Jason Arnett's Blog, page 5

The Center of Time

Count Us Off

We make grand plans for ourselves and hope they work out. We fill our heads with hope – because what else should be there? – and sometimes it pays off. As a lifelong Kansan I’m often at odds with my state’s legislature but I’ve stayed here because to retreat to where there are more people like me doesn’t help the place I love. Some of us have to keep the powers that be as honest as possible in the hope that things can be changed. We took a step in the right direction the other night with the primary votes to keep the state constitution as is. I hope there are more positive steps coming.

Hi. I’m Jason and I write things that are, if not hopeful, at least forward-looking.

Organ of Record

I’m still working on revisions for Black Moon but I’m gathering ideas for other stories, too. Now that I have time that I didn’t have a year ago or four years ago, the creative juices are seeping back in. Over the holidays I made a list of items that were already in some state of readiness, even if it was just an idea to explore. Revisiting that list has been inspiring but I’m not going to share any of it because who knows what will bubble up to prominence? I don’t. I can’t explain in any way how things pop up to become interesting enough to pursue. It involves myriad components that will be different for everyone who reads this so open your mind and see what catches fire in your imagination.

That’s not to say that there won’t be things I work on when I’m stuck on something else. Distractions often lead me from one project to another because a bit of reading or research may not be appropriate for one piece though it could fit with another.

I will say that I’ve unearthed a couple of manuscripts I’d been unable to locate on backup disks and I’m grateful for that. These two pieces are high on my list to revisit and I’m glad I don’t have to try to recreate them from scratch and some pitiful notes I’ve managed to hold on to. What may be misunderstood, though, is that some people may think these old pieces are old enough that I should abandon them and only work on new things. These works are valuable enough to me that I’ve never forgotten the core ideas behind them, nor the overall plots. Each has already been through several revisions, and will likely go through several more. Each revision improves the work, even if it sometimes is dragged off-track and has to be reset in the next.

This is how I learn and improve. I believe in these stories enough that I keep going back to them to try and make them better. Not that the things I’ve published are any less in my mind, only that I haven’t hit on a satisfactory version of these that I want to let loose into the world. I’ve come close, and I think this time might be better yet because, after all, I’ve learned a LOT since the last time I opened them.

Some Kind of Nobility

I’m a fan of a lot of science fiction. I grew up with Star Trek, Star Wars, Six Million Dollar Man, the Lynda Carter Wonder Woman show, Super Friends and Doctor Who. Bill Bixby’s Incredible Hulk is something that’s almost always hanging out somewhere in the back of my mind. Tom Baker is my Doctor but I love the relaunch, too. While I’m not an expert on any of the above, I am a fan and even though it’s an unpopular opinion, I think Donna Noble is one of the best companions in the history of Doctor Who.

Put the torches and pitchforks down a minute. Maybe I can’t change your mind but it’s okay to have my own view, isn’t it? Sometime in the future we’ll discuss why I like Jodie Whitaker’s Thirteen as much as any of the others and more than a few. For now, though, let me tell you why I like Donna.

She’s brash and she has her opinions, too. She holds the Doctor accountable more than almost any other. She reaches him more than any other companion, too, with the exception of Sarah Jane who just grabbed his hearts and never, ever let go no matter how hard he tried. But Donna isn’t romantically interested in the Doctor (a nice change from the others) although she allows him to romance her the way he does Rose and Martha. (“All of Time and Space. Where do you want to go?”) Donna is in this for the adventure and she happens to like her companion so that makes it even more of a blast for her. She’s doing something that matters in her life and she likes it. A LOT.

And at the end of their time together, he does the only thing he can to save her because he does, indeed, deeply love her as much as Sarah Jane and likely more than Rose. That ending, when Wilf, Donna’s grandfather, says she was better with him – man, that kills me every time. Aren’t we all better with the love of our life? No other companion (at least that I can recall, I may be wrong) – well, yeah okay, Sarah Jane is the only other – especially in this series) has ever been portrayed in such a way. That’s the romance I’m here for. That’s the way love is supposed to go.

