Landon Porter's Blog, page 50

4 Concepts Writers Should Be Aware Of (But Usually Aren’t)

I’ve been writing stuff for a long, long time. I’ve been reading stuff even longer. And while I don’t diagram sentences or discuss symbolism all that much, I do observe and I do learn from every story I write, read, watch or hear.

While I by no means know everything, I can’t help but notice that there are some things missing from a lot of discussion by my fellow writers that seem to be present in a lot of the works I and others greatly enjoy. It’s another one of those things that I bring up to...

Navigation Upgrades Are Underway

You might notice that the little banners that link all the Volumes and minis to each other are missing. This is because the plugin that makes them tripped a fatal error that took the site offline. As such, I’m instituting a workaround that I think will make things work better and more unified than before.

Vols. 1-3 are fixed as of this update, but the entire main series can now be accessed from the Back Issues page without further click-throughs I expect to have the fixes done by the weekend.

Rune Breaker: Chapter 48 – Days of Light and Joy

The journal of Lena Hiddakko contained neither her official notes, nor a consistent day to day log. It was more of a collection of whatever thoughts the woman considered worth remembering. There were week long gaps between some of the entries along with sometimes dozens of entries made on the same day. They weren’t just written entries either, but also spell diagrams, scientific formulae that Pele couldn’t decipher and amateurish sketches; all compiled in a small, neat hand but cramped as if...

Descendants #76 – Silicon Soul, Adamantine Will (Chp. 6)

Once he came out of it, it felt like a dream.

That was a cliché way of putting it, but a worse one would have been to call it a nightmare. But it hadn’t felt like a nightmare at all, just an inconsequential dream.

The memory and logic surrounding it were fuzzy to begin with and rapidly deteriorating. Warrick just remembered it being really important to grab the robot for… reasons… and joining in with a faceless mass of people to do just that. He was lucid enough to know it didn’t make sense, bu...

5 Spec-Fic Properties That Deserve a Reboot

Let’s face it folks: by 2020, we will officially be in the Pop Culture Mobius strip, wherein no new pop culture is being generated, only reboot after reboot of the same properties over and over. Right at this moment, Hollywood is preparing to unleash a gritty reboot of Santa Claus . The good news? I’ll have a job writing GI Joe , the bad news? Superman movies will continue to suck.

Unlike other internet geeks, however, I do not completely fear the reboot. Sure, Amazing Spider-man was mediocre an...

Malady Place – E101 “Meeting Miss Faust” Act 2

This entry is part 2 of 2 in the series Malady PlaceRenee stopped in the outer office to rifle through the desk. Winter wasn’t far behind.

“I may…not, I know I’m going to regret learning the answer to this, but… why are you sure the rats have all been eaten?”

Renee finally came up with a set of archaic car keys. Pocketing them, she turned and caught Winter about the shoulders, leaning down so their faces were just inches apart.

“Snowy, that’s one of those questions that’s dumb, but it’s okay bec...

I’ve Joined High Society

The Pen and Cape Society that is. We’re a group of superhero genre writers who’ve come together for mutual promotion of the genre and to open the doors for our readers to get more of what they want: super-powered action and drama spanning the traditional Ages of comics history and beyond. Check us out as PenAndCapeSociety.com

Descendants #76 – Silicon Soul, Adamantine Will (Chp. 5)

This entry is part 50 of 50 in the series Current“I need one of your gauntlets.” Renaissance explained to Whitecoat, “Or at least the electrostatic adhesion element.”

“Sounds like someone’s been telling tales out of school.” he said, turning one hand palm up. Up close, the glowing blue disk in his palm could bee seen to be held in place in at the center piece of the plastic gauntlet by a locking ring.

Renaissance leaned over to examine the device with interest. “He’s a big fan.”

“Don’t I know it...

The Clip Show

Last week, I promised a friend of mine would be taking over the blog this week. They were unable to and so now you must suffer my quick and dirty scramble.

The question is ‘what sort of dreck can a hack writer toss out there on limited time and resources’? Luckily, my brethren in the field of TV writing solved that long ago: a clip show!

There might be some readers, born in an age of better-planned series, who are largely unfamiliar with this concept, so let me explain. Occasionally, a TV produ...

Liedecker Institute: Sophomore Year #6 – Rags to Rags Part 6

This entry is part 6 of 6 in the series Liedecker Institute Volume 4“I don’t know what I expected, but besides Ms. Keyes’s class, it’s pretty… normal.” Zane was talking to his father on his palmtop. The final class of the day was over and he was headed out across the quad to the gym in hopes of starting a pick-up game of basketball.

“History, Calculus, Programming… just regular high school stuff.” He said.

On the other end of the line, his father laughed. “Not everything can be superpowers and...