Cool Stuff

LTUE 2023 Starts Tomorrow – Here are Some Panels to Check Out!

Max Misc , , ,

Hey folks! Unless you’ve been living under a rock in the writing sphere, you’re probably all geared up and pumped for LTUE (that’s Life, The Universe, and Everything) 2023! I say this because 100% of the writing-invested people I know are, so the data’s pretty solid on this end.

But maybe your excitement isn’t quite as energetically apparent as those nearby or that you’ve been seeing online. Maybe this is your first LTUE, and you’re not sure where you’re going to be going or why everyone else is so excited.

This is fine. Totally understandable. I first stumbled across LTUE when I was a college student, and wasn’t at all certain what was going on until I saw a sign on a door proclaiming the subject being spoken about inside an ‘in-depth study of Tolkien’s languages and how they both reflect and intersect with the world he created.’ Or something of that nature. I was intrigued, then excited, then hooked.

Anyway, if you’re planning at being at LTUE tomorrow and haven’t taken a gander at the official LTUE Program Book yet (that’s a PDF link, just for those of you on mobile), well, maybe I can get some of that excitement ramping for you. Because there are—as always—some cool panels to check out, and I’m going through the whole list and picking out a few of my favorites. Some are cool, some are fun, some are interesting, and some I’ll label critical, which just means there will likely be essential writing tips and elements discussed you’ll definitely want to attend if you’re concerned about the topic.

So hit that jump, and catch sight of a few of the panels that have caught my attention. Note that just because it’s caught my eye doesn’t mean there aren’t other awesome panels you may want to attend. These are just some of the ones I’ve noticed and am looking forward to, but I as of yet lack the ability to be in multiple places at once. See you at LTUE!

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Starforge: A Literary Trailer

Max Books! , , , ,

With a sudden bang the weakened airlock door burst outward, slamming into the cutter and knocking the tech over on the tarmac. Someone screamed as something large and armored shot out of the opening, slamming into the other exosuit and driving it into the ground, claws digging deep through the metal.

“You think we’ll make it?”

“Break course!” Anna shouted, her hand snapping to the side of her helmet. “Now!”

“All of us?”

Jake pushed himself back an instant before another tendril slammed point-first into the metal in front of him, the spike at its end punching cleanly through whatever the path was made of.

“I don’t know.”

Anna crashed into the water behind the creatures, spinning and lashing out with her hard-light blades to cut two of them in half. The remaining two, caught between them, died moments later, just before Ngata slammed into the water, tumbling before righting herself and shooting along after them.

“We’ve lost six colony worlds.”

Tentacles, so large that even at a distance Sweets could see them slamming down atop the pathway and wrapping it, utterly annihilating the Sha’o drones.

“Any ideas?”

Micro-missiles swarmed out of the thinning haze, close enough that Jake could make out the individual fins on a few of them as they shot just past and detonated further back. Sand and gravel sprayed over him, sliding down his visor.

Towering walls of water rose miles into the air. Free-floating orbs of ocean the size of mountains, their surfaces sculpted into geometric shapes and lines, linked to the seas below sometimes by thin passageways of water, sometimes not at all.

The marine pounded on ahead, throwing himself into a slide that shrieked of metal-on-metal to pass under the small opening in the door. He kicked himself back up with a single movement, rising to his feet—

And something slammed into the marine from the side, bowling him over and out of sight with a yell.

“Contacts! All vessels!” Comms said, a tone of panic in their voice. “Appear to be fighting unknowns. Total count over one thousand!”

The sky was alight with flames now, some of them, Anna noted, almost uncomfortably near the team’s position. Some of the earlier flames had burned out, leaving long trails of smoke instead that made the horizon look like a painter had slapped a brush covered in charcoal across it.

The tail was whipping back, the razor-edged scythes at the end sweeping through the air. Roen ducked beneath the attack, as did Ngata—only she fired a shot straight up with her phoenix cannon as she did so, the shot slamming into the tail and almost severing it.

“We end this.”

A sickening, metallic squeal rent the air, new alarms flashing across his controls, vying for Sweets’ attention as the Sparrowhawk shot past overhead.

The force of the explosion hit Jake like a wall, blasting him from his feet even as he felt sharp twinges of pain erupt across his front.

Something bit into Anna’s back, slicing through muscle and for a moment feeling as though it touched bone.

“And those who refuse?”

Syrah Eidre stared down at Earth, the planet twisting in the black.

“They made their choice, and will suffer the consequences.”

THE END ARRIVES

NOVEMBER 29TH

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A Trip to Alaska with Pictures and Video!

Max Misc , , , , , , , , , ,

Hello readers, and welcome! Welcome to a visual tour of some of the highlights of my trip to Alaska! I know that a lot of you have been waiting for this, and I promise once I’m done I’ll get back to work on Shadow of an Empire, Stranded, and all my other projects, but let’s be honest … This is going to be a cool post.

