Welcome to the mirror page for my novel, A Pius Man. It has history, explosions, philosophy, gunfights, theology, and action sequences with an armored truck on the Spanish Steps, all around the mystery of Pope Pius XII. This page will be updated frequently. If you want more immediate updates, go to apiusman.blogspot.com
Robert Bertrand, who let me co-host once after having already been a guest.
Matthew Bowman, the Novel Ninja, who gave me one of the best compliments I've gotten all year.
The people of the Catholic Writer's Guild, who made me so welcome in the wilderness of New Jersey. The last time I felt like it was home, it was DragonCon. This includes Ann Margaret Lewis, Ellen Gable Hrkach, Karina Fabian, Kathleen Gulo, and I'm certain I'm leaving out one or two.
Jo Lindsell and Virginia Lori Jennings for putting up with me on the FB writing page. Sue Freivald, who gave me one of the best reviews I've had to date.
And I'm sure I'm missing several ... okay, a few tons of people here and there. Tanja Cilia, Jamie Wilson, Kia Heavey, for moral support alone, if nothing else. I know I'm missing beta readers (don't worry, you've been written down and noted for the books you've beta-ed), and how about everyone who has ever reviewed me.
My family, who tolerate me still.
And, of course, you, faithful readers, who keep me going.
I have never cried through a blog post before, but this year, I've buried five childhood friends: Vince Flynn, Andrew Greeley, Tom Clancy, Sheamus Heaney and Elizabeth Peters.
Yes, it's strange to say that some of my best friends were writers that I've never met, but you must consider a few things. I've been reading these people for a very long time, and they've lasted longer than every relationship I've ever had, sans family.
Sheamus Heaney's Beowulf is the first and best translation I've ever seen of the epic poem. It was smooth and easy to read, and was just plain straight English. He died in his 80s, with a few international awards, so he had nothing to regret when he left.
Elizabeth Peters, aka Barbara Mertz, introduced me to Egyptology the old fashioned way -- by writing about murders at Egypt excavation sites. There was a reason I was a child who knew an awful lot about the Egyptian pharaoh Akanten.
Her characters were witty, well drawn, and brilliantly done, even though none of them were particularly handsome. It was smart writing with intelligent heroes and villains, and enough history to make it interesting without making it painful. I will never see the rest of the family of archaeologists she created, who grew up with me -- the only offspring of this Nick and Nora of the desert was my age, and aged at almost the same exact rate.
She died at age 85. She had a damned good life, and I will miss her. It just hurts when a childhood friend has died.
Tom Clancy was my bus ride home every day during Freshman year of high school. When the film Patriot Games came out, it was one of the first movies my father loved so much I just had to get it for him immediately. Jack Ryan was fun, because he was a nerd who had to be an action hero whether he liked it or not. After I played SSN, a submarine game based on an idea of his, the Spratley Islands and the South China Sea were never the same. Splinter Cell brought me back into the world of gaming by showing me an interesting story with my games.
I probably learned more about history from Tom Clancy than I did from any history class in high school. When 9-11 happened, my first thought was "Didn't Tom Clancy do this already?"
When he died, he was only in his 60s. Not fair.
Vince Flynn .... I've discussed Flynn's writing other places. He was a fun author, who only used politics when it suited his plot, which was most of the time. Not bad for a thriller author who spent most of his writing time using terrorists for target practice. His first book about CIA assassin named Mitch Rapp was about terrorists taking over the white house. This was before terrorists became popular (1999), and he did a wonderful critique of what went wrong during the 1990s in the intelligence world.
One of the nice things about Vince Flynn was that he always has a domestic element to his novels. Domestic as in "do we have to kill the politicians before they get us all killed." Again, Flynn has had politicians as antagonists since the 1990s, so he didn't jump on a Tea Party bandwagon.
He helped write the best season of 24, day 5, which started with a bang, a boom, and a massive shootout in the first episode. he was a good, solid author. And he was only 47, damnit.
And then there was Fr. Andrew Greeley, who was with me the longest. Greeley wrote mysteries, and romances, and even one or two thrillers of his own. A Catholic priest from Chicago, I grew up with him in the house. I read his novel Angel Fire when I was 12, one of those books that you start at night and finish by dawn. I probably learned more about my faith from Greeley than I did from 12 years of Catholic school. He was essentially a childhood friend. Granted, he went off the rails a little when he hit the 21st century. As a Chicago Democrat, he went from little jabs of "being a Republican is a sin, but excused by invincible ignorance" to just being snotty about his politics, which means he may have written about 15 lousy books..... I'd settle for having a few dozen bestsellers of quality writing.
He was also 85, and I expected him to live forever.
Eternal rest, grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. And may their souls and the souls of all the faithful departed,through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen
How many of us grew up with the concept that Advent was just Lent, only for Christmas? As a child of the '90s, my experience tells me “not many.”
Don't worry, this isn't going to be the standard “spirituality over materialism” Christmas special that you usually get this time of year. After all, if 40 years of “A Charlie Brown Christmas” isn't going to convince the Internet, then one blog post isn't going to tip the balance. Besides, if you're reading this post, it is unlikely that you need convincing. I can't see many of my readers involved in a Black Friday shootout over the latest gadgets.
However, how many of us take the time to prepare ourselves, spiritually, for the coming of Christmas, and Jesus' birthday? Assuming that neither you nor I are involved in the latest riot at a toy store – my gift shopping was done in August – we are free from any special psychosis-inducing event that comes with the materialism of the season. But what of the day-to-day?
