Dave Walsh's Blog, page 3

3.17.23 – Go Home, Ricky.

Been an interesting last few days, but most of it has to do with kids, snow and other stuff.

The kids started their spring break, which means—of course—it’s snowing out. I’ve been mellowing out on work because of this, and even taking an occasional break to do something I want to do, which is nice.

There’s a Steam sale right now (pro-tip, go to IsThereAnyDeal.com and look a game up, other places can be cheaper) and I [finally] snagged the Miles Morales game, which is a ton of fun. I’m about 1/3rd of the way through and lemme say, as fun as it is, it’s really something that all these superhero properties seem obsessed with painting activists and corporate paramilitaries as a “both sides” situation. Maybe it’ll get better, but thus far the vibes are “this game is diverse and cool” while painting the diverse and cool people who care about stuff as assholes.

I’ve been reading “Go Home, Ricky” by Gene Kwak and it’s not just a good book, it’s a fantastic book.

3.9.23

Today felt like one of those “do or die” moments for the project I’ve been working on. Since the weather has gotten remarkably nicer this week, I did some dictation while doing yard work yesterday, then edited everything down and slapped it into the manuscript. Since I’ve reached the 25,000 word point, I slowed down and re-read the whole thing and see if this is a viable project or not.

If you’ve never known a novelist before, we’re weird creatures and we abandon or shelve projects all the time. This project I’m working on right now? It was a shelved project that I came back to and am really happy with. How much so? I stumbled upon this old blog I created back in 2008 intending to serialize a story about a pro wrestler. For whatever reason, I scrapped that project, but am sampling from it for this one.

You can read that here. It’s fun! Way better than I remember it being, too.

This project is a lot different, but I’m taking some of the characters and whatever else from the original.

Like I said, we’re strange creatures and ideas never truly die with us. They evolve, change and become something more.

Yes, My Future Looks Bright

March! Yeah, I don’t really know what to say about March other than it’s getting super windy here. We went to the movies on Sunday to see the new Ant-Man (ugh, I know, but the kids like it) and about 30 minutes in the power went out due to the windstorm. That means we need to go back at some point and finish it, using those passes.

We’ve lost our internet about three times since then this week, which has been fun as the kids grasp EVERYTHING uses the internet. I’ve been on a bit of an exploration streak when it comes to writing and returned to an older project I’d set aside. No, I’ll never learn with writing fiction about pro wrestlers, I fear. That’s fine, though. It’s a weird book but I’m enjoying writing it.

Yesterday was the day I could finally tackle repairing my wife’s laptop, and it’s back in working order. Who knew a random Acer we got at Costco had an M.2 NVME drive crammed in there? I sure didn’t. Once I realized this, it was pretty easy to fix, and her computer is working as good as new again. On top of that, I did our taxes, which is always one of the worst days of the year! Joy.

Today I have a new story published on Every Day Fiction named “Bright Future.” You should check it out. Yep, it has the same name as the wonderful collective I’m a part of (https://brightfuturescifi.com/) and are in the process of, you know, making that site functional.

In addition, it’s my Patreon short story drop day as well. Head to https://patreon.com/dvewlsh to check out the ~two~ shorts I shared today and will go behind the paywall after a week.

Today, and Today, and Today

Things have slowed down a bit this week, which I’m fine with.

I had a short story purchased by a market. It wasn’t a pro or even a semi-pro market, but hey, that’s fine. I’ll post it when it’s up. About two days ago, I started a new short story and was able to blaze through the first draft of it in a day, then did a lot of tinkering with it yesterday and got it into a good place. When inspiration hits, you gotta follow that thread, I suppose.

I’m still torn between returning to what I’ll lovingly call the “Bomb book” or if I should work on my cyberpunk noir indie book. Or… the Twin Peaks meets 90s local yokel pro wrestling. Or just nothing. Who knows?

