Patrick Todoroff's Blog, page 26

Music to battle the blizzard

All the recent snow reminds me of my time in Nova Scotia. Here’s some tunes to off-set the gusts, drifts and icicles.

And I can’t get this song out of my head.

I take that as a compliment, actually

When the Eshu International and Clar1ty Wars stories get compared to Shadowrun, or the miniatures game, Infinity. Perhaps it’s meant as a slight, but getting mentioned with the venerable cyberpunk/fantasy RPG or an excellent sci fi skirmish table top wargame out of Spain that produces some of the finest 28mm miniatures in production today ain’t too shabby. Really. It’s not like I’m hammering out War and Peace here.

UPDATE on Shift Tense, Part 3. “Angels”: Just heard from my editor. He’ll finish the ms late this month, so that puts the release the first week of Feb. A thousand thanks.

Flailing Skies

SF-junkie and geek that I am, I’ve tried a bunch of times to like Falling Skies. I mean it. Courageous survivors battle an alien invasion in a gritty post-apoc Massachusetts setting. History teacher turned resistance fighter, desperate odds, fugly insectoid xenos, mech walkers, guns, explosions, Steven Spielberg, Robert Rodat of ‘Saving Private Ryan’ fame… It’s even free on Amazon Prime now . What’s not good here?

*sigh*

Couldn’t make it through an entire episode last night. Again.

So we’ve got aliens capable of interstellar travel, laser guns, anti-grav fliers, 15-foot tall mech walkers, mind-controlling symbiotic bio-tech harnesses, yet they can’t locate groups of humans smaller than two-hundred because the ‘heat signature’ is too weak? In Operation Desert Storm, our sats and recon drones could spot individual enemy soldiers in the frickin’ desert at noon. We can read newspaper headlines from orbit. But these xenos… nope.

Poor optics-tech obviously bleeds down to the tactical level as well. Either that or the alien warriors must have graduated from Imperial Stormtrooper Academy, because they can’t hit squat. I’m talking HUNDREDS of rounds expended for naught. They need to get their money back from the carnival target-shooting booth that calibrated their gunsights.

What about these hardened, ‘veteran’ human resistance fighters? The war has raged for years, yet they still clump up in ‘grenade-blast’ formation, exercise zero operational security, blast away full-auto from the hip, and set ambushes an infant could spot. (The same ambush, time and time again. Dude, I thought you were a military history professor.) Paintball teams exercise better tactics.

And can we stop regurgitating one-liners from everyold war movie ever made? John Wayne, Lee Marvin and Jack Palance are spinning in their graves. We could wrap ‘em in copper wire and power Hoboken.

I’m also hugely relieved to know while ammo, food, and clean water may be scarce on post-invasion Earth, there’s still plenty of teeth-whitener, Clairol shampoo conditioner and Noxzema around. Artful dirt smudges and rips in your designer tactical-chic wear do not a ragged resistance fighter make. Seriously.

It’s like the producers put every WW II movie trope in a blender, added a tablespoon of alien, then hit ‘Frappe’ a couple times, hoping CGI and low standards will flavor the chunky slop enough to make it palatable.

Enough… I’m going to watch BGS’s “Razor” next time I need some SF distraction.

Here’s hoping SyFy’s “Helix” is up to par. Please God.

So close…

Cover for final installment of Shift Tense.

Cover is done, the manuscript is waiting on the final tidying, (Angel Editing) and its done. Ebook should be on Amazon before the end of Jan.

Writing-wise, I need to finish a celtic-flavored ghost story that’s morphed into a novella. I’m at the halfway point now, so I think St. Patrick’s Day is a reasonable deadline. (In time for my 50th b-day as well) Then I’ll turn my attention back to the next installment of Clar1ty Wars – “Under Strange Stars“.

Then, I’ve got a modern Christian-horror novel that’s been sitting on the back burner for quite a while, along with a massive fantasy piece. That’s the plan anyway.

Thanks to everyone who’s been so patient.

For those of you who want the complete Shift Tense in one volume, I plan on releasing a print version with bonus material late 2014.

Blogging: 2013 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 7,400 times in 2013. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 6 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

My Cyberpunk Christmas wish

I miss Fringe. (Or at least the first few seasons before Peter died in that split-universe machine. Or whatever it was he did there…) I’m still waiting for Almost Human to get good. I liked the lion’s share of the updated Battlestar Galactica, (There’s a damn fine reason the BSG episode “33″ won a Hugo) and I think I’m one of the few who found the sequel/prequel Caprica intriguing. I was disappointed to learn the LucasArts recently cancelled Star Wars 1313. Is it me, or would bounty-hunting in the undercity on Coruscant be pretty cool?

So my inner nerd is pining for some real cyberpunk in 2014. Get Ron Moore in a room with the writers from “The Wire”, then hire William Gibson, Neal Stephenson and maybe Richard K Morgan as consultants. (Nab John Scalzi too. IMO, he kept Stargate: Universe going past its freshness date) Gimme a movie, a mini-series, web-isodes even – just so long as it has grit, depth, and story arcs that last longer that 42 minutes. Slalom past tropes and easy-peasy laughably predictable endings, and gimme real characters wrestling with brutally honest futuristic themes.

Please, Santa.

At Christmas

I post this poem every year because in my mind it best describes the reason Jesus came. This celebration is about God’s gift of Himself to us; about the child that grew to manhood, willingly gave his life in our place, then rose from the dead to demonstrate he’d defeated not only sin but death itself.

Christianity isn’t self-help, moralizing, or perfunctory piety. (Yes, people reduce it to that, but those are parodies.) In Jesus Christ is forgiveness of sins, transformation of heart, redemption of the very core of who and what you are. It’s life. Eternal life.

