Movie Review: Young Washington

We start with eleven-year-old George Washington (Will Joseph) after the death of his father. He had hoped to continue at school, but now he has to help his mother on the family farm. His half-brother Lawrence (John Foss) tutors him in the classics, including Cato and Plutarch, Seneca and Cincinnatus.  

The grown Washington (William Frankly-Miller) earnestly desires to be a British officer. But to be an officer, he must be a gentleman—a member of the upper class. He strives to have all the qualities of a gentleman, but he was not born into the correct family for that.

George Washington starts out as a surveyor. Lord Fairfax (Kelsey Grammer) agrees to have him survey the Fairfax lands in the Ohio Valley. Washington does better than that, trying to survey the entire Ohio Valley—a vast, unsettled wilderness. He discovers a French fort in British territory.

When he brings back the news, he is made a major in the Virginia Militia. Since this is a colonial militia, he is not officially a British officer, so he still has not achieved his goal.

The disastrous battle that ensues at the start of the French and Indian War is the center of the movie. Washington is not an effective leader. He blunders badly by ordering his men to build a fort with short walls in the middle of a lake bed. All the French and their Indian* allies have to do is wait for it to flood.

Experts who know better than I say the costumes and settings are accurate. The combat scenes are riveting. They have a “you are there” quality with a real dirtside view, without being explicit in the violence. And there is lots of mud. The contrast between those scenes and the elegant chambers of the aristocracy is purposefully jarring.

Critics pretty much agree with all of the above, then opinions diverge. Some say the movie has a made-for-TV quality, or that it is only useful for stirring up childhood patriotism. Did they just watch the trailers and fudge it from there? Young Washington is a great movie, and I don’t often say that.

This is a badly-needed exploration of the early years of George Washington, when he fought for the British Empire. No man starts out as a great leader. This is shown to be painfully true in the case of Washington. This is no hagiography or children’s story. The movie convincingly shows how he learned from his blunders to become not only a man, but a leader of men.

His bad decision concerning Fort Necessity might not be covered much in schoolbooks. But it is essential to understanding the man. William Frankly-Miller does a fantastic job of showing Washington as a young officer way out of his depth, fanatically yelling at his men to prepare for battle, then not knowing what to do when the French and Indians rain murderous bullets onto them.

Mary-Louise Parker does not quite look convincing as his mother Mary Washington, who was a hard-working farmer’s widow. But her harangue to George that the Lord wants him to learn wisdom from his mistakes is a fascinating scene. Also, Ben Kingsley is just about perfect as the snobbish Lieutenant-Governor Dinwiddie, who is unimpressed by Washington when he sends him out to give an ultimatum to the French, and who is then outraged that a battle ensued.

The main inaccuracy in the movie is showing a romance between Washington and Sally Cary. This did not happen. In reality he only met her after she married. Apparently this was added to appeal to women.

An anachronistic element was added by showing an Indian chief wanting to meet Washington. He had instructed his men to shoot Washington, but none of them could. The chief concluded a great spirit was protecting him. In more than one battle, Washington did have bullets tear through his uniform without leaving a scratch on him, and he did have two horses shot out from under him in a single battle. But this particular conversation occurred later in his career.

These minor criticisms do no serious injury to the film. Young Washington is a great movie that not only shows George Washington’s role in the French and Indian War, but also the tumultuous events that made him the leader he ultimately became.

*A historically accurate term for Native-Americans at the time.

Review of Masters of the Universe

I never watched the animated series He-Man and the Masters of the Universe or read the comic books. But one reviewer said this movie was not as bad as some people thought it would be, so I took a chance and went to see it.

We are immediately plunged into Eternia, a world of vaguely high Medieval architecture and modern-looking body armor. The young of the aristocracy are ruthlessly trained to be warriors. Adam, the son of the king, is the smallest of them and quite hapless. A girl named Teela tries to encourage him, though she could knock him down.

The kingdom is invaded by Skeletor, who pretty much looks like his name. His forces use an odd combination of weapons: high-tech devices what never run out of ammo, and traditional bladed weapons. The power of Eternia is contained in the Sword of Power, so Adam and the Sword are sent through a portal to our world. Alas, the force of the portal rips the Sword from his hands.

We skip fifteen years to find Adam (Nicholas Galitzine) stuck in a dead-end job in human resources. He is subject to tortuous sessions on communication and de-escalation. But he spends every spare minute on endless online searches for the Sword. Will he find it?

