Michael Coorlim's Blog, page 46

Cinematic Influences

A conversation arose recently about the movies that, while not necessarily our favorites, have stuck with us for some reason or another over the years. I can’t imagine that this wouldn’t influence my own filmmaking, so in no particular order here are the films that occupy the most of my head-space.

Blazing Saddles

This is the first movie that comes to mind when I think about movies. It isn’t my favorite, but it’s definitely up there, and exemplifies Mel Brooks’s work in general. You could sub in Spaceballs or Men in Tights, but for me, Blazing Saddles IS Mel Brooks.

Young Frankenstein

Young Frankenstein is another Mel Brooks movie, but it gets its own entry because it is my favorite film. Gene Wilder at the top of his game.

Raiders of the Lost Arc

This is one of the earliest favorites I can remember, and I was very impressed with the practical effects. Take this entry to stand in for the entire franchise; Raiders was always my favorite.

Brazil

Brazil was the Terry Gilliam movie that really represents what you can do with storytelling. I also enjoyed The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and Time Bandits, but for me Brazil is what really sticks in my mind.

Ghostbusters

Oh man, when I was a kid, this was it. This was THE movie. It was scary. It was funny. Specifically Gozer and the devil dogs freaked me out. And the librarian ghost. But this was responsible and is representative of my love for Bill Murray, Dan Ackroyd, and Harold Ramis.

Big Trouble in Little China

Big Trouble in Little China is not a particularly well-made movie, but it’s fun. It’s really fun. It doesn’t take itself seriously, and it’s a reminder that you don’t have to always take yourself seriously. It’s got supernatural powers, kung fu, and evil ghosts.

Golden Child

Another movie that hasn’t aged very well, but for me this is Eddie Murphy at the top of his form. It’s not Beverly Hills Cop for me, no, it’s Golden Child.

Dog Day Afternoon

In my late teens/early 20s (I don’t remember), the theater near my house had some kind of Warner Brothers anniversary special. You could see 20 movies over the summer for $60. How could I resist? I saw a few movies a week for the next few months, and Dog Day Afternoon was just so damn good that it stuck with me afterwards in a way that the others didn’t.

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

My favorite western. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is maybe a better movie, but Clint’s films were closer to my era, and I’ve never been a fan of John Wayne. I really like all the Sergio Leone westerns.

Cube

I think I actually enjoy Cube Zero the best, but the original rises more easily from the recesses of my mind. Gleaming the Cube was a different movie entirely, and not part of the series, though I would totally watch Gleaming the Hypercube.

Legend

Tim Curry as the devil.

Labyrinth

David Bowie and puppets. Dance Magic.

City of Lost Children

I loved this movie when it came out. It was so surreal, so stylish.

Shawshank Redemption

My favorite Stephen King movie. Nothing else has ever come close.

Hudsucker Proxy

Another mid-90s movie with a strong stylishness. Another part of my high-school movie mosaic.

Dark Crystal

A Muppet movie I preferred to the Muppet Movie.

IT

Tim Curry as an evil clown.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit

I was 10 when this came out. It was everything I wanted in a movie.

A Boy and His Dog

I was young when I saw this movie. Don’t remember how young, but I didn’t get how dark the ending really was.

So those are the films that made me who I am, cinematically speaking. What does that say about me?

What films have stuck with yoU? What does that say about you?

Questions? You are invited to either leave a comment below, or ask directly through the comment form.

The post Cinematic Influences appeared first on Michael Coorlim.

Designers and Dragons Kickstarter

Designers and Dragons is a four-volume history of the roleplaying game industry. The kickstarter for it has 5 days to go, and has already blown past its $7,500 goal ten times over. If you’re a gamer and are at all interested in what has come to pass, check them out, drop a few bucks into the evil hat.

All it takes is a single buck to get access to the first volume as an ebook, and $15 gets you all four as they’re completed.

Questions? You are invited to either leave a comment below, or ask directly through the comment form.

The post Designers and Dragons Kickstarter appeared first on Michael Coorlim.

Galvanic Century Cover Redesign

I’ve redesigned a few of the Galvanic Century covers.

Click to view slideshow.

The first of these, Bartleby and James, is actually a new edition of the first Galvanic Century novel, The Collected Bartleby and James Adventures. It features some new material that binds it together into a more cohesive story. I’m looking at a September 13th release date.

The other updated covers, for A Gentlewoman’s Chronicles and Dreams of the Damned, have already been applied to their respective ebooks.