So you may dislike the character, that’s fine. But I think you’re really missing out if you don’t try to understand her a little more. If you’re writing her off because of some superficial characterization bits, maybe take a step back and see if, now that you’re older, you might identify with her attitude more. Regardless, I like her and I won’t argue with you about it. I’ll just leave you to your own opinion.

At Capacity

Having a vision, working toward a goal, is what we’re told to do when we’re young. “You can do anything you put your mind to” and stuff like that, right? Well, I set some goals five years ago and started on a path that should have culminated this last week. I’m really proud of the fact that I hit nearly every one of those goals except the last, big one: a promotion at the day job.

I was realistic about each goal as I went along, knowing that it was a possibility that I wouldn’t reach them. Surprising myself every time I did hit a goal, I allowed that the next one might be just as attainable. I had hope, and stress – LOTS of it – that went along with every step. There was lots of cheering and support from friends and colleagues and over the last year I was believing that I had a real shot at the promotion. As I went through the 6-week process I was up and down, alternately convinced I had it and just as sure I didn’t. Up until the last second before I was told “There’s no easy way to say this…” I felt pretty good.

It’s okay I didn’t make it. The gut punch was tough and I put a brave face on it. “I’m all right. No really. NO. REALLY.” But I wasn’t then. Spending the time to come to terms with my disappointment is important. Allowing myself to be hurt and angry is not just okay, it’s essential to being able to move on. So I shucked off the brave face and lived with these feelings the last couple of days. I’m better now, and open to figuring out what’s next. In my mind, I heard Alfred ask Bruce, “Why do we fall?” I’m not giving up.

Goals are there so we strive to better ourselves and improve our positions in life. Platitudes aside, I build up the muscle I need with each failure to keep climbing.

Thanks for reading. I’ll have more another time so I’ll see you when I see you.

The Messes We Make

Hello Earth

Summer has always been hot here in Kansas. July is when an air conditioner will usually crap out and leave you sweaty for a few days while you try to find someone who will sell you a good machine for a reasonable price. Lots of challenges with that this year, so please be careful in this godawful heat. Climate change is a thing. Weather is a separate thing. Try not to confuse the two. If you can make choices that are neutral toward the environment we all share, please do. Not everyone has the option and there’s a lot of suffering that could have been avoided if we’d been better stewards. It’s not quite, but almost, too late.

Way to start a blog post, eh? I’m Jason and I write things that I hope show some glimpse of hope for the future.

Organ of Record

I finished a draft of revisions on WAR IN VAIN this month and will take another pass on it here before too long. It’s something I’m really proud of and I think contains some of my best writing. It’s right around 33,000 words, give or take, so it’s a true novella and there’s a lot of action in it. As I was reading it again before revisions, I was impressed at how it was paced. A lot of that comes from Rob who calls me out when I’m writing “the boring parts” that Elmore Leonard exhorts all writers to avoid. But I did put together some good, page-turning pulp-centric writing. These breakers on the shore of the full-length novel we’re planning have one of my favorite devices, the author’s disclaimer that the story you’re about to read is from a reliable source that they trust.

The first time I encountered that was in Michael Moorcock’s THE WARLORD OF THE AIR where the manuscript was presented as the tale of a friend of Moorcock’s grandfather. The manuscript was handed off to him after his father, not a writer, said it was more his thing. It was a fascinating way to plunge young me immediately into a world where these things could happen to other people and we could still know about it. I think Burroughs did the same thing with A PRINCESS OF MARS and certainly the vastly under-rated JOHN CARTER made the same sort of play for my interest. But I’ve gone down a rabbit hole.

WAR IN VAIN is our love letter to 80s action movies but with a twist. It’ll be out sooner than later. Stay tuned.

I’m also working on a revision of another manuscript I wrote over the last part of last year and into the winter of ’22. BLACK MOON is a space opera-style adventure that has ideas/elements borrowed from stories as disparate as ELIZABETH and STAR WARS. I’d hoped to have this revision done by the end of the month but that will be a challenge. It’s currently in the neighborhood of 43,000 words but I anticipate several thousand coming off in the revisions and edits. I tend to overwrite in the Zero and even First Drafts, so I’m developing better habits in the aftermath. I’d rather over write and cut than cobble together things that have to fit, so I don’t hold back early in the process. Anyway, it’s still early days on this one but I’m thinking it will be out in time for Thanksgiving and I hope to have an announcement regarding that in September. That is, IF everything stays on track. The way the world is today, that’s not always a guarantee.

