James Harringtons Creative Work

October 3, 2016 + Fairy Tale, fantasy, Fiction, My Little Pony, obsession, Opinion, Uncategorized

Societal Acceptance of Bronies???

Well… I guess being a fantasy writer, this was going to come up eventually. As someone who goes to comic con almost every year, I’m no stranger to seeing grown men carrying MLP stuff around, or perusing MLP artwork tables. Being someone who TRIES not to judge people, I assumed they were buying the items for their daughters and shrugged them off.

However, over time, I noticed more and more that the people around the MLP tables were grown men or young men that likely didn’t have kids. It was at this point that one of my friends informed me that they were most likely bronies… ‘What the heck are bronies?’ I asked.

That’s when I found out that there was a male demographic that loved the MLP mythos. Being a guy fresh out of college, my mind jumped to the most perverse conclusion. Honestly, it sent chills down my spine. Well… come to find out from a friend… who knew a rather suspicious amount about the subject that there was another term for those guys, known as ‘clompers.’ DISCLAIMER: IF YOU GOOGLE THAT TERM, IT’S YOUR OWN DAMN FAULT!!!

Still… grown men watching a show intended for little girls. I had to admit that it just didn’t compute. However, as time passed, I started learning more and more about them… and apparently they are the largest demographic for the damn show!

Wigged out yet? Well… don’t be. As a father of two, I’ve been introduced to many a new show that I could have lived happily without watching; Wiggles, Cailou, Daniel Tiger’s (Ripoff of Mr. Rogers) Neighborhood, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, etc.

Then my wife introduces them to My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Now I have a little sister, so I still have bad memories of the campyness of the dated 80’s show. So I sat down with my kids and watched the modern equivalent with them, fully expecting the same thing with updated animation…
Honestly, as far as kids shows go, it wasn’t bad. The voice actors are recognizable from other shows/video games, the stories while all centered around the idea that ‘Friendship will solve all of your problems’ range from harmless to engaging enough to keep you entertained. The characters… except for Rainbow Dash… are all very like-able and actually quite funny when they have their meltdowns. The situations are actually quite mature and respectful of their audiences. So all in all, it wasn’t a bad show at all.

My one complaint really is a character by the name of Discord.

Essentially, he’s an omnipotent, mischievous, God-like creature that loves chaos and mayhem. Portrayed by John de Lancie, he appears every once in a while to shake things up and teach the main characters a moral in his own twisted way…

GEE, DOES THAT SOUND LIKE ANYONE ELSE WE KNOW????

Yeah, beyond blatant…

But I digress, as time passed, I saw that there are actually social groups for these people, the term has become socially acceptable… and there are even parades in some place for people to congregate who enjoy the show. So yes, it does appear that being a brony has become a lot more acceptable.

So honestly, I admit that despite my best efforts, I had my preconceived notions about people like this, and I can honestly say that I was wrong. Sure there are people out there who like these characters for… unsavory reasons, but having seen the show with my kids and having it be one of the few shows they love that doesn’t make me want to pull my hair out, I can honestly say that I believe that there is a much larger group of people who enjoy the show because of the beautiful animation, engaging worlds, and decent stories. I can admit when I’m wrong.

I wouldn’t consider myself a brony, having only gotten into the show because of my kids, but as long as people are watching the show for those reasons… all power to you guys, go ahead and enjoy it.

Readers,

Do you have a question about writing, publishing, my stories, etc? Please feel free to post a comment or email me.
jimthewritingwizard@gmail.com
I’ll use those comments to select my next blog post.

I have been writing for several years, have 4 published works, experience with publishing and independent work, so I can hopefully be of assistance.
Please note, I only do one of these a day and will do my best to respond to everyone, but it may take some time.

You can also add me on Twitter!

Also, feel free to check out my works of Fantasy and Historical Fiction, Available on Amazon and where ever books are sold. See the link below:

http://www.amazon.com/James-Harrington/e/B00P7FBXTU

Thanks friends!
Catch you on the flip side!

-Jim

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October 3, 2016 + Book, Fiction, Historical Fantasy, literature, Science Fiction, Uncategorized, Urban Fantasy

Soul Siphon Sales/Reviews!

by Jim

James Harringtons Creative Work

Hello all!

So it looks like Soul Siphon has become fairly popular! This is excellent news and I’m thrilled that it is selling so well! However, I have noticed that there has been a lack of reviews for the book. This is very important to me as I like to know how my readers enjoyed it! So if you have a moment, once you’ve purchased/read the book, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, leave a review on Amazon. It would really help me out a lot!

Thanks so much and enjoy!

-Jim

Readers,

Do you have a question about writing, publishing, my stories, etc? Please feel free to post a comment or email me.
jimthewritingwizard@gmail.com
I’ll use those comments to select my next blog post.

I have been writing for several years, have 4 published works, experience with publishing and independent work, so I can hopefully be of assistance.
Please note, I…

View original post 66 more words

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September 28, 2016 + advice, Characters, Editorial, fantasy, Fiction, literature

Character Development

by Jim

Hi Jim,

I’m trying to come up with characters for my book. I was hoping you could maybe provide a little insight into how you came up with yours. I specifically liked Xaphine, could you use her as an example?

Thanks,
Rich.

Hi Rich,

General Xaphine seems to be a recurrent theme in character discussions… perhaps I should write her into another story.

