Book News To End The Year With

I'd hoped to have the first draft of Leap of Faith done by now, as the end of the year was my notional deadline for getting past that milestone.  As it turns out, I'm only about 2/3 of the way through the initial draft right now.  I've experienced a few slowdowns along the way, none of which have been the result of writer's block or a lack of interest in the story itself... which is good.  The delays have mainly been due to my poor work ethic - a problem I've suffered from ever since I retired - and numerous disruptions to my routine, the largest of which were the three bathrooms being completely renovated this fall.  Still, I feel bad that I've fallen behind.  My new goal is to complete Draft 1 by no later than the end of February, which would still allow for a release date in May or early June.

For the record, I started Chapter 13 this week.  Normally that would mean I was nearly done, as Game Over, No Brother of Mine and Old Wounds all had 13 chapters plus an epilogue.  Leap of Faith has tended to have shorter chapters, however, such that I've only written 150 pages and covered about 2/3 of the story in getting to Chapter 13.  I expect it to weigh in at 18 or 19 chapters and around 220 pages by the time it's all said and done.

In other book news, I found out today that Vicki and I have been invited to another book club meeting for No Brother of Mine.  My second novel was the November/December book for the club that a longtime friend of mine is in, and now that they've read it they've decided that they'd like to discuss the book with me at their next meeting, in mid-January.  We both had a great time at the previous such experience and so I'm very much looking forward to seeing what this new group thought of it.

And with those updates out of the way, 2013 draws to a close.  Happy 2014 to everyone out there!

Holmes (Finally) Enters The Public Domain In The U.S.

No, not me!  I'm talking about the other Holmes, the one who's - arguably - slightly more famous than I am.

I mentioned this case back in February, and now a decision has come down, freeing all of the pre-1923 stories of Sherlock Holmes for public use.  I'd call this a victory for those of us who favour a reasonable amount of copyright protection, rather than the ridiculous version that corporations seem to be hellbent upon creating.

Hulk Vs Wonder Woman

A seriously gorgeous bit of Mike Deodato artwork that went missing while being shipped via US Postal Service.  Someone out there in the big wide world has it, either by accident or by theft, and they need to return it to the artist.  But wow, what a piece!

What Is It With Plagiarism All Of A Sudden?

First we had Rand Paul lifting entire paragraphs of his speeches from Wikipedia and elsewhere (uncredited), and now it's Shia LeBeouf.  As the linked article points out, he not only stole the material for his short film but also lifted the wording of his apology!  Do people really think that they can get away with plagiarism in 2013, when everything is at our virtual fingertips and crowdsourcing happens constantly, whether we want it to or not?  I almost wonder if LeBeouf foolishly believed that Daniel Clowes was some obscure cartoonist that only he had ever heard of, and therefore nobody would be likely to pick up on the fact that his 'creative process' was really just theft.

I find stuff like this truly shocking.

Canada Post Changes Read Like An Onion Article

Judge for yourself, but how do you complain about declining usage of your services in one breath and announce a nearly-60% price increase for those same services in the next?!  Seriously?

I So Wanted To Love Killzone: Shadow Fall But Can't

I really enjoyed Killzone 2 and Killzone 3's single player campaigns, even if the multiplayer of each took a little getting used to.  Therefore I was very much looking forward to seeing what Killzone: Shadow Fall had to offer, especially since it was one of the PS4 launch titles.  Having now spent about 3 or 4 hours in the game, I'm shocked by how much animosity I'm feeling toward it.

This review of the game in the Globe and Mail perfectly sums up my feelings, including the headline: 'more fun to look at than to play.'  I've now had three experiences in the campaign where I've considered giving up on the game entirely.  I made it through the first two but am not sure how much more I'm willing to invest in stumbling through the latest pile of mud I've found myself mired in.  You'd think a game that almost always provides you with a visual cue as to your next objective wouldn't be so damned frustrating in trying to play through, but you'd be wrong.  There are also smaller annoyances like the way pressing the Right arrow on the D-pad often gets interpreted as an Up arrow instead, resulting in the Objectives screen popping up when I really wanted my Echo pulse to go out.  Or the fact that the text on the screen is so small that I can only read it if I sit within a couple feet of our 50-inch TV screen!  Who the hell QA'd this turd?

I was completely prepared to adore this game and yet I find myself on the verge of abandoning it.  What a disappointment.

For Better Or For Worse, Wonder Woman Is On Her Way

Zack Snyder announced today that he's including Diana of Themyscira, better known as Wonder Woman, in the upcoming, still-untitled sequel to Man of Steel.

Why First Person Shooters Are Good For Us

For every nutjob who gets in the news because he went on a shooting spree and it turns out he loved violent video games, there are thousands upon thousands of us who use games like Call of Duty: Black Op II or Killzone Shadow Fall as a non-violent way to work out our frustrations.  That's just one of the interesting points made in this New Yorker article delving into the appeal that first person shooters (like the two games mentioned above) hold for many of us. 

I definitely experience the immersive quality the author talks about, as video games are one of the best examples, for me, of "getting in the zone," as we used to call it at work.  And I can see how the control aspect applies, as well: in a first person shooter, especially a highly-competitive multiplayer match, everything happens so incredibly fast that you're constantly making split second decisions and choices that have the feeling of being life-and-death.  It's an illusion, of course, because 'death' in that environment usually only lasts a few seconds, but somehow it always feels slightly more real than that.

It's a great article that should be of particular interest to those who don't play first person shooters and can't understand why the rest of us do.

Deadly To Pets

Thanks to our friend Sue, I now have a handy visual reminder of what foods to keep away from dogs and cats:

Big Change In U.S. College Football

I'm not a big fan of NCAA football, in general, but during the TV wasteland period that comes at the end of every calendar year, Vicki and I typically enjoy a few bowl games.  What's always bugged me about the format of college football 'playoffs' in the States has been the fact that there's never really been a playoff.  It used to be just a bunch of bowl games and then voting took place afterward to decide who the best team was... no, I'm not kidding!  The introduction of the Bowl Championship Series several years ago improved things incrementally, as at least with that change you'd get the # 1 ranked team playing the # 2 ranked team for the title of champion.  However, the flaw in that structure was the subjective ranking involved.  More than once I've seen an unbeaten school get ranked 3rd or 4th, meaning that they went the entire year without losing and yet didn't get a chance to play for the title.  Whenever that's happened, there's been a lot of controversy, as there should be.

Starting next year, however, the chances of an undefeated team missing out like that are at least going to be reduced significantly.  Starting in 2014, there will be two semi-final games, involving the top four ranked teams, with the two winners meeting in the championship game (presumably a week later).  What this means is that a team would have to be ranked 5th or lower in order to excluded from the chance to contend for the championship, which seems much, much fairer to me.  Even if you're ranked 3rd or 4th and think you should've been put at the top, you'll still have the opportunity to win a pair of playoff games to prove that you deserve the title.  In a league where positions are determined by votes, that's probably the best you could possibly hope for.

I can't wait for this to be implemented, a little over a year from now.  It should make the end of the U.S. college football season a whole lot more interesting, exciting and satisfying than it's ever been before.

Another Biking Season Draws To A Close

I biked downtown to get comics today, and it was a beautiful late-fall day for a ride.  I think the temperature was around 4 or 5 degrees, though the windchill made it feel closer to 0, according to the Weather Network site.  Most importantly, the roads and bike paths were clear and the sun was shining.

Unfortunately, snow is in the forecast and I think today may have been my last ride of the year.  It's certainly one of the final trips I'll be able to make in 2013, as late November is usually as long into the season as I can go before the snow and ice arrives.  My days of long biking streaks or simply saying "Screw it" and biking in the snow are over, I think.  There's something about entering my 50s that's just made that sort of thing seem impractical now.  But even so, I'm proud to have stretched the biking season to (at least) November 20th this year, as that's nothing to sneeze at.

