Moe Lane's Blog, page 889
August 5, 2020
The Sparks and Monsters: a Girl Genius Graphic Novel Kickstarter.
Funny story: an earlier version of the Sparks and Monsters: a Girl Genius Graphic Novel Kickstarter was up a few days earlier, but they took it down right away (probably there was a technical issue). By the time I could navigate the link there was no pledge button… but I continued to bat at the screen with my mouse, wondering why I couldn’t get it to work, and for far too long. In my defense, though, it was after midnight.
I did not have this problem this time.
Moe Lane
PS: Funded first day, too. And there’s nothing like watching the numbers go up, let me tell you. Although I’m sure it’s old hat to the Foglios by now…
08/05/2020 Snippet, MORGAN BAROD AND THE ELDRITCH TOME.
Sneaking around!
Patreon!Moving through the campus wasn’t all that hard, honestly. The roads were falling apart, sure, and so were the cheap dormitories that Morgan and Ben were skirting. But from what Morgan remembered, they were kind of like that before the Discovery, too. This campus had gotten a hasty expansion during the education bubble in the 2080s; and boy, did it show now.
Ben was looking over the residence halls with the same sort of casual mercenary assessment as Morgan. “You figure there’s any good loot in there?” he said, although the obvious doubt in his voice suggested he already knew the answer.
“Sure, Ben,” said Morgan. “Remember how much good stuff you had at eighteen? Now imagine a stash like that, only times a couple hundred.”
“Damn you, but I had a curated collection of bottle caps. Some of ‘em were rare.” Ben looked over. “What does your map say?”
Morgan looked down at the paper again. It was a tracing of a much older map, but better than nothing. “Well, we’re here at Brett Road. We can either go to the left, and take a right at Bartholomew, or we can go to the right, and take a left at Bevier. Or we can cut through. Once we’re past the Buell dorm we keep going north and it’s just past the BEST center.”
“Gee. You sure you got all the Bs?”
“Nah,” said Morgan. “There’s a Barr dorm I figured we can skip. Unless you wanted to hit it on the way back.”
08/05/2020 Snippet, OMBUDSMAN.
Meetings!
Patreon!Bad Jack gave the new… ‘Ombudsman,’ whatever that was… a good looking-over as he entered the room. A bit over average height, old enough to know better, and he walked like he knew where the tip of the sword was supposed to go. I could take him, he thought reflexively, but I’d wait until he wasn’t looking for it.
A glance at the guy’s hands told Bad Jack that he couldn’t play crush-your-hands, so he settled for a firm handshake. “Good morning, Mr… Tremblay, right?” He knew the guy’s name, sure, but Mad Jack needed to establish who was the busier one, right off the bat.
“Yes, Director Steelman. I’m Amortization Tremblay.”
“I guess the other kids called you Mort for short? Shorty Morty, maybe?” Bad Jack’s chuckle stumbled in the sudden silence; he wasn’t used to people not laughing at his jokes.
Morty’s smile wasn’t quite tight. “Sometimes. But if it would make you comfortable, Director, I’m happy to answer to the nickname. This is, after all, your facility.”
Yeah, and don’t you forget it. Bad Jack felt a little off-kilter, though. He was expecting either a cringe or some bluster from that little put-down; having Morty kind of… step to one side and watch it go past wasn’t in the plan. Bullying just wasn’t gonna work.
The ‘My kids approve’ PHINEAS AND FERB THE MOVIE: CANDACE AGAINST THE UNIVERSE trailer.
No, really. They were drawn to my screen within ten seconds of the trailer going on. We are all so watching PHINEAS AND FERB THE MOVIE: CANDACE AGAINST THE UNIVERSE when it streams on August 28th.
Moe Lane
PS: I kind of wish there was going to be a new season, but not really. Phineas and Ferb did well and ended well; why mess that up? Sometimes you gotta let the kids grow up.
Spent the morning doing a KDP metadata webinar.
…And if you ever decide to publish a book, trust me on this: attend a metadata webinar first*. I figured I was just checking it off the list, right? Just to make sure I wasn’t missing anything.
Yeah, turns out I was missing whole pages of anythings. Starting with the fact that I had FROZEN DREAMS listed as a crime thriller when it’s really a detective novel – and yeah, that makes a difference. I can even see the difference when I type it out, now. I’m really glad I attended this session. Despite the fact that I never really saw myself as somebody who attended webinars, you know what I mean?
Moe Lane
*There’s a bunch of other stuff you should also do first, but one step at a time.
August 4, 2020
08/04/2020 Snippet, MORGAN BAROD AND THE ELDRITCH TOME.
Meetings!
Patreon!It didn’t occur to Morgan until much later that possibly the two of them should have gone and decently finished off the pack-squirrels. He mildly regretted not doing so. Very, very mildly. After all, the little bastards had gone right for his… well.
At the time, the only thing that either man cared about what distancing themselves from any larger monsters that might be looking for easy protein. As the mage pointed out as they jogged down the abandoned highway, assuming there was a bigger monster around was the smart bet, these days. No sense taking chances.
When the two retreated about a mile or so, the mage stopped, slightly flushed. He was a bit older than Morgan, but seemed to be in decent shape. He leaned on his staff and said, “Thanks, friend. Name’s Ben.”
