Limiting my potential?

A little while ago I posted a status on Facebook about how I worry that I am limiting myself as a writer by the choices of subject matter I make. I think I’ll explore that here, and see if anyone else has the same kinds of fears.

Anyone who has read my stories knows that I tend to be all about the action. And generally, that action takes place in either a fantasy or science-fiction setting (or even a science-fantasy one). I try to diversify within that bubble by changing things up with gender, setting specifics, and the like. But in the end, all of my stories tend to be about men and women of action tackling a problem head-on with the judicious application of violence.

And, on top of that, the majority of the stories I have self-published, as well as my many planned projects, involve orcs. I kind of have this vision that eventually people will see my name and say “Oh, look. Another orc story.” Now, there are two main ways they could say that (aside from passive indifference). They could either say it with a grin or an eye-roll. So, I guess I worry that the eye-rolls will outnumber the grins.

Now, I know the simple answer is to try other things. Write anything I want. And I have done that, so I know that’s an option. I mean, it’s not like I am contractually obligated to write about orcs, or even fantasy and science fiction. I could write that action/adventure character, created in the mold of Mack Bolan; I could write the Bond-esque superspy story I always wanted to; I could even finish that dark vigilante novel I started a couple of years ago for NaNoWriMo. But again, it all boils down to action.

I have toyed with the idea of trying other genres like mysteries, slice-of-life humor, coming-of-age stories, and even romances. Mysteries take too much thought and planning for me. I kind of have ADD when I write. If I spend too much time planning and plotting, I lose focus and energy, and abandon the project. Humor I could do, but probably not for humor’s sake. I tend to try to inject bits of humor into everything I write, but I don’t think I’m clever enough to tackle it as a genre. I think I’m too far removed from my own youth to really connect with young readers. I mean, I could just view my kids, but I don’t think I can get inside their heads and write kids believably. And romance? Forget it. I’d be embarrassed trying to write that stuff (though I have tried).

Hmmm. I wonder if maybe I feel that I will never write “the great American novel” or anything “important” that people will talk about for generations. I’ll never write a Lord of the Rings, or The Great Gatsby, or even Starship Troopers. Because whenever I have tried, it all sounds like I am just rehashing the works of others. Which, in itself, points to another fear: I’m not very original.

Eh, there’s a good possibility that I’m just being whiny again (I tend to do that sometimes, in case I have any new readers who haven’t already noticed). I could be just airing out my insecurities in a vain attempt to get attention. I mean, after all there is an element of “attention whore” in me, just like in all writers to a greater or lesser extent. I mean, who writes solely for themselves?

Anyways, maybe I should just embrace the idea of being “that orc guy” (it works for Stan Nicholls). I mean, there are worse things than being known for doing one thing really well.

Childhood Reading

A lot of my reader friends profess to having started reading real books in grade school. Sometimes I wonder if maybe that might explain some of my tastes in books. When I was in grade school, I didn’t read much. In fact, I can probably count the number of books I read during those early years on my fingers. Here is a list of what I can recall reading:

Stuart Little, by E.B. White
I’m pretty sure everyone read this one. I read it multiple times. The adventures of Stuart fired my imagination in a way that Howard and Burroughs would much later. Probably my first foray into “urban fantasy.” Though that sub-genre has taken on a whole new meaning these days.

Charlotte’s Web, by E.B. White
Another one that was standard fare for kids. I read this one a few times as well. It’s a wonderful story, and very eye-opening for a child. The talking animals were quite interesting, and I always wondered if my pets could understand me, and speak to each other.

Little House on the Prairie, by Laura Ingalls Wilder
I had a teacher who would read these books to us in 2nd grade. I enjoyed the stories so much that I started reading them on my own. I read three or four of them, a couple of them more than once (On the Banks of Plum Creek was my favorite, I think).

Flat Stanley, by Jeff Brown
More of a kids’ picture book, I loved this story. A kid has a big board fall on him while he’s sleeping, and wakes up flat. He had many adventures with his brother, including being a kite, slipping under a door, and being mailed to his grandparents’ house. In the end, he just wants to be normal again, so his brother helps him by inflating him with a tire pump. It was kind of a feel-good story.

Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, by Judy Blume
I loved this book. In fact, I think I even read the sequel, Superfudge, as well as Freckle Juice, also by Judy Blume. One thing I remember talking away from this book was being glad I was an only child.

The City Under the Back Steps, by Evelyn Sibley Lampman
Two kids are shrunk down to ant-size when they are bitten by ants, and suddenly find themselves as part of the society of an ant-colony. This was a very cool book, that gave kids an insight into an ant-colony in the most unique way imaginable.

