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Messages - OZ

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46
Calendar Event Discussion / Re: Jim at Phoenix ComiCon - June 5-8
« on: April 27, 2014, 06:03:29 AM »
You live in downtown Phoenix? My work takes me from Central to 7th Street and from Adams to Fillmore. I haven't been to the convention center but I'm across the street at the Herberger Theater almost every day.

47
Calendar Event Discussion / Re: Jim at Phoenix ComiCon - June 5-8
« on: April 26, 2014, 01:30:48 PM »
If you go Saturday and Sunday it's the same price as the whole week. I figure I might as well get the week long package since I plan to go on the weekend for sure and even one weekday (or night) will mean I've come out ahead.

48
Author Craft / Re: have you seen this video of writing advice?
« on: April 24, 2014, 05:25:48 AM »
That was great and I had not seen it. Thank you for posting it.

49
Calendar Event Discussion / Re: Jim at Phoenix ComiCon - June 5-8
« on: April 24, 2014, 12:09:38 AM »
This will be my first con as well and I'm really looking forward to it. My daughter has gone before but not me. I think she's just going on the weekend this year. I took the time off to go to the whole thing but we'll see.

50
Author Craft / Re: Lurker 'Fesses Up
« on: April 22, 2014, 12:13:12 AM »
I read it last night and enjoyed it.

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Author Craft / Re: Lurker 'Fesses Up
« on: April 21, 2014, 02:13:41 AM »
Sounds interesting. I read the Amazon excerpt. I'll check it out.

52
Calendar Event Discussion / Re: Jim at Phoenix ComiCon - June 5-8
« on: April 15, 2014, 04:05:47 AM »
You are planning to be there? I guess I should have known from your earlier comments and I know it's not that far from L.A. to Phoenix but I didn't realize.

53
Calendar Event Discussion / Re: Jim's 2014 Schedule
« on: April 10, 2014, 03:03:39 AM »
I just found out that my leave was approved! I'm going to Phoenix Comicon. It'll be my first con.

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Calendar Event Discussion / Re: Jim at Phoenix ComiCon - June 5-8
« on: March 30, 2014, 03:00:33 PM »
I am excited about this year's Comicon. Several more author's names have been added including Scott Lynch and L E Modesitt. I also see that John Barrowman and Nathan Fillion have been added to the guest list.

55
Calendar Event Discussion / Re: Jim at the Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale, AZ - June 5
« on: March 30, 2014, 02:56:09 PM »
That's good to know. If for some reason I can't get off work for the Comicon, I can see him at the Poisoned Pen.

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Calendar Event Discussion / Re: Jim's 2014 Schedule
« on: March 03, 2014, 04:06:10 PM »
I won't know until April whether I can get the time off but I'm hoping. It does look like an amazing lineup.

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Calendar Event Discussion / Re: Jim's 2014 Schedule
« on: March 02, 2014, 01:59:03 AM »
AWESOME!! Jim is coming back to Phoenix. I'm trying to get the time off work. I missed Jim when he was in Tucson so this will be the first time I've had a chance to go to one of his signings since Small Favor came out.

58
Author Craft / Re: Bad Guys
« on: January 30, 2014, 01:25:44 AM »
Quote
There's really not all that much out there that does law/chaos without having some preconceptions about good and evil attached to either side.

I think some of the best law/chaos stories out there are Modesitt's Recluce novels. The first handful of stories (most stand alone or are two parts although they all take place in the same world) seem to paint law as good and chaos as evil. He then tells several stories from characters that are involved with chaos that are certainly not evil. He even overlaps a few stories where you see how the protagonist of an earlier story looks from the other side. I don't like everything that Modesitt does but I really liked the contrasting viewpoints in different stories.

In Jonathan L Howard's Johannes Cabal the Necromancer, one of the minor villains is Arthur Trubshaw. He was a clerk at a bank whose life of "licentious proceduralism" was ended when he was shot while demanding that robbers give him a receipt for the money they were stealing. He now resides in Hell and is in charge of admissions. He requires people to fill out reams of paperwork and if they make even the slightest error, he rejects their paperwork and makes them fill it out again. A bureaucratic villain indeed.

59
Author Craft / Re: Bad Guys
« on: January 22, 2014, 04:48:09 PM »
A good way to create your villain is to try to create the story (for yourself, it doesn't have to be the story you want to publish) from the villain's point of view. Why are they the way they are? Are they crazy? Did horrific things happen to them as a child? Did they want to do right but were overcome by rage, despair, jealousy, etc. Were they (as Neuro said so well) raised in ways that we would find monstrous but to them are normal (for humans this is sometimes found in the idea of complete entitlement by those of wealth or nobility. It can also be found by those that feel that the rules only apply to those of wealth or nobility.) Do they have a goal that is simply different from that of the protagonist? The idea of the good of the many vs the good of the few (for example) can be spun from either side to create a story where both sides are striving for what they believe is right.
  If your villiain has no story, no reason for his or her actions, then they just become a two dimensional caricature. Realizing that the villain has a perspective beyond serving as a foil for the hero often opens the story up and helps it move forward.

60
Author Craft / Re: So I'm writing an Urban Fantasy, but need some help
« on: December 17, 2013, 02:27:16 AM »
Quote
And I'll have to check out Six-Gun Tarot, thanks for the suggestion. Sounds interesting, and along the lines of what I'm thinking of. Though I read the Amazon.com synopsis, and I don't think I could create a fictional city (Salt Lake City is the only city of the right size in Utah for the diversity in culture that I need, unless I switched the setting to a different state, which I might do), or rename an existing city.

I wasn't talking so much about the town of Golgotha as I was how many different belief systems played important roles in the story. I don't remember any specific legends related to the railroads although I do remember reading a story somewhere that had the iron rails playing an important part in driving the Fae from our land. Since the Fae seldom played well with mortals, this was considered a good thing.

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