Tough Guys

I don't read a lot of mystery or suspense novels, but many of my favorite reads in other genres include those elements.  One example is "Gun, With Occasional Music", by Jonathan Lethem.  It's about 75 percent noir detective novel and 25 percent science fiction.  One thing I enjoy from the suspense novels I do read is a tough-as-nails protagonist with a soft, chewy center.  These are men unusually cool under fire, and they never take the easy road if it deviates from what they believe to be the just path.  Don't ask them to talk about their feelings, and don't ask them to apologize for punching a deserving villain in the face.  To them, the legal system is for people who respect the law, and there is only hot lead for those who prey on the innocent.

I've come late to read the Jack Reacher novels, but I couldn't ask for a better leading man for these types of stories.  He's smart and versed in investigative techniques, but when necessary he's perfectly capable of kicking some butt, busting down a door or voluntarily taking a bullet to protect a friend. What has endeared him to me the most is his ability to consistently surprise his enemies with his ingenuity and deadly competence.  Characters seem to underestimate him at first, and then scramble to stay one step ahead of him as he draws closer.  That's probably how he's stayed alive long enough to appear in so many of Lee Child's novels.

The Swagger men are the protagonists in novels by Stephen Hunter.  I read most of the Bob Lee Swagger novels first, recommended to me by a friend in the library where I worked.  His experiences as a Marine Corps sniper during the Vietnam War are ancient history at the time of the novels, but it always seems  to be these trials that simultaneously keep him alive and at the edge of death.  Bob is a man of his word, and this sometimes makes his actions predictable and susceptible to the schemes of those with fewer morals.  Unfortunately for them, his methods are unpredictable, and he's usually the last person they ever see.  Bob's father, Earl, died when Bob was very young but left an impression that shaped Bob's opinions of manhood, duty and integrity that he always strives to duplicate.  Earl won the Medal of Honor in WWII and kicked the Mob out of Hot Springs, Arkansas.  Both of the Swagger men never hesitate to put themselves in danger to defend lesser mortals against aggressors.

Hap and Leonard, from Joe Lansdale, are slightly more morally ambiguous than my earlier examples. Their hearts are in the right place, and they do the best they can to stick by their friends, especially each other.  They grew up together, back to back defending each other in many scraps as kids. Unfortunately trouble seems to find them, especially when they stick their necks out to help friends and family.  They are usually quickly over their heads, seeking help where they can from a variety of memorable characters.  Along with Lansdale's brand of humor, they are a winning combination of protagonists.  When push comes to shove, they aren't shy with their fists. Though possessed of tough exteriors, they occasionally reveal just how much they mean to each other, when they're not bickering like an old married couple.

If these tough guys sound worthy of your time, you're in luck.  They're all featured in multiple novels, and I hope I never see the end of them.

My Trusty Steed

Recently our bikes were stolen out of our garage.  We didn't realize that neither of us had closed the garage door, and it remained open overnight.  While I wanted to think that our neighborhood didn't harbor the type of people who would do such a thing, crimes of opportunity should apparently be expected.  My son took the loss of his bike pretty calmly.  He is probably due for a larger model anyway, so we are on the lookout for something suitable.  Still, I couldn't help but think about two things from my childhood when I broke the news to him.

The first was that I never had to worry that my bike, or anything else, would be stolen from my yard or garage.  It was the kind of place where you could confidently leave your keys in your unlocked car overnight.  I could ramble around the countryside, sometimes miles from home, without my parents worrying.  Like many small towns, the years have probably taken their toll.  If I lived there now, I doubt I would let my son have the freedom I enjoyed without adult accompaniment.

