Questions and Answers
Honesty, Lies*
This month’s Sensor Scan will be a little different. Instead of researching an article on some important figure, event or product in science fiction and fantasy I am going to answer a couple of questions you guys commonly ask. Not that I mind; I love talking with you all. However, typing has been difficult the last couple of weeks (thanks to the broken fingers) and I already had the bulk of this stuff written down in one form or another. It is a range of stuff from martial arts to opinions on genre giants to writing and self publishing. But given the usual topics are science fiction and/or fantasy related and September is basically Star Trek month…
What is your problem with the new Star Trek shows?
I do subscribe to Paramount Plus, or whatever it is currently called, just for Star Trek and I have since the very beginning (like as soon as the new shows were announced). I have an episode of Enterprise on in the background as I write! I am a die hard, lifelong Star Trek fan. I have DVDs, games, toys and loads of books, both fiction and non-fiction. I do not consider myself a super fan though. I mean, some people out there have learned to speak Klingon or turned their living rooms into the bridge of their favorite Enterprise. Although I have not made it a point to study trivia or the fictional history of the Federation I have seen every episode of every series (except Prodigy) and most more than once.
I really wanted to like Discovery. In a way I did like it. The characters were compelling and interesting, the individual episodes told great stories. My problem started with the Klingons, which has changed again for no apparent reason. I have defended the redesign of the Klingons in Star Trek: The Motion Picture because the whole point of that film is to show what Star Trek could be like with money and modernized special effects. Star Trek has enjoyed decent budgets and top tier special effects ever since. It was pointless in Discovery, except to try to differentiate itself from other entries in the franchise. The result was Discovery seems to exist apart from the main franchise canon. Problem is the producers went into the show swearing Discovery was not an alternate universe, like the last few movies, or timeline. I can only think the production team simply decided to ignore the story telling which came before them.
To me that is pure laziness. The look of the show reinforced my opinion. The Discovery was supposed to have been built about the same time as the Enterprise of the original show. Instead of taking the time to create sets which share the design aesthetic of Star Trek the show decided to make their ship look much more advanced. Enterprise (the series) was made decades after the original Star Trek but set earlier in the fictional timeline and managed to create a ship with technology which was familiar but looked more primitive than the first series. Honestly there are ways The Orville are more Star Trek than Discovery.
I had high hopes (again) with Picard. But the same problems seemed to crop up. It was as if the writers never bothered to watch Star Trek: The Next Generation. There were mysterious references to Data’s daughter and a painting created by Data which looked like a character in the show but never a mention of Lal, the ill fated daughter Data created during The Next Generation. When Picard’s past and his relationship with his family was explored his brother (who was in an episode of The Next Generation) was never mentioned. Later, as the theme of the crew and their children became more central, the crew reunited and everyone seemed to have new children. Strangely no mention was made of Worf’s son Alexander despite his time on the Enterprise. I am not even sure Wesley was discussed!
I watched both shows but, honestly, it seemed like a chore at times. Discovery was touted as groundbreaking but many aspects of it seemed recycled. The lad character was Spock’s previously unknown adopted sister. But Spock already had a sibling nobody knew about in a one of the films (actually, come to think of it, this might have been my first issue with Discovery). The whole jump to the future to rebuild the Federation echoed Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda). Picard, to me, just was not very good and that is partially because I compared its version of the crew’s story after the last The Next Generation film Nemesis to the version presented in the “relaunch” novels and, frankly, the books are much better.
A couple of stray points before the next question. I expected to hate Star Trek: Lower Decks but it is easily my favorite of what I call “new Trek.” I love that show and will be sorry to see it end. I watched the first episode or two of Prodigy, the other “new Trek” animated series which is aimed at kids, but was fairly busy and did not give it much of a chance. I will probably try again soon. I might add it to my current Saturday morning viewing (which includes Batman: Caped Crusader and Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles because I believe Saturday is made for cartoons).
Why don’t you like Star Wars ?
Well, to be fair I like Star Wars… meaning the first movie as it came out back when I was a kid. Like Indiana Jones or the 1980 Flash Gordon it is a fun and loving tribute to earlier works. But after Star Wars the series started to take itself a little too seriously for what it is… at least that is how I see it. As much as I love space opera, Star Wars just isn’t my kind of space opera after the first film. By the time Return of the Jedi came out when I was 11, well, I just wasn’t interested anymore. I certainly don’t think less of anyone who likes Star Wars. If you have been reading the newsletter long enough you might remember a year or two ago when I covered the Star Wars radio plays and kind of reconnected with my childhood Star Wars fandom.