You may be disappointed on this one, given that her development wasn’t a natural flow like you hear about people taking the personality of someone they met, or someone they like/admire, and create a character around that. General Xaphine didn’t start out that way.

Let me go back in time a little ways to when I was in college. Back then, I was writing stories for my buddies who were playing RPG games, including a Star Wars game. It was at this point that I came up with an awesome nemesis; Darth Malys.

I forget the name of whom I modeled her after, but that’s unimportant at the moment. This character was a fairly young Dark Jedi, born of the force, influenced by the dark side, and possessing powers that are as out of her control as her own emotions. Despite that, she’s a capable warrior and effective leader. She nearly brought the galaxy to its knees by bringing together the imperial remnant and reactivating the old droid factories. Her one weakness was that she was unable to kill the boy she grew up with. No matter how far down the dark path she went, something inside of her refused to allow her to do it.

I was encouraged to write an actual story around her by my friends and that’s where the fan fiction: Star Wars: The Face of Evil.
(And in case you’re wondering, no I don’t have a copy I can post. My last copy was lost years ago.)

Though badly flawed and put further and further away from canon as new books… and now the new movie came out.
Obviously, my story was never going to get published. I held no illusions about that. So I let the story fall to the back burner and moved onto Divinity and Magnifica. As I was working on getting Divinity published, I was asked about writing a sequel to the book. It was at this point that I started formulating a new story. I created new characters, but didn’t really have a good premise. At this point, I went back to The Face of Evil and rewrote it, replacing the Republic with the Republic of Florence, the Imperial Remnant with the Holy Roman Empire, Jedi with angels, and Sith with demons.

Okay… so now I had essentially transformed The Face of Evil into Damnation… however Darth Malys didn’t fit the bill as the chief antagonist. My main villain in this case was going to be a fallen angel who worked as Lucifer’s general during the Celestial Wars. Her seizing power, being a newcomer to a scene that had existed for eons didn’t make sense.

So I took the parts of the character that did work; her viciousness, her fighting abilities, her attitude, and her tactical brilliance, and started working on a new character. I really wanted this character to be a demon that people would recognize, given how important she was going to be. So I looked for demons with feminine or androgynous names that were well-known. That’s when I came across ‘Xaphan’ from the Dictionnaire Infernal. Xaphan, a male per that story, was an inventive demon who orchestrated setting fire to Heaven. Perfect!

So I took Xaphan’s back story and name and tweaked them. Instead of setting fire to all of Heaven, Xaphan simply set fire to the Celestial Temple where the Choirs of Angels congregated. It was more of a symbolic gesture in the declaration of revolution by Lucifer and his legions of angels. Against Lucifer’s wishes, she warned the inhabitants of the attack, giving them just enough time to get out. She viewed the spilling of angel blood as an unforgivable waste.

After her success, she was to take command of Lucifer’s forces and lead them in a war that would stalemate for an uncountable amount of time. So now I had a name, a back story, and MOST of her personality. I then added a very strict code of honor to her as a warrior as well. Now I had my character!

So that’s where the ground work of this character came up. She was essentially a combination of another character I created, as well as some legend and folklore. The result was General Xaphan/Xaphine Lorenzi. Granted her appearance changes over time:

Then later, I met a very talented model who matched the look I was going for,

and she became the model and template for the character;

So that’s how I came up with General Xaphan, and she remains my favorite character to this very day:

So sometimes it comes right down to combining various ideas and previously created characters to create the final product. The best advice I could give you is simple. Create your character. Build them up from the ground, then expose them to different situations in your writing. Bend them, mold them… heck, torture them. Yes, I’m advocating torturing your character, especially if you’re going to expose them to tense situations later on. Get a feel for them and see how they’ll hold up, if they’ll hold up, and if they’re the right character to take on a lead. If not, then keep that character for later or relegate them to a back roll and its back to the drawing board, if so, then keep up with the development.

Anyway, I hope this helps.
Readers, how do you create characters, what draws you to a character vs. another? What attributes do you feel make a strong character? Let me know in the comments below.

Thanks!

Readers,

Do you have a question about writing, publishing, my stories, etc? Please feel free to post a comment or email me.
jimthewritingwizard@gmail.com
I’ll use those comments to select my next blog post.

I have been writing for several years, have 4 published works, experience with publishing and independent work, so I can hopefully be of assistance.
Please note, I only do one of these a day and will do my best to respond to everyone, but it may take some time.

You can also add me on Twitter!

Also, feel free to check out my works of Fantasy and Historical Fiction, Available on Amazon and where ever books are sold. See the link below:

http://www.amazon.com/James-Harrington/e/B00P7FBXTU

Thanks friends!
Catch you on the flip side!

-Jim

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September 27, 2016 + Comics, feminism, Inappropriate, literature, misygony, Opinion, Politics

Collaboration/GB: A Response

by Jim

I wanted to continue on to the next opinion I had on writing trends, but I felt the need to stop for a moment to address some of the critical messages that I’ve been getting.

Ever since I posted my responses to the Ghostbusters controversy, the political correctness problems with writing, marvel, etc. I’ve been getting a lot of messages here, on twitter, and other places dealing with my opinions on each. Many of the responses I get are positive; thank you’s, pats on the back, and even more questions. This is great…

However recently, I’ve noticed an uptick in some rather angry people who disagree with me and have done everything from tell me that no one wants to hear my opinion, to calling me misogynistic and hateful, to telling me that my books look awful… to attacking my parentage.

