Blood Mirror by Brent Weeks is the fourth book
of The Lightbringer series. The three main characters set up their roles for
the final book in the series. Gavin has lost his powers, must escape his
prison, and face the god Orholam. Teia must become a master assassin and
destroy the Order of the Broken Eye. Kip must prepare his army to face the
White King and defeat him, or risk the colors going out of balance leading to
their destruction. Their missions lead to one ultimate question. Who is the
Lightbringer and will the Lightbringer bring balance to the world?
Summary
Chromaturgy is the magical system of the Seven Satrapies. They call magicians who use Chromaturgy drafters and the best drafters live on the Chromeria, the seat of the Satrapies government. Drafters can take a part of the spectrum of light and make a substance called luxin. They can shape luxin into items, with the color of the luxin determining the properties of the item. Most drafters can draft one or two colors, while the Prism can draft all the colors. There is only one Prism alive at one time and the Prism is the military, spiritual, and political leader of the Satrapies.
Summary for Principal Characters
There are
three principal viewpoint characters and three minor viewpoint characters.
Gavin was
the Prism but has lost his powers. He is imprisoned in the special cells he
made to hold a special prisoner. He must get help from an unlikely person to
break out of his cell and to go on an important mission in the last book of the
series.
Kip is
fighting against the forces of the White King. The Color Prince has taken a new
name, the White King, and he increases his power by taking half of the satrapies.
The White King wants to take the Blood Forest because if he succeeds then the
Chromeria’s ability to wage war against him will be damaged. Kip’s goal is to
defeat the White King’s lieutenant, who is trying to take the Blood Forest. Kip
has his exiled group named the Mighty and various motley troops from the Blood Forest.
It helps that Tisis Malargos, his wife, has contacts in the Blood Forest.
Teia is tasked by Karris, the new White, to infiltrate the secret Order of the Broken Eye. It is a dangerous mission, complicated by her interaction with the assassin named Murder Sharp. The Order sends her on an important mission, and she must succeed or face her death.
Summary for Minor Characters
Karris
White Oak is the new White. She must marshal her forces against the White King
with the help and hindrance of Andross Guile. Corvan Danavis has become the
satrap of Seer’s Island and is married to the Third Eye, a woman who knows the
future. Liv Danavis serves the White King and has come into a significant power.
Recommendation
In Blood Mirror by Brent Weeks, the three principal
characters have important tasks to perform. The tasks are straightforward but
are not complete by the end of this novel. It feels like the characters are
spinning their wheels leading up to the last book of the Lightbringer series.
Gavin’s story seems redundant. Kip’s story leads up to him fighting a mini-boss
before taking on the White King in the last book. Teia has a dramatic mission to
complete. The stories were interesting, but I’m ready for the next book now.
The last novel in the series is named the Burning White and was published on
October 22, 2019. I plan to read the book soon.
Links
This is the link to the Goodreads page of Blood
Mirror by Brent Weeks.
Review of The Broken Eye by Brent Weeks, book 3 of The Lightbringer series. Gavin, Kip, Teia, and Karris fight the Color Prince and the Order of the Broken Eye. They face a climactic confrontation at the Chromeria. Another excellent book in the series.
Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch, Book #1 of Gentleman Bastard series.
Introduction
The Lies
of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch is book one of the Gentleman Bastards series.
Locke Lamora is an orphan of the island city of Camorr. The Thiefmaker turns the
orphans into thieves. Lamora learns quickly and soon becomes more trouble than
he is worth. Many years later, Lamora is grown up and collects his own crew,
the Gentleman Bastards, who work confidence games. Another crew headed by the Gray
King threatens to expose and kill them. To what lengths will Lamora go to
defeat the Gray King and secure the Gentleman Bastards’ retirement?
Summary
The Lies
of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch starts with young Lamora learning the craft of
theft from the Thiefmaker. The Thiefmaker soon learns that Lamora will steal anything
at any time, and the risk that commands worries him. Lamora ends up with Father
Chains, who runs a con game. They run the con with the twins, Calo and Galdo.
Locke Lamora, Calo, and Galdo leave Father Chains to form a new crew. They have unrecorded adventures until they try to pull a con on Don Lorenzo Salvara. The two other members of this crew are Jean Tannen, a powerful man, and Bug, a fresh recruit. Their fifth member is Sabetha, but she is on a mission in another town. Their goal is to amass a fortune large enough to escape Camorr forever.
All the
thieving crews in Camorr pay tribute to Capa Barsavi. A new thief threatens
them, named the Gray King. The Gray King has issues with Barsavi and with Lamora.
The three groups struggle with each other. They lose fortunes and lives. Lamora
wants to survive and escape Camorr with his fortune. It will be a hard task,
but he vows to survive and win.
