Category: Uncategorized

Deep Breath Before the Plunge

Tomorrow is day zero.  The fork in the road.  The tipping point.  The euphemism of your choice. In times such as we face, we do well to heed the advice of our forebears.  J.R.R. Tolkien was not just some writer, he was a man who well understood the need...

Meme Magic is Real: Why Podesta’s Taste In Art Matters

Incredibly, this is not a photoshop. This weekend the waters of political discussion have been roiled by charges that John Podesta engages in activities that look a lot like ceremonies by which he shows his devotion to demonic powers.  His defenders, and they are legion excuse his behavior as a perfectly innocuous ...

It’s Like There’s A Checkbox or Something

More, please! Late the other night, I got sucked into a click-bait listicle about sci-fi shows that need a reboot.  Never a good idea.  You just know going in that it’ll be the same list you’ve seen a dozen times – Blake’s 7, Space:1999, Lost in Space – fine shows...

Coming Soon: Wyrm’s Bane

The second novella in the Five Dragon’s series should be hitting Amazon with the next few days.  This one features an unlikely dragon slayer – Corbie, a mere slip of a girl who survived a childhood on the streets of a city ruled by vicious and conniving sorcerers.  Her...

Pulp Romance

My last post touched on the deft touch Manly Wade Wellman used when writing romance in Who Fears the Devil.  Today, I’d like to talk about it in a little more depth. First, let’s introduce the contenders. In the pink slime corner, the massively popular Magic Girl genre which features...

More on Manly Wade Wellman

Apparently I spoke too soon on the whole, “Who Fears the Devil” thing.  Having finished the book, it’s far more than just a string of creepy Appalachian monster tales.  For one thing, the book builds as it rolls along.  Every few tales John Silverstrings gets a little more detail...

The Pulp Archivist

I shouldn’t be telling you this.  It feels a bit like a magician giving away his secrets.  Most of what I write here is a response to or inspired by other bloggers.  If you start reading those bloggers, you might have less use for me.  If that’s so, so be...

Who Fears the Devil

Caught up in too much work, too much writing, too much pulp revolutioning, too much wargaming, and too much fathering, what’s a man to do? Combine them as much as possible.  I wargame with my teen son and tween daughter.  (If you stretch the definition a bit, I even...

Chasing Rainbow Colored Unicorns

Visual representation of the perfect mediathat won’t be attacked by anyone If you write it, they will come.   If they weren’t so vile, you might be able to actually feel some pity for the six major media companies.  It’s easy to bang on major media production companies like Marvel,...

Rattenkrieg: Assault on the Tractor Factory

Through his excellent wargame podcast, Wargames To Go, Mark Johnson introduced me to the concept of postcard wargames.  These are mini-microgames that make One Page Bulge look like Fortress Europa, but don’t let that fool you.  They might not fill a table or a weekend, but the right mix of...