Now on Author Talks: An Announcement...and a ranking

 It's time! I'm doing this early because this needs reporting and repeating. This is the video version of the grand announcement! The Murderer's Lament, coming September 2026.

Also included is a brainworm of mine that wouldn't go away until I got it out there. You know Ian Fleming's Bond books? Almost all of them have aged like milk in a hothouse. But since I ended up reading them one way or another, I decided that I'd rank them. If you like someone ripping into an author and their work, this is the video for you!

Now on Author Talks: The Novelisation

 

Another month, another Author Talks episode. This time, I go on for roughly twenty minutes on the subject of the novelisation. After listening to a novelisation of a Paul Temple serial and becoming interested in how it both matched and deviated, I decided to actually dig into it. Here's to novelisations, perhaps the most underappreciated example of the literary art; turning the story of one medium into another.

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My Anime Life: Kusunoki's Garden of Gods

 Slice of life comedy is something I sometimes don't have much connection to, mostly because many of them haven't been that compelling, especially in the anime space. I adore (most of) Azumanga Daioh, but others like Nichijou and Lucky Star leave me cold. But I recently watched a new series that is essentially a fantasy slice of life.

Kusonoki's Garden of Gods is a 2026 anime produced by Juvenage, and based on the light novel series by Enju. It follows Minato Kusunoki, a young man with overwhelming levels of spiritual energy and a latent talent for dispelling kegare, as he is put in charge of a former family residence. Since he also accidentally purifies a shrine belonging to the local kami Yamagami, the wolf kami comes to live with him. As to a procession of kami and sacred beasts and yokai. Gentle hilarity ensues.

From what I've gathered, the anime is based on the first four volumes of the original light novel series, and cuts or condenses a lot of stuff. I think? It is apparently a good adaptation of the source overall, but oh boy is this anime lean compared to the light novels. But as someone who generally doesn't do light novels (though that may change), the anime was a fairly nice watch.

What so I need to say? It's a slice of life fantasy, something I haven't encountered that often, and it's generally a great comfort watch. The anime does fall into the trap of having so many secondary characters that it becomes cluttered, but I think this is more due to how few episodes there are per volume adapted. Having read samples of the ongoing English translation, there's a tone of breathing room and nuance, plus a number of funny bits that don't make it in, like a full-sized and invisible Yamagami riding in a taxi and badly crowding Minato.. Also I have no idea as yet whether the more actiony parts of the anime come from the light novel, but I'm gently leaning towards...perhaps, but the anime probably overblew them.

The make-or-break point for these kinds of stories is the core cast, here limited to two: Minato and Yamagami. Their chemistry is great, as Minato is basically dumped into being caretaker for a kami who is one of the pickiest eaters in the region and has a rivalry with the neighbouring kitsune kami. They seem to get on with each other at an instinctively level, almost like they're soul mates. Though something that isn't communicated that well in the anime is how lazy Yamagami is, something summed up perfectly in the light novel line: "That slothful wolf, who hardly ever moved from its favourite cushion, truly was a troublesome kami."

So, just like my last anime life, this is something that was a pleasant surprise. An example of a genre I typically don't vibe with, but that managed to click with its character chemistry and lore inspired by Japanese Shinto traditions. It's also got very entertaining performances by the actors, better-than-expected animation, and enjoyable music. Worth a watch? I'd say so. Read the book? Certainly from what I've read, just don't expect them to be one to one. Something I'm learning these days is that adaptations seem to share a similar property between east and west: with a few exceptions, a lot of creative liberties are taken.

Writing Queer 4: Some Tips and Tricks

 

It's been a wild few weeks this Pride Month. And it may get a little wilder yet. Because today we're heading for the wild world of writing advice, something I'm usually terrified of giving in any serious way. For the past weeks I've shown my own queer journey, my earliest attempts at writing queer characters, and a major turning point when I landed a publisher. Now I think I feel confident enough to give some tips and guidance for writing queer characters. To be clear, this is from my perspective and my experience. Everyone will have a different bit of advice to offer, and no one way should be taken as gospel.

