Yes, I’m a Bad Kid. But wait… there’s Blip McFinn, Space Captain!

Yup, that’s me. I seemed to have gone on a hiatus without letting anyone know. Honestly, I’ve been neck deep in my revision of two large project and have been trying to get my focus there, besides everything else that goes on in normal life. And especially now that sumō is over. Terunofuji won yet again, but the whole thing was really weird, with all lower-than-ozeki rank hanging around at the top of the scoreboard for the longest time.

The first of the two has been a major P.I.T.A.–Umbra 2. As much as I love the story and I love all of the ideas I have written about/presented in the draft, I really hate how it’s not going together in a way I find cohesive. So much so that I ended up writing an additional 50k words for it, and now have to go back and decide which of the ideas have to go (or at least get relegated to the back burner for a while, maybe to resurface again in a later story).

The second of the two has been another ongoing thing, a collection of inter-connected short stories in a dark fantasy realm, with possible novels to follow (which are written, but alas, also need to be revised). The “ancient evil” antagonist borrows more from Lovecraft than Gygax (oh yummy, there’s plenty of body horror!). “Magic” is not the typical fantasy Dungeons & Dragons magic; it’s less “I’ve got a spell for that,” and more of an extremely limited manipulation of the elements, and is innate rather than learned. If you happen to possess such “magic” and you aren’t “registered” with the powers-that-be or belong to a protected group, then you are hunted down. What they do with you when they catch you, well… no spoilers.

When I get too frustrated with Umbra 2 and feel like I might be doing more harm than good to the manuscript, I step away so I can come back with fresh eyes. But if I step away from writing for too long, I feel guilty (yeah, I know…) so I work on revising them as well. As they are shorter stories within the whole, I can revise them faster. As for the covers, I’m hoping to get a group of covers made for each series, as I’m realizing that a cover is less about accuracy of story and more about being a marketing tool to grab the potential reader (and the reason why all those novels in the 20’s and 30’s had the scantily-clad women lounging around lusting after their men on the covers, and not a single scene coming close within the text. Sex selling and all that.). Anyone know of a good and relatively inexpensive cover artist they can recommend?

BUT… I’ve gone and added another possible project, one that takes more of my artistic skill than writing skill (I know, I know, we creative types are weird). This one is–so far–lighthearted and fun. Introducing: Blip McFinn, Space Captain!

Alright, so he’s not much now and it’s a low-res scan from a doodle on a lined notebook paper. You can even see his name there, written in blue before I gave the head/helmet a body. He started as a doodle while I was watching or listening to something, probably right after I cleaned my fish pond and had my finned critters on my mind. I’ve got a few others of his crew I’m working on, just letting my pen do the walking to see what it comes up with. As for his name, my grandmother had this nearly three-foot long goldfish I called ‘Bloop’ and this character almost had that name attached, but I thought Blip sounded more futuristic. And the McFinn part, well, let’s just say that most if not all of the characters will have some punny or on-the-nose names. Lighthearted, right? This is wholly an exercise for my fun as much as it is supposed to be fun, and an attempt to stay very family-friendly.

Anyway, I’m going to keep playing around with it and when I have enough panels drawn up with a bit of a story behind them, I’ll start publishing them. It will give me a reason to play more with my XP-Pen, and keep the creative juices flowing. Does anyone know of any comic-strip plugins that are really good? Drop me a line.

Back to sticking my nose in a manuscript and hoping to unravel the mess of Umbra 2. Until then…

The Art of Influence

Two weeks ago I brought up several stories which I call my favorites, and that naturally brought me to the idea of influence. You hear the phrases bandied about often by any creative types–“I consider such-and-such my greatest influence”, as in “As a composer, I find Mozart and John Williams to be my greatest influences” for an example, or directors cite earlier movies that formed their interest in the silver screen.

Certainly, as a writer, I count many, many authors and stories among my influences. All writers generally do–after all, that initial exposure to tales that transport us to other worlds or realities far from our own personal experiences engender the desire in some readers to craft our own. Fredrik Pohl, Harlan Ellison, Harry Harrison, John Haldeman, Doyle, Tolkien, Lewis, Shakespeare etc. all count high on my list of literary inspirations.

But… what about other influences, such as music? Take my first example, with music above. I frequently listen to music while writing, matching the mood/tone with whatever I am trying to write. Umbra (and all of its previous iterations) came flying from my fingertips with an ample dose of Alice in Chains, early Nine Inch Nails and Soundgarden pounding in my ears. For my darker fantasy stories like “The Falconer and the Wolf“, one of my favorite bands to get me in the right atmosphere is Dead Can Dance. When sketching notes for The Light of Liberty, I turned to Barry Phillips and his version of “The World Turned Upside Down” along with other American Colonial period tunes.

Are there any more? Of course there are. Many people have incorporated their likes and hobbies into their writing. Some cozy mysteries, for example, are based around knitting. My character Ennid the Havoc and his escapades are influenced by my love of MMA (that’s Mixed Martial Arts for those not yet initiated into its primal awesomeness). My interest in genetics features heavily in Clones are People Two. Even if the things we like aren’t at the forfront, we sometimes insert it in small ways. I love goats (Casey, from Umbra), I think rhinos are awesome and I smith silver (both of which will appear in The Opal Necklace, release date TBD) and I’ve an interest in raptors and falconry.

It’s all very simple–EVERYTHING can be an influence on our creativity, and EVERYTHING should be. It’s from these somewhat disparate ideas and influences that some of our richest “juices” flow.