Who is you favorite Doctor?
The first episode of Doctor Who I ever saw was the omnibus version (all episodes edited into one single presentation) of The Brain of Morbius. My local PBS station, which showed Doctor Who every Sunday night at 10 PM, was showing the series more or less in order so Tom Baker and Elizabeth Sladen were my introduction to the series over the next few weeks. Because of that I consider Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor to be “my Doctor.” I am lukewarm to the revival series for several reasons but a big part of it is because my first taste of Doctor Who was the longer form story telling tinged with gothic horror. Now that I am able to watch the show as it originally aired (I am not aware of any streaming or home video releases of the omnibus edits some PBS stations used) I appreciate its old school movie serial feel. A single hour episode, even a two parter, does not “feel” like Doctor Who to me.
I am a big fan of the audio productions from Big Finish, by the way, and have to say they have elevated Colin Baker’s Sixth Doctor and Paul McGann’s Eighth Doctor to close out my top three Doctors.
What are you watching?
I am kind of between shows lately… I have been mainly watching YouTube videos on Mandarin slang and how to play the recorder (I am trying to learn how to read music) or documentaries to fill in some things I am researching. I have been watching Amazon Prime’s Batman Caped Crusader and Paramount’s Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles but only on Saturdays. I am only allowing myself one episode each every week to stretch them out. I frequently turn on random classic Doctor Who episodes (especially on Sundays, which was when Doctor Who aired in St. Louis back in the day) or a news channel when I need background noise. Truth is I do most of my “dedicated” TV/movie watching on planes. The only show I regularly watch is Toon in with Me, the morning classic cartoon show on MeTV.
Why don’t you like The Hobbit/Lord of the Rings ?
Because I find Tolkien’s style a little hard to read… it kind of bores me. Might as well admit I feel the same way about H.P. Lovecraft. If I am going to put that much effort into reading I would, personally, rather read Die Nibelungenlied, Don Quixote, Viking sagas or the like. When it comes to fantasy (and by and large to science fiction as well) I am pretty low class. Give me a rousing pulp adventure and I am happy. Howard, Fritz Lieber and Michael Moorcock are more my speed. I am a big fan of Manly Wade Wellman’s folksy fantasy horror novels. Honestly, now that it is finally being translated into English wuxia is my favorite type of fantasy.
What exactly is this wuxia stuff you are always on about?
Wuxia is a genre of Chinese fantasy literature which has been highly under-represented in the English speaking world. Basically it tells stories of martial arts heroes upholding traditional Confucian values and navigating the complicated martial society. Often the martial arts are presented as almost a kind of magic. Manipulation of one’s internal energies (or qi, which is the basis of things like acupuncture and some of the very real world martial arts techniques I use) allows skilled practitioners to make themselves lighter and leap from tree to tree or even skim over water. It also allows a fighter to inflict serious damage to opponents, often from a distance. Skilled use of acupuncture points and qi in many wuxia stories mean fighters can often paralyze their opponents (literally freezing them in place).
Because very few books have been translated into English, wuxia is best known in the West through the films based on its most famous works. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was based on a wuxia novel (that book has never been translated into English). Several popular television shows are based on wuxia novels, too. I recently recommended Legend of Heroes: Hot Blooded in the Two Sentence Reviews (which can be found streaming legally for free with English subtitles on YouTube). It is based on Jin Yong’s Legend of the Condor Heroes. This epic has been recently translated into English (over four volumes coming in at something like 1500 pages) and is very much considered China’s answer to Lord of the Rings. I will take Condor Heroes any day! Someday I hope to be literate enough to read Jin Yong in the original Chinese.
My martial arts fantasies, by the way, I do not consider wuxia. They are inspired by wuxia stories (and 1970s “kung fu” movies as well as American pulp fantasies) but I view true wuxia as a uniquely Chinese form of literature.
What martial art should I (or my kid) study?
