May 2007

World in the Satin Bag

Meme: Five Things I Want To Write

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Okay, I’m starting a meme of my own, sorta. I’m tagging anyone and everyone that reads that. Of course it is primarily aimed towards fellow writers, but oh well :P. So it is a requirement that everyone who reads this does it. Mwahaha. Okay, not really, but still. So here is how it works.1) Write about the top five writing projects you want to do. Books, short stories, whatever.2) Post the rules and the link to where you got the Meme from in the first place.3) Tag people. Here is mine: 1) Finish WISB, the second book, and third book, and potentially any books that might follow. I’m shooting to finish this in at most three books. If I can do it in two, sweet. And of course I would loooooove to go on for many more books.2) Write an epic science fiction space opera novel. Not Star Wars epic, but just, well, epic. More politically based space opera. I don’t have an idea as of right now. I just want to write one.3) Write an amazing trilogy of zombie novels that attempts to take a new spin on the genre. I have been wanting to write a zombie novel for the longest time. The problem is in being original in a field that has been bastardized and humiliated by garbage and by legitimately hilarious spoof films (Shaun of the Dead or Biozombie anyone?). That’s a dilemma I’m still having. I can’t write something I know has already been written. 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later are possibly the only films to make any revolutionary changes to the traditional feel of zombie films, and unfortunately even that is being bastardized by cheap rip-off’s and remakes. In the end, if I ever write such a trilogy, I want to turn them into screenplays and start the biggest budget horror film series ever. And Peter Jackson will direct them…in my dreams at least.4) Finish writing all my short stories that are sitting around in my story bank. Europa Strain, Artemis, Soul For Sale. Then get them published. It’s a lot of work :S.5) Write a PhD. dissertation on something related to dystopian literature. I’m not sure what though. Perhaps a study in the trends and the evolution of the genre as a whole. So, ha! You’ve all been tagged!

World in the Satin Bag

Chapter Eighteen: The Forest of Gall and the Little People

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(Note:  This is not official version and may be removed in the near future.  This do not reflect what is read in the podcast version, nor any other version you may encounter.  I have preserved the rough form for posterity — or something like that.  This novel has since been rewritten.) Dawn had come and gone faster than James had thought possible. Little light could push through the canopy to the forest floor. The foliage was so dense that at times they were forced off the raggedy path to get over fallen trees or twisted walls of roots. He hadn’t seen anything like it before. Even in Woodton, where the trees and brush were considerably thick, it would have been easier to travel than here in the Forest of Gall. The rumble of the earth had long passed away, or perhaps it was that they had traveled far enough now that they could not feel the vibrations. Either way, James knew that Luthien would be marching on Ti’nagal and, despite the two rivers of magma, the city would fall. There were not enough soldiers, nor enough fortifications or weaponry to repel the army of thousands upon thousands. As it was, they had traveled through most of what seemed to be morning, moving constantly at a northward direction. There were little to no sharp turns, though the path wound back and forth like a slithering snake. Birds and other creatures made miniscule amounts of noise as they traveled, but every so often they heard the cry of tiny mammals, like a pack of bickering squirrels in the distance. But James did not attribute these new noises to anything that Belrin had told them about the creatures that lived here. The calls were not sentient, not as far as he could tell. They were rodent in nature, like some distant and altogether other-worldly relative to the animals he had become familiar with back home. He imagined the little creatures with bushy tails, collecting nuts and hopping tree to tree and screeching whenever a predator or competitor appeared. Soon the sun began to take its leave and the light faded. Pea retrieved his torch and lit it with magic. The light shined bright and cast dark shadows beyond its circle. Here the light had places to go, unlike back in the tunnel beneath the river. “We should set up camp soon,” Pea said. Darl grunted. “I would be apprehensive to stay the night here in this place. It is too alive for my tastes.” “It’ll take us a few days to get through this,” James said. “It’s not exactly a straight shoot through the woods.” “I know, but if we can help it, I would prefer not putting ourselves in a position to become targets.” “You think there is truth to what Belrin said.” Pea leaned sideways so that he was visible behind Bel’ahtor’s head. James looked back, realizing by this point that he did not have to control Mirdur’eth in any fashion—the animal would walk without his aid. “I think there is enough truth there to be cautious. If Belrin is wrong and there are no dangerous creatures living here, then we have sprites and the like that might hinder our journey while we sleep. They are mischievous little creatures.” “As there are everywhere.” “Let’s just go farther. I do not feel even the slightest comfortable here.” The Blaersteeds pushed on, passing through brush and long reaching tree limbs as if they were nothing more than minor hindrances. Pale moonlight made its way through the canopy; the sun made its last stand at the horizon before slowly dipping away into the mountains. Stars shined above, visible in rare holes in the forest. Silence reigned supreme in the Forest of Gall. Night brought with it no sounds other than the soft clacks of the Blaersteeds. Even the strange squirrel noises in the distance were gone, replaced now by nothing. It felt too silent to James. He couldn’t concentrate on anything else. The silence was too abnormal. He had never been in a forest that had no sound in the night. He could remember the owls hooting loud and clear in Woodton. There could be no mistake that this forest in the land of Traea was silent for a very specific reason and he knew deep down that it had nothing to do with there being a lack of night creatures. Something made life here stay quiet; something frightening even to those that wandered in the dark. A few more hours passed and the forest parted slightly, opening the path fully to the night sky, bathing it in the white-blue light of the moon. James gathered that this might be the closest thing to a clearing in the Forest of Gall. It provided a mere ten feet of open space, but it looked like a fissure in the earth covered on both sides by impenetrable walls of trees. Here Mirdur’eth stopped and refused to go any farther no matter how hard he tried to coax the black steed. He turned back to find that both Pea and Darl were at a standstill too. Darl looked far from happy about it. James thought that at any moment the old man would start screaming at his horse. But no such thing happened. Darl finally gave up, peered grumpily at James, and said, “Apparently we can’t go any farther.” James smiled. “These horses have minds of their own.” Mirdur’eth snorted loudly. “Sorry, I meant Blaersteeds.” The steed nodded once and shuddered. “We’ll make camp here,” Darl said, dismounting and guiding his steed to the center of the clearing. “Collect some wood for a fire,” he said to James. “Not much. Just enough for a small flame.” Then the old man tied his steed to a root that stuck up in a tall curve from the center of the path. James dropped and quickly did the same, though Mirdur’eth shifted uncomfortably. Pea was not far behind with