Not to spoil anything, but the rest of the movie would be realllly boring if he never did.

Masters of the Universe is a fun combination of over the top action and wry self deprecation. The action involves extremely complex CGI, sometimes too fast for the eye to follow. The best example of the humor is when Adam grasps the Sword in Eternia and calls the overwhelming power into him. Teela (Camila Mendes), who is now grown up and devastatingly lovely, cries out, “We are saved!” The next moment, the sword is knocked from his hand. Teela says, “We are screwed.”

Adam is no reluctant hero. He yearns to be one, but is anything but a hero in our world. Even in Eternia, when he has the sword, he is often bumbling around. But the stakes are high. Skeletor has killed thousands of people. When Adam asks Teela why Skeletor is so evil, she replies, “His face is a skull.” Enough said.

What could be a moral to the story comes from sensitivity training smashing into ultimate evil. Adam uses his human resources training to try to communicate and to de-escalate situations, and he always fails. Duncan (Idris Elba), a worn-out warrior, tells him that muscles are needed. Although not denying that attempts to communicate are important, we see that sometimes evil must be destroyed by a muscular hero (in this case, one swinging a sword.)

So Masters of the Universe is not the politically correct superhero movie some dreaded. It is more of a partial sendup of sensitivity training, using a he-man kind of character.

One disadvantage of the movie is long emotional one-on-one scenes, even while battles are going on? There are a few cases of foul language and swearing, which are not only inappropriate, but do not match the tone of the movie.

Overall, this was a successful transformation of a comic-booky story into a movie that does not take itself too seriously.

Dr. Who’s Police Box

Here are a couple other pictures from Norwescon. One could simply be walking down a hallway from the lobby and encounter this:

Close inspection showed this:

I did not try to pull the handle. Should I have?

Cherry Blossoms

This was from a few weeks ago.

Norwescon II—Supplemental

I didn’t take a lot of pictures at Norwescon this year. You can see a lot of pictures from the 2022 Norwescon here and here. Click to enlarge any of them.

Here is an amazing black dress.

These are floor costumes.

We also had a pair of pirate costumes.

Star Wars cosplayers put on quite a production. Here’s a picture—sabers up.

A somewhat different pose.

And a close up of a few of the players.

Norwescon 1—Supplemental

I attended Norwescon, the largest science fiction/fantasy convention in the Pacific Northwest with an emphasis on writing.

First, about the hotel. This was the Doubletree Inn in SeaTac. Yes, the city was named after the Seattle-Tacoma Airport, otherwise known as SeaTac. This is the only city I know of that was named that way.

This was my worst experience at the hotel, which I have been to several times, or any hotel at all. This may sound petty at first, but my key cards would not work. My room was at the farthest end of the hotel, so I had to walk outside all the way back to the front desk. Since this has the most conference rooms in the Seattle area, it made for a long walk, there and back again. I was given a new pair, but only one of them worked. I noticed a woman down the hallway was having the same problem, since she was pressed against her door and muttering under her breath about her stupid key card. This kept happening, so I was eventually issued a total of eight.

I didn’t realize it at first, but my door would not close all the way and lock on its own. The Thursday night of the convention, I was lying in bed and watching the TV’s channel guide scroll.

Someone opened the door.

We couldn’t see each other because of the room configuration. I said, “Hey.” I didn’t yell it because I was trying to fall asleep. The person didn’t try to enter, and I think it was just a case of someone opening the door to the wrong room. But at the time, I was somewhat antsy. I was in a less than dressed state. After a few seconds of nothing happening, I ran to the door and slammed it shut with both hands as hard as I could. That probably scared whoever must have been retreating down the hallway.

No matter how widely I opened the door, it never fully shut on its own, as the image above shows.

The windows outside the elevators I used were filthy. There were so many streaks of who-knows-what, when the cab went up, it looked like it was raining. This was really bad.

From the elevator at the far end of the hotel, I could see one of the massive wooden posts that held the hotel up from the nearby lake was split badly. I should have taken a picture to show the hotel management. It was that way when I was at Norwescon two years ago. In all that time, no one noticed and took action?

When I checked in, I was told that parking was free for the convention, and I just had to use a key card at a parking gate. You can guess how well that worked. I tried my last two working key cards, but they were rejected. I pressed the Help button repeatedly, but no one ever answered. Finally, I had to use my credit card to get out of there. I was charged $57.60.

