Semi-Random Thoughts

Semi-random thoughts on coming up on the end of the year.

I'm fortunate that I can look around at this time of year and look for folks that can use a few bucks; not yet anywhere close to the point of one of my heroes, the gentleman around these parts that yearly manages to slip a double-eagle coin (i.e. one Troy ounce of solid gold) into a red kettle without being 'caught', but I'll get there someday. This year, due to the tornadoes in the U.S. that started this month, and the floods in Malaysia as I write, I'm reminded that, whatever my personal concerns about the International Red Cross and the Salvation Army, what those organizations do in the immediacy of a crisis is peerless, necessary, and a blessing. I can save my gripes about them for encouraging both organizations to strive for always getting better, not for getting in their way when they're doing the work.

That said, there are also many other folks involved in both crises, and the others besetting our little world. If you're able, seek out and give where you can. May any such blessings you are able to give, especially the good voice in your heart, be multiplied a thousand-fold.

On other subjects:

I couldn't help thinking of the Big Chill when I read Cassandra Khaw's Nothing But Blackened Teeth. Which means soundtrack. Which, for me at least, for this story I think the sountrack lies somewhere between, on the one hand, New Order, Depeche Mode, and Ministry, and on the other hand 30 Seconds to Mars, Linkin Park, and Evanescence? Maybe something more EDM, Prodigy? I dunno, there's a thousand threads here, which I know all seem like Shirley Manson's territory, but either way Nothing But Blackened Teeth just seems to demand music from this stream.

A mentor/hero/idol figure will always fuck you if you let the relationship stay that way for too long. There's a certain point where, if they're doing their job right, you're supposed to become their peer, not their employee/sidekick/follower perpetual. This I think is where the "Never meet your heroes/Never revisit your faves" bit comes from. We all have that moment where we see the feet of clay, whether it's a book the suck-fairy hit up while we weren't looking, or a person we 'should' have learned to treat with a little more distance. It's hard though, isn't it? There's almost always a reason we never wanted to think of them as just another member of this poor fallen mortal choir...

Working definition of a peer: not Reviewer 2. Nor really Rev 1. Rev 3, the one who kicks your ass and tells you what you did right, that's the magic combination.

Rev 2 just pisses me off, they're picking a fight just to pick one. Rev 1 I never know whether to trust someone who blows smoke up my ass; that, or I recognized the reviewer's writing and discounted it due the friendship. Rev 3, on the other hand, is where I always tried to land: here are the things I'm worried about, here's how to fix them, and here's where I think you really hit the good stuff.

Outside of an explicit peer setting, and my real and total life friends and family, how often have I encountered this?

Approximately never. Real collaborations are a rare and precious thing. I dunno, maybe I just have a different view of what collaboration means; more likely though is that, just like real love or real friendship, there are only a few people out there that we can really and truly work with on a peer-to-peer basis for extended periods. The literature examples I know of seem to bear this out.

Mark Lawrence's Red/Grey/Holy Sister trilogy was a fun ride. So too the autobiographies of Keith Richards, Dave Grohl, and Mel Brooks.

Holy crap did I read a lot of LitRPG/GameLit fiction this year. To the point of forgetting, which is normal for me when I find a new story niche to explore. Will I write any? No, but that doesn't mean I didn't learn anything from my sojourn here. A lot of fun stuff, but I'll be honest, there's so much here that I did read that I'm not really seeing any titles that I'd say "You've got to read this". Instead I'd have to say, just dive in, if you pick a "book 1" and can handle the conventions, and persist a little, you'll find your way I think. The genre definitely seems to have found its space, that's for sure.

A friend at work turned me onto a band called The Warning, from Monterey, Mexico, they're an absolute blast. A sister trio, imagine Heart if they'd had a sister on the drums and you're in the right ballpark. Very real chops here, and their songwriting approach is going in some really fun sonic directions as the sisters grow into their world. I really look forward to seeing where they're headed.

I'm looking forward to next year, and hoping that it comes up well for you all, dear readers, as well. We'll get there, I promise.

Sure it's a bumpy ride, but that's what we pay our nickles for, isn't it? I'm up for the ride if you are. Come with me, let's see what they've got.