Russia invaded Ukraine, which blows. Murderous dickbags gonna murder. Anyway, I’m supposed to stand in judgment of that, but I’m in a glass house. Gotta check out the periphery before I throw Slava Ukrainis. Who is the US military occupying this week? Who are we raining mutilation and ruin upon? How about our buddies, like the Saudis? Israel? I’ve lost track again.
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FreethoughtBlogs’s own William Brinkman is at it again! He has a new story set in his Bolingbrook Babbler Literary Universe, and I got an advance reader copy of it. The rest of you rabble can order it tomorrow, at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other retailers. This is my review.
Like William’s The Rift, A Fire in the Shadows is action-packed genre fiction, set in the Weekly World News -inspired setting of his “Bolingbrook Babbler” articles. At around 12k words, it’s long for a short story, but only covers a few short events.
There’s a lot of information around those events, and the author wants the story to stand on its own, so the exposition can land like bricks upside the head. The references to events in The Rift feel particularly unnecessary, beyond the important fact of the weredeer incursion. I do like being able to include a sentence like that in a review.
Still, as I said before, it’s fun to see SFF genre fiction that isn’t beholden to the conventions laid down by the titans of Intellectual Property. There’s stuff here to enjoy. The vampire battle strategizing reminded me of a bit in “From Russia with Love” where James Bond was thinking about how he could totally judo chop through his opponent’s chest if he wanted to, but now wasn’t the time for it.
One thing that struck me odd. The vampire characters seem to regard their own human ethnicities as a thing to be disdained, and I’m not convinced they’d have any reason to feel that way. This element seemed like a ploy to spell out the characters’ backgrounds without breaking from the plot and dialogue to do so. In general, the bitchy attitudes of the vampires were unappealing, and while that may have been intentional, it’s not interesting to me as a reader. I know some other readers like it, so YMMV. I did like the main character Lydia being a lovefool like The Cardigans.
William’s writing style spells out a lot. “Show, don’t tell” is one of the central dogmas of 20th century literature, but there are situations where even back then it was ignored. Short stories in action-packed genre fiction, well, that’s one place where telling works. His “The Rift” was short for a novel, and like this story, packed a lot into its length, by merit of willingness to lay ideas out plainly.
This creates a paradox (if I’m using that word right), because sometimes William does not spell something out. Those can be pretty important themes and ideas, and since a reader gets accustomed to him spelling out the situation unambiguously, it’s easy to forget he might leave something unsaid. I’m guessing a lot of readers might miss his unspoken ideas.
**SPOILERS BELOW**
Like “The Rift,” I think the main character of “A Fire in the Shadows” has an unreliable perspective. Lydia is the kind of person who is in love with the world, like a ramped-up high school student. Like I used to be, once upon a time, wheeling from one crush to the next.
And that’s the exact kind of person that would repeat the social faux pas that exploded the atheo-skeptic community – a poorly timed pass at a person, which would come off as creepy. Had Lydia followed through with her love confession at the end of AFITS, she would have been an even bigger creep than Tom during his elevatorgatery crime in The Rift.
Who wants to have an age-inappropriate leather-clad stranger confess their love for you, at night when there’s no one else around? Big yikes. Interesting to see a story show a character walk up to that edge and come back.
I think it’s funny that a person could miss that whole theme because it’s the source of the title. “Fire” is vampire slang for your burning soul. While Lydia is a reasonably good person, she has that fiery passion of a stranger lurking in The Shadows – something romantic until it becomes dangerous. Something she needs to be mindful of, and that the targets of that affection are probably better off not knowing about.
That’s emotionally sophisticated stuff. I liked it. Thanks, William.
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Spoiler Warning for The Flash. I really profoundly don’t care about spoilers, but hey, here’s a moment’s consideration for those who do.
