Hugh J. O'Donnell

Tactical Retreat: Smoky Writers 2014

February 1, 2014

hughjodonnell Uncategorized podcasting, Smoky Writers 2014, Writing 1 Comment

Last week I was invited to Pigeon Forge, TN to take part in the first annual Smoky Writers retreat. The outing was organized by Alex White, and included fellow writers/podcasters Pip Ballantine, Tee Morris, Lauren Harris, Rosemary Tizledoun, Bryan Lincoln, and Beth Hayes Bailie. It was, I’d have to say, a resounding success.

First of all, it was the longest and most remote of any retreat I’ve been on before. Driving twelve hours south to Tennessee in January isn’t exactly fun, but it gave me a great chance to clear my head and prepare for four days of uninterrupted word-grinding. And boy, did I need to step back. The day job has been a bit stressful to say the least, and trip could not have come at a better time.

Secondly, I can’t talk about the retreat without mentioning THE FOOD. Not only did I not have to worry about providing my own grub, but I don’t think I’ve eaten so well in my life. We had not one, but two gourmet chefs on hand, Alex’s wife, Renee, AKA The Domestic Scientist, and their friend Matt, who is a chef for high-ranking Army brass. From a plate of perfectly prepared pork tenderloin waiting for me when I arrived, to the flan that ended our last meal, we ate like royalty.

Thirdly, there was scheduling and accountability. Having a team of chefs gave us a regular clock to go by. We had breakfast, wrote, ate lunch wrote, and then before dinner, we shared a sample of what we had written that day. This was new to me, and it was brilliant. I don’t think anyone would have slacked off if we hadn’t shared, but I know that I worked harder for knowing that I was going to read.

It wasn’t a critique circle, but I did get an immediate reaction from other writers, and that really elevated the work I produced.

Finally, we reserved the evenings as time off for relaxing. This helped center me in addition to being a lot of fun. It might not have made a difference, but I don’t think I would have been as successful on the page if it weren’t for getting taken by cookie Matt in one hand of poker, playing an opportunistic former meth-dealer in Alex’s RP game, or spending time in the hot tub with Lauren, Rosemary, and Bryan.

Writing is, for the most part, a lonely exercise, and one that takes place mostly in our own heads. I was incredibly nervous approaching this retreat, because I was going to be working with artists that, frankly, blow me away. Tee and Pip were some of the first podcasting novelists. Bryan and Alex create absolutely breathtaking soundscapes in their productions. I didn’t know how I was going to stack up against creators like that. The Smoky Writers taught me to leave my Imposter Syndrome at the door.

At the retreat, I made about 12,000 words of progress in my Urban Fantasy novel Changeling, and completed the first draft of a short story called “Fire Bear’s Day Off.” I learned a lot about maintaining my work/writing/life balance, having the courage to share my work, and to have more confidence in my ideas, and to write to my passions.

Most importantly, I made a stack of precious memories that will last a lifetime. Thanks again to Alex, and everyone at the retreat for making it such a great experience.

Elanterra Journal 002: Humanity

February 1, 2014

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Humans are simultaneously the most populous and shortest-lived of the Five Peoples living on Elanterra. The reasons for this strange dichotomy deal largely with their social structures and societal norms.

Physically, Humans are taller than most of the other Peoples, ranging from between four and six feet tall. With access to a proper diet, they are the most physically adept as well, at least on dry land. Humans have smaller, more rounded ears, and lack any other distinguishing physical traits. They can be found in settlements of various size throughout Elanterra. As a rule, Humans are opportunistic. If a niche can be found, a Human with find a way to exploit it to survive. Although not necessarily as adept as the other Peoples, Humans farm, raise, fish, hunt, mine, carve, brew, and sell. Other Peoples, particularly Hill and River Folk, often employ Humans as labor.

