Sidney Blaylock Jr.'s Blog, page 47

Bedtime Books: Legend of the Five Rings (RPG)

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Book Cover: Sword on Book cover, Image Source: L5R Wikia

When I was a child, I had a curfew of 10pm, which meant that I had to be in bed by that time.  Luckily, I didn’t have to actually be asleep by that time.  I couldn’t watch TV (not part of the curfew), but I could read.  And so, like any enterprising boy who didn’t really want to lie down and go to sleep, I read . . . and read . . . and read.  I usually read for about 45 minutes to an hour, though sometimes I stretched it a little.  I can only remember getting into trouble one time for staying up too late as my family was huge on reading.

I relate this story because I discovered that I don’t really read at night any more–haven’t for a while.  I had a reading light when I was a child, but the overhead ceiling lights aren’t really conducive to reading in preparation for bed.  Luckily, over the past year I found a nice lamp that doubles as a good reading light so, periodically, I’ve been experimenting with reading at night like I used to as a child.  I haven’t been able to find the right book . . . until now.  Most of the books that I read are novels and I tend to devour them, especially now that I have so little reading time.  I tend to read too long and  stay up too late reading.

However, after much trial and error, I’ve finally found (hopefully) a genre of books that seem to work as bedtime reading–not too boring that it will put me to sleep immediately and not too dramatic that I stay up too late reading: Role-playing Games (RPGs).  The one I’m reading now is called  Legend of the Five Rings and it is a Fantasy RPG that merges a fantasy land with martial arts and magic.  Right now I’m reading the “history” of the world, which is a fantasy mash-up of the long history of countries like China and Japan.  It is interesting enough as I’m a History minor and love the history behind the world, but not riveting enough to keep me from putting it down when I finally feel tired.  I’m able to get ideas for future stories while reading, but I’m also able to rest as well.  It will be quite a while before I finish it–it is after all a 338 page book with double columns, but hopefully it will help me both sleep and be productive with story ideas at the same time.

Sidney

Read Skin Deep for Free at Aurora Wolf

Read Childe Roland for Free at Electric Spec

Commodore 64 Nostalgia Review: Super Cycle

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Animated Gif of Super Cycle, Man Racing on Motorcycle trying to avoid traffic and obstacles, Image Source: C64-Wiki

So, Super Cycle is one of my favorite games.  It isn’t my favorite game, but it up there.  I really enjoyed playing it and wish that the series had continued into present day.  It is a racing game (which, when done right, is always a crowd pleaser with me).  It featured racers on motorcycles who raced across the country in various settings.

It wasn’t anything too special and it wasn’t very unique.  It was just a motorcycle racer, in various environments (which were really just green for meadows, yellow for desert and bluish black for night), in which you raced the clock to get to the next checkpoint before time expired while avoiding other racers and obstacles on the side of the road.  It essence, it was a motorcycle “clone” of the very famous and very popular Pole Position video game (which was similar in design, but featured a “unrecognizable” jumble of pixels that was supposed to represent a Formula One/Indy car).

It didn’t have the depth as some of the racing games that I bought and enjoyed, but I always enjoyed putting the disk into the C64’s disk drive for a good while and I always remember that I had fun with it even when I wasn’t doing so well (crashing and the like).  I think the only thing that could have made it better for me would have been more stages/environments.  I think the C64 version topped at 3–meadows, desert, and night (although I could be mistaken).  Regardless, I don’t remember it being able to capture my attention long-term (for hours) because of the quickly repeating stages/courses.  Still, I remember it fondly and it is one of the reasons why I still gravitate to the racing genre in games even today.

Here is a YouTube Video for the game (ah, that intro music really brings me back)

The Olympics Opening Ceremony

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Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony, Image Source: YouTube

So, this will be a shorter blog post–I’ve managed to get behind in my school work (what’s new?) and I need to use today to catch up–but I wanted to give a shout-out to the Olympics Opening Ceremony which I will hopefully watch tonight.  I really love the Olympics, but I never really get to see a whole lot of it.  I probably (still) won’t get to see many of the sporting events, but I almost always try to see the Opening Ceremonies, but we’ll see if that happens today.

I cut the cord a while back and the major disadvantage is trying to find live sporting events that are not on regular TV.  In this case, NBC in America is showing it on regular TV, but I won’t be where I can get to the TV easily and it is always a crapshoot as to whether NBC (& to be fair, other providers such as CBS and ABC) will allow people to watch content without a subscription/login.  NBC also streamed the Super Bowl without needing a login/subscription, so I’m hopeful they will stream this as well, but I haven’t actually investigated it yet.