Also apologies in advance if any of this comes off as inflamatory.

1: Don't make gender and orientation the only thing about a character. This is something that can really rub me up the wrong way, the thing where some creator (especially mainstream straight) trumpets a character as queer without saying anything else about why they're a compelling character. If the story is a romance, then I think that's a usable exception. But if your character is a detective, or a magic user, or a scientist, then show that. You know, they're a gay detective, but they're still a detective.

2: Keep your representation broad. Again in mainstream, but not in fiction in general thankfully, there can be a tendency to go either gay or lesbian, treating orientation as a situation of extremes. But there's bi, trans, ace, demi, pan, and the more general queer. There's intersex, which I've always found interesting. And many other variations and classifications beyond the standard 'human' which everyone -- gay or straight -- is. Just...be broad, reflect reality. And the reality is they're everywhere, it's just the people up top who insist they're not.

3: Have more than one queer character. Obviously there are some possible exceptions people will think of, but this is also something that rubs me the wrong way. The token character, the representative to point to and say 'yeah, this good now, ook ook'. The "Gay Best Friend" is a trope for a reason, and I dislike it. If you're going to have queer, then have queer. In lots of places. Humanity is a spectrum, and a lot more varied than the Western heteronormative. So embrace it!

4: Avoid tragedy unless absolutely necessary. Again, a pet peeve of mine, the Bury Your Gays trope. From Maltese Falcon to Copycat to Left Hand of Darkness to Hermaphroditus knows what all. It's thankfully not as common as it once was, but it's deeply rooted in the Hayes Code's puritanical obsession with punishing any and all kinds of non-standard stuff. Sure, I've admitted to creating tragic narratives, and progressive voices have used tragedy to make a point, but nowadays I just find queer characters need much less tragedy. Or not at all, preferably. If you're going for tragedy, just make sure it's dolled out equally to straight and queer characters, get your priorities right.

5: Don't let "history" bully you. This applies to both ethnic and gender diversity, but if you're doing something set in a historical time period of history-inspired time period, there can be...pressure to make characters white and straight. That's bull, because even a cursory glance at actual historical records will show not only ethnic variety galore, but a spectrum of orientation either inferable or confirmed. Yes there's reading between the lines involved, and you can go too far the other way especially if you're touting history to sell a fictional scenario (looking at you, Mary Villiers from Mary and George). But on the whole, look it up. Do the research. It's very fabulous.

6: If you need to have sexy stuff, do it with purpose. You don't need romance and partnerships and relationships and steamy episodes in bed all the time. Though again, can be genre and tone dependant. I mean, children's' literature doesn't need it, but it benefits greatly from increased representation. It can be an easy pitfall because of... Well, due to pressure from fringe groups who see it as "obscene" and "degenerate", queer content has been tarred with the "filth" brush, and producers of certain media have leaned into that. But you can be queer, and sweet and wholesome. It's completely possible to do that.

And that's it! The end of my long series on this blog. I hope it's been either informative or entertaining, or both. There's more coming at the end of July, so stay tuned. And Happy Pride!

Writing Queer 2: My early fictional attempts.

 Last week, I looked back my early exposure to queerness before I came to accept my own bisexuality. This week, I'm looking at my early attempts at writing queer characters. I won't bore you with many, since I didn't really attempt anything like that for a long time.

Many of my first attempts came from the first extremely long story I wrote, and something I initially attempted to self-publish. That was The Leviathan Chronicle, a story set within a heavily-fictionalised version of the Crusades in a separate world, where two opposing supernatural factions (the Seraphim and the Powers) used humans marked by their power to fight the holy war as a proxy conflict. And out of the five lead characters, three had some level of queerness relating to their stories or personality.

