Video Game Music

Also, book your seats early if you want a 
good one; they sell fast.

If you ever get the chance to see Zelda Symphony of the Goddesses, and you're a fan of the Zelda series, then I highly recommend it. (By the way, you can find their schedule here.)

Video game music is a tricky balance of inspiring interest and setting the mood without distracting the player from the game. Sometimes it even becomes a theme of the game. And there's a lot of classic games whose scores are downright amazing even despite being produced with limited materials and sound abilities. Of course, with the advances in game tech, sound limitations aren't an issue anymore.

What game has your all-time favorite sound track? And what new games really raise the bar for the next generation of games?

Remembrance

It's been 14 years since 9/11. Thousands of good people died.

Remembering the people who died, who were hurt, is important. But I have to admit that I didn't think of the attacks when I woke up this morning, or went about my day. I remember them, though, and salute the heroes.


I moved today's original post to yesterday for a different time stamp, because maybe a post-apocalyptic post shouldn't be dated for an eleventh of September.

Three years of emptiness--fantasy setting

What would your town look like three years after being abandoned?

Writing Into the Tides made me think about what happens to places when they're left uninhabited for years. In the Tides, magic traps all the people of the South, leaving their homes behind. Three years later, Kelly goes to visit, and finds the slightly-creepy remains of empty cities and towns.

So what would your hometown be like? Would it be overgrown, would pieces of it have fallen apart? What would have survived untouched?

Docks might fall apart--but then again, they're pretty sturdy, so you might have some that were just fine. Or maybe your inland farms now grow more dandelions than wheat. And without human management, is anything still growing in your backyard garden besides mint and rosemary?

Roads would be cracked and timeworn. Kudzu would eat most of the roadsides and exposed powerlines, trailing up and over as it is wont to do. Maybe wild animals would be nesting in your bed--although if you're in the Broken Powers universe, there may be something nesting there, but it's probably not a wild mouse.

Old buildings are a great clue, buildings that have been abandoned and left unattended over the years. Plus they're pretty gorgeous to look at, even if I'm not keen on going into them and trying to stand on those crumbling floors. Although three years isn't all that long, it really takes less time than most people think for age to weaken an uninhabited building.

Have you ever wondered what your hometown would look like in a post-apocalyptic scenario, be it book or movie? What do you think would age well--and what ones wouldn't? Where would you go to seek shelter if you came back three years later?

What TV shows get better over time?

Oops... Those long weekends make it hard to remember to post!

While my friends taunt my Facebook feed with glorious DragonCon pictures, I've been enjoying a lovely weekend at home, which is... actually, also nice. Chores and writing and relaxing and tasty food and walks with a camera. And watching the side bit of Netflix as I write.

There tend to be three kinds of TV shows, I've noticed: episodics, those that improve with time, and most common--those that decline as time goes on. You have a great first season, and then a second season comes through and just... fizzles. Sometimes a third season follows up and tries to reverse the errors of season two, with everything from deus ex machina to time travel.

Sometimes the problem is that the scriptwriters change and the second season no longer follows the plot laid out in the first. Whatever story had been posed, the plot becomes erratic, and the story loses coherency. Other times, the problem is that the story outlives the writer's original arch--a series expanded and renewed beyond its original plot's capabilities. It takes quite a bit of creativity to fix a series that gets more airtime than the original plot supports, although some series can handle it with adequate new stakes.

In fact, some series improve with time through that very same method. The first season's premise runs out, but a better premise moves in. Even better are the premises that are built open, made to be write years' worth of seasons. Episodic series tend to be able to survive just about everything (think monster-of-the-week or anything else where a plot rarely lasts more than a single episode). But dramas made to last, they rise or fall.

What TV shows hold up best over multiple seasons? Which series go from decent to great?

Well, more pictures for the public domain, for my lapse in timeliness.

Publishing Industry News

This week's publishing news and industry blogs post covers 8/22-9/3/2015. As is often the case with late-summer news, it's been a bit slow these past couple of weeks.


Publishing News

The class-action lawsuit against Author Solutions has been settled out of court.