The second thing I remembered from my childhood was the vital role my bike played in my adventures with the help of my imagination.  Sometimes it was a speeder bike flying through the dense forest of Endor.  Other times it was my faithful destrier, as I pedaled it into battle with my lance (stick) couched and my shield (pot lid) braced to deflect the smite of my enemy.  Sometimes it was just a bike, but it was a form of transport that gave me a sense of independence and my first taste of speed's thrills and dangers.  It took it off some pretty sweet jumps.  Had my bike gone missing, I would have demanded the police, and possibly the A-Team, get involved in apprehending the thieves. My sense of justice was pretty black-and-white back then, based mostly on westerns and comic books.

I still remember some of my favorite places to ride my bike.  There had once been a railroad running through the edge of town.  The track is still there, mostly overgrown.  I took a short walk down it when I last visited home last year.  Cinders still coat the bed, and rusty spikes can still be pried from the mud.  I scavenged several of them as a kid, marveling at their weight.  On my bike, I could ride a couple of miles along the bed before dead falls and brambles blocked the path.  It ran roughly parallel to the river where I fished with my dad, and sometimes we would use it to get to some choice angling holes.  Alone, and without my fishing pole, I would sometimes park my bike and walk the short distance to the river edge, where I would skip stones or just enjoy the cool shade of the mossy shadows.  If I sat completely still, the birds and other wildlife would resume their activities and allow me an occasional glimpse of deer, confidently nosing around the water as if they knew hunting season was still months away.

Another great biking destination was the airstrip.  When you consider that the population of my town numbered in the hundreds, having a local airfield was a big deal.  I even remember getting to take a ride in a tiny plane with my father and grandfather when I was very young.  We flew out to view the farm that's still in my family.  I don't remember much else, but the airport belonged to a local resident who occasionally flew.  By the time I biked there, it was disused and the runway riddled with weedy cracks.  It was a veritable drag strip for me and my imaginary racing opponents.  My tires thrummed on the tarmac in a different frequency than on the road, nearly hypnotic, as though I could grow wings and soar over the town.  A friend and I liked to argue the rumor that drug dealers used the strip to fly in product from Miami or some other exotic locale.  It was a lot more likely that they just used the freeway far from our little hamlet, but in the days of Miami Vice we saw only the potential for TV's brand of excitement.

My son's nonchalant attitude about the bike theft was a blessing in its way.  I don't want him to feel uncomfortable in our home, afraid of burglars or other criminal opportunists.  At the same time, I realized that the bicycle, a basic and vital element of my childhood, isn't something he shares.  It saddens me a bit, that he should miss out on the simple joy I experienced when combining my bike with my youthful imagination.  He will undoubtedly find the equivalent of my bike to his own childhood, and I hope I'm there when he does.

Hey, Aaron, What Are You...?

Here are some updates on different things that have been occupying my time and taste buds...

EATING
I have officially abandoned the "4 Hour Body" diet.  While I did lose body fat and weight, my concerns for my cholesterol levels won out.  Now, salad rules my plate!  I've been eating large salads at lunch and dinner.  Lunch usually features lentils and quinoa.  I like quinoa because it's a grain that packs complete protein and fiber.  It absorbs flavors well, so I've been adding garlic, cumin and tumeric.  At dinner, I usually have a bit of what my wife and son are having, unless it's something I don't think would be very good for me.  For instance, I don't eat beef or pork, but this week I've had turkey meatloaf and chicken breast stuffed with feta cheese.  I've been limiting my portion sizes relatively well and only indulging in sweets occasionally.  Over all, the new diet has been easier for me to maintain than the old one, since it doesn't feel much like dieting.  A friend directed me to a great quinoa cooking video by none other than David Lynch.  You can find that here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11p0y9z1XOU

PLAYING
I started playing Diablo 3 after reading great reviews.  As usual, I'm coming to the game far after it's initial release.  It's a different, but typically minimal, story than the second game of the franchise. The graphics are far superior, though the same overhead perspective.  The loot mechanics feel pretty similar, but the skill trees from the last game seem to have been replaced with fewer options for specialization.  There are some new character classes to play, and I've tried almost all of them including the witch doctor and monk.  I've just finished the first stage of the game, so I have a feeling that there's a lot more in store for me.  I may soon try the cooperative mode with a friend over the Playstation network, something I never tried playing Diablo 2 on my PC.  I recommend the game, especially for those who liked the earlier installments.  It has the same dark tone and is definitely not for kids.