Recommendation
I read The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch from March 22, 2017, to April 17, 2017. There were three books I read in 2017 for which I did not write a book review at that time. This is the second of the three retro posts I will write. The Lies of Locke Lamora is an interesting mix of influences. It serves as a history book for the society of Comorr. The author based the society on Renaissance Venice with magic added. Locke Lamora’s early thieving career has aspects of Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. The main storyline follows a caper path like the movie Ocean’s Eleven.
They published the next two books in the series in 2007 and 2013. I held off reading them at that time because I had heard that there would be a delay in releasing the fourth novel, The Thorn of Emberlain. On his website, he stated that he completed a draft for the book in May 2019. It must come out soon, so I plan to read the next two as soon as I can.
Links
This is the link to the Goodreads page of The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch.
The series that this novel reminds me most of is the first book the Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson. Mistborn has a crew of thieves that must pull off a difficult heist. The series goes in a different direction, but it starts in a similar spot. This is the link to the Goodreads page of Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson.
I posted a review on a book with a similar background to The Lies of Locke Lamora on Port of Shadows by Glen Cook. Port of Shadows has a similar magic system and features a medieval technology level.
In Port of Shadows by Glen Cook, The Black Company searches for rebels but finds dozens of identical young girls. Can Croaker unravel the mystery before the rebels open the Port of Shadows and free a powerful sorcerer?
Shards of Honor by Lois
McMaster Bujold, Book #1 of the Vorkosigan saga.
Introduction
Shards of Honor by Lois
McMaster Bujold is book one of the Vorkosigan saga. Commander Cordelia Naismith
is the leader of the Betan Astronomical Survey studying the unclaimed planet named
Sergyar. The crew of Captain Aral Vorkosigan’s ship mutiny and drive off the Betans,
leaving Cordelia behind. Vorkosigan takes her prisoner and they must hike five
days to a Barrayaran supply cache to be rescued. Will they make it to the
supply cache, or will they kill each other before they arrive?
Summary
In Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold humans populate many solar systems connected by wormhole gates. Each solar system is independent. Beta Colony is a technology-rich but resource-poor system. The Betan Astronomical Survey sends Commander Cordelia Naismith to peacefully examine an unclaimed planet named Sergyer for resources. Her spaceship is called the Rene Magritte. Barrayar is an isolationistic materialistic society ruled by an Emperor. Some factions of the government are pushing for war. They secretly claim the planet named Sergyer and the important wormhole gate that the system contains. A warship named the General Vorkraft, commanded by Aral Vorkosigan, is sent to Sergyer to control the system. The Barrayaran aristocracy uses the honorific of Vor and Aral is a high-ranking member.
The pro-war faction stage a mutiny against Vorkosigan, kill Cordelia’s shipmates that are on the surface of the planet, and leave Vorkosigan to die. Vorkosigan takes Cordelia and Ensign Dubauer, her brain scrambled crewmember, as his prisoners. Cordelia sends her ship away to warn the Beta Colony. Vorkosigan, Cordelia, and Dubauer walk five days to a Barrayan supply cache. Vorkosigan plans to get resupplied and retake his ship. During the walk, Vorkosigan and Cordelia develop a mutual respect that leads to a romance.
Through the course of the novel, they are separated and reunite. Vorkosigan faces challenges on Barrayar, and Cordelia faces challenges on Beta Colony. Some Barrayans they face are Sergeant Bothari, Emperor Ezar Vobarra, Crown Prince Serg Vobarra, Admiral Vorrutyer, Imperial Lieutenant Simon Illyan, and Ensign Koudelka. Cordelia faces the Betans; Dr. Sprague, Dr. Mehta, and Betan President Steady Freddy. There is enough plot in this novel for at least a trilogy.
Recommendation
Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold is a fun-filled space opera mixed with a romance. Cordelia and Vorkosigan are meant for one another, and I was happy to follow them on their adventures. I thought the Betan claims were almost plausible that Vorkosigan brainwashed Cordelia to be his spy. I would have liked to see more of that storyline, but I am glad that I can continue with the follow-up novel, Barrayar (Book #7 of the Vorkosigan saga), which continues examining the complicated politics of Barrayar.
Links
This is the link to the
Goodreads page of Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold.
In Falling Free (Book #4 of the Vorkosigan saga) by Lois McMaster Bujold, space engineer Leo Graf must decide between retiring or risking his life protecting his students. The novel is a fun, self-contained space opera romp.
In July 2018, I completed the first draft of Assassin
in New Marl City totaling 99,981 words and 36 chapters. Completed pre-second
draft (30 chapters long) in December 2018 at 89,072 words. Finished second draft
edits for Chapters 26 and 27 in August, chapters 28, 29, and 30 in September,
and chapters 19 and 20 in October. I reviewed chapter 21 in November and chapter
25 in December to complete the second draft edit. I started writing a new Chapter
1 in February 2020 and plan to finish it in March 2020. The third draft will
have 32 Chapters and I will start the third draft edits in March 2020.
In February, I submitted chapters 27 and 28 of Assassin in New Marl City to the Novel Writing Workshop at Parma, Ohio library.