Here’s hoping and I’ll keep my fingers crossed!  If not, I’ll just have to miss this Opening Ceremony and hope that I will be able to see the Opening Ceremony for the Summer 2020 Olympics.

Sidney

Read Skin Deep for Free at Aurora Wolf

Read Childe Roland for Free at Electric Spec

Super Bowl Movie Trailers 2018: Avengers Infinity War

So, I’m going to highlight a few of my favorite Super Bowl movie trailers over the coming weeks.  I won’t talk in-depth about them, but rather will just give my general impressions of the trailer and my level of excitement for the upcoming movie.  This won’t be a “daily” feature (probably), but will rather be intermixed with things related to Writing and (for the next two weeks) the Olympics and any other topics that might come to mind.

Avengers: Infinity War

I fairly excited for this movie as the original Avengers movie is in my top 3 Marvel movies of all-time and was number 1 until it was supplanted by Captain America: The Winter Soldier.  I really like the emphasis on team interaction in these movies.  I feel, based on this trailer, and the original one that they released earlier in 2017 that they are going for a slightly darker tone, rather than a humorous one.  While wanted to see that in the 2nd movie (Avengers: Age of Ultron), I’m not sure how much I want it in this one.    Regardless of what I want, it seems, based on this trailer, that the movie will feature a more “cataclysmic”/”apocalyptic” plot and more seriousness than previous films have exhibited.  Perhaps I’m wrong and the trademark humor will still be there, but based on the “worried” expressions of Black Panther and Captain America in the thumbnail for the trailer, it seems highly unlikely that the fun of the first Avengers will be there in large quantities–this seems like an entirely different type of movie based on the tone of the trailers.

Normally, I am super excited for any Marvel movie that comes out, but this has the feel of an era of change.  I’ve heard (don’t know how true it is) that the contracts may be up for a number of the actors, so there might be changes to the line-up in the future.  While I’m not how true that is, Marvel’s roster has expanded quite a bit since the days of the original Phase 1 heroes who helmed the original movies and the anchored the original Avengers movie.

Still, assuming AMC doesn’t do any of there normal tricks, I will hopefully see it when it releases May 4th, 2018 (in America).  Hopefully, my trepidations will be proven wrong and I can report back here on the blog how much of a “grand adventure” it is, rather than the “end of an era” that I’m currently fearing.

I remain cautiously optimistic for this one, however.

Sidney

Read Skin Deep for Free at Aurora Wolf

Read Childe Roland for Free at Electric Spec

Battlestar Galactica: Then and Now

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Battlestar Galactica TV Poster,

Battlestar Galactica: Then

I suppose this is my “when I was a child . . .” posting where I rant and rave about these “darn kids” and how the new generation is messing everything up.  It is isn’t really, but I do want to briefly talk about Battlestar Galactica (or BSG as it is referred to these days).  I am lucky enough to have seen the original as a child and (some) of the newer series (more on that below) as an adult and one can see how media can shift over a generation.  I love the idea of BSG.  Yes, it was inspired in that wave of “knock-offs” where TV execs of the time wanted a “Star Wars“-like show to capitalize on the popularity of the movie.  BSG was one of many such endeavors, but it stuck around because even though the stories are “hokey” by today’s standards, they still revealed a pathos and a sense of “fun” that was endemic in late 70s/early 80s TV.  This was the Sci-Fi equivalent to The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Quincy M.E., Alice, and The Facts of Life to name a few.  Even though it was on in the early 80s, it was just before the “New Wave” of 80s show exemplified by Magnum P.I., and Miami Vice, both of which, while having fun plots, had a much harder edge to them at the time.  BSG‘s plots were mostly sci-fi in nature, but with a social tinge to them.  However, they were mostly about family (Boomer & Boxie) being the main giveaways.  They could go dark (I seem to remember a character died in the show), but for the most part they were fun stories that shows like Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda harkened back to.

