Sidney Blaylock Jr.'s Blog, page 13
August 5, 2020
Spider-Man Avengers Game (Non) Controversy
I’m going to warn you upfront–while this isn’t one of those “angry guy” on the internet posts–it is going to be a little more cutting and biting than usual. You see, it has to do with the “deification” (making god-like) of Microsoft, something I absolutely cannot abide. I intend to take “aim” at that–and while this blog post won’t get anywhere near the coverage of all those news stories from yesterday, I will at least had my say on the matter (once again).
What Sony Owns, the World Should Own Too
So, if you were to listen to the hue and cry and manufactured outrage over Sony’s decision to allow the character of Spider-Man to be featured in the upcoming Marvel Avengers game to be played on Sony systems (aka PS4 & PS5), you would have thought Sony had ordered the immediate disintegration of “Baby Yoda,” Ice Cream, stuffed animals, chocolate , fluffy clouds, Snoopy, all dancing cat videos, and puppies everywhere. Yes, I’m being overly dramatic and sarcastic, but I think this tone is appropriate for a company telling owners of other consoles that they can’t play with a character that is owned by Sony.
It’s not fair, complained the Microsoft zealots all over the world. One argument that has been floated is that we (Microsoft & PC players) are getting an “inferior” product. It is something that is “lesser” than what Sony players are getting for the same price. And my response to that is two-fold: 1) that is a practice that is pretty much standard throughout video game history with various “ports” of games (such as the Sega Genesis port of a game vs that of the Super Nintendo) and 2) at least you have a complete game to play day and date at the time of release (Mass Effect 1 and 2 were both severely delayed on the Playstation 3 and I don’t remember my Microsoft colleagues having this same hue and cry about the “unfairness” of it all then, nor do I remember any of this “unfair” garbage about Halo, which is a Microsoft product, right? Then answer me why if first debuted on the at Macworld instead?)
Sony’s whole corporate strategy is an extension of Microsoft’s strategy, but when Sony outplays and outfoxes Microsoft, then that’s when things become “unfair.” Microsoft wants to be the “category leader” in every area (never mind that it’s products and services are rarely at that level–the “blue screen of death,” anyone? The “red ring of death,” anyone? They want to be “Number 1” (as in the famous chant –“we’re number one, we’re number one”). And they will use whatever tactics at hand to accomplish that goal, not limited to, buying “limited” exclusivity or outright exclusivity to accomplish their goal. Both Halo and Gears of War are owned outright by Microsoft, despite the fact that they did not develop those games.
Sony uses the idea of incentives, or bonuses, to entice you to play on their console. They, like Microsoft, spend money to get game developers to make you want to play on their platform. However, rather than “lock away” the entire game, they choose to find “added content” to the Playstation brand. They own the rights to Spider-Man, so of course, that character, where possible, is going to be an “added value” to games that feature him. Just as Master Chief and Marcus Fenix are “added values” for Microsoft. The difference is, X-Box players can play the entire game (minus Spider-Man) while Playstation players have NO recourse if they want to play Halo or Gears (outside of buying a console from MS).
According to the World, Microsoft Only Wants to Be Your Friend
But that’s right, Microsoft, the company that famously wanted its software everywhere, wants to be your friend, and your friend, and your friend, and you too in the back, your friend too. Oh, you have no money, sorry, it only wants to be friends if you have something it wants–no money, no friendship. It does, after all, want to be the #1 company in every industry (or at least own the number one product in the category). Let’s see: Halo (check), nevermind that Halo first appeared at Macworld way back in 2012 before the development studio was bought by Microsoft.
We already mentioned Gears. Microsoft currently has a deal with the creator of Minecraft and they’re trying to get the US operations of TikTok (as of this writing). Microsoft seems to only interested in something if they can be an industry leader, yet look, over time, they have proven to be less than ideal once they take the lead. The most notable example of this is the “browser wars” of the late 90s, early 2000s. Microsoft made Internet Explorer into the number one browser, but when the revenue from it didn’t materialize and all of the advertising money went to search engines, such as Google, Internet Explorer floundered and stagnated, despite the fact that it killed a fairly innovative company and product, Netscape’s Navigator in order to get to the top.
I’m going to close this out as this blog entry has taken way to long to complete, but I will probably revisit this topic later, with a more structured approach to this argument.
These are two multi-billion dollar corporations and I recognize that neither company has my “best interests” at heart. However, to see Microsoft praised for doing things that are help its interests, but to see Sony excoriated for doing the same things is hypocrisy of the highest order.
Fine, you’re unhappy that you can’t play as Spider-Man in the upcoming Marvel Avengers game? Then complain about how Microsoft buys “hot” properties (like Halo and Gears of War) and maybe we can change the industry into something that is more fair for the consumer. Until that time, I’ll still be NOT PLAYING ANY of the Halo games on Playstation while you enjoy your Spider-Man–less version of Avengers on your X-Box. See, you really didn’t get the worst of it after all, did you?
Sidney
Please consider supporting these fine small press publishers where my work has appeared:
Read Skin Deep for Free at Aurora WolfRead Childe Roland for Free at Electric Spec
Purchase HawkeMoon on Amazon.com (Paperback) or eBookPurchase Dragonhawk on Amazon.com (Paperback) or KindlePurchase WarLight on Amazon.com (Paperback) or KindlePurchase Ship of Shadows on Amazon.com (Paperback) or KindlePurchase Faerie Knight on Amazon.com (Paperback) or Kindle
Currently Working On (8/2020):
“Project Wall” (Science Fiction Story)
Drafting: 2nd Draft
Unhallowed (Weird Western Story)
Revising: 2nd Draft (Working Draft)
KnightWatch Graphic Novel (Fantasy Graphic Novel)
Drafting: 1st Draft (Issue 1)
August 4, 2020
Artist Spotlight: Vladimir Novitsky (HawkeMoon)
Nope, you’re not having deja vu. My story in Storyhack actually had two artists, one who did the cover, who I covered last week, but also one who did an interior image for my story and others in the issue. Unfortunately, there’s not an online version of the image for everyone to see, but since the artist does have a Facebook page and Artstation page, I thought I’d take a moment to highlight this artist as well: Vladimir Novitsky. You can find his Artstation Page here or his Facebook Page here.
