Luke Green's Blog
July 2, 2013
DrivethruRPG offers Pay What You Want
DrivethruRPG already offers a lot of tools that amazon doesn't, including keeping a customer record, affordable print on demand and built in advertising options, and now they've added something else: Pay What You Want.
Previously my e-novels were set to $3 and my individual short stories were set to $0 on Drivethru, but now I have them set so that the customer can choose or not choose to support me.
So far this has been quite successful and I broke $100 in sales last month. Granted, that's very little and won't earn me a living, but it is a lot more than I have been making.
Check it out here: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/index.p...
I write speculative fiction mostly in the following categories:
sci-fantasy, urban fantasy, super-hero and high fantasy
All of my books have a pay-what-you-want option now. Note that in the places I include a print option that pay-what-you-want does not work, so you'll want the PDF entries to get Pay What You Want. If the book doesn't have a PDF option, it means I don't offer it in print yet.
Previously my e-novels were set to $3 and my individual short stories were set to $0 on Drivethru, but now I have them set so that the customer can choose or not choose to support me.
So far this has been quite successful and I broke $100 in sales last month. Granted, that's very little and won't earn me a living, but it is a lot more than I have been making.
Check it out here: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/index.p...
I write speculative fiction mostly in the following categories:
sci-fantasy, urban fantasy, super-hero and high fantasy
All of my books have a pay-what-you-want option now. Note that in the places I include a print option that pay-what-you-want does not work, so you'll want the PDF entries to get Pay What You Want. If the book doesn't have a PDF option, it means I don't offer it in print yet.
September 21, 2012
Divine Blood RPG Kickstarter with FAQ
I'm currently in the middle of a project to produce an RPG supplement in relation to one of my novels.
The kickstarter is here:
Currently I have raised $235 out of my hoped for $800 and attracted at least one potential playtester and I'm only 3 days into it.
I'll put an FAQ for the project below.
"How much are you committing to this project?"
I have budgeted out around $1000 to $1500 in the next year for the purpose of supporting the project myself.
I have already spent $60 and am about to spend another $70. I plan to make a record of how I spend the funds for backers through the kickstarter website.
"What are you using the money for?"
Pictures characterizing the races, organizations and nations of the setting
Maps
Graphic design for the pages
Cover art
Flavor art
various rewards from the project such as the kickstarter only hardbound color version. (2 claimed already)
"What kind of game is this?"
Tabletop Roleplaying Game
"What system does it use?"
I have written stats and mechanics for use with the Strands of Fate system. However, my intention is primarily to provide the setting information. Whatever system the GMs and players prefer is fine. The Fate rules exist only as an example of how it could be done. Perhaps free-form would be the best way to do it if everyone was willing to do so.
"What is Divine Blood?"
A fiction series I am currently writing. At the moment there is 1 novel and 4 short stories available on my driverthrurpg.com page. The short stories are free.
7 of the chapters of the first novel are available in the Public chapters section of my gallery as well.
:thumb271201123:
Series: Divine Blood
Volume 1
Title: Semester Start
Format: Novel - Three Acts
Genre: Sci-Fi - Paranatural
E-Copy Price: $3
Print Price: $9.95
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006ESG092
DrivethruRPG: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product...
:thumb321603571:
Series: Divine Blood Extracurricular
Volume 1-1
Title: Smoke over Grimsvotn
Format: Short Story
Genre: Sci-Fi - Paranatural
E-Book: Free (click thumbnail or go to link for a download)
DrivethruRPG: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product...
:thumb321604331:
Series: Divine Blood Extracurricular
Volume 1-2
Title: Following Dernhelm
Format: Short Story
Genre: Sci-Fi - Paranatural
E-Book: Free (click thumbnail or go to the link for a download)
DrivethruRPG: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product...
:thumb321604987:
Series: Divine Blood Extracurricular
Volume 1-3
Title: Serious Matter
Format: Short Story
Genre: Sci-Fi - Paranatural
E-Book: Free
DrivethruRPG: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product...
:thumb322517567:
Series: Divine Blood Extracurricular
Volume 1-4
Title: A Day in the Life of a Busy Woman
Format: Short Story
Genre: Sci-Fi - Paranatural
E-Book: Free (click thumbnail or go to the link for a download)
DrivethruRPG: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product...
"What genre does this setting fall under?"
Modern
Alternate History
Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Urban Fantasy
Mecha
"What is the primary mood of the setting?"
Depends on the individual game master.
This can range from light-hearted comedic drama...
...to espionage and investigations...
...to lurking horror...
....and up to outright warfare.
"Didn't you write a mega-crossover fanfiction with this title?"
Yes, I did and some of the novel characters are clear expies.
A friend, multiple actually, noted that I had gotten to the point where the fanfic was more or less an original work with some relics of the inspiring stories. I took a year from other projects to write a reboot that was more cleaned as many of the relics as I could without changing the overall mood and dynamic.
Some things have remained the same, such as Avalon having a super-submarine run by a highly polite female captain. Other things have changed, such as said captain being in her thirties rather than her teens and having shown a somewhat different degree of ruthlessness than her inspiring character.
Other things stayed the same, such as the triplets' ethnicity. Though those were original characters in the first place.
In the original, some characters have been introduced earlier than they otherwise would have, but some, including one of the most popular original characters of the inspiring fanfiction, are still planned to be introduced at their original times.
"What are some of the influences of this story?"
Probably the biggest influences: Full Metal Panic!, Oh My Goddess!, Dresden Files, Gold Digger, Stargate SG-1, and Babylon 5.
Other Notable Influences: Ranma 1/2, Ghost Hunt, World Mythology (Greek and Norse heavily), Occult Academy, Marvel Universe, Type-Moon Universe (Fate/Stay-Night especially), the Belgariad, Tolkien, King Arthur myths, Ghost Whisperer
Minor Influences: GI Joe, James Bond, Supernatural, Castelvania, Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi, Touhou (second hand, mostly, conversations with pre-readers), Battletech, Devil May Cry, Read or Die, Stephen King, HP Lovecraft
"What kind of races and creatures are in the setting?"
Potentially anything from myth. Realistically, most non-humans look like humans, or can use illusions or shapechanging to appear as human...all the better to blend into society. Those that can't blend in generally don't exist in large numbers.
The novels primarily deal with the most successful races: humans, Gods and Demons. However, there are around 1.4 million sentient non-humans in the world, not counting the Gods and Demons, and only a few of the most successful races have more than five digit world wide populations with several species only having four digit populations.
There are also 52 million or so psychically active sentients in the world, not including Gods and Demons again (though including other non-humans).
The RP supplement has write ups for:
Human, Demon and God...of course...but also:
Dryad (very rare, result of parasitic infection), Gargoyle (rare), Ghoul (hopefully extinct, result of parasitic infection), Gorgon (very rare), Kitsune (very uncommon), Lemurian(uncommon), Raven(Harpy - uncommon), Sidhe(common), Succubus (thought to be extinct), Therianthrope (common), Wolfen (very rare) and Vampyr (very rare)
"Isn't this setting very busy with concepts?"
YES!
For one set of stories by a single author, this is very busy.
That's why the novels focus on humans, Demons and Gods and other races are less prominent, despite being relatively numerous.
There's really no easy way to fit every single possible story that's going on in the universe even in a story the scope of the one I have planned.
However, this is not so different from Marvel, Forgotten Realms, DC Universe, Gold Digger and many other major universes. All of which have a similarly busy collection of elements going on.
GMs are encouraged to discuss with their players what sort of story they'd like to tell.
"If there are so many psychics and such, how come nobody knows about them?"
The average powered individual in most universes goes around using their power to gather power, protect people and what not. They tend to live unusual lives, don't have regular jobs and generally don't fit in. When they get their powers, they often have to figure them out on their own. They are prone to spectacular displays of what they can do.
The average powered individual in Divine Blood has an average job and might use their powers only once or twice a week or so. For example, one of the side characters in the novel is a "therianthrope" whose parents are accountants and generally don't use their shape changing abilities save for the occasional family camping out. Most out of control unintelligent monsters are sealed or extinct. They've had supporting communities for hundreds if not thousands of years, even if its only gotten really safe and secure from things like witch hunts in the last two hundred years or so. They've gotten so complacent they're not even really aware of populous they are and most aren't paying attention to the signs of chaos on the way. (non-occult signs, just normal ones...political activity and the like)
That said, as compared to the real world, you're less likely to be laughed at for telling people about psychic powers, ghosts, monsters and faeries or whatever. Some elements of the Community are working to bring their existence into the open gradually. (unaware they have less time than they think). A lot of people in the DB universe believe that they are believers in this sort of thing without actually knowing anything about what they're talking about.
Also, most governments know about psychics, they just vastly underestimate the population.
"What rewards are you offering for backers?"
Being a playtester.
Getting to choose the subject matter of some of the flavor art.
Drawings of yourself as a DB race/character.
Use of a character of your creation in a mechanics example.
Copies of this book when it comes out end of next year.
Copies of other books I already have posted.
Signed copies of the above.
**************************
**************************
:thumb276376594:
CSS by JennyLeigh at http://jennyleigh.deviantart.com/
The kickstarter is here:
Currently I have raised $235 out of my hoped for $800 and attracted at least one potential playtester and I'm only 3 days into it.
I'll put an FAQ for the project below.
"How much are you committing to this project?"
I have budgeted out around $1000 to $1500 in the next year for the purpose of supporting the project myself.
I have already spent $60 and am about to spend another $70. I plan to make a record of how I spend the funds for backers through the kickstarter website.
"What are you using the money for?"
Pictures characterizing the races, organizations and nations of the setting
Maps
Graphic design for the pages
Cover art
Flavor art
various rewards from the project such as the kickstarter only hardbound color version. (2 claimed already)
"What kind of game is this?"
Tabletop Roleplaying Game
"What system does it use?"
