Dragonlance

This is the edition I read,
and still own.

Lately I have been thinking about Dragonlance. Not sure if it's nostalgia (which it probably is) or just my literary love for the series. For those who don't know, Dragonlance was a setting created for D&D back in the early 80's. It was conceived based on the premise of wanting a setting that featured dragons very prominently, rather than just as powerful monsters that you could encounter.

The first modules were played by a group of employees at TSR. Among that group were Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. What came of those sessions and modules was a trilogy of novels by Weis and Hickman called The Drgonlance Chronicles, and it tells the story of a group of friends who become unwitting heroes in a massive war between good and evil.

I have read that trilogy four times in my life. And the sequel trilogy, Legends, twice. I have also read several other Dragonlance trilogies and stand-alone novels, adding up to about 25 book all together. Can you tell I really like the setting?

As I have gotten older, and expanded my circles of friends, I have realized that not everyone likes Dragonlance (GASP!). In fact some people deride the Chronicles as "juvenile" and poorly-written. Well, as these things go, it's all a matter of taste. But it makes me think sometimes about why I love the trilogy so much (and am currently contemplating reading it yet again).

Obviously, nostalgia does play a part. I first read them during my senior year in high school. Up to that point the extent of my fantasy reading was limited to the 12 Lancer/Ace Conan books, and a few odd books here and there. At that point I hadn't even read any of Tolkien's books (though I loved the animated movies). But when my friends Bill and Wes gave me their copy of the trilogy, I devoured them and wanted more.

The charm of the series, for me, was initially that it was like reading a D&D campaign being played. The authors did a very good job of translating some of the counter-intuitive rules of the game (mainly about magic) into something that made sense from a literary standpoint. I have to say that, after reading those books, I felt that I finally understood the Magic-User class enough to want to actually play one on occasion.

Sturm Brightblade

I also really like the characters. I obviously have my favorites, and there are some that I like less than others. But I don't actually hate any of the characters. Well, except the villains. But you're supposed to hate them, right? There are moments in the story that make me laugh, as well as some that still make me cry. But over all, I think it's the sense of adventure, the wide-spanning storytelling, and the accessible language that all combines to really do it for me.  I can even forgive the fact that the setting doesn't have Orcs!  Mainly because their place is taken by the Draconians, one of the coolest fantasy races ever.

If you enjoy Tolkien, and are willing to set aside your literary snobbery for a few moments, I think this little gem is a timeless read. And I think I really want to dig my copies out of storage again.

I'm a bored dork who is dodging responsibility

So, this summer my teenaged daughter was kind of obsessed with the cartoon Avatar: the Last Airbender, and she watched all three seasons on NetFlix. I watched about half of it with her (she had a habit of staying up way late, and would watch a lot of it while I was in bed), and I really grew to enjoy the show. I may have to go back and watch the episodes I missed. If you’re not familiar with the show, I highly recommend reading the Wiki page above, and if it interests you, check it out on any number of video formats.

As anyone who has been reading my blog for any length of time can imagine, while watching this show, I was immediately struck by how easily it could be done as an RPG. So, I hit the internet, and behold…nothing.

Though there have been various attempts to adapt existing games to the setting (with varying degrees of success), there has never been an official game produced. As a life-long RPG player, I see this as a serious missed opportunity. But, considering the fact that tabletop RPGs aren’t nearly as popular as they once were, I can see why the effort was not made. Still, it seems like someone would have at least optioned the rights for a game. It would have cost the producers of the show nothing, and would have even made them a little chunk of change.

Regardless, my brain started working out the details of how I would do it. I’m not sure I will ever put the rules on paper, let alone actually play it. But it’s an interesting exercise in game-design. You have to come up with basic rules on Bending, and then you have to come up with ways to logically break those rules in order to create the Avatar, and to create new Bending techniques (like Blood and Metal bending), all the while maintaining game and player balance. Fortunately, there is only one Avatar (and would most likely never be a PC), so that part doesn’t need a lot of detail. But the rest is intriguing to think about.

Speaking of RPGs, I find myself thinking again about Life of Rage, my Orc RPG. I really only need to flesh out the setting information a bit more, and then some minor details. And of course, artwork. But it’s kind of playable right now. However, I am rethinking the core mechanic.

