Meanwhile…

Just wanted to drop a note that editor/writer extraordinaire Jordan Lapp is chronicling some of his experiences (as he has time) at the (in?)famous Clarion West Writer’s Workshop.

Similarly, KC is heading to James Gunn’s SF Writer’s Workshop. It’s that time of year I guess?

I look forward to their accounts of the experience. The closest I have had to that sort of thing is my creative writing classes at UNT, but those weren’t nearly as intense. I’m generally a slow writer, so reading about the first couple days of Clarion terrifies me. Having to churn out stories so quickly to a mixed audience? Scary stuff. To me, anyway.

I wish both of them the best of luck!

We here at Meanwhile…specialize in only the most highbrow of humor. Art chores by Kris Straub.

I wonder how many Transformers 2 reviews will use some version of this title? Or did when the first film came out?

I don’t think I ever talked about the Bayformers here, but I intesely disliked the first film. It pretty much did everything wrong. I only saw it at all because my 8-year-old nephew brought it over one day.

This isn’t because I dislike the Transformers. Are you kidding me? I can’t get enough of them. I, a grown-ass man, actually own the first season of the original series on DVD. And it holds up…not that well, actually. But I like it anyway! And I can watch those old cartoons with that same nephew and have a good time. The ideas are fun, and the personalities of the transformers are endearing. It was cheesy, poorly animated, full of plotholes and inconsistencies, and clearly they had little-to-no budget; they are very much a product of their time. The producers of the new films have no such excuses! When I imagine what the new Transformers could have been in more capable hands, it makes me sad.

I haven’t seen Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen, and, gods willing, won’t have to. I would rather, for example, pick up a copy of another long awaited sequel, Hobgoblins 2, which was just released today on video. Judging by the reviews, I would be better off.

My favorite review is by the good people over at Latino Review. In fact, that might be my favorite review of any movie ever.

What’s troubling to me is the general attitude toward movies like these (and others, such as the upcoming GiJoe movie, which I’ll also be skipping even if I totally want a giant poster of Scarlet). Everywhere I go I see dismissive comments such as “it’s about robots fighting,” or “it’ll be mindless fun” and “it’s based on a toy, get over it.” I see this idea a lot with comic book and video game movies. These are not reasons or excuses! So because it’s based on something you already enjoyed in another form, be it a comic book, toy, etc., means someone can completely ruin it on celluloid? And you’ll pay them to do it?

There are movies that are fun and feature giant robots/monsters/aliens, explosions, and beautiful people that don’t require me to completely shut off my brain or have my intelligence insulted to enjoy. Some are even successful. More of these please, Hollywood.

Clearly, I’ve fallen way behind on my Story Every Day exercises. I just barely squeezed one out for today.

Still, I thought it would be fun to play around with a minor bit character I created for Shades of Red way back when. I had to look him up just to remember his name. In a way this is sort of a follow-up to that story, one of the consequences of that adventure. Some of the best genre stories are from the point of view of someone not directly involved with the big epic that’s taking place. The little guy on the side who’s a witness to these big events can offer a fresh perspective on the action and help flesh out the universe at the same time.

This story involves Radio Gal, who if you’ve been around here long enough you’ve seen once or twice before. Just the first few hundred words. For some reason I have a blast writing these scenes of superheroes just sitting around talking. Continue reading

Playing around with yesterday’s SED (which I didn’t finish) I took a stab at writing my first non-powered superhero, an archer named Quivering Jack. The couple of paragraphs I scratched out aren’t good, but that’s not important. I enjoy the concept of the character, who is basically a jackass and womanizing glory-hound. And that’s just in his off hours. His day job as an actor will offer various other opportunities for him to be a bit of a diva as well.

It’s fun to write characters that are unrepentent jerks, but of course you still have to figure out how make them palatable for the readers. There’s a built-in advantage, though, in that any story that ends with them not being a complete asshole can be considered at least somewhat of a success in terms of character development. Deep down, Jack is a good guy, but his attitude will likely get him into trouble along the way.

Writing someone without powers will be interesting. With someone like the Scarlet Ranger I can have all sorts of big, exciting things happen – tossing her through nuclear reactors, leaping off buildings, etc. That sort of big-budget extravaganza has to be toned down for the street-level heroes. There are certain practicalities to consider – how they get around, how heavy their equipment is, how they deal with injury, all that stuff.