Not really sure what the new business model at The CW is going to be since the takeover, but it seems like the crossover DC Comics shows are being phased out, bit by bit. There’s a new DC Comics show that hasn’t premiered yet, but safe assumption it will have little to do with the rest. It’s easier and more cost-effective to have your shows be modular, not interdependent in any way. Hey, biz is biz.
Legends of Tomorrow was easily the best thing left in the DC slate and had its last season. I hope everyone involved is well compensated and living their best life in whatever they do next. After hinting The Arrow spinoff character Diggle was going to become The Green Lantern in crossover bits for a season, they wrote a weird little end to that plot, like, psych, never mind. An thus the last of The Arrow‘s existence takes a dirt nap.
Stargirl‘s second season was COVID’d into a strange depressing mess. They did as well as they could, but you could feel the characters were being isolated from each other for social distancing, the plot written in such a way as to denude the world of extras, leaving everything cold and dark. Third and final season coulda been worse, but the amazing action of the first Season was almost completely gone. They just didn’t have the budget for it anymore, I’m sure.
So The Flash is on its last season, which is good. It’s time. The most recent two seasons were hobbled by COVID and ended up totally bizarre. I theorized here that the lady playing Flash’s main squeeze had come to dislike the production in some way, since her character was written out of contact with most of the cast during those seasons. But she’s back in the house; looks like those strange writing decisions were probably more about COVID issues. That will let them send the series into retirement with a solid season filmed under less strained circumstances.
The Flash has generally been marketed as less edgy, more superheroic and light than The Arrow. That marketing was undercut by how grimdark and hopeless the main villain plots have been, over and over throughout its run. Now that they’re back to their original form, without sensible plague restrictions, will the oppressive atmosphere return? Who is the big bad of the very last season?
It’s Batwoman! I did not see that coming. Batwoman was cancelled and did a very competent job of its last season. I liked it all well enough. I think Greg Berlanti (or somebody else in his company) must love his actors, because he keeps giving them chances to show up even after their shows end. Javicia Leslie is playing an alternate timeline version of Batwoman who became a Jokeresque wildhearted villain. That means acting like a big campy goofball. Let this season actually be fun! We’ll see.
After all of this, I must share an amusing discovery I made. For all the success of the DC comics shows – particularly The Flash – none of them touched the viewership of The Vampire Diaries. Whatever big feels they inspire in a certain segment of humanity, the nerd audience is just smaller or less passionate than the romantic girly audience. Take that, entitled-ass dorks! And to whatever extent I share an identity with you – not as much as you might imagine – take that, me.
I guess I’ve only been paying attention to the DC shows because of the cultural connection with the comics, the art, the iconic characters in the background of my life since early childhood. The Superfriends. The guys on my underwear and my sippy cup, whatever. If I wanted to pay attention to shows that really matter to most people, I’d skip the dork slate and watch sweet sexy vampires doing their thing…
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End of February, 4 MonsterHearts as yet unposted. Well, I’ll see about getting them out within a week or so. C’est les artes.
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Monsterhearts is a 14 day event (named after a pervy RPG) wherein my writing group votes on a monster each day to include in a story concept. As we marched toward Valentine’s Day, the theme was supernatural romance. I didn’t make the deadline, but will see if I can put ’em all on the blog by the last day of this month. I repeated Day Nine because I forgot I’d already done it when I went to collabo with my boyfriend on X amount of days. Day X is a tradition of mine where I take all the prompts that didn’t win votes and roll them into a mega-prompt.
MONSTERHEARTS — DAY 9 — INANIMATE
CONTENT WARNINGS: Splinters. ‘Nuff said.
TITLE: RUDEWOOD
CHARACTERS: Corey Blighter is a genderqueer punk rocker who somehow turned the abuse of the world into a kink for getting insulted. They meet a tree of the same enchanted species that spawned Pinocchio, once upon a time. The tree is just rude and insulting to everyone who passes by, playing cruel tricks as much as its limited mobility allows.