 That night, I called the hotel and explained what happened. When I said I had pressed the Help button several times, the person interrupted me. She said very tersely that a buzzer or something goes off on her desk when that button was pushed, so that could not have happened. She wasn’t much help.

To be fair, the hotel restaurant has a good breakfast buffet. And when I called the accounting department the following Monday, they said they would refund the parking charge to my credit card.

Next will be an account of the convention itself.

Movie Review: Project Hail Mary

Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) wakes up to a breathing tube being taken out of his mouth and a computer asking him what two plus two is. Not able to answer the cognitive question correctly at the moment, he is dragged out of his sleeping pod. He climbs a ladder and finds two other sleeping pods, but the people in them are dead. Grace blunders about through an amazing amount of loose equipment until he finds a window. The stars out there reveals he is in space. What’s worse, he is on a trip taking him far out of the solar system.

Grace does not remember how he got there. As he tries to figure out how to run the spaceship, his memory comes back to him in dribs and drabs. He was a middle school science teacher. Students asked him about the dimming of the sun. He acknowledged this was happening, and it was linked to the Petrova line, which goes from the sun to Venus.

Scientists discovered this line was composed of microorganisms dubbed the Astrophage. A high-level government agent Eva Stratt (Sandra Hüller) recruited him to work on this. It turns out Grace was a microbiologist who was shunned for insisting that life can exist without water. Dispirited, he ended up teaching middle school. But in a government lab, he finds the Astrophage is composed of individual cells. They absorb enough energy from the sun to travel to Venus. Why? They are attracted to the carbon dioxide on Venus, where they breed using the carbon dioxide.

This is causing the dimming of the sun. In about thirty years, all life on Earth will be dead.

Other stars are being infected, presumably by the Astrophage. But one star, Tau Ceti, is not. The Hail Mary spacecraft is assembled for a three-person crew. They will hopefully go to Tau Ceti, find out why it is not being affected, and send the information back to Earth via probes. If the information is relevant, and scientists can do something useful with it, the Earth may be saved. (The movie does not describe it, but the Hail Mary pass is a desperate move in American football, so the name of the spaceship reflects the improbable nature of the mission.)

There is only enough fuel for a one-way trip. This is a suicide mission.

Back in Grace’s present, the Hail Mary has been under constant acceleration, providing Grace with a sense of gravity. But when it reaches a planet orbiting Tau Ceti, the drive cuts out. Now in fully-realized zero gravity, he scrambles around in the pilot seat. The pilot was one of those who died, so Grace has no idea what he is doing. Will he figure out how to pilot the ship, and will he find anything useful to save Earth?

Project Hail Mary is a fun movie designed to appeal to viewers who don’t necessarily know a whole lot of science. It has the opposite of 2001: A Space Odyssey’s serious and well-disciplined crew. A surprising scene showed the Hail Mary’s crew preparing to leave by drinking and singing in a bar. It is also the opposite of The Right Stuff. Grace is not cut out for this mission, and he knows it. He is the wrong stuff.

One has to get used to Ryan Gosling’s face, since much of the movie focuses on him. But that’s not a problem for most people. He has an everyman nature about him, whether he is tearfully sending his dead crewmates out for a space burial, or using his scientific genius to try to find a way to defeat the Astrophage.

I had never seen Sandra Hüller before. Much of her work has been done in Germany. The movie certainly takes advantage of her expressive face and surprisingly expressive voice. Her character of Eva Stratt will surprise you.

P.S. If you stay and watch the end credits, you will see that Meryl Streep really did say a sentence as a voice actress.

P.P.S. The current ad for the movie reveals a lot. In fact, if you are planning on seeing the movie, don’t watch any ads for it. Or any interviews with the actors.

SPOILERS *** SPOILERS***SPOILERS

This isn’t exactly a spoiler anymore, because the current ad for the movie takes a lot of the surprise out of it.

The spider-like, asymmetrical alien named Rocky is creepy. It took me a while to get used to it. Obviously, this is on purpose, so our experience will track with Grace’s,

In the bar scene, it looks like Eva Stratt is developing feelings for Ryland Grace. This becomes a great head fake with her surprise song.

Most moviegoers do not understand how to simulate gravity in science fiction. They did a great job showing what happens when acceleration is turned off, then the spaceship has to spin to simulate gravity in a different way.