I have some preliminary notes for my and Rob’s third novella that I’m organizing so that when we get together for our next writer’s room we’ll have an easier time pulling a plot together. I’m also organizing notes for REGENERATIONS that will follow that one, I think. Depending on schedules.

Once upon a time I was trying to be clever and come up with code names for things and then it hit me: what the fuck? Who did I think I was? I’m barely any kind of name let alone one that is producing paying work for publishers so why not just share the titles and make notes when they change? It was sort of an Earth-shattering ka-boom if you get my drift.

Fortification

I was part of a conversation a while back about how sun tea is kind of brutal, especially in Kansas in the summer when we have fourteen 100+ degree days in a row. Yeah, it brews quickly but it’s HOT in only a couple hours. So I broke into my cabinet in the kitchen and started looking through the bags of tea I had on hand. Sure enough, there was some Twinings Lemon Ginger and I had a thought: what if I stuck two bags in a pint glass of water and stuck it in the fridge? There’s cold brew coffee, why not cold brew tea?

So that I did and let it steep for about 5 hours. It was good. I mean GOOD. Smooth and flavorful. I repeated it the next day and set up my cold brew in the morning before I went to work. Sure enough, ten hours later it was even better. The ginger and lemon really popped. Wonderful stuff. I recommend taking 8 of those bags from the Twinings box and sticking them in a half gallon of water and put it in the fridge early in the day or overnight.

Black tea works pretty well, too. PG Tips you really only need one bag in that half gallon if you’re going for 8 hours or more. That stuff is strong. If you find it’s too strong, add water about 4 ounces at a time and stir thoroughly until it meets your standards. Happy cold brewing.

Noises

You’ve heard of Kate Bush by now, I’m sure, no matter how old you are. (And yes, STRANGER THINGS season 4 is amazing.) I listened to her back in the day and wore out my cassettes of LIONHEART, THE DREAMING, HOUNDS OF LOVE, and THE SENSUAL WORLD. For some reason, I stopped listening at some point and only in the last couple of years became aware that she’d continued to produce music but at a much slower pace. I was surprised to learn that she’d done a 22-date residency of live shows and released a live album in 2014. I knew she’d never really toured after ’79 so to have a record of a KB live performance was something else. BEFORE THE DAWN is a shining piece of art by an artist who is eclectic, meticulous, and exacting and yet it feels alive in a way that other live recordings do not. Standout tracks include Lily, Waking the Witch, King of the Mountain, Under Ice, and Morning Fog all for different reasons. I highly recommend getting the entire thing on CD because I don’t think the digital shops have every track available. Could have something to do with the actors in the speaking roles or it could just be her deciding you can’t have everything.

At Capacity

Things are weirder than ever now. At least within my memory. Things you once could count on are now more difficult to even find let alone reassure yourself with. I love physical media because if the Internet goes out I have something to read or hear or watch and that’s been some comfort to me. Your mileage, of course, will vary. I bring this up only to say that having a library at home is a dream come true for me. My childhood was very middle-class in the way you’re probably thinking of and not how it actually is now. I was lucky. There was always food, the lights always stayed on, and there was always something to engage my young mind.

But now, as the annual celebration of the first moon landing in 1969 wanes (today is the anniversary of the splashdown back on Earth), we are trapped in a place where our government is in disarray and the electorate is more divided than ever because of some really batshit crazy ideas. I exhort you to not let someone influence you to believe something that you know is wrong, please. Take some time to ask yourself “why is this person wanting me to abandon something I know to be true?” Keep asking yourself questions that force you to come to answers about the motivations of others.

And be kind. At least, that’s the best thing that each of us can do and it costs us literally nothing. Okay, maybe some time. A few seconds to a couple of minutes. In the grand scheme, kindness pays back more than tenfold when you give it. Wouldn’t you rather be thought of as someone who cares?