Let us consider, for a moment, just how special Christmas is. Yes, Christ was incarnate, etc, etc … does that really matter? After all, Christmas isn't considered the most important part of the Catholic calender, Easter is. There's a reason that Handel's Messiah has the “Hallelujah Chorus” in the section covering Easter. And, for Easter, we pull out all the stops, don't we? We fast, we abstain, we confess.
What do we do for Advent? If we go by what your average church encourages, probably not as much as we should. While Easter is the day in the Eucharistic calender, Christmas is what makes Easter possible.
So, something to dwell on, if you would (I abhor the word “meditation”); try something that our Pope would be familiar with – the Jesuit practice of imagining. In this case, just imagine if you were the creator of every speck of dust and every watt of electrons, and you make a choice to become – at best – a foot-long, 12-pound creature without the brainpower to utter a coherent sound. And you do this so that you can clean up the mistakes of people who really should have known better. Isn't that a strange thing to do?
It was Fulton Sheen who once described the reason that Jesus had to be incarnate in order for our salvation. He explained it very simply as a form of retribution, of repayment. If you steal my watch and ask me to forgive you, I will, but I want my watch back. Now, what happens when you offend against an infinite Being that is so far beyond our experience, the wonders of time and space are dwarfed? What kind of repayment can we utilize to make amends? Only something just as infinite – in this case, someone.
In the memory of the Infinite Being who became a mewling infant, let's try to put in as much effort to Advent as to Lent. Visit a confessional, give up something if you like. Just … something.
As for me? I take a page from St. Augustine, who once said that “Singing is praying. When one sings, one prays twice.”
There's a reason that I'm always on the hunt for a perfect rendition of “Angels We Have Heard On High”.
I've done a lot of posts about Christmas in the past. So many, I think any more will be redundant.
Stolen from Karina Fabian
So, a few things. Let's start with the short story O Little Town of Bethlehem, may nothing you dismay.... even though I have a plot to blow you up. MUAHAHA.
This is followed by an unofficial sequel, my tale Coyote Christmas, a Story by Twitter. The events take place after OLToB, though that's better pointed out in even Coyote Christmas: the full story, written in standard prose, took in a goodly number of readers. Who knows, I might have stolen someone's title without knowing it -- that would explain why I had a lot of readers looking for "the author of Coyote Christmas" in search terms.
Sean A.P. Ryan -- mercenary, madman, and enthusiastic worker of mayhem -- has a rigorous interrogation of an arms dealer in New York. Information changes hands, and the clock starts ticking down to Christmas Eve. Bethlehem is about to have a very bad Christmas, unless someone can stop it.
But the terrorists have a bold, creative mastermind behind this plan. And nobody can stop what he has in mind.
I love Christmas, but I hate the Christmas shopping season. In my neck of the woods, Christmas decorations went on sale in August. August, blast it.
Anyway, realizing that, and that black Friday is coming up, I won't be doing a Thanksgiving day blog, and I don't have too much to add to my past blog entries on the matter. However, if you want to know about cooking for 93, or the authors I'm thankful for.... you can check those out.
While I finished my Christmas shopping months ago (writers do it all year round -- write your own joke here) I understand that there will be an onslaught of people who are going to be trampling each other in order to get gifts for family and friends.
With that in mind, it occurred to me that this is going to be a great time to compile a list of suggestions to make your shopping lives easier -- if not for this Friday, then for the upcoming Cyber Monday. Some of these are books I've reviewed, and others are new even to me, but have come recommended to me. So, unless you're going to go out and buy some Darren Brown tickets, you might want to try some of these items below.
A Pius Man: A Holy Thriller -- of course I'd start with my own novel. It's surprisingly well reviewed, no one hates it (yet, give me time), where I take the war to Dan Brown, and every other nimrod who thinks they can write bad history in a thriller and get away with it.
Codename: Winterborn.... the "other" novel, also strangely well reviewed. Genre: character-driven scifi espionage. While on a mission to the Islamic Republic of France, Lt. Kevin Anderson's team is betrayed by the politicians who sent them. As the only survivor, Anderson must stop the senators involved before the next team is slaughtered on the altar of political greed. He's certain he won't survive, but he will make this sacrifice, for his Codename is Winterborn. I recommend this for all fans of Baen novels -- like John Ringo, David Weber, and even your straight up thriller writers, like Vince Flynn, Brad Thor, et al.
And, of course, there is an endless list of books I can recommend, which happen to be a different tab at the top of the page -- includes Flynn, Ringo, Weber, Thor, etc, etc.
Stealing Jenny, by Ellen Gable: After 5 miscarriages, Jenny is about to have a pregnancy come to full term... until a psychotic woman kidnaps her and chains her in her basement with the intention of taking the child for her own. I liked this one.
Now, as far as books I haven't looked at yet.... [Below the break.]
In Name Only: also by Ellen Gable. It's historical romance... which means you're already interested, or moving onto the next entry.
Night Machines by Kia Heavey .... this one sounds interesting. Almost Doctor Who-ish by way of Rod Serling.
Maggie decided to have an affair. No one needed to know. Not even her lover.
Who would it hurt, if Maggie decided to carry on a torrid affair in her mind? It would soothe her feelings, hurt by her husband's emotional abandonment while he investigates a disturbing new murder case. It would provide an outlet for the dizzying desire she feels for her employer. It would make her feel loved and appreciated and better able to be a good wife and mother. After all, it's not really cheating if it's only a fantasy. Right?
But Maggie loses control of the fantasy as lust becomes love, and things she believed confined to her own imagination are somehow known to her spectral lover. A harmless mind game spins out of control and threatens the sanctity of Maggie's greatest treasure – her family.
