Poem: "Friendship Is Important"

This poem is kind of an elegy, thus posted free. It fills the "coma" square in my 6-10-14 card for the hc_bingo fest. It belongs to the series Polychrome Heroics.

( Read more... )

Story: "Marketing Concerns in Mad Science"

This story came out of a discussion between me and dialecticdreamer, with contributions from both of us; it's so short, I don't want to muck around trying to divide a price. It also fills "The Classics Freestyle" square in my 6-11-14 card for the fanbingo fest. It belongs to the Polychrome Heroics series.

WARNING: This story contains some rude language, weapons of mass destruction, references to crazy supervillains, and super-gizmologists with a shortage of common sense. Consider your tastes before you click through.

( Read more... )

Character Agency

Here's a wonderful article that explains character agency.  A majority of stories that suck have a problem with absent agency; the characters get railroaded.  This is not fun.

I on the other hand like characters who can get into trouble on their own, and audiences who can suggest exciting trouble into which characters can get.  Nothing is more entertaining than having someone say, "Hey, there's a six-foot-wide mud puddle over there," and the main character goes, "Nah, I'd rather burn down the barn instead."  Or whatever.

Poem: "Collateral Damages"

This poem is spillover from the March 18, 2014 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from janetmiles. This also fills the "red" square in the Spring and Autumn Bingo public card. It has been sponsored by dialecticdreamer. This poem belongs to the Damask thread of the Polychrome Heroics series, an immediate sequel to "Buttoned Up."

( Read more... )