In 1st and 2nd grade, I read comic books. I can also recall being in the 4th grade, and my stepdad made me read a book entitled Kathy about a quadriplegic girl, and her struggles. It was non-fiction, very depressing, and not “fun” in the slightest. Oh, and then there was the time, probably about 3rd grade, when he told me to go to my room and “read my Bible.” So, I did. Got to somewhere in Psalms before my mom began to wonder where I was. I honestly don’t have many fond memories of that asshole.

Looking back, I can’t fathom what it would have been like to tackle The Hobbit, or anything by Edgar Rice Burroughs at that age. And yet, I have friends who did so (and it’s probably no minor coincidence that quite a few of them are writers now). But not me. I didn’t start reading real genre fiction until my late teens. You would think that I would have at least looked into some of the books included in the “Inspirational Source Material” list in the Basic D&D book I got when I was 12.

My daughters have dabbled in genre fiction already. And when Connor is old enough to read, I will introduce him as well. Not sure if it will make a difference, but it can’t hurt.

Determined to help

This morning I opened Facebook while having my coffee, and I see a post from Ari Marmell humbly asking for some help. If you read this blog (and the credits pages of your RPG's), there's a good chance his name is familiar. Ari is a talented writer, and a very good man, who has sadly fallen on hard times, like many of us.

Today he is attempting to dig his way out by promoting his writing. Ari has a new, self-published collection of short stories that could be of interest to readers of this blog, and others. I don't have that large of an audience, but if just a few people would share and spread this...well, you know how this stuff works.

So please, take a little read of his blog post (and peruse his site), and see if you can help out in any way. Personally, I bought the Kindle version this morning.

We are a community. If we don't help each other, who will?

I’m a movie guy

Over the last couple of posts, I’ve discussed and hinted at how I tend to keep a book separate from its movie adaptation in my head, as evidenced by both Conan and The Hobbit. I have long known and practiced this, and it allows me to enjoy both. However, what I didn’t realize until just recently is that I tend to favor the movie versions. Well, maybe not “favor”…but I am much more forgiving of movies than a lot of folks.

Many of my friends are readers. They love their books, and are always skeptical of adaptations. And honestly, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Everyone should have passion about what they like. And apparently, I just happen to like movies.

I’m pretty sure it started with my first experience of owning a VCR. It was December of 1983 (my 13th birthday, actually), and I was in the 8th grade, when I moved to Okinawa to live with my mom (she had joined the Air Force, and I had spent the previous two and a half years with my grandparents). My mom and her boyfriend, Jim, had a membership to a video club of sorts where you could “check out” copies of new movies.

In Japan during the early 80’s, copyright laws on video recordings were very loose. So, this place would buy an original tape, and then make several copies of it. You would then join their club by paying a monthly fee, based on the number of movies you could have checked out at any given time. We could have 6. The cool thing was, once the movie stopped being so popular, they would sell most of the copies for $2-3 each. I had many in my collection after a while.

Anyways, for the first three weeks I was there, I had no friends, and no contact with anyone even close to my age. Mom and Jim worked all day, so I was home alone. I spent A LOT of time watching (and re-watching) movies on VHS. It was during this time that I discovered a love of fantasy films through Conan the Barbarian, The Beastmaster (my two favs), and various others. I also developed a greater love of Stallone movies that holds to this day.

The net result was that, I became a huge fan of movies. And for years, all I wanted to do was make movies. In front of the camera, behind the camera, at a writer’s desk; I didn’t care. I just wanted to be a filmmaker. But, I had no idea of how to do that, or how to even try. Although a friend’s dad had a camcorder, and we often tried making our own action movies…often with ridiculously funny results.

I honestly didn’t get into reading much until my junior year. Incidentally, it was because of a Science Fiction/Fantasy class my school offered. I had to read George Orwell’s 1984 (great book, btw), and then one of my own choosing. While at the library looking at the free book shelf, I saw a book called “Conan.” What I thought was the book that the movie was based on turned out to be the first volume of the Lancer/Ace collection. I had discovered Robert E. Howard. And the rest is history.

My first foray into writing fiction was also a result of this class. But, I never gave up the dream of making movies. Years later my dream would be slightly modified. When I got out of the Army in 1995, all I wanted to do was go to Hollywood, and become a professional extra for action movies. I wanted to be that guy that you see getting punched, kicked and shot by every action hero.

Well, that obviously never came to fruition. But, my love of movies has never diminished. And neither has my love of reading. So, I kind of get excited when a movie comes out based on a book. Especially a book I read. Remember back in the day when they would release a novelization for just about every movie? Yeah, I would devour those too.

So, what’s the point of all of this? I mean, besides my trip down memory lane. Well, the other day I commented on Facebook that I’m glad I rarely get that emotionally invested in books, because it makes being a movie fan easier. Scott Oden commented that that must make writing books difficult. I had to agree. To which he suggested that I write movies.