Book Reviews, World in the Satin Bag

Book Review: Midnighters–the Secret Hour by Scott Westerfeld

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It’s not often that I read an entire book in practically one night. This isn’t to say that I don’t enjoy other books that I have read, but it does go to show that any book I read in one night is perfectly written to allow such a thing to happen.This is the case with Midnighters–the Secret Hour (Book One in the series if you must know). I don’t think I could be any happier with it. It was fast and well drawn. It didn’t bite off more than it could chew (though certainly with the concepts behind it it certainly could have).The story is basically this:There is a secret hour between midnight and midnight. It’s an hour that only those born at midnight can experience and it can only be experienced in Bixby, OK. For this hour everything else is frozen, except the shadowy creatures that live there. For the four Midnighters in Bixby, everything seems to be going normal. Each of them has a special talent. They don’t bother the creatures and the creatures don’t bother them. That is until Jessica Day moves to town and the shadowy monsters there suddenly become violent. The question is, why all of a sudden? Why would her presence cause this? And what can they do about it so that midnight is safe to roam again? To put it simply, this is a fascinating book with wonderful characters. Dess would have to be my favorite character, simply because she is so weird, but the entire cast is rather spellbinding. Westerfeld has created a very interesting mythology for his world. The plot moves smoothly. The characters develop very well and there is even a little romance, which for characters in their mid-teens (that 15-16 age) worked perfectly. It was not your usual romance, but that lovely high school bubbly romance that we have all come to expect from kids these days. Even the change of viewpoint each chapter worked out well, and I am one to be very weary of changes in POV. But for Westerfeld it worked. This is a fascinating book that tells a powerful and intriguing story. As I said, few times do I read a book straight through. This book I did.

World in the Satin Bag

Another Meme (…this time about eight things)

