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Crawl Out Through the Fallout Baby

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  I am a gamer. I think I may need to start going to AA for gaming, gamers anonymous, do they have that? It's a problem, I particularly have a love for RPGs, but adventure gaming as a whole is for me. Many, many, years ago, when computers had green screens with neon green type blinking fancifully across the monitor, I would sit in my father's offices, wherever we were posted, and play Zork I: The Underground Empire. I would describe this game as the godfather of adventure games. Each time I see, "West of House. You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door. There is a mailbox here," I am flooded with memories, imagination, and the urge to play. If you are interested, there are plenty of emulators out there, look it up and give it a try. As time moved on, I got into 3/4 perspective role playing games, which simply means the gameplay takes place looking down on a map as you navigate your player, and/or party, through the story and en
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One if by Land, Two if by Sea

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I always tell my students that there are no new stories, simply various perspectives on a handful of premises. Most of them gasp, think I am nuts, and wonder why, then, should they bother studying our craft. Their doubt is usually assuaged when I bring up Star Wars, The Matrix, Harry Potter, and now Dune. (I did used to mention the 1984 Dune, but no one remembers that one much). I will end the presentation asking which one of them will have the next great take on the messiah story? It really gets the discussion going. At some point the question comes up, "how much can you borrow from another story?" My answer is nothing, it needs to be your own, but there are varying legal precedents for how much one can have similarities with another entity considering my earlier comment about their being nothing new really. Which brings me to two TV series I have recently watched. ITV's "Shetland" (available on Amazon Prime's Britbox) and BBC One's "Wallander,&quo
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Knights, Chivalry, and Sherlock Holmes?

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I wanted to start this with, "what young man doesn't love Sherlock Holmes?" I then thought for a moment that there are probably a lot of young men who have no idea who Sherlock Holmes is. Or at a bare minimum, they picture Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. I am not knocking that series by the way; it is extremely well done. I still prefer the Granada Television series from the 80's to early 90's with Freddie Eynsford... uh Jeremy Brett. Great series and adaptations. I have been reading the Holmes stories since I was about 8 years old. I bought an anthology collection of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock stories at a bookfair while we were stationed in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. I couldn't put it down. I have the same collection downloaded on audible, engaging to listen to, and well produced. Sadly, somewhere in transit over the years the book has disappeared.  Imagine my surprise when my wife recently recommended that I read Sir Arthur's historical n
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Location: Oldsmar, FL 34677, USA
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Best Served... as soon as you pick it up.

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I wrote about Joe Abercrombie's " First Law " series way back in 2008. At the time, his first book, well at least the only one that had been released in the US, was " The Blade Itself. " I think I mentioned that it took me a while to get settled in, but once I did, I was hooked. As a matter of fact, I read the first book over a period of two or three weeks. I had to have the second book once finished. It was not available in the US. I contacted some of my UK family and asked them to ship me a copy, which they did. I read " Before They Are Hanged " in three days. When finished with that one, I created an account on Amazon.co.uk, ordered the next book, paid the US import tax, and had it shipped here. (Turns out this was cheaper than having my family send me a copy). I read the " Last Argument of Kings " in one sitting. Finished it at 3:00/3:30am. My wife was not happy, but I loved the story, even with the somewhat anticlimactic ending. Imagine
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Fantasy Three... Well Maybe One... Musketeer

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  I saw a New York times write up of the " Society of the Sword " series (well, I think it was the NYT) by Duncan M. Hamilton, it read like this: "The Three Musketeers meets Game of Thrones." I was thinking, "I wish I had written that." It's certainly apropos. The problem is, the write up left out the book to the left, " The First Blade of Ostia ," which is the prequel to the first book in the series, " The Tattered Banner ." The story follows Bryn Pendollo, a young man who dreams of becoming a master fencer, and the title of "First Blade of Ostia." As I was reading through the prologue, it reminded me of how much I wanted to be like Dick Butkus or Randy White on the football field when I was a kid. The world in which this story is set focuses that kind of hero worship, or idolatry, on great master fencers who compete in the arena. They are celebrated martial artists, masters of their craft, who earn riches and recognition
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By Sea or By Land - Forrester vs. Cornwell

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 My father had a tremendous love of C.S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower series. With regularity he would press me about reading them. After all, I was born under the sign of water, and all things sail fascinate me. Of course the fact that my father attended the Naval Academy and held a Master Yawl Handler's license may have had something to do with that. With that said, at the time, my reading interests where elsewhere, so I steered clear of them for quite a bit.  Dad's love for those stories was such that each year, when the old Gregory Peck, Virginia Mayo " Horatio Hornblower " movie would show on the television, he and I would have to sit down and watch it. The movie is based off of Forester's book "Beat to Quarters" in the series. It has become one of those movies I like to watch when I am feeling nostalgic, and perhaps missing dad a bit. As the love of the film has made a viewing routine in our household, my wife has become a Hornblower fan as we
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Location: Oldsmar, FL 34677, USA
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Release Your Mind... By Reading.

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 One of the things I run into a lot these days is, people don't read. I am not talking about the quick snippet on the great google machine, or the next greatest post from your favorite influencer, I am talking about literature. With regularity students in my courses, when asked what was the last book they read, will say, "..uh, I don't read." Actually, the response usually is, "you mean books? No." It breaks my heart.  Reading is one of the greatest remedies to the stresses of the world. I often have this conversation when students are suffering from artist's block. I tell them they need to step back and read. The look I usually get is like I have just fed them some camphor oil mixed with ipecac... yes, I wrote that. But it's so true. We need to let our minds relax and begin to paint their own pictures. Hard to do that when we are bombarded with images from the google machine all day. Sitting down with a good book allows your mind to disconnect from
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