WATCHING
I continue to be amazed by "The Wire".  I didn't catch this when it was first on HBO, so I've been watching it via Amazon Prime's streaming video service.  I normally don't like police procedural dramas, but the cast and writing are top-notch.  Had I known how much I would like it, I would have purchased the seasons on DVD long ago.

I've also enjoyed "Daredevil", the Netflix series, which was just picked up for a second season. Netflix was kind enough, or diabolical enough depending on your opinion, to release all of the episodes at once.  While I could've obsessively zoomed through them, I've been watching one episode per night while on the treadmill, really trying to stretch them out.  I never read the comics religiously, but I've always liked the character.  There's a dark, gritty feeling to the show that wouldn't feel right in the recent Marvel movies, but it's perfect for this character and his nemesis, the Kingpin, played by Vincent D'Onofrio.  I'm almost done with the series, and I think I'll wait a bit to avoid spoilers for everyone before I make a more detailed post.  I highly recommend the series, even for people unfamiliar with the comic book character.  I think the cast and story line will appeal to a wide audience.  A series for "The Punisher" made in the same style would fit in nicely in this corner of the Marvel universe.  If you're somebody that can make this happen, pretty please work your magic.  I'm anxiously awaiting other Marvel series coming to Netflix soon.

READING
I recently finished "Toll the Hounds" by Steven Erikson.  It was a long, fatiguing and rewarding journey through another epic fantasy gem.  His vision and creativity never fail to stun me, even if sometimes his attempts at humor don't amuse me much, compared to Joe Abercrombie's wit for example.  Erikson's talent for simultaneously wrapping the lowliest and most powerful characters up in his plots leaves me frustratingly jealous as a writer, yet grateful as a reader.

After such truly epic fantasy, I stepped back into the world of Jack Reacher, in Lee Child's novel "Personal".  I've read several other Reacher novels, and I always fall quickly into the plots. They're quick but engaging reads, and thankfully it doesn't seem to matter much that I've read them out of order. Reacher is the kind of smart, tough character that I enjoy immensely, and his willingness to get his hands dirty dispensing justice is my cup of manly tea.  (See Daredevil above.)  If you've only seen the Tom Cruise movie and not read the books, please do yourself a favor and pick up one of these. You won't be disappointed.

WRITING
The outline for my novel continues at a snail's pace, but it is moving forward.  I was kind of in the zone on my lunch breaks this week and made some decent progress.  I already have a mental picture of the events to come, even though I haven't outlined them yet.  No estimated time for completion, but I would like to start writing the first few chapters soon.

I started a zombie apocalypse story that jumped the rails and decided it wanted to be something much longer.  I have a general idea for the rest of the plot.  Unfortunately I don't have time to write two novels simultaneously, blog and work on short stories to build up my portfolio, so the zombies will have to wait.  I will probably create a simple outline, so I don't forget anything, and get back to it once my first novel is completed.  It might also be a fun, temporary change of pace if I hit a major roadblock with my first novel and need to work on something else for a while.  Sometimes it helps me to work on multiple projects simultaneously, even if it slows them all down a bit.

My short story, "The Hzeen", is gearing up for an appearance in the third issue of Nonlocal Science Fiction.  That should come out in September, and I have some work to do on it.  The editor/publisher liked it and promised to give me some detailed feedback in the near future.  I'm working from some general criticism he provided, as I mentioned in an earlier blog entry.  This is one of a series of stories, so perhaps they will all find their ways into Nonlocal Science Fiction at some point.

