Books – Page 344

I’m telling ya, the kid grows up to be Snoke.

That’s the only way this works.

The conclusion of a trilogy, mostly set between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, Empire’s End contains plenty of rewards for long-term fans. One of these is an interlude set on the planet of Naboo. A refugee boy named Mapo encounters a Gungan performing for kids on the streets, clowning around in a fountain twice a day while being studiously avoided by the grown-ups.

“Meesa Jar Jar,” says the clown when Mapo introduces himself.

Because we all know that Jar Jar was the secret Sith Lord setting the whole thing up, right? Well, Darth Binks has just found himself a new apprentice. Seriously, the chronology will fit.

OK, we’re apparently back to this ‘Cap as a Hydra agent’ bullshit.

…Look, just keep this contemptible nonsense out of The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, OK? Which would be the only Marvel comic that I still buy. Don’t make me give up that, too. And since I’m here to give out unsolicited advice anyway: the movies took Captain America, played said character absolutely as advertised, and without visible irony – and now Disney is sitting at the machine pressing the money button, and giggling as hundreds of millions of dollars comes tumbling out with each press.

MAYBE THE PRINT COMIC LINES SHOULD TAKE THE GORAM HINT.

Moe Lane

Coming in August: “Golden Age and Other Stories” by Naomi Novik.

“Golden Age and Other Stories” is, as you might suspect, set in Naomi Novik’s Napoleonic-war-with-dragons Temeraire series. She’s done a bunch of short stories, set in a variety of settings and using different viewpoint characters – which will no doubt please whoever it is out there who is desperately trying to negotiate the roleplaying game rights. Which there must be. It seems a no-brainer.

More info here. I’d order the leather-bound, signed copy, except that it’s a bit rich for my blood these days. Ach, well, the $25 version can be read just as easily.

Book of the Week: Hidden Figures.

My wife finally got around to reading Margot Lee Shetterly’s Hidden Figures – Christmas present, and one of the easier gift choices I’ve had to make, honestly – so now I’m reading it. I’m enjoying it, thus far; it’s going to be interesting to see where the movie version combined, changed, and generally played around with events. Which has to happen: a movie has a different narrative flow than a book.

And so, adieu to The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

Book of the Week: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

Well, really the entire Narnia chronicles – but I think that C.S. Lewis’s The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is the best of a good series, and at some point I need to watch the movie. Of course, I don’t need to tell any of you this already, do I? The Narnia series retains its significance, even today:

Well, for given values of ‘today.’

And so, adieu to Wylding Hall. Continue reading Book of the Week: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

Well, by God: it may be a BAD short story that I finished…

…out of respect for a man who has since passed on*; but it is no longer an UNFINISHED, bad short story**. I’ve had the blessed thing stuck in the back of my head for two, three years: I was wondering if it would ever get completed. Now I’m going to forget about it for a day or two, do the necessary pass-through, and send it on its way.

That’s it. And, yes: I’m describing the literary equivalent of describing an itch that I’ve finally been able to scratch. And at that I’m probably being kind to myself; there are so many other, less couth, metaphors that would work in this context…

Moe Lane

*Larry Latham: he was the fellow who did the amazingly good Lovecraft is Missing webcomic, and he was taken from us far too soon.

**That turn of phrase shamelessly stolen from Stephen King’s It.

Spent the morning resubmitting things for publication.

Takes longer than you’d think. Trying to balance finding new markets with submitting new things to markets that have already rejected something of yours is likewise a little tricky. You don’t want to give up on one particular market, but you don’t want to get into a cycle where you get your stories serially (heh) rejected by each of three or four publishers in turn. Also, you know, there are all those submissions guidelines that you have to read: I mention this because I suspect that a lot of people don’t read submissions guidelines, and they probably should.

Still, productive enough work, in its way. Not overly creative, but productive. Also emotionally fraught, but you need to scar tissue yourself about that sort of thing. Life ain’t fair, and neither is the publishing industry.

Oh, hey, got a nibble today.

Not a sale, but the story made it past the first round. Which is encouraging! Lord knows you can feel stalled in this business, sometimes. Or more than sometimes… still, mustn’t grumble. I’ll know more at a later time – and, again, this isn’t a sale, just me making advancing along in the process.

Thanks, by the way, for all the encouragement that I’ve gotten in the past and will get in the future. It really does help. Anybody who does art will tell you that, too.

So I just spent twenty minutes doing hand transcriptions of Tengwar.

Is there something interactive online somewhere that can help with that*? – Not that I’m ever likely to need to convert from that alphabet into the Roman one, but it might be helpful if I ever need a block of text for a game, or something. …For that matter, is the Tengwar subject to copyright? I mean, obviously Tolkien created the various scripts and alphabets himself.

Moe Lane

*I did look, and I found some helpful tables, but I’m looking for something more interactive.

Arrival/Needful Things production team 21 Laps to do Larry Niven’s Inconstant Moon.

Oh, 2017. How much nicer you are to me than that last, horrid year was. From Hollywood Reporter:

After nabbing a spaceship’s worth of Oscar nominations for Arrival, Shawn Levy and his 21 Laps banner are jumping back into the elevated sci-fi drama genre.

Fox 2000 has preemptively picked up an untitled pitch that is based on Inconstant Moon, a short story written by Larry Niven, the author behind the sci-fi literary classic Ringworld.

Continue reading Arrival/Needful Things production team 21 Laps to do Larry Niven’s Inconstant Moon.