End of the road, by Amy Bennett: This looks like a fun one, a straight up, old fashioned murder mystery......Corrie Black, owner of the Black Horse Campground, hopes for a successful start to her summer season but the discovery of Marvin Landry, a long-time guest, shot dead in his own RV, along with $50,000 in cash missing, does not herald a good beginning… especially since the victim’s handicapped wife and angry stepson seem to have little interest in discovering who murdered him. Was Marvin’s murder planned or just convenient? And is the appearance of a mysterious biker with a shadowy past that includes a recently deceased wife merely a coincidence? Despite opposition from former flame, Sheriff Rick Sutton, Corrie is determined to find out who murdered her guest. But will she find out who is friend or foe before the murderer decides it’s the end of the road for Corrie?
Palace of the 12 Pillars -- Short version: YA Christian fiction. The long version .... is really long, please follow the link.
Hope for the Workplace - Christ in You by Bill Dalgetty. Drawing from extensive experience in business and workplace ministry, Dalgetty examines the challenges faced by Catholics seeking to live out their faith in today's workplace. Readers will discover practical tips for:
Dealing with a difficult colleague or boss
Maintaining integrity and ethics in business decisions
Seeking Excellence in one's work
Balancing family and career
Caring for co-workers
Relying on Scripture, Church teaching, the writings of both Catholic and Protestant leaders, and fifty real-life stories of people in the workplace, God's solutions to these common workplace issues are set forth in a straightforward, conversational style. The author shows how we can accept God's offer to dwell in us and allow the Holy Spirit to empower us to bring hope and transformation to our workplaces. "A very readable and inspiring book for busy Christians who need to overcome a compartmentalized life." Dr. Michael J. Naughton, Moss Chair in Catholic Social Thought, University of St. Thomas Christmas Special Price of $12.95, $2.00 off the regular price of $14.95 on www.zacchaeuspublications.com.
The Life I Dreamed is a Catholic, pro-life novel about a young family living out their faith and their beliefs despite many challenges. It is a story about the struggle to live out one’s faith and values, and about the importance of standing up for them as well. It is truly Catholic and truly pro-life, but at the same time it is a story that mothers the world over can relate to. The Life I Dreamed has been featured in Catholic Digest, on Catholic Lane, and has received the CWG Seal of Approval. This uplifting, yet realistic tale of living an authentically Catholic life in a harsh, difficult world is the perfect gift for any mother in your life. It is a story that entertains and at the same time builds up women in their vocation by honoring and valuing the true blessing that mothers are to their families and to the world. For more information and for book reviews please visit www.thelifeidreamed.com
White Seed. What really happened to the Lost Colony? One of the most haunting mysteries in American history - The Lost Colony of Roanoke - comes roaring back to life in White Seed!
By the Hands of Men, Book One: The Old World. As the Great War rages around them, wounded Lt. Robert Fitzgerald falls in love with Russian nurse Charlotte Braninov. Torn apart by illness and betrayal, they pursue separate quests that take them across a world convulsed by change. From the trenches of France to revolutionary Russia, they learn that hands of men can create a hell on earth – or, through the redemptive power of love, a heaven in which to truly live.
If you have something you'd like to suggest for gifting opportunities, please feel free to mention it below. Just keep in mind, I do moderate the comments, mostly due to a problem with spammers and schmucks from a few years ago, so if your comment doesn't appear immediately, it's probably because I'm not glued to the computer.
Let's look a little at Existentialism 101. Don't worry, I won't bore you with a lot of details. One thought in Existentialism states that, since we are so radically changing, the concept of binding yourself to someone forever merely limits you, and binds your potential and chains your freedom for enslavement. Welcome to Jean Paul Sartre, 101.
At the other end of the Existentialism spectrum, you have the Catholic philosopher Gabriel Marcel, who concluded that marriage is the ultimate act of freedom. In marriage, we freely choose to commit to someone for the rest of our lives. Two people have decided to give their entire lives to one another.
Most women harbor dreams of a fairytale wedding and marriage. And while some do achieve it all, they are in the minority. For most of us the reality of living out our daily lives with another person demands compromise and commitment. Yes, it takes two to make a marriage, but someone has to take the lead. Why not let that person be you?
That’s the timeless life lesson author Lori Colombo Dunham learned when an unplanned pregnancy rocked her entire world back in 2001. Having only known her baby’s father for a short time, she agonized as to what God’s plan would be for her marriage and family once she and her partner decided that embarking upon an unanticipated marital union was the right thing to do under the circumstances.
So she bid her girlhood dreams of an elegant church wedding goodbye to exchange vows in a sterile county courthouse, mourning for what could have been. Little did she know that inauspicious beginning would lead to a magnificent marital and family life beyond her wildest dreams
Anyway, Daria Anne asked me to take a look at it, and she's hosted me enough times so that I could give her the benefit of the doubt. She coauthored it, so how bad could it be?
In fact, when I got it, I noticed it was less of a book and more of a pamphlet.
So, was it good? Sure. I'd give it about three to four stars, definitely leaning on A for effort, A for narrative style, and a B for execution.
Why wouldn't I give it five star? Well, I had to slog through a few pages here and there. Have you ever had the prose of a book turn you off? Five pages in, I was going to just stop reading, lie to Daria and say that something had come up and I wouldn't finish this in time. There were at least two pages of mea culpa that just rubbed me the wrong way.
Thankfully, the cringe-worthy setup rhetoric was wonderfully deflated by more sarcastic, wry commentary. For example, describing "Tom... the male character in an ill-fated courtship that led to my starring role in a summer romance novel." Or, perhaps,
"Samantha, one of the most glamorous girls in the group... never misses a Pilates class or dares to leave her house without flawless hair and makeup, even if she’s only headed to Publix..She fixed her big blue eyes upon me with the same intensity a prosecutor might employ while interrogating a witness."
