World in the Satin Bag

Who is Troglodyte Rose?

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This little oddity appeared on the website, and has me fixed to see what comes next. Okay, I have to confess, I know what it is. It’s my website. Well, that’s only half true, or maybe a third true. Creative Director of Polluto and my housemate, Michael Dark, is putting together a rather delicious website for my upcoming novella from Crossing Chaos. This will be an illustrated book, half novella and half graphic novel, with heaps of gorgeous artwork from the Spectrum Fantastic Arts award-winning duo behind Teetering Bulb: Kurt Huggins and Zelda Devon. There will be various items appearing early next week that will expand upon the wonderfully complex backstory of the book, as well as a couple of teasers about the artwork. Now, I don’t want to spoil anything, but you’ll love it!

World in the Satin Bag

How Barack Obama Can Get My Vote

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By bring a little Daft Punk into the mix. I admit, one thing that I really like about Obama is that he doesn’t give off that “I’m just a politician and old” feel all the time. I remember seeing him on an episode of Ellen Degeneres’ show where he actually danced live. True, he looked like a dork, but there’s something about the fact that he actually got up there and danced with Ellen that speaks volumes, not to mention the fact that he was on her show, a lesbian and true hero amongst women and men, both straight and gay. I’m still on the fence about him, particularly because I worry about some of his ideas and policies, but I can acknowledge that at least if he becomes President he won’t have the language flaws of Mr. Shrub, nor the look of someone with severe mental deficiencies, like Mr. Shrub.Now, having said this, I’ll go back to how Barack can get my vote, and it goes to the lyrics of one of Daft Punk’s songs called “Harder Better Faster Stronger”: Work it harder,make it better,do it faster,makes us stronger.More than ever,Hour afterOur work is never over. This is how I feel about America right now, and the kind of attitude I want our next President to have and all future Presidents. It goes something like this: Work it harder: Because it’s going to take hard work to fix this country, to make America the great nation of freedom, of opportunity that it once was. We’ll have to work harder to get back our reputation, to make other nations remember why America is great, to make allies with nations we have frequently had issues with, to find solutions to problems our current President has either created or ignored. We’ll have to work harder to fix our schools and everything else. Make it better: Because America is a slump. It can be better. It can improve upon itself and be great again. We Americans can do this. A President can lead us to making this nation a better place for everyone, not just Christians, but everyone. Do it faster: Because we don’t have to time to argue about this anymore. America needs a change, and a good one that will benefit everyone, not just one party or one group of people, but everyone. And because we don’t have time to argue about how we’re going to get more oil, or what we’re going to do about global warming or whatever is going on with the planet. We don’t have time to wait for car companies to start designing economically feasible alternative fuel cars. We don’t have the time for wind power to slowly get hold, or solar energy to become more common. You see, we’re running out of time. There will come a point, if we don’t do something, where this nation will suffer drastically. People are earning the same amount of money they were ten years ago, but everything they bought back then is more expensive now, and it just keeps going up. The poor are getting poorer, and working harder for nothing. Makes us stronger: Because doing all those things, working hard, making this country better, and doing it quickly while we are still able to, will make us stronger as a people. Uniting us under one flag, rather than the banners of parties will turn us into a nation united by a single vision, which is what America needs more than ever. We need to stop fighting over petty differences. Both parties are ruining this country. We need Republicans and Democrats to work for us, not against their rivals, because that’s why we hired them. And if we can get all people, Christian and Atheist, Black and White, Male and Female working together under the same goal, wouldn’t that make us the strongest, greatest nation to ever exist? And we can do it with the right leadership. Will Obama be that leadership? Can he truly lead this nation into greatness again? More than ever, Hour after. Our work is never over: Because we have to realize that even if we make America better in the next year, or ten years, or twenty, our work is never over. We will always have to make America better, improve upon old conventions, adapt and change with the times and technology, and bring in new ideas from different cultures, embracing them and accepting that we are the melting pot of the world. These are the things I need to hear come debate time. These are the things I want to see Obama embracing, but in more than just attacks on Republicans or President Bush, in true words spoken from someone with true vision, not a political agenda…I’m praying that Obama will be the right choice, because McCain has solidified his position as a “no” in my book with his choice of Palin. I want to vote, but times are becoming terrifying now, with candidates being such hard picks and with politics being so insane these days. I’ve been hard on Obama because I don’t trust him and because I’m not a fan of his political views thus far, but can he prove me wrong come election time? I don’t know. I’m afraid to make the wrong choice and have to live with that for the next 4 to 8 years. Terrified even. Because I know people who voted for Bush two times in a row…and now they see it as the biggest mistake they ever made…

