Catholic news roundup, February, 2012: the war on God

Yes, I'm back.  And, yup, I picked an overly inflammatory title in an attempt to pander to my audience and get readers. So sue me.

Let me see.  To start with, I already covered a large part of this in my Catholic news roundup two weeks ago.  However, guess what -- I made a news roundup into a news post.  So, if you've ever heard of this stupid little thing called an HHS Mandate involving Obamacare, you can read all about it here.

If you want to be amused, and slightly terrified, after months and months of Occupy Wall Street people running roughshod over public places, you will be happy to know that there have finally been arrests of a whole protest movement.  However, they were arrested for praying in front of the white house.

Let's see.... you've probably heard of a really stupid phrase going around lately called "The war on women."  I covered it a little here.  However, I have a take on the precipitating incident you may find interesting.

And, finally, I was allowed to step AWAY from politics.  I covered Fat Tuesday, FAQs about Lent (last year's readers may remember how well that went over), and Karina Fabian has a book she wants you to look at for lent this year.

And, and interesting article inspired by recent stupidity -- Do Catholics Believe in Birth Control?  The answer is ... sort of.

Be well all.

Music blog. Les Miserables

When I was fourteen, and sentenced to a week in a pre-Freshman summer camp, I brought a book with me. I was never the most social teenager, and I preferred to be left alone than do deal with the savages of high school.  You know who I mean, don't pretend that you don't.

Anyway, I brought one book with me. And that was Les Miserables (Lay Miz er ahb ... yes, it's French; roll with it)  To this day,  I could tell you that the page count on that book was 1,463 pages long. I had seen the Broadway play as my graduation present from 8th grade. So, I've had a special attachment to this play for a while.

Then I heard this online from last week's duo who brought you Cello Wars.  It's not the best I've ever heard, but 'twill suffice.

25 Things Writers Should Stop Doing

Once again, this week, I'm saved by somebody else altogether. In this case, it's Karina Fabian ... you might remember her. And, if you don't, that's what links are for.

If you don't mind R-rated language, you might want to check out 25 Things Writers Should Stop Doing... it's fun. And it works.

Author Review: David Weber. FREE BOOKS.

We're back with another author review.  Remember, Baen books has a marketing gimmick. The theory is that if they allow books out for free online, it will prompt people to buy the books in real life. Below, I have assembled not only the lists of series and novels for each author, but also the link to each author's current novel series. You can download ANY of the books listed below.

David Weber writes so many series in so many worlds .... to quote him directly, he said that he wished he could break off parts of his personality so that they could write individual series; except that with his luck, they would spawn new spinoffs within those series, creating entire new storylines.

The most notable of his works is his Honor Harrington series-- a female space naval officer, usually worrying about 100-to-1 odds. Imagine the Napoleonic War done in space.

http://baencd.thefifthimperium.com/17-StormfromtheShadowsCD/StormfromtheShadowsCD/

The Stars At War: giant insects with spaceships eat planets whole .... you know how hard it is to kill a cockroach? Add an interstellar armada, and there's not enough Raid in the galaxy to deal with them.

Stand Alone Books:

Empire from the Ashes---- What do you mean our moon has been replaced by a spaceship?

The Apocalypse Troll --- the lone survivor of a fleet from a hundred years in the future fell to earth in pursuit of a life pod that has a world-killing alien on board. They both fell through time and space... and now she has to kill it with allies in the 20th century. Assuming it doesn't kill everyone first.

The Excalibur Alternative-- humans make great mercenary soldiers... even if they are from the 16th century, abducted by aliens, and pressed into service.

In Fury Born--After 3,000 years of slumber, a Greek Fury stirs, awakened by a human whose own fury calls...

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His honor Harrington series is Horatio Hornblower meets Star Wars. I have it in recommended order of reading.

On Basilisk Station-- what do you do when you're a shiny new Captain who has to deal with a hostile crew, rioting civilians, an evil empire next door who wants your sector, and, oh, yeah, you've been left by yourself in the middle of the busiest sector in the galaxy with only one ship? Improvise.

The Honor of the Queen-- Honor Harrington is a female captain trying to save a world of semi-Mormons who think she's inferior, and has to defend them against an enemy of religious zealots who make her “allies” look tame.