Writing Progress from February 2020 Continued
In February, I submitted the story “Dear Allie” to the
Introductory Writing Workshop at Parma,
Ohio library.
I made five posts on my Goodreads account in February.
In the past, I submitted the stories The Four Humors, Space Station Sunyata, Grognard, Get to
the Point, LARP Film noir, Sleeping Sickness, and Popular Mechanics Re-brewed
to magazines.
I submitted “Caliburnus” to Daily Science Fiction online
magazine in February.
Magazine submissions for 2020 are; 2 different stories submitted 2 times with 0 accepted, 1 pending, and 1 rejection.
Events
from February 2020
The next conference I plan to attend is Cleveland ConCoction on March 20
to 22, 2020.
This is a
link to the Cleveland ConCoction website.
I plan to write five blog posts for garydavidgillen.com
including my Writing Progress Report for March 2020.
I plan to work
on third draft edits for Assassin in New Marl City using comments from the Novel
Writing Workshop at Parma, Ohio. In July 2019, I started the third draft edit for
my earlier Chapter One and used it in the first pages workshop at Confluence
2019. I plan to complete third draft edits for chapters 2, 3, and 4 in March
2020.
Polish and submit the stories Caliburnus, Space-Dog
Confession, White Bracer, Mage Squad, I Shall Not Return, Prisoner of Tarnal, and Kay-Eye for submission to short fiction
magazines.
Submit the Four Humors, Space Station Sunyata, Grognard, LARP Film noir, Sleeping Sickness, and Popular Mechanics Re-brewed to other short fiction magazines.
Writing Goals for March 2020 Continued
Put the novel, Assassin in New Marl City, into the writing
program, Scrivener.
Buy an e-book cover for Assassin in New Marl City from
Fiveer.
Write a story for the Introductory
Writing Workshop at Parma, Ohio library.
In March 2020, I plan to make five posts on my
Goodreads account and update ten posts on my website to improve their SEO.
Planned
Events for March 2020
The next conference I plan to attend is Cleveland ConCoction on March 20
to 22, 2020.
This is a
link to the Cleveland ConCoction website.
Last Wish by Andrzej
Sapkowski is a fantasy short story collection featuring Geralt of Rivia. Geralt
is a Witcher, a human transformed to fight monsters for money. He kills
monsters from fables come to life in this fantasy version of Europe. The beasts
and monsters are receding from the world. What will a Witcher do when there are
no more monsters to fight?
Summary – Introduction
There are seven stories in this
collection. The first story of the series, The Witcher, was published in the
Polish science fiction and fantasy magazine, Fantastyka. Five other stories are
self-contained. The seventh story is a framing story told in seven chapters that
appear between the other six stories. The seventh story called The Voice of
Reason tells a complete story and illuminates and connects the other six
stories into one narrative. Netflix released the first season of the TV show
The Witcher on December 20, 2019. They adapted five of the stories in this
collection in season one. The TV episodes combine three narratives into each episode.
The three narratives are the short stories in the collections the Last Wish
and the Sword of Destiny, Yennefer’s backstory, and Ciri’s backstory.
Summaries of each of the seven stories follow.
Summary–The Witcher
The first story is The
Witcher. The story gives a great introduction to the characters and the
world they inhabit. Geralt’s first mission is to defeat a striga, preferably without
killing it. A striga is a being created from a curse. Geralt must risk being
killed to break the curse. They adapted the story in the Netflix Show in Episode 3, Betrayer Moon.
Summary–A Grain of Truth
A Grain of Truth is the second full story of the collection. The author based
the story on the Beauty and the Beast fable. Geralt finds two people killed by
an animal that he does not recognize. He follows the animal’s trail and must
unravel a mystery involving a vampire-like being called a bruxa. They did not
adapt this story for the Netflix show. I think the audience is too familiar
with the Beauty and the Beast fable because of the Disney movie, so the
showrunners felt that it would be too hard to adapt and stay interesting.
Summary–The Lesser Evil
The Lesser Evil is a story that introduces important actions he takes that define Geralt’s character. To start the story Geralt kills a kikimora, a large spidery beast, and he looks for payment at the nearby town of Blaviken. The alderman sends him to a wizard, Stregobor, whom he realizes that he knows when they meet. Geralt is stuck between the wizard and a woman thief, Renfri, who both want the other dead and both want Geralt to help each other do the deed. Geralt maintains that he hunts monsters and will not be an assassin for hire. Which lesser of two evils will Geralt choose?
Geralt prefers to choose neither,
but events will get beyond his control. The events of this story will earn
Geralt the title of Butcher of Blaviken. There are subtle aspects of the Snow
White fable in the written story. They adapted the story in the Netflix show in
Episode 1, The End’s Beginning. It is the first episode of the show and features
exciting visuals and twisting plot points, so I see why the showrunners placed
it first in the Netflix show.
