Category Archives: General

Why Michael Don’t Publish Fiction

boba-me1

Deep Thoughts by Boba Trice

I realized late tonight that April was the 5th anniversary of the one short story I ever sold for cash. Frankly, there’s been few stories I’ve sold for even magazine copies, let alone for a real honest to goodness check. Much of my lack of fiction publishing is honestly a straight up lack of trying and commitment. I tend to assume my analytical style lends itself to nonfiction, and I’ve had plenty of success in those venues. While I’ve never had the romantic attachment to nonfiction that I have for creative storytelling, I’ve always been easily seduced into writing what gets me recognition over what I love. When a talent comes naturally and generates quick praise, too easily we can think of it as our fated partner and grow to love the ease of the gift more than the gift itself. To some degree that’s true for me and nonfiction, though I do love many apsects of my research. It’s just a different kind of love. Nonfiction is a safe, reliable love. Fiction offers anything but that.

Sometime this year, my first chapter in an academic book will go to the presses at McFarland. It likely won’t sell much, but it’ll almost certainly be my most read piece of writing to-date beyond a few articles in Dragon Magazine and the Daily Texan. And the ScreenBurn blog.  I tend to forget the ScreenBurn blog because it was mostly silly fun.

Of course, Grammy was silly fun as well. I wrote the first draft in three hours and spent about a two weeks editing it, with few significant changes before submitting the story to Anotherealm.  It was later published, and I’ve spent the last five years tinkering with it every time I got frustrated with whatever story festered within my brain at that moment. Grammy became a safety blanket for me. I could pluck at its story and characters while working, going back to school, and writing everything under the sun except fiction. So long as I had Grammy, I could feel okay about writing only one or two stories a year. Not that I would ever complete most of them–let alone send them out. When I wanted to feel rewarded for writing fiction, I’d workshop Grammy or send it out to some minor contest in a revised fashion: Grammy the novel, Grammy the play, Grammy the flamethrower! Hell, the Writers’ League of Texas actually gave me an award for this heroin of the mind back in 2006.

And while this behavior has undoubtedly inhibited my growth as a storyteller and writer of fiction, the same choices nurtured a handful of successes in game writing and many in scholarship by feeding my passion for storytelling just enough to allow my productivity to flow elsewhere. In an admittedly convoluted way, my addiction to Grammy earned me a Fulbright every bit as much as it stagnated my creative growth.

Now I’ve started writing a bit more fiction this summer. Thanks in no small part to a flash fiction contest I did at the end of last year that forced me to finish several stories, no matter how small. I’ve even returned to a novel inspired by Grammy where the first order of business was stripping out all the elements based on the old Grammy short story. I doubt Grammy’s dead since I have to get through a ton of research articles this year. Still, maybe after five years I’ve found a way to nurture that creative side with a bit more productivity reserved just for it.

We’ll see.

Set phasers on “closeted”

No, this place will not be all Trek all the time, but on the off chance you’ve not seen this video, I figure it’s as good a way as any to cap the Trek talk.  The music is “Closer” by NIN, so NSFW lyrics.  Keep your headphones handy and enjoy.

Trek the Third: The Search for More Trek

Gaming Together: My Uncle Ken, Cousin Wes, Me, and Dad
Gaming Together: My Uncle Ken, Cousin Wes, Me, and Dad

Okay, I may well be the closest to an actual Trekkie/Trekker on this blog. Like all aspects of my life that involve geekery, this one comes pretty much directly from my father. Let’s be honest, much of what we call preference likely exists as little more than random acts of osmosis from the fragmented habits of our parents.

RPGs? My parents started playing them when I was four. I be knighted my first character with the name of Bert and my sister Ernie. My mother promptly tried to kill us with a purple worm at 1st level. Those who have played in any game of mine might consider this insightful.

Classics and pulp? While my house frequently went dark from unpaid electricity bills during childhood, when light could be found the works of Ovid, Caesar, and Plato set nestled beside works of Lovecraft, Tolkien, and Heinlein.  My parents’ collection would never bear the weight of unread vanity texts.