The University of Arkon fired all its editors from its press, a move that prompted so much backlash, they reversed the decision and rehired them.

Ellora's Cave (an erotic romance publisher) CEO and founder filed a defamation suit against Dear Author blogger last September. Both parties have filed motions requesting a summary judgment on their claims.

Red Hen Press's managing editor published an article in the Huffington Post that caused turmoil in literary publishing for a number of stereotypes, and the press is now feeling some of the fallout.

The Hachette Book Group is taking over Hachette UK distribution and sales in the US.

Scribd has updated its audiobook portion of its e-book subscription service, offering a rotating catalog of audiobooks, plus one free other book a month for monthly subscribers.


Industry Blogs

Agent Janet Reid answers questions on her blog (just a few b/c she was on vacation). If you've written a book in another language than English, how do you go about finding a bilingual American agent? (You don't.) What do you do if your publisher's going out business? (Check your contract. If you can, get your rights back. A lot depends on your current status. Save all your communications and don't panic.)
Agent Nephele Tempest offers some basic, common-sense tips for querying.

On the Editor's blog, introductory clauses, commas, and when and how they go together. Also, she writes about how to show (and punctuate) interruptions correctly.

Author Kristine Kathryn Rusch talks about changing tastes over time, and how it affects people's view of things written.

On the Futuristic, Fantasy, and Paranormal blog, J. Cheney reminds authors to keep their magic consistent (thereby avoiding those annoying plot holes).

Airline JetBlue has set up a number of book vending machines to get books into the hands of kids in Washington DC.


What other publishing news have you encountered in the past couple of weeks?

Which stories do history the best?

Age is beautiful.

We know this from our admiration of old buildings, of ruins, of artifacts in museums.

We admire how age touches stories and changes them; we find ancient tales as intriguing as modern ones, and all the more so for the history behind them.

Pretty much the only place we dislike age is upon ourselves. How sad--because that's beautiful, too, the personal histories we collect, the wisdom we gain over the years. Hollywood is downright phobic about women getting old (just think about the percent of middle-aged or elderly women who are the good guys; then think about the elderly people general who are good guys, and what percent of them are female...). But women and men alike fear aging, and that's probably not going to go away anytime soon, being as no one likes being reminded that his or her bones now pop and creak in the mornings, and midnight isn't as easy as it used to be.

History in fantasy and science fiction has always been particularly interesting, because believable worlds have to have history as much as they have present. How did those aliens get that way? Why do people fear the elves in the woods? The history may not be mentioned, but it's always at least insinuated by how the characters interact.

Lord of the Rings saga is known for its history, for Tolkien's stories behind the story. Harry Potter has histories written into the stories, as well.  But what stories handle history the best? Do you have a world whose backstory you love the most? That you think handles history better than others? How about the concept of aging, in general?

DragonCon

Next weekend is DragonCon, an awesome 3-day sci-fi/fantasy convention in Atlanta that I will sadly be missing this year, myself. However, I've been a couple of times, and loved it. It's got everything from excellent cosplay to interesting panels to roaming packs of people playing games (besides the board game room or LARP room, that is). Big names show up (of course you have to pay for autographs from the Hall of Autographs, but author signings tend to be free).

It's a really cool convention, and while it does have a few downsides (cost, history of cosplay harassers [though they've been working on improving the harassment policy and reducing this issue], the typical assortment of cancellations), I'm excited for all my friends who are going. I can't wait to see the pictures, which usually include some of the best cosplay I'll see all year. People pull out their best works for this con, especially those who can't make West Coast events. And I know some good cosplay artists. Plus, they'll get the chance to meet some of their favorite authors.

As a relatively nearby convention (within driving distance), it's one of my favorites. Both times I've gone, it's been with groups of friends, which makes it even better. And I've thoroughly enjoyed all the panels I've been to--with as many fan tracks as they have, it's hard to find something not to like.

To everyone who's going, have a great time, and be sure to share the pictures. Those of us who can't go this year are with you in spirit!

What conventions are your favorites? Which ones that you've been to have the best cosplay?