Summary–The Question of Price
The Question of Price is the next story in the collection. There are two ideas in
this story that are interrelated. The story has aspects of the Rumpelstiltskin
fable. In the fable, Rumplestiltskin asks for the miller’s daughter’s firstborn
child to spin the straw into gold for her. The fable is mixed with the honor
code called the Law of Surprise. It’s the rule that if someone saves another’s life,
then the rescuer can take a boon unknown to both at the time of the rescue. Queen
Calanthe of Cintra hires Geralt to do an unspecified deed that she assures him
has something to do with his profession as a monster hunter. Geralt doesn’t
want to be an assassin, so he is dubious, but he lets the scenario play out.
The occasion is the betrothal feast of the queen’s daughter, Pavetta. The
resulting situation will have effects down the line in Geralt’s ultimate destiny.
They adapted this story in the
Netflix show in Episode 4, Of Banquets, Bastards, and Burials. The written
story features a troubadour, but that part is given to Jaskier in the show.
Jaskier is called Dandelion in the written stories. He is a bard who is
Geralt’s best friend and companion on some of his adventures, but not this written
story.
Summary–The Edge of the World
The Edge of the World is the next story in the collection. It features a beast the
villagers of Lower Posada hire Geralt to kill. Geralt discovers the beast is a
sylvan, a creature of the woods, and he learns of the plight of the elves.
Geralt must make a difficult decision balancing the wishes of the villagers and
the elves. This is the first story that features Dandelion (Jaskier in the
Netflix show). They adapted this story in the Netflix show in Episode 2, Four
Marks.
Summary–The Last Wish
The Last Wish is the last full story in the collection. Geralt and
Dandelion are fishing for food and catch a bottle containing a Djinn. Dandelion’s
neck swells and Geralt searches for a sorcerer to heal Dandelion because
without his voice he will cease to be a bard, Geralt finds Yennefer, a witch who
will heal Dandelion for a price. She has her own hidden motivations to help
them. Will Geralt pay her price? They adapted this story in the Netflix show in
Episode 5, Bottled Appetites. Dandelion and Yennefer are both in the Netflix
show as the characters they are in the written story.
Summary–The Voice of Reason
The Voice of Reason is a story in seven chapters spaced between the other six
stories in the collection. In this story, Geralt comes to the Temple of Melitele
to recover from his injuries sustained in his encounter with the striga. He is
under the care of the priestess Nenneke. He dreams or tells about the other
stories in the collection. The prince of Ellander wants Geralt to leave his
territory because he doesn’t like witchers and what they represent. Geralt must
carry out an impossible task to win his escape. They used aspects of this story
in the Netflix show, but the story is mainly a framing device to bring the
stories to hang together as a cohesive whole.
Recommendation
Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski is a great collection of stories. It’s like a sword and sorcery version of Grimm’s Fairy Tales. The story has a fable put in it, and Geralt must face a difficult decision to carry out his goals for each story. Dandelion and Yennefer are wonderful foils to Geralt, and I’m glad to know they continue with important roles in the series. They adapted five of the tales in The Last Wish in the Netflix show, and the last three episodes of the Netflix show were adapted from story stories from the second collection called The Sword of Destiny.
Links
Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski Goodreads page is linked below.
Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski is similar to Red Country by Joe Abercrombie. Red Country has a similar magic system and features a medieval technology level. It is linked below.
Storming by KM Weiland is a historical/dieselpunk mash-up novel set in Nebraska in the 1920s. Barnstorming pilot Robert “Hitch” Hitchcock runs into a mysterious girl, Jael. She drops from the clouds and falls onto his biplane. Jael looks and acts like she comes from another country and another place. Who is she and what does she want? Hitch’s life becomes complicated when sky pirates come looking for her and try to take over his hometown in Nebraska.
Summary
Storming by KM Weiland begins with Hitch returning to his hometown of Scottsbluff, Nebraska on a barnstorming tour. He left his hometown many years ago searching for adventure and escaping from secrets from his past. Hitch is in Scottsbluff practicing flying an old plane wanting to impress a big shot hoping to join his flying circus. On a practice run with his biplane, he sees a woman drop from the clouds onto his plane. She falls into the lake and he tries to find her.
Along the way Hitch runs into the colorful characters found in Scottsbluff; Sherriff Campbell, Hitch’s brother sheriff’s deputy Griff, a mute boy Walter, feuding brothers J.W. and Matthew Berringer, and the Carpenter family who are farmers. Jael is from Storming. She has something that the maniacal Zlo from Storming wants from her. He comes looking for her and the citizens of Scottsbluff are in his way. Zlo will stop at nothing to get what he wants. Hitch must reevaluate his life and make a choice; help Jael with an impossible task or run away from everyone along with a fortune.
Recommendation
I read Storming by KM Weiland from February 15, 2017, to April 3, 2017. There were three books I read in 2017 for which I did not write a book review at that time. This is the first of the three retro posts that I will write. Storming was a fun and quick book to read. I enjoyed checking my notes on the book to prepare this review. I liked all the characters and the setting was interesting. By reading the complete outline transcript (as I detail in the links below), I understood how she developed the ideas to end up with this story. It would have been a different book if she had used Jael as the protagonist and set more of the story on Storming. I agree with her reasons for her choices and I’m happy with the book as written though.