With an archer, there’s another level to worry about, that being that bows probably aren’t all that practical for crime-fighting. If you need to slaughter 10,000 Frenchmen, sure, break out the longbows, but there are serious concerns when it comes to street fighting with that sort of weapon. It’s not exactly a non-leathal weapon. The ammunition is a bit bulky, so I imagine it’s hard to be an acrobat while lugging around a quiver full of arrows. I’m undecided on whether to give him trick arrows, but I’m leaning toward keeping him grounded. The one bit I liked from what I wrote yesterday was Jack advising an injured goon that with modern surgical techniques he’d likely only lose 20-30% functionality in the impaled hand. Regular pointy arrows will keep the cheating to a minimum, I think. No short-cut boxing-glove arrows for quick victory.

All the same, archers have a fine tradition among the ranks of superheroes, so I thought it would be fun. As soon as I get something good written I will perhaps post a bit here.

Wow, already almost half-way through. Well, I guess not. Nine days to go? I have yet to need to turn to the emergency prompts, though, so I take that as a good sign.

I just whipped this piece up, inspired by the current goings on in Iran. There are some incredibly moving images and stories coming out of there. I can’t hope to do any of that justice with my meager skills, but I was inspired nonetheless.

I tend to avoid political discussions, because for the most part they are losing propositions regardless of ideologies, logic, or reason. But I see things like this and it just blows me away. We may be seeing history in the making. Given that we just had eight years of a president pissing all over the Constitution and nothing happened, I don’t know exactly what it would take to have that sort of political unrest here. I’m not sure if we’re the lucky ones or not.

Just over 500 words. Continue reading

I started this mostly as a pretty basic post-apocalypse story, survivors living among the ruins of civilization type story. I kind of like the direction it’s taking, though, so maybe at some point I’ll work some more on this concept. A little over 800 words. Continue reading

Didn’t really get a chance to work on much yesterday, so I’ve already missed a day!

Occasionally I dip my toes into the pool of fantasy, though I’ve yet to finish anything of the sort that I’d consider submitting somewhere. There’s a certain built-in formality to the language of fantasy, a by-product of the epic nature of the genre I guess, that I’m not sure I’m any good at. Plus there’s a lot of world-building to do, which has a lot of different pros and cons involved. And don’t get me started on attempting to cull something new from the genre that doesn’t get mixed up with some half-remembered Tolkein myth or D&D rulebook.

For years I’ve tinkered with a story involving an elf and human teaming up for some quest. It always starts off with the two of them tracking some villainy in a forest, and the elf crafting a weapon from a dead tree to exact vengeance. The names and genders (and even the species – the human was originally some half-breed goblin or something) have shifted and there’s several different versions on various notebooks in my bookshelves.

Maybe one of these days I’ll get around to finishing it. Here’s yet another version of the opening, about 600 words.

Continue reading

Since Gay was asking what steampunk is, I thought I’d take a quick moment to discuss it.

Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction or fantasy. Usually the setting is the late 19th century, so there’s a Victorian fashion sense to everything. The basic premise is that steam power and clockwork arose as the primary form of technology. Imagine if the science imagined by Jules Verne and Mary Shelley didn’t just work, but became commonplace. Or if Nikola Tesla’s theories had panned out instead of Edison’s, and Charles Babbage had been able to build a computer in his lifetime instead of just dreaming about it. Their Industrial Revolution would look completely different from ours.

It’s completely anachronistic, but that’s part of the fun.

In the fantasy version it’s pretty much the same thing, but with some magical element allowing the technology to work. The story I have in 10Flash coming out next month is steampunk with a very subtle magic element.

A few examples if you want a crash course – check out The Prestige, or The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (preferrably the comic book). Kurt Busiek’s Arrowsmith is a great example of magic steampunk. There are various anime movies that are heavily influenced by the genre as well. Actually, Pixar’s Up has a few steampunk elements, but that might be better categorized as retro-futurism.

There’s a whole steampunk sub-culture that could probably explain it better than I can. A quick google image search on “steampunk” turns up a ton of stuff that enthusiasts have hand-built.

To be honest I haven’t read a whole lot of steampunk (I didn’t care for Gibson and Sterling’s The Difference Engine, which is supposed to be the first big steampunk novel). But I love the aesthetic, as well as the alternate Earth/history aspects.

If anyone else has any ideas or suggestions for steampunk or recommendations, feel free to chip in.

First day’s writing complete, a little alternate World War I steampunk-style war scene. The full story came in just under a thousand words. I don’t know if there’s enough story to it to consider submitting it somewhere or not. I’ll have to think about it.

Excerpt after the jump.

Edit – gah, sorry, some intertube gremlins ate the second half of my post. Should be good now. Well, visible, not necessarily good. Continue reading