 

 

Mad Max: Fury Road (DISCLAIMER: SPOILERS)

DISCLAIMER: Unapologetic Spoilers (If you read on, don’t blame me. You’ve been warned)

My obsession with the post-apocalypse began decades ago with George Miller’s genre-defining films, and the Wasteland and Fallout video games. Enough so, that last year (2014) I published two collections that feature some post-apoc stories (“Treasure” in Morsels and the “Ain’t No Coffee” chapter of Melange[1]) as well as a PA mystery novel, Umbra.

They pale in comparison to the mighty prosthetic strength of George Miller.

Completely skeptical in many arenas, I had been hearing about Fury Road for years, when it was an on-again, off-again project for the Happy Feet / Witches of Eastwick / Babe, Pig in the City director. He explored anime as a possible avenue, and there were brief rumors about Shia LeBouf taking the role of Max’s kid (I’m glad he failed that experiment with Indiana Jones instead). I also wasn’t sure what to make of a Mad Max who wasn’t going to be played by Mel Gibson. Remake after remake shows they don’t often get better, and most of the time are worse for all of the gimmicks and none of the story-meat.

So, I watched the trailers, and wasn’t completely turned off. Good sign.

First, the movie NEVER LETS UP. There are scarce moments to breathe, and the “slow” points in the movie don’t really drop its pace. Like downshifting, but the car is still rolling a pace that could snap your neck if you braked too hard. Except for an extremely short introduction in the very beginning (rather like The Road Warrior, but without the montage) you are dumped into the chase. Period. Miller is a master of showing, not telling, with only one very tiny, practically gasped “info-dump”. Otherwise, you glean the narrative organically as the story unfolds through action. This IS a car/rig movie, however, so those of you who just wanted to see souped-up, weaponized and apocalyptisized (yes, I just made that up) versions of vintage cars, look no further.

It also gives no quarter—just when you thought you came up for air, you find yourself smothered in dust cloud. Not everyone gets the happy ending, and one of the most heart-breaking moments in the movie comes in one of these gasps.

Anyway…

Storytellers and directors, take note: THIS is the way to do strong women in movies. Don’t insert them where they don’t belong just to 1) appeal to a young female audience and 2) bring sex incidentally into a film. Not that there’s any sex involved, at least not overtly, and not in the act of pleasure kind of way. Mostly, it’s for procreation. Or lack of. (the chastity belts worn by the brides are positively feral looking, although I think I would have kept it on until I reached my destination. Talk about your rape deterrant!). Believe it or not, there is a tiny romance subplot between a bride and one of the half-life War boys, and it’s handled a little too roughly to start, but it “moves” into its own. But the women here are strong, supportive and determined to escape and survive without having to be glammed up to do it. I could easily see myself as one of the Vuvalini (assuming I would want to survive in a post-apocalypse).

A few gimmicky moments exist to play up on the 3D version of the film (most notably the shot near the end with the guitar and the flying steering wheel), but these can be forgiven. George Miller always did have a little fun in his films, with the odd juxtaposition of the ultra-violent and quirky humor (see the exchange between Papagallo and the Mechanic).

Was there a soundtrack? Yes, there was, but the frenetic energy is so pervasive that the “music” is lost. Except for one well-placed, drop-of-the-bass dub invasion. Thanks, Junkie XL.

There are plenty of moments that call back the older movies, such as when Max, wielding a short-barreled side-by-side shotgun goes to blow some guy’s hand off and the round fizzles.[2] There is a moment when one of the brides is playing with the innards of a music box.[3] Hugh Keays-Byrne, as everyone who knows Mad Max knows, played the Toecutter in that film.[4]

There’s even a momentary, overt nod to another director’s film, The Dark Crystal, by having people on long stilts very much reminiscent of the landstriders ridden by Jen and Kira (don’t have a still from MM:FR, so if you want to see it, BUY A TICKET!!!!).

Count on George Miller to introduce characters with medical issues and/or prosthetics. We know the post-apoc “look” which he created in The Road Warrior went on to infect 80’s hair bands with the feathers and football gear as armor, but his inclusions called on his former career as an emergency room physician. In Mad Max it was the young cop forced to use the electrolarynx after his chase of the Nightrider leaves him with a shard of windshield glass in his throat. In the second, the most notable is the Mechanic, not confined to a wheelchair but held aloft by a cherry-picker like device cobbled together to get him around the equipment. In the third, there is Master-Blaster, a duo whose brain makes up for his lack of stature, and the brawn of which he rides to make up for his weakness for which he serves (and loves) paternally. Then, there is this movie, when it becomes a staple. Imperator Furiosa is the first notable, with her prosthetic arm, and Immortan Joe of course, but then there are the myriads of those with tumors and missing limbs, etc.

Tom Hardy’s Max is an extremely worthy successor to Mel Gibson’s Officer Rockatansky.[5] There’s more than a little nod to Bane there, George, in his and Immortan Joe’s get-ups.[6] Enough said.

So, this one is already going to be on my shelf the moment it is released on Blu-Ray.

AND… I have heard there is already a second/fifth one planned, called Mad Max: The Wasteland. I, for one, am looking forward to it

 

 

[1] Which are available for free on Smashwords, and possibly Amazon if they caught up. Read them and let me know what you think!

[2] From The Road Warrior, during the rig battle, when Max discovers the shell he picked up in the beginning of the movie from the dead man on the “Meek Shall Inherit” truck is a dud.

[3] Also from The Road Warrior, and also during the beginning after the battle with Wez, when he finds the music movement and later gives to the Feral Kid.

[4] Calling up of course that George Miller borrows actors from his own movies as well. I address this in another post, here.

[5] That name shows up, by the way, in House of God, Samuel Shem’s novel about a teaching hospital. George Miller finished medical school before he became a director, so might have some interest in reading that novel. Coincidence? I leave you to decide.

[6] Then again, isn’t Bane a little more “Road Warrior” than “Batman” anyway?