Zero Angel Richardson's Blog, page 2

"Cross and the Cap" — Urban fantasy, explicit content, novella: pre-order now!

I'm so excited about my newest novella, Cross and the Cap. Writing this story has been nothing but fun, and I really think that will translate to you as you read her first adventure. You can check out the Amazon listing here: Amazon.com/dp/B071HRWK3V

I like to think of Cross's stories as being similar in tone to Deadpool (violent, irreverent fun) taking place in the WotA-Modern setting. Cross is foul-mouthed and vain, but possesses incredible power in the form of her trusty magick-shooting guns. She also has this annoying ability of being able to hear the narrator, and she doesn't exactly approve of everything he has to say either.

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"The Throne of Ao" is now available . . . again

I've written previously about what a hard decision it was to remove the Throne of Ao for sale. It was my first novel and I feel that I avoided a lot of the pitfalls inherent in first novels, but the sales were just never there and it killed me to see it go down week after week.

What a difference a handful of letters can make. I am incredibly fortunate in that I actually got to hear from some of the readers that came to the book on their own and weren't strong-armed into reading it by myself. There are few things that can compare to hearing a fan gush about what they love about your work that you've put so much of yourself into and they definitely made me realize that I wasn't doing anyone any favors by having it unavailable, least of all the people I wanted to reach the most.

So I got to work on the second edition, added a note from myself, an art section, and other minor updates. The biggest difference is definitely the cover though.

And republished.

The Throne of Ao is now available for purchase exclusively at Amazon.com for $2.99. If you've previously bought it, the new edition is linked to the old edition, so you should be able to download the new one with no problem and no extra purchase.

Here's the link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008L1G3TM

Thank you for your support! Please expect new stories and new works in the near future!
~Zero

Ghost in the Shell is classic sci-fi with a modern finish

I can't say enough good things about this movie. 
Ghost in the Shell has the feel of Blade Runner meeting the Matrix with a 2017 veneer. It's way up there in terms of my all-time favorite sci-fi movies and I'm looking forward to rewatching it.

I usually think the critical consensus is pretty spot-on. Very rarely do I find myself thinking they've all missed the mark and I think getting mad at critics for not liking a film is pretty stupid.

But wow, did they miss the mark. I do not understand. Did we watch the same film? 
I have no complaints about Ghost in the Shell except that I'm not currently rewatching it. 
Zero, zilch, nada. 
Well, there are a LOT of studio logos in the beginning. So I guess, one complaint. But that seems petty. 
Scarlett Johansson is fantastic in the role of Major. For a character that is iconically reserved and detached, she cranked the subtlety of every action to 11. I found her captivating, pulling me in completely and wholly engaging my attention every second she was on screen. Besides the occasional sarcastic quip and the look in her eyes, you rarely get to know what she's thinking. Where some actors might leave you bored or frustrated, she was perfect. Everything drew you in more instead of pushing you off. 
The supporting roles were ancillary to her performance and did the job they needed to. Nothing that blew me away, but nothing to take away from the movie either. 
The visuals are stunning. We watched it in IMAX 3D, and although the 3D aspect wasn't anything mind-boggling, the visuals in every scene were a marvel to behold. 
It stands on its own without knowledge of the franchise necessary. It is an adaptation, if that wasn't clear. I'm not going to compare it to the original, but I think it did as good a job as could be hoped for. I'm nothing but pleased. 
A lot of the "what does it mean to be human" philosophizing you'd expect from a movie about a girl with a synthetic body.

Speaking of a girl with a synthetic body that didn't choose to have one. There's an entire consent thread throughout the film that pays off quite nicely. As a feminist, I'm fairly happy with the choices made. I can understand that she's partially nude in much of the film and that might bother people, but it makes sense since #1 she doesn't see herself as human and #2 she has a barbie body (i.e. there's nothing there: a synthetic human doesn't need reproductive parts).

It's not looking like it's going to make a ton of money, but let's hope it picks up internationally and we get a couple more. 
If you like sci-fi, you need to go see this movie. If you want to see more movies like this being made, you need to go see this movie. If you want more movies starring female actors in traditionally male roles, you need to go see this movie. If you like anime and want more anime adaptations, you need to go see this movie. 
Go see this movie. 

Thoughts on RWBY Volume 4 — Relatively spoiler free

RWBY has been continuously improving in production quality and is one of my favorite shows around. The action its creator—Monty Oum—is famous for alone makes the entire watching experience a net gain.

Volume 4 has just finished, so let's give some thoughts, ne? I'll keep my thoughts to overarching ones, so nothing specific will be spoiled, but I'm not going to say there's no spoilers.

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That one anime about the lesbian family — oh, and there are dragons in it too

This season has been a delightful surprise in a number of ways, but last week's episode of Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid (小林さんちのメイドラゴン) cemented it in my all-time favorite anime list. That was Episode 4 in case you're reading this at a later date by the way.