Humans tend to organize in strict feudal states called ‘Kingdoms.’ These societies are ruled by a supreme executive called a King. In some cases, the royal family rules together, or the Kings power is held in check by a Parliament of nobles, but this isn’t common. The title of King passes by blood from the current ruler to his designated heir, usually the first-born son. Women have very few rights in these Kingdoms, and cannot inherit titles or property. A woman’s inheritance will typically instead fall to her husband or eldest son. There are some rare cases of women ruling as regents or advisors for children too young to take the throne for themselves. Although women have little direct power in these structures, they tend to have the responsibility of managing their husbands houses and affairs, giving them far more influence than expected.

The largest Human Kingdoms are Argonia in the east and Lithia in the southwest. Hydraal is also nominally considered to be a Kingdom, although its political structure is much looser. Its monarchy is considered largely symbolic.

Although the ruling class holds most of the wealth in Human society, they make up a very small percentage of the population. Non-noble Humans are known as Serfs, and they are in some matters considered the legal property of the nobles, who most farmland and hires Serfs on as tenants for a percentage of the harvests. As with the King, these arrangements pass from father to son. In exchange for their labor and service, Human nobles are expected to protect the serfs from monsters, foreign powers (usually other Human nobles) and perform other duties of their station. In cities, or settlements not overseen by a noble family, Humans are considered “Free.”

Humans, particularly serfs, suffer from generally poor conditions and a lack of varied diet. Most Humans consider the magical arts to be taboo, and avoid magical healing. Since there are very few skilled healers that are not magicians, Apothecaries are common in Human lands. Their effectiveness varies. Use of magic, and in some cases being known as a spellcaster is a crime in most Kingdoms, with a variety of punishments. Lithia is the most zealous, with an elite corps of Witch Hunters serving in their military.

Humans worship a stern, authoritative god, called the Divine Emperor. He is often depicted robed in the night sky. He is secretive, and those outside of the nobility and clergy classes are not even privy to his true name. His worship states that Humans are called upon to do the service of their station, with a very few rising to the ranks of the clergy or other specialized vocations. Those that violate the social order are severely punished. As a result, Barbarian tribes and other Humans outside of the traditional social order are often shunned for turning their backs on ‘the chosen people.’

Compilier’s Note: This entry remains pretty accurate. Humans are ruled by kings, who have all the wealth and power, and everyone else stays at the bottom. Humans do much better in the mixed cities, particularly Carabos, where they are a large minority, and consist of most of the surface labor pool. The plight of women in Human society remains particularly bad. Hill and River Folk women traveling or doing business in Human lands are required to travel with a male companion, as a woman traveling alone will likely find herself detained ‘for her own safety.’ Dwarven women, obviously, don’t have this problem. –GB

Elanterra Journal 001: The Grand Isle of Elanterra

January 26, 2014

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Elanterra, otherwise known as the Grand Isle, the Island of Mystery, and the Sealed Lands, is a large island some 300 miles west of the continent of Surtia. Much like the fabled Five Kingdoms far to the east, storm, remoteness of geography, and other factors have kept the island isolated from the rest of the world for centuries. The Island was a major battleground during the Godswar, and is thought to hold the sealing-place of the Nameless God of the Orcs and wild tribes, many of whom survive on the island. Elanterra is also home to thriving civilizations of Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Hill-folk and River-Folk.

Exact measurements are inexact, but the the Island is estimated to be a landmass of roughly 150,000 square miles, consisting of vast forests, mountain ranges, and plains. The climate is temperate, with hot summers and cold winters, particularly in the northern mountain ranges.

Much of the island’s early history has been lost due to the direct intervention of the Nameless God and his subsequent destruction. The Island is said to have once hosted a shining golden age, when all the peoples lived in peace and cooperation. While intricate and vast ruins remain, little other evidence of these utopian civilizations is left. The exact spot of the Nameless God’s sealing, and that of his dark allies, is also unknown, although adventurers and cultists scour the island looking for them.