The Other Christmas Connection Yesterday

Not only was yesterday Christmas for gamers, thanks to the long-awaited release of the PS4, but Vicki and I (and Tammy, in absentia) also got to play a small part in some Christmas goodness.  A comic store owner in Windsor, Shawn Cousineau of Rogues Gallery Comics, has made an annual habit of getting comics into the hands of underprivileged kids every Christmas.  It's something he started several years ago, inspired by the fact that he and his single mother had benefited from similar acts of generosity when he was a child.  I heard about his campaign to get 6000 comics donated to the cause and remembered that Tammy had given me several boxes of her old comics, asking me to find a new home for them.  She'd brought them here before leaving for Australia in 2011, but I hadn't gotten around to doing anything with them yet.

The combination of the PS4 arriving and our planned trip to Windsor yesterday got ugly around 10:30 when the street crews began setting up to finish the paving of our crescent that had begun over a month ago.  They'd put one layer down back in September or early October, and then they disappeared for about six to eight weeks, only to pick Nov 15th, of all dates, to complete the job!  As it started to look like they'd be closing the street and my PS4 hadn't yet made an appearance, we gave up on waiting for it.  I figured the mail truck would never be able to get on the street once the paving started anyway, so why bother waiting?  We loaded the car up with the four boxes of comics but had to take the long way around the crescent as the usual exit was blocked by trucks filled with asphalt.  We got halfway around the crescent when I saw a Canada Post truck parked in a driveway, so I stopped the car and jumped out.  I approached the truck, saw that the driver was our regular mailman, and was about to ask him if he happened to have a package for me when he hopped out and handed it to me!  I couldn't believe how lucky I was, or how close I'd come to missing it!

After thanking the postman profusely, we packed the box into the trunk with the other cargo, and headed to Windsor.  Once we got there, we spent about an hour in Rogues Gallery Comics, getting to know Shaun, and discovering just what a nice, friendly guy he is!  He couldn't have been more grateful for the donation, and was just a joy to talk to.  He's one of the nicest comic store guys I've ever met, and I've encountered a lot of them.

Anyway, Tammy can be proud of herself, as her former collection (minus a handful of comics that we knew she'd like to hold onto) will brighten Christmas morning for several hundred needy children in the Windsor/Essex County area.  What a great role for a few boxes of comics to play!

Christmas For Gamers

Today marks the launch of the PlayStation4 (PS4), making it the equivalent of Christmas Day for most serious gamers.  One of the first recurring topics introduced on this blog, way back in the fall of 2006, was my pursuit of a PS3, as I struggled to find one amid the hysteria following its launch.  Here we are, seven years later, and I've learned my lesson: I pre-ordered my new toy this time around, and it's on its way to the house right now.  I've tracked it from Mississauga (where it left the Best Buy warehouse late last night) and can see that it's now out for delivery here in London, which means I'll hopefully have it within the next few hours.  I already have my first game to play on it - Killzone: Shadow Fall, which was released ahead of the console, as strange as that seems - and can't wait to check that out, see what the console's UI looks like, discover all of its cool new features as well as whatever else I may find.

Of course, this doesn't mean I'll be completely abandoning Boneman and Call of Duty: Ghosts multiplayer on the PS3.  I'll continue to slum it when I have to, until that glorious day when he, too, joins me in this magical land of the future...

Poor Man's Meal Planner

For reasons I wrote about almost a year ago, I stopped supporting the various Java/Database applications that I'd written over the past fifteen years or so.  I've found the absence of cataloging each new comic I buy to be liberating, after nearly 40 years of recording every addition to the collection.  Vicki hasn't said much, one way or the other, about losing her book inventory system, so I don't know how much of an impact that's had, if any.  But the one area that finally 'hurt' a little was the loss of the Meal Planner application.

Initially, I wasn't worried about the Meal Planner because Vicki had stopped using it anyway before I even made my decision to abandon the applications.  She said she was just taking a break, but that hiatus has gone on quite a while by that time.  However, several months ago Vicki began asking the old age question again: "What sounds good for supper tonight?"  It was that same daily routine that had prompted me to create the Meal Planner in the first place, so that got me thinking about a simpler solution.

The result was a spreadsheet, the printout of which looks like this:

The idea is that you put this sheet up on the fridge.  On it, you get 3 weeks worth of daily spots into which you can write a dinner, along with 3 pre-filled columns of possible choices.  The first column contains the most frequent/beloved meals, followed by a second column of slightly-less desirable options, and a final column that has the rarest/blech-est of the possibilities.  As you select a dinner choice from Columns A, B, or C, you write it into the slot for that day, and cross it off whichever list you got it from.  Throughout the course of the 3 weeks, the days fill up with meals and then, when you're done, you print off a new copy for the next 3 weeks.  Crossed off items can be picked again in the same period, of course... but by virtue of being crossed off, they're less likely to be selected, which is what you want if you're looking for variety (as we are).

It's not anywhere nearly as sophisticated or automated as the old Java version, but it seems to be working.  We're on our 5th or 6th iteration of it now, and I'm happy to report that Vicki rarely asks me what I want for dinner anymore.  And that's exactly what success tastes like, for me!

Scary Article About The Realities Of Cycling

I mean, the title says it all: Is it OK to kill cyclists?  You should definitely give it a read, whether you're a cyclist or not, but especially if you're a driver who resents cyclists.

Thanks to the Man from Mars for the link.

Neil Gaiman, Class Act

I've made no secret of the fact that I'm a huge Neil Gaiman fan.  The first issue of his new Sandman prequel series, Sandman Overture, which came out last week, absolutely blew me away.  I'm waiting to do a second reading of it before posting anything about it here, but it's... just... amazing.  This is one of those rare cases where someone revisits a masterpiece of theirs from the past and manages to produce new work of the same, if not maybe even better, quality.

Anyway, today I was reading an interview with the artist of that series, J. H. Williams III, and got to the end only to see this quote from Williams about working with Neil:

I wanted to see if [Neil] was open to me approaching it the way I've approached many of my other projects, where I take what's there, and if I see, "Oh, these two pages work in a more interesting way if they're turned into a double-page spread, with some sort of design that encompasses the whole thing." How would he feel about me altering the pace in that way? And he gave me the most perfect, humbling compliment. He said, "It's you. We asked for you. Do what you do, I trust you."

That's Neil Gaiman, in a nutshell.  Total class act.

Money Well Spent

This is the final weekend before Call of Duty: Ghosts arrives, and so that means I'm just about done playing Call of Duty: Black Ops II, the previous CoD title that came out just under a year ago.  I'm pretty confident that I spent more hours playing BOII than any prior CoD release, to the point where I prestiged in it 6 times!  I inched my kill-to-death ratio up to previously-unseen heights, finishing tonight at 1.75.  I doubt I would have believed, last November when the game arrived in my mail slot, that I'd get anywhere nearly that high a KTD or that I'd prestige more than once, let alone do a half dozen of them.

The main driver for all those hundreds of hours online, without a question, was the presence of Boneman right there beside me (virtually speaking) over the last twelve months.  Having someone to partner up with makes a huge difference in terms of not getting bored with the same old maps, and he and I had some amazing adventures playing Team Deathmatch together on Nuketown 2025, Express, Slums, Standoff, Hijacked, Carrier, Aftermath, Meltdown, Turbine, Overflow and, yes, even Yemen. 

Now, though, my attention is ready to turn to Ghosts, where I'll no doubt suffer for at least a week or two with a subpar KTD while I learn the weapons, perks and maps.  I can't imagine I'll end up spending as much time in this game as the last one, but you never know.  You're only a kid once, after all!

