Those who have FAITH
Through it have POWER
And they shall know GLORY
Unto the end…

Read on…

I think I can finally get this serial off the ground.

Rated PG-13 for violence and adult themes.

I really couldn’t think of an appropriate image for this little literary trip down memory lane, so here’s a picture of a mountain lion. It’s semi-appropriate, I suppose, since the first iteration of the first novel I ever wrote was entitled “Project: Lion,” and if that doesn’t betray the fact I wrote the thing in junior high, wait until I get into the particulars of what I’d at this point laughingly call the plot.

The premise of “Project: Lion” was that I basically wanted to create an American James Bond. This involved a personable and professional spy by the name of Morgan Radcliffe flying all over the world, shooting up bad guys and chatting up women. The charming, exotic female he encounters turns out to be a double agent, his school chum is killed and the friend’s hot sister leans on Morgan for support. Morgan shoots up dudes, drives really fast, shoots up more dudes, gets yelled at by a superior and manages to save the day anyway with nary a scratch or reprimand for being so flagrantly awesome.

Given the state of American reading audiences it might have been able to find a market and possibly even make some money, but neither of those notions detract from the fact that it was rubbish. Morgan was a Gary Stu of the highest order, and while he was capable of emotions other than smug self-assuredness, I realized after finishing the work that I was way too close to the character and projected too much of my own unattainable dreams onto him. I knew there were things about the character I liked, and others would as well, but the character needed to develop differently which meant I had to rethink the character from the ground up.

So I gave Morgan a sex change.

College did wonders for my social skills as well as my writing ability. I realized that having Morgan be female instead of male added an element of separation between us, allowing for more interesting plot points and deeper characterization. How different would it be for a woman instead of a man to stand out in the male-dominated genre of espionage fiction? Rather than having her be just a pretty face, or a cookie-cutter badass action grrrl, I added elements such as her expertise in cryptography, a relationship with her father who preceded her in the intelligence community, and an element of mystery concerning the evil mastermind against whom I pitted her. It made for a more interesting and involving narrative that got some very good feedback from people, and due to the fact I broke it up into a series of days rather than chapters, I renamed the endeavor Fortnight.

Unfortunately, of the two to three dozen queries I sent regarding the work, not a single one even requested sample chapters. Even talking to an agent in person at last year’s Philadelphia Writer’s Conference yielded only silence after what I felt was a positive experience in speaking with her. It could be that I came across as overly eager, but I’ll never know for sure. So Fortnight lingered, and given the decline of the genre in recent years, I began to feel that it was time for me to move on. I started working in earnest on my fantasy novel, and while that is still a positive experience, I’m struggling through some of the newer chapters.

When I established this blog, I knew I’d need consistent and interesting content to keep up interest. I turned to Fortnight and examined both the plot and the state of fiction at large. With the surge of supernatural fiction such as Twilight, the Anita Blake novels and the Southern Vampire Mysteries from which True Blood was born, two things occurred to me: There’s a thriving market for supernatural stories featuring female protagonists, and I have a female protagonist and a solid idea of how I’d want supernatural beings to be depicted.

This lead me to Shattered Code, but even after posting the first day of it I knew there were problems. The story starts to slowly, and I hadn’t developed the premise enough. With help from my fiancée, and more research as to what’s out there (a good excuse to watch the first season of True Blood if nothing else), I built a stronger foundation and began writing the story from scratch once again.

Day 1 of Lighthouse should be up tomorrow, provided I can polish things off tonight. I look forward to feedback from those of you still reading this stuff.

The Dark Reign event is in full swing over at Marvel. In the wake of the brutal Skrull Invasion, Normal Osborn (aka the Green Goblin) of all people has taken hold of the planet. Tony Stark is on the run, deleting the sensitive information he collected as head of SHIELD from his brain one neuron at a time, and the Avengers are pretty pissed that killers, madmen and unstable people are running around with their good name. The X-Men, on the other hand, were largely staying out of the conflict, settling into their new expansive digs in San Francisco. With these individuals living openly comes the ignorance and bigotry of “normal people” and the combination leads to riots. Norman and his Avengers step in, and in order to control the mutant population, he turns to Emma Frost and commissions her to form her own team of X-Men.

I don’t have the entire story yet, as Uncanny X-Men #513 is probably among my father’s mail up in Allentown and the local comic book store was sold out, but here’s a breakdown of the team as I see them.

Emma Frost has quickly become one of my favorite characters in the X-Men comics. Previously her appeal to me was based mostly on her physical appearance. However, of late she has developed into a very deep and nuanced character, who manages to straddle that line between harnessing the essence of noblesse oblige and being a cunning and manipulative bitch. Once a member of the Hellfire Club and concerned solely with her own ends, the survival of mutantkind has taken the place of her former decadent desires, and so she’s been with the X-Men for quite a while, and has proven that the well-being of her fellow mutants is now what’s foremost in her mind. But a new pair of shoes never hurts. She’s the leader of these Dark X-Men due to her proximity to Norman Osborn, who invited her to be part of his secret cabal of evil leadership in this new era of the Marvel Universe. I highly doubt that she’ll let Norman dictate to her how she’ll use her team.