Anime Infused Art
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Artwork by Vladimir Novitsky
Like the previous artist, I’ve not had a chance to work with or interact with Vladimir. However, he was commissioned by Bryce Beattie, editor of Storyhack to do several interior images for the various stories in the magazine, including my story. As you can see by the above image which is also on his ArtStation Page, Vladimir drawings have an element of amine inspiration to them. For my story, Vladimir portrayed Moon, but he gave her shorter hair than the cover artist did (neither one is better, just stylistically different). In the describtion, Moon does have short hair, but it is also “moon-white.” The fun, however, is not necessarily having the artists get the character “exactly” right based on my description, but how they choose to interpret the character. For instance, Moon in the artwork is perched on a rooftop, looking down with cat at her feet–again, something that I described in the story, but is really cool to get a chance to see how that is realized in artwork. I really love anime “style” that much of his drawn artwork exhibits. There are a couple of pieces that I really like that I think really gets at the heart of the wonder that I’m trying to exhibit in my own stories.
An Artist of Many Talents
Not only is Vladimir a strong artist in terms of drawing, but he is also apparently a strong Tattoo artist as well. His Facebook page lists quite a few illustrations that he’s done for clients. While I’m not personally very deep into the tattoo culture, one remarkable thing that I can see is how his style changes when he works with tattoos. His style there is much more realistic and detailed. You can see the devotion to his art in the meticulous lines and shading that the tattoos have and the way they create this almost poster-like image that is stunning. While a tattoo is not something that I would probably ever do, I could easily see asking him to do a cover image in this type of style of several projects I have in mind. This is especially true because it seems like, while he does do a lot in terms of fantasy (in both his drawn and tattoo art), his tattoos do show futuristic elements (I think I recognize the Warhammer 40,000 universe in a couple of those tattoos/designs), which I think compliments his strong level of detail nicely.
In Closing
So, I just want to say that I really enjoy seeing artwork anytime that it accompanies my story. It is always a treat to see what scene and/or character(s) will be highlighted. I also like see how a particular artist chooses to portray the scene through their unique vision. I always envisioned Moon as a fairly realistic character–I guess similar in depiction to characters in a video game. If I had to narrow it down, I guess my conception of the characters and the story would match the style of say a “fighting game” such the lastest games (as of this writing) such as Samurai Shodown (2019) or Soul Calibur 6. Neither would be considered anime, but after seeing Vladimir Novitsky’s artwork, I see how anime could work for the story if it were a graphic novel and how cool it might be to see it in a different medium beside the printed word. I do hope that, like the cover artist, I’ll get a chance work with Mr. Novitsky on a longer project. That would also be cool.
Very cool indeed!
Sidney
Please consider supporting these fine small press publishers where my work has appeared:
Read Skin Deep for Free at Aurora WolfRead Childe Roland for Free at Electric Spec
Purchase HawkeMoon on Amazon.com (Paperback) or eBookPurchase Dragonhawk on Amazon.com (Paperback) or KindlePurchase WarLight on Amazon.com (Paperback) or KindlePurchase Ship of Shadows on Amazon.com (Paperback) or KindlePurchase Faerie Knight on Amazon.com (Paperback) or Kindle
Currently Working On (8/2020):
“Project Wall” (Science Fiction Story)
Drafting: 2nd Draft
Unhallowed (Weird Western Story)
Revising: 2nd Draft (Working Draft)
KnightWatch Graphic Novel (Fantasy Graphic Novel)
Drafting: 1st Draft (Issue 1)
August 3, 2020
Mini-Movie Review: Terminator: Dark Fate
So, this is another time that I wish that I could use typical spoiler tags () on the blog as it would make writing this mini-review much easier. A cursory search on google shows that it is possible on WordPress, but you need to be a paid user to access the feature (at the time of writing). I scanned through all of the “embeds” and wasn’t able to find it, but did run across what I wanted to do on a forum. However, this being the case, I will try to discuss the movie in a non-spoiler way.
Know this, however. There is a major spoiler within the first five minutes of the movie. Your reaction to the movie is largely going to depend on whether or not you buy this particular scene. Fans of the classic two movies Terminator and Terminator 2 probably won’t like this scene, while those of the newer generations may care less/may forgive what happens in the scene, and may find this one a good or decent movie. A lot of it depends on your frame of reference, Point of view towards, and attachment to the original two movies that are well regarded.
The Good
Okay, as I mention periodically, I don’t watch the reviews for a movie until after I’ve seen it as I don’t want to be influenced by any perceived biases on the part of the reviewers. That wasn’t always the case as I remember watching Siskel & Ebert movie reviews as a child for their opinion on the latest genre fair–except for Star Wars and a couple of other major exceptions, they always tended to be mixed or negative from what I remember.
However, afterwards I watch the reviews to see how closely my opinions matched with reviewers. In this, both the reviewers and myself are closely aligned. The actors/performers were awesome (“on point,” I believe is the current, soon-to-be dated reference), and did an amazing job. The new actors and the return of Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger, really worked well and gave solid and believable performances. I thought the establishing scenes with the protagonist and her brother and father were witty, charming, fun, not necessarily because of the script, but because of the actors and the way they portrayed their characters.
The Bad
As usual, the script/story. This seems to be a repeated meme and one that you’d think Hollywood would work harder at getting right. You can’t get through the door unless you’re part of the Writer’s Guild (or Director’s Guild, or Producer’s Guild), but the story with 5 credited writers (for the story & 3 for the screenplay), and yet the scripts continue to (often) be the weakest parts of the movie. This is probably a blog topic for another time, so I’ll save it, but Hollywood is to entrenched (in my opinion) in trying to find a magic “formula” that guarantees success. It’s a business wrapped around art–sometimes you’re going to hit it big (The Lord of the Rings 2001-2003) and sometimes you’re going to strikeout (Dungeons & Dragons – 2000). The best you can do is put up the best you can in terms of talent and story and swing for the fences–which Hollywood would argue isn’t a sustainable business model–but which gives you movies like Terminator: Dark Fate.
So what’s actually wrong with the script? It is basically a “callback” to ideas presented in the first two Terminator movies. While not a one-to-one recreation, there are scenes right out of the two movies that newer viewers might think are original, but have actually been done before (and better) by the older movies. Small vehicle (insert protagonists) vs “Big Bad” vehicle, check. Helicopter scene, check. I had to physically clamp my jaw down to keep from sighing or reacting when I saw yet another scene that had a reference point from one of the other movies.