Rainy Hallowe'en Nets Us Just 9 Little Beggars

We didn't even hit double digits this year (a first!), thanks to a windy and rainy late afternoon and evening.  Nine is only a few kids less than normal, though it's about 50% below the average if you want to talk percentages.

Updating the tallies from the years I've been blogging:

2013: 9
2012: 14
2011: 15
2010: 18
2009: 19
2008: 19
2007: 18
2006: 12

The New Bathrooms, Part 2

I couldn't convince Vicki to provide the blog post on the upstairs bathroom, so you'll just have to settle for photos and minimal commentary from me.

Here's what it looked like before:

And here's the spiffy new look, once again hard to capture in photos, unfortunately:

Quite the upgrade, I'd say!!  And now we'll be proud to send house guests upstairs to use the facilities, which certainly hasn't been the case for years.

Lou Reed, Neil Gaiman And The Art Of Interviewing

Following the news of Lou Reed's death over the weekend, there's been lots of conversation about the man, as usually happens when a celebrity dies.  My own 'relationship' with the singer is extremely limited, to put it mildly.  I enjoyed a few of his popular songs, including "Sweet Jane" by Reed and The Velvet Underground, which Tammy introduced me to several years ago (and which has been covered quite a few times over the past forty years).

By far the most interesting thing I've read out of this current flurry of Reed-mania is Neil Gaiman's interview with Lou from 1992.  I'm a firm believer that there's an art to conducting a good interview, and it's a skill that seems largely lacking among those who do the most interviews.  I used to love Tom Snyder's Tomorrow Show style back in the 70s and 80s because he not only asked interesting questions of his guests, but he also went to the places that you wanted him to go, even if you didn't know it until it happened.  By the time Snyder was done with his subject, you understood the person (rather than the persona) in ways you never would had anyone else been asking the questions.

Neil's talk with Lou Reed is fascinating in a different way, though.  The article that precedes the interview provides the perfect scene-setting to allow you to understand how big a deal it was for the writer to land that gig, as well as to observe the slow, steady transformation that unfolds in the singer's attitude toward his interviewer.  You can track Reed's growing appreciation for the intelligence and insight behind the questions, and the openness that Gaiman elicits out of him in response is extraordinary for such a short conversation.

It's a weird confluence of coincidences that Neil Gaiman's return to Sandman debuts in two days (Sandman Overture) and I'd just suggested The Velvet Underground as the letters column name for the comic series, Velvet, that came out last Wednesday.  Everything ties together.

Copyright Vs The Public Domain

The Washington Post has a great article detailing the history of copyright term-extension legislation, including the fact that the topic is about to rear its ugly head again over the next several years as properties like Mickey Mouse are once more 'at risk' of falling into the public domain.

As a creator of copyrighted material myself (six books and counting!), I'm totally of the opinion that copyrights have to terminate after a reasonable span, such as the creator's lifetime plus fifty years, for example.  That provides plenty of opportunity for money-making off of them, not only for the person who produced the work, but also for the next generation of family members.  Any more than that is ridiculous, if you ask me.  And, as the article points out, the term keeps getting extended to put more money into corporations' pockets, not to help out creative types.  Considering that it's Disney and Time Warner, among others, that we're talking about here, the irony is pretty thick: both companies have comic publishing arms (Marvel and DC, respectively) who've famously screwed over the people actually creating the stories and artwork for their characters.

I'd love to see this trend toward longer and longer extensions reversed sometime soon, but I doubt it'll happen.  Corporate interests, after all, are more zealously safeguarded now than ever.

The New Bathrooms, Part 1

For the past two weeks, Vicki, Emma and I (and even Tammy, during her Thanksgiving weekend visit) were under siege from a father-son pair of contractors who were completely renovating our two main bathrooms, literally from floor to ceiling.  This is the project Vicki worked her last contract for, as we set aside most of the after-tax money she made specifically for this purpose.  All of our bathrooms have been looking tired and dated for years now, and so Vicki took on the challenge of addressing that situation for the two main ones.

I may get her to do a guest blog post (haven't had one of those in ages!) to really do the subject justice, but I thought I'd at least put up some before-and-after pictures to get a certain relentlessly-persistent sister-in-law off my back.

I'm starting with the en suite that's situated off the master bedroom, as it's the one I always use (and this blog is all about me, remember).  It's hard to convey the look and feel of the room in photos, but here's what we got rid of:

Quite boring looking, with ugly vertical striped wallpaper that was peeling off and tile grout that was impossible to get clean (believe me, I tried!).  The tub had long since lost any luster and the toilet had some sort of design flaw in how the water needed to circulate in order to go down, the end result of which was that it clogged very easily and required me to plunge it about twice a week.  No, I'm not kidding!

After Mark and Jordan of Cornerstone Construction worked their magic, though, the room was transformed into this:

Beautiful colours all around, and everything's state of the art now: toilet seat and vanity drawers are all self-closing, the ceiling fan has its own humidistat for automatic on/off functionality, and best of all, there's a rain head at the top of the shower, which I've already fallen in love with and use in place of the actual shower head.  And the toilet flushes reliably and with a lovely whooshing sound!

We do have a slight problem with space, as you might be able to see from the pictures: the longer-than-usual toilet and the fairly wide vanity don't have a lot of room between them near the tub, making the access to the tub a bit tight.  So we may end up swapping one or the other out for smaller pieces if we find that it continues to feel cramped in there.  The plan right now is to get Cornerstone back in over the next several months to do the basement bathroom, and that would be the perfect time to tweak the en suite's layout, if necessary.  As it is, though, I can't believe what a great job Vicki did in all of her choices, as it really does feel like an executive bathroom in some swanky hotel.  And yet it's right off our bedroom!  How awesome is that?

Still to come: the upstairs bathroom, which is equally impressive.

Supporting The Artist

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about the way art intersects with commerce.  I guess that's not surprising, as I'm mostly writing and selling my books these days, as compared to earlier periods where I was working full-time or doing Math tutoring.  Now I'm more likely to think of myself as an artist who is - or isn't - making a living off my art.

Anyway, one of the recent trends I've seen in my spending habits is that I'm more inclined to support activities or products that give more of their proceeds back to the artist.  As musicians and writers, in particular, have discovered new and exciting ways to get their output directly into the hands of their fans, I've begun to feel better and better about laying down my hard-earned cash for such work.  Another example would be the Fringe festivals that Vicki and I have started going to, where 100% of the money taken in at the box office goes to the performer(s).  I find that I love the feeling that comes with that kind of a purchase.

Today, a new comic series, Velvet, is coming out from Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting, the creative team responsible for the greatest run on Captain America.  I was sold on Velvet from the day it was announced, purely on the strength of the creative team, and everything I've seen about it since just increased my confidence about its quality.  However, one aspect of its publication appeals to me for reasons more in line with the rest of this post: Velvet is a creator-owned title, published by Image Comics.  I didn't use to think about such things much, but now it's a huge deal that Brubaker and Epting will own the characters and stories of this great female-spy title.  After all, there's never been a better time for comic properties to break into movies or TV than right now, which means those two gents could reap huge financial rewards for their work if they were picked up by Hollywood. One need look no further than Robert Kirkman and The Walking Dead (also an Image title) to see what I'm talking about.  Even if that doesn't happen, though, there's the usual revenue from merchandising in addition to all of the monthly sales profit, the entirety of which will go back to them.

And as I look at my comic buying habits right now, I notice that four of the most exciting titles I'm buying are creator-owned: Fatale, Lazarus, Saga and now Velvet (all published by Image).  All of them are doing well, both commercially and critically, and each one is a joy to read.  They represent about one-quarter of my monthly purchases, with the rest being a mix of DC and Marvel titles.  At this point, I'd actually be quite happy to see that balance swing more to the creator-owned side, as I'm well and truly sick of the corporate greed that's begun to dominate both of those long-established companies (thanks to owners, Warners and Disney, respectively).