Look, everyone has an opinion. EVERYONE. At times, they can certainly be misinformed, but everyone has one regardless. If people didn’t want to hear my opinions, I wouldn’t have a fairly good following, reader base, and my posts wouldn’t have comments on them. I also wouldn’t be getting emails from people asking me questions about writing… and other issues for some reason.

To everyone who likes Ghostbusters, Marvel, and the direction that this writing is going. All power to you, I’m glad that you enjoy it. However what I’ve seen recently is a huge push for diversity which has come at the expense of good story-telling. Women and minority individuals can be good characters. Two of the best villains of all time in my opinion; Phoenix and Maleficent, are both female. Whereas one of my favorite heroes at this point is also female; Lady Mechanika.
I’ve also enjoyed characters like Bishop, Forge, and Spider Gwen.

Unfortunately, the trend recently is to give story-tellers and movie makers a pass on creating weak stories and bad movies, as long as they’re pushing the right agenda… which in this case happens to be diversity. I think that is patently ridiculous and absolutely condescending. No one deserves a pat on the back for pretty much saying, ‘Yeah, here’s this script I pulled out of my butt last night. Yeah it’s crap, but look at all the minority characters and look at all the women I put in it.’

NO ONE!

I hold writers and movie makers to the same standard I hold myself to. If I see a movie or read a story that’s bad, I’m going to say it’s bad. If it’s bad because the creators are more focused on pushing an agenda than creating something great, or use an agenda as a shield against their laziness, I’m going to call them on that. I think doing any less would be a disservice to my readers.

In any case, I’m not going to stop posting my opinions. I stand by what I’ve said about the various hot-button topics that I posted on, and will continue to post more as they come up as long as there is some kind of writing take on it.

If you want to disagree with me or you have an opinion on the topics I write about that differ from mine, then go ahead and post a comment about it or send me an email. I’d love to hear from you and engage with you either in a new blog post or in a comment thread discussion. But when I get messages from people like what I mentioned above, I’m really not interested in trolls. Seriously, if you think something I said was misogynistic or bigoted, please let me know and I’d be happy to address it. If, however, you’re just going to call me such for the simple fact that you disagree with me, well that’s kind of insane.

So to my readers, sorry for the rant. I will get back to my normal posts later in the week.

Thanks all!

Readers,

Do you have a question about writing, publishing, my stories, etc? Please feel free to post a comment or email me.
jimthewritingwizard@gmail.com
I’ll use those comments to select my next blog post.

I have been writing for several years, have 4 published works, experience with publishing and independent work, so I can hopefully be of assistance.
Please note, I only do one of these a day and will do my best to respond to everyone, but it may take some time.

You can also add me on Twitter!

Also, feel free to check out my works of Fantasy and Historical Fiction, Available on Amazon and where ever books are sold. See the link below:

http://www.amazon.com/James-Harrington/e/B00P7FBXTU

Thanks friends!
Catch you on the flip side!

-Jim

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September 26, 2016 + conservative, feminism, liberal, literature, Opinion, Uncategorized, Writing

Collaboration Gone Bad

by Jim

Hi there!

I saw your link on twitter and wanted to ask you a quick question. So I’ve been working with this friend on a political drama. Unfortunately we can never see eye to eye on anything. He’s a hard-left Liberal and I’m a fairly moderate Republican… or at least I try to be.
Anyway, my problem is that we’re trying to write about a political figure who actually existed and whenever we talk about specific issues with this person, it always seems like he’s not listening to me or he’s cherry-picking parts of what I’ve been saying and neglects the rest.
Let me give you an example:
Me: He was removed because some of the things he said were actually proven to be fake. However, he was spot-on with his condemnation of her.
Him: Oh so you think she should be condemned when the things he said were actually fake? I think we’re done here.
Me: No, I said SOME not ALL! Most of what she did was true!

I’m really starting to think that he’s doing it on purpose. I really want to write this piece, but we’re getting nowhere because of things like this. What should I do?

Thanks,
Niko

Hey Niko,

Thanks for the letter. Honestly, I deal with people like your friend there all of the time. He may be doing it on purpose or he may be trying to think three argument points ahead. Either way, he’s clearly not listening to you. I’ve seen this with hard-liners on both sides of the isle, and it is IMPOSSIBLE to sway them in any direction. They believe what they believe and anyone who believes anything else is morally and ethically wrong and evil. There is no in-between. Take a look at my scale below:

Generally speaking, I’d say most people fall into the small area where purple overlaps either red or blue. Sadly thanks to an unscrupulous and blatantly biased media, everyone thinks that most democrats or republicans fall into line either at the regressive or religious fundamentalist end. They and the politicians they support keep their offices and their paychecks by essentially ripping the United States, nay the entire civil world, apart.
Need an example? Okay, how about the new Ghostbusters movie? It was spun into a political debate where the overall quality of the movie was lost in hyperbole. Sony, the producers, the director, and the media, ran with the narrative that this movie was going to be a positive thing and everyone who saw it was promoting girl power while everyone who refused to, was a misogynist, MRA, etc. etc. and used YouTube trolls as the standard for Geeks and Geek Culture.
The end result was geek culture, yet again, wrongfully taking a hit to it’s credibility, and an angry and rightfully bitter fan base that dismissed anyone who said the movie was good as a regressive feminist or a Sony shill, while anyone who criticized the movie (this is perhaps more blatant), was verbally attacked as being a misogynist and/or a hateful person. These people included James Rolfe, Richard Roeper, and… of all people, known radical left-wing entertainment blogger Bob Chipman. This pretty much lead to a lot of forced reviews on sites like Rotten Tomatoes, and so on.
I could go on about this, but I spent way too much time covering it in some of my other posts, so feel free to go back and look. I couldn’t be bothered to keep going on the amount of damage that this type of unscrupulous media coverage has done.
Niko, you have my sympathy. Your friend sounds as though he’s probably someone around the regressive left side of the bar. You can try to talk to him and let him know what he’s doing, but I hate to say it, you’re most likely not going to be able to reason with him. These types of people have usually already been indoctrinated into their beliefs and that is something that is very difficult, if not impossible to break. I’d highly recommend cutting ties with this person and attempting to either finish the story yourself… or find someone between the moderate left and radical left to finish with. These people are usually still willing to listen and open their mind, and that goes the same for the right side of the line.

Thanks Niko, wish I had better news for you. All the best luck on your writing!

Readers, what do you think? Should he try to see eye to eye with his partner or just give up and move on? Let me know in the comments below.

Readers,

Do you have a question about writing, publishing, my stories, etc? Please feel free to post a comment or email me.
jimthewritingwizard@gmail.com
I’ll use those comments to select my next blog post.

I have been writing for several years, have 4 published works, experience with publishing and independent work, so I can hopefully be of assistance.
Please note, I only do one of these a day and will do my best to respond to everyone, but it may take some time.

You can also add me on Twitter!

Also, feel free to check out my works of Fantasy and Historical Fiction, Available on Amazon and where ever books are sold. See the link below:

http://www.amazon.com/James-Harrington/e/B00P7FBXTU

Thanks friends!
Catch you on the flip side!

-Jim

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September 22, 2016 + advice, literature, Opinion, Question, Uncategorized, Writing

Just Start Over…

by Jim

Hi Jim,

I’m in a major bind… I was working on my latest piece. I’d been working on it for days and… forgot to save it. I was about 140 pages in and suddenly my computer blue-screened. I’ve lost everything and Word didn’t auto-save it. I’m not sure of what to do now. I feel like having to start from scratch is a fairly daunting task.
What should I do?

Thanks,
Terry

Hi Terry,

We’ve all been there. This is a mistake that we’ve all made at one point or another. I personally had to dodge being hit in the head by a laptop thrown by my roommate in college after his 20 page paper was lost when the same thing happened to him.

(Hehe… after writing multiple novels, thinking back on how tough we all used to think a typed 30 page, double spaced paper was… Oh man…)

Ahem… However, seriously Terry, 140 PAGES AND NOT ONE SAVE!? I’m sorry to say this, but you were really tempting fate more than any writer EVER should. Always save… ALWAYS! At minimum, save it at the end of every page, at minimum. Sorry to repeat myself, but it bears repeating.

Look, you’re going to have to. There really isn’t anything you can do. Think of it this way, you remember most of the story and can now really start to add meat to what you had already started on. Think of it as a chance to improve upon what you previously wrote.
Honestly, I myself have completely deleted and started stories over more than once when I didn’t think the story worked well, so it’s not unheard of and starting over is par for the course.

Anyway, that’s the best advice I can give you. Start over, good luck, and start saving!!!

Readers,

Do you have a question about writing, publishing, my stories, etc? Please feel free to post a comment or email me.
jimthewritingwizard@gmail.com
I’ll use those comments to select my next blog post.

I have been writing for several years, have 4 published works, experience with publishing and independent work, so I can hopefully be of assistance.
Please note, I only do one of these a day and will do my best to respond to everyone, but it may take some time.

You can also add me on Twitter!

Also, feel free to check out my works of Fantasy and Historical Fiction, Available on Amazon and where ever books are sold. See the link below:

http://www.amazon.com/James-Harrington/e/B00P7FBXTU

Thanks friends!
Catch you on the flip side!

-Jim

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September 21, 2016 + advice, Book, Comics, fantasy, literature, Uncategorized, Writing

Alternate Universe?

by Jim

Hi Jim,

I hope you don’t mind, but I saw your posts about asking a question and thought I’d shoot you an email. I saw from your other posts that you think using an alternate universe is poor story telling. I wanted to write a sequel to one of my books, but essentially it would be going back and exploring what would have happened had my character chosen a different path and how the outcome would have changed. Since you really seem to be against alternate universes, can you tell me how you would do it to avoid the problems you’ve talked about?

Thanks,
Malik.

Hi there Malik,

I don’t mind at all, thank you for the email! Just to clarify, I don’t hate alternate universes or people writing about them. Heck, my first novel WAS an alternate universe story being that it dealt with what the modern world would look like if elves and dwarves actually existed. My issue comes up when story tellers use it as a crutch to do… pretty much whatever they wanted without retconing anything. They change characters’ identity for no rhyme or reason and then use an alternate universe as a lazy excuse not to explain the change.

