Moe Lane's Blog, page 864
August 11, 2020
08/11/2020 Snippet, MORGAN BAROD AND THE ELDRITCH TOME.
Overthinking!
Patreon!The roof wasn’t in the best shape; it was at least a century old, and probably had been overdue for renovations even before the Discovery made that sort of issue moot. Kiddo and Ben found it easy enough going, but Morgan was hearing an alarming amount of creaking underneath his feet. He figured it wouldn’t be a problem if they moved quickly enough.
Then he looked at the windows themselves, and swore. Ben drifted over, looking absurdly light on his feet. “What’s the problem?” he said. “The smart locks frozen in place?”
“Worse, “said Morgan. “There aren’t any. The locks are all non-powered. Take a look; the damn things use screws, for Christ’s sake.”
Ben looked a little more closely. “It looks like you can’t open them from the outside at all. Doesn’t that violate about a dozen health ordinances?”
“It did.” Morgan shook his head. “But this was a state university; they probably got grandfathered in. Or maybe nobody bothered to check. Which doesn’t do anything to get us in, you know.”
“I’m starting to think that maybe we should have brought some specialists with us,” Ben said. “Like someone who knows how to pick old-style locks.” He stared at the window for a moment, then looked over at Kiddo. “Hey, Kiddo! We could use your help.” When Kiddo came over, Ben went on, “Do you know how to get through to the other side?”
Kiddo looked at him, then at Morgan, then gestured for Morgan’s pack. After he handed it over, ignoring the creaking underneath him, Kiddo went neatly rummaging until she found — a towel and a hammer. She tucked the towel into the top seam of the window, smacked the towel with the hammer a few times, and was rewarded with the muffled sound of breaking glass on the other side. She then shoved the towel over the bottom of the now broken-window, smiled at both of them, and put the hammer back in the pack.
“Well,” Ben said. “That’s us told.”
The AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER Honest Trailer.
The writing’s suffered a little in these lately, but this Honest Trailer is still pretty good. THE LAST AIRBENDER is currently on the rotation again: we’re about at the end of Season 1. Lots of fun and your ‘kids’ will love it. Note that this is for the TV show!
Tweet of the Day, Another Portent of 2020 Arises.
Behold! Blockbuster.
Just checking in.
August 10, 2020
Could use a word count/story count opinion.
The next book going up for Kickstarting is going to be the short story collection (I expect it’ll be around November), and I wanted an opinion. Assuming a price point of 2.99 – 4.99 for a Kindle, what’s a reasonable expectation for word count and/or story count? I personally think that it should be more than what was in the sampler, so I guess ‘six stories’ is the lower limit there, at least. Thoughts?
08/10/2020 Snippet, VERDICT OF HISTORY.
Beer and discussion!
Patreon!2860 AD
“So what’s bothering you more?” asked Jackie. “The way the opera whitewashes Cunning-Claw, or the way it humanizes the Burning Brand?”
Luis thought about it, his beer halfway to his lips. “I’m not really bothered by it?” he said, and took a quaff. “I had to learn about opera for this detachment, so I know that the story’s only going to make sense when it won’t get in the way of the singing. But They used to teach the legions about the Great Lakes Campaign, too. So that we’d understand how we were supposed to act.”
The orc’s voice had gone a little tight at that, and Jackie winced. It was easy to forget that this polite, pleasant officer had been born and bred to be a slave-soldier for the Universal Dominion. Aloud, she said, “Clearly, it didn’t take.”
“Thank the Lady, yes. Anyway, I’ve seen some of the old manuals. Razor-Claw Singh fought like a vicious beast. No, he was a vicious beast. That’s why the war lasted so long; he even took the Dominion by surprise.” Luis finished his beer. “For all the good it did him.”
CD PROJEKT RED puts up some CYBERPUNK 2077 videos.
This one is about the actual band (Refused) that they’re using to be the band (Samurai) for the game. It’s very interesting! CD Projekt Red is going for a specific sound, which I guess is something that you can do when you’re writing a AAA game whose budget might break nine figures*. I also suspect that the non-gamer lead vocalist that they interviewed may not be entirely sure just how monstrously big CYBERPUNK 2077 might get.
More videos at the link above, including a look at lifepaths. I suspect that I will be going corporate for my first run. I’m wondering whether I’ll want to run the other two, afterward.
*It’ll make that back, though. Shoot, I can’t be the only person who pre-ordered.
08/10/2020 Snippet, MORGAN AND THE ELDRITCH TOME.
Climbing!
Patreon!Getting up to the roof took a few stages. For the first stage, Morgan simply ran and leapt up, pulling himself to the outbuilding’s roof with only a mild twinge from the wounds on his arm. Forgot about those, thought Morgan as he let down a rope for Kiddo and Ben to use. I need to start being more careful. …And I mean it this time!
Kiddo went up as quickly as Morgan did. As for Ben? Well, he wasn’t in bad shape, but he clearly wasn’t a climber; despite his best efforts, he made some noise scrambling onto the first-story roof. The three of them froze at an odd, half-rumbling, half-rustling sound from inside the annex, but after a moment or two it subsided. They still waited another minute, just to be sure: the two older men had watched enough movies, after all.
“All right,” said Morgan, quietly but not in a whisper. “So, yeah, there’s a thing in there. Huzzah! But we knew that already. So we just need to get up the side of that wall quietly.” He pulled out the rest of the rope; at the end was a sophisticated-looking grappling hook. “I can place this well enough to get up there, then set it better for you two. Ben, you got a trick up your sleeve for this?”
Ben was looking up at the roof. “I think so… yeah, that spell would work. One problem, though: it might be a little louder than usual.”
His spells hadn’t been very loud, so… “Guess we’ll risk it,” shrugged Morgan. “Unless the thing inside pops outside onto the roof, we should be okay. You want me to wait, or should I go up now?”
“Go up now,” said Ben. “It’s going to take me a minute to adapt the spell, and the faster we move after that, the better.” Again, Morgan didn’t understand the level of skill that implied until much later.
08/10/2020 Snippet, OMBUDSMAN.
Labor disputes!
Patreon!“…Boots?” said Bad Jack.
He might have said something more, like Why would Yapper order boots?, except Morty didn’t give him the chance. “Yes, Director, boots. The reinforced boots Mr. Joeson negotiated for the floor shifts. I’ve found a form agreeing to the request, and I’ve found a form authorizing the release of funds to fill the boot contract. What I haven’t found are the order forms for the boots, or the receipt showing payment for the order.”
Morty stepped just a little bit closer to Yapper, who was looking more and more worried by the second. “Most importantly, I haven’t found any boots.” The Ombudsman still wasn’t looming, but he didn’t have to; the floor workers around him were all really big guys, and they had Morty covered when it came to hulking over people. “Where are the boots, Mr. Joeson? Where is the money for the boots?”
Yapper wasn’t real bright, because he tried to appeal to Bad Jack. “Boss…”
“Excuse me.” Morty didn’t shout that, and he didn’t have to. “He’s not your boss, shop steward. They’re your bosses.” He waved his hand at the floor crew. “You answer to them.”