In the meantime, though, I'm just excited to have four such entertaining comics to read each month, with the profit going where it belongs.

Getting Onto The Internet Through Your Light Bulb

This crazy invention is another example of just how brilliant we are, as a species, when we're not busy destroying the planet like a bunch of morons, that is.  The idea of using the flicker frequency of light bulbs to transmit data is so out there that, at first, you can't help but think someone's pulling your leg.  It's actually been proven to work, though.  Wow!

As the article points out, there is the one big limitation: the device you want to connect to the Internet would have to be within sight of a data-transmitting bulb, as compared to current routers that transit through walls.  Still, I'd think that would be a small price to pay in order to get speeds ten times faster than what we see now.  And really, if all the lights in your house were acting as routers, then it probably wouldn't be much of an issue unless you like surfing in the dark, or want to head outside.  (It does bring to mind a whole new family of "How many ___________s does it take to change a light bulb?" joke possibilities, though.)

Amusingly, the light in our living room where I'm typing up this post flickered twice in the past several minutes, possibly signaling its approval of this invention.  Or maybe warning against it!

A New Low In Canadian Politics?

Or just more of the same, when it comes to Harper's Conservative government?

You be the judge

Thanks to PJ for the tip on this one. 

Gotta Love Fox News

They're almost as comical a news provider as The Colbert Report, especially when they do stuff like this: interviewing people about how Obamacare has adversely affected them, without even bothering to check to see if any of the stories are real/accurate. Or maybe they knew full well that those tales of woe were complete bullshit and went with them anyway. Either way, that seems about right for Faux News.

Roller Derby Will Save Your Soul Next June

Two years ago, Vicki and I went on the road to take in Hamilton Fringe Festival, and when we came home I wrote about all the plays we'd seen there, even going so far as to provide our personal rankings for each.  Very near the top of both our lists was a wonderful one-woman performance called Roller Derby Saved My Soul, featuring Nancy Kenny.  Ms. Kenny was funny, poignant and totally engaging in RDSMS, and I've hoped ever since that she'd someday be able to bring her wonderful act here to London.

Well, as she blogged about yesterday, it's happening!  She's doing a multi-city tour next summer, and she's kicking it off with a stop here during London Fringe (June 4 - 15).  I'll be sure to promote this great show again closer to the start of the festival itself, but I wanted to get the word out nice and early.  Any fans of humour and pop culture will definitely not want to miss RDSMS in 2014.

A Bit Of Book News, Including The Title!

I've now finished Chapter 9 of the new book, which is feeling like the midway mark, more or less.  There's a lot of story in those first nine chapters, and lots more to come, so it's hard to say exactly where the middle is.  But we're definitely close.  And I think I may still make my notional goal of finishing the first draft by year-end, which would be a worthy achievement indeed.

Although publication remains several months away, I'm very confident now about the title of this book.  It was something else originally, before I actually started writing it, and then I thought of the new one and immediately liked it a lot more.  I figure now that I'm well into it, I might as well reveal the title so I can start referring to it by name, from here on out.  In a while I'll provide a description of the story (aka "the back cover blurb"), but in the meantime, feel free to speculate away as to what it's about!

And so, without further ado, the title of my fourth novel is:

Leap of Faith

How's that hit you?

Miracleman Is Coming!

This news has been several years in the making, but at New York Comic Con this weekend, Marvel/Disney finally made the announcement we've all been waiting for:

Miracleman is coming in January 2014!

As you'll see at that link, there's going to be a reprinting of all the modern Miracleman stories (written by Alan Moore, initially, and then Neil Gaiman, for the final several issues published back in the 90s) after which Gaiman is planning to write the concluding chapters that he always wanted to do.  This is amazing news for fans of the character, and I just hope that Marvel/Disney does it up right.  The press release says all the correct things, but I'll only believe it when I have the final product in my own two hands.

7 Years Of Blogging

In less than 2 hours, it'll be October 1st, the 7th anniversary of when I started this blog.

To show how much less I have to say here than I used to, consider this: in December of 2006 alone, my 3rd month of blogging, I put out a whopping total of 175 posts.  Nine months into 2013, I've posted just 137 times (counting this one).

Oh well.  I have to say it's hard to be enthusiastic about blogging when it seems as though almost no one's reading it any more.  But such is life.

A Final Collection Of Breaking Bad Reviews

I've split my day so far between working on novel # 4 and reading Breaking Bad finale reviews.  I can't share anything with you yet about the former, but here's a roundup of some of the latter:

From the Onion's A/V Club, by Donna Bowman

From Slate, by Willa Paskin

From Badass Digest, by Devin Faraci

From the Onion's A/V Club (again), by Todd VanDerWerff (I really loved this one!)

From BoingBoing, by Kevin McFarland

I'm still reading, so I may add more later!

Baking Bad

For those who, like me, remember the old Hostess Twinkies ads that used to run in Marvel and DC comics, featuring the likes of Spider-Man and Batman, I give you this.

Breaking Bad Ending Big

Well, I don't actually know how Breaking Bad is going to end... the finale is still more than two hours away.  But we're going to have our own little BB mini-party tonight, as a friend and his teenage son are coming over to send off the series with us! 

As far as predictions are concerned, I'm pretty bad at them when it comes to TV shows (I had no idea where Lost was going as it wound down).  I will say that I hope Jesse gets revenge on Todd before it's all over, and that Walt doesn't survive the finale.  I've definitely gone from being a Walter White-booster to rooting against the man, although I admire the hell out of the job the writing staff has done in developing that character over six years of television.  His progress from mild mannered chemistry teacher to meth-empire-building Heisenberg is one for the ages, and I'll be sad to see it all end tonight.

Interesting Overview Of The RIM Story To Date

Definitely worth a read.  I found it telling, anecdotally-speaking, when my own brother gave up his long-beloved 'blueberry' for an iPhone within the last year.  He had been a diehard fan of the technology going back to his days on the police force, but he became frustrated with the complicated update process and finally just gave up on it.  I haven't heard too many complaints from him about his new phone, I must say.

Shout Out For Civic-Minded People

When it comes to getting involved with local concerns, I wish I was more like friend of the blog, Mike Marsman.   Here he is, advocating for a cycle committee for this city, a cause that definitely deserves some support and energy.

Good on ya, Man from Mars!

Summer's Over

We closed the pool this weekend. 

Last week, we spent almost $3000 getting 3 leaks fixed in the underground lines near the skimmer and both return jets.  A few weeks before that, we spent $6000 to replace the retaining wall around the deck after carpenter ants ate through the old one.  Over the course of the summer, both of our pool cleaning devices stopped working - one because of the leaks degrading the water pressure, the other because of a defective piece of equipment.  For the first time since we moved into the house in 1998, we were actually vacuuming the pool manually for several weeks of 2013.  Ugh.

In other words, it's been an expensive summer and one that's been hard to enjoy.  Here's hoping next summer is the exact opposite!

A Small Collection Of Great Breaking Bad Articles

Watching this week's third last Breaking Bad episode (entitled "Ozymandias") on Sunday night, both Vicki and I were grimacing and shaking our heads.  But in a good way, as you'll understand fully if you're into the series right now.  It was perhaps the roughest chapter in the lives of Walter White and Jesse Pinkman yet, and that's saying a lot.  This has become our favourite show on TV, and we're going to be very sad to see it end on September 29th.

Anyway, if you're a fan, too, here are a handful of interesting articles about "Ozymandias" in particular and endings in general:

From Boing Boing, Entertainment Weekly and Vulture.

First Act Of The New Book Is Now Written

Unlike my previous novels, I've had the structure of the fourth one in my head since before I began writing it.  I could clearly see the three acts that would make up the story, and I knew what would propel each act along.  For comparison's sake, I was well into No Brother of Mine before I came up with the idea of one of the detectives looking into the twenty year old death of the father.  That ended up being a major catalyst for the action in the second half of the book and yet it was a relatively late addition.