I get asked this question fairly often… sometimes because I write books with martial arts or because I review martial arts movies. The only real reason I feel remotely qualified to answer this is because I have been studying martial arts for over 35 years. The bulk of the answer is the same whether I am being asked by someone interested for themselves or for their kids. First of all, figure out which martial arts are available to you! If you live in rural Michigan and the only martial art near you is Shotokan karate then there is a good chance the best choice for you is Shotokan karate! Be realistic about what you can access. I knew I wanted to study martial arts when I was fairly young but (for whatever reason) could not convince my parents to pay for it or take me. My first martial art was high school wrestling. It was free and I had to go to school anyway. I was not very good at it (sport applications of martial arts are not my thing in general, although I enjoy watching them) but it was a start. We even studied some karate along the way. By the time I was a sophomore I had money of my own and some friends were going to study with a kung fu teacher so I started to catch rides with them. Chinese martial arts always held an attraction to me. I got along with the instructor; he was a biker and that fit in with my punk rock attitude. The Wu family Shaolin Black Dragon system’s philosophy of studying many animal styles to create a personalized fighting system (“making your own dragon”) made a great deal of sense to me and I never looked back. Unlike many traditional Chinese martial arts its philosophy encourages exploring other styles and techniques so I have dabbled in Muay Thai, Okinawan karate, boxing, kenpo and a few other things.
If you have several options I highly suggest checking out a few styles and schools to see if the style of fighting being taught and the atmosphere of the school work for you. Ask yourself why you want to study martial arts (self defense, fitness, connection with tradition, competition, you want to swing swords around…). Try to find a program which falls in line with your goals. You might want to be in a more cardio and exercise oriented environment. You might want to do sport martial arts like judo or tae kwon do. If you really want weapons you might want to skip to kendo (Japanese fencing) or escrima (Filipino stick fighting). Most schools will let you at least observe a class or two for free so take them up on it.
Some schools, unfortunately, put money over tradition so do a little investigation. If you don’t like the attitude of the teacher or students (which is a reflection of the teacher) then run. Over the years I have decided I do not want to mix money and martial arts but that is a personal decision. It means when I teach I do it outside. Because operating a school costs money I do not automatically condemn those charging for lessons because they have rent, insurance, etc. and if they have dedicated their life to the school full time they need to eat! I have little respect, though, for those putting profits over their responsibility to train respectful, skilled martial artists.
I always suggest trying out a martial art class at a local Y or community center if you can. This tends to be a cheap way to “get your feet wet.” Judo, although sport oriented, is a good starting point. It is fairly easy to find all over the world, gives you a good base and teaches you how to fall without getting hurt which is always handy. You might realize judo is not for you but it should help you determine what it is you are looking for in martial arts while giving you a good foundation for other studies.
Finally, if you are looking for something for your kids you must be extra diligent. I hate to be blunt but your kids will be touched at a martial arts class, there is simply no avoiding it. They may end up changing clothes there, too. You have to trust the people at the school. Do not be afraid to ask if the instructors and employees have had background checks! Also talk to potential schools about how children are disciplined during class. If you can try to speak with some of the other parents too. That being said, martial arts can be great for kids. It can keep them active, help develop their sense of discipline and even give them a fighting chance if the darker parts of the world come their way.
Can I learn martial arts online/from videos/from books?
You can not learn proper martial art technique on your own. You need an instructor, feedback and training partners. A beginner may be able to supplement what they are being taught by an instructor with video lessons or books. To be specific, if you are studying Style X with an instructor supplemental materials specifically about Style X may provide you with additional helpful drills or insight into Style X. It is best to view books, videos, online sessions, etc as extra information not as a viable course of study.
I do believe an advanced student of martial arts can learn a great deal from these types of supplemental materials. Once you firmly grasp the core concepts of your chosen style may help you not only explore your own technique but also understand the philosophies and strategies of other styles. You are not, however, going to become a black belt through DVDS, books, YouTube, magazines, correspondence courses or Zoom. I take that back… I bet someone is willing to charge you a couple hundred dollars and present you with a black belt, or teaching certifications or some such. You are not going to become a legitimate black belt through DVDS, YouTube or Zoom!
What martial arts do you study? Who is your teacher? What rank are you?
I have trained in the Wu family teaching of Shaolin’s Black Dragon Sect since I was a teenager (I think 15). Traditionally Chinese martial arts do not use a colored belt ranking system as found in many other martial arts. When wearing a “proper” uniform I wear either a black, red or black and red sash to denote my school colors, not ranking. For various reasons (including participation in national and international martial arts organizations) the Wu family Shaolin Black Dragon system has “adopted” a belt system which I more or less ignore! I have obtained a rank which allows me to instruct others and, if I choose to again, open my own school. Unfortunately my travel schedule does not afford me the time to work with others regularly or even train in the manner I would prefer. My instructor, “Ike” Bear, is back in the St. Louis area.
