Thus far, it has been a long deployment. If anyone was looking for an excuse to why it's been just shy of year since my last post being in Afghanistan is my current (read: only) excuse. Still have plenty of time left, and as the fortunate boredom persists, ideas abound.
A while back, I extolled the virtues of Bioshock Infinite. Recently, about 4 years after it's initial release and a self-imposed ban on gaming (which will continue indefinitely, only broken because I was interested in the story that was to be told), I played through Bioshock 2. Ignoring the game itself, the story drew very interesting, very poignant parallels to that of Infinite - which makes sense considering the entire plot of Infinite, but that's not why we're here today.
The whole point is that the protagonist to most video games, to most books, to most movies, are Heroes (or Heroines) with a capital H. They are forces of nature, they are an individual surrounded by atypical companions equally unique and special in their own right, and they are changing things on an impossibly grandiose scale. Which is fine if you are trying to shape mythos, but not okay if that Hero is veiled under the illusion of an Jonny Everyman. The challenge of successful story telling, at some point, becomes relatablity vs actually doing something interesting.
Trader was fun in that his actions didn't have world changing consequences. He still had adventures while maintaining a degree (a very small degree) of familiarity. I still had to give him a leg up in the intelligence and luck departments, as well as the standard non-standard unique companions. And while Trader is now AVAILABLE ON AMAZON! I still have a ways to go in figuring out the writing style that I'm striving to achieve.
With that, I'm probably going to do a few steampunk style short stories. The genre has always interested me, at least the cosplay aspect, and I figured I'd dabble for a bit just to try something new. Accordingly, I've dragged my father into it with me by introducing him into that world. It's a slippery slope, he just doesn't know it yet.
And, because of the machinations of my Editor (without whom, I would have never finished Trader) I've been introduced to so many more books that I'm thoroughly enjoying. Particularly: The Phantom Tollbooth. Such a fun read, so much craziness and amazing wordplay. It's for kids, but if you can read it and not have fun, I weep for you.
There are several others that I'd like to bring up, but I'm keeping these posts short. People hate the long ones.
She hasn't made anything official, and she'll probably want to kill me for bringing it up, but there may be a children's book in the works about the adventures of a hedgehog named Steve. She started it, hopefully we'll finish it. It'll be short, for kids, and a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to it, another in a series of new directions.
That's all for me, expect updates to be forthcoming. Probably more coherent as well.
"Love is just a chemical. We give it meaning by choice." -Eleanor Lamb
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