While not my usual thing, I liked it. There were moments at the beginning that I was tempted to shut things down, but thankfully, the narrative saved it. It keeps the rest of the book from becoming a collection of misery or a collection of sap. The narrative flow worked here.
Now, sure, there are a few problems here and there than just the opening. For example? Chapter 3 ends with Christmas, 2004. Chapter 4 opens with October 2006 ... so, where did 2005 go? There was at least one incident (a nice looking neighborhood populated by unpleasant people) that I wanted a chapter out of, if only to explain how she just knew some of what she described. And the plot twists at the end .... one plot twist undercut the impact of the other, which made me a little annoyed.
The book focuses heavily on faith and politics. If you ever wanted to by a Dr. Laura book, don't bother, just pick this one up instead. Aside from a lot of Catholic mea culpa in the opening, and Italian cultural tropes, it was heavy on the personal spirituality, and light on the religion... She obviously prays, reads her bible, etc, and "would rather go to my church than take from the government," but aside from "not dragging her husband to church," her faith seems to exist in a complete vacuum. So, if that's a problem for you, you know it's here. (For those of you wondering what the difference is, spirituality is your personal relationship with life, the universe, and everything, usually God; religion is where you go out and worship with other people in a community.)
At the end of the day, it was an interesting little book, and readable enough even for a hardened cynic like me.
UPDATE: Apparently, I was right. Who knew? The second episode was supposed to be .... that way. Why? Because while we all remember that this is a Joss Whedon show, some of us (me included) have quite deliberately forgotten that Jeph Loeb is involved. Who's Loeb? Does anyone remember Heroes? That was him. We're lucky AoS hasn't turned into a complete train wreck by now.
Loeb in an interview with TV Line states that "Certainly the second episode was intended to be very much like ‘The Pilot, Part 2,’ because it was really the first time [the characters] could all work together and see who they are. Very much in the same kind of way that the audience is getting to know these characters, these characters are getting to know each other as well. That is the mission. “I think the show is absolutely getting better as we go — and we hope the audience feels that way as well,” he continues. “We’ve absolutely found the show; the idea is to keep watching. It’s very much like a roller coaster. You’ve got to go up the hill before you start coming down the hill at 100 miles-per-hour.”
So, where does one begin with Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.? Should one say “Coulson lives!” and move on? Does one give it a strange look, cross some fingers and toes, and hope it all comes together? Perhaps one just believes in Joss Whedon as nerd deity and move on.
First: do I really have to say *spoiler alert*?
Then, how about we really start with the difference between criticism, and being a trolling / hipster douchebag? For criticisms of MAOS, start with my colleague Matt Bowman, over at Novel Ninja, as he looks at the first and second episodes. Then, you can look at my favorite punching bag, Tor, whine over every little line (actually, the article had been far worse; the original title mentioned "nerd shaming" and implied that it was insulting their target audience... nerds). Or, one better, we can look at "screen rants" talk about already killing off characters -- and that was written around the second episode!
Me? Well, to start with, I follow the three-episode rule followed by TV guide reviewers. Never judge a show by one episode, wait until the show hits its stride. Obviously, we can't all follow the rule, no matter how hard we try. The new Ironside show, for example, took the original tv show with Raymond Burr (known to my generation as an aging Perry Mason) as a cop confined to a wheelchair, and updated it with Blair Underwood, making Ironside a nickname, and turning him into House with a badge … as I didn't like House in the first place, I was turned off in short order.
So, SHIELD … to start with, I like some of the dynamics they've got going. They've got Ming-Na Wen playing Agent Melinda May – former field operative, and now “just the pilot.” There is “Fitz-Simmons,” two scientists who are obligatorily young, perky, adorably socially inept, and accents so thick you can cut them with a machete. There is the obligatory Agent Ward – loner field agent, good-looking, stoic, and doesn't play well with others. And since we have Ward, we must have – Skye! Hackerchist (hacker anarchist) who has no problems blowing classified operations in progress because The People Must Know (no matter who gets killed).
And then, there's Phil Coulson, badass. He is the little man who wasn't there, you never saw him, never noticed him, until he cracks you over the head and whips out his boogeyman gun. He loves his classic cards, his classic car, and indulges in a lot of lateral thinking. How can you hate Coulson? I can't.
Of the first three episodes, we had a solid pilot, an episode that felt like it was cut off from the first draft of the pilot, and episode three, The Asset, which felt like someone said "enough setup, let's get us a plot." It's got a nice, stable foundation for an ensemble cast.
Is it perfect? No, I've got some problems...
Yes, problems.
[More below the break]
Problem #1: Where's the Marvel Universe?
Before I start, let's look at another comic book tv show that's doing surprisingly well:Arrow, centered around DC comics' Green Arrow. The first SCENE in Arrowhas an image of Deathstroke's mask with an arrow through it, and that episode has a sister nicknamed “Speedy” with a drug problem, and Dinah Laurel Lance as a girlfriend, and a Merlyn as a character; the second episode has one of DC’s B-team heroes (Lao Fei), as a major player. For anyone who has ever looked at the comic books for an hour (I may have spent four minutes), it's clear that someone has paid attention. No, it's not fan service, fan service, fan servicefaithfulness to the comics – Green Arrow has no sister, Speedy was his addict sidekick Roy Harper, and Deathstroke and Green Arrow had a different first encounter, but there was enough to show that, yes, the writers are respecting the original material without being chained to it. With Laurel Lance, while she has not become the superhero Black Canary, there are enough in-jokes to support any fan who might kvetch.