What are you reading?
So complicated… I usually am reading a physical book (but often this does not travel with me), something through Kindle and something through Apple Books. Sometimes I also have a comic book going through another program and/or an audiobook from the library for when I am driving. Some of this is for pleasure, some of this is for research. I really like physical books but the convenience of ebooks is hard to beat! One handed reading, self illumination and adjustable text sizes are super convenient (and allow me to read in bed every night without glasses).
At time of writing I am reading a Star Trek novel titled Cold Equations III: The Body Electric, Flying Saucers Are Real by Donald Keyhoe, the second English language volume of Legend of the Condor Heroes by Jin Yong (A Bond Undone translated by Gigi Chang) and I am going through the Dungeon Crawl Classics rule book because I recently joined a game. My comic book tastes of late have been leaning towards vintage issues of Vampirella and its sister horror comic publications from Warren Publishing but I am feeling some DC super hero stuff in my near future!
Luis Elizondo’s Imminent and Frederick Kohner’s Gidget are sitting next to my chair ready to be read. Because I am minutes away from finishing that Star Trek book it will probably be replaced by P.G. Wodehouse’s Little Nugget and/or Picadilly Jim by the time you are reading this!
I want to write a book. How do I do it?
This is going to sound flippant but hear me out: don’t!
Look, if you feel like you are full of stories to tell and want to write, great. Do it! But don’t start with a book. Start with a short story and build from there.
I thought I would be a writer some day when I was a kid but over time that vision switched to artist. I even majored in art in college (until they cancelled that program). About the same time, celiac disease crept into my life. It went undiagnosed for years and slowly caused me to have issues with fine motor control among other problems. Drawing became not only difficult but painful so I stopped. The same thing happened, by the way, with performing magic. I turned back to writing… but first I was writing technical manuals for my day job. I was also writing for an early magic e-zine. After losing that day job I turned to freelance writing for a couple of years as my main way to support my family. I wrote (or ghost wrote) website content, advertisements, research articles, company histories, how to books, a couple golf guides (I don’t golf) and even porn reviews. It taught me a great deal (all of it, not just the prom reviews), especially about meeting deadlines. I ended up getting a day job again once the economy got shaky but kept writing on the side, including news for both Podcast UFO and the magicians’ site iTricks. In fact, it was the owner of iTricks Andrew Mayne, an author himself, who convinced me to jump into the deep end and write the novel I always wanted to write. “Get your ass off the couch and write your book. Nobody is going to do it for you.” He was also who told me to go the self publishing route (magic is a very do-it-yourself culture). Thank you Andrew!
I jumped in and wrote a book “first” but I had all that writing behind me. Thousands of pages. Still when I go back to my first book there are still many, many things I would change now.
So many people want to write a book but they find it intimidating. If you have never written anything tackling a full length novel should be intimidating. YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING! In that previous question, the one about learning martial arts, notice I did not suggest you just jump in the first octagon you find and start throwing punches! Do you start jogging by running a marathon? I have always told my martial arts students and my kids: first you can’t do something, then you suck at it, then you can kind of do it, then you are okay before you are good and maybe, someday, really good or even great. You walk every single day now without a second thought. You don’t remember the days when you could not even stand up on your own or the 8,000 falls you took as a toddler. You couldn’t walk at first. Then you sucked at it. Now you can walk and watch YouTube videos on your phone at the same time.
What I am saying is take the time to learn how to write. You probably need to learn about structure and theme and tone and all that stuff but that is not what I mean. You do not need to go out and get an English degree or anything. You really need to learn how you work, though. No two writers follow the same workflow. You can’t write the way I work but I can’t write the way that will work for you, either.
How do you write a book? Start with a story. No ideas? Fine. Watch your favorite TV show (fiction show) and turn the last episode into a four or five page story. Grab a comic book (single issue) and write it up as a prose story. Write about something that really happened to you. It does not have to be exciting or interesting. In a way it is better to not care terribly about it. Just figure out how to get words on paper. Figure out how to make sense. Then try to make things interesting, When you can write a few good pages novelizing the last episode of The Beverly Hillbillies or Star Trek you saw on TV then try writing a short story of your own. It can still be fan fiction if you want, just try your hand at an original story. Once you have stories in hand then work to getting comfortable with people reading them because that is a whole battle in itself for most people.