I have written stats and mechanics for use with the Strands of Fate system. However, my intention is primarily to provide the setting information. Whatever system the GMs and players prefer is fine. The Fate rules exist only as an example of how it could be done. Perhaps free-form would be the best way to do it if everyone was willing to do so.
"What is Divine Blood?"
A fiction series I am currently writing. At the moment there is 1 novel and 4 short stories available on my driverthrurpg.com page. The short stories are free.
7 of the chapters of the first novel are available in the Public chapters section of my gallery as well.
:thumb271201123:
Series: Divine Blood
Volume 1
Title: Semester Start
Format: Novel - Three Acts
Genre: Sci-Fi - Paranatural
E-Copy Price: $3
Print Price: $9.95
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006ESG092
DrivethruRPG: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product...
:thumb321603571:
Series: Divine Blood Extracurricular
Volume 1-1
Title: Smoke over Grimsvotn
Format: Short Story
Genre: Sci-Fi - Paranatural
E-Book: Free (click thumbnail or go to link for a download)
DrivethruRPG: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product...
:thumb321604331:
Series: Divine Blood Extracurricular
Volume 1-2
Title: Following Dernhelm
Format: Short Story
Genre: Sci-Fi - Paranatural
E-Book: Free (click thumbnail or go to the link for a download)
DrivethruRPG: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product...
:thumb321604987:
Series: Divine Blood Extracurricular
Volume 1-3
Title: Serious Matter
Format: Short Story
Genre: Sci-Fi - Paranatural
E-Book: Free
DrivethruRPG: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product...
:thumb322517567:
Series: Divine Blood Extracurricular
Volume 1-4
Title: A Day in the Life of a Busy Woman
Format: Short Story
Genre: Sci-Fi - Paranatural
E-Book: Free (click thumbnail or go to the link for a download)
DrivethruRPG: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product...
"What genre does this setting fall under?"
Modern
Alternate History
Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Urban Fantasy
Mecha
"What is the primary mood of the setting?"
Depends on the individual game master.
This can range from light-hearted comedic drama...
...to espionage and investigations...
...to lurking horror...
....and up to outright warfare.
"Didn't you write a mega-crossover fanfiction with this title?"
Yes, I did and some of the novel characters are clear expies.
A friend, multiple actually, noted that I had gotten to the point where the fanfic was more or less an original work with some relics of the inspiring stories. I took a year from other projects to write a reboot that was more cleaned as many of the relics as I could without changing the overall mood and dynamic.
Some things have remained the same, such as Avalon having a super-submarine run by a highly polite female captain. Other things have changed, such as said captain being in her thirties rather than her teens and having shown a somewhat different degree of ruthlessness than her inspiring character.
Other things stayed the same, such as the triplets' ethnicity. Though those were original characters in the first place.
In the original, some characters have been introduced earlier than they otherwise would have, but some, including one of the most popular original characters of the inspiring fanfiction, are still planned to be introduced at their original times.
"What are some of the influences of this story?"
Probably the biggest influences: Full Metal Panic!, Oh My Goddess!, Dresden Files, Gold Digger, Stargate SG-1, and Babylon 5.
Other Notable Influences: Ranma 1/2, Ghost Hunt, World Mythology (Greek and Norse heavily), Occult Academy, Marvel Universe, Type-Moon Universe (Fate/Stay-Night especially), the Belgariad, Tolkien, King Arthur myths, Ghost Whisperer
Minor Influences: GI Joe, James Bond, Supernatural, Castelvania, Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi, Touhou (second hand, mostly, conversations with pre-readers), Battletech, Devil May Cry, Read or Die, Stephen King, HP Lovecraft
"What kind of races and creatures are in the setting?"
Potentially anything from myth. Realistically, most non-humans look like humans, or can use illusions or shapechanging to appear as human...all the better to blend into society. Those that can't blend in generally don't exist in large numbers.
The novels primarily deal with the most successful races: humans, Gods and Demons. However, there are around 1.4 million sentient non-humans in the world, not counting the Gods and Demons, and only a few of the most successful races have more than five digit world wide populations with several species only having four digit populations.
There are also 52 million or so psychically active sentients in the world, not including Gods and Demons again (though including other non-humans).
The RP supplement has write ups for:
Human, Demon and God...of course...but also:
Dryad (very rare, result of parasitic infection), Gargoyle (rare), Ghoul (hopefully extinct, result of parasitic infection), Gorgon (very rare), Kitsune (very uncommon), Lemurian(uncommon), Raven(Harpy - uncommon), Sidhe(common), Succubus (thought to be extinct), Therianthrope (common), Wolfen (very rare) and Vampyr (very rare)
"Isn't this setting very busy with concepts?"
YES!
For one set of stories by a single author, this is very busy.
That's why the novels focus on humans, Demons and Gods and other races are less prominent, despite being relatively numerous.
There's really no easy way to fit every single possible story that's going on in the universe even in a story the scope of the one I have planned.
However, this is not so different from Marvel, Forgotten Realms, DC Universe, Gold Digger and many other major universes. All of which have a similarly busy collection of elements going on.
GMs are encouraged to discuss with their players what sort of story they'd like to tell.
"If there are so many psychics and such, how come nobody knows about them?"
The average powered individual in most universes goes around using their power to gather power, protect people and what not. They tend to live unusual lives, don't have regular jobs and generally don't fit in. When they get their powers, they often have to figure them out on their own. They are prone to spectacular displays of what they can do.
The average powered individual in Divine Blood has an average job and might use their powers only once or twice a week or so. For example, one of the side characters in the novel is a "therianthrope" whose parents are accountants and generally don't use their shape changing abilities save for the occasional family camping out. Most out of control unintelligent monsters are sealed or extinct. They've had supporting communities for hundreds if not thousands of years, even if its only gotten really safe and secure from things like witch hunts in the last two hundred years or so. They've gotten so complacent they're not even really aware of populous they are and most aren't paying attention to the signs of chaos on the way. (non-occult signs, just normal ones...political activity and the like)
That said, as compared to the real world, you're less likely to be laughed at for telling people about psychic powers, ghosts, monsters and faeries or whatever. Some elements of the Community are working to bring their existence into the open gradually. (unaware they have less time than they think). A lot of people in the DB universe believe that they are believers in this sort of thing without actually knowing anything about what they're talking about.
Also, most governments know about psychics, they just vastly underestimate the population.
"What rewards are you offering for backers?"
Being a playtester.
Getting to choose the subject matter of some of the flavor art.
Drawings of yourself as a DB race/character.
Use of a character of your creation in a mechanics example.
Copies of this book when it comes out end of next year.
Copies of other books I already have posted.
Signed copies of the above.
**************************
**************************
:thumb276376594:
CSS by JennyLeigh at http://jennyleigh.deviantart.com/
April 16, 2012
Divine Blood Art Contest
This is the first of my four art contests this year and it is centered on the world of the Divine Blood novel.
Note, some of the rules have changed from earlier announcements.
---------------------------------------------
What do I need to do?
Post a deviation based on Divine Blood to your gallery and submit it to my group "Thrythlind-Stories".
A link to the group is here: http://thrythlind-stories.deviantart....
There are two folders one for portraits and the other for scenes.
The group should be set to automatically approve applications, please tell me if it is otherwise.
There are two contests, the Informal and the Canon.
---------------------------------------------
What are the rules?
For the informal pictures, you can draw any character from the novels that you want. You can dress them however you want. You can even have them interacting with your own OCs or characters from established series such as Marvel, Dresden Files, Naruto, City of Heroes and so on.
For the Canon pictures, you need to draw a scene out of the book, but it can be any scene you want to draw.
No limit on size, number of characters, complexity or color vs black and white. You may also submit as many as two deviations to each category of the contest, meaning each participant may submit a total of four pictures maximum. If you desire to do more than that, awesome, but choose which four (two each) you want to apply to the contest.
Again:
Informal Contest maximum entries per person: Two
Canon Contest maximum entries per person: Two
Do not submit anything with sexual content. The clothing damage incident one of the evil characters suffers should be the limit of that.
---------------------------------------------
When does this end?
11:59 June 1st, Japanese time
---------------------------------------------
How will the winners be chosen?
On June 1st, the contest will come to an end and I will spend the next week speaking about the entries with selected friends. The final decision will lie with me, it will not be up to an outside vote. I will choose based on the following criteria.
Creativity - how clever you are with portraying the characters and situations
Characterization - how well you keep my characters in, well, character
Technique - flat out artistic skill
These criteria fit both the Informal and Canon contests.
---------------------------------------------
What are the prizes?
For each Category:
First Prize: 4,000 deviant art points, a signed copy of the book
Second Prize: 3,000 deviant art points
Third Prize: 1,000 deviant art points
One of the First Prize winners will also receive the Grand Prize which is as follows:
Your choice between a $100 Amazon Gift Card or a commission from an artist of your choice up to $100 in value
---------------------------------------------
What is Divine Blood?
Divine Blood is a novel that features elements of science fiction, fantasy and even a trace of horror. It is set in an alternate version of our own world. A world where nonhuman beings live among humans everyday secret societies and organizations fight for the fate of the world, hidden realms of ancient power struggle with the idea of coming to a truce and war is on the horizon everywhere though no one seems to notice.
---------------------------------------------
What elements exist in Divine Blood?
Mecha - small mecha ranging from 12 to 15 feet tall exist as fast assault vehicles. Traditional tanks still carry more firepower and armor on average. Humanoid mecha are referred to as "uprights".
Supernatural Powers - magic, psychic powers and supernatural martial arts are all considered part of the Divine Blood universe
Nonhuman species - most modern day nonhumans have evolved to fit in among humans either through appearing almost the same, shapechanging or not entering their true form until puberty. Most nonhumans live normal lives.
Intrigue - there are numerous secret organizations, some good, some bad and most not communicating well between each other.
Comedy - there is a good amount of comedy in the series ranging from wry sarcasm to slapstick
---------------------------------------------
What if I don't have the book?
Public chapters are available through my gallery or in the group linked above. Also, you can purchase the full novel in kindle format for $3 from both amazon.com and driverthrurpg.com.