The Short Victorious War --- Robert S. Pierre and his revolutionaries have created the People's Republic of Haven. Now it's time to flex their muscles.

Field of Dishonor -- What do you do when the people who are trying to kill you are the people in charge of the war you're fighting?

Flag in Exile

Honor Among Enemies

In Enemy Hands

Echoes of Honor

Ashes of Victory

War of Honor

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The Honorverse Short story collection – it will explain a few things from the books here and there

More than Honor-- I'd recommend only the first story in this one. Seriously.

Worlds of Honor--- I suggest only the Weber stories here.

Changer of Worlds-- now things get interesting.

The Service of the Sword--- Even better.

Crown of Slaves – Takes two sets of characters from Changer of Worlds and Service of the Sword and brings them together against a common enemy.

Shadow of Saganami: Honor's graduating class from officer training has there own ship... and their own problems.

At All Costs--- Honor has lost an eye and an arm leading her Majesty's Navy... much like Admiral Nelson... and this is Trafalgar.

Building a better death trap: working with Masks author RM Hendershot

A few months ago, friend and fellow author Rebekah Hendershot asked me about what I would do if I were an evil super villain who wanted to hold prisoners .... specifically, a Robin-esque ex-sidekick, a werewolf, and a Golem.

I asked "Why?"

Well, Rebekah explains her reasons better than I could, so I'll let her do that here.  Suffice it to say, she needed those three people in a prison they couldn't escape from -- and oh, yes, keep in mind, the villain is a teleporter, so he can come and go as he pleases.

"Cool," says I. "Mountain cage. If they leave, they all freeze to death."

Nope, we need something closer to Los Angeles.

"Okay. Three tiered, vertical death trap: your sidekick is chained up, hands bound by the chain. Below him, a block of cement in which the golem is trapped in, and, at the bottom, the werewolf -- obviously, in a silver cage. Stripped naked, for extra pain!  If the other two try to escape, the other falls, and there's death all around Muahahahahhaa!!!!"

Then Rebekah talked me off of a ledge.

"Keep the silver cage and the concrete, only stick them in a shipping container, on a ship -- dangling off the floor, suspended by four chains to opposite walls. If they move too much, splat."

We can't keep the concrete, our protagonist can't pick concrete with his lockpicks.

"Oh, all right, I never get to have any fun."

As to how everyone gets out of the problem.....

Well, I'll let Rebekah give you that solution as well.

I present to you Chapter 26 of Rebekah Hendershot's Masks: The Fire.

This was one of the better 2am conversations I’ve ever had, I think.

Enjoy.

[Oh, and for those of you who don't know what a golem is -- I'd link to it, but Wikipedia wants to go into hiding today to stop the anti-pirating legislation from the fools on The Hill.   I wonder if miss "Pass the Bill to find out what's in it" Pelosi will be about to do anything with Wikipedia shut down.  Anyway, a golem is a stone man, traditionally a Jewish myth about a man made from clay in order to protect the Jewish peoples from harm. Mary Shelley, eat your heart out.]

Coming soon to A Pius Man, 2012

There are plenty of joys to writing. Not so much to writing a constant blog.  Possibly the biggest mistake thus far was trying to make the blog into a three day a week affair. I've kept up that pace for almost a year now, and I'm actually starting to run out of things to day. Which is odd, considering all of the strange and sundry things running around my head.

Right now, I'm trying to design a few things for the website, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed about several of them.


On the one hand, I'm hoping to make some more videos. If you haven't seen the ones I've made yet, well, I suggest you look to the right -- I had fun making them, perhaps you'll enjoy watching them. One example is right here-- the Scott Murphy trailer.

Since I can't draw, and none of local areas are photogenic enough to look like something in Rome, I need people.  Unfortunately, relying on people to show up when they say they will has never been my strong suit. Possibly because I've usually had to invite anyone three months in advance just to get them anywhere in large numbers.

So, there's that.

Next, I'm working on interviews.  I jumped on the chance to review some novels, and I recently discovered that they come with the option of getting my hands on some of the writers. And trust me, some of these people, I want to get my hands on.  I know some other authors who want to get their hands on these writers as well -- for completely different reasons.

