My Superpower: Daniel Ionson
My Superpower is a regular guest column on the Skiffy and Fanty blog where authors and creators tell us about one weird skill, neat trick, highly specialized cybernetic upgrade, or other superpower they have, and how it helped (or hindered!) their creative process as they built their project. Today we welcome Daniel Ionson to talk about how his power of making nothing happen relates to After Life. In the game of Paper-Rock-Scissors, my superpower trumps all of the Supermen, X-Men, Whatever-Men, every time… in the most boring way possible. It’s the “Non-Event Sphere.” Wherever I go, there, nothing happens. How did I get such a plain cheese-sandwich superpower? Because the Universe and I made a pact: I decided that I was willing to forgo anything like an “adventurous life” so long as I can have an entire expanding series of multiverses in my head.
Confessions of a Comics Junkie: Identity, Obsessions, and Everything
I buy quite a lot of comics — probably not as many as some, but enough that my collection has started to get a little overwhelming. There are currently two long boxes of comics in my closet. Full. And on top of those long boxes are two stacks of comics that are likely to fill a third long box. That’s a lot of comics to have collected in only a few months. Lucky for me, I am good at finding deals, and my local comic guy gives me a discount on new comics if I pre-order them.[1] On top of that, I easily read fifty or sixty comics a month when I’m busy. Right now, I’m 11 comics into Marvel’s The Ultimates, which I mostly read during the shortest third leg of my flight from Florida to California.[2][3] On a good month, I can go through a crossover event or two in a week — Flashpoint and Avengers vs. X-Men events took me less than a week each. [4] So not only am I buying the heck out of comics, I’m also reading them
Mining the Genre Asteroid: Lest Darkness Fall by L. Sprague De Camp
In late 1930’s Rome, American archaeologist Martin Padway is having a holiday from his dig in Lebanon. Over dinner with his Italian friend Tancredi, a discussion of the nature of time and how a man might change the web of time becomes of eminently practical use when, a few hours later while studying the Pantheon, Martin finds himself cast back in time, to 6th Century Rome. In 535 AD Rome, The Roman Empire is a half century dead, in the West anyway. The Gothic Kingdom rules Rome and Italy. The Byzantines lurk to the East, dreaming of reconquering Italy for the Eastern Roman Empire. Martin himself is a stranger in a strange land, of competing Christian sects and ambitious nobles. Its going to take all of Martin’s wits to not only survive in an alien country, but to forge an even grander scheme. You see, at the cusp of the long slide after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Martin realizes he is at an important moment of history, and as per his old friend, might be able to tackle the greatest challenge of all: To keep the Dark Ages from occurring. Lest Darkness Fall is a classic time travel story by L. Sprague De Camp. In six decades of writing, L. Sprague De Camp, separately and in collaboration, wrote over 100 books and numerous stories. From straight historical novels like Dragon at the Ishtar Gate to time travel stories like Lest Darkness Fall to reconstituting Burroughs like Sword and Planet stories with the Viagens Interplantarias series, De Camp was a seminal figure of early science fiction and fantasy who quietly but inexorably influenced generations of contemporaries and successors. While the conceit and methodology of sending Padway into the past is clearly just a literary device, once Padway finds himself in Rome, the novel goes into a “hard alternate history” sort of mode. No more fantastic elements. Padway struggles with the language; his Latin is rusty, and it gives De Camp a
The Disquieting Guest — A Panel on Horror Writing
Friday afternoon, I took part in a panel on horror writing organized by the Manitoba Writers’ Guild and hosted by the Arts and Cultural Industries Association of Manitoba. Chaired by Maurice Mierau, the panel consisted of Chadwick Ginther (author of the Norse urban fantasies Thunder Road and the recently-launched Tombstone Blues), Michael Rowe (in Winnipeg as part of the book tour for his ghost story Wild Fell) and myself. It was a very cozy setting to talk horror while a -30 C windchill howled outside, and while the event is fresh in my mind, I thought I’d touch on a couple points that came up in the discussion (and I thank Chris Borster for the idea of doing so). So here we go; any misrepresentations in the paraphrasing that
Top 10 Posts and Episodes for November 2013
By popular demand (Paul!), I present to you the top 10 posts and episodes for November 2013. Enjoy! Posts: Out-Brutalling the Last Guy: “Grim and gritty, yes…but make sure it’s doing some honest work” by K.V. Johansen Worldbuilding: Why It Ain’t So Easy by Stina Leicht Mining the Genre Asteroid: Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm (post by Paul Weimer) Adventures in SF Parenting: the Wild, Wild Web by Jen Zink Mining the Genre Asteroid: Way Station by Clifford Simak (post by Paul Weimer) The Disquieting Guest — Horror in/and Fantasy by David Annandale LitBits: The Politics of Author/Work Separation by Shaun Duke Movie Review: Mama (2013) by Stina Leicht The Disquieting Guest — A Belated Explanation by David Annandale Geekomancer Under Glass: Beyond the Capes (Part Two) by Mike Underwood Episodes: 177. Nick Mamatas — Love is the Law (An Interview) Episode 4.2 — Torture Cinema Meets The Wicker Man 175. Religion and Genre Fiction w/ Max Gladstone & David Levine (A Discussion) 176. Sam Sykes at Worldcon (An Interview of Sorts) 174. Cassandra Rose Clarke at Worldcon (An Interview of Sorts) 178. Emma Newman (a.k.a. Tea & Cake) — The Split Worlds Trilogy #05 — Pacific Rim (2013) — A Shoot the WISB Discussion w/ Michael R. Underwood #03 — Man of Steel (2013) — A Shoot the WISB Discussion w/ David Annandale and Michael R. Underwood Episode 84 — Women in Military SF (or The Kratman Rule is B.S.) 173. The Gate (1987) — A Torture Cinema “Adventure” (the Halloween Special)
Geekomancer Under Glass: Fall 2013 Pilots (Part Two)
This week, I’m going to take another look at Fall TV pilots in the geekiverse, from Tesla Steampunk Tony Stark to the latest Buddy Cops With Androids. Dracula The latest in a years-long trend of re-imaginings and re-boots, the Jonathan Rhys-Meyers-fronted Dracula takes the story forward to the early 20th century, where Vlad Tepes (a.k.a. Dracula) is resurrected from an intricate grave and heads to London to plot against the Ordo Draco, the group that destroyed his life and killed the love of his eternal life, Ilona.