With that, I only want to know what you're eating, reading, watching, writing and playing.  Let me know via comments here, Goodreads, Twitter or Facebook.  If you're dieting, good for you.  You can do it.  I know you can.  If I can tame my sweet tooth, anybody can do it.  Thanks for reading!

A New Season of Horror

It's important to me that I can be a good example of rationality as a father.  One of my psychological issues I feel like I need to conquer before my son can pick up on it is my fear of stinging insects and spiders.  The flying members of the Hymenoptera order are especially harrowing to me for some reason.  I think it's a combination of the swooping and the buzzing and the maneuverability of the little suckers that freaks me out.

Down here, south of the Mason Dixon, these creatures seem to reach science fiction proportions. I've seen spider bites turn into scars that looked like the results of some ancient Egyptian curse.  I've had nightmares of spiders that caused me to spring from the bed and whip off the covers.  Explaining that to my wife was a bit embarrassing.

Before I migrated south and developed my almost-drawl, I had mostly addressed this phobia.  My first summer walk through a southern garden found me regressing to:  WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT THING?" Then I started flailing my arms and trampling the flowers in my mad dash toward the safety of my car.  The whole time I screamed like my hair was on fire.  The only thing I really learned from the experience was that a bumblebee is way more terrifying when it's inside the car with you.  And you never know it's there until you hit the speed limit on the highway. I was like one of the hapless victims in the movie "Alien" because I could hear it, but I couldn't see it. True fact:  you can drive and manually roll down a rear window of your car when properly terrified.

I'm getting better.  Honeybees and bumblebees make my pulse quicken a little when I hear them, but once I see them I calm down.  If you get between me and the house when I spot a yellow jacket or wasp, you'd better have great reflexes or health insurance.

I try to remind myself that even when I've been stung, it hasn't been that bad.  I'm not allergic.  I've never been stung in the eye (but I've had a close call), and I've never been stung while driving.  I've never been, cartoon-like, pursued by an entire angry swarm that waited patiently after I plunged into a pond to escape.  Just wondering, does that work?

As a dad, it's important that my son sees me as a source of security.  What would I be teaching him if I ran screaming from every loud, flying insect?  I want him to know it's OK to feel afraid, but I also want him to differentiate between silly phobias and honestly terrifying events.  Bees and wasps fall into the former category, no matter what my instincts tell me.  I don't want him to learn irrational fear from me.

I have to accept a mantle of responsibility, akin to Superman's cape, that should be an integral part of fatherhood.  Looking back, my dad inspired me to confront my fears through his own courage, integrity and determination.  It's my turn to be that kind of parent/folk hero to my son.  Instead of a cape, maybe I'll wear some mosquito netting.

Writing Community

I've joined a few writing communities over the years with mixed results.  At their roots, some of them seemed like they would be genuinely helpful as workshops and networking opportunities.  Being new to the game, it sounded like I could learn much about a large variety of topics:  writing, promotion, publishing, contracts and more.  I fantasized that I would become part of a tightly knit group of genre fiction writers, helping each other along the way to greatness.

The first was a Yahoo group organized by an enthusiastic writer and geared toward speculative fiction.  I liked the small size, which I hoped would mean lots of opportunities for submissions and constructive criticism of my work.  Each week, we reviewed one story by a different writer in the group.  I worked hard to give gentle but valuable critiques, being specific and offering the best suggestions I could.  When my turn came to submit a story to the group, I expected similar treatment of my work.  My expectations were met by some people, exceeded by a couple and left extremely wanting by most.  Not much later, the group's organizer decided to disband the group, and I was unsurprisingly grateful to move on.

The second group I joined was much larger.  I thought the size would offer so many participants that I could statistically count on some helpful critiques.  Instead, the group's criteria for submissions was based on the number of stories one reviewed compared to those reviewed by other members.  Only a few people who had time to review a dozen or more stories could hope to get any attention given to their own works.  I tried for months but couldn't seem to provide good reviews if I wanted to hit competitive numbers.  Again it failed to be what I needed.