To briefly summarise; the titular character Leviathan was intersex/gender queer, and standing as an outsider to the conflict. The other two were Elathan, a spy who loses his lover Paimon and is revived after being executed once found out; and Mastema, one of the faction leaders who suffers from trauma due to a certain kind of abuse from his father. All of them live to the story's end, don't worry, but...let's just say I wasn't being very tactful with how certain aspects of their stories were handled excepting Leviathan. It goes without saying, this was my angsty era, and I was working through some stuff in my mind at that time that needed a dark outlet. The fourth lead was Astarte, a woman driven by revenge to the exclusion of all else. But I hardly consider my need to be dark that as an excuse.

Basically, because of some elements of my media exposure at the time, many of my stories were and are tragic in tone. Not completely depressing, but still tragic. A different story, which was written as a tragedy from the outset following eight reincarnated people in a fantastical Medieval Europe, had a central subplot where one was reincarnated as twins, with another seeing the surviving twin as her soulmate when he in this incarnation is gay. He survives right to the end, and isn't persecuted because of his sexuality, but the fact that the female lead isn't able to rekindle his initial incarnation's love for her is the main issue in the story. I don't want to dwell on this longer than necessary, mostly because I feel queasy knots of embarrassment twisting round me when I think about my early writing, plus this is a story I'll likely never revisit. But it's still worth mentioning, because it sums up something I was doing at the time; I wasn't being violent to LGBTQIA+ characters, but I wasn't exactly putting them in happy scenarios.

I think you can see through these examples that I was going through a stage of...how do I put this? Standard angsty storytelling? War, suffering, religious questioning, the tragedy of reincarnation, all that stuff. That didn't always focus down to specifically queer issues, but I'm sure people will see how queer characters can be magnets for them. I know this from personal experience writing. It wasn't until my earlier experiences of less problematic relationships that my own writing began to change. As I said last time, I was a sheltered type, and I was also shy of asking about those subjects with anyone close to me.

I also lacked emotional maturity. I hadn't known truly deep emotion, either for real people or fictional characters. I hadn't cried at media in any form. It took that kind of emotional connection for me to think "I want to create something that moves people and even saddens them without falling into the usual traps I'm seeing in popular media." There's enough sadness in the world of people on the spectrum, and while those are valid experiences, I wanted to create experiences that weren't built on heartbreak and abuse, tainted by sorrowful memories. I want experiences that are built in simple love, innocent happiness, the kind of thing straight love stories have held onto like vices for decades. Things are changing for the better, especially when you take a step back and look at the broader range of stories outside the narrow mainstream bubble, but there's still steps to take. And I'd like to live and see a day when both counterculture and mainstream can exist side by side, as equals.

So how did I get past this hang-up that I've outlined in both struggle and result? How did I manage to create worlds and universes that I was able to write more realistic and less tragic examples of the wonderful spectrum of existence? Well, you'll find out next week.

Writing Queer 1: unpromising beginnings

 The first of my four Pride Month posts, and it's on a personal note. It's how I began experiencing, and then writing, queer characters and story themes. I may have become relatively well immersed in that side of my writing these days, but it took some time and a few dud starts.

Coming to terms with my own bisexuality was a longish process, but in hindsight that feels like nothing compared to my journey getting myself to properly representing people in the modern world, where diversity of gender and sexual identity is something that is important to acknowledge. I've still got some way to go, and things have continued to get either better or worse depending where you live. But here's how things started. Beginning with...my own external experience of queerness.

My awareness of LGBTQIA+ in media was...lacking, for a lot of my life. Not because I didn't have exposure or tolerance, I had both within my immediately family, but just because a lot of my awareness came from media. I wasn't much of a going out and interacting with people type for a number of reasons, so I wasn't exposed to that spectrum. I also wasn't being exposed to standard society-level homophobia, so you could say I had some advantage in that I was able to look at something without any early filter of stereotype.

