORK GOD, TINSEL RAIN)
I spent today doing something useful with my time: book outlines! I decided that it’d be a good idea to write out one for PATCHWORK GOD (sequel to a story in ANAGNORISIS) and TINSEL RAIN (the Shamus Tom Vargas sequel to FROZEN DREAMS). How… industrious of me.
Moe Lane
PS: I won’t tell you the details, save one: the last line of the TINSEL RAIN outline is There! Now people can have a bunch of goram sequels. Happy? …As you might deduce from that, I had not previously intended to turn FROZEN DREAMS itself into a series. But I can take a hint.
October 16, 2020
10/16/20 Snippet, PATCHWORK GOD.
I have a bit of a pressure headache, so I’m calling it an early night.
Patreon!Pat, to her credit, didn’t try to mealy-mouth. “We tried. We’re very bad at manipulating these kinds of holes, though. We don’t like them, for a start.”
“True,” I replied. “Whereas my Side has an entire division of operatives out there trying to keep would-be gods from setting up shop. Fine, we’ve got the expertise. Anything else?”
“Mostly the Tomes themselves.” Pat looked disgusted. “We can reconstruct what Leviathan did, but we can’t duplicate its methods. That’s a nonstarter.”
“Of course,” I replied. “Committing murder’s bad for your head. Torture, too. It’s a bad habit to get into, in fact.” We had discovered that on our own right from the start, but I’d be damned if I’d wash my Side’s dirty laundry in front of somebody from the Other one.
Thread of the Day, Yes. Please Do This edition.
I’m as guilty as anybody else, of course. But at least I feel guilty about badly labeling my files.
Creative friends working on commercial art, keep this in mind when you are doing the totally mundane parts of your work, like organizing files or naming Photoshop layers.
— Jeff Tidball