Board games? I cut my teeth on Axis and Allies and Blitzkrieg. My first steps into game design involved my father and I tweaking Fortress America in an attempt to make that historic mess of a simulation vaguely fair. We, as so many before us, failed.

I should get back on Trek. My father adored Kirk and company. Between the original series and Dr. Who, I likely spent more time watching television with him than just about any other activity beyond Boy Scouts. One reason for that may well have been that he worked nights and slept days, so catching late night sci-fi provided us a rare chance to do something together on a daily basis.

My first convention was a Star Trek convention in downtown Fort Worth. Dad took Sam (not the Sam of this blog), Jason, and myself. I recall buying a Red Dwarf t-shirt and not a ton more. I’m sure Dad could recite the events of that day in detail.  That’s how it goes; feel free to take a Harry Chapin break.

 

Now, I can recall numerous Channel 39 marathons of Star Trek, complete with dial-in trivia questions. I devoured the original series during these marathons. I knew everything about Kirk, Spock, and McCoy.

Maybe in part because I’m from the rural Southwest, I always adored the angry, emotional stalwartness of McCoy’s sense of determined from the gut justice. I point this out in contrast to Henry’s comment about the secondhand nature of McCoy in the original series. In no way unrelated, I also found Urban’s portrayal the most annoying in the new flick. It felt more façade then inspired re-invention—and now that the thought has arisen within this reflection, let there be no doubt, I found J.J. Abrams new film the definition of inspired re-invention.

Really, it’s more than discovering the crew on the Enterprise anew—and Chekov, Sulu, Uhura, Kirk, Spock, Bones, and Scotty will always be the crew of the Enterprise to me. Some of the true art in this film comes in how the actors who are known quantities disappear. Nero might not be a great villain—there’s really no such thing as a great Trek villain—but he definitely doesn’t scream Eric Bana. And I’m still not sure I believe Ryder was Spok’s mum. Most importantly, Chris Pine and Abrams have rescued the character Kirk from the gloriously absurd satire of Shatner’s legacy. Because of this film, I have hope again that new audiences might understand why some fans take Kirk seriously. Mostly because we knew him before T.J Hooker, Airplane!, SNL, and “I’m Denny Crane.” There actually existed a time when you could view Kirk as legit, when the original crew was legit. Abrams has given that back to a lot of us—and not just those old enough to have written letters in the 60s, but a few of us who had fathers that might have written a letter or two.

I doubt a pulp franchise could ask for anything more. Abrams might not have done for Gene Rodenberry’s Star Trek what Shakespeare did for Arthur Brooke’s The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet, but I bet George Lucas prays at night someone half as talented as J.J. Abrams will rescue his franchise someday. In a theatre far, far away (Yep, cheapest joke of the post). Since my son and I have a similar connection over Star Wars as Dad and I over Star Trek, I must hold out hope.

Oh, and as far as Trek canon and the new film. I defer to the wisdom of my father who stated, “the original series didn’t follow any canon from one episode to the next. Why should this film?”

No reason at all. It’s too true to the original spirit of the series to care a whit about canon over character.

Now I have to sleep so that I can get enough work done in the morning to slip out of the office by 10:15.  My son is dressing up as Neil Armstrong for school tomorrow and will give a speech about the journey from Mercury to Apollo. There’s a family legacy at stake, one with an eye toward the stars.

Architectural Squee!

I’ve been meaning to post about this for a week now, but just haven’t found the time until now.  I came across an absolutely fantastic bit of architectural porn, an architectual firm’s office (what else?) in Spain.  This isn’t just any old office, mind you.   They blended cool retro 1950s style with modern materials, and stuck the result in the middle of a forest.  It doesn’t exactly blend with the surroundings, but it minimizes its impact by sitting partly underground, like a huge pipe sunk halfway in the mud.  The result is reminiscent of some sort of space-age colony bunker sitting on a terraformed planet.  I don’t know if that’s exactly the look they were going for, but that’s what it says to me.