This time around, it's such a different experience from the earlier books that I almost can't believe it.  And so far, through six chapters, very little has changed between what I'd originally envisioned and what's actually going down on the virtual page.  Maybe this is the way I'll always write, from now on?  Or possibly I've just gotten lucky and it'll never happen again.

Anyway, I'm having a good time and my work is now about a third of the way complete.

This Video Will Make Your Day

Our First TIFF

No, this post isn't about the first time Vicki and I had a big disagreement... Instead, it's about our trip to Toronto earlier this week to take in our first ever Toronto International Film Festival with Tammy!

Tammy and I had picked out three relatively obscure movies to buy advance tickets for, after discovering that all of the films we'd actually heard of were already sold out.  The ones we selected ended up all being interesting, in one way or another, and here's a brief description of each:

South is Nothing - We started off with an Italian story about a father and daughter trying to come to terms with the death of a family member.  The teenage daughter is interestingly presented as a boy throughout the early parts of the film, and it only gradually becomes apparent that she's actually a young girl.  Dressing and acting like a male are just her way of resisting the pressures to outgrow her tomboy adolescence in the wake of her brother's mysterious and sudden death.  For the Q&A session after the film, both the director and the actress who played the daughter fielded questions from us, and I asked a couple.  First, I wondered if the story had been inspired by anything in the director's background (he said 'yes' but was vague as to exactly what).  I also asked if the slow reveal of the character's gender had been done to allow each audience member to come to the realization at their own pace, and he confirmed that was exactly his intent.  I thought this was a very good film, though not quite nosing into great territory because of a few aspects of the story that could've been presented more clearly.

Canopy - This was the film I was most looking forward to, and perhaps my high expectations worked against it.  The premise sounded fascinating to me: an Australian paratrooper in World War II is stranded in a Singapore jungle and meets a Chinese soldier there while both try to evade capture by the Japanese army who've invaded the island.  I could imagine all kinds of ways to make that interesting, but the actual product was paced too slowly and spent much too much time on the scenery.  I liked the film but only just.  As with each of the shows we went to, the director (from Australia) and the lead actor (also an Aussie) took part in a Q&A afterwards, though it wasn't all that illuminating.

A Place in Heaven -  The highlight of the festival, for me anyway, was our final film on Monday night.  This Israeli tale about a father and son relationship against the backdrop of the hostility between the Jews and the Palestinians, stretching back several decades, was riveting from start to finish.  I found myself trying to guess what would happen next and failing nearly every time, which is a wonderful feeling when the developments on the screen exceed your expectations!  The lead actor Alon Aboutboul (playing the father) was present for the Q&A along with the director, and I discovered from Tammy that he'd had a small part in the opening Bane sequence of The Dark Knight Rises.  That may constitute the closest I've come yet to Batman!  At any rate, I loved A Place in Heaven and wouldn't be surprised to see it get Oscar consideration for Best Foreign Film.

On the Monday afternoon, while Tammy was working, Vicki and I went to see another film, more or less on a lark:

The Green Inferno - This is the latest from Eli Roth, known for horror films (like Hostel and Hostel II) although he more famously played Sgt. Donny Donovitz in Tarrentino's Inglourious Basterds, which Tammy claims to have seen 10 times (making her quite jealous that she missed seeing him live and in person at this show).  Anyway, this was billed as a homage to the Italian cannibal movies of the 70s, and it certainly delivered on that promise.  The story was completely predictable and appropriately gory, but otherwise fairly forgettable.  Vicki stuck it out like a trooper, though, reminding me once again that I did, indeed, win the wife lottery all those years ago!  In the Q&A afterwards, we learned that most of the natives (i.e. the "cannibals") shown in the film were from an actual tribe in the Amazon who'd had limited contact with civilization before Roth and the crew found them.  They'd never seen a movie before, and so they were shown Cannibal Holocaust, from 1980 (billed as "The Most Controversial Film Ever Made"), which they found to be hilariously funny!  They loved what they perceived as the comedic aspects of it, laughing from start to finish, and this experience completely sold them on the idea of appearing in the film and hamming it up as cannibals.  That, I have to admit, is strangely awesome all on its own.  The movie crew did their best to upgrade the tribe's little village before they left, including installing metal roofs and providing some cash that could be used in trade with the boats that travel up and down the Amazon selling supplies.  The Q&A was definitely the most interesting part of this, but I suppose I've also earned a tiny bit of street cred from being able to say I've been in the same room as Eli Roth!  That puts me one degree of separation from Tarrentino, for whatever that's worth (much less than being one degree from Batman, if you ask me!).

And that was our TIFF 2013 experience.  We all loved it, and hope to be able to repeat it next year.

Some Hope For Those Of Us With Failing Memories

Although the benefits from this exciting discovery may still be years or even decades away, it still gives us old folks some reason to hope.

Blast From The Past

I don't know where this George Perez illustration came from, as it wasn't part of the classic 4-issue JLA/Avengers series that came out in the early 2000s (and for which I own several pieces of original artwork). But regardless of the origin of the piece, it's a beauty!

The Fringe Experience

One of the best shows we saw at Hamilton Fringe a couple years ago was Roller Derby Saved My Soul, a one-woman (on skates!) extravaganza featuring Nancy Kenny.  We subsequently bumped into Nancy at London Fringe through her friendship with PeterJ and got a chance to chat with her for a bit, and then I started following her on Twitter.  She just finished doing her show at Edmonton Fringe, and blogged about what it was like.  I found her description of the festival fascinating, and really wished Vicki and I could've gone to another Fringe festival this summer. Hopefully Nancy will bring RDSMS to London one of these years and I can promote the Hell out of it to all of you out there.

The Latest Addition

It's been awhile since I added a really key comic book to my collection, as I filled out most of the series runs that I was interested in years ago.  The first appearances of the Flash, Green Lantern, Justice League of America, Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four (all from the Silver Age) were all very cool acquisitions, no doubt about it.  This weekend, however, Vicki and I purchased a comic that I never really expected to own a copy of: All Star Comics # 3, from 1940, featuring the first appearance of the Justice Society of America, the Golden Age precursor to the JLA!

This copy was 'slabbed,' meaning it had been professionally graded and then sealed inside a hard plastic case (similar to what's done to expensive trading cards, which is where the practice started, I believe).  I took it out of the case, just as I always do with slabbed comics I buy, as I like to read these things, not seal them away.  The grading information at the side of the photo indicates that there had been some restoration done to this copy, bringing it up to "an apparent 6.0" which means it looks like a 6.0 (out of 10) but is actually lower since it's been restored.  It sure is pretty, though!

Let's Celebrate The Heroes, Instead

I don't mean 'heroes' like athletes who set records or movie stars who only pretend to be heroic on film.  I mean heroes like Antoinette Tuff, who prevented another American school shooting from being added to the already way, way too long list.

It seems like many of the deranged gunmen - it's never women - do what they do to become famous, regardless of who they have to kill to get there.  But it's the heroes in those situations whose names we should remember, not the villains: the first responders, the teachers who've died trying to shield their students with their bodies and the parents who've somehow managed to keep going through the motions after enduring the unthinkable.  So let's add Antoinette Tuff's name to our short- and long-term memories today.  She talked a would-be mass murderer down, not by leveling a gun at him but by relating to him as a human being.  She's worth remembering, and the courage and compassion she demonstrated is certainly worth celebrating.

5 Terrifying Statements In The Upcoming IPCC Climate Report

Read it and weep, especially for your children and their children and their children...