I guess it's best to start with my 'awakening', even if I didn't become fully aware of my sexuality until the last few years. A lot of people in my social circle have pointed to Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weitz in 1999's The Mummy as their bisexual awakening. More power to them, but honestly Fraser isn't my type, and when I saw the film I wasn't developed enough in that direction to understand. I now realise in retrospect that my own bi awakening was with Angelina Jolie and Gerard Butler from the not-very-good 2001 film Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life. I didn't know why this film was stuck in the recesses of my mind for years until recently. A: the leads' chemistry surrounding their characters' tragic rivalry made up for shortfalls in the story and script, and B: ....I found both of them physically attractive.

So...that's a start.

My first exposure to anything explicitly queer within a story was...the 1985 film Red Sonja. I've voiced my opinions on an aspect of the film, and I don't think it's very good. It's just a bog standard 1980s fantasy film based on a fantasy tradition that today feels very dated. But Red Sonja was also my first exposure to a lesbian in the form of Queen Gedrun. A pretty dodgy example, and one I didn't clock. To me it just seemed like someone who took people as servants and trophies rather than as unwilling companions. As I said, I wasn't that aware. And so we've gone from one poor movie to another, and from standard awakening to 'YIKES!' representation.

I didn't keep much of an explicit track of my awareness of LGBTQIA+ in fiction, or in real life, until I was well into my 20s. There were a few bits and pieces that surfaced, such as short films which I tended not to like as they were just depressing (finding LGBTQIA+ media that isn't depressing was like finding hen's teeth until recently). And there were some creators coming out with what I found out was called 'Word of Gay', which I've come to look slant-eyed at because... I mean, if you wanted them to be on the spectrum, just say so. Show it in a way that doesn't require you to come out from behind the curtain and address the audience in an "oh, by the way" style.

At that point, I discovered video game romances, and exploring them found several queer options. I admit that includes BioWare, as cheesy as they can be, but role-playing these characters gave me a solid sense of what I liked and didn't like. Years later as a fully awakened bisexual I played Dragon Age Inquisition, and I ended up romancing first Cassandra as a man, then Iron Bull also as a man. I also have to commend both as the most entertaining romances since they both play in good ways with genre tropes; Cassandra was played as the nervous young woman without losing her badass aspect, while Iron Bull's BDSM relationship is based firmly in reality rather than...whatever Foofta Blegh of Blegh does.

A few years after that I'd also run into...yaoi and bara. It was almost inevitable that I would do that since I enjoyed anime, and was interested in stuff beyond the obvious mainstream. For those who don't know yet, 'Yaoi' is a Western term for Boy's Love media that is often written by women and has a reputation for being slightly trashy, while 'Bara' is a subset of Japanese manga that is primarily written by LGBTQIA+ authors and frequently NSFW.

I admit, here and now, that my shelves are a little bare of LGBTQIA+ content. Partly because I'm terrible at finding things and need to be selective due to budget, but also because many of the experiences I get recommended are also depressing. It's been the reality for queer people for a long time, particularly the last two centuries, that being queer was dangerous or depressing or to live in an oppressed state. But when I read a story, I don't just want to be depressed, I want to laugh and be enlightened and see a vision of how the world could be.

My own experience with being queer hasn't been depressing and oppressed, I've been allowed to mature and experience myself. I now have a full awareness of my self and my sympathies, and while I have occasionally run into homophobia in this wild place called the internet, I've never felt any push to engage. I just turned quietly away, blocked, didn't even say goodbye, and walked on ignoring them. That, for me, is the sign of strength for my own queer experience. I also don't feel the need to broadcast my sexuality on a personal level, as I'm overall comfortable with who I am. I fully realise that's not a universal experience. But neither is misery.

And it's with that strange combination of isolation and personal certainty, and growing frustration of a fictional norm of heartbreak and misery over happy endings, that I truly started putting queer characters into my writing. Next week, I'm planning an exploration of my journey to writing my own brand of queer representation in my writing. Its rocky beginnings, and its currently and hopefully much smoother reality.