Actually, no.  What it really says to me is AWESOME.  Like, Rhino “let it begin!” awesome.  Click the pic for more images.

Selgas Cano Office

Selgas Cano Office

What sort of geek are you?

I want to see how many readers we have, what sort of posts you’d like to see more of and what flavor of geekdom you more identify with. I realize these options may not best suit you, but pick the answers you like the most.

(This is really just to test the polling plugin I installed on the Basement.)

[poll id=”2″] [poll id=”3″]

Update: I altered the polls slightly because I got tired of the complaints about how limited the choices were.

Nerd is the new jock

It’s no surprise to us, of course, but it seems the mainstream media are finally growing hip to the hipness of nerds and geeks.  CNN has an article up this morning about how nerd cred is now hip, embraced by Hollywood and pop culture.  From Revenge of the Nerds 25 years ago to TV sitcoms that celebrate physics professors, geeks have come a long way.

Why did this happen?  I think Rob Malda, founder of Slashdot, hit the nail on the head when he talked about how some nerds from the 1970s and 1980s got rich.  People like Bill Gates and Steve Wozniak, the nerds who puttered around with computer parts in garages, were suddenly multimillionaires, their products everywhere in business and education.  They became household names, and with such recognition and wealth comes power.  I will leave it to the fan boys to argue whether these two examples have used that power for good or evil, but its presence is undeniable.

So where does that leave us geeks?  Suddenly we’re cool… or not.  Despite the buzz about the new Star Trek film, despite huge crowds for mediocre movies like Xmen Origins: Wolverine, despite A-list stars like Vin Diesel professing love for Dungeons & Dragons, geeks are still looked at as strange by the majority of people.  The same cred that makes us the newest fad also marks us as outsiders: unusual, odd, foreign.  If there’s one thing history has shown Americans distrust, it’s them gol’dang fur’nerz.  Oh sure, this country has a reputation for sheltering immigrants, but it has an equal reputation for marginalizing them.  From Irish Catholics of the late nineteenth century to Hispanics today, those “different from us” are never mainstream.

In truth, I’m perfectly fine with that.  Geek cred works because most geeks don’t care what popular culture thinks.  We do what we do because we enjoy it, popularity be damned.  When pop culture grows bored with us, when the media have moved on to the Next Big Thing, we’ll still be here, throwing dice and wrestling video game controllers.  And maybe sitting up a little taller.

I wish I weren’t lazy, #2

The last time I posted something with that title, it became this blog.  So I’m hopeful….

I’ve finally gotten around to read The Dark Tower.

I *so* wish I could do a DMoTR/Darth & Droids version of the book and I’m only on book 3.

I mean, honestly.  (Spoilers, I guess)  I think it’s a nWoD game.

Roland is completely the powergamer player who has learned that building a huge, complex backstory means your ST will let you get away with a lot more, and maybe even give you free XP.  Hell, he’s me.  The first several games were just Roland and the ST, because they couldn’t find anyone that was willing to join a “post-apocolyptic western-medieval blend humans nWoD” game.  Roland put 5 dots in firearms, maxed out the stats that go to will and initiative, and then took some kind of “survivor” merit.  Then he took Dark Secret, Code of Honor, Quest, and any other flaws that basically meant he could be an asshole that only cared about shooting people, but also get more points for it.  He took “disease-prone” too, cause his survival would let him outlive it.

Then someone else shows up.  He’s the asshole, so he picks flaw “child” cause everyone hates the guy that plays a child.  Then he flakes out, and they kill off his character.

Then Eddie’s player joins, and hasn’t played much.  Roland convinces the ST to let him run a big backstory game, with Roland “advising” by being in his head.  And then he says “Since this guy hasn’t spent much time playing, let’s give him 20 xp to spend after the first game, when he knows what he wants.”  Then he helps him pick flaws.  Addict is easy – just make a roll once or twice a day.  Twisted upbringing just means you don’t care.  Criminal past, cause it means you can fight cops too.  Then Eddie comes through, and Roland convinces him to dump all *his* xp in to guns too.