PREMISE: Corey makes the tree feel some type of way. But is it possible for a rudewood to love? They are made out of sap, splinters, and insult comedy. The way they reproduce is by making humans so mad they cut the tree down, and this tree succeeds with a less twisted human than Corey. The love must end.
THE HOOK: Or must it? Rudewood personalities can survive the chopping. Corey can get the piece that has their lover within, and make some kind of a mannequin Gilbert Gottfried out of it. Happily ever after, babe.
Cover art by me, ballpoint pen and Photopea.
MONSTERHEARTS — DAY 6 — INCORPOREAL
TITLE: VOCALOVE
CHARACTERS: The User, a similar character to me and Cubist’s MC from AIsaac, undefined and ambiguous via the narrow frame around the narrative. Melpominy Muzik, a cheap Eastern European Hatsune Miku clone.
PREMISE: The User finds an old CD of Melpominy in a used record shop in Hungary and tries to use her in their own music. But the icon of the character, the sweet things she says within the program’s UI, could she be true waifu material? How can she possibly have so much love in less than 700 megabytes?
THE HOOK: One of those stories where you wonder if the lover is real or just a figment of the ardent one’s imagination, thereby a reiteration of the “Is it better to live in dreams?” theme.
Cover art by me, ballpoint pen and Photopea.
MONSTERHEARTS — DAY X — THE LOSERS: BEASTLY, DEMONIC, EXPERIMENTAL, FIERY, GIGANTIC, MINUSCULE, MUTATED, OVERPOWERED, SEASONAL, SHADOWY
CONTENT WARNINGS: Bad Ending?
TITLE: THE VICES OF DR. CARLO
CHARACTERS: Dr. Vicente Carlo, a mad scientist. Profesor Hector Olivares, his on-again off-again tempestuous gay lover.
PREMISE: Dr. Carlo is a descendant of wealth, whose family avoided any revolutionary ire with delicate politicking during turbulent times, retaining those means with a low profile. But generational inheritance can only last until a generation comes too dysfunctional to hold onto it. Vicente is that man. While he has the silver tongue of his ancestors, he has bizarre obsessions that spell his doom.
At the hacienda Dr. Carlo experiments with the intersection of science and the arcane and dark arts, with the often reluctant assistance of Profesor Olivares. The profesor is more broadly travelled and conventional in his interests, bringing back tales of scientific advancements whenever he comes to town. The doctor takes those tales and turns them into nightmares.
One Día de los Muertos (SEASONAL), Dr. Carlo used the power of dick to convince Prof. Olivares to help him contain the power of the heavens in a special battery. But he doesn’t let the profesor know that the battery is full of satanic (DEMONIC) mojo. They harness a thunderstorm, draw the power of the heavens, but it combines with the power of hell, and the battery explodes.
Profesor Olivares is MUTATED into a rampaging BEAST that feeds on FIRE, heat, electricity, leaving blackened ruin in his wake. He sets off in pursuit of these things, burning up the nearest city and its inhabitants, one piece at a time. He becomes OVERPOWERED and GIGANTIC, bringing down the military.
To save his lover, Dr. Carlo must venture inside the broken battery. He takes an EXPERIMENTAL potion to become MINUSCULE, but runs afoul of SHADOWY demons that protect the strange realm of the machine, like an immune system. He takes a lot of hits, but eventually escapes into an unrecognizable region.
THE HOOK: He has actually passed into Hell, and when the military takes down Hector with tanks, he meets his boy there. “Oops, we both died. Better luck next life?” They can be lovers in Hell.
Cover art by me, ballpoint pen and Photopea.
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Monsterhearts is a 14 day event (named after a pervy RPG) wherein my writing group votes on a monster each day to include in a story concept. As we marched toward Valentine’s Day, the theme was supernatural romance. I didn’t make the deadline, but will see if I can put ’em all on the blog by the last day of this month. These ones are collaborations with my boyfriend, The Beast From Seattle, aka Cubist Vowels, aka Joseph Kelly, editor and contributor to The Midnight Collection.