The Ugly
This is a no spoiler mini-review, but we have to talk about the first scene in the first five minutes. This is an Alien 3 level scene. If you want to no absolutely nothing–then maybe skip to the next section now . . . . . .
Okay, still reading? This scene destroys the themes of the first two movies and makes those movies seem irrelevant, in exactly the same way that Alien 3 did for Aliens (and to a lesser extent, the way the Disney Star Wars movies have done for the the original trilogy). There’s this “thing” in Hollywood that says if you don’t want to deal with things in a previous movie, its okay to write your beginning (or whole movie) in such a way that completely drops that whole set of themes so that you can do what you want to do. And that’s not what we, as an audience, want. Ideally, we want you, the creators to advance the plot, in novel and unique ways that we never thought of (Empire Strikes Back–>Star Wars, Aliens–>Alien, Terminator 2–>Terminator, Bourne Supremacy–>Bourne Identity, etc.). Less ideally, we’ll accept (or at least I will), same character/plot (or different characters with same basic plot) inside a different setting (Home Alone 2, Karate Kid 2, Predator 2, Jurassic Park Lost World, etc.). Not okay (in my book) are the movies that destroy characters and mythology just because you don’t want to be bothered with it (Alien 3, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and now Terminator: Dark Fate)
Overall Grade: C (although this really should lower)
Rating: 3 out of 5.
Above Average (B) for the actors performances, but well below average for the script/screenplay (D) = a C. However, the fact that it really plays hard and fast with the continuity of the overall Terminator series really does annoy me and while it is a movie I could actually get through (unlike Terminator Genisys), it one that, while full of action like other Terminator movies, makes me wonder if I should rate it much lower than I have as I don’t feel that it was a very good movie in the overall Terminator “franchise” (for the business people) vs “canon” (for the audience members).
July 31, 2020
Writing Log: July 2020 (Part Deux)
So, that’s the thing about trying to a “monthly” series–sometimes, due to the way the calendar rolls around, these come up before the month is technically up. I’ve not decided how I will handle these month-to-month perturbations. This time I’m going with a Part 2 for my Writing Log, but I could also just do these monthly (once a month) without actually worrying about what happens when the month doesn’t cooperate with me. Like everything, this will be a constantly evolving decision. If you have a preference (once a month update vs a two-part update then let me know in the comments. I’m leaning towards once a month, but I don’t have any firm opinions either way.
I, Mage (Urban Fantasy Story)
Completion %:
Rating: 1 out of 5.
Okay, so this one is the big offender for the month. Totally my fault, but I got seduced by a deadline of August 1st for a market that wanted submissions using their “starter sentence” discusses a fictional library, The Simmons Public Library. They wanted to be the first ones to see stories built on this framework (which I can totally understand), but the Aug. 1st deadline proved to be way too close. I thought that because I worked in a public library and this story is set in a public library, I could “breeze” through the drafting of it. Well, not so fair reader. Even though I did the rough draft for the story–that’s the easy part. It is essential for me so that I don’t meander or get lost in the weeds, but the hard part is dramatizing the story (POV, setting, characterization, feelings, 5 senses, etc.) takes time, energy, and is difficult. So I got bogged down in the first section for most of the month. Finally, last week I just had to temporarily abandon the project or I wasn’t going to get anything finished. What lesson did I learn: Show, don’t tell is good advice, but Tell, then show is even better advice. The problem is telling is easy (and fun), and showing is hard (and hard work). Make sure you have enough time to go through both stages. Also, better to affix your own deadlines than to work to someone else’s (though this may be unique to just me). I’m going to remove it from my “Project List” at the bottom of my signature, for now, and replace it with another project.
Project Wall (Sci-Fi Story)
Completion Percentage:
Rating: 5 out of 5.
I’m going to go ahead and basically mark this one as completed. I was only supposed to create a “rough draft” this month. I got carried away and started dramatizing that rough draft and got through the 1st section. However, I stopped and rewrote out a draft in my notebook–yes, I do still hand write things (mostly notes). However, I did hand write a rough draft that is waiting to get put into the computer later today or sometime over the weekend.
This one almost didn’t come together as I did the research for it, but none of the research ended up in the first version of the “rough draft.” This one is going to be a much harder and much more complex thing to get down correctly. It deals with a brother trying to save his sister and I don’t want it to get bogged down in gender relations–this story is strictly about filial love and duty and that’s what I’m having a hard time capturing. Also, I don’t want to be too close to the inspiration of this project. Basically, I know a lot of what I don’t what from this project, but less about what I do want. I’m interested to see how this one turns out.
Unhallowed
(Weird Western Fantasy Story)
Completion Percentage:
Rating: 4 out of 5.
This story is getting there. I’ve revised most of the earlier sections and I’m now working on the final section. I estimate that I still have a week or two left before I’m finished working on the 2nd draft (Working Draft) of the story. The first draft of the story went “crazy well” (and, I guess why I went in the same direction with Project Wall) and now I’m just fleshing out setting and characterization issues mostly. The end is where I am and is what needs the most amount of work: I want to imply that there is a scientific theory at work (branes), but the characters have no conception of this theory, so I’m going to have to explain it in a way that implies this, but doesn’t actually name it. I’ve done a little of that work in the 1st draft, but I’m going to have to really do it well in this draft. This is the one that I should have been concentrating on all month and I might have finished by now, but that’s okay. Lesson learned.
KnightWatch
(Fantasy Graphic Novel)
Completion Percentage:
Rating: 1 out of 5.
I only recently started this story (last week). I’m currently writing Issue #1 and if I had to hazard a guess, I’m on script page 5 or 6 (the actual document is currently 4 pages long). This is a long-term project, so my personal deadline isn’t until Christmas (although I hope to finish it sooner). Ship of Shadows issue #1 is finished, but I have had no desire to work on issue 2 because I’m telling the same story over again. The goal was to retell the short story in issue 1 and 2 and then finish off issue 3 and 4 with new material, but another lesson that I’ve learned is that once I finish a story (and published it), I have no real desire to go back and tell the same story over again–I want new challenges and to advance the plot. Bringing back characters is fine or putting them in situations that are later in their lives is also fine, but to just redo the same story doesn’t work for me.