Before bed I finished reading Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, which I enjoyed. It wasn’t an all-time favorite, but it was great. This morning I finished playing Saturday Edition for Playdate, and it lived up to my expectations. That was the game I was really looking forward to when I got my Playdate and was pretty bummed I had to wait 8 weeks due to how their “seasons” work, but it was worth the wait. Absolutely the best game on the Playdate other than Casual Birder and Bloom.

I’ve also been catching up on some wrestling stuff. AEW is in a real ditch right now, creatively speaking, so I’m not really engaging too much with that. El Hijo de Doctor Wagner Jr. vs. Manabu Soya was a banger of a match from NOAH and I still haven’t caught the Mutoh retirement show yet. The NJPW US show was fine, with only Eddie Kingston vs. Jay White standing out amongst the crowd.

There’s a new DDT show up, so I’m gonna watch that and try to write some more.

The Day of the Lords

Boy I uhh… President’s Day happened, I guess.

One of the little dudes was sick from Wednesday on, which included him tripping and cutting his gums (?!?!), although we did get to go to the Zoo on Monday, which was sorta nice. Sort of. He wasn’t feeling 100% yet and complained and acted up a lot.

Six-year-olds are not the greatest at handling being sick and hurt and that’s just the way he deals with it, although it’s incredibly difficult to deal with.

I started writing a new short today, which was good. I was fiddling around with a little detective game on the Playdate console (Saturday Edition) and got a great idea for a dystopian riff that would fit perfectly into a short story. Today was just a sort of brutal day of form rejections on the querying front, which is fine. Sort of.

The process of querying to find a literary agent is so strange.

This weekend I mulled over returning to another project I’d shelved for a while, although I’m still not sure yet. It’s an odd one, that’s for sure. Think Twin Peaks meets 90s regional pro wrestling.

A very rambling Valentine’s Day

Right now, it’s difficult to explain how I’m feeling.

I suppose there’s some malaise involved. The sixth book of my Trystero series is out, all editions I’m capable of creating are out (read: I can’t afford audiobooks and they take a long time to self-produce), and I’ve got another project started, I’m just not in the mood to work on it. It happens.

Instead, today was more queries sent into the abyss in an attempt to get a different novel project in motion. I hadn’t queried agents in a long time, so the process took a while to get back into, and I’m not sure I’ll ever quite find it anything but tedious. On top of that, my crit group’s feedback was all in on a short story I’ve been working on, so I did some revisions, edits and cleaning up on that story. Instead of firing it off for submission, I’m going to let it cool off for a few days. Right now, I’ve got one story on hold with a pro market and another three out.

It snowed last night, which meant by this afternoon it was gone thanks to the New Mexico sun, but it was too windy for the kids to stick around at the park after school. Instead, they came home and have been devouring all the candy they got at school for Valentine’s Day.

The Radical Goodness of Star Trek: DS9

Every once in a while, I’ll go back to my old comfort shows. I’d been watching a lot of newer stuff lately and while there are difficulties that come with that, I fell back into watching Star Trek: Deep Space Nine for no reason in particular.

Considering I’ve watched DS9 so many times through already, I allowed myself to do some skipping around. If there’s an episode that doesn’t do much for me, I just… skip it. There’s something liberating about that, even. I’ve gotten to where I’m about to fall headfirst into the Dominion War and I’m not sure I’m gonna keep watching, although I might.

The reason is that I’ve been enjoying all that DS9 offers and reminding myself just how radical that show was for its time. This is a show that was unafraid of asking tough questions and framing them from a progressive point of view, something that’s even refreshing today. There are a lot of criticisms of modern Trek, but I suppose my own would be that it’s downright liberal (read: moderate) compared to older Trek. It’s not asking tough questions as much, instead it’s very action-oriented and cocksure in its politics.

DS9, in comparison, is revolutionary.

Episode 19 of season one, for example, “Duet.” In that episode, a Cardassian boards DS9 and Major Kira believes he’s a Cardassian War Criminal, having him arrested. It’s much more complicated than that, and explores some really heavy material such as being complicit in war crimes, the guilt that comes with it, and the concept of forgiveness for someone like that from the victims. They handled it with grace, dignity and was genuinely mind-blowing to know how old this show was and how deftly it handled said topic.