Although the Nameless God is lost, gods grant forever, The Surtian Empire has devoted an entire fleet of warships to patrolling the waters around the island. This blockade, combined with the weather, has effectively stopped all but the hardiest of travelers from making the crossing.

While the Golden Age of cooperation between the Five Peoples ended with the war, the treaties that bind them together still function, for the most part. For the most part, their civilizations and kingdoms keep to themselves, although the lowlands in the center of the Island feature many settlements where Dwarves, Humans, and Hill-folk live side-by-side. The Elves maintain their Heartwood, and do not welcome visitors. Half-elves, the scion of ancient pairings between Humans and Elves, are surprisingly common, and can be found in nearly every human city. They usually are treated as an underclass, and have almost no rights or privileges, however. The only place where all five people can be seen rubbing elbows is the great city of Carabos, center of learning, trade, and arts on Elanterra. The River-folk are the original settlers, but due to their unusual nature, all People have access to some sort of education and even governance in the city. The Grand Isle is home to vast wilderness, teaming cities, and untold wonders and magic. This document attempts to reveal just a few of its mysteries.

Compiler’s Note: Much of this short introductory entry remains accurate to this day. Carabos is the center of trade and education on the Island. Border wars have recently begun to flare up, such as the protracted skirmishes between the human kingdom of Argonia and the dwarven capital at Ferros, but the ancient treaties still hold The Elves have retreated even further into their isolation, and do not even maintain a presence at Carabos. No credible tale of Elves appearing outside of their forest borders has been verified in over a century. The reasons for their introversion remain a mystery. –G.B.

“Elanterra Journal” is a look into the People, Places, and history of the Island of Elanterra, the setting of the Freelance Hunters stories. “Glory’s Gauntlet,” an ebook collection of four Freelance Hunters stories is available from Amazon and Smashwords.

Fiction: The Peter Jackson Version of this Drabble is 100 pages long.

January 19, 2014

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Yesterday morning, this wizard came up and carved a rune on my front door, square in the center. I thought we were just having a pleasant conversation and BAM! My door is advertising or something now. Of course, I have no idea what it says. I’ve tried everything to get rid of it. I tried cleaning it, painting over it, I even pulled the door down and hung a new one. The stupid thing just reappeared. I was at my wits end. That is, until a party of dwarves showed up this morning, offering ‘discount rune removal services.’ Goddam wizards.

Elanterra Journal 000: Foreward

January 18, 2014

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“What is a fantasy map but a space beyond which There Be Dragons?”

–Terry Pratchett, The Color of Magic

The collection of articles known as the “Elanterra Journal” consists of a series of scholarly entries detailing the geography, culture, and lifestyles of the inhabitants of the Grand Island. These documents have been published, banned, translated and studied for centuries, and their history is so muddied at this point that little, if anything can be ascertained about the identity or purpose of the original authors. Translators and copiers make a habit of updating information whenever a new copy is produced, and it is traditional to include some small factual errors of the scribe’s invention in each new edition.

Although the earliest known editions can be traced back to Carabos Academy and were probably produced in the late 600’s, these copies are far from extant. Records prior to this time are unreliable due to the ancient wars. Further confusion exists as to what entries are ‘canon’ articles and which are forgeries or later additions. I have taken it upon myself to reconcile these versions as much as possible, and provide a definitive edition. It is my hope that such a volume will prove scholarly insight into the work as well as a boon to travelers across Elanterra.

Gloriana Bywater,

Master of Thaumaturgical Studies,

Carabos Academy

Winter, 1527

Hugh Likes Comics: High Crimes

January 15, 2014

hughjodonnell Uncategorized Christopher Sebela, High Crimes, HLC, Hugh Likes Comics, Ibrahim Moustafa, Monkey Brain, review Leave a comment

Written by Christopher Sebela

Art by Ibrahim Moustafa

Published by Monkey Brain Comics

How far can you run from yourself? Zan Jansen was an Olympic snowboarder with a bright future ahead of her, until she fell and saw her chance at a gold medal slip away. After that, everything fell apart. She fled to Kathmandu, where she is drowning herself in substance abuse and guiding tourists up K2. But her real business is a bit darker than that. With the spike in adventure tourism, more and more people are climbing Mount Everest, and not all of them come back down.

