Book of the Week: Twice as Dead.

I’m going to be brutally honest, here: Harry Turtledove’s recent dive into undisguised commentary on contemporary politics and mores has aged incredibly badly. I used to buy his books in hardcover; I didn’t even bother picking up the last couple. That being said… I’ll give him one last chance with Twice as Dead. I fully understand it if other people don’t feel obligated to give him that chance, but I hate just the thought of a final break with the author who gave me Videssos and Ruled Britannia. If that makes me a sap, so be it. I will own the moniker.

#commissionearned

Snippet the last, SEVEN FLAGS, Part 1.

I have to break this one in half, dagnabbit. Sometimes I can wrangle the novellas, and sometimes I cannot. This is a ‘cannot.’ So part one this month, and part two the next.

That stopped Jan. “…Yes. Fair point. Anyway, Blank’s still waiting for me to relax before she starts going through my papers, or whatever else she’s going to do. I haven’t decided whether or not to let her see the real ones.” She laughed. “I should. We’re not actually trying to hide anything from her. But old habits die dirty.”

“What about Cabot?”

“Oh, he’s a professional; he had whatever information he was looking for before we left Gallstone. Not from me, mind you — although I offered to quiz him on the intelligence he had gathered.” She shook her head. “He scored seventy-four out of a hundred, would you believe it? He should have only gotten sixty.”

“I really do not understand how the Carnivores think, Jan.”

“Ha! At least we’re still doing that properly.” Jan shook her head. “The game is different when you’re spying on an ally. He wasn’t supposed to get any information that we didn’t want to give him, and we weren’t supposed to notice that he had gotten it. So, good hits all around, and we’ll probably set up a cross-training system at some point. Which would be nice. I hear the North Atlantic is pretty, if you like freezing rain.”

My interview for the JRR Tolkien oral history project is up.

Specifically, this interview was for Marquette University’s J. R. R. TOLKIEN FANDOM ORAL HISTORY COLLECTION, and it was a lot of fun to do! I did it last year, and they just let me know that my transcript is up. Tolkien’s always been a very important figure for me, both as someone to read and someone to emulate, so getting the chance to focus my thoughts on him was helpful.

If you’d like to do it, too, they’re still looking for people to interview. Sign up here!

Pelicon registrations are open.

And filling fast. I got in on a FALL OF DELTA GREEN and a TRAIL OF CTHULHU game, but the NIGHT’S BLACK AGENTS one was already full. Then again, a con game a day is probably all for the best, anyway. I’m not nineteen anymore, thank God*.

If it really fills, they’ll probably recruit more online GMs, so check out the Pelicon schedule anyway.

Moe Lane

*I had no money and I was a massive twerp. Also, I wore this ridiculous long black woolen coat everywhere that was hot in the summer, cold in the winter, missing its lining and buttons after the second year and oh God but do I miss it. …Fine. I’d go back for the damned coat. And nothing else.

Messing about with my Flying Koala Discord channel.

:sardonically: Quiet morning, huh?

I’m spending part of it working on my Discord channel. And by working on it I mean ‘staring at the blessed thing.’ It feels like it could be useful, but I’m not sure exactly where, or how. Thoughts?

Moe Lane

PS: I want it to boost interest in my books, sell my books, and get good leads on local conventions and whatnot. So I want the Flying Koala Discord to be commerce-oriented without being annoying about it. I think this can be done.

The ‘Back to the Retro-Thirties’ BATMAN: CAPED CRUSADER Amazon Prime trailer.

I ain’t gonna lie. I’m down for some 1930s-style Batman. Well, retro-1350s. And I’m down for that, too. I wanna watch BATMAN: CAPED CRUSADER, not some complicated discussion of American social systems during the Depression. That’s what Tumblr’s for.