That’s it for this time. When there’s more to say, I’ll say it here. I’m grateful for the time you spent with me here. I’ll see you when I see you.

I’m Back. Let’s Get to Brass Tacks.

Is This Thing On?

A writer is supposed to write for an audience of one, themself, before anyone else. If I can amuse myself with a turn of phrase or by spending some time exploring an idea, then I’m successful in the writing of that piece. If that bit of writing happens to amuse, bemuse, enrage, or otherwise engage others, then the piece itself is successful.

Hi. I’m Jason and I write things. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

Organ of Record

Typically, I’ll spend a couple of hours each night after work on writing. It’s not every day because it doesn’t have to be. There are no deadlines beyond the ones I’ve put in place for myself, and there’s no clamor for the next book so I really am writing to amuse myself at this point. And just so it’s clear, I’m good with the state of things as they are currently. It means I get to create without a lot of folks looking over my shoulder but when I’m done, there are a few who are interested and want to read. An ideal state, all things considered.

I’ve been busy the last few years and writing has come in spurts, often between obligations like school and work. Now that I’m done with school, I’m using the time I spent studying to apply myself to writing. I have a lot of goals for the year – some of which I’ve mentioned here – but mostly it’s getting back in the saddle to type away at things that have been running back and forth across my mind.

Over the last year I would come home from work, watch 45-60 minutes of whatever show I was trying to keep up with while eating dinner, then spend three hours (sometimes more) working on assignments, reading the texts, or engaging in the interminable discussion questions online students get to work on instead of engaging with classmates in person. When I couldn’t work any more I would go out to the living room where my wife and the dog would pretend to recognize me and spend an hour or so with them before shambling off to bed and not-very-often restful sleep. The alarm would startle me awake and I’d start the process over again: commute, work, commute, dinner, homework, family time, sleep. It was the rhythm of life for me.

Truthfully, it’s been a week and I kind of miss it. However, I have stories I want to tell, so I’m using the discipline learned in school and applying it to writing. It’s been really helpful.

So in the week since I finished, I’ve been in revisions on War In Vain, the second Wave book with Rob Schamberger. (You can buy the first one, Rudow Can’t Fail at this link.)The truest thing about writing what you want to read is that you better want to read it because you’re going to read that writing dozens of times (if you’re doing it correctly) before any other eyes see it. I’ve read this novella ten times and I’m still amazed that I wrote it. It’s paced well and I love the characters. Despite that, Rob reminded me when we finally got to hang out last week that the third act had some issues. He is, of course, right about this because his story sense is highly developed and though I didn’t see it at first, with each re-read it came to me. I’ve been using time in the garden and walking the dog, as well as my commute, to work on the issues and I’m building that fix in my writing time.

Revisions should be done soonish, depending on how much I get done over the weekend, and then I’m rereading the draft for a solo novella, Black Moon, and revising that for release later in the year. I’m also working on plotting the third (untitled) Wave book and another solo novella, both due by the end of spring in 2023. My writing plans encompass the next three years at this point. You see, I’ve got a lot of time to make up for and I mean to do it.

Brighter Than a Thousand Suns

In the Shrimad Bhagavad Gita – translated as “The Song by God” and referred to as the Gita – a most holy Hindu text, the character Arjuna is enlightened by his mentor, Krishna, with supreme knowledge before going into war. Enjoined by Arjuna to reveal his true self, Krishna manifests himself as a being with many mouths and many eyes. Interpret that as you will, but the atomic scientist Robert Oppenheimer noted for himself during the Trinity test in New Mexico that the moment was as “[I]f the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendour of the mighty one.” You may be more familiar with the other quote that comes from the same source: “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”

As I learn more about other cultures than mine, I become fascinated with the intersections like those above. Hinduism has, as noted in the linked article above, a non-linear sense of time and that intrigues me as a storyteller. In the terrific first season of HBO’s True Detective, Rust Cohle delivers the cryptic line “Time is a flat circle” and that intersection of pop culture and religion is even more enticing. Now I’m thinking about how time can be linear, non-linear, or something else completely new.