Questions? You are invited to either leave a comment below, or ask directly through the comment form.

The post Galvanic Century Cover Redesign appeared first on Michael Coorlim.

Let’s Connect Through Patreon

I’m all about connecting to my readers, and I’m always looking for new and interesting ways to engage with you guys in fun ways. I’ve got this blog where I can ramble on about whatever topic crosses my mind, I’ve got a mailing list where I announce new releases and give heads’ up to my fans, and now I’m opening up a third channel with a Patreon page.

What’s a Patreon?

I’m glad you asked. Patreon “was created to enable fans to support and engage with the artists and creators they love.” In essence, you can use the platform to donate money to your favorite authors, web-comic artists, podcasters, etc on a regular basis, say monthly, or whenever they release something.

In exchange they offer you different rewards for this support. Think of it like a kickstarter, but in reverse; you donate after the product is released.

How I use Patreon, and what’s in it for you

In my case, I’ve set it up so that you donate every time I release a novel, which in practical terms is more or less every other month. This isn’t triggered by any works of under 60,000 words (about 240 pages) or collections of already published material.

In exchange for your donations, you get:

Well, books. Donate $3 and you’ll get the ebook, donate $10 and I’ll send you a paperback too. $30 for a signed paperback. Ideally before they “officially” go on sale.
Access to authors’ notes as I write. Sort of a production diary for the book in question.
Sneak previews during the revision process.

Anticipate six books at most in a given year, so for six bucks you’d have access to a year’s worth of insight into my process, and for $18 you’ll get six ebooks before their official release date.

Interested? Head over to Patreon and make a pledge.

Got any other ideas for what you might like to see from an author you’re supporting? I’d love to hear (and consider) them. Let me know in the comments.

Questions? You are invited to either leave a comment below, or ask directly through the comment form.

The post Let’s Connect Through Patreon appeared first on Michael Coorlim.

Let’s connect through Patreon

I’m all about connecting to my readers, and I’m always looking for new and interesting ways to engage with you guys in fun ways. I’ve got this blog where I can ramble on about whatever topic crosses my mind, I’ve got a mailing list where I announce new releases and give heads’ up to my fans, and now I’m opening up a third channel with a Patreon page.

What’s a Patreon?

I’m glad you asked. Patreon “was created to enable fans to support and engage with the artists and creators they love.” In essence, you can use the platform to donate money to your favorite authors, web-comic artists, podcasters, etc on a regular basis, say monthly, or whenever they release something.

In exchange they offer you different rewards for this support. Think of it like a kickstarter, but in reverse; you donate after the product is released.

How I use Patreon, and what’s in it for you

In my case, I’ve set it up so that you donate every time I release a novel, which in practical terms is more or less every other month. This isn’t triggered by any works of under 60,000 words (about 240 pages) or collections of already published material.

In exchange for your donations, you get:

Well, books. Donate $3 and you’ll get the ebook, donate $10 and I’ll send you a paperback too. $30 for a signed paperback. Ideally before they “officially” go on sale.
Access to authors’ notes as I write. Sort of a production diary for the book in question.
Sneak previews during the revision process.

Anticipate six books at most in a given year, so for six bucks you’d have access to a year’s worth of insight into my process, and for $18 you’ll get six ebooks before their official release date.

Interested? Head over to Patreon and make a pledge.

Got any other ideas for what you might like to see from an author you’re supporting? I’d love to hear (and consider) them. Let me know in the comments.

Questions? You are invited to either leave a comment below, or ask directly through the comment form.

The post Let’s connect through Patreon appeared first on Michael Coorlim.

Kickstartin’ All Over the Place

I like kickstarter. I like funding other people’s dreams. I don’t have a lot of disposable income, but I donate when I can.

This week I’ve donated to three different projects.

I like to cook, and I like to bake. Make my own bread every week. I really like the idea of an artisanal flour mill here in Chicago.

I absolutely support programs that promote arts equality. Heck, that’s one of the core reasons I’m starting a production company.

If you have a few bucks to spare, you could do worse than kicking it along to one of these or other projects.

Questions? You are invited to either leave a comment below, or ask directly through the comment form.

The post Kickstartin’ All Over the Place appeared first on Michael Coorlim.

Kickstartin’ all over the place

I like kickstarter. I like funding other people’s dreams. I don’t have a lot of disposable income, but I donate when I can.

This week I’ve donated to three different projects.

I like to cook, and I like to bake. Make my own bread every week. I really like the idea of an artisanal flour mill here in Chicago.