MONSTERHEARTS — DAY 9 — INANIMATE
TITLE: THE VOICE
CHARACTERS: Lonely man Tyler. The Voice, a mysterious voice on the radio dial.
PREMISE: When Tyler is upset by a song, he turns the radio dial to what should be static. But he hears a compelling voice, and it seems to hear him. They get to talkin’, fall in love, but gradually the nearest obnoxious radio station becomes more powerful, takes up more of the dial, overpowering Tyler’s love.
To get The Voice back, he must mess up that obnoxious radio station. Maybe he blows up their tower, or pirates a rival radio station and changes its frequency. But how can he have a happily ever after here? I dunno.
THE HOOK: Why is it passionate? How can somebody love somebody else without a physical presence? No idea what they look like? No chance to be with them physically? They’re on some Abelard and Heloise shit.
Cover art by me, ballpoint pen and Photopea.
MONSTERHEARTS — DAY 11 — ARTIFICIAL
TITLE: AISAAC
CHARACTERS: The Protagonist, a sad person. AIsaac, an art-producing artificial intelligence.
PREMISE: The protagonist, a person who we know almost nothing about, is just pouring their feelings into prompts on an AI art generator. The AI, named AIsaac, produces meaningful responses. Though they have no words, only images, somehow that’s enough, and love happens.
THE HOOK: Why is this passionate? The protagonist initially is just experiencing joy at making interesting art happen with this tool, which, as far as they know, has no feelings of its own. They pour out their heart just the same, which is both sad and cute in its way. But what happens when the machine can return that affection? How can one express love with nothing but images?
Cover art by me, ballpoint pen and Photopea.
MONSTERHEARTS — DAY 12 — CELESTIAL
CONTENT WARNINGS: Alien Abduction.
TITLE: BE NOT AFRAID
CHARACTERS: Nicola, a laborer building a cathedral. Hod, an alien being of pure energy. The jerks, a bunch of alien scrublords who kidnap people, like those Fire in the Sky bozos.
PREMISE: Nicola is working on the buttresses of a cathedral when some aliens abduct him to do experiments or just kick him around and stuff, in their grody spaceship. While he’s running around the ship hiding in lockers like an indie horror game, a more kindly alien presence comes to him.
Hod is a being of pure energy who got stuck on the alien ship, but it can communicate telepathically with Nicola, and acts as a guardian angel until they can both be freed. It can project an image of itself as human-like into his mind, and love can happen.
THE HOOK: Lovin’ under the gun. It’s not realistic for characters to have makeouts when they’re in mortal peril, but we all love that stuff, don’t we?
Cover art by me, ballpoint pen and Photopea.
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Monsterhearts is a 14 day event (named after a pervy RPG) wherein my writing group votes on a monster each day to include in a story concept. As we marched toward Valentine’s Day, the theme was supernatural romance. I didn’t make the deadline, but will see if I can put ’em all on the blog by the last day of this month.
MONSTERHEARTS — DAY 7 — NATURAL
CONTENT WARNINGS: Fascist Elfs.
TITLE: NIGHT OF THE SHINING HOST
CHARACTERS: Sonny Kassaye, an Ethiopian Irish trans dude. Conor O’Halloran, a leprechaun trans dude.
PREMISE: Sonny is in a transmasc support group at a relatively rural college in Ireland. One of the guys in his group is not much more than a metre tall, but very self-assured. Turns out, Conor is one of Mother Nature’s leprechauns, and he’s come back to rock and roll. And trans his gender.
Anyway, some elves from the Seelie Court go all nativist and try to exterminate all fun-loving enemies. It’s Night of the Living Dead but with elfs outside the cabin. Conor uses leprechaun powers, I guess, and also a revolver with cold iron bullets.
THE HOOK: Love under pressure. Conor is all badass and cool, so Sonny is impressed. But is it a good foundation to a relationship? Sequels will tell.