Another dude shows up.  Roland and Eddie explain how awesome flaws are, so this guy takes the highest points he can find, and goes for “no legs” and “deranged.”  He doesn’t really know what schizophrenic is, so he just sort of plays it like an MPD, but with 2 personalities.  And he *sucks* at acting.  I see the scene – “DUDE, seriously.  Have you ever *met* a real black woman?  *NO ONE* talks like that.”  He tries to spend his XP to buy off the stupid schizo flaw when he comes through, because it’s annoying everyone.  But Roland’s player convinces the ST that he should get the stats from both personalities if he continues to keep it up, just at a lower level.

Then the dude that played Jake shows up out of nowhere again, and swears he’ll keep showing up, so they write him back in to the game.

Think about it.  Get back to me.  ;)

Free Comic Book Day!

Plan on taking the kids out to Rogue’s Gallery after breakfast and the boy’s guitar lesson.

Also, a good chance for dad to sneak in and buy gaming stuff the day after payday. Mmmmm, come home and teach a new game while they read their comics. Just another day in geek paradise. Reminds me that I need to find out where the gaming/hobby shops are in Leeds. (Moving to the UK in August so that the blog can have that global feel)

Architectural Geekery, Part I

Architecture is like beauty; its worth is commonly in the eye of the beholder.  What may be an architectural treasure to one person may be a derelict ruin to another.  Even two architects can disagree on whether or not a particular building or style is appealing.  My advisor in grad school, for example, once half-joked that we needed to demolish everything built in the 1970s before it turned 50 years old and we’d have to work to save it.  Can’t say I disagree with that sentiment… ok, maybe there’s one or two buildings worth saving from the Decade of Disco.  I kid, it’s more like a handful.

Anyway, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a powerful advocacy group dedicated to saving our nation’s built heritage, released their annual list of the top endangered places in the United States.  Looking at the list, all of these places are worthy of saving in my mind for one reason or another, and no doubt they probably will be.  The Trust is pretty powerful, and when they throw their weight behind a property at this magnitude, chances are it will be saved.  In the decade or so they’ve been producing this list, I think only four named properties have met a grisly end.  The rest were either saved or continue to exist at some level of limbo.

You’ll notice several recently historic buildings on this list.  We’re talking things built in the 1950s, mainly, although the 60s are on the edge of that magical 50-year mark (in the United States, federal law defines “historic-age” as 50 years or more).  Many people don’t appreciate 1950s architecture, but I’m not one of them.  I love it, I think it’s swell.  A recent survey report I authored argued that several 1950s Ranch houses were worthy of recognition.  The state reviewer at TxDOT looked at me like I was crazy.  “They’re classic examples!” I tried to argue, but he just shook his head and started rattling off a variety of reasons why they were not special.

Number one, of course, is that Ranch houses are everywhere.  He’s right, of couse, they are everywhere.  You can’t throw a rock in a mid-century neighborhood and not hit one.  Most are rather sub-par specimens of mid-century architecture, too.  Thinking about these particular Ranch houses, I realized he was correct.  They weren’t all that special, so I gave in.  They were not really in danger from the project anyway.

It did get me to thinking, though.  One decade’s crap is a future decade’s treasures.  Early twentieth century homes were destroyed by the hundreds in the 1930s through the 1960s, because they were old and busted, not the new hotness.   Such urban renewal was one reason the preservation laws we have today exist.  Now we look at that lone surviving 100 year old house on a street and try to imagine what the entire neighborhood must have looked like back then, when they were everywhere.  It’s good we have places like the Trust to help promote the worth of more recently historic buildings, but sometimes I wonder if it’s enough.  Will people 50 years from now do the same with a lone Ranch house from a 1950s-era neighborhood once filled with them?