Over the last year and a half or so I’ve become a big fan of Killing Joke and as I was working my way through their discography, I ‘discovered’ their 1986 album Brighter Than a Thousand Suns. It’s a very commercial record, sounds a lot like U2 in the period only tougher and waaaay more political but not nearly as tough as the punk ethic of their first three albums and not as accessible, maybe, as Night Time which spawned the iconic single Eighties but there are some real gems here. In particular I want to point to Rubicon which has this line:

The magic of our science shines brighter than a thousand suns

Liberty in new dimensions ruthless and spectacular

Songwriters: Jeremy Coleman / Kevin Walker / Matthew Ferguson / Paul Vincent Raven

With the chorus, it sort of makes a perfect protest song in this moment, though I can’t say if that was the original intention. I say that because of this article I heard on NPR last week.

You want to know where science fiction and fantasy writers get their ideas? This is one way that works for me. Absorbing as much as I can about as much as I can and waiting for the connections to close. So if time is a flat circle, and yet non-linear, and it can be bent by the magic of science to show us new dimensions? Yeah, I want to explore that. If you add in the personal philosophy of KJ’s singer-seer Jaz Coleman, there’s endless ideas to mine from all that. I watched the Killing Joke documentary The Death and Resurrection Show agape and disbelieving in how they view their music (energy generation), each other, and the world around them. I don’t agree with all of it but that’s the beauty of being open-minded: all I have to do is be quiet and try to understand. Check them out if you like and if you’re not into punk or metal, Night Time and Brighter Than a Thousand Suns might appeal to you.

At Capacity

I’m not aiming to write a bunch of long-winded posts all the time, and frankly I believe I’ll just be here monthly at this point with only the occasional mid-month update. Like if there’s something exciting I want to point to or I’m going to be somewhere in the real world where we might meet. I’ll update the APPEARANCES tab when it’s appropriate, too.

I’m not going to lie that pursuing my education online after decades away from a classroom was easy because it wasn’t. I work full-time and have relationships to maintain (though I’m not always the best at that in good times). Add in the stress and strain of the pandemic, lockdown, paranoia vis a vis vaccines, a brutal election cycle, and the growing divisions among people who have always had more in common with each other than difference, and you have an idea how crazy my life has been these last few years. Patience is a virtue, for sure, and determination. I worked hard, did all the readings, participated in all those damned discussions, and put every ounce of energy (and as much creativity as possible) into the assignments in each class. I did well, too.

But downtime is important. And kindness. Remember that everyone reacts to everything very differently. You probably see this in your own household, so I would ask you to take the patience and kindness that you can exhibit at home and apply it to the rest of the world. I promise you that those in the service industries are doing the absolute best they can with the staff, support, and training they get which – often more than sometimes – isn’t sufficient when everything was what we considered ‘normal’ before. Take care of yourself so that you can show that kindness and patience to others. Hug the ones you love.

I’m grateful to you who read this entire thing. I’ll see you when I see you.

Watch this space

Now that I have some time back in my days, I’ll be here more often with updates on what I’ve written, the science that interests me, stuff I’m reading/watching/listening to, and what I think about all of it in context with the rest of the world. There will be nods to politics because politics affects us all whether we want it to or not. The last 40 years are clear evidence of that in light of the SCOTUS ruling on Friday June 24, 2022.

So grab your coffee or whatever you want to drink and be prepared for what’s to come. This is the guiding principle:

I think that science fiction, even the corniest of it, even the most outlandish of it, no matter how badly it’s written, has therapeutic value because all of it has as its primary postulate that the world does change. I cannot overemphasize the importance of that idea.

Robert A. Heinlein, 1941, at the Third World Science Fiction Convention in Denver, CO.

Peeking Around the Corner

I’m ducking my head in here to tell you that I’ve been thinking a lot about how this place will function once I’m done with school and able to spend that time on actual writing. I think I know what it’ll be, but I’m testing some ideas in what little spare time I have and it may take longer than I want it to because my first priority is to get WAR IN VAIN in your hands by the end of summer. Cross your fingers for that.

The writer in process.