Morgan nodded back (shaking hands had gone out of fashion, a little, at least when it came to mages). “Morgan,” he said. “Happy to help out. You need an escort back to your camp?” It was also a bit out of fashion to just come out and ask So, you out here alone? These days, people got antsy about answering that sort of question, for some weird reason.
“Nope,” said Ben. “I’m out here alone.” At Morgan’s raised eyebrow, Ben smiled. “Yeah, so maybe that wasn’t the smartest idea. But what the hell, I’m alive, right?”
Here we go: Disney releasing MULAN on VOD for $30.
[UPDATE]: via @brett_lemons comes the news that Disney will make it available for download for thirty bucks, which is a much better deal (if one I still wouldn’t take, because if I don’t have the physical item then I haven’t really bought it, and that should be worth a discount). Whether or not this was originally reported incorrectly is a conclusion I shall leave up to my readers.
Otherwise known as ‘ten bucks more than I’d seriously consider:’ “In a move surprising everyone except those of us who’ve been telling you it was coming for months, Disney announced today that their 2020 live action adaptation of Mulan will hit Disney+ on September 4th in a new category of content described as “premium service,” through which subscribers can view Mulan through the streaming site’s new VOD option. This will be simultaneous with limited international theatrical distribution.”
…Whether this works or not is gonna be interesting. Thirty bucks for MULAN live-action is more than I’d pay; heck, it’s more than I’d pay for BLACK WIDOW. At that price point, I’ll just buy the DVD and watch it on my computer screen. And I really, really want to see the spreadsheet that proves this is the minimum price Disney needs to make their investment back on their movies*.
Moe Lane
PS: $12.99. Which they’d never, ever do, I know. But still.
*I recognize that bandwidth and stable servers cost money. Still.
Adventure Seed: CODE RED MANGO.
Blame this.
CASE-RED-MANGO-Google-DocsDownload
CASE RED MANGO
Background: the in vitro fertilization (IVF) industry makes a lot of money (17 billion USD in 2018; potentially 37 billion USD by 2026), and markets its services to a great number of people with money, status, or both. Naturally, the industry is a prime target for a broad range of arcane, occult, esoteric, conspiratological, or simply deranged conspiracies. And not the reasonable sorts of plotters and schemers, either. Whether they’re trying to fast-forward the human or evolutionary process or just trying to clone a new batch of Hitlers, there’s just something about assisted reproduction technology which attracts the alarmingly keen sort of cultist.
Mostly they cancel out each other, honestly. And literally: nine times out of ten, an IVF lab or medical technology company vulnerable to mystic interference will attract two or more competing conspiracies, who will then proceed to fight amongst themselves to have the right to entangle said company in their insidious web. Invariably the mini-conspiracies wreck themselves and their rivals in the process, too; the only time the larger, saner conspiracies step in is when the original innocent company is in danger of being wrecked. Which absolutely means that a mini-conspiracy that can acquire its own IVF facility is generally left be, assuming that the mini-conspiracy isn’t one of the ones that can make a creditable stab at ending the world or something. The Secret Masters aren’t here to judge.
Why is all of this important? Well, several different mini-conspiracies have noticed this forbearance shown by the larger conspiracies, and realized that it would be mutually beneficial for them to combine forces and create a conglomerate. The groups involved don’t have contradictory goals, at least in terms of their mission statements and primary objectives; working together, they could easily muscle into new opportunities to suborn the facilities that they need without significant loss of resources. Truly, it is a wonder why nobody has done this before.
…The answer is, by the way, that somebody has. Often. Conglomeration is one of the traditional ways that a mini-conspiracy can join the ranks of the Secret Masters; whether it’s the best way is hotly debated, but the Illuminati are utilitarian when it comes to results. If this nascent group (which will be called RED MANGO, for convenience) can survive, thrive, and presumably take over the IVF industry, so be it. Let RED MANGO worry about rogue transhumanist gene-ripper cabals and the Esoteric Order of Dagon; if they want the territory so badly, then they can deal with the headaches.
But first RED MANGO will have to prove that they can survive the conglomeration process. That’s where your team comes in. You are going to… test them. It’s not exactly ‘test to destruction,’ but we’re not talking love-taps, either. RED MANGO will need to have the joins on their alliance whacked on pretty hard, because it’ll happen eventually anyway. Besides, there’s nothing more risky for everyone than an industry-wide conspiracy which breaks up at the first sign of trouble.
Resources? Sure. Within reason. Protection from the consequences of your actions? Again, yes. Within reason. And what does ‘within reason’ mean? …Well, I suppose that would be your test. If this was going to be an easy job, a group of interns would be doing it.
There are still some signed copies of FROZEN DREAMS available!
They can be found here in the pre-order store. I had budgeted in some extra copies for conventions, you understand. Only, there are no conventions. So, ten bucks plus shipping and handling gets you your own copy of FROZEN DREAMS! A bargain, I feel.
Alternatively, you can order FROZEN DREAMS on Amazon or Smashwords. It’s all good, man. But the more I sell this month, the more I’ll have to work with when the next project goes online this autumn…