Also, I will offer a free kindle copy to the first twenty people that retweet my add for this contest on twitter. This will come through drivethrurpg.com.
Series: Divine Blood
Volume 1
Title: Semester Start
Format: Novel
Genre: Sci-Fi - Paranatural
Holiday Kindle Price: $3
Print Price: :new: $9.95 :new:
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006ESG092
DrivethruRPG: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product...
---------------------------------------------
What if I don't have a kindle?
Amazon offers a free program which allows you to read kindle books on your desktop or laptop.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html...
Also, Drivethrurpg.com offers the book in PDF format
DrivethruRPG: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product...Divine Blood
Note, some of the rules have changed from earlier announcements.
---------------------------------------------
What do I need to do?
Post a deviation based on Divine Blood to your gallery and submit it to my group "Thrythlind-Stories".
A link to the group is here: http://thrythlind-stories.deviantart....
There are two folders one for portraits and the other for scenes.
The group should be set to automatically approve applications, please tell me if it is otherwise.
There are two contests, the Informal and the Canon.
---------------------------------------------
What are the rules?
For the informal pictures, you can draw any character from the novels that you want. You can dress them however you want. You can even have them interacting with your own OCs or characters from established series such as Marvel, Dresden Files, Naruto, City of Heroes and so on.
For the Canon pictures, you need to draw a scene out of the book, but it can be any scene you want to draw.
No limit on size, number of characters, complexity or color vs black and white. You may also submit as many as two deviations to each category of the contest, meaning each participant may submit a total of four pictures maximum. If you desire to do more than that, awesome, but choose which four (two each) you want to apply to the contest.
Again:
Informal Contest maximum entries per person: Two
Canon Contest maximum entries per person: Two
Do not submit anything with sexual content. The clothing damage incident one of the evil characters suffers should be the limit of that.
---------------------------------------------
When does this end?
11:59 June 1st, Japanese time
---------------------------------------------
How will the winners be chosen?
On June 1st, the contest will come to an end and I will spend the next week speaking about the entries with selected friends. The final decision will lie with me, it will not be up to an outside vote. I will choose based on the following criteria.
Creativity - how clever you are with portraying the characters and situations
Characterization - how well you keep my characters in, well, character
Technique - flat out artistic skill
These criteria fit both the Informal and Canon contests.
---------------------------------------------
What are the prizes?
For each Category:
First Prize: 4,000 deviant art points, a signed copy of the book
Second Prize: 3,000 deviant art points
Third Prize: 1,000 deviant art points
One of the First Prize winners will also receive the Grand Prize which is as follows:
Your choice between a $100 Amazon Gift Card or a commission from an artist of your choice up to $100 in value
---------------------------------------------
What is Divine Blood?
Divine Blood is a novel that features elements of science fiction, fantasy and even a trace of horror. It is set in an alternate version of our own world. A world where nonhuman beings live among humans everyday secret societies and organizations fight for the fate of the world, hidden realms of ancient power struggle with the idea of coming to a truce and war is on the horizon everywhere though no one seems to notice.
---------------------------------------------
What elements exist in Divine Blood?
Mecha - small mecha ranging from 12 to 15 feet tall exist as fast assault vehicles. Traditional tanks still carry more firepower and armor on average. Humanoid mecha are referred to as "uprights".
Supernatural Powers - magic, psychic powers and supernatural martial arts are all considered part of the Divine Blood universe
Nonhuman species - most modern day nonhumans have evolved to fit in among humans either through appearing almost the same, shapechanging or not entering their true form until puberty. Most nonhumans live normal lives.
Intrigue - there are numerous secret organizations, some good, some bad and most not communicating well between each other.
Comedy - there is a good amount of comedy in the series ranging from wry sarcasm to slapstick
---------------------------------------------
What if I don't have the book?
Public chapters are available through my gallery or in the group linked above. Also, you can purchase the full novel in kindle format for $3 from both amazon.com and driverthrurpg.com.
Also, I will offer a free kindle copy to the first twenty people that retweet my add for this contest on twitter. This will come through drivethrurpg.com.
Series: Divine Blood
Volume 1
Title: Semester Start
Format: Novel
Genre: Sci-Fi - Paranatural
Holiday Kindle Price: $3
Print Price: :new: $9.95 :new:
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006ESG092
DrivethruRPG: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product...
---------------------------------------------
What if I don't have a kindle?
Amazon offers a free program which allows you to read kindle books on your desktop or laptop.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html...
Also, Drivethrurpg.com offers the book in PDF format
DrivethruRPG: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product...Divine Blood
March 8, 2012
Contest Schedule Delayed
The new schedule looks like this:
First Contest
Subject: Divine Blood
Start: April 15th
End: June 1st
Winner's Selected: June 14th
Second Contest
Subject: Zodiacs
Start: Junel 15th
End: August 1st
Winner's Selected: August 14th
Third Contest
Subject: Bystander
Start: August 15th
End: October 1st
Winner's Selected: October 14th
Fourth Contest
Subject: Greenwater
Start: October 15th
End: December 1st
Winner's Selected: December 14th
Part of the reason for the delay is a need to confirm some prizes and also the fact that I may find it necessary to purchase a new desktop once I am in Japan.
In any case, I'm looking at the following prizes right now:
Scene Category (~$120)
1st Place - 5,000 deviant art points, signed copy of book
2nd Place - 2,000 deviant art points
3rd Place - 1,000 deviant art points
Portrait Category (~$70)
1st Place - 2,500 deviant art points, signed copy of book
2nd Place - 1,000 deviant art points
3rd Place - 500 deviant art points
For best overall, a Commission. I want to check with a specific artist right now, but if I can't get an agreement by April, I'll just offer a commission of appropriate worth.
All the books are purchasable for $3 through both Amazon and DrivethruRPG right now.
Thrythlind Books and Games Publisher Page: DrivethruRPG.com
Amazon Links:
Divine Blood
Bystander
Greenwater Part 1
Greenwater Part 2
Zodiacs Campaign Guide
Zodiacs Short Story Book
First Contest
Subject: Divine Blood
Start: April 15th
End: June 1st
Winner's Selected: June 14th
Second Contest
Subject: Zodiacs
Start: Junel 15th
End: August 1st
Winner's Selected: August 14th
Third Contest
Subject: Bystander
Start: August 15th
End: October 1st
Winner's Selected: October 14th
Fourth Contest
Subject: Greenwater
Start: October 15th
End: December 1st
Winner's Selected: December 14th
Part of the reason for the delay is a need to confirm some prizes and also the fact that I may find it necessary to purchase a new desktop once I am in Japan.
In any case, I'm looking at the following prizes right now:
Scene Category (~$120)
1st Place - 5,000 deviant art points, signed copy of book
2nd Place - 2,000 deviant art points
3rd Place - 1,000 deviant art points
Portrait Category (~$70)
1st Place - 2,500 deviant art points, signed copy of book
2nd Place - 1,000 deviant art points
3rd Place - 500 deviant art points
For best overall, a Commission. I want to check with a specific artist right now, but if I can't get an agreement by April, I'll just offer a commission of appropriate worth.
All the books are purchasable for $3 through both Amazon and DrivethruRPG right now.
Thrythlind Books and Games Publisher Page: DrivethruRPG.com
Amazon Links:
Divine Blood
Bystander
Greenwater Part 1
Greenwater Part 2
Zodiacs Campaign Guide
Zodiacs Short Story Book
February 9, 2012
The Third Contest is Bystander
Series: Bystander
Volume 1
Title: Bystander
Format: Novel
Genre: Superhero - Urban Fantasy
Holiday Kindle Price: $1
Print Price: $6.95
Link to purchase on Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Bystander-ebook...
Link to purchase on DrivethruRPG: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product...
First Contest: Divine Blood: March 15th to May 1st, Winners chosen May 14th
Second Contest: Zodiacs: May 15th to July 1st, Winners chosen July 14th
Third Contest: Bystander: July 15th to September 1st, Winners chosen September 14th
Fourth Contest: Greenwater: September 15th to November 1st, Winners chosen November 14th
There will be two categories: scene and portrait.
The winning scene will receive a signed copy of the book and be commissioned to do a poster scene for $100.
The winning portrait will receive a signed copy of the book and be commissioned to do a portrait for $50.
That's around $170 worth of prizes right there, and if any of my watchers wants to donate other prizes to the pot, I'm definitely willing to give people a bit more exposure.
Note: Considering making the prizes giving the winner a commission from another artist...
The second contest will run May 15th through July 1st with selection of winners ending at July 14th. The third, July 15th through September 1st, with selection ending September 14th. The last contest this year will run September 15th through November 1st with selection ending by November 14th.
I will connect all contest entries to as many of the various groups I am part of so as to give the user exposure. I will also maintain a journal entry showcasing the art of these contests. Entrants also come to my eye and I have recently budgeted $15 to my monthly account to commission sketches and art of my published characters and creations. Also, my RP supplements need art, lots more art than my novels....and I'd like a variety of artists for those.
Volume 1
Title: Bystander
Format: Novel
Genre: Superhero - Urban Fantasy
Holiday Kindle Price: $1
Print Price: $6.95
Link to purchase on Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Bystander-ebook...
Link to purchase on DrivethruRPG: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product...
First Contest: Divine Blood: March 15th to May 1st, Winners chosen May 14th
Second Contest: Zodiacs: May 15th to July 1st, Winners chosen July 14th
Third Contest: Bystander: July 15th to September 1st, Winners chosen September 14th
Fourth Contest: Greenwater: September 15th to November 1st, Winners chosen November 14th
There will be two categories: scene and portrait.
The winning scene will receive a signed copy of the book and be commissioned to do a poster scene for $100.
The winning portrait will receive a signed copy of the book and be commissioned to do a portrait for $50.
That's around $170 worth of prizes right there, and if any of my watchers wants to donate other prizes to the pot, I'm definitely willing to give people a bit more exposure.