Holy shit.

I have given a go at screenwriting a few times, but never thought I could do it, or that it would ever amount to anything. I always figured selling a novel was easier than selling a screenplay. But, I’m not so sure. Maybe I need to step back and look into this idea a bit more.

Heck, it’s not like they have to be mutually exclusive. Lots of novelists write screenplays. I could do that, I think…

The Awesomeness of Smaug

We went to see The Hobbit 2 this weekend as the last part of my birthday celebration. My initial reaction is, LOVED IT! However, now that I have taken a day or so to digest it, let me go into more detail

First of all, I liked the first movie better. It had a more “adventure” feel to it, and a more even tone. The second movie flipped back and forth between an exciting adventure and a brooding, doom-and-gloom story. The difference was stark, and a bit hard to follow at times. But really, that’s kind of a minor thing, so I can let it pass. Besides, even in PJ’s first trilogy, I liked the first one better than the second as well.

The one gripe I had with this one was Legolas. Ok, I get that Tolkien loved his elves, and that PJ loves them too. But the scenes with Legolas were kind of annoyingly over-the-top. Plus, Bloom’s make-up was not so good, and you could tell that he had aged a lot since the first trilogy, and that they had to cover that up (I noticed the same thing with Elijah in the first one). In short, he didn’t really look like the Legolas I remember. He also didn’t act much like him, though that can be chalked up to this being the “angry teenager” version, who eventually matures just a bit by the time Frodo sets out from Rivendell.

The dwarves were all just as fun, though I still have a hard time remembering which one is which. But that’s just the nature of there being so many of them. Though I have to say that, as they got closer to Lonely Mountain, Thorin seemed to become kind of unstable. Of course, that was probably intentional as a character development, so I can live with it.

But really, the best part of this movie was all of the scenes involving Smaug. He was just awesome to behold. Probably even more so than the Balrog, which has long been one of my favorite fantasy-movie monsters. Cumberbach’s voice was excellent, and he clearly got into the role. In all honesty, whenever I have a dragon in one of my D&D games, this is how I imagine it.

Visually, the movie is stunning, and once more makes you believe that Middle Earth is real, and that you can actually go there. I understand it deviates a lot from the book (even when you include the details from The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales), but that has never mattered much to me. I can understand the view of those to whom this is important, I’m just not of the same opinion. The basic story is still there, and there were some cool additions (I really liked Tauriel). So, I’m fine with the movie being the movie, and the book being the book.

But that last moment of the film...I am VERY excited for next year!

On Movies from Books

So, a little bit ago, Weird Tales Magazine posted a promotional pic of Arnold as Conan on Facebook, with the comment that Robert E. Howard must be spinning in his grave over what has happened to his creation. They went on to quote the “late, great” Karl Edward Wagner in a vaguely-contextual comment where he was not overly-praising of the film. This, of course, brought out the Howard Purists who jumped at the chance to ridicule the movie. Again. Personally, I'm not convinced Howard would have hated it. I mean, how am I to know the mind of a dead man?

I’ve blogged about this before. Suffice it to say, I am a HUGE fan of this movie, and re-watch it every few months. Is it faithful to the books? That’s subjective at best. In plot, not really. In characterization, no. But, the movie does one thing that few movies based on books successfully do; it captures the atmosphere of the source material almost perfectly. It looks, sounds and feels like Howard wrote it. At least, it does to me. Whenever I re-read the stories, the visuals look like this movie in my head (although Conan himself looks like John Buscema drew him).

Why does all of this matter? Well, it doesn’t really. But I like to pull out one of my soapboxes every now and again, and this is a convenient issue for me to nerdrage about. Basically, I think the Purist crowd needs to give it a rest. The movie takes nothing from the stories, so if you don’t like it, don’t watch it. If anything, the movie enhances the stories, because in some cases (like mine) it serves as a gateway drug for all things REH. I started with the movie, moved on to the Ace editions, then to Savage Sword of Conan, and then to other works like Sailor Steve Costigan and El Borak. Now I have almost a complete set of the Del Rey editions, and am always eager to introduce people who like the movie(s) to the written works.

The problem is, when derision is expressed, the tone often seems to add the hidden subtext that "if you like this movie, you aren't a real fan." The Us vs Them mentality. I hate that.

Oddly enough, a couple of the people who commented on the status claimed that the new movie got it more right. Really??? Did we watch the same movie? Because in the new movie, Mamoa’s Conan was about the ONLY thing they got right. The rest of the film doesn’t even deserve to be set during the Hyborian Age. But, fans will be fans, and opinions vary greatly across the spectrum.

In the end, I like my 1982 classic (just watched it again last week), and will continue to re-read various of my favorite stories for decades to come.