KnightWatch is set in the same world as the short story Sister-Knight that is no longer in print (even though it was published on the internet), but follows a different group of characters. The original characters do make a cameo appearance in the story, but the focus isn’t on them. Hopefully, by the end of the year I can start looking for publishers and/or artists who might like to work on this project. If nothing else, it will give me an opportunity to reach out to some of the artists who’ve done illustrations for my work in the past and maybe allowing me to move into new (and longer) formats. I’ll keep you updated. This will replace Childe Roland in the signature line.
Well, that’s all I have for today! Have a great weekend!
Sidney
Please consider supporting these fine small press publishers where my work has appeared:
Read Skin Deep for Free at Aurora WolfRead Childe Roland for Free at Electric Spec
Purchase HawkeMoon on Amazon.com (Paperback) or eBookPurchase Dragonhawk on Amazon.com (Paperback) or KindlePurchase WarLight on Amazon.com (Paperback) or KindlePurchase Ship of Shadows on Amazon.com (Paperback) or KindlePurchase Faerie Knight on Amazon.com (Paperback) or Kindle
Currently Working On (7/2020):
“Project Wall” (Science Fiction Story)
Completed: First Draft
Unhallowed (Weird Western Story)
Drafting: 2nd Draft (Working Draft)
KnightWatch Graphic Novel (Fantasy Graphic Novel)
Up Next: 1st Draft (Issue 1 – 7 story pages)
July 30, 2020
Research for Project Wall
I’m trying to get a “Rough Draft” down of all the story ideas that I want to do. For me, a “rough draft” is simply me telling the story to myself. It has none (or very little) of the narrative techniques that one might associate with a traditional story: no pov, little-to-no characterization in terms of the 5 senses, feelings, etc. No internal monologue, and rarely even any dialogue. Heck, sometimes the characters aren’t even named yet, and are only identified by generic placeholder names that are usually their occupation or function in the story (“the antagonist” or ” the Ranger”). My “rough drafts” look an awful lot like Hollywood treatments or plot outlines for novels in that I’m only really interested in fleshing out the idea so that I know what I want to write about and how I want to dramatize it on the 2nd draft.
Researching Project Wall–Atlanta, GA and Quantum Mechanics
Unlike Unhallowed (formerly “Project Arizona”), where I specifically set out to learn a lot more about the time frame of the Old West, Project Wall is set in Atlanta, Georgia in the US. I live within a 2 hour drive of the city and I’ve been there several times, so I feel I have a pretty good working knowledge of the city. I did do research about the city (the city’s “crest” will actually feature into the story and was something I learned from research), but I have to confess, I did’t really do research on the same level as Unhallowed and I can’t but help wonder if that helped to throw me off my stride.
Mainly, however, I did research in Quantum Mechanics, something that features prominently in the reason for the story to be unfolding in the way that it is. I looked at various episodes of science shows that I watch and Youtube channels (on science) that I subscribe to as well.
When the Research Phase Doesn’t Go Well
I have a whole page of notes and things that I wanted to include in the “rough draft” and some things that I wanted to set up for the 1st draft where I start to do some of that expected narrative dramatization. However, thanks to trying to work on more than one project, I didn’t really emphasize research as heavily as I did for Unhallowed and my first “rough draft” totally looks and feels different than that from Unhallowed.
So much so, that I decided to start over. I’m going to scrap the first section of the story. However, I’ve already handwritten (in a notebook) the new versions of sections 1, 2 & 3 for the story. I just need to put it into the computer before Saturday, August 1st and I will have still met my own self-imposed monthly deadline. The original first section was just exposition and none of it matched anything that I had in my research or notes.
Sometimes, when the research portion (or even in the drafting phase) doesn’t go well, while you can continue to work, oftentimes it becomes muddled and not what you the writer want it to say. Sometimes you just have to start over and redo the process. Every story, and sometimes even every draft, is a learning experience. We talk about failure and how it is important to the learning process, but here in America, no one actually wants to fail. I suppose it comes from our American “exceptionalism” ideas and ideology, but writing is not a mathematical formula that works as expressed 100% of the time. Like any art or creative endeavor, sometimes seeing what you don’t want is sometimes as helpful as seeing what you do want as it forces you to take stock of the project and figure out if you’re going in the right direction or not.
Anyway, I’ve learned that what I was putting on the paper, while long, wasn’t actually good and was all exposition. The rough draft I’m writing now is much shorter, but is much closer to the original vision that I had in mind for the story.
Sidney
Please consider supporting these fine small press publishers where my work has appeared:
Read Skin Deep for Free at Aurora WolfRead Childe Roland for Free at Electric Spec
Purchase HawkeMoon on Amazon.com (Paperback) or eBookPurchase Dragonhawk on Amazon.com (Paperback) or KindlePurchase WarLight on Amazon.com (Paperback) or KindlePurchase Ship of Shadows on Amazon.com (Paperback) or KindlePurchase Faerie Knight on Amazon.com (Paperback) or Kindle
Currently Working On (7/2020):
“Project Wall” (Science Fiction Story)
Drafting: First Draft
Unhallowed (Weird Western Story)
Drafting: 2nd Draft (Working Draft)
Childe Roland Graphic Novel
Up Next: Rough Draft (Story)
I, Mage (Urban Fantasy Story)
Drafting: 1st Revision
July 29, 2020
Commodore 64 (C64) Retro View: FIST II: The Legend Continues
Continuing my semi-nostalgic and semi-informative series of posts looking at the game games that informed my childhood, today I’m going to take a look at another (not very well known) martial arts game that caught my eye. Like one of the other games I looked at earlier in the same vein, this one did not really make all that much of an impression on me and I barely remember it.
Fighting Your Way Across the World
Or, at least, that’s what the various websites say when I looked them up to remind myself of the game. Looking at the various screenshots, I only remember one or two of them–and I think that’s because they are early in the game. In researching the game for this retroview, I discovered a possible reason for me not getting very far–it seems there was a random bug that would respawn enemies every time you defeated an enemy, making progression difficult. I honestly cannot remember if that’s what happened in my case, but I do remember not getting very far on the game.
A Martial Arts Dark Souls Game
Okay, not really. Probably not even close. However, I roll my eyes with today’s gamers who look to the Dark Souls games as the epitome of “hard” games. They have no conception of buying a game for either Christmas or your Birthday and then not being able to get through it due to byzantine game design or (if the above is true) a bug in the code, and then having to struggle through because that was the only new game you were likely to get for months. Games like Fist 2 were those type of games.