Accepting it is radical. It means change – sometimes confusing, uncomfortable, inconvenient change – but most remarkable of all is that it’s real and it’s free. Jesus lives.

And He loves you. Really.

Let the Stable Still Astonish

Let the stable still astonish:

Straw- dirt floor, dull eyes, dusty flanks of donkeys, oxen;

Crumbling, crooked walls; No bed to carry that pain.

And then the child -

Rag-wrapped, laid to cry in a trough.

Who would have chosen this?

Who would have said:

“Yes, Let the God of all

the heavens and earth

be born here, in this place”?

Who but the same God who stands in the darker, fouler rooms of our hearts and says,

“Yes, Let the God of Heaven and Earth be born here – in this place.

May God bless you and keep you all in the new year, and make you an instrument of His Courage, Compassion, and Grace.

WWGD?

*FYI, faith-related post follows*

What Would Gehazi Do?

For those who don’t know, the OT book 2 Kings tells the story of Israel’s almost-greatest prophet, Gehazi. Discipled under “I got a double-portion” Elisha, who was mentored by “I call fire down from heaven” Elijah, the G-man was third in line for an incredibly powerful supernatural ministry that in all probability would have shook the Hebrew people to the core with a witness of God’s reality.

Problem was he used his position, the prophet’s reputation, and God’s goodness to leverage bling and threads off a wealthy foreigner named Naaman, a grateful new believer who had just experienced a miraculous healing and a new lease on life. (2 Kings 5)

Rebuked, dismissed from Elisha’s service – and sporting a new skin condition to go with his new clothes – he spent the rest of his days as a Worship Consultant in Jerusalem, wowing Hebrew kings with stories of the ‘good old days’, no doubt impressing everyone with his spiritual pedigree and acumen.

Articles in the latest World Magazine on megachurch pastor Steven Furtick’s mega-house and the So. Cal reality show “Preachers of L.A.” (with Armani, Bentley, Rolex, and padded expense accounts all featuring prominently) has me shaking my head. Again.

Because it’s not like this is a new concern, or it hasn’t been articulated, dissected, and debated a gazillion times before. It’s just that the articles reminded me of the story in Barbara Tuchman’s ‘The March of Folly’ where the Borgia Popes commissioned crucifixes with Jesus wearing a money belt for a loincloth to illustrate Divine approval of wealth and opulence. (Or the Swaggart/Baker scandals which broke the same time as my entrance in full-time ministry. So thanks for that, bros.)

Look, I don’t begrudge anyone earning/spending their salary however they wish. Their money – their business. They’ll account to God, not me. But from the article, I’m guessing Steve’s life-verse is John 14:2 as opposed to say… Luke 12:15 or Matt.19:21. Given the massive needs in our world, (homelessness, poverty, illiteracy, sex-trafficking…) Jesus’ disdain for position or possessions, Biblical warnings against materialism, and the sorry state of evangelical Christianity in the West, you’d think the Lord would be texting Steve ‘peacock in the pulpit’ Furtick more on the lines of Haggai 1:4

And when one of the L.A. Revs says he loves the whole ‘rock star thing’ with women throwing themselves at him, pressing phone numbers in his hand, I get this greasy, hireling, so-not-like-Jesus vibe that makes me shudder. The bumper sticker “Jesus called – He wants his religion back.” springs to mind.

Bottom line is I’m all for being blessed in modern America. Thank God for it. I enjoy unprecedented levels of safety and creature comforts unheard of throughout history, and in many parts of the world right now. I take them for granted even.

It’s just that I have stock in the public portrayal of my faith. From where I sit, these men don’t model the person and principles revealed in Scripture because if you really get down to it, a Franciscan vow of poverty comes closer to the NT teachings than a Platinum Visa. Once again, America is treated to more steaming piles of conspicuous consumption in the name of Christ. Sketchy financial dealings, shady/sycophantic accountability practices, rationalizing self-gratification corrodes the credibility not just of their ministry but of the Gospel and Jesus. What these men are is screaming so loud no one can hear what they’re saying. It ain’t rocket science why some people want nothing to do with church.

I’m more reacting here than offering a 12-Step solution. I mean hey, it’s Christmas – time to give and receive – and quite frankly, I’m looking forward to receiving some stuff. End of the day tho, none of it’s more cherished than my family, valuable than my friends, or eternal like a soul. It’s about priorities. The issues of my inner-most being. All I can do is give what and where I can, then pray God to keep my heart.

After all, Jesus said where my treasure is, there will my heart be also.

SHIFT TENSE – P3 teaser

SHIFT TENSE, Part 3 – “ANGELS”

It’s coming.

Book Review: The Cellist of Sarajevo

Acclamations like ‘haunting’, ‘profound’, ‘powerful’, ‘poignant’ are pinned so casually on every donkey these days, it’s tough to describe your feelings when you actually encounter it. Having finished the novel last night, my sense at the moment is one of deep gratitude; that the novel was written, that I got to read it, that I’ve never experienced anything like the trauma of the Balkans in the 90s, that my life is so comfortable and blessed… I could go on. You get it.

This little book lands in the category of ‘one everybody should have to read’, not for it’s stark portrayal of modern war, but that it depicts the resilience of the human spirit despite them. It’s a testament to the stubborn notion that beauty and truth, love and art, abide despite cruelty. It’s one of those books I wish I was able to write.

You can read a plot synopsis and other reviews at the Amazon link below, but I for one genuinely recommend you purchase (beg, borrow, steal it even) and read it. It’s a worthy of being one of your first books for 2014.

LINK: The Cellist of Sarajevo at Amazon