Note: Considering making the prizes giving the winner a commission from another artist...
The second contest will run May 15th through July 1st with selection of winners ending at July 14th. The third, July 15th through September 1st, with selection ending September 14th. The last contest this year will run September 15th through November 1st with selection ending by November 14th.
I will connect all contest entries to as many of the various groups I am part of so as to give the user exposure. I will also maintain a journal entry showcasing the art of these contests. Entrants also come to my eye and I have recently budgeted $15 to my monthly account to commission sketches and art of my published characters and creations. Also, my RP supplements need art, lots more art than my novels....and I'd like a variety of artists for those.
January 27, 2012
The March Art Contest is Divine Blood
I know the poll shows a tie with Bystander, but one of Bystander's votes was my "I want to see what the votes are" votes. The 26th is over, so time to choose and those of you that voted decided that the first contest would be over Divine Blood.
http://fav.me/d4nqjim
Series: Divine Blood
Volume 1
Title: Semester Start
Format: Novel - Three Acts
Genre: Sci-Fi - Paranatural
Holiday Kindle Price: $1
Print Price: $9.95
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006ESG092
DrivethruRPG: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product...
First Contest: Divine Blood: March 15th to May 1st, Winners chosen May 14th
There will be two categories: scene and portrait.
The winning scene will receive a signed copy of the book and be commissioned to do a poster scene for $100.
The winning portrait will receive a signed copy of the book and be commissioned to do a portrait for $50.
That's around $170 worth of prizes right there, and if any of my watchers wants to donate other prizes to the pot, I'm definitely willing to give people a bit more exposure.
The second contest will run May 15th through July 1st with selection of winners ending at July 14th. The third, July 15th through September 1st, with selection ending September 14th. The last contest this year will run September 15th through November 1st with selection ending by November 14th.
I will connect all contest entries to as many of the various groups I am part of so as to give the user exposure. I will also maintain a journal entry showcasing the art of these contests. Entrants also come to my eye and I have recently budgeted $15 to my monthly account to commission sketches and art of my published characters and creations. Also, my RP supplements need art, lots more art than my novels....and I'd like a variety of artists for those.
Second Contest (subject to be voted on): May 15th to July 1st, Winners chosen July 14th
Third Contest (subject to be voted on): July 15th to September 1st, Winners chosen September 14th
Fourth Contest (subject to be voted on): September 15th to November 1st, Winners chosen November 14th
Divine Blood: Semester Start
http://fav.me/d4nqjim
Series: Divine Blood
Volume 1
Title: Semester Start
Format: Novel - Three Acts
Genre: Sci-Fi - Paranatural
Holiday Kindle Price: $1
Print Price: $9.95
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006ESG092
DrivethruRPG: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product...
First Contest: Divine Blood: March 15th to May 1st, Winners chosen May 14th
There will be two categories: scene and portrait.
The winning scene will receive a signed copy of the book and be commissioned to do a poster scene for $100.
The winning portrait will receive a signed copy of the book and be commissioned to do a portrait for $50.
That's around $170 worth of prizes right there, and if any of my watchers wants to donate other prizes to the pot, I'm definitely willing to give people a bit more exposure.
The second contest will run May 15th through July 1st with selection of winners ending at July 14th. The third, July 15th through September 1st, with selection ending September 14th. The last contest this year will run September 15th through November 1st with selection ending by November 14th.
I will connect all contest entries to as many of the various groups I am part of so as to give the user exposure. I will also maintain a journal entry showcasing the art of these contests. Entrants also come to my eye and I have recently budgeted $15 to my monthly account to commission sketches and art of my published characters and creations. Also, my RP supplements need art, lots more art than my novels....and I'd like a variety of artists for those.
Second Contest (subject to be voted on): May 15th to July 1st, Winners chosen July 14th
Third Contest (subject to be voted on): July 15th to September 1st, Winners chosen September 14th
Fourth Contest (subject to be voted on): September 15th to November 1st, Winners chosen November 14th
Divine Blood: Semester Start
January 23, 2012
Grammar Rant: Simple Present Tense
The present tense on the face of it is used simply to describe events that are going on now at this instant. After all, the present is now. However, the present tense in English is not generally used to indicate current action. At least, not the present tense in and of itself.
Yes, the English present can indicate current action as follows:
The chicken crosses the road right now.
In this case, yes, the simple present tense is indicating current action, but this is not the normal way that the simple present tense is used. In fact, present tense for reporting current action is usually only used when reporting the actions of other people. Such as when a radio announcer watching a sports game reports the actions of a player.
The simple present is used primarily in really four ways.
It is hard to say which of the two is the most common, but I'll start with the use of present tense to describe habitual activity as it is the simplest of the two.
This is quite easy. We use present tense to describe things that we do at regular times over the course of our lives. Look at the following examples.
I drive home.
I drink Dr. Pepper.
I play City of Heroes.
I sleep for at least five hours.
All of these are statements that are used to describe things which I do regularly enough to be a habit. Quite often these statements are combined with a statement of time to indicate the rate at which they happen.
I drive home every day.
I drink Dr. Pepper all the time.
I play City of Heroes four times a week.
I sleep for at least five hours each night
The second common usage is in using simple present to give instructions or explain steps in a process.
I preset the oven at 350 degrees. Then I set the timer for 20 minutes.
The imperative, which is more often used for this purpose, is almost always identical to the present tense in fact.
Preset the oven at 350 degrees. Set the timer for 20 minutes.
The third common usage of the simple present tense is a statement of declarative fact or truth.
The sky is blue.
I am blond.
I like science-fiction and fantasy.
The United States of America is a democracy.
Like with the statements of habitual activity, these are statements involving situations which are not true simply at one small point in time, but generally. The sky is most often blue when looked at. My hair color is, and always has been blond. I have always liked stories with a bit of the fantastical to them and the US has been a democracy since it was established.
Statements of this nature, while mostly of neutral and unemotional, can be controversial dependent on the subject matter.
God exists.
God doesn't exist.
Both of these statements are declarative and definitive and allow for no muddy or gray areas. The very clear and uncompromising nature of the grammar of these statements can be seen as passive aggressive or just plain aggressive dependent on the nature of emphasis and inflection in the voice. They can be confrontational in such cases because the speaker is rather firmly giving his opinion of the truth of their statement. When that statement contradicts the opinion of another person, it is perceived to be instantly an aggressive, ignorant or arrogant stance.
I believe God exists.
By comparison, this is still a declaration of truth, but the truth is limited to the self rather than the world as a whole. The statement "God exists" is the object of the statement "I believe." "I believe" is the actual declaration. I am declaring something about myself and myself only.
Since the declaration is limited to be about just myself, I am not as thoroughly threatening to the world views of anyone who would disagree with it.
The fourth use, strangely enough, can also be used to talk about events in the future.
I go to work tomorrow.
The above statement uses the present tense to talk about things that are going to happen in the future. This seems to be a contradiction, but it is apparently based on the above use of the simple present as a declarative truth. An event that has been scheduled and planned is presumed to happen even though it has not yet done so. There for this is declaring the truth of your statement that an event is going to happen in the future.
Similarly to the description of declarative truth above, this can be either a normal, neutral statement or it can be an aggressive one.
I win our match.
The speaker of this statement is taking his coming victory as a matter of already established truth. This isn't even a statement of confidence. The future progressive and future tense both can be used as a statement of confidence:
I am going to win our match.
I will win our match.
Compared to the first statement, both of these are at least admitting that the event hasn't already happened. The fact that the event hasn't happened allows for a chance of things not turning out the way the speaker expects, even if the speaker is not consciously thinking of that. However, the use of the simple present tense takes away even the unconscious and subconscious admission that an event will not happen the way the speaker expects.
Look at it again.
I win.
Realize again, this is, in the mind of the speaker, a statement of general truth or habitual action. There is no room in this statement for any sort of concept of losing. Compare this to Charlie Sheen's famous statement:
I'm winning.
Even this statement, in the present progressive, only talks about the situation as it exists at the present and the period of time immediately before and after the time of the statement. This statement does not speak of all periods of time while the other:
I win.
...is a general truth and declaration covering now, the past and the future.
Even if there is no actual aggression in the tone of voice, this is a statement beyond confidence and even normal arrogance. This statement admits no possibility of a situation where the speaker does not win.
So, there it is, while present tense can be used for descriptions of actions taking place right at that moment, that is actually the least common use of the present tense in the English language.
Yes, the English present can indicate current action as follows:
The chicken crosses the road right now.
In this case, yes, the simple present tense is indicating current action, but this is not the normal way that the simple present tense is used. In fact, present tense for reporting current action is usually only used when reporting the actions of other people. Such as when a radio announcer watching a sports game reports the actions of a player.
The simple present is used primarily in really four ways.
It is hard to say which of the two is the most common, but I'll start with the use of present tense to describe habitual activity as it is the simplest of the two.
This is quite easy. We use present tense to describe things that we do at regular times over the course of our lives. Look at the following examples.
I drive home.
I drink Dr. Pepper.
I play City of Heroes.
I sleep for at least five hours.
All of these are statements that are used to describe things which I do regularly enough to be a habit. Quite often these statements are combined with a statement of time to indicate the rate at which they happen.
I drive home every day.
I drink Dr. Pepper all the time.
I play City of Heroes four times a week.
I sleep for at least five hours each night
The second common usage is in using simple present to give instructions or explain steps in a process.
I preset the oven at 350 degrees. Then I set the timer for 20 minutes.
The imperative, which is more often used for this purpose, is almost always identical to the present tense in fact.
Preset the oven at 350 degrees. Set the timer for 20 minutes.
The third common usage of the simple present tense is a statement of declarative fact or truth.
The sky is blue.
I am blond.
I like science-fiction and fantasy.
The United States of America is a democracy.
Like with the statements of habitual activity, these are statements involving situations which are not true simply at one small point in time, but generally. The sky is most often blue when looked at. My hair color is, and always has been blond. I have always liked stories with a bit of the fantastical to them and the US has been a democracy since it was established.