I'm going to try to do it justice here by talking about what makes it so special to me, but I feel like even if you're not approaching it from the same direction as I am, that the show is special and lovely and enjoyable. If you're approaching it from my direction, it's incredible and magical and heart-breakingly wonderful.


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Winter 2017 — Must Watch Anime of the Season!

Hi hii minna-chan!

At first, I thought Winter 2017 was going to be an off-season, but now that we are a few weeks into it, there are so many simply INCREDIBLE anime that I have to share them with you in case you too wrote off Winter 2017.

Every single one of the shows I'm listing today are either 9s or 10s for me for the episodes that have aired so far in terms of sheer enjoyment. It's a really incredible season so far and I don't know how these shows will be able to keep up such quality, but here's hoping!


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Update!

haha, I just noticed that my last 11 blog posts are all drafts . . .

;__;

I"M SORRY!

Anyway, it's 2017.That's pretty nice. 2016 was SHIT.

I promise more content soon!

Yeah, yeah. I know I'm not good at keeping those promises. But that's why your comments and replies are so important! They have a huge impact on me and are the source of 73% of my motivation.
(25% of the rest is coffee and the remaining 2% is my natural motivation).

I received two very nice letters from readers of Throne of Ao the other day, and it's convinced me to put it back up for sale (that and the fact that the only way to get it is to pirate it; seriously, they pirate everything regardless of popularity? haaaa).

I'll put it back up around the same time as Cross and the Cap comes out. So a week or so . . . tabun. I'm mostly working on formatting and cobbling together a cover now.

If you subscribe to my fiction newsletter, I'm sure I'll send something out then. Oh, and I'll be posting an anime review later today: huzzah!

Thank you for your time!
~Zero

Thoughts on Politics

In an effort to be more involved, more transparent, and more informed, I am starting a new series of blog posts where I examine an issue or policy, research it, provide my own analysis and thoughts, and possibly any proposals I may have.

I don't claim to be right, but I will do my best to be as right as I can be with facts and logic and reasoning. I don't claim to be complete, but I will try to present a complete picture of everything I discuss.

Comments will be allowed and encouraged, and I am open to having my mind changed if there are any gaps or flaws in my logic. On the other hand, I won't tolerate abuse or attacks, so I will moderate the comments and if there ever comes the point where I can't keep up with moderating them, temporarily turn them off or turn them off completely on older posts.

If you're not interested in anything political or are here for speculative fiction or mathematics nonfiction, that's fine, don't read those. I'll try to keep the word "politics" in the title of the post, and it will definitely be a label on any applicable post. I generally try to be proactive with labeling all my posts. It should be easy to avoid if you're here for something else. I may be a public figure in that I'm an author, but I'm not an actor and I am not going to pretend to be someone I'm not.

Specifically, generally the "thoughts on . . ." label will be reserved for posts that don't have the "politics" label, but every post I consider political will have the "politics" label.

If me posting things that I care about are enough to turn you off my blog completely, that's fine too. It's your choice. 

My entire life until about 2004-8, I always considered myself an independent and was registered as such. I hope to someday go back to being a registered independent because I don't think any political party has all the answers. Since I moved to Pennsylvania, it didn't seem like being independent was a choice and I made a snap decision to register as a Democrat (my choices were Democrat, Republican, Green and a few other parties; no party was not a choice I was given or I'd probably still be independent). I don't regret registering as a Democrat even though I still consider myself independent because it sure seems like I agree with the party line on most issues, but there are still many problems I have with them. Hopefully, we'll be able to have a good discussion on everything.

Initially, I'll start with older policies and issues and try to work through as many of them as I have the stamina for. If there are any policies or issues you'd like me to tackle sooner, let me know. If a particular policy catches my attention, I'll address it as I think about them.

I may update this post in the future as I think of other things.

Thank you!
~Zero

Tokyo Ghoul S1 is surprisingly bad

I say it's surprising because of how well done the show is in general.

Tokyo Ghoul (東京喰種（グール）) is about a human (Kaneki Ken 金木 研), who through no fault of his own other than liking a pretty girl, ends up being turned into a rare ghoul/human hybrid and has to deal with his newfound cravings and abilities, as well as his place amongst the other hungry ghouls of the city and the police force tasked with exterminating ghouls. Its potential is off the charts.

It's popularity is deserved for sure: the opening and ending music and art is great, the art throughout the show and the action when it pops up is all well-executed, the characters are interesting and mostly three-dimensional, even if some of them do end up falling into stereotypes and tropes.

But that just left the lack all the more apparent.

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Why Calculus? Specifically, "Why Do I Have to Take Calculus?"

If you're here, you probably are finding yourself taking a calculus class and wondering why oh why did the dreaded calculus monster show up in my curriculum? Maybe you're optimistic and curious about what if any benefits learning this particular material might hold for you and your future? More likely, you view this as an obstacle to your eventual degree and success, after all, machines can do calculus far more rapidly and more accurately than nearly any human could hope to.

And you'd be right.
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