However, what you’re doing sounds interesting. I’ve often thought about it myself; {SPOILER ALERT} What would have happened had Toby not investigated when he thought he’d heard someone cry out in the darkness. What if Corban didn’t go after Mary in Chicago. What if Father Antonelli didn’t turn Adalyn over to the church… and most importantly, the various outcomes of Xaphan’s exile.
Any one of those plot threads would work very well and I’ve often thought about how I’d peruse something like that.
There are actually several theories about something like this. One that seems to stand out is that even all time streams end up in the same, if not similar placed outcomes, even if drastic changes are made. It won’t end up exactly the same, but it will be pretty close. I’ve seen several stories emulate this and it is one idea that I actually do like.
I would honestly say that if you’re going to take this route for a sequel, don’t be bound by the original story too much. I would say that the best stories in alternate universes are when the very nature of the story changes, the character relationships are different as a result, some characters survive that didn’t before, but in the end the story manages to end on a positive; the bad guy is still defeated, though perhaps by a different character or different means, and perhaps the story takes on a darker or more gritty end.

Honestly, I would recommend picking up a copy of the Star Wars Infinities, especially Return of the Jedi:
I say this because they are a perfect example of what I’m talking about. They are the stories of what happens when a single slight changes that most would consider insignificant happens, and the result throws the entire story into unbalance. The resulting stories are a lot grittier than the originals they’re based on, and take a lot of unexpected turns. I won’t give away what happens in the end, but it’s not what anyone would expect.

Anyway, in summation, I don’t think you’re doing anything wrong and you’re definitely not abusing the alternate universe plot device. If you need any help or would like another eye to take a look at what you’re doing, please let me know.

Readers,

Do you have a question about writing, publishing, my stories, etc? Please feel free to post a comment or email me.
jimthewritingwizard@gmail.com
I’ll use those comments to select my next blog post.

I have been writing for several years, have 4 published works, experience with publishing and independent work, so I can hopefully be of assistance.
Please note, I only do one of these a day and will do my best to respond to everyone, but it may take some time.

You can also add me on Twitter!

Also, feel free to check out my works of Fantasy and Historical Fiction, Available on Amazon and where ever books are sold. See the link below:

http://www.amazon.com/James-Harrington/e/B00P7FBXTU

Thanks friends!
Catch you on the flip side!

-Jim

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September 19, 2016 + horror, Movies, Opinion, review, Romance, Uncategorized

Let Me In (2010)

by Jim

Bullied at school, neglected at home and incredibly lonely, 12-year-old Owen (Kodi Smit-McPhee) spends his days plotting revenge on his tormentors and spends his nights spying on other residents of the apartment complex. His sole friend is Abby (Chloë Grace Moretz), a strange girl who comes out only at nighttime. Both outcasts, the two form a strong bond. When Abby’s caretaker disappears amid a series of gruesome murders, Owen begins to suspect that she is hiding a terrible secret.

Okay, I have to admit this… I’m a horror movie junkie with a slight guilty pleasure tragic drama. I usually flick on horror movies while I work as they make the day pass by a lot faster… don’t know why but they do.

So I went hunting for a movie that I’d seen recently, but couldn’t remember the name of. That’s when I ran into this gem of a movie. I’d never heard of it before, but unlike most of the fair you find under the ‘horror’ section of Netflix, it actually has a fairly high rating from both audiences and critics. Okay… well I’d never heard of it.

I managed to find a copy online and quickly downloaded it…

…

OH MAN!!! This movie was pretty good. In terms of mood, it was pretty dark and dreary, but even among the depressing atmosphere, the chemistry of the characters was a high point. I really… REALLY don’t want to give too much away for those who have not seen it yet, but if you like suspense, horror thrillers, and you’re the type who likes stories about loves that can never be, this is the movie for you.

It starts off a bit slow, but it really does get better and better… The two leads do a really good job and you really feel what they’re going through. Despite the bad things that happen, you still really want them to be together and you’re still rooting for them despite the fact that you pretty much know it won’t happen.

Chloë Grace Moretz brings an eerie innocence to her character that contributes to the mind eff that follows when you see what she is and does. That’s all I’m going to say about it.

On a side note though, I know some people criticize that fact that the leads in this movie are only 12, but how is that any less realistic than the time-honor Studio Ghibli movie, Ponyo? The chemistry is age-appropriate in my opinion.

Anyway, definitely check this one out if your taste is similar to mine! It literally is the best of everything.

Readers,

Do you have a question about writing, publishing, my stories, etc? Please feel free to post a comment or email me.
jimthewritingwizard@gmail.com
I’ll use those comments to select my next blog post.

I have been writing for several years, have 4 published works, experience with publishing and independent work, so I can hopefully be of assistance.
Please note, I only do one of these a day and will do my best to respond to everyone, but it may take some time.

You can also add me on Twitter!

Also, feel free to check out my works of Fantasy and Historical Fiction, Available on Amazon and where ever books are sold. See the link below:

http://www.amazon.com/James-Harrington/e/B00P7FBXTU

Thanks friends!
Catch you on the flip side!

-Jim

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September 16, 2016 + Comic, DC, Marvel, Opinion, review, superheroes, Uncategorized

Spider Gwen… is it good?

by Jim

Let me just say that I had high hopes for this series. An alternate reality where Gwen gets bitten instead of Peter Parker. Peter dies and Gwen becomes spider… woman. The premise is great, the costume if awesome and the character is pretty good too. The end result is a series that literally flies off the shelves and rarer variants showing up on Ebay for 10x the face value.