Right now, I am borrowing the mechanic from Alderac’s L5R and 7th Sea RPGs, but with modifications. Basically, you roll a certain number of dice based on your skill, then you keep a number of those dice based on your related attribute, and add the results together to try and beat a target number. It seems kind of illogical, as you should roll your attribute and keep your skill. But for the sake of game play, it works. My main modification is the die-type. I use d12s instead of d10s. However, I think I might reconsider that and go with d6s, just because I want to keep it all pretty simple.

This is where my brain goes more often then I want…

The Orc Way

My fourth Kindle story is now live.  This one is a sequel to PEKRA, as it relates events that happened to Gortek just after his mating with her.  From the "back cover":

The Red Reavers are on a mission: To secure a dwarf for their chief, who wants to learn how to make steel weapons. But when the Orc patrol finds a perfect candidate for their needs, will their leader, the brainless oaf Kagan, muck things up with his short-sightedness?


It’s up to Gortek to handle the thinking, and keep his patrol-mates safe. But is he ready for the inevitable confrontation with Kagan?

You can find it here.  I hope you enjoy it!  As always, reviews are GREATLY appreciated.  And be sure to check out my other stories, if you haven't already.

Note:  The cover shown above is the actual final cover image.  The one that Amazon is showing is the previous version, which was rushed, and I dislike very much

All over the place...again.

Like many writers, I often battle a form of ADD when it comes to what I am writing.  And right now I am in the throes of yet another fight.  On the one hand, I have a research paper that is due next week.  I am making slow progress on it in the evenings, but it will be a challenge to get it to the required length.  I probably should have picked a better topic.  Oh, well.  Too late now.  And I have also registered for my next class, which starts in October.  I'm apparently a glutton for academic punishment.

Then there's the fact that playing HALO 3 on my xBox inspired me to start reading the novels, which in turn inspired me to start writing some military sci-fi of my own again.  Today, my attention seems to be focused on that.  I have already laid down nearly 500 words, and am only halfway through the scene I want to finish.  I'm taking some old, discarded ideas, and mashing them together to form a new one.  I do that a lot, actually.  But, I guess a lot of writers do.

Yesterday, my writing brain went to some heated social issues, and I felt compelled to write a short essay on one of them.  This essay will only be seen by a few people because it is a volatile subject, and I know that some people I consider close friends would be offended by it.  So, I will keep it mostly private, and chalk it up to ineffectual ranting.

Last night my friend Ken called me (just as I was sitting down to a few minutes of HALO...he has a knack for doing that), and we chatted a bit about writing.  Ken is one of the friends that I am attempting to put together an Sword & Sorcery anthology with, based on an original shared world.  We discussed that briefly, and I had to admit that I hadn't made any progress on it in a while. 

We also discussed ePublishing.  Ken is writing a serial of eShorts about an adolescent vampire that is really good.  But he is having a hard time finding an audience for it.  We're pretty sure that the target demographic (the Twi-hard crowd) has too short of an attention span for serialized stories.  he's considering pulling the stories he has, combining them and finishing the larger story, and republishing it as an eNovel.  I think that's his best bet, honestly.

And speaking of ePublishing, I am finally putting up another story for Kindle.  I had published THE ORC WAY (a sequel of sorts to PEKRA) last night, after laboring over the cover image.  But this morning, I realized I had made a formatting error, and the thing looks awkward in places.  So, I unpublished it, and corrected the errors, as well as made some content edits today.  Tonight, I will rework the cover image, since I am not all that happy with how it turned out, and try to republish it again.  I'll make an announcement tomorrow when it is available.

And finally there is the Sword & Planet story for Scott Oden's newest anthology idea.  I had made great progress on it, going so far as to write a complete synopsis (something I am only now learning how to do), and working through the first couple of scenes.  However, it seemed overly long for the 10k word limit, so I had cut a huge chunk out of the middle.  I sent it to Scott, and asked his opinions.  He said it could be 10k words, if written right.  But his main concern was that it wasn't very S&P, and seemed more like S&S or Alternate History.  It was then that I realized that all of the S&P elements (superscience technology, non-human races) were in the part that I had cut out!  Ugh.  back to the drawing board.  Now I'm not sure if I should rework the story, or just start over with something new.