And then there's Marvel's Agents of SHIELD, whose first two episodes had referenced the rest of the Marvel universe by citing Hulk's gamma radiation, the Extremis virus of Iron Man 3, a certain hammer, and Hydra... Mariah Hill and Nick Fury showed up for two minutes...and that's about it. Which is sort of strange, don't you think? Marvel has seemingly endless B- and C-list characters to draw on, and they used … no one.
But, but, it's the first episode! And Whedon! And Avengers!
Oh, please, if the nobodies at the CW can whip up a fun souffle like Arrow, with a half-dozen nods to the comics in the first episode, you can not make any such excuses for Joss Whedon. (And yes, I said nobodies – if they were somebodies, wouldn't they be writing for any other network?). If we're going to cross our fingers and In Joss We Trust, shouldn't we hold him to at least the same standard as CW writers? There's an entire universe to play with, and Joss did so very little with it.
Counterpoint:HOWEVER, after their pilot episodes (yes, plural. You can't convince me that ep 1 and 2 weren't originally a single two-hour pilot), ep 3 had The Asset, which created a supervillain, even though no one knows it just yet. I think it was their best episode thus far. Why? Not only did it have character, it had the weird that is the MCU, and an origin story to boot. Not to mention that it had the premise that was founded in the first episode-- dealing with problems that the rest of the world can't handle. The Pilot had a version of that, so did the third, while the second had it as strictly a human, non-weird evil. It was ... off.
Problem #2: The Primary Cast
If you look at the Screen Rant link above, you'll note that it's whining about the main cast because it's not DIVERSE! Because DIVERSITY.
WhileI don't really need ethnic diversity, at least differences in body types would be nice. On Buffy, we had a redhead, a tall brunette with a microwave tan, a short blonde, a tall older gentleman, and short pale and psychotic (Faith). Right now, I'd settle for making one of them a blonde or a redhead. Hell, I'll even settle for brighter clothing that doesn't come from Hot Topic... But would it kill them to have someone who isn't either American or from the UK? I'm a New Yorker, a monochromatic room makes me edgy.
At least give Coulson a tan he might have picked up in "Tahiti."
But as for the rest of the cast, its problem links back with problem #1. Let's think about this for a minute. I’m surprised Joss had to make his own original characters. Marvel has a pilot named Wyatt Wingfoot... we needed Melinda May? Is the Punisher not available to Marvel Studios at the moment? (I could just see a Joss-modified Frank Castle as being a slightly older field agent who “had a little breakdown a while back, he's better now.”) Instead of creating Melinda May, he couldn't have used, oh Spider-Woman? Silver Sable? Jessica Jones? All of whom were deep, complex, yet badass females who do not have powers, (Spider-Woman has been de-powered so often, no one would blink if she didn't have them on the show).
Is there one reason that Skye couldn't have asked for her lawyer, Jennifer Walters (She-Hulk)? They can barely air a Hulk film, so I doubt there’d be conflict (then again, they’re filming an Ant-Man movie right now, so I have no idea what might be next). I know Marvel has Daredevil back (okay, he might be too street-level for MAOS, but still– lawyer).
Marvel even has their own reporter for superheroes … so why didn't we just have her be the Skye character, only with social media instead of dead-tree media?
I can go on for awhile, but you get the idea. I’d love to know where the bleep Whedon thinks he’s going, but he should be a little bit less focused on the cameos, and more focused on melding the *general* world of weird that is the MCU in with his show. But the second episode boiled down to … Nazis in Latin America? Please, Joss, I know you were warped by The Boys from Brazil when you were growing up, but don’t do that again. Pretty please?
Episode 3 was a great touch, and please do more of that ... but why couldn't Joss do that with the main characters? Did he want people from the Marvel universe, and Marvel Studios told him "no"? That would be stupid, considering he's now in charge of "phase 2" of the movies.
Conclusion (what they've done right)
Now, does that mean I hate the show? No. There's a difference between trolling the show and being critical of it. As it is, it's an OK show. But I want some of the Whedon wit and vibrant characters. Even Xander of Buffy the Vampire Slayer had more character in the pilot than most of these folks do right now. They're sort of white bread ... and by that, I mean bland and generic, not Caucasian (which there are, sans May).
Skye and Ward already seem to have some character development under way, and they better, because they had the most screentime over episodes 2 and 3. But it seems that tonight's episode 4 promises to be a May-centric episode. I can't complain about that, because that's what ensemble casts are about -- rotating the focus. I can't wait for the focus to be on Coulson the whole episode.
The Fitz-Simmons mad scientist duo will, hopefully, develop some quirks aside from the usual ones. Real geniuses have real problems interacting with people -- not "I'm so in love with la grange points," but "I'm sorry, did you ask me something five minutes ago? I was busy in my head." Einstein had problems grasping the concept of body soap and then shampoo, instead of just one soap. Mark Twain couldn't figure out his home alarm system. The WW2 codebreaker Alan Turing was all but caged in a backroom during the war so he wouldn't wander off. Fitz-Simmons don't come off as geniuses, they come off like awkward high school kids.
Right now, the saving grace of the series is Agent Coulson, and he's what has me coming back week after week. The other interesting character? Ming-Na's Melinda "The Cavalry" May. Like all good shows, it seems that the one we know the least about is the most interesting. This means either they should get more screen time, or everyone else should get more interesting, fast.
My verdict: optimistic. It is not yet the stand-out show I expected, but it may be building to it. I'm just looking for the booby traps.
This is the 400th post for this blog. Can you believe I've been doing this for six years? It's only felt like sixty on this end. Along the way, I've shared with you how I invest myself in my work, dissected my life to show you how it enters my writing, given you the story of everything that has been important in my life. You folks know when I'm single, when I'm hurting, and when I'm going to lose myself in video games. I've shared my wonder at emerging technology, my irritation at politics and the comic book industry, my love of reading and even the music du jour.