Ben Affleck As Batman? That Was... Unexpected

I absolutely loved Affleck in Argo, so I'm not a Ben-hater by any means.  He's just not who I would've imagined in the role of an older Batman going up against Henry Cavill's rookie Man of Steel in 2015.  I think I might be happier if he were directing (or even co-directing) this Superman Vs Batman fanboy-wetdream-on-film, but that's not looking likely.

I've got to hand it to Warner Brothers: it's definitely an interesting choice, and may be responsible for breaking the internet in half over the next day or two.

Novel Progress

Today I finished the fourth chapter of my fourth novel, and feel as if I'm getting some steam up on this project for the first time.  It's been a tough summer so far for writing, as I've suffered from a shortage of motivation and an abundance of distractions.  However, with the first act of the story now more-than-half done, I'm finally getting to the stuff that I've wanted to write since before I began putting it all into Word.

I think this is going to be my longest novel yet in terms of number of chapters, though I'm not sure how the word count will measure up.  The structure is all worked out in my head already and has been for months, so it's really just been all the many little details that have been percolating around up there lately.  As a lot more of the pieces have come together lately, I expect the pace to begin to pick up anytime now.

Vicki's given me feedback on each of the four chapters so far, and it's all been very positive.  We both think this is going to be quite the exciting story but of course it'll be many months yet before I'll know whether we're both smoking weed on that front or not.

The Day The Clown Cried

I love movie lore, so when I recently read a random reference to a never-released Jerry Lewis film from the 70s that I'd never heard of called The Day The Clown Cried, I was intrigued.  If you've seen the 1997, Oscar-winning Life Is Beautiful, then aspects of Lewis' stillborn project will sound familiar: set during the Holocaust, a clown has to entertain children in a concentration camp while they unknowingly wait to be executed.  Lewis has generally refused to talk about the film, but today I came across an Entertainment Week article about one time he didn't.  It's a fascinating read and really leaves you wondering just how achingly-bad the film probably is, though it sounds like we'll probably never know.  Not while the comedian is still alive, anyway.  (He's exactly five days older than my sole surviving aunt, interestingly enough.)

Some Small Amount Of Justice On The Henrietta Lacks Story

It's not much, but it's something: the gene mapping of Henrietta Lacks' DNA, which had previously been treated as essentially public domain data, despite the loss of privacy that conferred upon her descendents, will now be supervised by a six-member committee, two of whom are Lacks family members.

Dr Emma Who

Yes, that's a sonic screwdriver in her hand, which she just received on this, her 19th birthday!  Some kids dream of being given a 40 ouncer or case of beer on their 19th, but our girl was absolutely giddy at the sight of Doctor Who's second-favourite device (after the TARDIS).

The Perfect Teaser

This clip of Bryan Cranston reciting Percy Shelley's poem, "Ozymandias," as a teaser for the final season of Breaking Bad, is simply brilliant (much like the show itself):



If you've been watching the slow, fascinating progression of Walter White, like we have, then you'll fully appreciate just how appropriate a choice that was.

From The Desk Of Bill Murray

Or rather, his Twitterfeed...

"If you don'’t come home and immediately either take off your pants, or change into pajamas, then I’'m sorry but you’'re living life wrong."

The man speaks truth!

Solar Windows? I Like The Sound Of That!

A new breakthrough in solar technology may make it a reality in the near future, too!

At The Intersection Of Music And Sci Fi

I was doing a little research on Don Maclean's epic '70s hit, "American Pie" today, and was quite surprised to learn that the musician has managed to keep mum on most of the references he wrote into it over 40 years ago.  That sort of thing seems almost unheard of to me when it comes to pop culture these days.

Anyway, one of the sites I visited was "20 Things You Might Not Know About Don Maclean's American Pie," a very worthwhile stop on my journey.  While most of the items were fascinating, I have to say that far and away the most rewarding one was # 18, the Weird Al Yankovic mashup of Star Wars Episode I and "American Pie," which I didn't even know existed before today.  If you've never seen it, you have to watch this thing of beauty!




I especially love the chorus:

"My my
 This here Anakin guy
 Maybe Vader, someday later, now he's just a small fry
 And he left his home and kissed his mommy goodbye
 Sayin', 'Soon I'm gonna be a Jedi... soon I'm gonna be a Jedi.'

I have an inexplicable affection for those 3 Star Wars prequels that most members of my generation seem to lack, and I have to admit that just watching that video made me want to put Eps I, II and III into the DVD player once again...

All that notwithstanding, if you love "American Pie" (as I do) then you should check out the other 19 items, as well.

12 Monkeys TV Show?

12 Monkeys used to reliably show up on my "Top 20 Favourite Movies of All Time" lists that several of us loved to compile, back in the day.  I very much still consider it one of the best, and most enjoyable films I've ever seen.

Now comes news that the SyFy channel is planning a TV show based on it.  Whether it's a one-shot or an ongoing series is still to be determined, but either way... it's hard to imagine the Terry Gilliam version being improved upon.  Vicki and I recently watched La Jetee, the short (and very low-budget) film that Gilliam's masterpiece was based on.  While there was a lot of imagination behind La Jetee, it was mostly a mess and pretty hard to watch.  I'd personally say 12 Monkeys was about a million times better, but maybe I'm biased as I saw it first.  Can't imagine the TV show will impress, but I'll probably still give it a try when it makes it onto Canadian cable.

Manmade Climate Change Vs Evolution: Who Wins?

According to a recent study: for most species, the changes in their environment that we're causing will happen many orders of magnitude faster than evolution can adapt to.  Way to go, humankind!

Very Timely Topic

Thanks to PeterJ on Twitter, I saw this article about something called a "zipper merge" approach to one of my biggest pet peeves: the traffic congestion that happens on a highway when a lane is closed.  We just experienced this today, coming back from a couple of days spent at Toronto Fringe.

As the article says, there's always been two philosophies about when to merge in that situation: what I'd call the "considerate driver" who gets out of the closing lane as soon as they're notified of the closing, and the "inconsiderate asshole" who races up in the empty lane to get past as many slowed cars as possible before being inconvenienced by the slowdown.  Vicki and I have always dutifully fallen into the first category, as it's just seemed ignorant beyond description to be one of those "me me me" types who thinks his/her time is so much more important than anyone else's.

The science of the situation, though, points to the inefficiency of that approach when the volume of traffic is high: you end up with fewer lanes of traffic ealieer than you need to, and therefore everything slows down sooner.  Now a new strategy is being tried (the aforementioned zipper merge) where signage along the highway will instruct all drivers to stay in the closing lane right up until the point where it terminates, keeping all lanes full of cars for as long as possible.  The zipper merge eliminates the opportunity for the two types of drivers mentioned above, as there won't be any openings for the me-first types to speed up through, and therefore everyone will be inconvenienced equally by the slowdown, which (to my mind, anyway) is preferable to what happens today.  Assholes who think they deserve better, of course, won't be happy.  I really hope this takes off and becomes the new normal for highways everywhere.

The one caveat to this, of course, is that if we had more of a collective mind when it comes to such things, the "get out of the closing lane as soon as possible" approach would still win out.  To see this in action, just drive through one of those zones when traffic's lighter and you'll see that the speed of the traffic barely changes (other than to possibly go down 10 or 20 kph as the speed limit drops) as all drivers typically bail early out of the closing lane, for the simple reason that there's no disadvantage to doing so (in fact, it seems downright prudent!).  So I always used to like to imagine a society where you could notify drivers many km ahead of the problem, have them quickly get out of the problem lane (and never return to it, no matter what), and have it be a non-event by the time you got up to the lane closure.  Realistically, though, that's not a society that I can imagine our selfish species ever being a part of.