Links
This is the link to the
Goodreads page of Storming by KM Weiland
In the outline, she writes her idea brainstorms, orders her ideas into scenes, and then writes summaries for each of the 50 scenes for the book. As a writer, what was most helpful to me was examining the complete outline transcript from her novel Storming which is available on her website.
The transcript uses the ideas from her book, Outlining Your
Novel, and from her other books on writing. Another resource that is available
on her website is a free template for the writing program Scrivener. The Scrivener
program is available for 30 days free on their website.
Tiamats Wrath by James SA Corey is the eighth book of The Expanse series. Winston Duarte and his band of former members of the MRCN from Laconia continue their plan to subjugate the whole human race. They plan to take over the solar system, creating an Empire with Duarte as the leader. Duarte believes he is the only person with the vision to defeat the creatures who destroyed the civilization who had built the gates to the 1300 worlds. Both sides gain victories and suffer defeats. Can James Holden and his crew defeat the Empire threatening to take over the 1300 worlds of man?
Summary
There are six viewpoint characters in Tiamats Wrath by James SA Corey.
James Holden is the viewpoint character in the prologue. The Laconians
hold him as a captive at their capital. They have kept him long enough that his
knowledge of the resistance is outdated, but they keep him around for a reason
only known by Winston Duarte.
Bobbie Draper is the captain of The Gathering Storm, the advanced Laconian
ship that the resistance captured. Her plan is to find ways that she can use
the ship to bring the resistance force to the Laconians. Her first mission is
to steal the special fuel needed to power the ship.
Alex Kamal is Bobbie’s pilot for The Gathering Storm. He gives a different perspective on Bobbie’s efforts. Alex has an old school approach to the resistance in contrast to newer members of the resistance. He remembers the actions of the OPA from thirty years ago, while a new generation has been born into the era of the Transport Union and the opening of the 1300 worlds.
Summary 2
Naomi Nagata has a different idea of resistance. She favors winning the
war from within the enemy. She thinks attacking the Laconians economically and politically
will win the war in time. Using that philosophy, she works behind the scenes
using the old OPA network.
Teresa Duarte is Winton Duarte’s daughter. He has made her his heir and
the potential ruler of a thousand-year-old empire. She is 14 years old and is
trying to come to terms with her place in society and as the heir.
Elvi Okoye is part of the science initiative to determine the nature of
the beings that destroyed the makers of the gates billions of years ago. The
Laconians have stationed her on a ship that explores the 1300 worlds of the
builders for clues to their demise.
Recommendation
Tiamats Wrath by James SA Corey seems like the middle novel of a trilogy. It continues the narrative from Persepolis Rising and builds up to the climax of the series in the ninth and final book. Bobbie’s story and Holden’s story paid off. Teresa’s story is just beginning. Eli’s story and Naomi’s story are setting up for a payoff in the next book. This is a great novel and I’m looking forward to reading the final book to see how the storylines are completed. So far, the ninth book is untitled, but they have it scheduled it to be published in 2020. I have put the book on my list to read this year.
Links
This is the link to the Goodreads page of Tiamats Wrath by James SA Corey.
In Babylon’s Ashes by James S.A. Corey, the Free Navy is trying to take the 1300 worlds. Can Holden and his crew defeat the Free Navy? Great conclusion to the Free Navy storyline.
In Persepolis Rising by James S.A. Corey, the Laconians plan to take the 1300 worlds. Can Holden and his crew defeat the Laconians? It starts a new trilogy. Great beginning to the Laconian storyline.
I attended the SF conference named ConFusion Detroit 2020 at 21111 Haggerty Road Novi, Michigan at the Sheraton Detroit Novi from January 16 to 19, 2020. The Ann Arbor Science Fiction Association sponsors ConFusion Detroit 2020. I attended four panels, two readings, and one interview. The theme of the conference was How to Train Your Confusion. It was a play on words promoting the movie How to Train Your Dragon. They showed the movie in the boardroom, but I did not watch it then.
The Ann Arbor Science
Fiction Association sponsors Detroit ConFusion.
Outside the Sheraton in snowy Michigan at the ConFusion Detroit 2020 Science Fiction Conference.
The 2020 Logo for ConFusion
Detroit 2020.
ConFusion Detroit 2020
Program Guide Cover
This is my badge
for ConFusion Detroit 2020.