If you want to know more about my general writing journey, I created a podcast/video on the subject, including me reading out some of my less cringy early writing to show how my style and approach evolved. It even includes a sample of my upcoming novel The Murderer's Lament, now expected to release in 2027.

Starting tomorrow: My Pride Month endeavours.

Third year in a row I've done this. A celebration of the beautiful rainbow of human experience many historians stubbornly insisted didn't exist for some odd reason and they also need therapy. For the month of June, AKA Pride Month, I decided in 2024 to highlight different people during the month's thirty days. I first focused on a mixture of novellists both old and new, then last year on other artistic groups including composers and painters. Now, for my third year, I....couldn't. I couldn't actually get anything together for either historical figures (so tragic) or mythological beings (plenty but oh boy the work). If I were completely on top of things, I would have been doing this. But I've been severely ill, and now I'm literally one day away from publishing this as I write it, so instead I'm going to do something else. Since there are four Sundays in the month this time, I'm going to be publishing a post each month. These posts will be talking about my experiences as I moved into writing queer characters in my own work.

My writing as it stands is stuffed with queer representation. The Cluster Cycle has main characters that are somewhere on the spectrum, my radio play The Angry House has a male lead, and I've written other shorter pieces that feature them. I'm also bisexual in real life, and while I'm prone towards pessimism when it comes to society, I truly feel that we can push back against the absolute BS that's happening in the world right now. We can stop this, if we just stubbornly refuse to be classed as lesser.

The first Sunday of the coming month will also see the release of the second in this year's Author Talks podcast episodes, which means there will be two posts on 7 June. I'm hoping I'll be back on my feet before the end of next week, and that I'll be able to give you some extra bits and pieces through my socials. I might even have an update on my third much-delayed Cluster Cycle book, The Murderer's Lament.

But for now, here's some interesting people I found while drafting my intended list of people to show on my socials for each day of Pride Month.

The Chevalière d'Éon, a member of the French court who lived as a man for the first part of her life, then switched in both dress and gender identity to a woman for the rest of it. A spy, soldier, and successful diplomat who sadly fell foul of the French Revolution, their legacy lives on.

Zhou Wenren (or Zhou Wen or Zhou Ren), the Director of Palace Attendants during the reign of Emperor Jing of China's Han Dynasty. While the information we have is a little spotty and comes from a single source where Zhou Wenren is listed among "Male Favourites" of the Han court, it's recorded that Emperor Jing favoured Zhou Wenren above all other officials around him. And unlike many other imperial lovers, Zhou Wenren managed to live to a cushy retirement under Emperor Wu.

Michael Dillon, a Merchant Navy doctor and later Buddhist monk. While he is more commonly known as the first recorded trans man to undergo phalloplasty, his life is interesting beyond that. From his time in the Merchant Navy during WW2, to his life as a monk under the name Lobzang Jivaka, to his writing on both his own life and his experiences or Tibetan Buddhism, Dillon is a fascinating individual to research.

Philolaus of Corinth, a Corinthian lawmaker who lived during the 700 BCE. Lover of the chariot racer Diocles, the two left Corinth and settled in Thebes, staying together for the rest of their lives. Philolaus is attributed with creating laws in Thebes which allowed two adult men to remain together as a couple beyond the time when pederastic tradition insisted they parted. He can be seen as a proto-gay rights lawmaker, though we must remember the times he lived in.

Historical accounts today and in olden times are chronically underwritten when it comes to women of any kind, let alone those on the LGBTQIA+ spectrum. Doesn't help that many initial English translators for non-English sources lived during a time of (if possible) even greater discrimination and phobia. But I hope you can look these few up and get some interesting information about them.

So, here's to Pride Month, starting tomorrow. And may we reclaim and enshrine for good the rights that are being slowly stripped back from us by idiotic, short-sighted, and/or prejudiced politicians and lawmakers.