Interview: Elaine Cougler, Author Of The Loyalist's Wife

Elaine Cougler, who interviewed me last year about No Brother of Mine, now has her very first book out!  It's called The Loyalist's Wife, and here's a brief description of it:

When American colonists resort to war against Britain and her colonial attitudes, a young couple caught in the crossfire must find a way to survive. Pioneers in the wilds of New York State, John and Lucy face a bitter separation and the fear of losing everything, even their lives, when he joins Butler’s Rangers to fight for the King and leaves her to care for their isolated farm. As the war in the Americas ramps up, ruffians roam the colonies looking to snap up Loyalist land. Alone, pregnant, and fearing John is dead, Lucy must fight with every weapon she has.

With vivid scenes of desperation, heroism, and personal angst, Elaine Cougler takes us back to the beginnings of one great country and the planting of Loyalist seeds for another. The Loyalist’s Wife transcends the fighting between nations to show us the individual cost of such battles.

After finishing The Loyalist's Wife on the weekend, I returned the favour she'd done me last fall and sent Elaine a handful of interview questions about it.  Those questions, along with her very interesting and insightful answers, are below:

1. I thought that all of the little details of life in the 1770s that you included in The Loyalist’s Wife really helped put the reader into the mindset of that time period. What kinds of research did you do for the book, and is that the sort of thing you naturally enjoy doing or did it feel more like work to you?

Matt, I spent a lot of time at my computer online and found amazing history right there. I also found places to go, such as forts, museums, and historic homes. My husband and I love to visit those types of places and doing research for my novels just always makes them come even more alive. Instead of just taking pictures of the buildings or the landscape, I catch images of soldiers’ uniforms, maps showing routes my characters might have taken and characters in costume for just what my own characters might have worn. Talk about an extra layer of enjoyment. And, of course, those pictures are valuable in helping me to remember for the next time I’m at my computer lost in the lives of the Loyalists and their times.

Various libraries and librarians have been helpful, as well. Those librarians know what kind of resources they have on their own shelves as well as what may be available to order in. Their knowledge has been very useful.

2. What thought processes went into your decision to construct your Loyalist saga as a trilogy, rather than, say, as a single book, or five books, or even as an ongoing, open-ended tale?

An interesting question, Matt, and I’d like to say that from the outset I knew exactly how this Loyalist thing would play out, but I didn’t. I was interested in the period because of my own Loyalist roots and in the people because I am always pondering just what might have been the effects of historic events on the ordinary people whose lives were thrown topsy-turvy through no fault of their own. As I got further into the project and concurrently learned more about my own Loyalist history, three stories gradually took shape in my mind. And further research turned up a few nuggets which did and will find their way into The Loyalist Trilogy. So the answer is I first thought of only one book which I first called Loyal to the Crown.  Just as that title changed (The Loyalist’s Wife) so did my plan.

As to why it is three and not more, I see three stories here, all interlocking with related characters and even some events, but once those three stories are told, the Loyalist theme will have played itself out.

3. As publisher (as well as author) of The Loyalist’s Wife, what steps have you taken to promote your product? And is there anything you’ve thought of doing but just haven’t quite been able to bring yourself to try it?

For over two years I have developed my writing blog, On Becoming a Wordsmith, and have met many lovers of historical fiction and as many or more writers who are doing what I am doing. It is a very supportive community and I have learned a lot about writing, marketing and the business of writing.
Promotion, then, is ongoing through online venues, guest posting, commenting on others’ blogs, writing book reviews, and trying to have something of value to say wherever I visit on the web. (sometimes easier said than done!)

As far as things I’ve thought of and not done, there are many but mostly it is time constraints that hold me back. I want to do a book trailer for The Loyalist’s Wife and post it on YouTube as well as my website and my blog. I’d love to do speaking/reading events and visit book clubs to discuss my writing with those reading it. And I will. I just need that 36-hour day and all will happen. Can you see that I can be a tad impatient?

4. It’s readily apparent in the pages of your book that you have a natural affinity for the Revolutionary War and especially the Loyalist side of it. What’s the origin of this connection for you?

I have always known that I come from Loyalist stock, a tidbit of knowledge which has sparked and flamed as I’ve gotten older and had more time to think of such things. A few years ago my brothers and I were in Niagara Falls for the funeral of my aunt, a situation which allowed us to travel the short distance to Niagara-on-the-Lake and visit Butler’s Burying Ground and see the vault where the famous Colonel John Butler was buried. My brother, Roger, knew much of the history and regaled us with tales of how our ancestor was a member of these same Butler’s Rangers.

Then my son brought me a copy of Cruickshank’s book about Butler’s Rangers and I found this same name listed in the back. I thought of the plight, then, of those loyal to the King who were living in the colonies when the American Revolutionary War broke out and my story was born.

5. You put your two lead characters in The Loyalist’s Wife through some fairly horrific experiences over the course of the book.  How do you, as an author, decide where to draw the line in such matters? Specifically, where’s that line in terms of, for example, testing the mettle of the characters versus simply being cruel to them and possibly alienating the reader? Were there any times in the early drafts when you thought you’d gone too far and had to pull back?

Without spoiling the story, I will say that I knew I had to make my readers care for my characters or they would stop reading. An author has to put his/her characters into danger and then make it worse. I knew I was writing something good when I was crying during the writing and later revising of certain sections. If I cared that much about my characters, my readers would as well. As far as just being cruel to them, I can’t do that. And readers would not like that. If neither I nor my readers have developed a feeling for the characters there is no story.

No, I don’t think I ever felt I had gone too far. Rather, I hadn’t gone far enough. I always want to be kind so drew my characters a little too one-sided—good—and had to go back and give a more balanced view of John and Lucy. They had to have flaws. Giving them those flaws allowed for more interesting plot developments as well.

6. Given that you called it The Loyalist’s Wife, did you ever consider telling the story entirely from Lucy’s perspective, possibly even in the first person narrative form?

The story is about the Loyalist and his wife, which, I think, is implicit in the title but I can see how you might think the title leans a little more toward the wife. That being said, I always wanted to tell both sides of the story. Imagine the plight of a woman left alone in a warring wilderness while her husband may be killed as he fights for his King. And the idea that soldiers have their families to worry about and their own personal characteristics to deal with was very intriguing to me. I wanted to delve into why John left Lucy alone and fought for the British. And I wanted to know just what this decision cost him. The answer to your question is that I never considered just telling the story from Lucy’s point of view.

As for first person, the historicals which I have read and loved for many years are almost all in third person, so much so that when I started to write that is what came out.

7. You’ve told me previously that you spent several years writing The Loyalist’s Wife, including some periods in which not much progress was being made for a variety of reasons. Was there ever a time when you’d convinced yourself that TLW just wasn’t ever going to become a finished book, and if so, what got you past that feeling?

Never. I always wanted to keep going. Even when the learning process was frustrating and demoralizing. Even when my husband, seeing what stress I was under during some of those times, suggested I didn’t HAVE to finish. What kept me going was the thought of my book or books on the shelf for my children and grandchildren to have after I am gone. I wanted to leave a legacy of something I loved.

8. What were the best and worst aspects of self-publishing for you? Now that you’re well along in that process, how happy (or unhappy) are you that you went that route for your first book?

One of the bumps along the way was joining an online author group where my work was viewed by agents and publishers. At first I thought this was wonderful and I did learn a lot of things about the writing business but I also learned other things. Suffice it to say that, in spite of interest from agents and editors, I eventually found the courage to go my own way, follow my own heart, and publish the book I wanted. And starting my own publishing company gave me control in so many ways. Of course the learning curve was not a curve at all but a bloody uphill battle at times. I am pretty computer savvy, having taught the subject (along with English) but each platform to which I submitted my work had wrinkles. Patience, something I am usually short of, became absolutely necessary. Thank goodness for the Help panels most of the platforms offered.

And, yes, I am happy I took control.

9. And finally, what pieces of advice would you give to any aspiring authors out there, based on your own experiences, that you feel would help her or him get their first book over the finish line?

