New Chapter "We Regret"

This was turning into the longest chapter in the history of fanfic so I decided it had to be split in half. So, here is the first half, second half to follow in a day or two.

Sorry this took so long, but I've had actual writing work, and things in my house breaking, but it's finally done. You can find it here:

This is turning into the longest chapter in the history of chapters, and I just can't find a graceful place to break it up. Chapters need to end with a sharp period, something that propels the reader to want to keep reading. Chapters just can't just peter out, they need to sizzle.

Last Line Challenge

Thank you @arrothededushka for tagging me. Here is the last line I wrote of a current novel:

"Closing the veils between multiverses would do that, and I am willing to pay that price, and if me taking possession a dying body is what’s required, then so be it.”

And here is the last line I wrote in the chapter of We Regret I'm working on finishing:

Raffi was dressed in her usual flamboyant style, her hair twined up into an elaborate do and held in place with long hair pins set with chiming crystals."

Sorry I've been a stranger, but I have a whole lot going on in real life. I am working on the next chapter of We Regret, but I have to sneak in a few moments now and then to focus on it. I hope to have it finished in a week or so.

New Chapter "We Regret"

It took way longer than I wanted, but I finally posted a new chapter in my big Kallus story. You can find it here:

As someone who loves Opera, this is perfection.

Bugs Bunny: Rabbit Of Seville | Director: Chuck Jones Studio: Warner Bros. | USA, 1950  

Chinese Censorship of the 2023 Hugo Award Nominations

Back before the 2023 Hugo Nominations were conducted, I noted that the Chengdu Worldcon Hugo committee had inserted a worrying clause indicating that local government officials could invalidate nominations for breaching the norms and standards of China. I suspected this would result in arbitrarily applied censorship to control the ballot. I am sad and unsurprised to discover I was correct.

The 2023 Hugo Nomination vote data has been published (https://www.thehugoawards.org/2024/01/2023-nominating-and-final-ballot-statistics-published/), and includes notation where nominations were excluded from the ballot. Those with normal reasons, such as being in the wrong category or not being published in 2022 are identified with their reasons for exclusion. This time there are a number of nominations that are merely marked at "Not eligible".

Here is the list of those nominations, that would otherwise have been placed on the final 2023 Hugo Award Ballot.

Babel - R.F. Kuang - Best Novel: Very likely excluded for referencing student revolution, and the use of language and translation as coercive tools of oppression. Color the World - Congyun "Mu Ming" Hu - Best Novellette : A story about perception of, aid of, and discrimination against disability. Congyun Hu has left China and now lives in New York. Fogong Temple Padoga - Hai Ya - Best Story : Either there is something in the original Chinese that was not translated, there's a taboo subject that elides my reading, or this otherwise innocent looking near future tale of cultural building restoration was written by the wrong person. The Art of Ghost of Tsushima: Dark Horse and Sucker Punch Games - Best Related Work : The video game Ghost of Tsushima was subject to directed social exclusion for it's depiction of the Mongol invasion of Japan. Sandman, Amazon Studios: Best Dramatic Presentation (Long and Short) - A diverse and divergent cast, includes subject matter and social issues that are currently taboo in China. Paul Weimer - Fan Writer: Publicly Critical of holding a Worldcon in China. Xiran Jay Zhao - Astounding Award: Qualifying work "Iron Widow" is reimagined story of Chinese Empress Wu during a fantasy/mechanical alien invasion.

This raises a lot of questions as to if this basically taints the process, and what can be done about it.

This was absolutely delightful! thank you for posting this.

So Australia has a yearly tradition going back over 20 years, that every Australia Day we all gather round our screens to watch an ad for a certain product. It's so ingrained in our consciousness that the ads don't even really relate to what they're supposed to sell anymore, we all just know.

This year the ad broke containment, and non-Australians are having their brains melted by this bizarre tradition, so international followers, lets see if you can work out what this is trying to sell before the last few seconds.

This was part of the essay I wrote, Kallus on the Couch, so I thought I would repost that section here.

I think the first real hint I had that Kallus would turn rebel was when Kanan is captured at the communication tower and he and Kallus have this exchange. Kallus is at first sarcastic saying “Well, this is a familiar situation.” Kanan responds with his usual insouciance, “Same situation, same ending, you lose.” Kallus then glances up at the transport and the Grand Inquisitor and says in an almost regretful tone. “I don’t think so.” There is something in his expression that indicates he knew Kanan’s likely fate and regretted it. Especially since this occurs after the shocking and undeserved murder of Aresko and Grint.

As for the torture of Kanan. It isn’t Kallus who runs electricity through the Jedi’s body. Kallus has been relying on the Interrogator droid and drugs to try and get Kanan to talk not knowing that Jedi were trained to resist mind probes. I’m not saying it isn’t painful, some of those drugs heightened sensitivity, but it is the Grand Inquisitor who when Tarkin asks him is he has a solution says, “Pain. A Jedi still feels pain. And pain can break anyone.” Kallus looks sour as hell as he leaves, and then the Grand Inquisitor begins the intense torture.