And I can’t wait to get to edit BLACK MOON because then I can start on the next novella in The Wave series and the one that comes after that. And all the others.

I’ve got a short story I’m trying to place and every rejection is “it’s not right for us” so I’ll keep looking in the hope I can find the right place for it. I think you’d like it and I’m pleased with how it came out. Stay tuned.

Anyway, it’s four more weeks until I can start any of this. Thanks for your patience and hanging in with me here. The end of the year promises to be pretty full if everything goes according to plan…

Title Announcement(s)

Right. So a little bit ago on Twitter I announced two new novellas:

@ajasont on Twitter, March 25, 2022.

(Well, to be fair, the title for WAR IN VAIN was already out there so it’s only one real announcement, but who’s counting?) Here’s a bit of a tease about both stories. WAR IN VAIN is a war story in the vein of 1980s action flicks but without 90% of the testosterone. The main character is new to the Wave though she makes quite an impression, and this tale takes place prior to the events of RUDOW, but you’ll have to wait to see the ultimate connection. Rob and I are excited to get this in your hands because the next one… Well, more on that later.

In BLACK MOON, there’s a dying alien empire that could be saved if a former envoy would come out of his self-imposed exile to do it. Rogue elements of the noble class who are having their way with the empire don’t want him to. Why did he quit? What could draw him back? Sci-fi space opera action and political intrigue under 40,000 words.

You can find all my books through Amazon. If you like them, please leave a review there or on GoodReads or both. Please tell your friends. If you’d like to read a review of RUDOW CAN’T FAIL, here’s what CJ Bunce at Borg.com had to say about it.

Finding Killing Joke

In the mid 80s, when Metallica released their Garage Days Re-revisited EP, I fell in love with the entire thing but one track in particular stood out: The Wait. That was the first time I heard of Killing Joke. Then in 1988 came Alan Moore’s and Brian Bolland’s brilliant Batman: The Killing Joke. (The band and the comic aren’t necessarily related, but certainly Alan Moore was aware of the band.) And then I moved on.

Every so often, I’d run across a reference to KJ the band when I read interviews with some bands but never investigated. This was pre-Internet, and I wasn’t aware of a place where I would have heard any of the music of KJ. I missed MTV for most of the 80s, too, so I missed their biggest hits. Kind of a perfect storm of my own ignorance and a lack of resources. None of my friends or fellow musicians were into the band. I really wish I’d heard Extremities, Dirt, and Other Repressed Emotions in 1990 when it came out because Ministry’s Psalm 69 was the album I got instead.

Start to finish, one of the heaviest, most aggressive records I’ve ever heard. I would have lived inside this album for years, studied and learned from it.

Flash forward to 2021 and I was cruising YouTube when I decided to go listen to Failure’s Ken Andrews song Sword and Shield. While it played, I perused the comments and found someone mentioned how that song reminded them of Killing Joke. Failure is one of my favorite bands (I tell everyone I know about them) and Andrews’ solo stuff has always appealed to me. So off I went to revisit The Wait.

And then I found Eighties, Love Like Blood, Kings and Queens, The Hum, Empire Song, Wardance, and holy shit how had I missed this band? I found a bunch of mix lists and just let them play, making notes of songs that stood out. That first list had over forty titles.

Listen to “Eighties” and you can’t deny that KJ had a significant influence on Nirvana. Listen to the whole album and you can see why it was their biggest hit.

But then came Extremities… and Money Is Not Our God, The Beautiful Dead, and the atmospheric brilliance of Inside the Termite Mound. I was hooked and listening to everything I could. I read their Wikipedia entry, researched more articles and interviews with Jaz Coleman and the band, found there was a documentary. Dave Grohl played drums on their 2003 self-titled album for free and we got maybe Dave’s best drum work and another industrial masterpiece.

Just put on the headphones and crank this one up. If you’re a fan of any kind of heavy, industrial music this is a treat. So much syncopation that you’ll bounce all the way through it.