Author Talks — Final 2025 episode

 It's all in the name. Today is when the eighth and final episode of this year's season of Author Talks releases. It's been a long year for me, and hopefully I'll be able to create something more next year. Also, stuff's been happening, and I go into a rough outline of that in this episode alongside something that just...caught my attention about a certain metal-faced person from a certain French adventure novel. I hope you enjoy, and have a Merry Christmas/Yule/Holiday.

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My Anime Life: The Apothecary Diaries

 Today's the start of a new article series: me, an anime lover, talking about anime I've watched and my opinions. Today, one of those that will doubtless become a modern classic. The Apothecary Diaries, produced by Toho and OLM and based on a novel series by Natsu Hyuga, is set in an alternate world based on Tang Dynasty China and follows Maomao, a woman trained in apothecary and medicine, who ends up working in the Imperial Palace and collaborates with the mysterious official Jinshi on a number of cases.

The premise of The Apothecary Diaries seems...mundane? Almost rote. But the way the setting has been constructed is incredible. There are so many complex relationships within this series that it can make your head spin. But if you know even a little about how complex and fraught Imperial Chinese clan and dynastic politics were, you will soon realise this is a surprisingly faithful interpretation. Schemes within schemes, long games, subtle one-upmanship, and the dynamite of not having a designated successor. It also doesn't shy away from the brutality of Imperial law and how the dynasties stayed in power: it doesn't show overt violence very often, but it makes clear the penalties of that era which have been carried over into this fictionalised version.

But it's the writing and characters that truly make this world so engaging. Maomao is one of the most engaging and down-to-earth protagonists I've met in a long time, regardless of gender. She's also one of the best-written female characters I've seen not just in Japanese media, but in general media. She doesn't feel like the shrinking flower many other non-warrior Asian women are in media. Indeed, most of the women in this series are a joy to watch, either for their personality and interactions up front, or their growth. Yes, some fall back on stereotypes, but they are the minority rather than the majority. Across the two seasons it's figures like Consort Gyokuyou and her attendants, the other consorts and concubines, the many maid servants, the bouncy and enigmatic Shisui, the aloof and tragic Suirei, the women of the Verdigris House, and the greater majority of the antagonists that really hold your attention. Despite being set in a patriarchal society, or perhaps because of it, it's refreshingly focused on the roles and limitations of women.

Of course I can't not talk about Jinshi, Maomao's superior and would-be love interest. I love how he is initially portrayed as frivolous and infuriatingly serene, but the more we learn about him and his role within the Imperial Court, the more his mask of the beautiful youth slips away. There is the big red flag of the fact Jinshi outranks Maomao in social status many times over, and there were a few times he edged towards overstepping a line with Maomao before fate or someone else intervened and made him look and feel foolish. I don't know how this relationship will go before it starts becoming properly toxic, but I can only hope that there is a way it can be resolved. There are a few other male characters like the attendant Gaoshun and the dog-like Lihaku, but it's telling and charming that their primary purpose in many sequences is comedic relief or as an extra official arm for Maomao.

I've recently finished watching the first two seasons of its anime adaptation, which cover the first four volumes of the light novel series. I'd seen clips of it through Crunchyrole's YouTube channel, and been intrigued. I have a soft spot for very well written court intrigue. Not your standard fluffy fare, but one where it really feels like there are stakes. And if you like political drama with real heart, and without gratuitous violence, then this is absolutely a must-watch. It's one of the few series set in this culture that doesn't focus on a hyper-masculine wuxia overtone, instead staying grounded in the actions of one woman whose low status means her life is worth less than nothing to almost everyone in the court. And it's also a refreshing fictional world that creates an alternate Imperial China without falling back on magic, instead creating an original grounded story inspired by true history.

Short story - Ranger and the Lady; Part 2

If you want to know what happened last time, read "Part 1" of this narrative. We rejoin the narrative as Ranger and the Lady begin investigating a mysterious castle.