Statements of this nature, while mostly of neutral and unemotional, can be controversial dependent on the subject matter.
God exists.
God doesn't exist.
Both of these statements are declarative and definitive and allow for no muddy or gray areas. The very clear and uncompromising nature of the grammar of these statements can be seen as passive aggressive or just plain aggressive dependent on the nature of emphasis and inflection in the voice. They can be confrontational in such cases because the speaker is rather firmly giving his opinion of the truth of their statement. When that statement contradicts the opinion of another person, it is perceived to be instantly an aggressive, ignorant or arrogant stance.
I believe God exists.
By comparison, this is still a declaration of truth, but the truth is limited to the self rather than the world as a whole. The statement "God exists" is the object of the statement "I believe." "I believe" is the actual declaration. I am declaring something about myself and myself only.
Since the declaration is limited to be about just myself, I am not as thoroughly threatening to the world views of anyone who would disagree with it.
The fourth use, strangely enough, can also be used to talk about events in the future.
I go to work tomorrow.
The above statement uses the present tense to talk about things that are going to happen in the future. This seems to be a contradiction, but it is apparently based on the above use of the simple present as a declarative truth. An event that has been scheduled and planned is presumed to happen even though it has not yet done so. There for this is declaring the truth of your statement that an event is going to happen in the future.
Similarly to the description of declarative truth above, this can be either a normal, neutral statement or it can be an aggressive one.
I win our match.
The speaker of this statement is taking his coming victory as a matter of already established truth. This isn't even a statement of confidence. The future progressive and future tense both can be used as a statement of confidence:
I am going to win our match.
I will win our match.
Compared to the first statement, both of these are at least admitting that the event hasn't already happened. The fact that the event hasn't happened allows for a chance of things not turning out the way the speaker expects, even if the speaker is not consciously thinking of that. However, the use of the simple present tense takes away even the unconscious and subconscious admission that an event will not happen the way the speaker expects.
Look at it again.
I win.
Realize again, this is, in the mind of the speaker, a statement of general truth or habitual action. There is no room in this statement for any sort of concept of losing. Compare this to Charlie Sheen's famous statement:
I'm winning.
Even this statement, in the present progressive, only talks about the situation as it exists at the present and the period of time immediately before and after the time of the statement. This statement does not speak of all periods of time while the other:
I win.
...is a general truth and declaration covering now, the past and the future.
Even if there is no actual aggression in the tone of voice, this is a statement beyond confidence and even normal arrogance. This statement admits no possibility of a situation where the speaker does not win.
So, there it is, while present tense can be used for descriptions of actions taking place right at that moment, that is actually the least common use of the present tense in the English language.
Art Contest(s) coming in March
First Contest (subject to be voted on): March 15th to May 1st, Winners chosen May 14th
Second Contest (subject to be voted on): May 15th to July 1st, Winners chosen July 14th
Third Contest (subject to be voted on): July 15th to September 1st, Winners chosen September 14th
Fourth Contest (subject to be voted on): September 15th to November 1st, Winners chosen November 14th
This last October, I ran an art contest to choose the cover artist for my more recent novel, Divine Blood. I'm now going to run another contest in several rounds targeted at all my stories so far published.
I currently have four published world settings:
Bystander - superhero near-future
Divine Blood - sci-fi/paranromal high school story
Greenwater - serial novel in a fantasy world
Zodiacs - heroic wu-xia/western/samurai fantasy
These world settings can be purchased here: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/index.p...
and here:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_...
There are also public chapters for some of these stories here in my Gallery in the Public Chapters section.
Now, currently, I am getting ready to move to Japan in March, so consider this a "get-ready" announcement, because I am conserving most of my current money for that trip.
When I close the current poll on Thursday, I will put up a new one to poll people as to which story setting they want to see a contest for first and leave it up for a week, closing it on the 26th. After which, I will post a second poll, closing that on the 31st. The third poll will close on the 7th of February at which point we'll be down to one setting left.
These polls will determine the order in which the settings will be featured.
The first contest will start March 15th and be closed on May 1st. Selection will last two weeks and end on May 14th.
Entries would be posted to the participants gallery and sent to me in a note (I might be out of connection for the some of the first contest, due to moving to another country). Entries info blocks should contain the participant's review of the story and a link to either the story's drivethruRPG or amazon.com site. Reviews don't have to be extensive, just give a summary of what you thought.
There will be two categories: scene and portrait.
The winning scene will receive a signed copy of the book and be commissioned to do a poster scene for $100.
The winning portrait will receive a signed copy of the book and be commissioned to do a portrait for $50.
That's around $170 worth of prizes right there, and if any of my watchers wants to donate other prizes to the pot, I'm definitely willing to give people a bit more exposure.
The second contest will run May 15th through July 1st with selection of winners ending at July 14th. The third, July 15th through September 1st, with selection ending September 14th. The last contest this year will run September 15th through November 1st with selection ending by November 14th.
I will connect all contest entries to as many of the various groups I am part of so as to give the user exposure. I will also maintain a journal entry showcasing the art of these contests. Entrants also come to my eye and I have recently budgeted $15 to my monthly account to commission sketches and art of my published characters and creations. Also, my RP supplements need art, lots more art than my novels....and I'd like a variety of artists for those.
Note, I hope and plan to use :iconArcosArt: and :iconPeipp: for future Divine Blood cover and novel art, but I have no standing artist in mind for my other three world settings and this is a good chance to get looked at for those world settings.
So that's the deal.
You give me art, I give you exposure, pay you for more art and send you a copy of one of my books.
If you're interested, please comment here.
If you're an artist that would like to offer further prizes to participants, note me.
If you have questions about scenes in the book also note me.
You do not have to purchase the electronic PDF or kindle copies to participate, but if you don't you'll be limited primarily to the public chapters.
Divine Blood: Semester Start
Greenwater Part One: Leaving Home
Greenwater Part 2: Setting the Board
Zodiacs Campaign Guide
Zodiacs: Siege at BerutuhaBystander
Second Contest (subject to be voted on): May 15th to July 1st, Winners chosen July 14th
Third Contest (subject to be voted on): July 15th to September 1st, Winners chosen September 14th
Fourth Contest (subject to be voted on): September 15th to November 1st, Winners chosen November 14th
This last October, I ran an art contest to choose the cover artist for my more recent novel, Divine Blood. I'm now going to run another contest in several rounds targeted at all my stories so far published.
I currently have four published world settings:
Bystander - superhero near-future
Divine Blood - sci-fi/paranromal high school story
Greenwater - serial novel in a fantasy world
Zodiacs - heroic wu-xia/western/samurai fantasy
These world settings can be purchased here: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/index.p...
and here:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_...
There are also public chapters for some of these stories here in my Gallery in the Public Chapters section.
Now, currently, I am getting ready to move to Japan in March, so consider this a "get-ready" announcement, because I am conserving most of my current money for that trip.
When I close the current poll on Thursday, I will put up a new one to poll people as to which story setting they want to see a contest for first and leave it up for a week, closing it on the 26th. After which, I will post a second poll, closing that on the 31st. The third poll will close on the 7th of February at which point we'll be down to one setting left.
These polls will determine the order in which the settings will be featured.
The first contest will start March 15th and be closed on May 1st. Selection will last two weeks and end on May 14th.
Entries would be posted to the participants gallery and sent to me in a note (I might be out of connection for the some of the first contest, due to moving to another country). Entries info blocks should contain the participant's review of the story and a link to either the story's drivethruRPG or amazon.com site. Reviews don't have to be extensive, just give a summary of what you thought.
There will be two categories: scene and portrait.
The winning scene will receive a signed copy of the book and be commissioned to do a poster scene for $100.
The winning portrait will receive a signed copy of the book and be commissioned to do a portrait for $50.
That's around $170 worth of prizes right there, and if any of my watchers wants to donate other prizes to the pot, I'm definitely willing to give people a bit more exposure.
The second contest will run May 15th through July 1st with selection of winners ending at July 14th. The third, July 15th through September 1st, with selection ending September 14th. The last contest this year will run September 15th through November 1st with selection ending by November 14th.
I will connect all contest entries to as many of the various groups I am part of so as to give the user exposure. I will also maintain a journal entry showcasing the art of these contests. Entrants also come to my eye and I have recently budgeted $15 to my monthly account to commission sketches and art of my published characters and creations. Also, my RP supplements need art, lots more art than my novels....and I'd like a variety of artists for those.
Note, I hope and plan to use :iconArcosArt: and :iconPeipp: for future Divine Blood cover and novel art, but I have no standing artist in mind for my other three world settings and this is a good chance to get looked at for those world settings.
So that's the deal.
You give me art, I give you exposure, pay you for more art and send you a copy of one of my books.
If you're interested, please comment here.
If you're an artist that would like to offer further prizes to participants, note me.
If you have questions about scenes in the book also note me.
You do not have to purchase the electronic PDF or kindle copies to participate, but if you don't you'll be limited primarily to the public chapters.
Divine Blood: Semester Start
Greenwater Part One: Leaving Home
Greenwater Part 2: Setting the Board
Zodiacs Campaign Guide
Zodiacs: Siege at BerutuhaBystander
January 18, 2012
Random Rant: Fantasy Ethnicities
So there's a rather humorous youtube video up showcasing the similarities between the Streetfighter franchise and the characters in Naruto. It's called There can be only one. Of course, the fact that streetfighter characters are basically raw martial artist archetypes means that it has characters with a lot of similarity to a large number of other franchises, but that it is still amusing to point out where characters are very, very similar to existing properties.
Note, I won't even try to hide the heavy influence that Oh My Goddess! and Full Metal Panic! had on Divine Blood.
On thinking about it, however, I noticed one of their similarities they pointed out.
"Inexplicably blond Japanese guys who never shut up."
This is referencing Naruto and Ken.
The main problem with this is not on the Streetfighter side, while Ken Masters is definitively NOT Japanese, he at least lives in a setting where there is a Japan and, thus, Japanese people. No, the main problem here is with labeling Naruto as an "inexplicably blond Japanese guy."
