Moe Lane's Blog, page 87
February 11, 2025
The CAPTAIN AMERICA 1979 Honest Trailer.
You will not be surprised to hear that CAPTAIN AMERICA 1979 was bad, and so was its sequel. You may be surprised to see who the villain in the second film was, though. I was. I was also mortified on his behalf. I know that sometimes you have to take a paycheck where you can get it, but still…
More on Milken Forts.
Not going to end up in the Fermi Resolution Worldbook. It’s for something else.
Colonel Valdarr Milken
Strictly speaking, Colonel Valdarr Milken (2413-2485) did not invent the style of fortification that bears his name. He was an engineering officer in the Kentucky Free State’s National Guard who abruptly resigned his commission in 2445 in order to become a ‘mercenary’ in Hershey’s service. Oddly, the Kentuckian military never held a grudge over this. Nor did they stop Milken from enthusiastically recruiting from Kentucky for his regiments. Milken’s Hershey service was exclusively in the Ohio Marcher country, where he made a name for himself as a clever, dogged siege-breaker.
His regiment was the first over the wall during the capture of Unholy Toledo in 2470 AD; Milken lost an eye in that battle, and retired soon after. He spent the next decade visiting the various fortresses and castles captured during the liberation of the Marcher country, with a special emphasis on his own campaigns. In 2481 the colonel published his life’s work Keeps on the Borderlands, widely considered to be the definitive contemporary treatise on the topic of repurposed fortifications. It’s even shown up in captured Dominion War Mage libraries. It’s hardly surprising that later generations would end up naming the forts he studied after him, although it probably would have annoyed the man. Colonel Milken was not someone who liked sloppy nomenclature.
Tweet of the Day, Life Wisdom edition (NSFW).
February 10, 2025
First day in a while I had all to myself.
Well, me and the cat. Spent an unreasonable part of it trying to find somebody at Barnes & Noble dot com to yell at. I’ve been trying to set up selling my books on that website since October, but they’re just not processing W-9 forms. I have come to the conclusion that maybe… they just don’t really want to do e-books, but maybe they don’t want to look like they don’t want to do e-books? It’s really, really weird.
Anyway: my books here. Apparently exclusively, for the foreseeable future.
I’ll be on @SFbookclub’s X-cast on Wednesday.
Time? Wednesday, February 12, 7 PM Eastern Time. Topic? Last week’s unpleasantness with the SPSFC. I’m not going on to throw bombs; I mostly want the chance to establish my philosophy that if you do not control your comment section, it will end up controlling you. This entire sorry affair could have been easily avoided if somebody had simply banned the worst three bullies as soon as it was clear they wouldn’t behave…
theSPSFC AUTOPSY: The once great Self Publishing Science Fiction Competition publicly immolated themselves by politically persecuting authors they have different opinions from, so let's join @Devon_Eriksen_, @_GregoryMichael, @SFbookclub & others as they dissect their remains.… pic.twitter.com/20mHRL4IxC
— Science Fiction Book Club.org (@SFbookclub) February 10, 2025
I will be vending at the Main Street Festival this year.
I’m really starting to groove on this entire “not a science fiction convention” vending concept. So far it’s been working out for me. Hopefully the Main Street Festival in Laurel will do so as well. If not, oh well. May 10th, 2025, should be a lot of people in attendance.
Moe Lane
PS: I also seem to have inadvertently… joined the Laurel Board of Trade, in the process? At least, that’s what all the emails suggest. Oh, well, maybe that’ll be useful, too.
Doing a Monastery interview with Mildra the Monk on February 25th.
Mildra the Monk is a Twitch and YouTube interviewer who focuses on independent tabletop roleplaying games, and he’s interested in having me on to talk about the Fermi Resolution Worldbook. As you know, I’m always happy to talk about my games, my books, and crowdfunding, so we’re going to sit down for an interview later this month. I’m not sure yet if this is going to be live, or recorded for later, so I’ll let you know.
Looking forward to it! Interviews are fun. Tiring, but fun.
February 9, 2025
‘Peaceful Easy Feeling.’
Peaceful Easy Feeling, Eagles
#commissionearned
The New THUNDERBOLTS trailer.
This actually looks better at this point than the new Captain America. Which I was prepared to like, dagnabbit. I think that Marvel should have made about one-third the movies they made since ENDGAME, and the new Captain America will probably be on the list of ones not to have made, but maybe THUNDERBOLTS will make the cut. If for no other reason than it seems more in tune with the Deadpool mindset.
The Crossed-Paths: Brambletrek – Tales in the Hundred Acre Woods Backerkit.
I’m noting the Brambletrek – Tales in the Hundred Acre Woods Backerkit for two reasons. One, the more important reason: the idea entertains me. The basic concept of Brambletrek is that you’re playing a woodland creature having dangerous adventures, either solo or as part of a group. Either way, no GM, and a lot of journal-writing. In this supplement, you can play actual characters from Winnie the Pooh, and it’s not body horror! Even if you don’t like the idea of the original game concept, I cannot deny that, say, Pooh and Piglet as a cleric and ranger facing down a cursed griffon is an appealing concept for me. I’m probably going to back this, in other word.
The other, less important reason: the head of the project is being really helpful on the Discord towards people who wanted technical and logistical advice on their Backerkits, and I’m one of those people. So if I can return the favor, I’m gonna do that. You gotta give back what you get.