By the middle of December I’d listened to every studio album, watched several live concert videos on YouTube, and seen the documentary (The Death and Resurrection Show is on the Roku Channel). Apparently I was making up for 30 years of not supporting the band in six months. I’m absolutely in love with the music in every period. They deserve much wider recognition because once you start listening to them, you can hear how many other bands they’ve influenced.

Geordie’s guitar sounds, the drums (especially Martin Atkins on Extremities…), Jaz’s voice growling, shouting pain and anger then soaring above the wail have connected with me in a way that I haven’t found in music in a long, long time. Maybe the band is old hat to some, but they shouldn’t be written off. They’re important. Politically and socially they comment in words and music on the state of things in ways that other bands don’t. I don’t agree with all their points of view but I understand them. They challenge me and I like that in some of my music.

It’s wonderful to still be finding music that moves me like Killing Joke does and that they are still out there. They toured with TOOL in 2019 before everything and just released a live recording from that trip. Since 1979, the Joke has been a band I should have been listening to, a generator tapping into various sources of power and translating into a language we can understand. All we have to do is pay attention.

2021 Awards Eligibility

Hi. If you’re reading for awards eligibility, here are the things I wrote or co-wrote that came out this year.

Agent of D.A.N.G.E.R. #2: Extraordinary Arrays was published by Actionopolis in July of 2021.

After gestating on various hard drives for a while, the trilogy of Agent of D.A.N.G.E.R. novellas was completed this year. They’re aimed at middle-grade readers who like science fiction and adventure. Influenced in equal parts by Saturday morning cartoons and comic books, these books are quick reads and finish up the tale of disavowed secret agents fighting an ancient, cosmic evil.

Agent of D.A.N.G.E.R. #3: Weird Circles was also published in July 2021 by Actionopolis.

The third novella of the cycle, Weird Circles, is the longest of the three, but each can be read in an afternoon or binged in a single day if you’re into that. Covers by Phil Hester with Shannon Denton.

Rudow Can’t Fail arrived in August of 2021 in digital and physical formats.

The last entry in my year is the novella Rudow Can’t Fail, co-written with Rob Schamberger who also painted the cover. It’s our “Mars noir” that is filled with sex, cursing, intrigue, and politics. Definitely aimed at adults, it’s the beginning of a trilogy of novellas that set up a series of novels yet to come.

You can find all my books on Amazon. Thanks for reading!

The End of 2021

Happy New Year, friends. Thanks for reading. Let’s swing into 2022 like Spider-Man through the steel canyons of Manhattan.

Despite starting out in the midst of a pandemic that resulted in (and continues) needless deaths, an insurrection at the nation’s capital, and further deep divisions along political lines, 2021 has been a good year for me personally. Maybe that’s selfish. There’s a lot wrong with [gestures at everything] – yeah, but it’s not wrong to be pleased with personal progress. (I do try to help others as much as I can.) So, selfish, yeah, but not wrong.

 

I wrote a short story that I’m very proud of and am still seeking a home for. I continued my seemingly perpetual educational journey and graduated with my associate’s degree (with President’s honors) in May. I wrote 33,000 words of a novella before moving on to pursue my bachelor’s. I took out student loans. Three books came out in July. I appeared at Planet Comicon while working full-time and taking classes. My grades remain ridiculously high. My wife still loves me. My son visits every so often.

 

The highlights are pretty high, I think. I don’t dwell on the negative stuff, but there are things that will need my attention in the next few months. All of it can be handled. Even the times when I wasn’t sure of myself, or when I was scared or overwhelmed or lonely. My psyche is capable of processing fear and anguish, but the coping mechanism is to eat that stuff away, or drink it. I know I’ve got work to do. Writing helps, so does walking. In November my body tried to kill me again, and now we know how that needs to be dealt with.

But the good stuff is GREAT. I got to see friends I hadn’t seen in almost two years at Planet. I began a professional partnership with my good friend Rob Schamberger. I am supported by a wonderful group of fellow creatives who know when to push me and when to let me alone. It feels like I might be near the top of whatever game I’ve got, but I know there’s more over the horizon. I’m aiming to get there and to celebrate that when I do.