Naruto's storyline is not set on Earth.
There is no Japan.
There are no Japanese people.
Yes, the names are Japanese, but that's rather like saying that Luke Skywalker is an American. Naruto is Asian flavored primarily because it is written by a Japanese man for Japanese audiences, but it is not Asia.
A brief look at the phenotypes in the Leaf village shows a range of hair colors from black to blond. They basically have the European range of hair colors. Sandy brown, dirty blonde, pure black, bright blonde and dark brown are all common hair colors in the leaf village with a couple of naturally white-haired individuals as well. The two standout hair colors are Hinata and Sakura with purple/lavender and pink hair respectively. In fact, as a hair color, blond shows up in at least two other major nations, the Wind/Sand and Cloud/Lightning. Red hair is a bit more rare, being only in a handful of places outside the Sand.
It can be reasonably assumed that blond is not a very unsual hair color as a result. Darker colors like black and brown are more common, however. Rather like the real world, actually.
Likewise hair colors range from black and dark brown to blue and green. The Hyuga and a handful of other people with "special" eyes have unusual eye colors, but, again, the range of eye colors is fairly respective of the real world Europe.
It is hard to tell if the facial and body types lean toward Asian styles or if that is simply an assumption we make based on the fact that the art style is manga. I'd at least say that Sarutobi's family would have features that compare to Asian features in the real world, but for all I know they may more resemble caucasians in feature. I actually strongly suspect that the Yamanaka family would most fit in with caucasians in the real world.
But the description of the Naruto world-setting's ethnicities is not the main point of this rant.
Please...stop referring to people in fictional world settings as Europeans, Africans, Asians or whatnot. In a world where there is no Europe....there are no Europeans. Likewise all the other ethnicities that we are familiar with. Yes, they can compare to our world's ethnicities, but again, that's because the fictional settings are being written by people from this world.
The most egregious offender of this are the fans of the Avatar: the Last Airbender cartoon series. When the movie came out there was a big stink about how they were casting white people for "Asian" characters. The fans had access to some very good evidence of prejudiced hiring policies, but the majority of them ignored the real, practical evidence and instead ranted and raved about how the characters were "Asian" and thus should be portrayed by Asian actors.
Let me just repeat that this is a fictional world setting and therefore there is no such place as Asia in that world.
I've received a little bit about this with Greenwater as well. Someone once commented upon seeing art for some of the characters in Greenwater that they were glad to see some "ethnic" fantasy instead of just sticking to the "racist" views portrayed by Tolkien.
On the one hand, I agree that a greater variety of characters and settings is appreciated. One of the reasons that I use characters that aren't white is because of the fact that I'd like more variety. Granted, I'm only really good at writing an American perspective and faking an Asian perspective (as filtered by an American who has lived in Asia for a time and likes reading the Chinese classics). Note my use of the verb "fake".
Still, this kind of boggled my mind. I mean one of the more touching parts of the Lord of the Rings is where Sam is looking at the dead body of one of the dark-skinned Southron men and basically saying that he doesn't think they're any different from the rest of people. And this was written in the 40s before the biggest social equality movies had gotten started. Yes, most of the good guys are of a model that is more considered European, but there is a reason for a lack of ethnic diversity in Lord of the Rings.
There tends to be a lack of ethnic diversity in a setting where most people don't travel past the bounds of their own village.
Actually, with the Dunlendings, Dunadan, Rohirrim, Gondorians, Pukelmen, Dale-men, Bree-landers and so on, there is a wide variety of ethnicities within the Lord of the Rings. The fact that they all tend to be pale-skinned makes sense given the story is set in the extreme North-East of the only continent with much detail and that section of the continent is characterized by extremely biting cold weather with mild summers and lots of clouds. Pale skin would be more likely to develop in such locales than dark skin.
And, again, we come to the fact that the lengthiest description of any Southron men was someone considering that he was probably just the same as any other man.
But ignoring the question of Lord of the Ring's ethnicities for the moment, let's look back at the comment that a person was glad to see "ethnic" fantasy characters for once. While I am fascinated by a large variety of human appearance, I have to wonder:
When the hell did people with pale skin equate to being not-ethnic?
Is being white automatically a bar from having a distinct racial and ethnic identity? What am I, just some sort of blank, undetermined generic product? Am I bland? Am I just some sort of shallow person who can only hope to imitate a true ethnic culture when viewed through other people.
You know what bothers me the most? The people that usually make these comments are usually also white Americans. I know there's an element of ethnocentricity and self-centeredness in the attitude, but it annoys the hell out of me whenever someone basically implies that ethnicity is something for people who aren't white. That our traditions and heritage is somehow just something we do and not really a cultural heritage at all.
That said, back to the topic at hand. Ethnicities in fantasy settings are NOT real world ethnicities and I wish people would stop trying to enforce real world definitions on people that don't fit into the real world.
The closest you can get is a comparison to existing phenotypes in the real world. Reference my discussion of hair colors and eye colors in the Naruto setting and then my brief discussion of the Water Tribe from Avatar. Trying to shoehorn a fictional people into a particular real world ethnicity is a disservice both to the real world people, since a fictional ethnicity will never be as complex as a real world one, and to the creator of that fictional setting.
Another example of this would be the Rokugani from the Legend of Five Rings game setting. While Rokugan is based on the cultures of Japan, China and Korea, they are not those cultures and there are some significant differences in the way things are done even once you ignore the supernatural aspects of the game.
Really.
Again.
If there is no Asia.
There are no Asians.
If there is no Europe.
There are no Europeans.
So please, stop insisting that Katara is an Eskimo when she's really Water Tribe.
Stop calling Naruto Japanese when he is Fire Nation.
They are not people from our world and they would not look exactly like any of our existing ethnicities as a result.
Note, I won't even try to hide the heavy influence that Oh My Goddess! and Full Metal Panic! had on Divine Blood.
On thinking about it, however, I noticed one of their similarities they pointed out.
"Inexplicably blond Japanese guys who never shut up."
This is referencing Naruto and Ken.
The main problem with this is not on the Streetfighter side, while Ken Masters is definitively NOT Japanese, he at least lives in a setting where there is a Japan and, thus, Japanese people. No, the main problem here is with labeling Naruto as an "inexplicably blond Japanese guy."
Naruto's storyline is not set on Earth.
There is no Japan.
There are no Japanese people.
Yes, the names are Japanese, but that's rather like saying that Luke Skywalker is an American. Naruto is Asian flavored primarily because it is written by a Japanese man for Japanese audiences, but it is not Asia.
A brief look at the phenotypes in the Leaf village shows a range of hair colors from black to blond. They basically have the European range of hair colors. Sandy brown, dirty blonde, pure black, bright blonde and dark brown are all common hair colors in the leaf village with a couple of naturally white-haired individuals as well. The two standout hair colors are Hinata and Sakura with purple/lavender and pink hair respectively. In fact, as a hair color, blond shows up in at least two other major nations, the Wind/Sand and Cloud/Lightning. Red hair is a bit more rare, being only in a handful of places outside the Sand.
It can be reasonably assumed that blond is not a very unsual hair color as a result. Darker colors like black and brown are more common, however. Rather like the real world, actually.
Likewise hair colors range from black and dark brown to blue and green. The Hyuga and a handful of other people with "special" eyes have unusual eye colors, but, again, the range of eye colors is fairly respective of the real world Europe.
It is hard to tell if the facial and body types lean toward Asian styles or if that is simply an assumption we make based on the fact that the art style is manga. I'd at least say that Sarutobi's family would have features that compare to Asian features in the real world, but for all I know they may more resemble caucasians in feature. I actually strongly suspect that the Yamanaka family would most fit in with caucasians in the real world.
But the description of the Naruto world-setting's ethnicities is not the main point of this rant.
Please...stop referring to people in fictional world settings as Europeans, Africans, Asians or whatnot. In a world where there is no Europe....there are no Europeans. Likewise all the other ethnicities that we are familiar with. Yes, they can compare to our world's ethnicities, but again, that's because the fictional settings are being written by people from this world.
The most egregious offender of this are the fans of the Avatar: the Last Airbender cartoon series. When the movie came out there was a big stink about how they were casting white people for "Asian" characters. The fans had access to some very good evidence of prejudiced hiring policies, but the majority of them ignored the real, practical evidence and instead ranted and raved about how the characters were "Asian" and thus should be portrayed by Asian actors.
Let me just repeat that this is a fictional world setting and therefore there is no such place as Asia in that world.
I've received a little bit about this with Greenwater as well. Someone once commented upon seeing art for some of the characters in Greenwater that they were glad to see some "ethnic" fantasy instead of just sticking to the "racist" views portrayed by Tolkien.
On the one hand, I agree that a greater variety of characters and settings is appreciated. One of the reasons that I use characters that aren't white is because of the fact that I'd like more variety. Granted, I'm only really good at writing an American perspective and faking an Asian perspective (as filtered by an American who has lived in Asia for a time and likes reading the Chinese classics). Note my use of the verb "fake".
Still, this kind of boggled my mind. I mean one of the more touching parts of the Lord of the Rings is where Sam is looking at the dead body of one of the dark-skinned Southron men and basically saying that he doesn't think they're any different from the rest of people. And this was written in the 40s before the biggest social equality movies had gotten started. Yes, most of the good guys are of a model that is more considered European, but there is a reason for a lack of ethnic diversity in Lord of the Rings.
There tends to be a lack of ethnic diversity in a setting where most people don't travel past the bounds of their own village.
Actually, with the Dunlendings, Dunadan, Rohirrim, Gondorians, Pukelmen, Dale-men, Bree-landers and so on, there is a wide variety of ethnicities within the Lord of the Rings. The fact that they all tend to be pale-skinned makes sense given the story is set in the extreme North-East of the only continent with much detail and that section of the continent is characterized by extremely biting cold weather with mild summers and lots of clouds. Pale skin would be more likely to develop in such locales than dark skin.