I'd like to thank you all for putting up with me that long. I never thought I was that interesting. Believe it or not, this blog has lasted longer than some relationships I've had.
And now, I have an almost constant readership of some 2000 people, give or take a few hundred. Wow. If it were in my power, I'd start posting gift voucher codes to thank you all for the time and energy you've spent visiting my blog and reading everything. Now if only you would all buy A Pius Man and Codename Winterborn....
Yes, I'm joking. But you can't blame a guy for trying, can you? :)
So, since I can't hand out gift voucher codes on this blog (and I'm not sure where I'd get them, to be honest), what do I have for you today? Well, for one thing, I have a brand new review of my novel Codename: Winterborn, written with my co-author Allan Yoskowitz, so that'd be fun. Also, I have a new video from Lindsey Stirling.
In the not too distant past, I did an article about how DC comics seems to have a pathological problem with sex.
This month, the problems have really started to hit me.
Keep in mind, the last DC comic story I read was "Final Crisis," and that one didn't even make sense. Once they went to the New 52, "One More Day"ed every relationship, and started warping the very nature of their characters, I have only glanced at the comics from time to time, usually to my horror.
Starfire, fashion victim
It was bad enough when DC comics took Starfire -- an alien who was fairly open about her sex life, and was completely monogamous -- and turned her into a .... I'm not entirely certain that the word "slut" is a strong enough word. Not only did they have to go out of their way to make the character amoral when it came to sex, but also gave her a costume redesign to match.
I figured, okay, not a problem, that's two comics out of 52, and one of those writers is Judd Winick, who is a crappy writer to start with (Really? Let's bring back Jason Todd? That's a good idea by you?).
Take, for example, Batwoman, a "Lesbian hero in the DC universe." That, in and of itself, doesn't effect me. After all, I figured out a while ago that the DC policy on women created since the late 80s is simple: if you're not a woman dating a Superhero, or if you don't have superpowers in the DC universe, you're a Lesbian (Footnote: see Maggie Sawyer, Metropolis cop; Renee Montoya, Gotham Cop, Batwoman... you get the idea).
Here's the problem. After building up for months the concept that "Oh, Batwoman's going to get married to her girlfriend," DC pulls the plug on the whole concept.
Now, I don't know if you're aware of this, but comic books are usually planned out at least one year in advance. This allows for planning, crossovers, editing, illustrating, etc. You can't start a 6-12 month story arc without approval. You can't start something and blink at the last minute.
And yet, this is what DC comics has done.
If you told me that, at the last minute, someone had old religious feeling kick in and they felt they had to swerve away from a lesbian marriage .... I wouldn't believe you.
Why? Well, aside from the fact that a lot of people don't give a crap about gay marriage (my opinion on it is here), you have.....
1) As I said above, the "new 52" imposed a "One More Day"- like idiocy on the DCU. No one in the entire DC universe is married anymore. Barry Allen, married forever? Not anymore. Superman and Lois married for all of the 90s? He's now dating Wonder Woman. Marriage is, after all, for old people. Who cares if your loyal readership of decades have grown up with these characters in solid, committed relationships? Teenagers are where [DC thinks] the money is. (Personally, I'd wager my money on the middle aged professionals doing a 9-5 and have a few bucks to catch up to Superman this week)
2) I can't see religion being a factor, given what was done to Catwoman and Starfire. And, after cancelling any wedding for Batwoman, DC decided that they wanted artwork of a naked Harley Quinn committing suicide. Which leads me to...
3) Is it just me, or is every active writing decision that DC Makes centered around pandering?
"Hey, we'll have some gay superheroes!" And make it a green lantern from an alternate universe who gets almost zero screen time, as well as one of a hundred interchangeable green lanterns.
"We'll make a title heroine who's a Lesbian, yay!" as long as she doesn't get locked into a stable relationship, but we can see her make out with her girlfriend.
Seriously? Who's in charge of DC comic nowadays? The same five year olds who swear on MMORPGs because they just discovered these great new words?
My point? I'm not sure if I have one, short of "top-down control is bad." I used to think it was deranged when there was an infinite amount of crises at DC. "Oh, hey, we're going to continually shake up the DC universe every month." But those at least created some interesting stories and some good writing along the way, such as the three year War of the Rings in Green Lantern, or the series 52.
This .... all this has just resulted in bad writing. Does anyone know what's going on anymore? Once it was editorial lockdown from above, where everyone was in lockstep with the crisis du jour. Now, it looks like no one is in charge except for refugees from my old high school.
Okay, last week, I went to the Catholic Writer's Guild Conference Live! Live because 1) Karina Fabian isn't President at the moment, that would make it CWGC Undead, and 2) they have an online conference. I'll be blogging about that in due course.
However, something I should note. Remember, once upon a time, when I talked with Daria Anne DiGiovanni about A Pius Man? You might have remembered my blog interview with her?
Oh, and while I remember, A Pius Man and Codename: Winterborn are both now cheaper on Kindle. Someone pointed out to me that $9.99 is not something that any normal person would pay for a Kindle book. News to me, I never knew how much a Kindle book cost.
Everyone else wants to practice armchair law with this case.
My turn.
This was stupid from minute one.
Before I begin, I should note that my family has a saying. "Never attribute to malice what can be equally attributed to stupidity." And I think that was a case of stupid from the word go. Not from the filing of the prosecution. Not from the police investigation. But from the minute Mr. Zimmerman (GZ) closed with Martin. From there, it was a boatload of stupid.
1. Listening to the (unedited) 911 call, GZ at least gave a description of an unknown (to him) person in a gated community that has been the victim of break ins. When asked about race, he answered black. Okay, fine. His description of Trayvon was pretty standard and generic, an overall profile. He wasn't sure what ethnicity Trayvon was in the actual transcripts.