Along the way you will figure out how you tick… Do you write lots and need to pare it down and simplify things? Do you start with dialogue and fill in details later? Do you plan everything out in your head before you type a single word? Do you sit down and see what happens when you turn the characters loose? Can you commit to X amount of minutes or pages of writing a day or do you need to write when the spirit grabs you? Do you need a dedicated work space with a specific keyboard or can you lay on the couch and knock out chapters with your thumbs on your phone? What works for you is only going to work for you and you have to discover it!
At some point after you have been writing short stories writing a novel won’t seem so damned scary. It should still seem a little scary, trust me! But once it seems like something you have half an idea how to tackle then you get your ass off the couch and write your book. Nobody is going to do it for you.
I wrote a book… Should I self publish? Why do you self publish?
Should you self publish? That is a tough one. It really kind of depends on your goals and your reason for writing. Some people don’t feel like a “real” writer if they have not been published by a traditional publisher. Some people want to get into “best seller” lists. The nice thing about publishers, I hear, is that they worry about getting your book out there in the world. But then again I am hearing from some traditionally published authors a great deal of the book promotion is now being left to them.
Personally, I am in a weird place in my life where I don’t really like to mix money with my books (kind of like I don’t want to mix money with my martial arts). Maybe art school made me a little too much of a “tortured artist” type or maybe I am just a conceited jerk but I really don’t want anyone to tell me what I can and can’t write. “Sorry, we are only taking middle school level fantasy novels with teenaged female protagonists involving magic and an urban environment. And a cat would be nice too.”
I have made a living writing in the past. I have seen my name in a by-line. I am pretty sure there was not a publisher out there who would have touched The Grand Tournament. You can not convince me anyone would have ever shown the slightest interest in Vanguard Task Force 138: We Are 138! but I just wanted them out there. I realize my tokusatsu based story with a heavy tongue in cheek influence from the punk band The Misfits is for very, very few of the billions of people out there on Earth. I just want it out there for the handful who will appreciate it. Soon after I put out The Grand Tournament a guy I had never met contacted me just to tell me how much he enjoyed it and how the characters seemed so real to him he wanted to take a minute and thank me. That is why I write… in hopes that this story is going to make a difference to someone by exciting them or inspiring them or maybe giving them some new imaginary friends for a while.
Since I don’t really care if my books sell or not, I don’t feel the need to spend money to advertise them. If you self publish, especially if your goal is to someday support yourself with your books, then you need to be aware you are going to have to learn how to market your stuff in an incredibly crowded market. Something like 50,000 ebooks are added to Amazon every month! That is more than one a minute.
If you are self publishing you are starting a business and probably need to treat it as such. There are lots of sources of information on how to go about that (from ‘writing to market’ to advertising to additional sources of revenue related to your books) but I am not one of them. I just don’t care to go that route. I want to tell stories and then talk about cool books and movies with other fans.
If you don’t care about money then why don’t you give away all your books?
Good question. Fair question. It is something I wrestle with often… even after putting out multiple books.
I think the most honest answer is that while money is not a motivating factor for my writing it is a factor in my life. My books are my intellectual property, they are my creations and I do not want to simply throw them out into the digital world without any measure of control. If someone wants to make a movie or comic book based on my books, great. I will take the payday. It goes back to that thing with martial arts schools… it takes money to operate a school and it takes money to create and distribute books. Amazon and other e-retailers expect money for every book downloaded or printed. Most will not allow authors to make books permanently free anymore. Even when I allow readers to download free books from me (and skip the retailers) I have to pay for the web services involved. So, yes, I charge money (not too much, I hope) for my books. If someday I have enough of a catalogue to see book sales supplementing my income in a meaningful way that will be great… it will probably keep me from being a Walmart greeter in my old age. If not, I am fine with that too (it seems like I am at Walmart all the time anyway).
I do take as many opportunities as I can to make my books free and I always have free offerings for my readers. I also submit all my books to library ebook services. At the end of the day that is something I think I can live with and hope all you readers can too.
* Those are song lyrics from Sham 69’s Questions and Answers…