It’s also one helluva way to address colonialist aggression, occupation, guilt and basic imperialism. It’s staggering.

“Cardassia will only survive if it stands in front of Bajor and admits the truth. My trial will force Cardassia to admit its guilt, and we’re guilty—all of us—my trial is necessary.”

Aamin Marritza

Followed immediately after by an episode about religious extremists boycotting the station’s school, leading to a bombing, protests and the whole works.

Season two opens with looking at Bajoran extremists forming while their government hems and haws. Where it really floored me again was episode 5, “Cardassians.” It’s an episode about Cardassian war orphans left behind on Bajor, one of which showed up on DS9 with his Bajoran adoptive parents, and said kid bites Garek because he’s a Cardassian, and Cardassians are bad. The father was, by all measures, a nice, nurturing parent, except for the fact he was a bitter racist who trained his Cardassian son to despise his own people. This leads to investigations, subterfuge and, of course, Gul Dukat having pulled strings to undermine the civilian government of Cardassia and harm a political rival.

Followed immediately by “Melora,” an episode about an alien Federation science officer who came from a planet with lower gravity and less dense bones. Hence, she’s restricted to a wheelchair when in “normal” gravity. Dr. Bashir falls for her and tries to help her, including healing her “condition,” which creates many moral dilemmas. It was a gentle and even-handed look at how folks with disabilities have to live in the world, how they create barriers because of how people treat them, and how well-meaning folks trying to “fix” them mean well, but it’s not always welcome.

Never mind episode 10, “Sanctuary,” where aliens from the Gamma Quadrant show up in search of their mythical homeworld, only to discover that Bajor may indeed be that, and the Bajoran government, one that benefitted from the many races of the Federation assisting them after the Cardassian occupation, immediately pump the brakes and say they don’t have room, even in abandoned parts of their planet, for refugees.

This show had one helluva run in its second season, one I could keep going on about, but I won’t. If you haven’t watched it recently, I highly recommend another visit.

I’m not gonna get into “Past Tense” here, because that warrants its own post. Amazing two-parter that’s eerie considering when the time travel gimmick took place and where we are now.

Cracked Palace Available Now!

The sixth — and final — book in the Trystero series is out now.

This has been on helluva journey and I appreciate everyone for their support along the way. You can pick up the ebook everywhere and paperback on Amazon. It’s still in process elsewhere.

There’s no stopping the Void now. The gate has been cracked open.

Drake and Valencia spent years trying to prevent the coming of the all-powerful alien race known as the Void, only it was all for nothing. After Drake made a deal with the Void Inquisitor, the entity known as Drake Rose ceased to exist as everyone else knew him, leaving him a thrall at the command of the Void.

Valencia knows there’s no time to waste, trying to urge Terran leaders to join forces with the Gra’al in a show of unity against the coming storm, while Zed believes the only way there can be peace is in retribution against Ansel Breedon, the madman who’s xenophobic brinksmanship ruined the fragile peace the galaxy had been working towards.

As the crew track down missing Terrans and follow the clues they believe left to them by Drake, it’s a race against time to ensure the survival of both the Terran and Gra’al people against the unknown alien threat.

Snag Your Copy Now!

If you’re new to the series, Broken Ascension is the place to start.

Book Review: The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy

This is one of those books that I know I’ll be reading multiple times and that leaving a conventional “review” for won’t be possible.

The Passenger is presented through two different, alternating vantage points. First is through the hallucinations of Alicia, a certified genius in math, violins and a great deal of theoretical things. The other is Bobby Western, the brother of Alicia and, while smart in his own right, could never quite live up to his little sister. That didn’t matter to him, though, because he loved his little sister. When I say loved, I don’t mean sibling-wise; I mean… yeah. There are vague allusions to a wedding, a miscarried baby and the hurt his family suffered because of all of this.