Honestly, I only remember the very first area and the ground level of the dojo. I think that’s as far as I every made it.
Karateka and World Karate Championship
The more I’m watching the YouTube video, the more I think that I had the bug that kept respawning enemies. I say this because I remember buying it because it mixed the adventure and exploration of Karateka (by Jordan Mechner or Prince of Persia fame) with the overall combat style of World Karate Championship, which were, at the time, two my favorite games. However, I remember a lot more fights in the first area than just the one that occurred on the video.
I also do remember the distinctive walking style of the hero along with the music, which has a lot in common with music from westerns, but also does have an eastern flavor to it as well.
This game had a lot of potential, but it wasn’t realized due to poor programming (we make fun of glitches and such now, but older games became downright unplayable in certain situations and that I think that’s this is why this is a forgotten game for me–it was one that I have almost no recollection of having played even though it would have been a sizable investment with my limited money. Such a shame as the game seemed like it had potential.
Sidney
Please consider supporting these fine small press publishers where my work has appeared:
Read Skin Deep for Free at Aurora WolfRead Childe Roland for Free at Electric Spec
Purchase HawkeMoon on Amazon.com (Paperback) or eBookPurchase Dragonhawk on Amazon.com (Paperback) or KindlePurchase WarLight on Amazon.com (Paperback) or KindlePurchase Ship of Shadows on Amazon.com (Paperback) or KindlePurchase Faerie Knight on Amazon.com (Paperback) or Kindle
Currently Working On (7/2020):
“Project Wall” (Science Fiction Story)
Drafting: First Draft
Unhallowed (Weird Western Story)
Drafting: 2nd Draft (Working Draft)
Childe Roland Graphic Novel
Up Next: Rough Draft (Story)
I, Mage (Urban Fantasy Story)
Drafting: 1st Revision
July 28, 2020
A Distressing Trend for Writers of Short Fiction
*Author’s Note*: I pulled this image from a website in which some HR managers were answering a question about candidates for work/school where this has become standard practice. I find it both ironic and somewhat prophetic that the rhetorical image used to portray and normalize this behavior is drawn from a movie glorifying the Mob/Organized Crime where fear, threats/intimidation, and outright violence and murder are also considered “acceptable” business tactics–food for thought, don’t you think? So, my response to those on that website who think that candidates (read writers, for my purposes) are whiners on this subject–yeah, job candidates/school candidates/writers, etc., are also all humans, not cogs in some giant “wheel” and I don’t care how much of buyer’s market it is out there–it is still unacceptable not to update candidates/writers on their statuses. Courtesy is “Good Business” as well!
In the world of writing short fiction, there’s a distressing new trend that’s emerging that I assume will become standard practice for many markets in a few years. While I don’t want to be another “angry voice” on the internet, I do feel that it is important to call attention to practices that are not fair to the writer. Charging writers fees to submit is something that gained prominence in the early to mid 2000s. While it remained controversial for that time, it has become normalized and there are many, many markets who would like to make their money both off the writers who submit work to them, hoping for publication and from the readers they hope to sell the work to in the future.
Submit All You Want, We Still Don’t Want to Talk To You
So, to be brief, I’ve noticed that now many markets want to actively submit works from writers, but now they no longer want to respond to you. More and more, I’m seeing markets that say that editors will not respond to every manuscript they receive. On Duotrope, the listing notes that you should wait “a reasonable amount of time . . .” to wait for a response before assuming that the submission has been declined.
“A reasonable amount of time?” BWHAHAHAHAHHAHHAHAHA!
I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be dismissive or sarcastic, but . . .
BWAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHA!
Okay, sorry, no more laughing fits. A “reasonable time” to me is one month or 30 days. Fully 75% – 80% of my submissions have been been longer than this with a couple at the 9 month mark. What I might consider reasonable is (obviously) going to be different from someone else–and since I can’t say yes, publish this and cut me a check, only they can, then I (as a writer) need them to actually make a decision and let me know the result.
A Slow But Steady Trend Away From the Editor/Writer Relationship
One of the reasons why I’m a little more cutting in this blog post than I might normally be is that I see it as yet another way that certain markets are trying to distance themselves away from the very writers they (say) they need. In the 1950s and 60s, fiction writers used to get feedback from editors about their stories. Tolkien, for example, “shopped” Lord of the Rings around to different publishers because he was distressed at the initial feedback that he reportedly received from an editorial reader (not the publisher himself, btw, who was the only one empowered to buy the work) if I remember the story from the Tolkien biography correctly.
In the 1970s and especially in the 1980s, the big thing became the “rejection slip” where rejections were preprinted on little slips of paper with a “canned” rejection notice on them–maybe there was a handwritten note on the back of them, but more often than not, it was just the slip.
Writers retaliated by going to Simultaneous Submissions (SS), which was also a reaction against very long wait times to hear back from markets (just to get a “rejection slip”). The thinking was that SS helped writers maximize their time and energy by sending out stories to a bulk of markets, hoping on finding just the one or two that were interested.
Then came Reading Fees, which I’ve noted in a previous blog, are not helpful to writers. Reading fees were once the province of “contests,” but they’ve become more mainstream in the intervening years and now you can see them in certain magazines as requirements before submitting work.
Why This is Bad For Writers
One of the reasons why “open submissions” (i.e., “the Slush Pile”) exists is because it is expensive to keep people on staff and on payroll to create content. For most markets, it is way cheaper to buy content as needed rather than to pay salary and benefits to someone to always be available to produce content. That’s why you have “submissions.” With things like Rejection Slips, Reading Fees, Agented Submissions, and the like, markets seem to be intent on removing any vestiges of human contact between editors and writers, and trying to turn writers (who are pesky human beings) into commodities that produce work and nothing else. Many of these markets keep trying to create their own version of the “phone tree” system in which they never have to interact with the writers they are actively solicit work. The easiest way to not have to deal with writers is to close submissions and have an on-staff writer–but let’s see, a year’s salary plus benefits vs $50 per story and you only buy 10 of those a quarter. 10*50 = 500 (1 quarter). $500*4 = $2000 per year. Good luck trying to hire someone who will work for that a year.