 

I can’t do everything. A dear friend tells me that and then goes on to say that just because you can’t do everything it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do anything. That applies to so many pieces of my world I can’t even begin to count them. An acquaintance says that in the end all that matters is how we treat each other and I agree with that, too. If we are all doing something and treating each other with respect and empathy, love when we can, then the world is going to be better. Slow and steady wins the race.

 

So for 2022, I wish you luck and love and all the good things. Do something you haven’t done before and try to make it worthwhile. Be kind, especially in your various communities. Small acts have big ramifications.

 

Happy New Year, friends.

Rebooting a Classic in Babylon 5

To be clear up front: I was more than 20 years late to the joy that is Babylon 5, and I only came to it because Rob Schamberger pushed me, and pushed hard, to watch it. I’m no expert, I’m not a long-time fan of the series, but I am rabid in my love of what was achieved by J. Michael Straczynski and his company of actors and the crew. At only three watch-throughs, I’m still a newbie and I’m still discovering nuance every time. I’m behind the so-called ‘real’ fans, but I’m a real fan, too.

Vorlons, man. And just wait until you meet Zathras.

There are so many things others have said about B5 that echo exactly what I feel about the show, so I won’t go into that here. Instead, I’ll confess that I didn’t watch in its original run. I had access, PNET was on our cable provider in the 90s, but I was a snob in 1993. I wrote it off as a poor man’s Star Trek and forgot about it. Occasionally I would pass it while I was channel surfing and would gloss over it after less than two minutes. Bruce Boxleitner? That guy from Scarecrow and Mrs. King? (Yeah, I know he was Tron, too, but S&MK was more recent and stuck in my head. Nah, no thanks. Not for me.

Bottom line: I didn’t get what JMS was doing with Babylon 5. It was over my head, and in my judgmental haste, I was never going to give it a chance.

Fast forward to 2018 when Rob and I are at Minsky’s catching up and talking about all things science fiction. He starts to tell me everything he loves about B5 and it sounds interesting to me. This is 20 years after the show has ended and I’m intrigued. I agreed to give it a shot. He lent me his precious DVDs and I watched.

First season is rough, to be sure, but it finds its legs about halfway through and the acting gets slightly better. However, it’s the story between Londo and G’Kar that fascinates me. (I didn’t know about the trials and tribulations of lead Michael O’Hare then, and now that I do, his performance is beyond impressive.) As the second season progresses, I am deeply drawn to Boxleitner’s John Sheridan and I see the influences that JMS has pulled from. By the end of season 2, I’m hopelessly in love with all the characters, no matter how inexpertly played.

Yeah, it’s Penn and Teller. It’s also the episode that Neil Gaiman wrote.

If you haven’t watched, you should know that Walter Koenig, Star Trek’s Chekhov, is a villain that will scare you as much as endear you. You should know that there are true Shakespearean moments and real emotions that you will experience if you allow yourself to should you endeavor to watch this groundbreaking series.

And it’s truly groundbreaking. It had a story that was planned for five years (starting in 1993), something that had never been done before on episodic TV. It was the first show to use CGI extensively for the ships and it looks pretty good in the remaster on HBOMax if you want to watch it there. My god, Bill Mumy is fantastic as his character’s love is unrequited. But the aforementioned Londo, played by Peter Jurasik, is the real star, supported perfectly by Andreas Katsulas as G’Kar, who embodies the human condition more so than any other character in the cast.

Look, just watch. You’ll get the episodes where Wayne Alexander will blow you away with his understated performances in several roles. You’ll get a sense of “this was made when?” as the politics of the show play out. If you’re interested in watching a great story, watch Babylon 5. It’s not perfect, but it will reward you if you stick with it. I promise. You won’t be sorry.

The Grey Council is… no. Sorry. Spoilers.

As for the reboot announced today? I’m in. JMS is going to be showrunner and it’ll be a masterclass in how to do it should the CW pick up the pilot. I’m crossing my fingers and hopeful that we’re going to see a new version of the story I’ve come to love as much as my favorite science fictions, one that will exceed my expectations.

For those of you who fear it will be ‘woke’, you need to watch the original series with different eyes. It’s more than ‘woke’, it’s clear-eyed and deliberate.