Namor, likewise, isn’t about to let this pencil-necked human with stupid hair tell him what to do. His relationship with Emma, however, is long and complex, and for a long time he’s denied the fact that he’s more a mutant than he is an Atlantean. Marvel’s “first mutant” and the first true antihero in comicdom is slowly moving away from Osborn’s cabal towards a higher ideal. Atlantis is in a shambles and were I in Namor’s shoes (provided he wore shoes), I would imagine that someone like Emma Frost will be better equipped in the future to secure the safety necessary for the kingdom to rebuild. There’s also the fact Osborn had the Sentry demolish an Atlantean population for political purposes, and Namor can’t be happy about that.

Daken is the son of Wolverine and is a character that puts me on the fence. I love the two aforementioned characters, and am ambivalent about some of the others, but Daken makes me want to hate him while also highlighting something very interesting about his father. You see, were it not for Logan’s developed sense of honor and strong loyalty to those who have earned his respect and trust, he would be what Daken is: a stone-cold arrogant killer. Both Daken and Logan are fully aware of their monstrous inner natures and unapologetic about the efficiency of killing those who oppose them, but Logan’s rage and ferocity are tempered with knowledge and training. Logan has chosen to be something more than just a mad animal and makes that choice every day. Daken is his father’s polar opposite and is interesting as a character study in that regard. I think I’d like him more if he wasn’t acting like such a brat and swinging his alpha male claws around as much as he is.

Mimic, along with Cloak & Dagger to a lesser extent, bring to mind days of Marvel past, not unlike the characters brought back to the forefront in the Annihilation event. Mimic in particular is a former villain who wants to make himself better, and when he is offered a spot on a legitimate team backed by the government, he jumps at the chance. I’m curious to see how he reacts when he realizes exactly who Osborn is. Cloak & Dagger have a chance to separate themselves from their pasts, which have seen them breaking the law more than once, but I find their story less compelling than Mimic’s.

Weapon Omega, to me, feels a bit tacked on. That might change.

Mystique. I don’t see her in either of the books I picked up today, but I know she’s a part of this team, and I know Osborn is keeping a very close eye on her. This isn’t going to end well, especially if she and Emma begin to work together. Hell hath no fury etc.

Dark Beast is a smug and sadistic jerk and I hope Hank recovers enough to kick his furry butt back into his home dimension.

That’s all for now. Until next week, you can continue to make mine Marvel.

Art by Kennon James

They slay dragons, liberate the oppressed and defy the nefarious plans of unspeakably evil villains. Some of them wear suits of armor and ride into battle on noble steeds while others stay far from the melee and rely on intellect and study for their combative prowess. However, what fantasy heroes have in common is that they are mortal beings who need rest & relaxation just as much as you or I do, especially when you and I are playing them. If the Dungeon Master needs a break from the action or if your party is low on hit points, the answers is almost always the closest inn.

It’s more than just a place to recover one’s lost health, though. Considering that most fantasy settings are full of more threats than one party of adventurers to address, it’s highly likely that a given innkeeper will have his common room filled with more than one expedition on a given night. And provided that the various travelers aren’t from opposite sides of the alignment tracks, a good meal and some ale is a sure-fire way to get them talking to one another. There are likely to be some very interesting stories told of past exploits, and rumors of even more daunting challenges are bound to arise sooner or later.

When it comes to tabletop games, the inn is a classic place to introduce new characters, side quests, or major plot points. Tolkien gave future fantasy authors & game audiences a fine example of the “average” inn with the Prancing Pony in Bree, and the tavern your party stops in can range anywhere from a bright and colorful place that feels miles away from any sort of peril to a mix of a Viking mead hall and the mosh pit at a Slipknot concert. Regardless of the state of affairs within, inns are rarely boring places, and even if the person behind the screen at the head of the table is finding themselves burnt out or starved for ideas, a few moments of in-character interaction around the table can lead to a new adventure. Or at least some interesting or amusing moments when the fighter catches the thief with an extra card up their sleeve.

MMOGs with fantasy settings tend to have their inns run by non-player characters, and you’ll have people with no interest or ability in role-playing darting in and out to complete quests, buy supplies or beg for loose change, but you can still find a good story and perhaps some people to hang with on a regular basis if you can tolerate the bad apples. In fact, I’m helping some of the friends I’ve made on our server in World of Warcraft put together a new guild, with the premise being the members are people who simply meet in an inn or tavern somewhere in the game world and swap stories, often volunteering to travel with one another into dangerous places. It’s a flexible and classic idea, and I hope we can take it in exciting and fun directions.

Just be careful if the innkeeper’s willing to let you stay free of charge. Final Fantasy teaches that such things lead inevitably to a cutscene, drama, or even loss of a character, so you’d better save your game first.