A little background, for those of you that are new or unfamiliar with my personal history (and haven’t glanced at the About tab or read my author blurb at the end of my books): I grew up in Southeast Alaska. Also known as “The Panhandle,” it’s that little bit of Alaska that sticks down by Canada on the East side, where the capital of the state is. It’s also largely made up of islands, with the terrain severe enough that even cities that are technically on the mainland, like Juneau and Ketchikan, and only accessible via boat or plane. There’s no road to get to any of these places, the terrain is just too extreme unless you want to put a lot of money into it and go through Canada.

It’s a different place. Here’s a shot of my hometown taken on my flight out, from the air. No, you can’t see my house in that picture (it’s a ways south from the town itself), but you might notice the water all around it. Yup, it’s an island.

Wrangell island (and town) from the air, courtesy me.

That’s mainland behind it, leading into a lot of mountains and then Canada. But yeah, that’s my hometown. That’s where I grew up. Not very big. Tiny, in fact, unless you’re from anywhere that’s tinier (and there are, in fact, small places, like Elfin Cove and its population of probably a hundred people). But hey, it’s home.

Anyway, since I grew up there, I do occasionally tend to go back to visit and take part in consumption of fresh seafood. Growing up in a fishing/tourism town (also once logging, but that era is gone for the time being), I started working on fishing boats in my family when I was about 12 or 13, and well, that’s how I made it through college without any student loans. That and dividend savings (a whole ‘nother topic).

In any case, that’s why stuff on the site was extremely light these last few weeks: I was back in Alaska! Partaking in crab, shrimp, halibut … You know, all the good stuff. Oh, and pitching in on a fishing trip as well (because fish!). While taking plenty of pictures to show off the experience on the return! So hit that jump, and let’s get looking at some cool pictures and videos of Southeast Alaska.

Because WOW did I get some good ones. Before we do hit that jump I’ll say this up front: I grew up fishing on boats and working in Alaska, and yet this trip turned out to be one of the most spectacular I’ve ever seen. And now you’ll get to see it as well, through the lens of my phone. So yeah, hit that jump.

And if you want to go to Alaska and experience this kind of thing yourself, there’s probably not been a better time. After the Covid year, the state is desperate for tourists, and I’ve seen a lot of deals on flights, travel, and hotels. Get your shot and get going! It probably won’t be this cheap again!

Oh, quick warning, you guys are going to see a little fish blood and guts in a few of these shots. Be wary if you’re sensitive to blood. You’ll see it.

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Schlock Mercenary Has Come to an End

Max Misc , , , , , , , , , ,

Surely the author won’t mind me using the logo of his comic to promote it, right? Right?

If you’ve perused my website a little, specifically the links page, you may have noticed that one of the links I’ve had around since the very beginning leads to the most-excellent webcomic Schlock Mercenary, by Howard Tayler. Schlock Mercenary has been a long-time favorite of mine since checking it out in … 2005, I think (?), after I saw Howard present at a few panels at a convention and speak on two topics, one of which would go on to play a vital part of my future career. The first was about how comedy writing was really hard, which I noted. But the other, the big one, was how to take something independent, like a webcomic, and make a living at it.

‘If you can get 5000 people to be fans who will buy and watch your stuff,’ Howard said. ‘You’ll make it. That’s what you need.’

And he knew what he was talking about. See, Howard had left his middle-management job to pursue being a writer (and artist) in the webcomic sphere full time, selling books, prints, and as he once noted with “dark scatological undertones” … maybe even Schlock-in-a-cup.

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How Marvel’s Movies (and Others’ Products) Have Changed Storytelling

Max Misc , , , , , , ,

Pop quiz for you. Don’t worry, it’ll be easy to answer. Have you ever read any licensed literature? Like Star Wars books, or Star Trek, or Warhammer, or … Sands, really any licensed property? Or maybe seen a tie-in TV show to a movie? Played a game of a movie or a book?

Basically, anything that could be considered “secondary canon?”

Right. I can already tell I’ve lost some of you. So let’s back up. Let’s say you are a movie producer. Better yet, you’re one of those producers like James Cameron who often writes, produces, and directs your own movies. And you’ve just made a hit.

Now, with this hit on your hands, someone has come to you and asked for a chance to expand on the universe! They want to write a trilogy of books that tie into the movie and extrapolate a bit after it! Awesome!

But … you don’t want to write a trilogy of books. You want to keep making movies.

“No problem!” says the publisher with the contract. “We’ve got an author lined up! They’ll write all three. We just need some notes on the movie, for you to answer some questions, and that’ll be all we need!”

So you sign the paper, and the trilogy comes out. You collect a small licensing fee, and a bunch of fans of your movie go on to read the book and form excited theories and ideas.

Except … a year or two later, when you sit down to write the sequel, you’ve got a bunch of ideas that don’t quite mesh with the world and liberties the author of the book trilogy took to flesh out their story. Not that you know this: You probably haven’t read them. Or, if you did read them, you’d know the score as being thus—

The movie came first, therefore the movie is the final word.