Over on the personal front, my 17-year old daughter went back to Vegas last weekend.  I already miss her.  But the good news (unrelated to her leaving) is that we are trying to buy a house.  If we get the one we like, I will finally have room for a library and writer's den!  WOOHOO!!

On covers

I am currently preparing another story for Kindle publication.  It's another Orc story that centers o Gortek, the male lead in Pekra, and it takes place not long after that story.  Right now, though, I am stuck on a cover.

The covers for my Kindles so far have all been somewhat similar, stylistically.  Particularly, the Orc-related ones.  Basically, it's a black background, with a Photoshopped image of a head/face.  So, I am inclined to keep with that trend.  Last night I took a photo of an actor who has certain features that fit Gortek, and morphed and colored it to the point where you can't really recognize who the original actor was.

At first, I was hesitant to go this route again.  I didn't want people to get them confused, and think that all of my stories were the same.  But, I started thinking about it, and realized that it's a pretty common thing for stories and books in a series.  So, I'm going to go with it for now.

That being said, I think I will have to start over tonight.  I screwed the image up beyond easy repair last night, and I didn't really like how it looked at the end.  Sometimes, if you don't pay attention to what you are doing, Layers in Photoshop can be a pain the ass.

Geek in Review

So, we went to Wizard World - Chicago on Saturday. I was dressed as Classic Nick Fury, Michele was an excellent Tank Girl, and Faith decided against the full-on costume and merely wore Michele's Death (Sandman) t-shirt. Over all, it was a good time. A bit pricier than I remember it being last time, but still fun. Saw a LOT of great costumes, and ended up carrying my iPhone around and just snapping pics. I'll probably post some of those later, probably on Facebook.

It was cool that people recognized who I was supposed to be, and I even got a few compliments (my favorite was the guy at the ECTO-1 photo-op booth who shouted "Hey, it's David Hasselhoff!"). But no one wanted my picture. It might have been that I didn't have my eye-patch down most of the day. I tried it, but I kept bumping into people and objects. Michele got a lot of comments, and she even got asked to take a picture. All in all, though, it was a very fun experience.

Of course, the highlight for her was that she got to meet Sean Patrick Flanery, of Boondock Saints fame (among others). He was a really cool guy, and very nice to his fans. He and Norman Reedus seemed to be genuinely enjoying the whole experience. And after being to a lot of Cons, I can tell you that not all celebrities seem to be having fun.

On the drive home, while my wife and daughter alternately dozed and Facebooked on their iPhones, I was already planning on what costume to wear next year. Honestly, for me it all depends on what shape I am in. One thing I WON'T do for a costume is be a "Fat Spiderman." If I am going to wear a costume that is largely spandex (or some other form-fitting material), or shows a significant amount of skin, then I want to look as close to the comic book version as I can. This year, I was pushing it. And honestly, I went with the tactical vest instead of a shoulder holster mainly because it hid my gut. Or, as my wife puts it, my "husband tummy."

So, assuming I can lose the weight I want to (and honestly, I need to lose it for health reasons anyways), I am considering the following:

Daredevil

Moon Knight

Dr. Strange (this might be doable even if I'm not in the best shape)

Man-Thing (ok this might be a bit far-fetched, but it'd be wicked cool)

Dee Snider

Rambo (this would require some SERIOUS working out)

However, chances are by this time next year my list of possibilities will be completely different.

Fan Letters

On a whim, I sent this letter to Stallone today through his website (www.sylvesterstallone.com):

Dear Mr. Stallone,


Last night I was watching INFERNO on NetFlix again (in anticipation of E2), and I noticed something. During a bus ride, you commented on the raucous applause and screaming that can be heard from the crowd outside that “It isn’t me. It took me 30 years to realize it, but it isn’t for me.” You go on to allude that you know most of the adoration is not for Sylvester Stallone, but for the characters you play, most notably Rambo and Rocky.

Now, while I can agree that for a large portion, perhaps even a majority, of younger fans, this may be true, it doesn’t apply to everyone. Some of us “old timers” are screaming for you.

My fandom began with ROCKY III. It was the first movie I was allowed to see in the theaters by myself (I was 11 years old). I’m sure that fact had an impact on how influential it was, but more than that it resonated with me. I made a connection with the character that I wouldn’t really understand until a few years later. From then on, I never missed seeing a movie of yours in the theater (I even saw STOP, OR MY MOM WILL SHOOT). And I have seen the ones I had missed since, many of them several times.