When someone dies on the mountain, they are left where they fall. It is one of the hazards of the climb. So far Zan hasn’t climbed Everest. She is saving it. For her, climbing the summit is literally climbing out of the spiral she has put herself it. She says that she’ll climb Everest and keep going. But her boss has, and every time he goes up, he comes down with something someone left behind. A hand and what personal effects they carried. Once he identifies the corpse, he contacts the survivors, and offers to ship them back something to bury. For a fee, of course. It isn’t exactly illegal, but it is dirty work.

Of course, some things are meant to stay buried, and when her boss recovers the corpse of a black-ops government agent gone missing, things start to go very bad for her employer.

Moustafa’s art is fitting for this kind of noir piece. His figures are a bit stiff, but he takes some interesting risks, particularly with layout, that give the piece a nice atmosphere.

Sebela’s central characters are gritty and well defined. They feel like characters with history, and a lot of significant dialog feels unsaid. There’s a richness in what they don’t say, and that’s a tough trick to pull off in a twenty page comic.

I think that if there is a flaw in this comic, it is that the bad guys chasing Zan are a bit too cartoonishly evil. The secret military commander lacks a mustache to twirl when he shoots one of his minions in the face the second he asks a question, but he even goes so far to say that the person who has died ‘went rogue to protect the world from people like us.’

At a buck on Comixology, “High Crimes” is another Monkey Brain comic that really shows the potential of its creative team. It’s at least interesting, even if it might not reach the heights it is reaching for.

“High Crimes” is available from Comixology.

Hugh Likes Comics: The Top 5 of 2013

January 7, 2014

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#5: Batman ’66: I like stories that go all-in. No pussy-footing around, not Super-Heroes-but-no-tights, which seems to be de-reguer, particularly at “The Big Two.” That’s why I was pleasantly surprised by this outing from writer Jeff Parker and artist Jonathan Case. They’ve returned to the source material of the ’60’s Batman TV show, complete with dancing and giant sound effect bubbles. The digital versions have a few more tricks up their sleeves to evoke the classic series. Batman ’66 embraces everything the New 52 disdains, and soars because of it.

#4: Saga: Vaughan and Staples continued to knock it out of the park this year with Saga. The story of an ancient interstellar war cut with family drama, mercenaries, and the ways art can change a person make for a heady mix. The art remains evocative and controversial. Saga doesn’t pull its punches, but it isn’t crass, either.

#3: Atomic Robo: The Savage Sword of Dr. Dinosaur: There was little chance for Clevenger and Wegener to escape this list as well, with this nail-biting installment that puts Atomic Robo at the site of an impossible underground city, with shadow military agents storming his headquarters, and completely unstable velociraptor mad scientist Dr. Dinosaur sitting on a stockpile of stolen nuclear warheads. Atomic Robo remains funnier and smarter than it has a right to be.

#2: Sandman Overture: We only got one issue of Neil Gaiman’s return to his seminal Byronic Dream King, but oh boy, was it ever a doozy. Filled with all of the gothic-horror elements that made Sandman great, and with exceptional art by G H Williams III, This comic is a rare treat for Morpheus fans. Hopefully, we’ll get to see it a bit more frequently in 2014.