So with all that said, what do I think of the book itself? Well let’s start off with quality…
First of all, maybe I’ve gotten spoiled by indie comics that put their all into their work, using the best of everything that they can get, but Marvel has gotten a little cheap lately. The paper and ink they use is admittedly not the greatest stuff in the world. So whenever handling one of their newer comics, try not to keep you fingers in the same place for too long… the ink will come off. Again, this isn’t a rail against Spider Gwen, just mass-produced comics in general.

As for Spider Gwen… well her costume is nice and the story premise is interesting. She’s gotten bit by a radio-active spider and now has all the powers Peter Parker had in the prime universe. However, she later gets blamed for Parker’s death and, unlike Spider Man, is hated by the people around her. Like Parker, she has a hard time balancing her real life with her alter ego, but unlike Peter, she has to contend with her father being a cop and the fact that she blames herself for Parker’s death. All of this makes for an interesting story.

However, there are a number of things that I really do not like about this series at all. For starters this comic has fallen victim to the same Social Justice nonsense that I’ve taken issue with Marvel comics in the past. As I said before, I have no issue with older characters passing on the torch to younger, newer characters of different backgrounds and walks of life. That’s fine… but Gwen can be seen on any number of occasions conversing with Reed Richards.
… Nope, not that Reed Richards…

UGH!!! No, not him either, thank God!!!

Yup, THAT’S our Reed Richards. How do we know he’s Reed Richards? Well because they say he is and he has Reed’s signature Salt and Pepper hair… despite a young kid in school… what the hell?
Okay, this is what I’m talking about. Passing of the torch is one thing. Captain America did this right, Thor did this right… this… ugh. This is putting diversity and social justice ahead of good story-telling. I’m sorry, but the whole alternate reality excuse can only extend the suspension of disbelief so far. Having another character stand in for Reed would be one thing. Taking a character and changing his physical appearance, but pretty much keeping his personality the same, with little to no explanation, and then hiding behind the alternate universe excuse is PISS POOR story-telling… and among the many reasons why I’m slowing starting to pull away from Marvel.
Heck even Stan Lee, the big creator behind most of our beloved characters spoke out against this in an interview with Newsarama:
“I wouldn’t mind, if Peter Parker had originally been black, a Latino, an Indian or anything else, that he stay that way,” he said. “But we originally made him white. I don’t see any reason to change that… It has nothing to do with being anti-gay, or anti-black, or anti-Latino, or anything like that. I say create new characters the way you want to. I don’t see any reason to change the sexual proclivities of a character once they’ve already been established.”

And he’s 100% right. I’m certain he doesn’t have a problem with Spider Gwen, given how it’s explained that she takes on his powers… however I think he would have an issue with this new Reed Richards. Marvel used to handle social issues and diversity very well. They tackled issues like the Holocaust with the X-Men, racial diversity, etc by using mutants instead of race for their narrative, and it worked well. In addition, unlike the people who hated mutants, the teams spanned several different races, had an acceptable number of both genders, and had people from multiple religious backgrounds.
Anyway, I’ve already delved into this enough in other topics, back on subject.

I find the interior artwork to be unimpressive, and it doesn’t help that often the comic is split into sections with different styles used. Also, I’m not huge into the comic taking a whole page or two to pretty much reprint the same thing over and over to remind every one of what happened in the first issue or two. That is a waste. Buy the other issues and read them first if you don’t know what’s going on.

Finally, this story is a tie-in to a much larger web of stories dealing with a ‘Spiderverse’ and multiple different alternate realities. At times, it doesn’t seem like the books know if they want to be their own story, of part of a bigger story. The result is a slew of cameos from other realities and the inclusion of temporary storylines that takes focus away from the primary story and leave the reader… well me anyway, scratching my head.

So, in summation… is it good? Well… ah… no not really. It has potential and the issues where we’re dealing with Gwen’s personal dilemmas are interesting enough, but it get’s buried in the absurd social justice and alternate reality fiascos that are plaguing Marvel comics right now. Am I going to stop buying issues? No, like I said, the story has potential, and I’m still hoping that Marvel will clean up its universe. Right now, everything about Marvel is pretty much tethered together with a very fragile bond that is the ‘alternate reality’ story base. If they don’t do something soon to fix this, eventually the whole thing will come crashing down and Marvel will have little choice but to pull a DC and hit the reset button.

I can honestly get past the Reed Richards issue if Marvel doesn’t keep straining my suspension of disbelief, but tethering Gwen’s universe to the others needs to stop, and hopefully will soon.

Anyway, that’s my two cents. I know it’s all over the place… but so is this book. Give it a chance if you’d like to see where Marvel could go with the once-beloved Gwen Stacy character. If you’re looking for good comicbook art, the alternate covers alone are worth picking up, so I’d recommend it for that at least.

Readers,

Do you have a question about writing, publishing, my stories, etc? Please feel free to post a comment or email me.
jimthewritingwizard@gmail.com
I’ll use those comments to select my next blog post.

I have been writing for several years, have 4 published works, experience with publishing and independent work, so I can hopefully be of assistance.
Please note, I only do one of these a day and will do my best to respond to everyone, but it may take some time.

You can also add me on Twitter!