CRITICISMS ***CRITICISMS***CRITICISMS

The movie doesn’t work.

I am referring to the movie, not the book, into which the author Andy Weir poured in an immense amount of scientific research.

The Hail Mary spins fast enough to give a G-force of 1g. This would make for an immense Coriolis effect (which I won’t attempt to explain here) in that size of a spacecraft. Grace would have to lean crazily to the right or left to compensate. More likely, the spacecraft would tear itself apart.

When the Hail Mary is diving too deep into the planet’s atmosphere, Rocky starts it spinning again. Fine. This keeps Grace’s face from being smushed into a console. But how does that rescue them from burning up in the atmosphere? The movie definitely shows the spinning gets them out of danger, but with no explanation.

For this next part, remember that I am criticizing the movie, not the book. The Astrophage take energy from the sun to go to Venus. Why? Because they are drawn to the carbon dioxide (actually, a part of the infrared spectrum that implies carbon dioxide). Grace shows this convincingly in the lab, when cells zip away to that infrared. In space, he and Rocky discover a bacteria that will eat the Astrophage. This will kill the Astrophage on Venus and Rocky’s equivalent of Venus.

So what? There is no explanation as to why that would stop the Astrophage infection from maintaining the Petrova line as they take energy from the sun to Venus.

On a different subject, Rocky tells Grace the return trip to Earth would take only four years. That would be about three times the speed of light. There is no mention of time dilation. It would simply take four years.

Although I liked the human interactions, the scientific flaws lead me to dislike the movie. 

This is a map of the Ancient Near East I created in college using Pellon. This is much better than using unwieldy cardboard. It can be rolled up neatly, and it costs pennies on the dollar compared to an expensive color map on heavy paper. And if it gets bent, it can simply be ironed, without harming the ink. 

I know that people can zoom in on streams of maps, but they often have a lot of distracting clutter. This really should be the standard way to make maps particular to a small group lecture, since it can easily be taped up without relying on internet connections. And it is ideal for Sunday school. 

Robert Duvall Passed Away

I remember Robert Duvall from these movies:

To Kill a Mockingbird

True Grit

THX 1138

The Godfather Parts I & II

Apocalypse Now

The Great Santini

The Natural

Falling Down

Deep Impact

I think it was Gene Hackman who said when he and Dustin Hoffman were trying to break into Hollywood, they were roommates in an apartment. Robert Duvall also lived with them, but he slept on the floor. Gene Hackman and Dustin Hoffman would discuss endlessly their dreams of making it big. I don’t know if Robert Duvall ever discussed that phase of his life.

John Mathew Smith & www.celebrity-photos.com

Book Haul

 

Okay, it’s two books and a magazine. Give me a break.

Movie Review: Mercy

Detective Chris Raven (Chris Pratt) wakes up in a metal chair. In fact, his wrists are locked in to the chair arms. In front of him is a huge flatscreen showing a close-up of a woman’s face (Rebecca Ferguson). She turns out to be an AI.

The AI informs Chris he is on trial, but he already knows what this is. In Los Angeles, the crime and homeless problems have become so bad, the traditional courts were overwhelmed. A new system was put in place: Sophisticated AI judges preside over criminal cases now. A case only lasts 90 minutes, which has cleared the caseload. Oh, and the accused is presumed guilty and has to prove his innocence. The chair nicely doubles as the execution spot.

Chris is accused of the murder of his wife Nicole (Annabelle Wallis). Chris is shocked. He didn’t know she was dead. The courtroom has multiple screens that zoom in, zoom out, and project in 3-D. Footage shows him pulling into work, but abruptly pulling out. He goes to his house, where Nicole forbids him to come in, saying it’s not his house anymore. He goes in. After some minutes, he comes out.

Nicole was stabbed to death. Her blood was found on Chris’ clothing. No one else went in an out during that time period, since their daughter was away. Chris doesn’t remember what happened.

As the case unfolds, it turns out Chris is a lapsed alcoholic. Videos show him in violent bouts of rage. Chris is crushed. He starts to wonder if he did kill Nicole.

But he makes requests for other video footage, as is his right. The AI judge snoops into files in a way we would currently find intrusive—especially with so many cameras around. Think your doorbell cameras are your business? Think again. It turns out Nicole was seeing another man. Chris contacts his partner, Jaq (Kali Reis), as is his right. Jaq takes off on her mini-helicopter, which is slightly larger than a motorcycle. Will this new development help Chris?