In 1986, I read Jeff Rovin’s unauthorized biography of you, Stallone: A Hero’s Story. And it suddenly struck me some of the similarities we had growing up. Not many, but some. Like you, I was that kid who got picked on when I was little. And like you, I was highly influenced by the cinematic heroes of my day (oddly enough, you provided that role for me). Of course, it didn’t hurt that I bore a close physical resemblance to you (I should show you a comparison of both of us at 15 years old some time).

I will readily admit that not all of your films are so wonderful. However, one thing is perfectly clear to me: YOU are wonderful in them. You may be type-cast, and many may think you are a one-trick pony, but I feel differently. All of your movies, even the balls-to-the-wall action movies, have heart and soul, and you play the characters with gusto and conviction. In my eyes, you are on par with Clint Eastwood. In his heyday he was either “the man with no name” or “Dirty Harry.” And yet, like you, he has pushed beyond that and made some of the most memorable films to date, from both in front of, and behind the camera.

In short, I can honestly say that, while some parts of my life have been influenced by your characters (won my first and only fist fight in high school by going “Rocky” on the guy, and later joined the Army as a paratrooper after seeing RAMBO II too many times), I have always found your own story infinitely more fascinating and inspirational. From your drive to excel physically to overcome what you perceived as shortcomings, to your writing binge and subsequent sale of ROCKY, to the string of movies that cemented you as a Hollywood icon, I continue to be impressed with your positive outlook, and your realistic approach to life in all facets.

So, the next time you are ever in my neck of the woods (which, sadly has yet to happen), I’ll be that guy in the crowd chanting “SLY! SLY! SLY!”

Best regards from a lifetime fan,

I know I probably won't get a reply, and I know he probably won't read it himself.  But, I can always hope and dream, right?  So, have you ever sent a Fan Letter to a celebrity and gotten a reply?

Cosplay

In a couple of weeks we are heading to Wizard World Chicago, aka Chicago Comic Con. This will be my first Con in a while. We went once for a Saturday afternoon a few years ago, on the way home from dropping Faith off at O'Hare. But this time it's a planned event. And not only that, it's also the first time I will be in costume.

Many moons ago, when I lived in San Diego, I went to the San Diego Comic Con every year for ten years straight. I watched it grow into a monstrosity, and am amazed that it has gotten even bigger still since my last visit in 2006. But, in all those years, I never went in any kind of costume. Well, once Chris and I were going to go as Kevin Matchstick (Chris) and Kirby Hero (me), but that only half worked, and was kind of abandoned at the last minute.

This time, I am actively putting together a costume. My thought was to go as classic Nick Fury...with a twist. You see, in the comics, Nick wore a lot of blue and white. It works in four-color, but not in real life, IMHO. So, my thought was to interpret Nick as he might have looked had the Marvel movies chosen Classic instead of Ultimate Nick Fury. So, basically, a SWAT-style look. Of course I would still have the classic Nick elements of an eye-patch, gray temples, and a cigar.

This guy is the Gold Standard for
Classic Nick Fury, as presented in
the comic books.

All that being said, I'm kind of second-guessing myself. I'm not sure many people would get the idea, and would just assume I was going the cheap route, instead of putting together an authentic costume. And you know what? They could be right. I mean, isn't the point of dressing up for a con to celebrate the characters as they have been portrayed? I kind of think so. Which makes me think that another idea might be better.

My costume wouldn't be exact,
but it'd be pretty close.

As anyone who knows me even a little should be aware, I am a HUGE Stallone fan (oddly related, I once Photoshopped a pic of Sly as Nick Fury...I think he would have been great!). So, with The Expendables 2 coming out this month, I thought it would be cool to celebrate that by going as an Expendable to the Con. The costume itself would be pretty easy now. I have airsoft guns, a tactical vest, black BDU pants and combat boots. I even have a black beret, and could easily just go as Barney Ross himself (except I can't seem to find that cool Expendables flash he wears in the sequel). I think if I did this, though, I would have to insist that my wife draw an Expendables tattoo on my arm for the day.

I don't know. Anyone with Cosplay experience have an opinion on this?