Also, feel free to check out my works of Fantasy and Historical Fiction, Available on Amazon and where ever books are sold. See the link below:

http://www.amazon.com/James-Harrington/e/B00P7FBXTU

Thanks friends!
Catch you on the flip side!

-Jim

+

September 15, 2016 + advice, Comics, fantasy, horror, literature, Opinion, Uncategorized, Writing

Schadenfreude is NOT Scary!

by Jim

I’ve been a huge horror movie fan for a while, but there is one thing that always irked me about a certain ongoing trend in them. I was going to ignore it until I noticed that it was happening in suspense/thriller novels as well.

Here’s the deal, everyone has seen these movies. The story starts off with a group of people. These people are usually in their teens or early 20s. They have drug problems, criminal records, are not the most upstanding people around either being depraved or entitled, and the horror story their stuck in is 99.99999% of the time of their own making. Either they pissed off fate, did something really stupid, or went somewhere that they shouldn’t have been.

I’ve always felt that horror is 30% visual, 70% psychological. You can add visual descriptions, jump scares (in visual medias anyway), and things like that, but in the end, you’re not going to scare anyone. Startle them, but not scare them. Horror is supposed to send chills down your spine. It’s supposed to make you think!

Let’s look at The Exorcist, and I mean either the book or the movie as both are pretty much the standard for horror. The book is far worse than the movie in terms of scares. I don’t recommend reading it in the dark. The movie may be tame by today’s standards, but at the time it sent people screaming from the theaters and, not helping matters, several religious orders came out and actually confirmed that similar incidents have been known to happen. That is freaky.

The problem is that most of the horror these days focuses more on the visual and less on the psychological. It’s become gore-exploitation and allowing scary visuals to do the job of actual creativity. That’s a problem, and it is why so many horror stories are written or made into film and quickly forgotten about.

Why are these stories and movies written this way? Perhaps as a cautionary tale to the younger generations? Perhaps someone was bullied and wants to see those jerks get what’s coming to them in some way… um… okay.

Well if you’re doing it for the second reason, people are going to notice. If you’re doing it for the first reason, kudos, but the general audience is not going to enjoy it. Why, because seeing a bunch of morally bankrupt people get what’s coming to them IS NOT SCARY!

Why are stories like the Exorcist so frightening? Because there are no bad people in there. Reagan, Father Merrin, and Father Karras are all good people. Karras has a bit of a crisis of faith, but all the same, he’s a good man. Yet we watch as so many bad things happen to these characters throughout the story. The fact that they are good and/or innocent, does not protect them. It makes us think, if it can happen to them, it can happen to anyone. That prospect is absolutely frightening. Not even good can protect you from this kind of evil.

Bad people in the end almost always get what’s coming to them. It’s a well-known fact. So exposing them to horrors that most-likely they either deserve or brought upon themselves is not scary. I usually find myself sitting there in sarcastic tone going ‘No… don’t do that.. don’t desecrate that person’s remains… stop, this will come back to bite you.’
It means nothing, I feel it never…

However, when I saw the exorcism of Emily Rose for the first time… heard the poor girl plead with her boyfriend not to leave her… I felt for the character. Maybe in part because I’ve had friends and girlfriends in the past get very sick and ask me the same thing in the same way…

So then to see something like this… Particularly 1.20

That still sends chills down my spine! Especially when she reveals who the demons are.

That scene is scary enough, but perhaps even more frightening than that is this scene:

Erin Bruner: Dr. Cartwright?
Dr. Cartwright: I recognize you from those courtroom drawings on the news. You’re much prettier in real life.
Erin Bruner: May I sit?
Dr. Cartwright: Yes, please… You’re losing. I had hoped Father Moore wouldn’t need me but I don’t wanna see him put away.
Erin Bruner: How do you know him?
Dr. Cartwright: Well, I was his parishioner at St. Vincent’s Church years ago. I hadn’t seen or heard of him for years when he called me last fall. But he needed help, so…
Erin Bruner: What kind of help, doctor?
Dr. Cartwright: He wanted a medical perspective from a psychiatrist… you know, one that he knew, trusted to observe Emily’s physical and mental state during this…
Erin Bruner: During the exorcism.
Dr. Cartwright: Yeah.
Erin Bruner: Doctor… Doctor… Can you help our case?
Dr. Cartwright: That girl was not schizophrenic, she was not epileptic, or any combination of the two. I’ve seen hundreds of people with those problems. They can be terrible afflictions… but they don’t scare me.
Erin Bruner: But what you saw there, did?
Dr. Cartwright: God… If I’d known, I never would have been there…

The lines I highlighted in red… I really wish that I could find a clip of this scene from the movie because the script simply does not do it justice. The entire time, Dr. Cartwright is looking around nervously and you can feel the fear in his voice. Something is haunting him… and you never see what it is. In this scene it’s more what you don’t see than what you do that is freaky.
Honestly, out of any scene in any horror story… this one really sent chills down my spine more so than any other I’ve ever read or watched. You have no idea what this man has scene, or what is continuing to stalk and torment him in the shadows. There are no jump scares, no dark music, nothing. It’s two people in the park talking, that’s it, but that’s all you need. What’s said there and the emotions that are effectively relayed are enough to send a person’s imagination wild in fear. THAT is effective story-telling from a horror perspective, whether you like that movie or not.