I was intrigued by this movie because of the sharp divide in reviews. A very popular site showed the professional reviewers gave a positive rating of only somewhat over 20%. But average viewers gave it over 80%. It’s true that every audience is a selective audience, so it can have its own bias. And yet, this is a science fiction mystery and detective movie starring Chris Pratt. Not a bad bias.

Mercy was an enjoyable thrill ride. The story unfolds in real time, so we watch as Chris desperately tries to figure out what is going on in 90 minutes. It’s interesting to watch Chris Pratt struggle in the chair he’s locked into at each plot twist, looking like his blood pressure is jetting up. And speaking of jetting, the mini-helicopter looks completely real when taking off, flying, and going into a hard landing. Chris sees all this on the multiple screens in the courtroom, while other developments play on others.

Rebecca Ferguson is fascinating at the AI Judge. Her beautiful face says outrageous things to Chris about the judicial process without changing expression. But she suddenly shows emotion at various developments, which is disorienting, as it’s obviously meant to be.

Does the investigation get breakthroughs a little too fast at times? Yes. But they are good at doing some information overload to cover that.

So I’ll side with the rest of the audience in saying Mercy is an enjoyable but disquieting view of a future with Ais given too much of a role in society. As a caution, Chris Pratt’s first few sentences are filled with vulgarities as he tries to figure out what is going on. Thankfully, the rest of the movie doesn’t sound like that.

Book Purge

I sold several paperbacks and hardbacks to a used bookstore. In return, I received a pittance. It wasn’t enough to pay for lunch.

Sorry, George, but I just wasn’t going to read it.

Reindeer

I just missed the twelve days of Christmas.

Charlie Brown: The Hero’s Journey

If you love “A Charlie Brown Christmas” as an ideal children’s story, you might not want to read this. Analyzing something beloved can take the magic out of it. If you’re afraid of that, you shouldn’t even look at this. Don’t peek.

***

SITUATION NORMAL: The Peanuts kids, in this case ice skating. Some children’s stories have children interacting with adults or magical creatures, but this will only have children.

CHARACTER IN A SITUATION WITH A PROBLEM: The situation was described above, with the overall context of Christmas. Our protagonist is CHARLIE BROWN. He feels depressed, but the deeper problem is he does not know the meaning of Christmas.

SIDEKICK: Linus, his friend who carries a security blanket, listens carefully to Charlie Brown. He will turn out to be the sidekick.

ANTAGONIST/EARLY CONFLICT: Snoopy, the antagonist, snaps Charlie Brown from ice skating into a tree. Note the importance of trees in this story.

MENTOR: Lucy plays a number of roles, but here as an amateur psychiatrist, she is the mentor. She tells Charlie Brown that his recognizing he has a problem is important.

HERALD/DENIAL OF CALL: Lucy is now outside her psychiatrist booth. She tells Charlie Brown he should be the director of the Christmas play. He is not sure.

DARKNESS PRESENTS ITSELF: Charlie Brown observes Snoopy decking out his doghouse with a multitude of decorations. Snoopy hands him a flier that announces the true meaning of Christmas is in decorations, and a contest will have “money, money, money” as the prize.

ACCEPTANCE OF CALL: Charlie Brown tells his little sister Sally that he will direct the Christmas play.

ALLY BECOMES ADVERSARY: Sally tells Charlie Brown she wants a multitude of gifts. As an alternative, she would accept a lot of money. Charlie Brown runs away in frustration.

FIRST INCITING INCIDENT: Charlie Brown arrives as the director.

THRESHOLD GUARDIAN: Snoopy howls disapprovingly at Charlie Brown.

FIRST TRY/FAIL: Charlie Brown tries to direct the play, but the children only want to do their own dances to music.

TRUE FACE OF DARKNESS: Lucy, as an antagonist, reveals to Charlie Brown that Christmas is a “big commercial racket. It’s run by a big eastern syndicate.”

MIDPOINT/SECOND INCITING EVENT: Charlie Brown decides to get a Christmas tree to establish the right mood. He sets out with his sidekick, Linus.

SECOND TRY/FAIL: Charlie Brown and Linus continue on their quest. Linus points out the numinous: searchlights in the distance. They enter the land of the fantastic: shiny aluminum Christmas trees. Charlie Brown sees a little wooden Christmas tree. He thinks it needs him, and out of compassion, chooses it.