Summary
Saturday, January
18th at 10 AM
The Future of Space
Travel panel with Jeff Beeler, Elly Bangs, Shannon Eichhorn, and Tobias Buckell:
What do the future
of space travel hold for us in the near term and the far future? They talked about
playing the game Kerbal Space Program. It is a space flight simulation game where
the player manages a space program using green-skinned Kerbals. https://www.kerbalspaceprogram.com/
For the current state of the space program they talked about the 2020 Mars
Lander and BFR Plus spaceship designed by SpaceX. Recommended books and
websites followed. The Case for Mars by Robert Zubin. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56713.The_Case_for_Mars
The Elon Musk Blog Series, Wait but Why by Tim Urban. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29437730-the-elon-musk-blog-series The
SpaceX feed at https://twitter.com/SpaceX They suggest following Gwynne Shotwell, who is
the President and Chief Operating Officer of SpaceX. She is the one who makes Elon
Musk’s ideas become reality.
They held the
panel in the Interlochen room with 28 attendees. There weren’t enough chairs in
the room, so six people were standing, including me.
Saturday, January 18th at 11 AM
Interstellar
Nations and Warfare: Space Opera Worldbuilding panel with Karen Burnham,
Marquel Jacob, Jenn Lyons, and Glynn Stewart:
The
first point is why write space opera if the physics tells us it is not likely
that we will communicate instantly through space and there is no faster than light
space travel? We write space opera because it is fun to extrapolate on current
technology. If the writer keeps the rules consistent internally, then it is okay
to write space opera.
If civilization is interstellar, then there should not be a scarcity of resources. So, where does the conflict come from? The conflict could come with ideas and the scarcity of specific resources. The primal motivations are land, money, and lies. Examples used with FTL travel as conflicts are an unstable FTL travel method in The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi and the scarcity of the spice used for FTL travel in Dune by Frank Hebert. The panel talked about pet peeves where authors get Worldbuilding wrong. Not following the rules of artificial gravity, there is no FTL travel in the story, but there is a fast trip to Jupiter, a one ecosystem planet, and no normal people left.
They
held the panel in the Manitou room with 22 attendees.
Saturday,
January 18th at 4 PM
Reading
by John Scalzi:
John Scalzi read from his soon to be released novel named the Last Emperox, a story from his book A Very Scalzi Christmas, a post from his blog, and he ended the hour with a question-and-answer session.
He read Chapter Two
of The Last Emperox. It is the third and final book of the Interdependency Trilogy
and will be released on April 14, 2020. The Chapter was from Kiva Lagos’s
perspective and concerns the events that occurred at the end of the previous novel
in the series.
A Very Scalzi Christmas
collects 15 short tales about the holiday season. He read one tale named
Resolutions for the New Year–A Bullet Point List. It was brief and was hilarious.
A short Q and A
followed. Scalzi had a question about using the first person in his novel named
Lock In. He remarked that seven years ago there was no narrative about binary
gender identification. Now, only seven years later, it’s not even an issue
anymore. Someone asked Scalzi about how he got the military culture correct in
the Old Man’s War series. He said his father and brother were in the service and
he did a lot of research to make the story work. Someone asked Scalzi about TV
and movie projects. He confirmed that the Redshirts project is dead… twice
dead. Scalzi confirmed that he has delivered 4 of the 13 novels contacted by
Tor. The trilogy is a trilogy and no more, though his original proposal
included a book set 5000 years in the Interdependency’s future.
The whole hour was
fun and perfect. It was my best hour of the conference.
They held the reading
in Ballroom C & D with 33 attendees.
Saturday,
January 18th at 5 PM
Science
Guest of Honor Reading of Edible Insects and Human Evolution by Dr. Julie
Lesnik:
She read from her book
Edible Insects and Human Evolution. Images projected on a screen accompanied
the reading. Most of the images were humorous.
First, we must
understand our aversion to eating insects. Humans display fear and disgust for
the concept of eating bugs. Fear goes with spiders and disgust goes with an aversion
to disease. By taste, humans associate sweet and salty to good and bitter to
bad. Uncooked insects are bitter; thus, people consider them bad to eat.
Insects in the human
diet have gone for absent to adverse through time. Romans consumed insects. Something
happened where insects have become absent in Western Civilization’s diet, and
this absence has transformed into an aversion to eating insects. In modern
times, people in Equatorial regions consume insects. Why is this behavior
observed?
Will humans
overcome the aversion to eating insects? Insects are a great source of protein.
They use Black Soldier fly larva in pet food and they use mealworms in
bioconversion. The most likely source for insect consumption is crickets. They
are not economical now, but the price point is coming closer to feasibility.
She brought edible crickets for those audience members who wanted to try them.
They held the reading
in the Keweenaw room with 31 attendees. There weren’t enough chairs in the room,
so four people stood.
Saturday,
January 18th at 6 PM
Short Fiction
Submission: Advice from the Editor panel with Jeff Chapman, Jennie Ivins, Scott
Andrews, Mur Lafferty, and Alvin Mullin:
The editors in the
panel answered about the dos and don’ts when submitting for magazines and
anthologies. The panelists have a varied background as editors.
Jeff Chapman
reaches writing and is an editor for a literary magazine.