My third attempt was to enroll in a continuing education writing class at my local community college. It was even geared specifically for science fiction and fantasy authors.  The catalog description claimed it would be taught by a published author, and it promised to enlighten me on publishing and marketing strategies as well.  I received notice by mail that the class was cancelled due to insufficient enrollment numbers.  This happened for two different semesters, so I haven't bothered to try a third time.  Thankfully my money was refunded, but I wish I could have talked to the other people who enrolled.  Maybe we could have formed a local writing group, which was one of my initial reasons for signing up for the class in the first place.

I've been lucky enough to have a friend, Cliff, who has been the advanced reader for most of the fiction I've written.  It was with his encouragement that I submitted "Catalyst" to Nonlocal Science Fiction.  He also read my story, "The Hzeen", which is due to be published in Nonlocal SF #3, coming out in September.  Cliff also writes, and we've had a mutually beneficial author-reviewer relationship for several years now.  I've encouraged him to submit to Nonlocal SF as well, since I feel like I've been very lucky to be included and helped out by the publisher, Dan.

Dan has been a different kind of editor/publisher than I've encountered so far.  I was initially blown away by his willingness to offer suggestions for "Catalyst" rather than flatly reject it.  I knew from previous submissions that this was a rare thing, and I was determined not to take it for granted.  When Dan contacted the authors he's agreed to publish so far and mentioned his intentions to establish a community around his publishing company, I couldn't help but feel like I had come home.  There will be some additional work involved.  For instance, I might have to contribute content to the website from time to time and continue to periodically submit stories there.  Honestly, it sounds like stuff I'd like to do anyway if I can find time.

For those of you anxious to check it out, here's a link:  http://nonlocalscifi.com/

You'll find movie and book reviews, as well as articles about science fiction writing and other media. There are links to the podcast, including author interviews such as the one with yours truly.  Dan also has plans for forums lined up, so not only will you be able to consume fantastic content there, you'll be able to join discussions and be part of the community as it develops.

Please help me contribute to the growth of a thriving community, for all lovers of science fiction, by liking Nonlocal Science Fiction on Facebook, Twitter and other social media.  As always, I thank you for reading and all the other support you've given me so far.

Two Things That Made Me Feel Awesome

Two things happened since my last blog entry that made me feel awesome(r), and I'm going to share them with you.  Just try to stop me.

The first was some stellar news in the writing area.  I submitted another story to Nonlocal Science Fiction, and the publisher had some very flattering things to say about it, including that he felt it superior to my story in the first issue.  As with the last story, he gave me some helpful advice about things that he thought would make it better.  He will be sending some more detailed notes later, since I'll be preparing it for the third issue.  I made mention of this story in this blog some time ago.  It's set in a post-apocalyptic world full of savagery and vast tracts of wasteland.  The central character is a member of a society of hybrid plant beings, housed in an enclave amid dangerous mutants and wild creatures.  It was inspired by my time playing a role-playing game called Gamma World.  Some of you might be familiar with its setting.

I find role-playing games to be wondrous outlets for creativity.  They are engines for collaborative storytelling, and I have spent perhaps thousands of hours (if not more) both playing them and creating stories in them.  Given time and imagination, there seems to be no story that couldn't be told using them.  And why not just write the story?  When two, three or more people are involved in the mostly improvised story and a random element of dice rolls is used, the level of uncertainty increases exponentially.  A well planned plot can seemingly run off the rails with a few decisions made by one or more players.  Sometimes that leads to confusion, and other times it leads to unexpected brilliance. Writing stories is cool, don't get me wrong, but being part of a great story created by a group of friends is way cool.  Discussing games like this leads me to awesome thing number two.