Interesting how there are times when it feels like cracks are starting to form for Kallus leading up to the ice moon. Things that probably made him more open to hearing and believing Zeb in the first place. I’m tempted to make a list of all the incidents that I feel probably opened Kal up more to accepting that he’s doing the wrong thing.

Here's how I deal with that squishy middle --

Break it into acts. I usually do a teaser and 3, 4 acts if it's a longer novel. Figure out what the second act out might be, the same for act 3. Then plot backwards. Teaser is the hook, Act one introduce characters & the problem, Act two they have a plan, it ends with the plan going pear shaped, or some new information is learned that scrambles the deck, Act three is regroup, act four is run for the climax and the credits.

I know the beginning of the story, I know the end of it.

BUT THE MIDDLE

OMG WHY DOES THE MIDDLE HAVE TO BE SO SO HARD TO WRITE!?!!??!?!!?!?!?

-a writer

Yep, this show deserved a lot more love than it received.

no amount of criticism could ever make me hate the kenobi series. seeing obi-wan be so broken down and defeated felt so real. he was this incredible jedi, a warrior. he was such a believer in the jedi code and the order was entire life. to watch him become a hermit, to hesitate to help people in need, to be afraid, broke my heart.

i bet he never thought there'd be a day when his saber felt unfamiliar in his hands. a day when his body didn't carry him through a fight like a dance. a day when connecting with the force didn't come to him as easy as breathing.

the way he looked so shattered when vader's mask cracked and he caught a glimpse of anakin. what was left of anakin. what was left of anakin after what obi-wan had done to him.

i just love the stark difference between obi-wan kenobi and ben. I love how his depression and ptsd was handled. I love love love the kenobi series so much.

I never thought about it in quite these terms before, and this is just wonderful. Thank you.

We don’t talk about Leia killing Jabba enough. Her grandmother and father were born into slavery. Her blood was that of the desert sand and the shackles of bondage. Leia was never more a Skywalker than the day she strangled her slave master with the very chains he used to bind her. The daughter of Anakin Skywalker was the one who killed Tatooine’s most notorious slaver, and I find that really beautiful.

ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY (2016) dir. Gareth Edwards

Wonderful character brought to life by a great actor. I wanted to do more with him in the story I'm writing about Kallus. I had them on opposite sides when Kallus goes to arrest a Senator, but the timing wasn't great to connect them post Kallus's defection. I find Star Wars politics and economics fascinating and I wish they had done more with that and Bail was the embodiment of those subjects.

Bail Organa is literally for Star Wars what Nick Fury is for Marvel and Charlie for Charlie's Angels and I'm so up for it.

Man brought Mon Mothma, Riyo Chuchi, Ahsoka Tano (aka Vader's former Padawan) and Obi Wan Kenobi (aka Vader's former Master) and many other others to fight with the Rebelion under the noses of the Empire without them not even suspecting. Deserves more recognition.

A reminder that Bail Organa, upon seeing the Jedi Temple in flames, immediately flew straight over to investigate himself with no guards and no weapons of his own. And upon being told there was a rebellion by the clone troopers there, he attempted to walk past them and see what was happening himself.

It was only after they aimed blasters at him that Bail leaves with a newfound resolve to stop Palpatine. He didn't wait until Palpatine declared himself Emperor to know he had to do something. He knew he was bad right there.

“And I'd choose you, in a hundred lifetimes, in a hundred worlds, in any version of reality, I'd find you and I'd choose you.”

Been giving more thought to the finale of Loki season 2, and I am even more convinced it was perfect. And because I say that doesn't mean I didn't like Slyvie. She was a fascinating character, and a necessary part of Loki's redemption. Not because she had to be rescued by him, but because she was his mirror reflecting back to him how he had been hurt, angry, abandoned, unloved. Where it had led him and where it was leading her and ultimately he wanted to spare her the pain of where that would lead her.

What he gave her was the chance to build a life and forge a new path free of bitterness and anger -- just as he had done when he chose to sacrifice himself to save everyone, all the timelines, but more than that the people he had come to care about. It was a lovely echo back to Thor's choice at the end of the Thor movie where he is ready to sacrifice himself for these new friends and the inhabitants of this little New Mexico town.

Sylvie and Loki were good for each other and they healed each other, and she taught him the skills he would need to save the timelines and by extension her. It was a beautiful though bittersweet arc, and it had been telegraphed from the first episode of season one where he rages about his Glorious Purpose, but he finally finds it, not in grand conquest or being worshipped by his subjects, but through sacrifice, service and friendship.