My best advice would be to write the kind of book you love to read. From there, read lots of books on writing but eventually just trust yourself. Writing, more writing and more writing will get you where you want to go. And if you self-publish, find excellent editors, cover designers, printers and other professionals. The money you pay them will make your book look great.

Thanks so much, Matt, for posing these thoughtful and sometimes difficult questions. Your intelligent probing is not surprising as you are a competent author yourself. I am very grateful for this interview.

As mentioned in the interview, Elaine has a writing blog called On Becoming a Wordsmith. She's also on Twitter (@ElaineCougler), Facebook (ElaineCouglerAuthor), and LinkedIn author groups. You can buy her debut book on Amazon, the Kindle store or at the Kobo store, or if you'd like a signed, paper copy (for $20), let me know and I'm sure Elaine will be able to accommodate your request.

Thanks to Elaine for taking part in this, and for continuing to support me in my own writing career!

For The Programmers Out There

A funny list of 30 examples of new programming jargon.  # 10 naturally made me think of Jimmy Hinckley, who we all miss dearly.

Mark Waid Nails It

While I liked Man of Steel a bit more than Mark apparently did, his spoiler-laden review of the film touches on every one of the aspects that didn't work for me.  Although I'll definitely watch it again (unlike Waid), I agree that the soul of the character that I've known and loved for nearly 45 years wasn't on display in Zack Snyder's movie.  In the same way that Snyder came up short in turning Watchmen into a film when he failed to understand some of Alan Moore's more subtle nuances in the original material, he falters here in grasping what makes Superman so special: his own invulnerability is what makes him care so much about those who can't survive a building falling on them as he can.  And Vicki will attest to the fact that, at least once during the final act of Man of Steel, I muttered under my breath, "Now go rescue some of the people in the rubble, dummy!"  The fact that he didn't, more than anything else, reveals where Snyder and screenwriter Goyer lost their grip on the character.

Still, for all that, it's a Superman movie worth watching, much more so than its predecessor with Brandon Routh.

In Other Amazon News

Today seems to be Amazon Day here at Kimota94's Place!

As a followup to a post from last month about the introduction of fan fic site Kindle Worlds, there's this news today about Kindle Worlds expanding to include some comic book universes!  Specifically, several titles from the Valiant comic line are now available to be 'fan fic'ked, so to speak.

I'm starting to believe this is actually going to become 'a thing' in publishing.  I just can't tell if it's a good thing or a bad thing.

Do A Brother A Favour?

I've laboured under a particular delusion for a while, and only today learned the error of my ways.  I always believed that you could only do a review of something on Amazon if you purchased the item first.  I think my mistake stemmed from the fact that I've been prompted many times to provide reviews of items I'd bought, and that formed the connection in my brain.

Anyway, now that I know the truth, I'd like to ask any readers out there who enjoyed No Brother of Mine to please take a few minutes and leave a review of it on Amazon.  It looks like it requires a minimum of 20 words to constitute a review, but hopefully that won't pose too much of a challenge!  (No Brother of Mine, after all, is around 90,000 words so it can't be that hard to come up with 20 words to describe your reaction to it, can it?)  Probably the most important thing is just getting more reviews, period, out there, especially 4- or 5-star reviews (hint, hint).  So please consider helping me out in this fashion if you can.

No Brother of Mine on Amazon can be found here, and then click on the (# customer reviews) link near the top of the page to start your review.

Thanks!

P.S. Obviously the same goes for any of my other books that you've read and liked.  I'm just trying to push No Brother of Mine right now as it seems to be the most popular of the bunch.

Off To Have Dinner With Another Author

Elaine Cougler, who was nice enough to do a 2-part author interview with me late last year, has just released her first novel, The Loyalist's Wife.  Vicki and I have both been reading (and enjoying) it, and tonight we'll be lucky enough to have dinner with Elaine and her husband, Ron.  There should be lots of author-talk, I hope! 

Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About The PS4

Read all about it!

P.S. I've already pre-ordered mine!  And it wasn't even half as exciting as when I pre-ordered my PS3 back in December of 2006.

Quit Blaming Video Games For Violence In The Real World

Here's a good article that shows just how weak the argument that "video game playing leads to violence" really is.

A Few Minor Writing Points

(This sort of post is likely only relevant to me, as a form of journal entry that I can refer back to later.  But anyone out there who still follows this blog is certainly welcome to find whatever entertainment value in it that they can!)

As I get ready to start the 2nd chapter of novel # 4 (once I've finished here), I've come to recognize certain patterns in the way I write.  I may have mentioned some or all of these before, but at least now they'll be collected in one place.

For instance, I've learned how to tell a good story idea from a substandard one.  When I'm trying to come up with the next plot point, the best ones always feel as if I'm remembering them, rather than making them up.  It's like that feeling you get when you're struggling to recall the details of something - maybe a conversation you had, or a memory from many years ago - and suddenly it clicks into place and you know with certainty that you've recalled it correctly.  That's what I've found to happen with the best parts of my novels so far.  And it's a great barometer for me to use in evaluating each new idea that comes along.

Also, I think I now understand why the writing always goes so much faster toward the end of the book.  I'd always assumed it was because each of the various subplots had been set in motion by then and all that remained was to resolve them.  I imagine that's part of it, but there's also an element of knowing the characters so well by that point that they practically write themselves.  As a corollary of that, things tend to go slowly in the early stages because I'm not entirely sure which direction some of the characters are going to advance in just yet, and that makes the process harder.

And finally, I've had a revelation about my work ethic when it comes to writing.  I've suffered from a lot of frustration over the past several years because I haven't been as disciplined as I'd like about actually sitting down and writing.  I've gotten very down on myself about this, at times.  However, I think I may have been selling myself short in that regard.  A lot of the time I spend not-writing, especially when I'm not engaged in some other activity, is actually devoted to figuring out what happens next, or what motivates this character or that one, or what the best structure is to use for that next revelation.  In other words, I'm writing a hell of a lot more often than I'd ever given myself credit for.  It's simply happening in my head, rather than on the keyboard.  Vicki and I have started referring to that as "percolation time" while working on this current book, meaning the periods during which all of the various ideas are percolating around in my brain before they're fully formed enough to be written down.  Julie had pointed out something similar on an earlier book project, but I hadn't appreciated just how significant that part of the process was at the time.  Now that I do, it feels like a large, guilty weight has been lifted from me.

Anyway, now it's time to go do some of the type-type-type writing, as Chapter 2 feels ready to go!

Why Some Animals Swarm

I'd never thought about it before reading this article, but it makes sense: animals evolved to swarm because swarming confuses the predators and allows more of the prey to escape (and hence survive, to have more offspring).  Like all things evolutionary, a random mutation at the DNA level must've led some animals to react that way when predators approached, and because it worked better than the usual "run away!" instinct, it eventually became a new trait, over generations.

I love how the universe always makes more sense when you view it through the lens of evolution!  I can't imagine how people who don't believe in evolution ever make it through life. 

Fukushima Power Plant Not A Disaster After All

For anyone who watched the coverage, back in March of 2011, of the Fukushima nuclear facility in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan, it seemed like a full-scale disaster: the cooling systems weren't functioning, workers were being sent in on suicide runs, and the area around the plant was going to be irradiated for generations to come.  Some Americans even worried that the radioactive cloud from Fukushima was going to contaminate the west coast of the U.S.!

Well, two years later, a couple of reports have come out of independent studies, and the results are surprising, to say the least!  No one died from radiation sickness, many of the areas surrounding the nuclear facility are already safe to return to, and even those brave workers who entered the plant during the immediate aftermath of the tsunami have been spared the awful fate we'd all ascribed to them.

It'll be interesting to see if the good news represented by these reports gets anywhere near the same level of coverage that the drama back in March 2011 received.