Advice for successfully
submitting short fiction includes use no special formatting, learn about special
requirements for each market where you are submitting, and read an issue of the
magazine to understand the stories the magazine accepts. Read the submission guidelines
and know your market. Note that the submission grinder gives example turnaround
times for each magazine. https://thegrinder.diabolicalplots.com/
Keep your cover letters
short. Try to emotionally detach yourself from rejection. Form rejections are
part of the process. A mistake is a moment to learn. If they reject you, then
you are a working writer.
She talked about the great time she had on her Spanish tour in 2019. She talked about pushing for getting a breakout book which caused her to burnout. It took her four years to write book three of a series when she lost her agent and wondered if she could make a living as a writer. She persevered, got a new agent, and wrote three books in a year. Keep doing the work because you don’t know what book will break out. Continue your journey on how to take feedback. Turn off your critic’s brain when you are reading as an author. Create a realistic success metric for yourself. Write the book of your heart.
They held the
panel in the Charlevoix room with 12 attendees.
Sunday, January 19th at 11 AM
Plan Your Outbreak!
lecture with Keren Landsman:
Keren Landsman is an Israeli writer and doctor specializing in Epidemiology and Public Health. Her science lecture was about from influenza to the black death, discussing what made the largest biological disasters happen and how to use that knowledge in Worldbuilding an outbreak.
Worldbuilding is a
character on its own. It needs a significant role in the story’s plot. A
pathogen causes disease. She talked about various diseases including Tuberculosis,
syphilis, the black plague, rabies, cholera, and Ebola. An example was the Broad
Street Pump. Dr. John Snow figures out the cause for a cholera outbreak by
interviewing patients to determine they all used a single contaminated water pump.
One thing to remember
is that doctors and nurses always get the disease they are treating. The family
members are the next to get the disease. Rabies is not a good disease to build
an outbreak story from since it is only transmitted from animal to human by
biting. Traveling Italian merchants brought The Black Death to Europe. It is
normal to have quarantine for 40 days.
They held the
panel in the Leelanaw room with 10 attendees.
Recommendation
– Conclusion
As I drove up I-75 into Michigan, I drove into a snowstorm. I drove slowly and got there safely. The ConFusion Detroit 2020 conference was held in this location previously. In 2019, I attended the con in another location, so it took me a while to figure out how to get to the conference center from inside the hotel. Once I got to the conference center, the locations were easy to navigate. There was more room at this location and it had more activities than in 2019. I enjoyed the variety. My star of the con was John Scalzi. He gave an excellent reading of Chapter Two of his upcoming book named The Last Emperox. My other highlights were Kameron Hurley’s interview and the lecture on Edible Insects and Human Evolution. I’m planning to return next year.
Links
I attended the SF conference ConFusion in Detroit, Michigan from January 18 to 20, 2019. The theme of the con was Storming the ConFusion, so they designated the areas with names related to the movie, The Princess Bride. I had a great drive to Detroit just before the snowstorm came. My star of the con was John Scalzi. He gave an excellent reading and was engaging in the panel I attended. My other highlights were Ada Palmer’s interview and watching The Princess Bride at the con. I’ll be back next year.
In July 2018, I completed the first draft of Assassin
in New Marl City totaling 99,981 words and 36 chapters. Completed pre-draft two
(30 chapters long) in December 2018 at 89,072 words. Finished draft two edits
for Chapters 26 and 27 in August, chapters 28, 29, and 30 in September, and chapters
19 and 20 in October. I reviewed chapter 21 in November and chapter 25 in December
to complete the draft two edit. I will start the third draft edits in March
2020.
In January, I submitted chapters 25 and 26 of Assassin
in New Marl City to the Novel Writing
Workshop at Parma, Ohio library.
In January, I submitted the story “Hannibal
Washington’s Fall” to the Introductory Writing
Workshop at Parma, Ohio library.
I made five posts on my Goodreads account in January.
In the past, I submitted the stories The Four Humors, Space Station Sunyata, Grognard, Get to
the Point, LARP Film noir, and Sleeping Sickness to magazines.
I submitted “Popular Mechanics Re-brewed” to Daily
Science Fiction online magazine in January.
Magazine submissions for 2020 are; 1 different story submitted 1 time with 0 accepted, 1 pending, and 0 rejection.
Events
from January 2020
I attended the ConFusion Conference in Novi, Michigan from January 16 to
19, 2020. The Ann Arbor Science Fiction Association Sponsors ConFusion.
I plan to write five blog posts for garydavidgillen.com
including my Writing Progress Report for February 2020.
I plan to work
on third draft edits for Assassin in New Marl City using comments from the Novel
Writing Workshop at Parma, Ohio. In July 2019, I started the third draft edit
for Chapter One and used it at the first pages workshop at Confluence 2019. I
plan to complete third draft edits for chapters 1, 2, 3, and 4 in March 2020.
Polish and submit the stories Caliburnus, Space-Dog
Confession, White Bracer, Mage Squad, I Shall Not Return, Prisoner of Tarnal, and Kay-Eye for submission to short fiction
magazines.