And yet, those same markets now want to turn around and ask you to submit work to them, but don’t want to take the time to let you know whether you were accepted or rejected. “Assume if you’ve not heard from us in two weeks/1 month/3 months/1 year” that your work is rejected.
Really? I, as a writer, can take the time to read your guidelines, make sure it matches everything as closely as you the editor/market requests, but you don’t have the time to reply to my submission. I’m to assume that I didn’t get in because you’re too busy to actually tell me?
Not to be “Mr. Angry Guy” on the internet, but I’m going to just say: if you’re going to solicit my work by allowing open submissions, then please do me the courtesy (and yes, it is a courtesy–an interaction between two humans) of telling me whether or not it is accepted.
If you’re too busy to do that, then I respectfully submit that you are too busy to be in business in the first place. Or maybe consider hiring that $15,000 a year on-staff writer that you seem to need rather than paying the $2,000 to us freelancers who are way too “needy” and “bothersome” just because we’d like to know definitely whether or not our stories have been accepted or not.
Sidney
Please consider supporting these fine small press publishers where my work has appeared:
Read Skin Deep for Free at Aurora WolfRead Childe Roland for Free at Electric Spec
Purchase HawkeMoon on Amazon.com (Paperback) or eBookPurchase Dragonhawk on Amazon.com (Paperback) or KindlePurchase WarLight on Amazon.com (Paperback) or KindlePurchase Ship of Shadows on Amazon.com (Paperback) or KindlePurchase Faerie Knight on Amazon.com (Paperback) or Kindle
Currently Working On (7/2020):
“Project Wall” (Science Fiction Story)
Drafting: First Draft
Unhallowed (Weird Western Story)
Drafting: 2nd Draft (Working Draft)
Childe Roland Graphic Novel
Up Next: Rough Draft (Story)
I, Mage (Urban Fantasy Story)
Drafting: 1st Revision
July 27, 2020
Potpourri: A Little Bit of This and A Little Bit of That
So, I’ve not done one of these in a while. For more recent subscribers to the blog, I used to do a Potpourri blog post fairly often. Usually, I’d do them on the days when I didn’t have a set topic to work on or was too busy to do a full-on blog post (nowadays, I just usually miss a day when that happens–hey, not proud of the fact–just being honest–but these Potpourri posts used to cover several topics and would tide me over until the next day or the day after that, when I had something I felt was worth blogging about.
Potpourri (I’ll stop bolding it now) can mean a mixture of spices designed to act as an air freshener (more specifically), or more generally, as a mixture of things. This is how the TV show Jeopardy! uses it and this where I got both the term and the concept. Just a hodge-podge of various topics that I discuss that may or may not have any relationship to each other, but I don’t feel really warrant the time or energy to devote a full-on blog post to covering. While I’ll probably be doing more of these over the coming weeks/months as I prep for school, I will try to keep them to a minimum. Like anything else, it can lose its “specialness” when overused.
English Language Homophones
“Through” does not equal “throw.” To be honest, they aren’t even true homophones. And yet, that’s what I wrote in a previous blog post a day or two ago–and that’s not the only one I’ve caught this week. I do know the difference (I promise); I’m a English PhD Candidate, after all. However, I’ve noticed that quite a few of my posts recently have places where I’ve used the wrong word. So what’s going on?
Well, two things: 1) I’m writing these on my Chromebook now instead of Macbook Pro. Both Apple and Google have an auto-correct feature built into the OS. However, the last time I checked, the Apple auto-correct didn’t extend to the WordPress editor (or if it did, it wasn’t nearly as aggressive). Google’s auto-correct definitely does extend to the WordPress editor and it is very aggressive (except with obvious typos like teh–which it will underline and tell me it is spelled wrong, but it won’t actually correct those things) and 2) I’m writing these blog entries much faster than I ever used to in the past. I’ve said it multiple times, but most blog entries take anywhere from 45 mins (low side) to 90 mins (high side) to write. I (mostly) write them the day they are posted (although I’m trying to “bank” more of them to go up in the future). I usually have work (or something that needs to be done that day, so I can’t spend too much time on them. So after writing them (the most time), finding and image and sourcing it, going back to a previous blog to find my “Signature” and then putting the categories and tags in, I give the blog a final cursory glance, looking for any glaring errors, and then I publish it. However, homophones are not “glaring errors.” They stick out in context, when you read it, but when I do my scan, my mind just “skips” right over them. I try to fix them when I see them, but sometimes I see them when I’m reading over them later in the day if I see them, but sometimes I’m not in WordPresses’ “editor” mode and I forget to go back to them when I am writing the next post.
So, if you’re wondering how someone with pretty obvious mistakes can be a PhD Candidate in English, let me assure that I really do know the correct word in context. However, being the both writer and editor is really hard, and it’s even harder when you’re on a time limit.
Akira
As I mentioned a while back, I’m trying to spread out my weekly movie viewing throughout my various streaming services in order to maximize the value from them–I was finding that I was really only watching one or two services even though I’m paying for several (discounted because I’m a student, but still . . .). I’ve watched things from Tubi (free), Netfilix, and Amazon Prime Video recently, so I thought I’d give Akira on Hulu a watch.
I have to say . . . this is NOT looking promising. I’m familiar with Akira, but I’ve never actually seen the movie. I bought an issue of the manga when it was released here in the 1980s (I think for the futuristic bike on the cover), but as it was an issue that was well into the story, I had no clue who the characters were or what was going on, and so didn’t pick up any other issues. While everyone always raved about it in sci-fi magazines that I read at the time, I didn’t see the appeal and went back to other anime properties (Appleseed and the Japanese/American hybrid of Robotech).
However, Saturday night, I thought now might be a good time to take a look at the original, especially since there is a planned Hollywood live action movie (a la Ghost in the Shell) planned to be released in a couple of years (although Covid may have pushed that back).
I gotta’ say, for all the accolades, I’m not really all that impressed by what I’ve seen so far. I’m only 35 minutes in (it is a 2 hour and 5 minute movie), but even trying to look at it through my 1980s/1990s lens, I still have yet to see what all the fuss was about. Yes, it is one of the first cyberpunk movies (and an anime at that), but the ideas and the execution are, so far, subpar. Mad Max (and all of its future sequels) got the aesthetic down far better for a post-apocalyptic and we won’t even talk about how Bladerunner (so far) is superior in every way, even though it came out years earlier–in terms of Neo-futurism of the cityscape. So far, there’s a anarchy that is implying that the system has broken down and yet the system is still in place with the schools, the malls, the army, and the police. While I won’t judge it until after I finish it, the 35 minutes that I watched felt like it was an hour (not a good thing) and the last time that happened lead to me being mightily unimpressed by a little movie called The Dark Knight. And with me, that’s not a good trajectory to be on.
