Books – Page 10 – The Designer Monologues

February 2, 2018

30 Day Book Challenge, Day 2

Here we are on Groundhog Day, and the second day of our 30 Day Book Challenge.

Today’s challenge is: A book that you’ve read more than 3 times.

Honestly, I have dozens of books which fit this category. I return from time to time to old favorites, to remind myself of why I love them, or just because I feel like it’s been too long since I last read them. They’re comfort food, for the most part.

Which is, honestly, why I picked today’s book. It’s the most comfortable of comfort foods — a media tie-in paperback which I read as a 15-year old, which I loved, and which I’ve read many times since.

THE FINAL REFLECTION by John Ford was the first attempt at creating a fictional culture for Star Trek’s villains, The Klingons. It’s a novel within a frame story, as Kirk sits down to read a “historical novel” about the Klingon Empire. What I love about this book is the detail given to the Klingon culture and language — remember that this book came out in 1984: Years before Star Trek: The Next Generation turned the Klingons into “Samurai Space-Vikings.” The culture that Ford presents here is unique, and, if I’m being honest, I like it a great deal more than what became canon.

Ford was also a tabletop RPG writer, and used the culture he created as the basis for the Klingon Sourcebook for the first Star Trek RPG, published by FASA. I also had the opportunity to work with Ford (I was his editor on GURPS Traveller: Starports), before he passed away in 2006.

I recently wrote the section on the Klingon Empire for the Beta Quadrant Sourcebook of the current Star Trek Adventures RPG, and I’m pleased to say that I included a small tribute to Ford in my work. Look for it when the Sourcebook is released later this year.

THE FINAL REFLECTION is available at Amazon. Click the image to be taken to the book’s page.

February 1, 2018

30 Day Book Challenge, Day 1

February has begun, and I’m eager to maintain this habit I’m developing, of posting daily to this blog. I know that these daily challenge things aren’t the most gripping content, but they’re reinforcing the habit, and as the month progresses, I’m going to try to also post non-challenge items as well.

The decision to do this particular challenge has come from a private chat server I’m on with some fellow creators, to whom I’d brought the Song challenge last month. They enjoyed it, as it sparked some good conversation, and so it was suggested to continue the theme, with books, and perhaps comics next month.

So, today’s challenge: Best book you read last year.

Most of the books I read last year were non-fiction — research for various projects. But in all honesty, the best book I read last year was fiction, which I absolutely devoured in the final three weeks of the year, after picking it up on the day it became available.

The best book I read in 2017 was the 7th book in The Expanse series by James S.A. Corey (the pen name of writers Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck. I’m an absolutely raving fanboy of this series, which is, in my opinion, the best science fiction series that I’ve read in years — a series that combines political intrigue, social commentary, adventure and a detailed, realistic look at human life spread throughout our solar system (and, later in the series, beyond our system — while also examining the sociopolitical effect that such a leap forward would have upon us).

Folks who are interested can click through via the image above. The other books in the series are available via the “Customers Also Purchased” gallery along the bottom of the page. Or you can check out the 2 seasons of the television adaptation of the series, which have already aired and are available in various formats (the TV series is about 1 1/2 books in, so far).

So there we go — Day 1. Hope to see you back here tomorrow.

August 22, 2016August 22, 2016

WorldCon Whirlwind (and a bit of a rant)

I’m currently catching my breath between the last 5 days spent at MidAmeriCon2 (the 74th Annual World Science Fiction Convention) in Kansas City, and later this week, when we take a cross-country drive to drop my youngest child off at his new college. (The picture, by the way, is author Brooke Johnson, with Laura and I. We’ve been on some panels together at ConQuest and now WorldCon, and had a good time hanging out.) Busy busy busy. But I wanted to get this down.

So, I had been lamenting that I’d missed the opportunity to charge my creative batteries at GenCon again — well, WorldCon took care of that. HOLY CRAP, I’m vibrating.

Spoke on several panels — kinda froze a bit when I noted that Larry Muhfuggin’ NIVEN was in the audience of one of them, hearing ME speak. WHAT IS THIS I DON’T EVEN. Met many, many brilliant people. Had the opportunity for sharing physical location with people that I’ve known for years online — turns out, the people from Twitter have, necks and bodies and legs and stuff. They’re not just disembodied heads in squares. Enjoyed time with folks that I already knew “fer realsies”, even though there never seemed to be enough time.

Came away from the show excited about the future — both for stuff that I’m already working on, and stuff that is just at the “percolating idea” stage. Feeling a much-needed sense of actual enthusiasm for my work, which is wonderful.

A couple of other take-aways from the show:

I’m in my late 40s, and there were rooms where I felt like one of the “young folks.” Seriously. SFF Fandom (with a Capital F) skews WAY old. I’d love to see more effort made to attract a younger cohort, or this stuff is eventually going to die out. It’s been pointed out to me that younger folks often can’t take the time and spend the money to attend — which is true, and not much can be done about that. But content-wise, there needs to be stuff to attract those that COULD attend, by giving them a reason to WANT TO. The ‘fan-culture’ stuff that’s been kinda stale since the mid-70s is not the way to do it. I mean, sure, have that for those that want it — but make more of an effort to recognize and accommodate 21st-Century fan culture, too.

Today, I’ve been reading another spate of post-Con horror stories about creepers, sexists, harassment, social dysfunction. Again. (As an example, this twitter-thread from Alyssa Wong.) Seeing expected messages of support, ally-dom, etc.
But. BUT.

I had convos in person with some folks AT the con about this stuff… and the amount of “well, we shouldn’t ostracize” push-back was noticeable.

Here’s the thing, though: the socially dysfunctional won’t stop these behaviors without it, to say nothing of the purposefully abusive. Until we get over the “geeks don’t ostracize” bullshit, it’s never gonna change. So yeah, offer ally-ship & support. But start actively insuring that there are negative consequences for these behaviors. Now.

People do this in your presence? Ostracize the shit out of them. “But they’re socially awkward” can no longer be allowed to be an excuse. Learn how to behave in public, or you don’t get to BE in public. This is Basic Adult Socialization 101. Long PAST time to start enforcing it.

Rant over. The positives far, far outweighed the negatives, in the end.

Also? I need to take more pictures when I’m at a Con. Folks are posting them all over the place.

Now, back to work.