World in the Satin Bag

Media Tie-ins: A Little More

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A lot more discussion has been going on regarding media tie-ins, making me realize how big an issue this really is in the genre world. Lou Anders wrote a fascinating post here and in it he quoted someone else who likened the bias in genre fiction against media tie-ins to the bias of non-genre folks against genre. This has made me question my own bias towards media tie-ins. Am I no better than the literary academia who find joy in bashing us genre folks down for writing crap literature?And as I thought more about all of this I started to think about the wealth of literature I never got to read. You see, during high school I went through a period where I absolutely hated reading. Why? The same reason high school kids to this day hate reading: I was forced to read stuff I didn’t enjoy, that didn’t make reading fun or interesting, and because everything about literature revolved around standardized tests or annoying essays about stuff that was completely irrelevant, and still is, or annoying vocabulary tests of “what’s going on in the book” tests. None of this helped me become a person who loved books. For most of high school I absolutely hated reading. And that was anything. Only in freshman year did I actually read for fun, and those were media tie-ins such as Star Wars and Dragonlance, the former primarily because I was in love with SW through and through (still have some of my SW tie-in favorites, actually). But, then I was subjected to the horrors of our current educational system and that killed reading for me for several years–I got back into it when I started reading Star Wars yet again, and Dragonlance (and the works of Richard A. Knaak, who wrote for Dragonlance and then his own series). I wasn’t a reader before high school either, by the way, for the same reason.So, in a way, it was media tie-ins that made me a reader of science fiction and fantasy. I’ve always loved SF/F, because the movies were always awesome (mostly Star Wars, of course), but media tie-ins created my love for the literary form, where Star Wars novels allowed me to follow some of my favorite writers outside of the SW universe to original universes. And…that’s a good thing, right? If tie-ins drive us to read other things, what’s wrong with that? Nothing, but we’re not really talking about there.I’ll talk more about the crappy educational system in this country later. For now, I think I need to start realizing that I can’t be biased to media tie-ins as much as I used to be. I will always hate the Magic the Gathering stuff, because all of the ones I have read have been terrible, but I remember loving the SW stuff, so why shouldn’t I be able to pick those up again and maybe find new things to read?I think my biggest issue with SW is that it got too…I don’t know what to call it. I loved the stuff that followed ROTJ, showing us what happened to the Empire and our heroes, but then the whole thing lost me when they started delving into characters that just didn’t interest me (such as Han and Leia’s kids, who I couldn’t care less about…). But I can go back. I really can. And I think I will, some day.Additionally, this whole thing got me thinking about media tie-ins as something I should consider doing one day. When I was younger I wanted to write a Star Wars novel so bad that I would spend hours and hours figuring out what things I’d put into my story. I never write anything, but I wanted to. I don’t know when that desire left, but just in these last few days it has come back. In fact, here are the many shared universes I’d like to work in one day, and why: Star WarsThe obvious one. I love Star Wars. Always have. I don’t care much for the prequel stuff, mostly because it feels a bit tired and dull in comparison to the far future. And I’d like to work in the SW universe. I really would. I’m feeling a resurgence of love for the universe and all those childhood memories came flooding back, reminding me of why I wanted to be a part of the SW family. If I can, I’d like to write a SW novel, or two, or more. Star TrekI love SW more, but I do think there is a lot of fun stuff in the ST universe, particularly looking at it from a space opera perspective. I’d have a lot of fun showing the Federation at war and the politics involved. Imagine the complexity of such a complex situation as war within the Federation? Has it actually be done well? I mean the full political, social, and economical implications of interstellar war where allied worlds start fighting against one another? Sounds fun to me. X-men/MarvelI was in love with the cartoon show when I was a kid and wish all five seasons had been released on DVD, because I’d love to watch them again. Something about that gritty world of mutants was fascinating. I don’t know what I’d do with the X-men or any Marvel creations, but I know I’d like to do something with depth, drawing upon the social issues of a society where the minority are scared of the majority, and vice versa. WarhammerI’m not entirely sure why, but something about it makes me curious. It’d take a lot of research on my part to know what I’m writing about, etc., but I’d take a lot of joy in expanding on this militaristic war game’s universe. RiftsThe novels are dead, but dangit, this would be such a cool game to write for. Rifts is my favorite pen & paper RPG and there are so many fantastic stories to write about. It’s such an enormous “world”, with

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