Not the Same Old Story, But A New Story
Okay, so while I’ve had success as a writer by getting published and by receiving payment, I’ve not had much success in getting my work “reprinted.” I’ve had zero success in having any of my stories reprinted. However, I was talking to a friend at the Writing Center and was indicating that I felt that just by the fact the stories were published, indicated that they had potential and something special that I felt I did right and I wanted to use those to write longer projects.
However, over the Covid break, I’ve learned that I simply can’t tell the same story over again in a different format. This is what I tried to do with Ship of Shadows Graphic Novel. I wrote half of the short story over again in issue 1 and issue 2 was supposed be the 2nd half, issue 3 & 4 would be new material, expanding out the story. While it was a good try, what I learned is after I’ve written the story, I don’t have any interest to revisit it again. The story has been told to my satisfaction, so I need to find a different story to tell–maybe at a different point in the lives of the characters or a different story with the characters coming back to interact in some way (cameos or the like).
Thinking back to some of my favorite movies and their sequels–I really love movies like Alien & Aliens and Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, & Return of the Jedi because it takes the story forward and advances the plot forward. The sequels that I hate are Karate Kid II, Jurassic Park The Lost World, and Home Alone 2, where take the same characters and situations and just transports them to a new setting. So, they’re essentially telling the same story–just in a different place. I think that’s why Alien 3 is one of my most hated movies–they wipe away all that Aliens worked to achieve, just so they could go back to the formula of the original Alien movie, but this time set on prison planet instead of a ship. Same basic story, different setting.
I’ve learned that I can’t do this. I have to advance the story or tell a new story with new characters or old characters returning in new roles. That’s what I’m working on now–instead of reprints–trying to make and market longer works based on new stories and ideas from my older published works.
This has a precedence that isn’t seen much in the publishing world anymore. Writers of sci-fi and fantasy novels, mostly sci-fi though, often cut their teeth on shorter works and developed them into their blockbuster series–Anne McCaffrey and her Dragonriders of Pern series was created this way, as was 2001 from Arthur C. Clarke, which came from a short tory (called “The Sentinel,” if I remember correctly). Now, however, this is considered “old fashioned” and most everyone, including those who probably shouldn’t, go straight to novels, graphic novels, and screenplays because we can’t have building the craft anymore–nope, thanks to Game of Thrones and Harry Potter, everyone wants the “big score.” Everyone wants the immediate “mega-success” and overnight stardom that the authors of those two series enjoyed–although, it should be noted that Martin was publishing mid tier books that weren’t “hits” in the 80s and 90s (Fevre Dream, anyone?). For me, the enjoyable part of the writing process is over once I’ve published my story–trying to duplicate it, just in a different form just doesn’t have an appeal for me apparently.
I’ll talk more about this later, but for now, work first, talk later. Have a great day!
Sidney
Please consider supporting these fine small press publishers where my work has appeared:
Read Skin Deep for Free at Aurora WolfRead Childe Roland for Free at Electric Spec
Purchase HawkeMoon on Amazon.com (Paperback) or eBookPurchase Dragonhawk on Amazon.com (Paperback) or KindlePurchase WarLight on Amazon.com (Paperback) or KindlePurchase Ship of Shadows on Amazon.com (Paperback) or KindlePurchase Faerie Knight on Amazon.com (Paperback) or Kindle
Currently Working On (7/2020):
“Project Wall” (Science Fiction Story)
Drafting: First Draft
Unhallowed (Weird Western Story)
Drafting: 2nd Draft (Working Draft)
Childe Roland Graphic Novel
Up Next: Rough Draft (Story)
I, Mage (Urban Fantasy Story)
Drafting: 1st Revision
July 24, 2020
Why Deadlines Are Rough (Creative Writers Edition)
Deadlines can be both a blessing and a curse. Deadlines are when things are required to be due. For me, I generally do well with deadlines and can appropriately apportion my time to work on said project and have it finished by the deadline. The blessing part is that there is a “fixed” end date. There’s none of this faffing about with a project that just goes on and on indeterminately–once the deadline is fixed, you have a goal to work towards in order to hit that target date. However, all is not “peachy” and rosy with deadlines. If I personally get behind, whether it is my fault or not, usually the quality of the work suffers in order to hit the deadline. And sometimes, world events also conspire to keep you from hitting your deadlines. A small digression here, but rush-hour traffic all across the world would probably be less aggressive and road-rage inducing if we had flexible hours for most jobs–where you could come in up to 15 minutes early/late for your job, but as long as you worked the correct number of hours, you wouldn’t be penalized for it. A little flexibility in deadlines would go a long way to mitigating life’s propensity to throw roadblocks in the way.
A Tale of Two Projects
Why this long rumination on deadlines? Well, I have two projects that I’m working on and one has a deadline and the other doesn’t. I’d planned to work on the 2nd draft of Unhallowed this month. Then I saw a market that wanted you to use a starter sentence about the “Simmons Public Library,” a fictional library (to my knowledge) and they’d like to see it by August 1st (next week). So, over the month, I’ve dutifully bounced between both projects–with a stopover at Project Wall, which only has 1 of its 3 sections done.
Essentially, in trying to work on 3 projects–the one for this market and two for myself, I’m probably not going to finish the one by its deadline of August 1, which means I’ll have to strip sections out–don’t want to be accused of plagiarism as many people will probably be using that same starter sentence. It also means that I probably won’t get my own projects in order by the beginning of next month–meaning that my nice new system is already going down the drain.
This is where deadlines become a curse for me as it means that I split my time between projects rather than focusing on 1 project and getting it done the best that I can and then moving on, As the deadline seemed more important, I spent a lot of time on this story rather than the story I really wanted to be focusing on–Unhallowed.
Sunk Cost Fallacy
And this may be the true downside of deadlines–when used as motivation for writing projects. I’ve already sunk so much time into my revision for the August 1st deadline that I don’t want to abandon it even though I only have a week left and I know I won’t be able to marshal the story that’s in my mind onto the page in a week’s time.