Charlie Brown and Linus return with the little tree. The other children react with anger. Then they laugh at him.

REVELATION: Defeated, Charlie Brown cries out, asking if anyone knows what Christmas is all about.

Linus goes on stage, and in a soliloquy, tells the actual Christmas story. (This is Luke 2:8-14.)

Charlie Brown walks out with his little tree, happy.

REMINDER OF DARKNESS/THIRD INCITING INCIDENT: Charlie Brown sees Snoopy’s doghouse, which is extraordinarily decorated. He sees that Snoopy won first prize. 

THIRD TRY/FAIL/DEATH: Charlie Brown takes an ornament from the doghouse and puts it on top of the little tree. The top of the tree keels over to the ground. Charlie Brown says, “I’ve killed it.” More depressed than ever, he walks off.

CLIMAX:

Sacrifice; Linus, the sidekick, sacrifices his security blanket to revive the little tree.

The children despoil Snoopy’s doghouse and decorate the tree with it, turning it into a glorious tree.

Adversary reverts to ally: Charlie Brown’s sister Sally participates.

Antagonist become ally: Snoopy allows his decorations to be transferred.

Charlie Brown returns, and is astonished to see his little tree is now glorious.

The children cry out, “Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown!”

RESOLUTION: The children sing “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,” verse 1.

***

In writing this, I was not trying to make people mad by referring to Snoopy or Sally as adversaries. I am convinced that the staying power of “A Charlie Brown Christmas” is based on Charlie Brown going through a mini-hero’s journey. It is not just a series of cute scenes, like a couple of the lesser efforts of Peanuts’ specials.

So if you feel an irresistible desire to watch “A Charlie Brown Christmas” every year, there is a deep reason for it.

Movie Review: Back to the Future

Back to the Future was recently screened in theaters for its fortieth anniversary. Suffice it to say, I never saw it in a theater until now. As for the plot: Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox), a cool high schooler, goes back in time from 1985 to 1955. Hilarity ensues. I can’t think of any way to summarize the plot without giving away too much. If you see it, remember to say “Calvin Klein” at a certain point.

So just to give a few “meta” comments: Through a stroke of genius, they used a Delorean as the time travel machine. It’s probably the most well-recognized time machine, at least in America (no offense to Doctor Who). When many people see a Delorean, they think of the movie.

It’s hard to describe how this movie affected the zeitgeist of the time. Grown men in offices would imitate Marty’s skateboard moves (with their feet on the floor). Women would talk endlessly about how cute Michael J. Fox was in the role. People in business meetings would talk about scenes in the movie not just before the meetings, but during them. 

Also, Erica is played by Lea Thompson, who previously was the quiet girl Erica in Red Dawn. 

As a minor note, the phrase “Great Scott” had pretty much died out, but Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) used it a number of times, which briefly brought it back into use. For some reason, I didn’t like Doc Brown at all the first time I saw it on TV, but I liked him really well while watching it in a theater.

Back to the Future had a massive influence on the culture of the 80s. No other movie was as influential until The Matrix came along in 1999. If you’re not old enough to remember Back to the Future when it came out, just think of the impact of The Matrix.

image by LSDSL

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Hard Words

I am having the worst time with my science fiction manuscript in the terminology and names.

I first called their version of the internet the ethergrid, figuring no one would combine an ethereal term with an abrupt term for something physical. But some years ago a company called their new product the ethergrid. I had to put in a lot of thought on what new word I would use. I finally settled on a word in common use, but which no sane person would use for their product. The common theme here is finding a term that is not copyright or trademarked.

I came up with a fruit called chuppa. But I didn't do my homework before using that in my story. So it turns out there is a fruit called chupa in the Amazon rainforest that looks nothing like the chuppa I describe. Also, it can be a vulgar slang term. So, after a little research, I changed it to a word that some people already use as a harmless slang term.

The name of the planet in my story was Vallannadren, and the inhabitants called Vallannans. But a gamer invented a fantasy land called Vallanna. I could not believe it. A friend suggested I use a name in his family that begins with a V. I was tempted, but decided not to. One might wonder what Finnish people named Härkönen think of the Dune book and movies. So I simply made up a name I can’t find on the internet.

Two hapless ensigns will be sent down to the planet. To humiliate them, their shuttle gets renamed "Space Cadets," and they have to use that as their call sign. But people pretty much agree that Robert Heinlein invented that term.