My son asked me about a year ago if he could try playing a tabletop role-playing game.  I was elated, but let me put this into its proper perspective.  Lots of dads experience a moment of tearful joy with their sons.  For most, it's that day the son first hits a baseball or scores a touchdown or some other sports-related example of excellence that's beyond me.  For me, it was watching my son carefully roll his first d10 and calculate his defensive bonus.  An even better experience happened today when he said he wanted to try being the Game Master.  This is the person who leads the game, creates the story, acts out the characters not used by the other players and describes the setting and the action.  In other words, the Game Master is THE BOSS and also the person responsible for the players having a good time.  In the case of my son, letting him do this is also an underhanded way for me to get him to practice writing.  Writing is something he hates to do, but imagining and creating are things he loves. I get to teach him that they can be fused together into a +5 Battleaxe of Awesome.  He's also smart, so he might catch on at some point.  Hopefully by then he'll be having too much fun to care.

He's going to flip out when I buy him his own set of dice.  Can't wait.

The third thing was that I received news from people receiving their print copies of Nonlocal Science Fiction #1 and other KickStarter rewards.  Responses so far have been very positive.  I know quite a few of my friends and relatives contributed to the KickStarter, and I want to thank them all again.

But that's three things that made me feel awesome...

Bonus!  

Assimilation Fail

Way back in 1996, fed up with Upstate NY winters, I packed my meager belongings into my '89 Pontiac Grand Am and drove south to Cary, NC.  I liked the idea of settling in a suburb of Raleigh, even if it meant commuting into the city.  NC had frequently been a pit stop on the way to Florida to see my grandparents, and it seemed like someplace better than NY in the winter and less likely to incinerate me in the summer than parts further south.  The Raleigh area was growing, and there were opportunities to be found.

There were enough transplanted Yankees in the Raleigh area to give me a taste of home, but finding a permanent job was a challenge.  I knew a friend who had moved to NC a few months before, and I decided to give him a call.  I hoped he might know some people who were hiring, and I hadn't talked to him in some time.

He didn't have much to offer me in the way of job prospects, but he and his wife let me stay in a spare bedroom while I looked for work.  I moved there to Winston-Salem not long after our phone conversation, quitting my temp job and saying goodbye to the Motel 6 I'd called home for several weeks.

It took some getting used to.  While everyone I met showed me kindness typical of southern hospitality, I could only understand their speech with great effort.  It baffled me that conversations were in English and still so difficult to maintain.  I was often grateful when people would give up trying to speak to me like and adult and switch to greatly exaggerated, monosyllabic speech with familiar hand gestures.  Obviously they had at least a little trouble understanding me as well, but everybody was nice about it.  Often conversations resulted in laughter, after patience had been exhausted.

Eventually I managed an understanding of perhaps 75 percent of the local dialect.  It was easy for me to adopt "y'all", but harder for me to allow other words and phrases to slip into my speech patterns. Some of the resistance was intentional.  I refused to ever "mash" a button.  That's just the way it was. I also never believed that anybody "might could" do something for me, especially a person who told me that he didn't want to "maybe" me.  Didn't "maybe" mean the same thing as "might could"?

I've become pretty adventurous in my gastronomic explorations, and there were many foods I adopted with gusto, as evidenced by my growing gut.  Even my expanding waistline was viewed as "healthy" by my new friends and neighbors.  Fried catfish, pulled pork barbecue and hush puppies seemed like things I should've been eating my entire life, but coleslaw I could not stand.  I will never be a Southerner as long as I'm unable to stomach that slimy cabbage concoction, and people want me to eat it on everything:  hot dogs, burgers, BBQ.  They acted shocked when I asked them to substitute more hush puppies or an actual salad.  It was like I had spit on their heritage when I refused to eat it atop a chili-dog.  Please hold the collard greens, too.  No offense, but anything that has to be seasoned by frying it in pork fat should no longer be considered a vegetable.

So here I've been for nearly 20 years, and I'm stuck at 90 percent assimilation completed.  There I will likely remain as long as 'slaw is part of the equation, even though I speak the lingo, married a native and sampled corn liquor.