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Penclash

Max Misc , ,

Hey readers! I just wanted to give you a heads-up on a new writing site I learned about through the circles I’m in: Penclash!

Okay, so it’s not a site yet. And, legal disclaimer: I am not in any way affiliated with Penclash outside of having heard about it through the writing circles I hang out on. I’m not affiliated with the site’s owners or developers or anything like that. I just heard about it, and immediately realized this was something that could use some more publicity.

So, what is it? Well, Penclash is a writing competition site. That’s right: A whole website dedicated to short story competitions. If you’ve ever hung around online writing sites you may be familiar with these: Folks (sometimes even site hosts) will put up a challenge or a prompt, give a submission date, and on on occasion even offer a prize of some kind to the top stories, and away people go. There are judges, submissions … it’s a pretty common feature of online writing sites to have these contests.

So then what’s Penclash? It’s a site built for these. With integrated features for other fictions sites, easy-to-create contests, monthly site-wide contests … and more!

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The LTUE Schedule!

Max Misc , ,

That’s right folks. Life, The Universe, and Everything, the best writing convention there is for Sci-Fi and Fantasy is almost upon us! In two days the doors will be open, the con will start, and the knowledge and geekery will reach critical levels of awesome.

Of course I’ll be there. And I hope you will be as well, because LTUE is hands-down one of the best places a budding young writer can go to get insight, knowledge, tips—well pretty much every bit of knowledge on writing they’d want, from dozens of talented authors. Panels, workshops, discussions … it’s all there.

The MugOh, including myself! I’ll be wandering the halls of the convention as well. If you’re going to be there and want to strike up a conversation, from talking about writing advice to trying to mine for secrets from the upcoming Jungle, say hi! Believe me, I’ve missed panels before simply by being caught in a ball of authors and fans in the halls, all talking about writing tricks or cool books we’ve been reading, etc.

Oh, and if it helps, I’ve attached a shot of my rugged mug to the right there. I know I’ve got that picture on the about page, but it is, if we’re honest, an old picture. This one’s just a quick selfie, but it shows off the current look I’m sporting, for easy identification. Walk up and say hello! I don’t bite! And don’t worry about getting my name right either. If you yell “Viking,” my long-time nickname of over a decade and my online handle, you’ll get my attention.

Oh, and I’ll be wearing a shirt that says “Ask me about my book.” It was a gift that fits this kind of con perfectly.

So, now that you can pick me out of a crowd, how about that LTUE schedule? You can access the whole thing here, but I’ve gone through today and put together a small list of panels that look or sound interesting. Some I’ll attend, some I’ve just highlighted for usefulness that you all may be interested in, and some just plain sound fun.

Oh, there is one I’ll draw special attention to, and I will be there, so you should be too! At 3 PM there is a Launch Event for the LTUE Benefits Anthrology Trace the Stars, which is a collection of short stories by a lot of great (and famous) authors written to support the convention (all proceeds from books sales fun LTUE!).

Anyway, hit the jump for a day-by-day list of panels that have caught my attention. The “—” denotes that there are two interesting panels in that time that caught my eye.

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Shadow of an Empire Wallpapers!

Max Books! , , , ,

Hey readers! Got a pretty awesome treat for you all today!

You’ve seen the cover for Shadow of an Empire, right? That awesome, western vista done by Michal Kváč. Well, those close followers of the site may remember how I teased that it was wallpaper-sized. And those who were Patreon Supporters? They got the wallpaper sizes.

Well, as of today, you can too. That’s right, in beautiful 4451×2560 Widescreen, you can have the full cover image of Shadow of an Empire for your desktop or digital device background, available in both textless and text versions.

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The History of Dead Silver

Max Books! , , , ,

This post was previously a Patreon Supporter Exclusive! Patreon Supporters get advance access to articles and bonuses such as this monthly. They also can receive other bonuses! In return, their support helps keep Unusual Things a premium site (read: NO ADS). If you enjoy Unusual Things‘ content and would like to see it continue, please support by becoming a Patreon Supporter today!

If you’ve not read Dead Silver, be forewarned that this post contains many spoilers. Then again, the book came out four years ago, and you can always grab a copy for the low price of $2.99 to catch up before spoiling anything!

Anyway, that’s your warning. Now, let’s take a look at the history of my second book, Dead Silver.

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Happy Memorial Day!

Max Misc , , ,

Hello readers! It’s Memorial Day here in the US, which is a national holiday, so there won’t be a Being a Better Writer post this week.

However, that doesn’t mean that there’s not going to be any content here today (or especially not this week). After all, Shadow of an Empire comes out this Friday! As well as another preview chapter tomorrow!

But if you’re looking for something more BaBW related, consider this awesome video I was linked to the other day on the fantastic attention to detail in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. I’ve said before on this site many times that attention to the small details can make the whole book come alive. Well, this video shows how Who Framed Roger Rabbit‘s attention to the small details put it head and shoulders above its competition.

Anyway, if you’re in the US, enjoy your Memorial Day, and if you’re anywhere else, enjoy Monday all the same!