And, again, we come to the fact that the lengthiest description of any Southron men was someone considering that he was probably just the same as any other man.
But ignoring the question of Lord of the Ring's ethnicities for the moment, let's look back at the comment that a person was glad to see "ethnic" fantasy characters for once. While I am fascinated by a large variety of human appearance, I have to wonder:
When the hell did people with pale skin equate to being not-ethnic?
Is being white automatically a bar from having a distinct racial and ethnic identity? What am I, just some sort of blank, undetermined generic product? Am I bland? Am I just some sort of shallow person who can only hope to imitate a true ethnic culture when viewed through other people.
You know what bothers me the most? The people that usually make these comments are usually also white Americans. I know there's an element of ethnocentricity and self-centeredness in the attitude, but it annoys the hell out of me whenever someone basically implies that ethnicity is something for people who aren't white. That our traditions and heritage is somehow just something we do and not really a cultural heritage at all.
That said, back to the topic at hand. Ethnicities in fantasy settings are NOT real world ethnicities and I wish people would stop trying to enforce real world definitions on people that don't fit into the real world.
The closest you can get is a comparison to existing phenotypes in the real world. Reference my discussion of hair colors and eye colors in the Naruto setting and then my brief discussion of the Water Tribe from Avatar. Trying to shoehorn a fictional people into a particular real world ethnicity is a disservice both to the real world people, since a fictional ethnicity will never be as complex as a real world one, and to the creator of that fictional setting.
Another example of this would be the Rokugani from the Legend of Five Rings game setting. While Rokugan is based on the cultures of Japan, China and Korea, they are not those cultures and there are some significant differences in the way things are done even once you ignore the supernatural aspects of the game.
Really.
Again.
If there is no Asia.
There are no Asians.
If there is no Europe.
There are no Europeans.
So please, stop insisting that Katara is an Eskimo when she's really Water Tribe.
Stop calling Naruto Japanese when he is Fire Nation.
They are not people from our world and they would not look exactly like any of our existing ethnicities as a result.
January 11, 2012
Random Rant: Morality
Morality is a funny thing, everybody seems to base it around different things. Everybody seems to have a very different idea of what is right. There is a current trend in fiction towards grey vs grey morality. The basic feeling is that if you look at matters from all the different points of view possible that it is difficult or even impossible to ever call any particular action morally right or wrong. The tendency is to point out that there are no absolutes, that no one group is any more evil or good than another and thus that the whole question of morality is moot and pointless.
Because according to the shades-of-grey idea, there are no absolutes.
To my mind, this is wrong.
The point of grey vs grey morality is that every side in a conflict has good and evil points. This is true, but it doesn't render morality moot, instead it does just the opposite. It establishes that the absolutes of morality apply across all lines.
For example, there is a particular show which I can't use well as an example without spoiling it horrendously and thus will be discussed without naming the show. The story is basically a masterful rehash of the Salem's Lot storyline. Vampires come into a small, isolated town and proceed to take it over slowly, person by person. Eventually, the humans learn what is up and start hunting the vampires.
The vampires' motive is to simply have a place where they can live without being constantly on the run. A place where they can feel safe. The humans' motive is to survive.
Neither side has a bad motive.
Unfortunately, there is no ability to co-exist between the two groups. The vampires must feed, and feeding eventually results in death followed by possible conversion. Though the specifics are not mentioned it is implied that the vampires can't simply feed around on a whole lot of different people in order to avoid killing any one person. The suggestion is that they've tried to do that in the past and it hasn't worked.
The eventual vampire plan is to either kill or turn everyone in the village (there seems to be some genetic switch that determines which humans turn and which just die), so that there is nothing left but vampires. In order to keep feeding those vampires, they'd send groups out to the nearest big city to kidnap humans for feeding. If they don't feed, they die.
Cohabitation is impossible and this would seem to give humanity every right to defend itself.
But the manner in which it is done is exceedingly brutal in places. One character's wife died, I forget whether he let her die or not, and he kept it secret from other people, pretending she was in critical condition. This let him privately document her case as she started to become a vampire. And then she woke up. Within the basis of the setting, vampires wake up without realizing what they are. The wife woke up to her husband, probably had a few moments of happiness and thinking she'd gotten better, and then had her mouth duct-taped closed while her husband proceeded to carryout experiments on her, recording the scenario and commenting coldly.
She spent the next few hours having limbs broken or removed until they heal, hydrochloric acid injected in her system, various poisons, electric shock, exposed to the sun and fire. All the time she was screaming and crying piteously. On the one hand, we know that she is now a blood-thirsty, undead creature, but, on the other she has no idea what she is and only really knows that she is being tortured by a man she was formerly married to fairly happily.
Likewise, there are some humans during the purge that follows that elect to pull some of the vampires out into the sun and let them burn to death slowly rather than decapitate or stake their hearts. Basically electing to consign the vampires to a slow, painful death rather than ending it mercifully and quickly. Others would do things like chopping limbs off first, running over vampires with tractors and deciding whether or not they're still alive.
The necessity of killing the vampires is clear, they kill faster than humans can reproduce and the only thing that keeps them in balance is low numbers and the fact that they have numerous weaknesses. When aware of the vampires' presence, humanity can kill them fairly easily. However, the manner of execution was very cruel. Unnecessarily so. They didn't go about killing the vampires out of necessity and regret. They were seeking vengeance and acting out of hatred.
On the other hand, there were vampires that quite clearly cared for and loved the others around them and who just wanted to live. There were even vampires that refused to hurt anyone else and opted instead to slowly starve death, or perhaps even be killed by the other vampires.
This show and scenario is shown as an example of grey vs grey morality and therefor an example of how the world can't simply be painted in a black or white brush.
The thing is, the morality of the piece is not grey.
Morality is never shades of grey.
There is always a right and a wrong thing to do. And the choice is in the hands of the individuals making them.
Grey vs grey morality stories are different because the characters themselves aren't always consistently choosing what is right.
Stargate SG-1 is another series that is supposedly leans toward grey morality, but again, the morality is not grey, only that there are existing motivations besides pure morality.
People want morality to be grey.
A grey light does not burn.
If morality is grey, that means that they cannot be legitimately called immoral for one reason or another.
The idea of grey vs grey morality is basically a way to absolve a person of behaving in a morale manner. If people believe that morality doesn't really have any solid bearing on things, then it is easier to make a choice against that morality. It is a way to remove morality from the list of values and thus give themselves an easier time with whatever decisions that they had made.
But again. Morality is not grey.
Killing another person, even in necessity, is wrong.
When you kill someone, you remove all the possibilities that lie before them. There is no telling what could or could not have happened because you took that person out of the equation of existence. Even assuming an immortal soul, as I do, you've prevented that soul from acquiring experiences it otherwise would have. Even if reincarnation is possible and the soul comes back, the experiences it would have in the next life can never be exactly the same as the experiences they'd have had if they hadn't been killed. Those unique experiences have been stolen...destroyed. Unique, priceless experiences that would have led towards countless other priceless, unique experiences.
It is an ultimate form of theft, the theft of existence.
Morality is not grey.
There is right.
There is wrong.
And if it looks like you're having trouble which is which. It is only because you're having trouble justifying to yourself making a decision that you know to be immoral.
This is where the grey vs grey comes in: the values, the motivations and the choices.
Not the morality, but the fact that good people aren't always moral.
You can sin and still be a good person. That's the reason why there is forgiveness and redemption.
Morality is hard.
Very hard.
There's a reason why one of the most famous quotes from the New Testament is "Let he who is without sin throw the first stone."
The next thing people try to use to absolve themselves of the responsibility of being moral is the concept that they did not have a choice but to do something.
There is always a choice.
The results of those choice aren't always results we want and because we've decided that a particular result is something we can't have happen that we have no choice but have to perform an action that would be considered immoral.
I had no choice but to steal the that money, because I was going to starve otherwise.
No, you have a choice.
The choice might mean you die, but that is still a choice. Note that stealing the money could mean that someone else dies other than you, but that possibility is far off from the hungry thief's thoughts and stomach.
We only say "I have no choice" when we mean "I think the other choices I have are worse than the one I'm making."
But if we admit to ourselves that we are making the choice based on getting as much of what we want as possible, then we admit to making a deliberately immoral choice, even just a small one.
Then comes the next big thing with absolving ourselves of morality and trying to ignore the absolute nature of right and wrong.
"It's not my fault, because..."
This is especially prevalent in the last few decades.
"It's not my fault I ran them off the road, I was suffering from road-rage."
"It's not my fault, I'm an alcoholic."
"It's not my fault because of racism."
"it's not my fault because I'm poor."
"It's not my fault because my parents are bad."
"It's not my fault..."
"it's not my fault..."
"it's not my fault..."
All of it more shallow attempts to absolve ourselves.
Nothing can really take away our choice. Free will isn't that easy to get rid of. Even when we're manipulated into making a choice.
We. Made. The. Choice.
Not the manipulator.
Us.
Our anger doesn't make our choice. We do.
Beer doesn't make the choice. We do.
It might be hard to make the choice, especially in the face of mental, physical and social problems. But we can make the choice.
Choice is always there, only we ourselves are not always strong enough to make that choice.
Everybody has quirks, personality issues, problems and other things, severe or otherwise, but some people overcome them, and others say "it's not my fault."
Another baggage that morality has received is confusing moral issues with issues of societal prejudices or taboos.
Morality, down to its base, is about respecting other people and doing what you can to avoid hurting them. A number of behaviors that are considered immoral aren't actually on that axis at all.
Premarital sex, promiscuity, homosexuality, drugs, gambling, "kinky sex", acting, various religions and practices.
(Note: the sex practices listed do not include adultery...adultery is a sin...you are breaking a promise that you made to someone and, in doing so, harming the intimacy between you and them and harming them as well....hence it is no longer just a thing to do)
All have been pegged as "immoral" at one time or another, or still are. Drugs, gambling and promiscuity are, at worst, unwise. The rest are generally neutral.