2. Trayvon Martin (TM) is approached by someone he considered a "crazy white cracker." He was confronted, and GZ apparently started to walk away.
3. We know that there was a fight. Witnesses and forensic evidence proves that TM was on top (GZ's back was wet, and TM's knees were, so GZ was flat on his back on the ground, with TM straddling him, bouncing his skull off of said ground).
3a. Who started the fight? Well, if GZ did, TM would have been dead without a fight. Gunshot to the head. Done. We know that the gun never came out during the initial confrontation. If TM did, as GZ said, attacked him from behind on the way back to the car. So that has a ring of truth. However, if that's the truth, then TM would have had to have been stupid to attack someone who he believed was crazy. However, I can actually believe that. Why? He's a teenage male, so I assume that aggressive and stupid is automatic. He was also on weed at the time, so who knows what was going through his brain. Trayvon was also a wannabe MMA fighter, with a history of violent outbursts. Bad things happen with that combination.
4. I'm going to exempt the police from blame here because they seemed to be rather thorough, and even sent the case to the DA's office to see whether or not they should prosecute.
5. The case was shaky from A-Z. Who prepped these witnesses? TM"s father was unemotional and unsure about who was screaming for help on the 911 call. The girlfriend had apparently signed a hand written affidavit that she couldn't read. The ME's office was contradictory and unclear about what results he drew. The ME’s office was never at the scene of the crime. The EMT’s, who WERE there, thought GZ should go to the hospital
5a. When the FBI investigation originally couldn't put together a case for civil rights violation against GZ (which is usually an easy thing to do. It is the DOJ; if you've ever made a racial joke ever, they will find out and use it against you). They couldn’t make the case.
So, while I think that GZ is an idiot, that is, sadly, not a crime. He didn’t know what he was getting into, and then he approached who he thought was a suspect, in the dead of night, and then turned his back on him. If TM had been armed, and the criminal GZ initially suspected, GZ would have been dead. Period. If disobeying a 911 officer’s suggestion was a crime, he should be in jail. It's not, so he's not. He had a damn gun (a long distance weapon), and he was told to not approach-- so why was GZ even within ROCK-THROWING distance of Martin? Why confront him at all? Why not just stay at a reasonable distance until the cops approached? If he were going to walk up to TM and kill him immediately, it would make sense to close, but he didn’t.
Like I said, stupid.
The prosecution didn't have a case beyond a reasonable doubt. Simple as that. No prosecution brings a case without having it rock solid, with nothing is uncertain. In this case, the evidence was inconclusive, at best, which is why it was initially rejected for prosecution. There is no sign that GZ is a racist, considering his friends, his volunteer time in community centers, and the fact that he is part Hispanic, Caucasian as well as black. Throw in political pressure, and you have what amounts to a show trial that was a crapshoot to start with.
We're doing something a little different today. A spotlight for a novel. Roll with it, please.
Yes, it's a romance. I"m a romantic sap -- as I've said multiple times. I even have a love story save the world in A Pius Man (if you wonder how I do that... buy the book, blast it).
Anyway, and away we go.
**************************
Excerpt:
This is it, Elizabeth thought as she pushed through the door to deliver a large batch of chocolate and vanilla sugar cookies to the display case. It was grand opening day for Guilty Pleasures, and she couldn’t be more excited or more nervous. Years of scrimping and saving had accumulated to this day. In a matter of minutes the bakery would be open for business, and their city would officially have their first taboo sweet shop.
Elizabeth took one final look around, making sure everything was perfect, when Felicia, her business partner and friend, appeared next to her, chomping on a fornication cookie.
Out of all the sugary creations crafted for the shop, Elizabeth and Felicia would agree these were the most fun to develop. They spent many wine-filled nights brainstorming and researching ideas for the inserts.
“What’s it say, babe?” Elizabeth asked, nodding toward the paper in Felicia’s hand.
Felicia laughed and read the naughty message, "Two heads are better than one, but three, now that’s what I call a party!" As she tucked the paper into her back pocket, she asked, “I forget. Was this yours or mine?”
“I actually think your man deserves credit for this one.” Grinning, Elizabeth grabbed the sampler plate off the counter and walked toward the front door, turning to take one final look around before the place filled up. She couldn't be any prouder of the decor in her little slice of heaven. She glanced to her left and smiled proudly as she admired the photos on the wall.
The food photographer they had hired did a fantastic job capturing the beauty and sexiness of several corset cakes available for purchase. But the icing on the cake, so to speak, was the mural to the right of the entrance. A local artist painted "What Are Your Guilty Pleasures" but the letters were actually naked people in compromising naughty positions.
Felicia giggled. “Oh yeah, it’s all coming back to me now. We definitely drank way too much that night.”
Nodding in agreement, Elizabeth turned on the neon sign and opened the doors for business.
Already, a few eager customers were waiting by the window. They actually applauded when Elizabeth stepped out of the shop door. She greeted them with a smile and offered them their choice of iced cocks or boobs. She wasn’t surprised the guests blushed when they made their selection and bit into the cookie. She expected to witness many rosy cheeks in the hours ahead of them—giggles too.
As the streets began to fill up with people going to work, Elizabeth tried to coax even more passersby into the shop with her funny shout-outs such as: “I bet our peckers taste as good as your man’s. No wait, even better!” And, “Our breasts are fantastic and all natural.”All the while she held up a naughty treat.
After the bell dinged behind her a couple dozen times, she realized the humorous approach to draw in customers was working like a charm. Now with them inside, she had no doubt every person who’d entered the shop erected from her dreams would be a repeat customer. And with this thought, she knew the many dinners of Ramen noodles were well worth the discomfort it cost her over the years.