Captain America’s Fighting Style

Just some thoughts about my favorite super hero…

In the 1940’s, Asian martial arts like Kung Fu and Karate were largely unknown in the west. And if they were known, westerners were often hard-pressed to find teachers. However, Judo and Jujitsu were somewhat popular, especially in America, thanks in large part to Teddy Roosevelt.

So, it is safe to assume that Steve Rogers, as part of Basic Training in the Rebirth Project, would have been exposed to most known forms of hand-to-hand fighting. Most predominantly would probably have been boxing, with a dash of Judo and Jujitsu. And, since we were allies with the French, probably some Savate got mixed in as well (which really meshes with English/American boxing). We’ll talk about the shield later.

As a result, we have a Captain America who fights predominantly with his fists, using a few kicks if the range is right, or his hands are otherwise occupied, and then some basic blocks, joint locks, and throws. None of it would be flashy. It would be a style of economic movement, meant to disable and move on quickly. And since Cap was the only Super Soldier, he would be expected to be engaged solo against multiple foes, so his style would have to account for that as well. Relying on his superior athleticism, he would often simply dodge and weave during a fight.

Cap’s original shield was a variation of the kite shield, and was mainly just for symbolism and show. As a fighting instrument, the kite shield is very effective in blocking direct attacks, and providing a lot of coverage, but because of the unwieldy shape, it had pretty limited offensive capabilities beyond the standard shield-bash (which, in the movie, was a favorite move for Cap).

When the round shield was introduced, some of the overall cover was lost due to a reduced size, but the advantage of different modes of attack, such as striking with the edge in a punching motion, became available. Normally, shields are not thrown. The only feasible reason that Cap started doing so was because of the vibranium construction.

It was stated that vibranium absorbs kinetic energy. However, that energy has to go somewhere. Naturally, the vibranium would just pass it on as a sort of “gust” of dissipated energy. With the shield being made in concentric circles, this energy was bled out to the edges. However, when the energy originates at the edge, the net effect is that the energy is “bounced” straight back. Thus, when the shield would hit something, the energy generated by the object being struck, would bounce back into that object, essentially doubling the force of the impact.

However, without Cap’s considerable strength behind it to force the energy back into the target, a thrown shield would rebound at a relatively equal speed. Through trial and error, and a lot of practice (presumably while the HYDRA base assaults were being planned), Cap is able to master the intricacies of aiming the shield in order to direct the rebounding energy in specific directions, thus enabling him to bounce the shield off of multiple targets, and have it return to him.

In the end, we have a Captain America who punches, kicks, occasionally throws, and often shield-bashes his way through Nazis and HYDRA agents. His fighting style is unique to him, as it relies greatly on his enhanced strength and reflexes. He is able to withstand blows, even through his shield, that lesser men would not (such as Bucky on the train), and is able to make use of unorthodox techniques, like throwing the shield. In short, he is a unique character, that others may emulate, but none may ever fully duplicate.

WIPs and chains?

I was thinking that maybe I would share of a few of my favorite Works In Progress. Mind you, this is but a small sampling, as I tend to have about 20+ things in various stages at any given time.

“Barbarian Prince”
This one has a full outline for the first half, and a summary of the second. It was based on an idea I got after reading Conan of the Isles, by L. Sprague DeCamp (it’s a passable pastiche, and I enjoyed it when I read it years ago). That book left a plotline completely unresolved; that being the son of Conan and what happened to him when his father left. This book will attempt to answer that. It’s an homage, and takes place in a version of the Hyborian Age that has all of the serial numbers filed off.

“The Naked Dead”
This is a fun little one that started as a planned serial that fizzled. It’s sort of an homage to the old first-person detective stories, but with a space opera twist, and a dash of Doc Savage. It centers around my hero, Thomas Magni, whose ship is hired to escort a creepy little scientist and his big cargo module to a distant and abandoned research facility. Horror and action ensue, within a narrative of rapier wit.

“Gorus and the Jaguar God”
This one has a full outline, and it’s probably the furthest along. Gorus is a very Conan-esque hero, but with some dark twists. Lots of fights, dark sorceries, a lost island, and a trapped demon or two. I also have plans for several other stories involving Gorus.

There’s also a sequel to Pekra and The Orc Way, which features Pekra and Bofdak the dwarf. And the sequel to Blackskull’s Captive, which tells about what happened to Jack after that story. And, of course, the historical fiction about Agesilaus.

Then there are ideas I am trying to percolate, such as another story about Themos, and a pulp-hero in the mold of The Shadow and The Phantom.

I’ve put a lot on my plate. And I plan to set myself a schedule of sorts, and just chip away at them.

Ok, so there's no chains. Unless you count me chaining myself to my computer at some point.