Do I accept a (sizable) dip in quality to get the story out on time or do I go back to working on Unhallowed, knowing that the time invested in the other story is just lost and I’ll have to spend extra time later removing the “story prompt” sentences and ideas?
The Writer and the Finite Time Conundrum
As a student and graduate teaching assistant, I know my time is finite. I know there’s only going to be a limited number of hours in a day and some of that is going to have be devoted to answering student emails, working on grading, working on assignments, working hybrid instruction methods due to Covid, working my own research and writing for school.
Creative writing, while getting a boon this summer, still is finite. And I still struggle with the trying to get all the ideas that I have out there. And it is frustrating to try for a deadline and to realize with a week left, that there’s not enough time and that I should I have just stuck with my original plan.
Deadlines are like Reading Fees
I’ll close this (fairly long) rumination with an epiphany that I’ve just had: deadlines are just like reading fees. Early in my college career, I had a professor who helped inspire my love of creative writing. Her advice was to not do any of the contests that charged reading fees. Now, in the early 90s, reading fees were still considered gauche, and very few places used them, although they were becoming more common. Nowadays, it is rare (and remarkable) when there’s a contest that doesn’t charge a reading fee. Her point was that, as students, your money was finite resource. It was a “better play” to use your money to improve yourself as a writer by buying books on the craft, or attending conferences, or that type of thing, rather than using your money to enter competitions (even if there was a substantial prize offered).
I think you see where I’m going with this: my time is also a finite resource. While it seems “easy” to revise a story for a “deadline,” there’s actually just as much work involved as if I was writing a whole new story. I need to be more cognizant of deadlines in terms of my own projects and my own finite time. I recognize now that, like the lure of a huge cash prize for “winning the contest,” themed deadlines offer the lure of getting publication (and money) if you could just successfully execute the theme by the appointed time. And just like contests, I need to be ultra selective for the deadlines I take on if I don’t want to be disappointed by not finishing the story (or other stories that I might be working on) on time.
Lesson learned! I’ll let you know next week on my formal Writing Log post just what writing projects (if any) I managed to salvage this month.
Have a good weekend!
Sidney
Please consider supporting these fine small press publishers where my work has appeared:
Read Skin Deep for Free at Aurora WolfRead Childe Roland for Free at Electric Spec
Purchase HawkeMoon on Amazon.com (Paperback) or eBookPurchase Dragonhawk on Amazon.com (Paperback) or KindlePurchase WarLight on Amazon.com (Paperback) or KindlePurchase Ship of Shadows on Amazon.com (Paperback) or KindlePurchase Faerie Knight on Amazon.com (Paperback) or Kindle
Currently Working On (7/2020):
“Project Wall” (Science Fiction Story)
Drafting: First Draft
Unhallowed (Weird Western Story)
Drafting: 2nd Draft (Working Draft)
Childe Roland Graphic Novel
Up Next: Rough Draft (Story)
I, Mage (Urban Fantasy Story)
Drafting: 1st Revision
July 23, 2020
Avatar: The Last Airbender, Season 1 Review
I finished Season 1 of the Avatar: The Last Airbender a couple of days ago, so I thought I’d take a quick moment to talk about Season 1 of the show. I’ve seen the entire series, but this will be the first time that I will have seen every episode.
65% – 75% of Season 1
So, when the show originally aired, I felt like I’d seen most of Season 1, and now that I’ve seen the entire season, I feel like that is mostly accurate. There are episodes that I did not see (like the 2 part season finale) that were crucial to the plot and to the development of the characters, but on the whole, I do feel like I saw more than enough episodes originally to have a fairly good context who who the characters were along with their motivations.
Aang The Airbender
One of the things that I don’t think that I saw/understood was how much Aang would be affected by the decision of the Airbenders of his temple and how their decision caused his own actions which ultimately lead him to vanishing (I’m being intentionally oblique here to avoid spoilers), but I think this is what George Lucas was trying for (and, unfortunately, ultimately failing) when trying to show the trauma that a young person goes through when they are forced to “grow up” and “train” at the cost of their “family.” Basically, I feel Aang’s pain and anguish in this season where I never felt it in Anakin in Star Wars through any of the 3 prequel movies. I think this might be because Aang is an older character than the version played by Jake Lloyd and younger than the character played by Hayden Christensen. Based on what I’ve seen this season, Lucas seems to have gotten his own character’s age and temperament wrong in order to accomplish the pathos that he wanted to show. Here, however, I feel the pain and anguish of Aang’s character.
Water
While the name is in the episode titles, I don’t think that I really picked up the through line trajectory of the show. Obviously, I assume each season will show Aang learning more about the element that is featured in the title (including the culture associated with it), but it goes deeper than just the plot “through-line.” It also serves as a thematic tie into the show and we see how water and water bending is a preservation. There are a lot of stories dealing with water or have a water-related aspect to them. I really like the way it is integrated into storyline.
Doing it this way allows the show to use continuity at a time when most children’s shows were still episodic. In many ways, this show was ahead of its time by creating a longer narrative and trusting that its audience would follow even if they missed episodes. This is not the first children’s show to do this, but it one that mixes both a episodic and longer form narrative. There are many other shows that have tried this (children’s), but they rarely have been planned this way from the beginning. For instance, Pirates of Dark Water have a similar type of story (finding the 13 treasures), but the show didn’t last long enough for the crew to find all 13 treasures.
I really liked Season 1 and I feel like I have more context for the story now that I’ve seen all the episodes. Looking forward to season 2!
Sidney
Please consider supporting these fine small press publishers where my work has appeared:
Read Skin Deep for Free at Aurora WolfRead Childe Roland for Free at Electric Spec
Purchase HawkeMoon on Amazon.com (Paperback) or eBookPurchase Dragonhawk on Amazon.com (Paperback) or KindlePurchase WarLight on Amazon.com (Paperback) or KindlePurchase Ship of Shadows on Amazon.com (Paperback) or KindlePurchase Faerie Knight on Amazon.com (Paperback) or Kindle
Currently Working On (7/2020):
“Project Wall” (Science Fiction Story)
Drafting: First Draft
Unhallowed (Weird Western Story)
Drafting: 2nd Draft (Working Draft)
Childe Roland Graphic Novel
Up Next: Rough Draft (Story)
I, Mage (Urban Fantasy Story)
Drafting: 1st Revision