I absolutely support programs that promote arts equality. Heck, that’s one of the core reasons I’m starting a production company.

If you have a few bucks to spare, you could do worse than kicking it along to one of these or other projects.

Questions? You are invited to either leave a comment below, or ask directly through the comment form.

The post Kickstartin’ all over the place appeared first on Michael Coorlim.

Short but Insightful Video about Writing

Questions? You are invited to either leave a comment below, or ask directly through the comment form.

The post Short but Insightful Video about Writing appeared first on Michael Coorlim.

Short but insightful video about writing

Questions? You are invited to either leave a comment below, or ask directly through the comment form.

The post Short but insightful video about writing appeared first on Michael Coorlim.

Actual Play: Monster of the Week

I was able to get together a group of friends for some tabletop roleplaying last night for a rousing game of Generic Games’s Monster of the Week.

What is Monster of the Week?

MOTW is an Apocalypse World hack built around the action-horror monster hunting genre, emulating shows like Supernatural, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and X-Files.  It’s a very modern narrative-driven sort of system, with an emphasis of story over mechanics, and the crunchy parts are fairly light and geared towards a cooperative approach towards hashing out a story.

If you’re familiar with Apocalypse World or any of its hacks then you know the general gist of it, and Monster is a pretty good iteration of the system.

Gaming with Non-Gamers

Two of the three players I gamed with last night were non-gamers; one had never played anything, and the other had some DnD experience long ago. Neither brought any traditional gaming expectation baggage to the table, which was refreshing. Our third player had a bit more exposure to the hobby, but nothing recent and nothing extensive.

Even Amanda, who’d never played anything like it before, picked up the general gist of what we were doing fairly quickly. The others had a great time too, and in talking to Kat later she told me that the system was about perfect. *World games seem ideally suited to new gamers, and might even be easier for them to pick up than crusty old grogs like myself who had to do a lot of unlearning of bad habits in order to really get the system.

The Spook, the Initiate, and the Chosen

We started character creation with a brief discussion of tone and influences. Surprisingly neither Amanda nor Colin were familiar with one of the influences I cited, Buffy, but both were fans of Supernatural, so that’s how I presented the game’s core conceits to them. Together they with Kat decided to play an ancient monster hunting sect; Amanda christened them the “Elite Order of the Winged Ones” or something, but we shortened this to the Order of Dragons or Dracos or some variation as the night went on.

Colin chose to play the obligatory Intitiate and as part of his character creation defined the order as ancient, poverty stricken, and paranoid. His character was poorly socialized and prone to violence, but surprisingly restrained when it mattered.

Kat played the Spooky, an oddly androgynous sorcerer (ess?) who’d spent her entire life living in a steeple and had no frame of reference for almost anything. She did, however, have glowing eyes.

Amanda played Stacie (with an I.E.) S, a teenager chosen by destiny to kill monsters. She played the teenager role infuriatingly well. Her character sheet’s name had heart-dotted i’s.

The Mission

The game started off a little rocky while the non-gamers got used to the idea of what roleplaying was, but it was decided that the group had a safehouse in an abandoned el station here in Chicago. A police scanner clued them in to the discovery of blood-drained corpses in a sleazy south-side hotel, and the group departed to investigate.

Throughout the course of the game it fell to Colin’s Initate to wrangle the Spooky and the Chosen and keep them on task; neither seemed to have powerful motivations to follow the sect’s orders, though they didn’t really try to avoid the task. I think that more focused motivation might have helped them in their task, but everyone had a good time, so it doesn’t really matter.

The hunt for what turned out to be a leach-monster culminated in a stand-off with a SWAT team in the PD’s morgue culminating in the ignition of massive quantities of sloppy homemade napalm and an escape into the sewer. We called the end of the game after four hours of play, with the intention to convene again for the face-off with the monster.

Highlights

The Chosen used magic to summon a cat that could bite people and put them to sleep
Multiple awful rolls resulted in the Spooky’s hands falling off. First one, then the other
Opening a morgue drawer and instead of finding a body, finding a torrent of baby leach-monsters

Postscript

This was my first attempt at running Monster of the Week and I think it went well. I’ll need to sharpen up my understanding of the Use Magic move’s parameters and limitations before the next game; I was mostly winging it but we didn’t have any major problems with it.

Questions? You are invited to either leave a comment below, or ask directly through the comment form.

The post Actual Play: Monster of the Week appeared first on Michael Coorlim.