Purchase link: http://amzn.com/B00DELSA9K
Goodreads link for the story: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18073879-naughty-delights
Sorry about this everyone, but I'm taking a break. It wasn't planned. I hadn't expected to wimp out and stop posting, it just happened. I even went out and scoured Youtube for something to post for a music blog, and nothing new looked interesting.
So, that said, I'm going to repost a trailer, and hope no one notices.
I wrote A Pius Man in 2004. Thinking I wanted a real job to fall back on, I went for a PhD in history, tinkering with the novel on occasion along the way. At the end of 2006, I discovered that I was screwed on the PhD angle, and my books were my fallback.
Since then, A Pius Man has outlasted two agents, and even the professor who originally inspired it. It brought me a great new friend, and then I lost several.
I am not going to discuss the Connecticut shooting. The day of the shooting, Facebook was filled with so many left-wing anti-gun @$$h0l3s trying to politicize dead children that I had to point out that the bodies were not even room temperature yet, and the political parasites were trying to stand on their still steaming bodies.
There was even someone on Facebook within six hours who stated that, yes, he would have rather that the children has had all been set on fire, because at least then they wouldn't have been shot. He said that. I cannot make this crap up.
Do you want to know what's worse than killing children? People trying to make political points off of their dead bodies. These people make me violently ill.
And the worst thing? There are already people making excuses for this murdering psycho -- "bright," or "autistic" or "Aspergers," and other exculpatory or complimentary words are being thrown at us to excuse mass murder, as though blaming the guns for the slaughter. Again while at the same time defaming innocent civilians, painting 94 million American gun owners with the same brush of mass murder.
People make me ill. And I've made myself sick just writing about this. Notice, I haven't said one thing about the shooting itself, just the aftermath.
The people of ancient Carthage were a money-worshiping people. To sacrifice to their god, they would toss the biggest drain on their pocketbooks into a fire. They would throw in their children.
If you were someone who spent time online on Friday talking about monsters who own guns instead of passing along prayers, then look in the mirror. You already threw the baby into the fire for your political points. Enjoy.
I try not to make this a blog for solely my own personal opinions, I have another blog for that, but I read an article last week that kinda annoyed me. I deeply appreciate the artwork, the graphics, and even the storytelling of some games. The graphics of the upcoming Lara Croft game, or the storytelling of the Mass Effect trilogy, could go toe to toe with movies, and could certainly replace some actors. I mean, seriously, look at the video below.
How long did it take you to see that this was NOT live action?
But for all that, there’s been an ongoing debate in the video game community that goes something like this – the last round of major video game consoles came out in 2005 (the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 4), and the technology has advanced soooo much since then, surely it is time to move on.
You might smell a bit of burning rubber at this point. That’s my brain hitting the brakes hard and going “huh?”
When the Xbox 360 came out, game companies needed to increase their hired programmers tenfold as games transitioned to HD. The PS3 came out at the same time, and it came out in Blu-ray, which was even higher definition, and made the costs of making games so prohibitive that it took years before the PS3 had a solid roster of games.
Really, everybody? First, I quite literally don’t know what I’m missing. So I can’t see how I can be biased against your games because there’s something better out there – because, as the companies themselves have noted, there isn’t anything better than the current generation. Is there really a problem with getting the most out of the technology we have?
Let’s take a look. To the right, this is the original Xbox game Halo: Combat Evolved. Dinky by today’s standards, but I remember when I saw it and said, “Awesome.” It’s still a nice looking game.
Fast forward ten years. There was a rerelease of the original game with Xbox 360 technology, and it was called, to no one’s great surprise, Halo: Combat Evolved. Anniversary.
You can see the difference. The position of the body isn’t as stiff, the graphics are more detailed, the colors are richer. It is visibly better.
And now, finally, we look at Halo 4, using the exact same Xbox 360 graphics. It already looks like they’ve gone through another generation already.
Here’s a side by side or two, just to make it even clearer.
I’m hard pressed to imagine how anyone could think that we’ve hit the limit of the current generation of gaming technology, since Halo 3 and Halo 4 are the same generation. Will the next round look even better? Of course. My question is – is there a rush?
Second, could there be another reason why companies are losing money? Let’s think about this a moment. Their video games are $60, or $70, brand new. They’re not cutting costs on the games, and with gaming seasons that have over a dozen new, top-shelf games coming out at the same time, do they seriously expect people to drop over $700 on their products? Does anyone have $700 just lying around anymore?
I think I would rather pay $14, or even $30, on a used game – games that the distributors like Gamestop make money on, but the original publishers don’t. There have been so many games played that way, there has been talk of making video games non-sellable my giving out a one-time code that make the game unusable to anyone else. If you want to trash the video game industry, make it impossible to play used games.)
So, what is the problem with the current generation of consoles? Well, let's see -- coding has filtered down to street level. Anyone who knows what they're doing with a computer can probably start putting together their own game -- and anyone with a Kickstarter account can finance it. Low-rent competition is good for the soul.
Maybe I'm just a backwards Catholic, who acknowledges that progress is cumulative. You can't get to point Z while simultaneously jettisoning point A-Y -- Catholics throw out nothing. Don't believe me? Look at the Vatican archives sometime. But most atheists, so-called "progressives" (of all sides of the spectrum), and now the video games, try throwing out everything from the past, and hope really hard that no one else will remember it either -- be it how many atheist regimes disintegrate, or how truly dark the "Dark Ages" could have gotten without the Catholic church.
I prefer to get the most out of what's there than try to move on and pretend that last console (or, on the larger scale, the last few hundred years) didn't happen.
