Robin D. Laws's Blog, page 67
January 25, 2013
Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff: Within the Eliptonic Radius
In the latest episode of our eponymous podcast, Ken and I talk setting exposition, filmland shadows, replacing Stalin, and the Martian ground squirrel.
January 23, 2013
January 18, 2013
Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff: Her Agile, Ventriloquistic Foot
In the latest episode of our eponymous podcast, Kenneth Hite and I talk mappers and callers, guns and America, Bond despond, and Margaret Fox.
January 17, 2013
The Birds: Concern Troll
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January 11, 2013
Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff: A Thin Sludge Along the Sidewalks
Ken and I return from holiday hiatus to talk proactive play, dice fudging, Rob Ford and Jack the Ripper.
January 10, 2013
An Incomplete List of Congressional Metonyms
As profound students of Restoration comedy one and all, you surely know what a metonym is—a given name for a fictional character that telegraphs his or her personality or role in the story. This may be direct, or simply through euphony. Examples: Charles Surface, Sir Benjamin Backbite, Mr. Gradgrind, Mistress Quickly, Severus Snape.
Sometimes real people have metonymic names. This can come in handy sometimes.
For example, certain members of US Congress have names that an editor might reject as too metonymic if we tried to use them in fiction. I hereby nominate my top ten.
Henry Waxman
Louise Slaughter
Bob Goodlatte
Bobby Rush
Mac Thornberry
Sam Graves
Emanuel Cleaver
Marcia Fudge
Leonard Lance
Raul Labrador
Though perhaps not strictly a metonym, an honorable mention must surely go to Dutch Ruppersberger.
How apt these names I leave as a matter for other scholars. Just how creamy and delicious is the legislation of Marcia Fudge?
January 9, 2013
An Intriguing Experiment (That No One Will Ever Do)
Alan Ball, creator of Six Feet Under and True Blood, is about to launch a new cable show, Banshee, about an ex-con who, through the peregrinations of an opening plot twist, becomes sheriff of a small town in Amish country. This will give Ball another chance to air his issues with conservative Christianity and presumably his mother. Given the wildly contrasting tones of his previous shows I’m curious to see where he takes this one. Also, they had me at Ulrich Thomsen.
It’s on Cinemax in the US and, through the peregrinations of pay TV licensing, HBO Canada here in the land of the silver birch.
I mention this here because it inspired a thought experiment. The synopsis given on the HBO Canada site (and presumably repeated on its Cinemax counterpart) goes like this:
From Alan Ball, creator/EP of True Blood, this exciting new Cinemax action drama charts the twists and turns that follow Lucas Hood (Antony Starr), an ex-convict who improbably becomes sheriff of a rural, Amish-area town while searching for a woman he last saw 15 years ago, when he gave himself up to police to let her escape after a jewel heist. Living in Banshee under an assumed name, Carrie Hopewell (Ivana Milicevic) is now married to the local DA, has two children (one of whom may be Lucas’), and is trying desperately to keep a low profile – until Lucas arrives to shake up her world and rekindle old passions. Complicating matters is the fact that Banshee is riddled by corruption, with an Amish overlord, Kai Proctor (Ulrich Thomsen), brutally building a local empire of drugs, gambling and graft. With the help of a boxer-turned-barkeeper named Sugar Bates (Frankie Faison), Lucas is able to stay on even footing with Kai and his thugs, and even manages to bring a measure of tough justice to Banshee. But eventually, Lucas’ appetite for pulling heists pulls him and Carrie into a dangerous cauldron of duplicity, exacerbated when Mr. Rabbit (Ben Cross), the NY mobster they once ripped off, closes in with vengeance on his mind.
That’s complete enough to serve as the basis of play for a DramaSystem series. As a series pitch, it’s way truncated, but you don’t need a series pitch for everything, especially stories set in our familiar world.
The experiment would go like this: take the synopsis of this or any other upcoming serialized cable drama. Use it as the basis of a DramaSystem series...without watching the show. Or otherwise keeping up with where it’s going. When you finish you own series, rent the original on DVD, and compare and contrast.
January 8, 2013
Pirates, Bunnies and a Mystery Contributor Herald Hillfolk Progress
With the holidays in the rearview mirror, it’s time for another Hillfolk progress report. I continue to receive great contributions from stretch goal writers ahead of the Jan 31st deadline. This grants me a useful head start, one I’m sure I’ll need when February 1st rolls around and the task of assembling the full books begins in earnest.
Jason L. Blair’s “Inhuman Desires” delivers the promised paranormal romance in sterling fashion. It doesn’t let death get in the way of a tortured love story.
Meguey Baker’s “Under Hollow Hills” pours on the faerie atmosphere, bringing an evocative prose voice to her series of intrigue among the fae, and the humans caught on the thorny boundary between their realm and ours.
Jennifer Brozek’s “Transcend” brings the post-human condition to the dinner table, letting you explore the consequences of radical transformation either on a future Earth or in the social hothouse of an orbiting space station.
Graeme Davis has swashed his buckles with “Pyrates”, bringing the time-honored crime gang drama to the blue waters of the piratical Caribbean.
If you prefer your epic drama under the waves, Richard Iorio has turned in “Dolphins.” Just like he said, it bridges the moods of Little Nemo and Lord of the Rings.
Compelling human storytelling occupies a smoldering center stage in Greg Stolze’s “Fire in the Heartland.” What is it like to serve as first responder in a community so small you know everyone you’re ever called on to rescue?
Also, I received an early Christmas present in the
form of a completely unexpected, ready-to-print series pitch from an RPG heavy hitter I’m not quite ready to announce. This luminary’s surprise participation gives me leeway in the unhoped-for-event of a drop out from an announced series pitch contributor. For the moment I’m keeping both the name and the concept under my hat. Contributions from Ash Law, Emily Care Boss and Pedro Ziviani have arrived and will be reviewed over the next few days.
Meanwhile, I’ve completed work on the reference document for the DramaSystem open license. This will allow us to release it concurrently with the book.
Art contributions are beginning to roll in. I’m very pleased with what I’ve seen so far and am confident that you will be, too. As a teaser, at right is Rachel Kahn’s illustration for TS Luikart’s “Malice Tarn.”
January 7, 2013
December 21, 2012
Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff: Twentieth Century Eccentrics
In our final episode of 2012, Ken and I talk book hauls, play-by-post, the Affair of the Poisons, and of course, today’s apocalypse.