 

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Battlestar Galactic: Now

However, BSG’s new series was critically acclaimed and lauded as one of the best shows on TV.  I watched the Mini-Series and was fairly impressed.  I knew that they would update the themes and the like, so I wasn’t expecting a “saccharine” version of the original.  I think the mini-series was very well done.  I could have gone without the fascination behind Baltar’s sex life or the rumination on Religion and the “Sins of the Father” that they use as a theme for the show, but the science fictional story/set-up was great and the music was exceptional (still influencing sci-fi shows and games to this day).  However, when the actual series started and season 1 began, it went downhill from there with me.  The science fiction lessened and the social, political, and religious elements took forefront in the stories to such an extent that I was only able to last midway through the first season.  I would periodically check in on the show by checking out various odd episodes, but I was never able to get back into the series.  The science fiction, when they focused on that, was top-notch.  Seeing the Galactica plummet in the atmosphere of a planet as it gives aid before jumping back out again is one of the strongest examples of sci-fi I have ever seen on TV and is seared into my mind.  Yet, in many ways, it helped to usher in the whole GrimDark idea that shows like Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones took and ran with as there were many times when I saw Bad Things Happen to Good People on the show and while others might argue that is “sophisticated” and “realistic,” I argue that it is exactly the opposite, “churlish,” and in “poor taste.”

I happened to watch the Mini-Series again on Amazon Prime and was reminded of the potential that the show had–potential to really focus on the greatness of humanity.  While others will say that the potential was realized–to be fair, it has more Emmy wins than I even have publications–however, based on the way the original BSG fired my imagination as a child and helped to mold me into the reader/writer/lover of Sci-Fi that I am today, I can’t help but wonder it that is really true.

Sidney

Read Skin Deep for Free at Aurora Wolf

Read Childe Roland for Free at Electric Spec

One Down, Two To Go

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Rejection Stamp, Image Source Lyn Fairchild Haws (check out her blog by clicking on the image)

Citizen X

So, the disadvantage to being able to check your email on your phone means that you are never “disconnected.”  During a bit of downtime during the Super Bowl on this past Sunday, I happened to check my phone and saw that I had an email from the market where Citizen X was on the short list.  I also noticed just by the first sentence that it was a Rejection Notice (You can always tell a Rejection Notice by the way it starts–that “formality” that we all shift into whenever we have to tell another person bad news).  It didn’t put a damper on the game/commercials/fun of the evening, but it was distracting.  Something that I wished that I could have seen on Monday morning, rather than on Sunday evening.  Ah, well, that’s life.  At least, it was short-listed.

Silence Will Fall

I should probably here of SWF’s fate shortly.  The email mentioned early February is when the market whose short-list SWF is on would make a decision.  HawkeMoon was on the short-list at this market as well, but it didn’t make it, but who knows if SWF will make it or not.  I like Silence Will Fall quite a bit, but then I liked HawkeMoon as well, so its always a bit of a “crapshoot.”  There’s a movie coming out soonish that seems to have the same take on SWF (i.e., if you make noise, bad things will happen, but it looks to be a “zombie” movie, rather than a science fiction one).  I hope that the movie doesn’t render my story as an “also-ran” because mine was conceived first and deals with a science fiction concept, but the key idea of “sound” is in both which may be detrimental to my being able to market it in the future (i.e., we’ve seen that concept already in such-and-such movie).

Here Be Monsters

While this one isn’t on a short-list, it is still out for consideration at a market with an upcoming anthology.  Don’t know if the editor is going to choose this story or not.  He’s accepted one story and rejected two others, so far I believe (going by what has been reported via authors who track their stories on Duotrope.  However, my story is one of at least 17 submissions (again, based on Duotrope’s tracking) still awaiting a decision.  Nothing to do here except be patient and see what happens.

Upcoming

Rather than just resting on my laurels, I am actively working on trying to finish the rough draft of Project Skies (the short story with Skye to discover her character)–I am currently drafting section 3 of 3, revising All Tomorrow’s Children to start submitting (I’m currently revising section 2 of 3), researching my next story, Project OPaK.  I had to go all the way back to June of last year to discover the name that I’d given this project.  I also noticed that I really like to introduce Projects, but I’m much slower at finishing them (a blog post for another time).  I have photocopied research for this project and I will transition into Project OPaK as soon as I finish Project Skies.

Star Trek Backwards–Finished Star Trek: The Next Generation

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So, over Winter Break I finished quite a few Sci-Fi shows (series).  One of them was Star Trek: The Next Generation.  This one was my first Star Trek series that I watched and finished during its syndicated run.  I had seen episodes of the original Star Trek series (and really liked one in particular which I’ll talk more about when I watch the original series), but STNG was the first series that I was able to sit down and watch on a weekly basis.