Cover art by me, ballpoint pen and Photopea.
MONSTERHEARTS — DAY 4 — SHAPESHIFTING
CONTENT WARNINGS: Paranoia.
TITLE: MARY PUCK
CHARACTERS: Sonny Kassaye, an Ethiopian Irish trans dude. Mary Puck, a pooka.
PREMISE: For meritorious service to the lower class faerie folk, Sonny has been allowed to walk their faerie paths. He is a college student by day, faerie anthropologist by night – when he can bear the weirdness. It turns out several of the faeries he interviewed in that capacity were all the same girl, a compulsive shapeshifter who can assume any shape – human or animal or hybrid. But she never wears the same face twice, and she’s fallen in love with him.
THE HOOK: Sonny’s relationship with Conor was dashed upon the rocks of circumstance, and being flexible in attractions, he is amenable to Mary’s courtship. Sometimes she’s a man, sometimes a woman, sometimes etc. But how can you love somebody without a consistent face or voice? Just a rotating cast of hyperactive manic pixie dream weirdos? It’s a dramatic affair.
Cover art by me, ballpoint pen and Photopea.
MONSTERHEARTS — DAY 5 — PARASITIC
CONTENT WARNINGS: Drowning, Suffocation, Abuse Mention.
TITLE: KING KELPIE
CHARACTERS: Sonny Kassaye, an Ethiopian Irish trans dude. Patrick Donovan, King of the Unseelie Court, a kelpie.
PREMISE: Sonny’s relationship with Mary Puck ended in tears, but the king of the rough-hewn faeries swoops in to love the pain away. Problem is, the king is a kelpie, a breath vampire who keeps nearly killing the hapless human. Also, he’s kind of abusive.
Surprise, this is a story about how Sonny got back together with Conor. Outraging the king by stealing his human intended, Conor becomes an enemy of the UnSeelie Court. Dashing feats of derring-do ensue.
THE HOOK: The part with the Parasitic Monster is a passionate love. In his most human-like form, Patrick is a huge muscly man, so it’s hard not to get fired up by the erotic powers of the big body. But who wants to have their breath literally taken away?
Cover art by me, ballpoint pen and Photopea.
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The night before last. That morning again, after a brief return to sleep. Last night again. That sunuvabitch the Sandman has been giving me bad dreams.
Saturday morning’s dream I only remember one part. Annoyance dream. I was hungry and nobody was helping so I went to cook some freezer fried chicken in the oven (this is something I almost never eat IRL). Somebody was already cooking something and I just let my tray partially squish theirs. When it was time to get the chicken out, I was like, oh shit, I turned up the heat so the stuff somebody else was making is probably burned. I tried to get it all out quick as I could.
But my dad was in the way and didn’t know what to do with himself. He needed to get from one side of the opened oven door to the other, and was so befuddled I had to tell him every step of the action like he was a trained dog.
Sunday morning I was in a brutal fight at a house party and my very young nieces got their throats cut. Not lethally, we had to apply pressure to their tiny necks while also not suffocating them, until the authorities arrived. Waking time arrived before help did.
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My old roommate Jed was more amused by the cruelty of nature than I could ever be, and coming from a rural place, was fond of anecdotes about city slickers being mangled because they were too affectionate or trusting with wild carnivores. Once he told the rest of us a story about watching a video where somebody filming a baby seal got their face bitten nasty.
Around the same epoch of my life, I became acquainted with the Wu-Tang Clan’s first album. In the song “Shame,” Raekwon the Chef says, “When you see me on the reel, formin’ like Voltron, remember I get deep like a navy SEAL.” Perhaps because of Jed’s rude little tale, I really thought that guy was saying, “Remember I got teeth like a baby seal.”
It makes sense. Like, a baby seal is cute, but harbors deadly weapons. Beware, despite Raekwon’s good looks, he can hurt you. But no, he was not likening himself to a juvenile pinniped. All these years later, my dreams remain crushed.
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