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So, I’ve been tagged for this by Lee Carlon, oddly enough. Actually, I have to state a public apology to Lee for my complete idiocy. A long while back I had stated that I had added his blog to my blogroll, when in actuality his blog was meant to go up there but somehow eluded me and was left out. I feel like a complete turd for having said “it’s on there” when it really wasn’t. So, for that I apologize. Now for this Meme of Eight. Here are the rules:1. Each player starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves.2. People who are tagged write their own blog post about their 8 things and post these rules.3. At the end choose 8 people to get tagged and list their names.4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged and to read your blog. (Note: I’m breaking rule four because I don’t feel like leaving comments…yes, I’m that lazy) 1. I am continuously upset with myself for throwing away my high school education as if it was worth less than the cost of an apple. Thankfully I have fixed the mistake and am going to college, but I still kick myself over my stupidity and lack of respect for how important an education can be. (I graduated HS, I just didn’t go to real college because I couldn’t)2. I used to hate Coca-Cola when I was kid and drank only Pepsi. Now I hate Pepsi and drink only Coca-Cola.3. I once tricked a friend who hated fish into eating some fried croppy (or crappy?) by telling him it was chicken. He ate three full pieces before his sister ratted me out. Needless to say his hatred of fish went away.4. I’m afraid and not afraid of spiders and other insects. I don’t instantly freak out when I see a spider, but at the same time I’m not one to sit there when one is crawling on me and go “well look how cute he is”. Generally I’m fascinated by them if they aren’t touching me.5. During senior year of high school my English teacher gave the class a project to come up with our own poetic version of Beowulf. (Sit back, this is a bit of a story). My friend and I got together, did research on ancient England, came up with a plot, etc. and spent a good week and a half coming up with all the necessary information to do it properly. When it came to names, though, we hadn’t a clue what to do. It came down to me telling my friend that he needed to come up with a name for the monster. I pestered him until he finally I just said “let’s just call it penis”, this being because penis is a comical word among fellow high school kids and had come up numerous times in class. My friend had a spark of genius and cried out “Sipen!” And so it was that all the characters, except for one, were named by scrambling names of genital-related objects (Navagi, Doldi, Umscrot, Teprosta Dalgn, etc.). Then I started working on the story. I made considerable effort to, I thought, keep it very old sounding. The teacher had the expectation of about 5-10 pages from each person or group. We turned in 33, including a title page. It might also go to note that on that title page we indicated that the names were inspired by a fellow classmate and the teacher for a moment thought that we were making fun of her, when in fact she was a great help in coming up with the names. Honestly it is one of the best projects I have ever had and am still proud of it to this day!6. Whenever I remember a dream it is 99% of the time about zombies. For some reason I am having visions of a future where I must lead mankind to survival from an invasion of zombies.7. My zombie dreams are some of the most amazing and vivid dreams ever. I actually love them to death and wake up smiling after I have one.8. I have more pets than most people. (Fish don’t count as pets). I have 11 leopard geckos (Angel, Cheese, And, Grim, Not Yet Named, Hubert, Humphry, Noodles, Melly, Taj, and Majal), three common musk turtles (Larry, Curly, and Mo), a beard dragon (CheChe), and a crested gecko (Tim). Now for who I am going to tag! (If you have already done this ignore the tag).Dane Bramage, Andrew, Lindsey, Heather Harper, and Eric (of Quantum Storytelling). Enjoy!

World in the Satin Bag

Philip K. Dick Award Winners

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Apparently I am completely blind to what is going on in the writing world. So last month the announcement was made in regards to the winner of the Philip K. Dick award:Congrats to Moriarty! So, I will soon be working on the Philip K. Dick award nominees, reading Spin Control last of course. In due time!

Book Reviews, World in the Satin Bag

The Elysium Commission by L. E. Modesitt, Jr.

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I recently won this book as a signed copy and have been really anxious to finally read it. I’m not sure why. I have not read any of Modesitt’s work before, but for whatever reason I just want to get into this book quickly.Now I need to premise this review by saying a few things. First, this book is going to be well beyond the average scifi reader. Second, I can say this because it is well beyond me. The concepts in this are so deep and sound that if you are not prepared to grasp them you probably won’t until halfway through the novel. This is not to say that it is a bad book, quite the contrary, but it is saying that this book is probably going to turn off a lot of less hardcore scifi readers out there. If you love hard scifi, you will likely love this book. If you love Modesitt, well then that is self explanatory.The basic story is, well, not very basic. In fact I’m not going to bother trying to provide a self-written synopsis, but I’ll instead put up the one on the book:“A brilliant scientist on the planet Devanta has created a small universe contiguous to ours–and a utopian city on one of the planets. The question becomes, though, a utopia for whom? And why is a shady entertainment mogul subsidizing the scientist? More critical than that, does this new universe require the destruction of a portion–or all–of our universe in order to grow and stabilize?Blaine Donne is a retired military special operative now devoted to problem-solving for hire. He investigates a series of seemingly unrelated mysteries that arise with the arrival of a woman with unlimited resources who has neither a present or a past. The more he investigates, the more questions arise, including the role of the two heiresses who are more–and less–than they seem, and the more Donne is pushed inexorably toward finding himself a pawn in an explosive solution and a regional interstellar war.” See how complicated that is?Now, I really did enjoy the book once I got into it. At first it was rather difficult because of the language and what seemed to me to be very French influence. The story moves along very much like a detective story. I enjoyed the characters very much. It was strongly written and Modesitt has created a very fascinating world that I would be interested in knowing more about. That being said, some of the things I didn’t like were more or less little pet peeves. I thought the ending was rather forced. I won’t ruin it for anyway, but it just seemed so, well, quick, and I didn’t quite understand why Donne had to be a part of it if it were seemingly so simple. I also found the sections where Modesitt switched viewpoints to one of the antogonists to be rather annoying. This is written in first person, so the first few times he does this it is hard to tell if we’re in Donne’s head or someone else’s. Eventually it all pans out, but those were some things I didn’t like.All in all I think it is a well written book. It’s not one of my favorites, but at the same time I can’t say that I didn’t enjoy it. The detective story really had me wondering how Donne was going to figure it all out.So, if you are into really hard scifi, give this one a go.

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