Now I have to invent some other demeaning term that has not already been taken. Believe it or not, Space Kittens, Space Puppies, Space Pigs, Space Beavers, and Space Unicorns have all been used. (I wouldn’t use Space Unicorns anyway, since they couldn’t handle the controls with their hooves.)

So be careful when creating terms for your invented worlds. All I can say is the internet is your friend for finding out if a word is taken.

PNWA Conference 2025

I attended this year’s Pacific Northwest Writers Association conference, organized by hard-working volunteers to help aspiring writers. Instead of a typical picture of the hotel, here is the pool I had no intention of taking the time to use.

Before the serious stuff, here is the omelet I ordered. It had cheese, mushrooms, bacon and pineapple. Yes, that’s right. The waitress laughed at my asking for pineapple.

The main conference room. Right now, tables are designated to discuss mystery, fantasy, science fiction, romance, etc.

These three writers have all had books turned into movie or TV scripts. (Sorry, I no longer have access to the conference guide, so I don’t have their names.) Once the contract is signed and the writer is paid, the writer no longer has any control of the story. The woman on the left was distressed when the main character in her novel was killed in the movie version.

The main events for many writers were the pitch sessions. Editors and agents sit along one side of a series of long tables. Writers stand in line for the desired professional. At the sound of a bell, the person at the head of a line has four minutes to walk forward, sit down, and pitch a manuscript. The usual advice is to summarize one’s novel in thirty seconds. I took forty-five, since I had to describe the science fictional setting. The rest of the time is spent answering questions from the professional.

This is half of the long conference room

I had an advantage, in that I could say that two developmental editors had looked over my manuscript. This showed I was serious about becoming a writer (it cost over three thousand dollars), and that I was willing to make changes (I deleted three scenes).

Here are the two agents I pitched to, Katie Reed and Lydia Caudill.

I was almost blinking

One of them requested I send pages to her. Which one? That would be telling.

I recommend going to conferences where one can pitch. It can be nerve-wracking, but since I had done this before, it wasn’t bad at all.

Book Review: Oshi No Ko Volume 5

I don’t think I’ve reviewed a manga before. I became interested in this one because the blurb said it was about a manga author who becomes horrified about how it is being adapted for a play. Looking inside, at one point she says, “This script … is full of characters saying things they’d never say.” (p. 82).  

This was intriguing, but I didn’t buy it for months, because I try to avoid impulse buying. I’ve bought only two other manga in the past, and after some months ended up selling them to a used bookstore.

So by the time I decided to buy it, the series had finished with Volume 24. I was warned on a book site that other readers had ordered this past issue, and they had received what were obviously used books, though they had been advertised as new. One buyer said his copy was damaged.

I took the risk, and received a copy in new condition.

Oshi No Ko Volume 5 by Aka Akasaka and Mengo Yokoyari is quite engaging, because it goes surprisingly deep into the nature of acting and having one’s writing adapted.

The main character is actually Akane, a seventeen-year-old actress. (She’s the one on the cover.) She reveals that actors for plays get about a month to rehearse. “We meet at noon, rehearse for six or seven hours, then go home at night.” (p. 43).

Her conflict comes from the direction and the script. She is told to be intense, like the other actors. She knows the character in the manga is quiet and has a lot of inner conflict. But the script changes her to a bold, unsubtle character (which explains the direction she was given). She concludes, “He’s flattened her character into a plot device.” (p. 56).

A friend encourages her to speak to the script writer. Surprisingly, Akane says, “We can’t break the chain of command.” (p. 65). She explains that if the cast gets instructions from more than one person, they become confused.

Akane gets an opportunity to speak to the script writer and the director together. The script writer says it is hard to portray a character’s feelings without a lot of acting, so he had to simplify this complex story. But he is open to fix things to help Akane.

The director cuts this short, saying, “Don’t spoil the cast.” (p. 69). He tells Akane her role is to be a “persuasive stage device.” (p. 70). Akane accepts this.

The author of the original manga becomes a main character for a while. But she is so anti-social and eventually so angry, she is hard to sympathize with. She is so upset with the play adaptation, she wants the script writer fired.

 Akane, who now sympathizes with the script writer, tries to prevent him from getting fired. Does she succeed? Take a risk and buy a copy.