#1: Young Avengers: Sadly ending in early 2014, Young Avengers is a comic that knows exactly what it wants and goes right for it. Under the direction of comics super-team Keiran Gillen and Jamie McKelvie, the Young Avengers bring a little bit of their indie hit “Phonogram” into the Marvel Universe. “Young Avengers” pits focuses less on what it means or takes to be a superhero than it does the trials and tribulations of modern teenagers. After a poorly planned bit of magic use, a group of teens find themselves fighting against an magical parasite that draws power from how parents don’t understand teenagers. It is a fantastic high-concept very well executed. Unfortunately, for a teen book, there is a lot of backstory for these characters that just isn’t given. I’ve felt in over my head a few times, but I’ve loved the ride. Another plus in this comic’s favor is that it has possibly the highest collection of LGBTQ characters anywhere in ‘the big two,’ and handles them with then same excellent touch as earlier Young Avengers installments.

2013 No-Prize: Dan Didio continues to be comics’ greatest super-villain. He spent the year making sure no DC Comics characters have any fun on his watch. After denying the upcoming marriage of Batwoman Kate Kane, he went on to say that none of DC’s heroes should have a stable home life, and seems to be making certain of it. His crowning achievement this year: Creating an art contest for Harley Quinn #0 which included drawing the beloved children’s TV character naked, despairing, and about to commit suicide. After much outcry, the panel did not appear in the final version.

Honorable mentions:

X-Men: Teenage Mom Jubilee, enough time-travelers to stage a production of “Les Mis” and other crazy nonsense. Marvel seemed to focus on their movie-friendly characters like the Avengers in 2013, but there was still a ton of mutants out there, including an all-female team!

Edison Rex: Artist Dennis Culver gets the nod for designing not just a new set of comics characters, but an entire major publisher’s line-up of heroes and villains. My personal favorite: ROFL, an omnipotent extra-dimensional being using the form of a muppet Grant Morrison.

Subatomic Party Girls: Simms and Bowers had the stones to use the line ‘Do you realize we’re floating in space’ unironically. Props.

The Freelance Hunters: Glory’s Gauntlet

December 21, 2013

hughjodonnell Uncategorized Blocked, ebooks, Glory's Gauntlet, Short Stories, The Freelance Hunters, Writing Leave a comment

An ebook collecting all four of this year’s “Freelance Hunters” stories is finally up! Available from Amazon or Smashwords, the volume contains “Glory’s Gauntlet,” “Blocked!” “The Least Unicorn,” and “A Splash on the Big Bridge!” There’s a lot more coming from our band of misfit adventurers in 2014, so keep your eyes peeled here!

Hugh Likes Comics: X-Men: Battle of the Atom

November 1, 2013

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Today’s comic is X-Men, Battle of the Atom, written by Brian Michael Bendis, and drawn by various artists. 2013 is the 50th anniversary of Uncanny X-men, and Marvel is celebrating with a crossover featuring those two most pressing issues to mutant-kind, Time Travel and The Phoenix. In classic X-men style, the story plays out in a bunch of different titles over the course of a couple months, and as of writing, they are about halfway done.

I’m on record as hating crossovers, and this one takes a few of the miss-steps that irk me. Characters are acting against their type, there’s a lot of scenes where people just shout their opinions without doing anything, and characters appear for no other purpose than to be seen and fill out the page. It’s a lot like the American Government Shutdown, actually.

But for all that, I’m surprised to find myself really enjoying the story, and eagerly awaiting the next part. The story is stuffed full of nostalgia and angst, and unites the past, present, and future X-Men. To condense a long story into a single paragraph, after the last catastrophic crossover event, Cyclops has gone rogue, and under the influence of everyone’s favorite cosmic fire bird, killed Professor Xavier. In an attempt to prevent this from happening, his former team-mate Hank McCoy built a time machine and brings the original five teenagers from 1963 to the present and showed them how everything turned out. I don’t know why he didn’t just use the time machine to prevent the murder, but what do I know from storytelling. It turns out that Causality will not be denied, however, and when Teenage Cyclops is nearly killed, everyone realizes that doing this stupid thing might have been a mistake. But just as everyone is about to send the five kids home to prevent something horrible from happening, a DIFFERENT set of time travelers appear: X-men from the future who have come to make sure the Original Five-man band all go back home. Much shouting, angst, and fighting for no reason ensues, and in the confusion, Teenage Jean Grey and Cyclops escape. Seeing how their future worked out for them, they are inclined to stay in the present, even if it means more trouble down the road.