So honestly, in round up, all I can say is that watching people get what’s coming to them is not scary and it never will be. You’re not going to frighten anyone by having a bunch of drugged up ex-cons running around doing stupid things that get them into trouble. It just doesn’t work.

All right… so am I right, wrong, way off or right on the money? Let me know in the comments!

Readers,

Do you have a question about writing, publishing, my stories, etc? Please feel free to post a comment or email me.
jimthewritingwizard@gmail.com
I’ll use those comments to select my next blog post.

I have been writing for several years, have 4 published works, experience with publishing and independent work, so I can hopefully be of assistance.
Please note, I only do one of these a day and will do my best to respond to everyone, but it may take some time.

You can also add me on Twitter!

Also, feel free to check out my works of Fantasy and Historical Fiction, Available on Amazon and where ever books are sold. See the link below:

http://www.amazon.com/James-Harrington/e/B00P7FBXTU

Thanks friends!
Catch you on the flip side!

-Jim

+

September 13, 2016 + art, Artist, Comic, Comics, fantasy, Historical Fantasy, review

Lady Mechanika Review!

by Jim

Lady Mechanika is a creator-owned comic book series by Joe Benitez, inspired by the steampunk genre. “Steampunk” is all about re-imagining history, usually combining the elegance of the Victorian Era with more advanced science fiction technology.

The tabloids dubbed her “Lady Mechanika“, the sole survivor of a mad scientist’s horrific experiments which left her with mechanical limbs. Having no memory of her captivity or her former life, Mechanika eventually built a new life for herself as a private detective, using her unique abilities to solve cases the police couldn’t or wouldn’t handle. But she never stopped searching for the answers to her own past.

Set in turn of the century England, a time when magic and superstition clashed with new scientific discoveries and inventions, Lady Mechanika is about a young woman’s search for her own identity as she solves other mysteries involving science and the supernatural.

-Benitez Productions

I’m going to start off by saying that I typically go straight for comic books that I’m familiar with. It’s always the big ones for Marvel and DC that we all know and love. Occasionally, I’ll check out another book that someone has told me about over time, but usually I’m not the browsing type. I may change that…
Upon entering my local comic shop, I was looking at a few of the older DC comics that came out. On the newer release shelf something caught my eye… (Pictured above) Lady Mechanika The Tablet of Destinies, caught my eye. I love super detailed art work… and have been a HUGE fan of anything steampunk ever since I was first introduced to Studio Ghibli’s movies. I love the style and always enjoyed stories surrounding such universes.

I picked up the book and flipped through it… I was honestly impressed. In most cases, the artwork on the cover is a lot better than what is actually inside the comic. I don’t know why that is, but there’s almost always a quality image on the cover, with the interior being almost completely different…

As you can see, the artwork is beyond dazzling. You could easily and justifiably use almost any of these images as the cover of one of their books. You can honestly see that these indie comics are a labor of love for the people who make them.

On to the story, honestly, I would say that this is a cross between Indiana Jones and Sherlock Holmes, set in Steampunk Europe of the 19th Century. Lady Mechanika at times has that very stoic, unshakable temperament that we see from Holmes, but she is haunted by a past that won’t go away. I won’t give away much here, but we do see her haunted by her past, which is a mystery she is trying to unfold while solving other cases as well.

Unlike most comics, this isn’t a serial that goes on and on like most comics. It’s divided into several mini series (Again… like the Holmes novels). Each one is a different case and a different story, all of which are tied together by Mechanika’s past, which she is trying to solve;
The Demon of Satan’s Alley
The Mystery of the Mechanical Corpse
The Tablet of Destinies
The Lost Boys of West Abbey
La Dama De La Muerte

Each of these series is usually between 2-6 issues. Unfortunately, this also means that there is a brief period between production where no comic is released. Usually this spans a few months before the next set comes out. Given the detail and the amount of work that goes into the comics, I fully get why, but its hard for those of us who love these stories.

It also makes finding back issues hard. The runs are limited and for a popular series… that means higher prices on ebay as they get older. I could go on and on about these, but really, I don’t want to spoil anything. This is an incredible series. If you like mysteries, adventure, fantasy, and/or steampunk… yeah this is one series that is a must for your collection!

Readers,

Do you have a question about writing, publishing, my stories, etc? Please feel free to post a comment or email me.
jimthewritingwizard@gmail.com
I’ll use those comments to select my next blog post.

I have been writing for several years, have 4 published works, experience with publishing and independent work, so I can hopefully be of assistance.
Please note, I only do one of these a day and will do my best to respond to everyone, but it may take some time.

You can also add me on Twitter!

Also, feel free to check out my works of Fantasy and Historical Fiction, Available on Amazon and where ever books are sold. See the link below:

http://www.amazon.com/James-Harrington/e/B00P7FBXTU

Thanks friends!
Catch you on the flip side!

-Jim

September 12, 2016 + Uncategorized

The Lost Boys of Hook, 25 Years Later — thenerdsofcolor

by Jim

Ready to feel old? This December, Steven Spielberg’s Hook — the film that imagined what happened to Peter Pan (the late Robin Williams) after he grew up — will be celebrating its 25th anniversary. Recently, Entertainment Tonight reunited the movie’s Lost Boys — who were all child actors at the time — to get back into […]

via The Lost Boys of Hook, 25 Years Later — thenerdsofcolor

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