These activities can lead to immoral activity, but some of that is because of the societal pressures applied and any belief and activity can lead toward immoral behaviors. Because that choice is always there waiting for us.
It's just another way of absolving ourselves of the choice again. Or in this case absolving someone else.
The person isn't at fault, they're sluts or drunks or druggies or belong to some cult or whatever other slur or insult we can think of to apply to someone.
If we can just get rid of all these bad movies, we won't have people committing crimes. Or get rid of the gays, or this race or that, or that religion, or football, or video games, or dancing. Once again...it's an attempt to take away the responsibility from the person and pretend that the choice and the fault is not in us.
Such thinking tends to lead to the people thinking that way towards making immoral choices. Not only immoral, but immoral and useless choices. For example, the idea that getting rid of video games will solve a lot of our problems. It's useless because the fault isn't in the games, it's in the ability to make a choice that is wrong. So getting rid of the game is useless, the choice to be or not to be immoral has existed since we were given Free Will.
So there it is.
I'm an old-fashioned moralist. Despite the fact that my books include heroes that are of the type that a lot of old-fashioned moralists would say are immoral just on the face of what they are.
Morality is an absolute.
Only how we value it varies.
Because according to the shades-of-grey idea, there are no absolutes.
To my mind, this is wrong.
The point of grey vs grey morality is that every side in a conflict has good and evil points. This is true, but it doesn't render morality moot, instead it does just the opposite. It establishes that the absolutes of morality apply across all lines.
For example, there is a particular show which I can't use well as an example without spoiling it horrendously and thus will be discussed without naming the show. The story is basically a masterful rehash of the Salem's Lot storyline. Vampires come into a small, isolated town and proceed to take it over slowly, person by person. Eventually, the humans learn what is up and start hunting the vampires.
The vampires' motive is to simply have a place where they can live without being constantly on the run. A place where they can feel safe. The humans' motive is to survive.
Neither side has a bad motive.
Unfortunately, there is no ability to co-exist between the two groups. The vampires must feed, and feeding eventually results in death followed by possible conversion. Though the specifics are not mentioned it is implied that the vampires can't simply feed around on a whole lot of different people in order to avoid killing any one person. The suggestion is that they've tried to do that in the past and it hasn't worked.
The eventual vampire plan is to either kill or turn everyone in the village (there seems to be some genetic switch that determines which humans turn and which just die), so that there is nothing left but vampires. In order to keep feeding those vampires, they'd send groups out to the nearest big city to kidnap humans for feeding. If they don't feed, they die.
Cohabitation is impossible and this would seem to give humanity every right to defend itself.
But the manner in which it is done is exceedingly brutal in places. One character's wife died, I forget whether he let her die or not, and he kept it secret from other people, pretending she was in critical condition. This let him privately document her case as she started to become a vampire. And then she woke up. Within the basis of the setting, vampires wake up without realizing what they are. The wife woke up to her husband, probably had a few moments of happiness and thinking she'd gotten better, and then had her mouth duct-taped closed while her husband proceeded to carryout experiments on her, recording the scenario and commenting coldly.
She spent the next few hours having limbs broken or removed until they heal, hydrochloric acid injected in her system, various poisons, electric shock, exposed to the sun and fire. All the time she was screaming and crying piteously. On the one hand, we know that she is now a blood-thirsty, undead creature, but, on the other she has no idea what she is and only really knows that she is being tortured by a man she was formerly married to fairly happily.
Likewise, there are some humans during the purge that follows that elect to pull some of the vampires out into the sun and let them burn to death slowly rather than decapitate or stake their hearts. Basically electing to consign the vampires to a slow, painful death rather than ending it mercifully and quickly. Others would do things like chopping limbs off first, running over vampires with tractors and deciding whether or not they're still alive.
The necessity of killing the vampires is clear, they kill faster than humans can reproduce and the only thing that keeps them in balance is low numbers and the fact that they have numerous weaknesses. When aware of the vampires' presence, humanity can kill them fairly easily. However, the manner of execution was very cruel. Unnecessarily so. They didn't go about killing the vampires out of necessity and regret. They were seeking vengeance and acting out of hatred.
On the other hand, there were vampires that quite clearly cared for and loved the others around them and who just wanted to live. There were even vampires that refused to hurt anyone else and opted instead to slowly starve death, or perhaps even be killed by the other vampires.
This show and scenario is shown as an example of grey vs grey morality and therefor an example of how the world can't simply be painted in a black or white brush.
The thing is, the morality of the piece is not grey.
Morality is never shades of grey.
There is always a right and a wrong thing to do. And the choice is in the hands of the individuals making them.
Grey vs grey morality stories are different because the characters themselves aren't always consistently choosing what is right.
Stargate SG-1 is another series that is supposedly leans toward grey morality, but again, the morality is not grey, only that there are existing motivations besides pure morality.
People want morality to be grey.
A grey light does not burn.
If morality is grey, that means that they cannot be legitimately called immoral for one reason or another.
The idea of grey vs grey morality is basically a way to absolve a person of behaving in a morale manner. If people believe that morality doesn't really have any solid bearing on things, then it is easier to make a choice against that morality. It is a way to remove morality from the list of values and thus give themselves an easier time with whatever decisions that they had made.
But again. Morality is not grey.
Killing another person, even in necessity, is wrong.
When you kill someone, you remove all the possibilities that lie before them. There is no telling what could or could not have happened because you took that person out of the equation of existence. Even assuming an immortal soul, as I do, you've prevented that soul from acquiring experiences it otherwise would have. Even if reincarnation is possible and the soul comes back, the experiences it would have in the next life can never be exactly the same as the experiences they'd have had if they hadn't been killed. Those unique experiences have been stolen...destroyed. Unique, priceless experiences that would have led towards countless other priceless, unique experiences.
It is an ultimate form of theft, the theft of existence.
Morality is not grey.
There is right.
There is wrong.
And if it looks like you're having trouble which is which. It is only because you're having trouble justifying to yourself making a decision that you know to be immoral.
This is where the grey vs grey comes in: the values, the motivations and the choices.
Not the morality, but the fact that good people aren't always moral.
You can sin and still be a good person. That's the reason why there is forgiveness and redemption.
Morality is hard.
Very hard.
There's a reason why one of the most famous quotes from the New Testament is "Let he who is without sin throw the first stone."
The next thing people try to use to absolve themselves of the responsibility of being moral is the concept that they did not have a choice but to do something.
There is always a choice.
The results of those choice aren't always results we want and because we've decided that a particular result is something we can't have happen that we have no choice but have to perform an action that would be considered immoral.
I had no choice but to steal the that money, because I was going to starve otherwise.
No, you have a choice.
The choice might mean you die, but that is still a choice. Note that stealing the money could mean that someone else dies other than you, but that possibility is far off from the hungry thief's thoughts and stomach.
We only say "I have no choice" when we mean "I think the other choices I have are worse than the one I'm making."
But if we admit to ourselves that we are making the choice based on getting as much of what we want as possible, then we admit to making a deliberately immoral choice, even just a small one.
Then comes the next big thing with absolving ourselves of morality and trying to ignore the absolute nature of right and wrong.
"It's not my fault, because..."
This is especially prevalent in the last few decades.
"It's not my fault I ran them off the road, I was suffering from road-rage."
"It's not my fault, I'm an alcoholic."
"It's not my fault because of racism."
"it's not my fault because I'm poor."
"It's not my fault because my parents are bad."
"It's not my fault..."
"it's not my fault..."
"it's not my fault..."
All of it more shallow attempts to absolve ourselves.
Nothing can really take away our choice. Free will isn't that easy to get rid of. Even when we're manipulated into making a choice.
We. Made. The. Choice.
Not the manipulator.
Us.
Our anger doesn't make our choice. We do.
Beer doesn't make the choice. We do.
It might be hard to make the choice, especially in the face of mental, physical and social problems. But we can make the choice.
Choice is always there, only we ourselves are not always strong enough to make that choice.
Everybody has quirks, personality issues, problems and other things, severe or otherwise, but some people overcome them, and others say "it's not my fault."
Another baggage that morality has received is confusing moral issues with issues of societal prejudices or taboos.
Morality, down to its base, is about respecting other people and doing what you can to avoid hurting them. A number of behaviors that are considered immoral aren't actually on that axis at all.
Premarital sex, promiscuity, homosexuality, drugs, gambling, "kinky sex", acting, various religions and practices.
(Note: the sex practices listed do not include adultery...adultery is a sin...you are breaking a promise that you made to someone and, in doing so, harming the intimacy between you and them and harming them as well....hence it is no longer just a thing to do)
All have been pegged as "immoral" at one time or another, or still are. Drugs, gambling and promiscuity are, at worst, unwise. The rest are generally neutral.
These activities can lead to immoral activity, but some of that is because of the societal pressures applied and any belief and activity can lead toward immoral behaviors. Because that choice is always there waiting for us.
It's just another way of absolving ourselves of the choice again. Or in this case absolving someone else.
The person isn't at fault, they're sluts or drunks or druggies or belong to some cult or whatever other slur or insult we can think of to apply to someone.
If we can just get rid of all these bad movies, we won't have people committing crimes. Or get rid of the gays, or this race or that, or that religion, or football, or video games, or dancing. Once again...it's an attempt to take away the responsibility from the person and pretend that the choice and the fault is not in us.
Such thinking tends to lead to the people thinking that way towards making immoral choices. Not only immoral, but immoral and useless choices. For example, the idea that getting rid of video games will solve a lot of our problems. It's useless because the fault isn't in the games, it's in the ability to make a choice that is wrong. So getting rid of the game is useless, the choice to be or not to be immoral has existed since we were given Free Will.
So there it is.
I'm an old-fashioned moralist. Despite the fact that my books include heroes that are of the type that a lot of old-fashioned moralists would say are immoral just on the face of what they are.
Morality is an absolute.
Only how we value it varies.