Book Review: Susan, You’re the Chosen One

Susan, You’re the Chosen One by Lauretta Hignett

Susan Moore is a middle-aged woman going through a difficult menopause. She used to live an opulent life, but her ex-husband Vincent divorced her and is now living with an intern less than half her age. Susan’s meager existence is crammed into a half-studio apartment next to her building’s roof access. One night she sees four young people standing on the ledge. They look like Lord of the Rings elven warrior cosplayers. She tells them to get down.

 Later, they come a knocking. Cress, who looks like she’s just past her teens, assumes Susan is the Chosen One. Susan sends them off. When they return, the oldest, Prince Donovan (whom Susan thinks is hot, though he is in his late twenties), takes the lead. Connor simply makes her apartment door disappear.

Susan assumes this is another hallucination. And this is one of number of things that makes Susan so interesting. At first, we were very sympathetic to her, and ready to hate her ex-husband Vincent. But we learn more about her in dribs and drabs. Susan suffers from “Menopause-induced paranoid schizophrenia, intermittent explosive disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, acute psychosis, and rage.” (p. 19). Concerning the divorce, she thinks “I’d lost him, and it was all my fault.” (p. 22).  Even more disturbingly, “I’d hurt him. I’d almost killed him.” (p. 23).

At one point, Seraphina visits, the intern-turned-fiancée. A delicate young woman, she says she and Vincent were concerned about her and just wanted her to get better. Susan becomes so hostile, Seraphina “flinched, like a beautiful doe in a meadow startled by a loud noise.” (p. 147).

So this is not the average urban fantasy. Usually, we would expect the protagonist to look like the young Fae girl Cress, complete with a long sword strapped to her back and a dagger at her hip. After all, who doesn’t enjoy reading about some Buffy beating down some creature? But she and the Fae Prince Donovan and their two companions are supporting characters. Or, the protagonist could be more like Seraphina, who would eventually become bolder. But she’s not it, either.

How many urban fantasy novels have a middle-aged woman as the main character?

But is our protagonist good? Yes—mostly. Her ambiguous nature due to her past keeps us curious. And what hallucinations did she have? When the supporting characters tell her she is the Chosen One—among other things, that means she has inherited the bloodlines of all the species, including fae, humans, and mermaids—she thinks she is having an interesting episode.

When Susan is forced underwater, she finds she can breathe because she is part mermaid. She even talks a sea witch into revealing her spark stone. But all the time she thinks she is having a long hallucination. It’s not until halfway through the novel, when her two fae companions visit her office and talk to humans there, that she realizes all this is real.

As far as the plot is concerned, Donovan’s younger brother needs to be stopped. He wants to swallow all the spark stones—yes, swallow—and that would be bad. But the plot hardly matters. What matters are the funny interactions between Susan and her new companions.

 Cress describes one of the spark stones, saying, “It is a light blue, clear, like your mortal sky on a cloudless day.” After searching for a while on her phone, Susan waves an image of it at them. When asked where she found it, she replies, “On eBay.” (p. 44).

Donovan wants to steal this spark stone, instead of buying it. Susan knows the owner and warns he has a rottweiler as a guard dog. She tries to describe it, and Donovan concludes it is one of the “hell-hound familiars” that guard some of the fae. (pp. 48-49).

At Susan’s workplace, a sleezy guy knows about her mental issues. He threatens to use that to get the promotion she deserves. She calls him a “Loki wannabe.” And so, “Loki?” Cress gasped. “He is here? In the human realm?” (p. 62).

When going to lunch, Donovan says, “Make haste, woman. Gather your things.” (p. 86.) I’m sure all women like to be talked to that way.

Astute readers will notice these amusing quotations are from the first hundred pages of the book. But these moments don’t stop there. It simply becomes harder to come up with a pithy quotation without giving much more context.

For something less amusing, there is the moment Donovan confronts the jerk who is trying to steal Susan’s promotion. Donovan grabs him by the throat in the classic way, then says, “From this day forth, you will never look directly at the woman you call Susan Moore. You will not make eye contact.” (p. 128). The sleazy guy is so terrified, he does not contact human resources.  

Overall, Susan, You’re the Chosen One by Lauretta Hignett is a fun read with an unusual protagonist. Susan does use foul language, which her four companions do not, which is a disadvantage. But all the fish out of water experiences—on both sides—are constantly amusing.

Happy 4th of July

 Bellevue Square