Submit the Four Humors,
Space Station Sunyata, Grognard, LARP Film noir, Sleeping Sickness, and Popular
Mechanics Re-brewed to other short fiction magazines.
Put the novel, Assassin in New Marl City, into the writing
program, Scrivener.
Buy an e-book cover for Assassin in New Marl City from
Fiveer.
Write a story for the Introductory
Writing Workshop at Parma, Ohio library.
I plan to make five posts on my Goodreads account;
update the information on my Facebook and Twitter accounts and update all the
pages of my website in February 2020.
Planned
Events for February 2020
The next conference I plan to attend is Cleveland ConCoction on March 20
to 22, 2020.
This is a link to the Cleveland ConCoction website.
I attended the SF Conference Marcon Columbus 2017 on
May 13, 2017. They held the conference at 350 North High Street Columbus, Ohio 43215
at the Hyatt Regency Columbus. The drive
was two-plus hours taken in the morning and back in the evening. I also attended
Marcon in 2018 and 2019. The 2019 convention was from May 10 to 12,
2019 and I realized when I wrote a recap for that conference, I had not posted
a recap for the 2017 conference. This is my recap of the 2017 conference. I
attended five panels at the 2017 conference.
Dystopias 2: this
is the way the world ends, a panel with Karen Dollinger, Courtney Bliss, Joaryn
Bailey, Donald Haynes, and Alyssa Pence.
The discussion was
about dystopias. You don’t need an apocalypse to get a dystopia. Someone benefits
from a dystopia. The story helps us to question how things are now. Books in
this genre are a lens for social commentary. Human nature is not to be static.
Recommended books are Newsflesh by Mira Grant, The City of Ember by Jeanne
DuPrau, and 1984 by George Orwell.
They held the
panel in the McKinley Room with 15 attendees.
Saturday,
May 13th at 1 PM
Humorous Science Fiction
and Fantasy, a panel with Addie J. King, Kandi Hopkins, Deb Wallace, and L.
Anne Wooley.
Who does humor well?
The answers were Terry Pratchett, John Scalzi, Christopher Moore, J. K.
Rowling, Robert Asprin, Spider Robinson, and Jim Butcher.
What makes it
work? If you find it funny, then you may be able to write it. Use humor to
break up the serious parts of your novel. Give the readers a break by using
humor. Try not to over-explain the humor or it will lose its impact.
They held the panel in the McKinley Room with 16 attendees.
Saturday,
May 13th at 2:30 PM
Antiheroes: When
the main character could easily be the villain, a panel with Denice Verrico,
Karen Dollinger, Faye Malcolm, Erin Reilly-Sanders, Van Siegling.
There is a
spectrum of characters from the worst villain Sauron from Lord of the Rings to
the best hero Dudley Doo Right. An antihero works as long as the protagonist is
more hero-like on the spectrum than the antagonist. An Antihero rejects the
norms of society. Examples of antiheroes are Dexter, protagonists in bank heist
stories, Walter White, Saul Goodman, and Scarlett O’Hara.
They held the
panel in the McKinley Room with 21 attendees.
Saturday,May 13th at 4 PM
The
Difference Between Story and Plot, a panel with Shannon Eichhorn, Charles
Ebert, Addie J. King, Linda Robertson, Scott M. Sandridge.
The
story is how you get there and the plot is the mechanics of the story. Ask yourself,
does the plot move the story along? Read what you write. You need to be in love
with your story as you are writing it. Write what you want too in the first
draft but be prepared to kill your darlings in editing to strengthen your story.
When constructing a story understand if your genre expects a series.
They
held the panel in the McKinley Room with 11 attendees.
Saturday,
May 13th at 5:30 PM
Cursed Children
and Fantastic Beasts, a panel with Karen Dollinger, Hannah Blosser, Emily
Lydic, Leah Nicola, and Amanda Caskey.
The panelists were
experts in all things Harry Potter. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Parts One
and Two is a stage play of the theater production. They held the stage
production on July 30, 2016, and the book was released on July 31, 2016. The panelists
talked about both presentations. They released the movie named Fantastic Beasts
and Where to Find Them on November 18, 2016. The panel talked about the movie
and the expected four sequels.
They held the
panel in the Harrison Room with 12 attendees.
Recommendation –
Conclusion
I had a great time at Marcon Columbus 2017. My star of
the con was the panel on Cursed Children and Fantastic Beasts. I had read the
printed stage play for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and watched the movie
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, so I understood the panel and enjoyed
what they had to say. I also attended
Marcon in 2018 and 2019 and plan to return on May 9, 2020.
Links
Recap for SF Conference Marcon Columbus I attended on May 12, 2018, at the Hyatt Regency in Columbus, Ohio. I attended four panels and two game shows.
Recap for SF Conference Marcon Columbus on May 11, 2019. They held it at Crowne Plaza – Columbus North. I also attended Marcon in 2017 and 2018. This year I attended four panels, a performance, and an interview.