Old School and New School

The show starts off quite a bit rougher than I remember.  I knew that Worf’s character underwent alterations as the show went on, but I hadn’t remembered how extensive those were in terms of both characterization as well as costuming.  It was almost jarring to watch the first season (and most of the 2nd) until the third and fourth seasons, where the show began to resemble what my (nostalgic) mind remembered.  I have to be honest, I really liked the “New School” (later seasons) quite a bit better than I did the “Old School” episodes (the earlier ones).  I found the stories to be more nuanced and sophisticated.  Many of my most favorite episodes, appeared in the later half of the shows run.  My favorite episode would probably be “Cause and Effect” (in Season 5) which is a “Looping” sci-fi story done right.  This would be followed closely behind by “Remember Me” in Season 4 which is a mystery in which Dr. Crusher must find out what happened to an old friend.

Science Fiction vs Social Stories

To me, STNG is at its best (I feel) when it deals with Science Fiction first and deals with Social Issues second.  While I have enjoyed some of the social issues that the show presents, such as the episode where women are dominant in the culture and men are striving for a more tolerant society, I feel that the stories that deal explicitly with some science concept–even if it is based on “technobabble”–are the much stronger stories because they are what George Scithers from the book On Writing Science Fiction says is the purpose of science fiction: real people dealing with real problems involving science.  This is what truly sticks out in my head and something that I try to remember when writing my stories.  It is, in fact, one of the reasons I couldn’t get into the new Battlestar Galactica (I’ll talk about this in another blog post) fully and dropped out midway through the first season.  When BSG focuses on its science fictional plots, it was one of the best series out there, but too often, the stories (I feel) were weighed down with lengthly polemics on religion, politics, and the soul.  These are questions better left to the “subplot” of science fiction stories, but BSG often made them the primary plot which took so much of the fun out of it for me.  Luckily, STNG was before the current “GrimDark” nonsense that currently pervades media (such as Game of Thrones, Walking Dead, and others of similar ilk).  It kept the social commentary (mostly) to the subplots and allowed the main plots to focus more on how the crew of the Enterprise solved the problems that they were thrown into which revealed their characters’ drives and made the show such a well received entry in the Star Trek universe.

Overall Rating: A (I really should say A- due to the uneven nature of the plotting/characterization of the early seasons, but the nostalgia factor is high on this one, so I give it a slight bump up to the low A’s for being a Sci-Fi show that understood science and character first, social commentary second.

Sidney

Read Skin Deep for Free at Aurora Wolf

Read Childe Roland for Free at Electric Spec

Two stories Shortlisted–“Citizen X” and “Silence Will Fall”

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Shortlisted Applicants, Image Source: Shiksha.com

I just wanted to let everyone know that I currently have two short stories on the “Short List” at two different publishers.  I should learn of their fate later this month.

Citizen X

Citizen X was a bit of a surprise.  I wrote it around the time of Here Be Monsters, but much like HBM it wasn’t highly regarded as I submitted it.  The ending was also something that seemed a bit controversial, so I pulled it from, intending to rewrite it.  However, I began to feel that I was too harsh towards the story and began submitting it again.  I was fairly surprised that it made it to the “short list” round for a publication–I mean, I wrote it, so of course I liked it, but I didn’t publishers would.  Here’s keeping my fingers crossed for it.  Even if it doesn’t make it for publication, I have to count it as a small victory that it made it to the “short list.”

Silence Will Fall

Silence Will Fall is a story that I’ve chronicled many times on the blog–it even has its own Author’s Note where I talk about the genesis and writing of the story.  It also is a triumph of the MTSU Writing Center, as my Consultant graciously helped with a revision of the piece to make sure that the ending that I “re-wrote” made sense and matched the rest of the tone of the piece.  While I have no control of the process anymore–it is strictly in the editors’ hands–I’d love for this one to get published, if only to give my Writing Center Consultant praise for a job well done!

The Short List

In case there are any who may not know what a “Short List” is: it simply means that the story has passed the first round of initial rejections.  The editors will then make a decision for the stories included in their publication from these stories.  Essentially, stories from this “short list” will make it in.  Making it to the short list is similar to making it to a 2nd interview to get a job, or getting nominated in a category for a prestigious award, like the Oscars.  There’s no guarantee of getting the job, or winning the award, but your chances are better–you haven’t been rejected altogether.  That’s the way it works in publishing as well.  No guarantees–they both could come back with a rejection, but at least those two stories haven’t been rejected outright.