It’s difficult to say what makes this story work exactly. It has a lot of moving parts, not all of which seem to be on the same track, but the story is crazy enough at this point that literally anything can happen. The stakes are as high as they can be in a comic-book universe, and these characters have been struggling against each other, to say nothing of the Marvel Universe villains, for so long, that I’m really cheering for them to catch a break. The visions of the future, including a version of Jean Grey in Xorn armor (Xorn was a character from the late-90’s/early 2000’s X-men who dressed in armor covered in chains and wore a skull-mask. He ended up being a bad guy, go figure) and an Iron Man armor painted up in Sentinel colors with an X across it’s chest plate, are both cool and tantalizing. I haven’t been keeping a close eye on the X-books, but the comics gave me enough back-story when I needed it, and I wasn’t lost. Also, Jubilee is both a teenage mother and a vampire, but I don’t think it’s a vampire baby. I’m probably going to go into back issues and find out how that happened, because someone has done the impossible and made Jubilee a character I want to see more of.

This is a crossover that really seems like it’s trying to move forward while still hitting the high notes of the team’s fifty year history. It might not appeal to casual readers, but if you’re a fan, you should check it out.

Megaman I: Elegance in Design

October 1, 2013

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System: Nintendo NES/Famicom

Release Date: 1987

Megaman’s creator, Keiji Inafune recently funded a kickstarter for his new independent project, Mighty Number 9. Inspired by the buzz surrounding the new project, I went back and looked at the Blue Bomber’s original adventure with new eyes.

I didn’t have “Megaman” for my NES, but lots of my friends did, and I remember the games fondly from the early nineties. I also recall them being controller-threateningly difficult. I was curious to see how the first outing would stack up to my memories.

First of all, it is worth noting that the first game lacks the graphical and musical polish of the sequels. There are only six stages, and once the player determines the proper order for playing them, they fall rather quickly. Especially if you use the well-known ‘pause trick.’ Likewise, there’s not much of a story besides ‘You’re a good robot, they’re evil robots, go fight them.’ It’s the sort of fare from the era that is simple, but has been expanded upon greatly in the years since. For example, in the much-praised Megaman comic, put out by Archie Comics.

While I will agree that Megaman is hard, it was not quite so bad as I remember. Aside from a few of the end stage bosses, (and I am looking squarely at you, one-eyed rock monster) the deaths don’t feel cheap. Unlike other 8-bit era platformers, there is no countdown clock. The game gives you plenty of time to observe and experiment. Megaman really is the start of what later-generation indie developers would call ‘puzzle platformers.’ Most of the game can be best progressed by observing the challenge and discovering the pattern, or choosing the best Robot Master’s subweapon for the situation. For example, the flying torpedo enemies can often knock you into a pit when they explode, but freezing them rather than shooting them with your regular gun solves the dilemma. Most of the jumping puzzles can likewise be bypassed with the Magnet Beam.

This creates an odd challenge curve as the game actually gets EASIER as you gain new powers. The game’s non-linear nature lets you play the stages in any order, but the real challenge is figuring out an optimal path. each Robot Master has a weakness, and some levels, such as Fire Man’s stage, are practically impassable without the right weapon.

All in all, Megaman I is a solid entry in the NES’s roster of games. While its sprites and textures are a little less eye-popping than its successors, it is at the very least noteworthy for being the progenitor of something great, and a whole lot of fun. You don’t need to play it to get into the series, as there isn’t much of a story aside from the window-dressing standard to that generation, but it is certainly worth your time. Just watch out for those disappearing block puzzles.