The Wheel of Time Turns, I Just Didn’t Want to Admit That

I’m about to spoil episode 7 of The Wheel of Time. If you do not want to see spoilers for this week’s episode of Wheel of Time, do not continue until after you have watched it. This is your final warning.

Spoilers ahead …

the Broken …

So it’s been like a year or so. It’s not too late to weigh in on a series that I didn’t watch after the first episode, right?

Yeah. While all of you out there were like “Season 5 is just too much for us, we gotta abandon this” an others were like “Oh my God! The show runners ruined this with Season 8” I realized there were serious problems in Episode 1.

I’m like the hipster’s hipster or something.

That said, while I have not watched the show, I have absorbed media around the show. While there are a lot of criticisms throughout, I want to focus on one thing with the ending … so Spoilers ahead for a show no one really talks about anymore.

Planting and Pay-off do not matter if you don’t place proper reminders.

Ned and Bran talking. Obviously this is from the show and not mine so be chill.

You see, it was planted that young Bran was going to become a king in the first episode (first book for the readers). If you paid attention, you might recall Ned having a conversation with Bran. When Ned has to punish a boy rather harshly, he doesn’t tell Bran, “I did it because I’m right, don’t question me.” He explains it to him the way that you explain your actions to someone you’re teaching to be in charge.

He talks to Bran like Bran is going to be a king.

But Bran isn’t even going to be in charge of the North. He’s Ned’s youngest child. He isn’t going to be the one likely to inherit Lordship. He’s certainly not in line to be king of Westeros.

The Batman Trailer – Early Thoughts

So first of all, I like Robert Pattinson and when word came out that he was going to be Batman I was like, “that’s cool.” He’s a good actor and I thought, yeah, he could probably do a good job in the role. He would not be worse than some of the takes on the character anyway.

Well, the official trailer has dropped.

Grim Dark Knight

On one hand, it looks interesting. It’s dark, but grim dark is kind of a thing with Batman and has been theatrically for a long time. It’s just the vision of the darkness that changes.

Burton Dark and Nolan Dark are not the same. It’s not just ambiance. It’s also the themes and how they’re presented and in what characters.

So I’m watching the video and there is a lot to unpack in the general mood, theme, and pauses. Then we get to 1:43 and I get a glimpse of something that I don’t like. We have the beat-down.

Then we have the pounding. That pounding is not the fighting of a hero. It’s the fighting of someone pushed over the edge.

And that coupled with the general atmosphere of the trailer and the ending shots of Pattinson’s Batman has me a little worried about just what the themes and “author intention” on those themes is going to be.

It kinda seems like Reeves looked at some of the (leftist) criticism about the DCEU Batman and Superman and decided to lean into it. I’m hoping that I’m wrong. I’m hoping that my general anxiety about the shape of our country right now is coloring how I’m perceiving the trailer.

We’ll see when more trailers drop.

Alita: Battle Angel Review

Alita Battle Angel is a 2019 movie based on the Manga and Anime Battle Angel Alita that began life in the 1990s. The movie tells the story of Alita, a cyborg found in a trash heap under the last great floating city Zalem by Ido, a doctor living and working in Iron City. The movie is dense, covering about four plots from the original manga, all interwoven into one story. Alita seeks answers about herself, struggles with her relationship with Ido and his expectations of her, falls in love with Hugo, and strives to become a Motorball Champion.

First, I want to say – I loved this movie. It is hard for me to say what matched the manga because it has been a couple of decades since I read them. Alita has always been one of my favorites, so much so that when I first saw the theatrical trailer, I started screaming in the movie theatre.

I was excited.

I was also apprehensive. Anime and manga adaptations have not always gone so well into live action. Hell, comic adaptations period do not always work out so well. Rumors have floated for years about an Alita movie, but things never quite got off the ground. Worse, it is not a property that is as well known in the US as some other manga. It is not, say, Dragon Ball.

And we know how well that adaptation worked out.

Even with my apprehension, I was excited to see it. The movie exceeded my expectations. You can see that James Cameron truly loves the source material and while no, I do not remember all the minute details of the manga anymore, everything that I watched on the screen felt true to what I had fallen in love with in the 90s. The pacing was good. The CGI was amazing. The action was spectacular. More than any of that, though, I did not want to leave Iron City.

I wanted to stay in Alita’s world.

I still do. It is a rough world, but it is authentic and lived in. It is familiar to what I remember of the Manga, even if some details are adjusted, changed, added, or removed.

So yes, I loved this movie and I want to see more of it. I want to see this one again and I want to see a sequel.

But first, I want to dig a little into the movie itself and some of the things done. This is going to be the part where we get into some spoilers so … you have been warned.

A Very Fine Line That We Must Walk Responsibly

So let’s say you are an artist. You have a unique and distinctive style that has won you praise and even some fame. You’re not successful per se; you still struggle to sell work an make ends meet, but you are getting there slowly but surely.