If this was the path of inciting incidents that led to Alicia checking herself into therapy, where she received shock treatments and hallucinated the Thalidomide Kid, almost described like a penguin, who would interrogate Alicia, berate her, and bring about a cast of crude “entertainers” to keep her company.

Bobby sees the Thalidomide Kid once when he closed himself up in a shack by the beach.

If you want to, you could read deeper into a lot of this, including McCarthy’s use of language and his own reading into the Kekule Problem. McCarthy isn’t a normal guy. He’s one of the most acclaimed American authors and he can waltz into the Santa Fe Institute, a think tank where he’s spent a lot of his recent years pondering language, mathematics and philosophy. This book is well researched, delving into complex mathematic theories, other times the Kennedy Assassination or the history of the atomic bombs. Western’s dad was one of the creators of the atomic bomb, and his papers were stolen while Bobby was “away” after an accident.

It’s understanding these things that helps to unravel what this book is. There’s a plane crash at the beginning and Bobby is a salvage diver, working with a motley crew of rejects to take whatever job comes their way. One of those jobs is this crash, and there’s a missing body, black box and no sign of forced entry. After this, things just seem to keep getting more complicated and worse.

We learn Bobby found a small fortune in vintage coins stuffed into pipes in the concrete foundation of his grandparents’ old home. Alicia and he split that fortune, with Alicia buying a very expensive violin with her half, and Bobby buying a sports car and trotting around the globe doing various things, including being a pretty good race car driver. But what Bobby can’t shake is that Alicia killed herself. She was always the smarter one, but she was also the active one.

She had checked herself into the asylum, had always known what she wanted to do, what she wanted to be. She was sought after by violin collectors to give the history and math behind antique violins. Everything about Alicia was active while Bobby drifted around, unsure of himself or his life. There’s something here about Bobby’s parents and their link to the atomic bombs and the sin that comes with being the offspring of such an atrocity.

The feds are after Bobby. On the surface it’s about tax evasion, but there’s something deeper here at play. Is Bobby the missing body from the aircraft at the beginning? Did Bobby ever really wake up after his accident and his mind is playing through his own guilt in a much more straightforward way than Alicia did?

One key here is perhaps the Thalidomide Kid himself. Thalidomide was a drug used in the 50s and 60s for pregnant women to help with morning sickness, and the results were horrific. It led to limb and liver deformities in babies that were born, or it led to miscarriages. Their limbs would resemble flippers.

Bobby encounters a host of different characters from his diving buddies, most of which meet untimely ends, to bar friends and even the glamorous trans stripper, Debbie. Debbie feels like something more, especially considering when it comes down to it, she’s who Bobby trusts the most. The feds are doing everything in their power to strip Bobby’s identity away from him, to where he feels like he needs to take a new identity at the hands of a lawyer he found in the phone book and has had a series of metaphysical conversations with at a mobster restaurant, and Debbie is his choice of confidant before he leaves.

Can you live your life if the past is anchored to your ankles and dragging you down? Most of his diving friends are listless and afraid of letting go of something, and their ends are not poetic. Be it living in a run-down shack shooting roaches, drowning on a job or having a lifestyle catch up, each one gave Bobby insight into what his life could be, but he can’t quite accept any of them.

This is a dense, interesting, frustrating and at times very funny book that I know I’m gonna re-visit soon. It also means I need to read Stella Maris, then re-evaluate this one. I’m glad we got this book.

Snag the Hopepunk StoryBundle Now!

That’s right, I’m in my second StoryBundle this year, and this one is just in time for the holiday season. It’s the Hopepunk StoryBundle, featuring eleven separate titles with a focus on a hopeful future through science fiction.

There are a lot of different interpretations of what the subgenre “hopepunk” really is, but for the purposes of this bundle, the idea is science fiction that focuses on uplifting, as opposed to more grim or dark settings.

My inclusion for this bundle is the Andlios Collection: Books 1 – 3. That means getting to follow Jace, Katrijn, Loren, Trella and the whole gang as they search for a better, united future for mankind.

You’ve got until Dec. 15th to pick this one up! Do so here.