So, that's also up in the air.

Not to mention that I'm also working on my two Examiner.com columns -- in Self Defense and "Catholic."

In short, I've got a lot of various and sundry stuff I have in mind, a lot of it is contingent on the the cooperation of other people, not to mention the stuff I'm actually being paid to write. (Speaking of which, please feel free to frequent those articles. I get paid per reader. Please?)

So .... I've got some strange and wondrous things planned -- now it's time to see who I can get my hands on and make sure it all happens.

Wish me luck.

Be well all.

There might be some delay

A while ago, I mentioned that I was in love with someone. I blogged about it, I did an analysis of it.

And now I've been burned by it.

That's as many details as I feel like giving right now. It hurts -- literally, my head is pounding and my eyes are burning right this minute -- and trying to come up with something else to write basically makes me feel like someone is driving a spike into my brain.

So I may not be doing an awful lot of blogging right now. Much of what I've done with this blog has been one week at a time, and occasionally one day at a time.  So, unless someone releases a large load of cool music right this minute, the odds of a regular blog are ... unlikely.

Well, I'm also hoping to hear back from Mercedes Lackey and her publisher about granting me an interview, so I suspect that's up for grabs too.  Odds are more likely than not I will be posting erratically, at best.

I'm sorry about this, everyone. I didn't exactly expect my social life to interfere with the blog. But then again, I never had a social life to interfere before.

Until then, be well everybody.  

-John Konecsni

Making a villain.

If you've ever thought that creating a villain is different from creating every other character in a universe, you'd be wrong. Or at least, you should be.  A character is a character, and if you're trying to create a fully 3D person on the page, it shouldn't matter if it's a protagonist of an antagonist.

In the case of my bad guys, I tend to have the history of not only the antagonist's parents, but the grandparents. They have hobbies and motivations and a history. They have back stories, and I could probably make books out of the bad guys I make.

However, there are schools of thought behind making villains.  One is that the villains really see themselves as the good guys; the heroes of their own stories.

My problem with that is that it presumes the villain cares about "right" and "wrong."  How many people honestly think Saddam Hussein believed that he was doing "the right thing"? Or maybe his ultra-violent, rapist torturing sons? The equally late and un-lamented Osama?

If you're thinking that "oh, all those people were sociopaths" -- who says?  There are plenty of amoral little bastards out there. They don't think over morals, ethics, Nietzsche, the will to power ... though you'd be surprised how many think they are beyond good and evil.
You don't need to be a sociopath to have a mindset geared towards "what I want," and "what's good for me?" If you have that, and add together a total disregard for the consequences, and for anyone who gets in your way, you have a good, solid villain.

Could they have a code of honor and be a villain? Sure, why not?  Honor is generally considered a system based solely on pride. And let's face it, when you amp "pride" up to eleven, you have the above parameters -- it's focused totally on the "me."

And, no, a villain doesn't have to be pure evil -- torturing, sadistic rapist qualities are not a prerequisite. For some, not everything is about sex. And, hell, I live in New York, bondage and S&M is considered a subculture.

Hey, just because the character slashes someone's throat and watches their lifeblood coming out of them in spurts, chuckling manically, doesn't necessarily make them a bad guy .... though it could make them a fairly good guy.

Did I mention that I specialize in fairly scary good guys?

And on the other end, there are people who try to tell me that MacBeth was a tragic hero ... Hint: he's not a hero, he's a Columbo murderer, where the murder mystery is told from the killer's point of view.  Here's a lesson to being a writer: if you're trying to make your hero tragic, don't give him a body count in the triple-digits that includes innocent women and children.

My point: you don't need a bad guy to be crazy for him to be evil. Nor do you need a sadist, a rapist, a pervert, sex-fiend, or Jack the Ripper.

The enemy in A Pius Man, for example, is none of these. Will he kill everyone in his way? Sure. Will he go out of his way to utterly and completely destroy thousands if he can? Absolutely. Will he rape, torture, and maim for fun and profit? No.

For an antagonist, you just need one person to have competing goals with your main character.

For a bad guy, you need someone who must be stopped.