Other new artists see your work, love it, and are inspired by it. Some take elements of your style and incorporate it into their own, both imitating you to pay homage and adding something of themselves to it to create something new.

You have become the first in a new art movement.

Pen Names

So the other night I looked at the Permanent Editor and said, “I’m going to write under an new pen name.”

He looked at me as though I had lost my mind.

So, here is the story.

Circa 2001 I started writing some freelance books for White Wolf Games. I did not have the foresight then to know that I would become Lynn Perretta, so I wrote as Lynn Davis. Fast forward to the future and connecting my work as Lynn Davis to Lynn Perretta is not that easy. Which is a shame because Mage, the game I wrote for, still has fans and with the resurgence in the Classic World of Darkness, I hold out hope that people will seek it out again.

So, you will probably notice if you pay attention that I have Harbin & Klai now under Lynn Davis and not Lynn Perretta. Yes, it is a pen-name thing, not marital changes. Sorry, not sorry, to all of my crushes.

So, I have a pen name for erotica.

I have Lynn Davis for paranormal and fantasy-type things.

Lynn Perretta I am going to save for “normal” things – that is stories that don’t involve vampires of varying types, angels, ghosts, and Nephilim.

Indies, the World, and Anxiety

So, I love independent publishing. When it comes to publishing short works, I find it to be ideal. I like anthologies and magazines, and for any writer they certainly have their value. Both are exposure to a wider market and a way to test the mettle of your work. Will someone else find it worthy?

In the 21st Century, that does not have to be the only avenue of an author wanting to get short works into the hands of readers. It is one of the things I love about independent publishing.

That said … I noticed that the last month or so, I have had modest but steady sales. It has been nice to see and has left me wondering how to turn modest and steady into moderate and steady. Marketing and exposure, obviously, but finding the right way to go about that … affordable, of course, to an indie still coming into her own.

Then the last few days happened and anxiety sets in. The problem with being an indie, I don’t have a marketing arm looking at figures and the market and interpreting what they see so that I understand what is happening.

I can only play guessing games.

UK sales had been strong for me the past month or so. I am wondering with the current events on that side of the pond, if that is affecting my sales at all. I hope not. E-books are not very expensive. I think the highest price book that has been going recently is $1.99. If it is recent happenings in the UK driving sales down – I know how tough things are for me if I am not willing to spend a dollar or two on things.

As anxious as I am about sales, I can’t ignore the news that comes across my feed. Things are turbulent and insecure, maybe more than I had realized.

Everything surrounding Brexit is complex and convoluted. It is also heated and I don’t think it is going to be resolved quickly. In discussing it on this side of the pond, we look at geo-political impacts and lessons we can take as an electorate with our own upcoming election. As with the UK, in the US we have a lot of disillusioned voters. Polls may point one way, but in this environment that is no guarantee of outcome.

In all of that, though, I hope that we don’t forget that for all of the politicians, elections, trades, and regulations, that there is a human element to this. People’s lives are being affected by this in ways we cannot even see.

We can only guess at them through a dashboard.

Word Count

I started a conversation in a Writer’s Group that I participate in on Facebook. I don’t think, however, that I quite got across the point of what I was asking about.

Here is what I posted to the group:

Why is there a word-count competition?

We talk about word count a lot, as though it is a competition to get books as large as possible.

I have written everything from flash fiction (about 1k) to short stories (anything from 2k – 15k), novellas, and novels (my longest being about 130k words or so).

The storytelling style, the story development, even the enjoyment of the story itself varies between flash-fiction, short stories, novellas, and novels. Even with novels, the style of storytelling is going to vary if your book is 80k, 130k, 180k, the Stand, etc.

So, what do you think happened to the appreciation of both writing and reading the different types of stories?

Is there a way to fix this?

Now, people immediately decided to defend the need for things like:

• authors monitoring word count
• word count as a way to differentiate between types of stories
• complaints against authors who list a 5k story as a “novel”

The perils of being a writer

I keep hearing these voices while I am working. They say things like “I’m hungry,” “meow,” and “spend time with me.”

I turned around today and realized, there are people living in this house. A man, a child, and two cats. They keep looking at me like they expect something from me.

I still haven’t worked out the swollen belly I seem to have acquired. I keep feeling motions inside.

Could be an Alien.

Getting Images for Cover Art

“Do you know how to find free images that you can use online?”

I see this discussed in groups a lot. Let’s face it. When you are a self-published author, especially if you are a new author, you cannot always afford to pay for artwork. Maybe you can save up for a once-a-year cover for your novel. What if you are a short story or novella author needing artwork on a monthly or even weekly basis? Chances are your art budget is going to outstrip what you bring in from your writing – at first anyway.

There are ways to get free images that you can adapt to photos. You just need a photo-editing program, a little skill, lots of practice, and some knowledge.