Have a good weekend!

Sidney

Read Skin Deep for Free at Aurora Wolf

Read Childe Roland for Free at Electric Spec

 

Read, Write, and Improve

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Stephen King Quote on the Importance of Reading and Writing (“If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time–or the tools–to write.  Simple as that.”  Image Source: PR Daily 

I written on the blog before that I haven’t really been able to write like I’ve wanted to based on the demands of life.  I expect that to continue for the near future for reasons that I won’t go into here, but I’m going to try my best because I feel like I’m missing a “piece” of me by not writing everyday/reading things for myself rather than school everyday.

I was really excited after reading the article on PBS.org profiling author Jesmyn Ward called “Persist.  Read, Write, Improve,” by Elizabeth Flock.  It was a short, but informative article and it really seemed to set out a “path” that I wanted to follow for 2018 (the closest thing a New Year’s Resolution as it were).  My goal was simple.  I would persist through 2018 by reading and writing every day and at the end of the year, I would (hopefully) see improvement.

Read

This is my most favorite thing to do, but I haven’t been reading like I wanted to.  I think it is because over the break, I was able to devote an hour (sometimes up to two hours) just to read every day and make substantial progress on my books.  I just don’t have that much time in the day.  I finally decided to devote half an hour to reading each day.  Also, last year I didn’t really have anything to read because I only certain authors (the few who aren’t drawn to the Dark Side of the Force with the allure of “GrimDark”).  However, ALL my favorite authors published material last year, so I want to read all of my favorite series and I just don’t have the time and it is really frustrating.  I’m also “supposed” to be reading books for school, both books and articles assigned for class as well as books in my “field” (English) on my own.  It is hard to enjoy my “reading” time when I have to read a book called Multimodality during my “reading time”when what I want to read is Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson.

Maybe I could read school books during the week and my personal books on the weekend?

Write

This is where I really feel that I let myself down.  Partially, it wasn’t an intentional act of laziness on my part.  Forgetting the computer, one week, and the charger, the next week meant that I was without my computer for essentially a week and half (pretty much all of my time here school).  Now I did have access to the school’s computers and since I have the blog and many of my writing files online, I could have gone there to write, but the frigid weather and uncertainty of the car starting put a major damper on that, so the end result is that none of the goals that I set for January were finished.  I’d really wanted to finish a Rough Draft, Working Draft, and Edited Draft every month, but perhaps that was too ambitious based on the amount of school work that I have.

While I can’t devote two hours every day, perhaps I just need to find a way to better utilize the time I do have.  I was up early to work on the blog–perhaps shorter, more consistent blog entries and use the remaining time to work on the writing projects I have in mind?

Improve

What I really want to see from my writing and my reading is an improvement in my ability to write long.  I don’t want just write short stories–my real desire is to write novels, screenplays, graphic novels, and pilots for television (of course, Sci-Fi/Fantasy based).  While I most certainly want to improve my storytelling abilities on ALL fronts, I really feel that improvement is needed in my ability to write long and to craft stories that can exist in the long-form media in order to see success as a writer.  That’s what I’m hoping Jesmyn Ward’s advice will help me accomplish this year.

Apologies for not Posting

Last week was not great for many reasons. From forgetting the charger for my computer to my car not starting intermittently, last week was a real challenge. I should have posted to my blog, but I wasn’t able to do so easily while dealing with life.

Car

So, the car started up, but wouldn’t crank over. After two days, it finally started and I was able to get into a shop. I hope that the repairs will be enough to get me through semester.

Hacking

So, over the weekend, it appears someone is trying to hack my email account. After doing online research, it looks like someone is trying to use my email address to gain access to my Apple iCloud account in order to lock me out of it and hold it hostage for ransom (probably bitcoins). Here’s a news story on this issue. I’ve taken measures to keep this from happening, but I have to say that Microsoft helped to make this an issue. I noticed that my “gmail” account had been “cloned” via Microsoft account (not sure how it was done), but when I called their account services, they basically told me not to worry about it. I could have avoided this had they taken action and locked this renamed “gmail” account on their Microsoft email servers. When this hacker renamed this gmail account to an “iCloud” account on Microsoft servers, I decided to take action.

Writing

I lost a week of writing, but I hope to get back into the swing of it this week, fingers crossed. This blog post is a part of that desire to get back to a writing life.

Sidney