Finding out about Castle Vytautas was easier said than done. The Cluj division’s archives held nothing on the name aside from its ancient dynastic connections with the Duchy of Lithuania. They finally had to go to the local State Archives, and after badgering their way through about ten Soviet officials, they reached some old information about “Castle Vytautas”, buried deep in a musty corner of the Archives.

Castle Vytautas was a half-ruined grand house which belonged to a collateral branch of the Vytautas line; while one branch would birth the man known as Vytautas the Great, another branch established Castle Vytautas under the noble title of Golescu, reigning over the region of Malamures in which the Rodna Mountains were nested. Ranger breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that their quarry lay nowhere near either Wallachia or Transylvania. No train lines ran into the Rodna Mountains themselves, so the two caught multiple trains to the nearest station, enduring several hours of uncomfortable travelling.

When they arrived, it was nearly night, and they had to stay in a local hostelry. While the Lady barely managed to sleep due to a lumpy mattress and fleas, Ranger slept like a child. The next morning, they found a local shop which still stocked cars for hire. They were ancient, over twenty years old, with the fuel consumption of a leaking plane, but it would do. The man hiring out asked an extortionate price for a week’s use, which the Lady provided with barely a murmur and much to the shock of both ranger and the car’s owner. Ranger was sure the price was many times the worth of the car.

They were guided on their journey by the owner of the hostel, who while initially unwilling did eventually tell them that a nearby valley held all that remained the Castle Vytautas. According to him, it was only a single tower with a few walls and half-overgrown foundations, left to rot away long before the abdication of King Michael and the formation of the country’s Socialist Republic two years ago. They also learned that the castle’s Golescu line had died out in the mid-1400s when all male heirs died during the Ottoman incursions.

‘Sounds familiar.’ said the Lady.

‘Guess so.’ said Ranger.

The man struggled not to remember that famous fictional Nightwalker created by a certain Victorian journalist and theatre manager. The Lady also struggled not to mention it, and had to bite her lip to suppress her smile.

The road they travelled was bumpy, but the surrounding scenery – untamed woodland and fields kept trim by herds of goats – did something to relieve the discomfort of a car with very primitive suspension. They went uphill for some miles, they came to the head of a valley cast into shadow by the surrounding hills. Ranger and the Lady looked into its depths, and as the morning sun crept into the sky and truncated the shadows, they saw the slender tip of a tower. Its one adornment was a severely weathered Christian cross.

‘So that’s Castle Vytautas.’ the Lady sounded unimpressed.

‘Yeah. What’d you expect from a ruin?’

‘Who’d make their home in a place like this?’

‘Someone who doesn’t want to be found. Say, a Nightwalker? Come on, we should get down there. If we’re caught in that valley after dark, we’ll be in serious trouble.’

‘Speaking from experience?’

‘Yeah. Something like that. There’s a track over there.’

The Lady looked. The “track” looked like little more than a path worn by the local goats. Her look said everything.

‘If we walk,’ said Ranger. ‘We’ll never make it before nightfall. And since I’m at the wheel, you’ll just have to lump it.’

The Lady lumped it. In fact, she lumped it for several miles before a final jolt and clunk signalled the car’s rebellion. It phutted to a stop after a nasty grating sound and the snapping of something metal, and it was only the Lady’s swift use of the handbrake which stopped them slipping down a steep section of the track into the valley. Ranger looked at the Lady with a grin.

‘Oh well. Fancy a walk?’

A sound clap on the back of the head was her reply. Jumping from the car, the two made their way down the track and found a well-worn path leading deeper into the valley. Towards Castle Vytautas.

When they arrived, the castle was even more of a ruin than they had imagined from the hostel owner’s description. The foundations were barely visible beneath years of overgrowth, the surviving walls were half-rotted and encrusted with lichen and moss, and the surviving tower was covered with a thick coat of ivy that Ranger speculated was helping hold the structure up.

‘Quite a place.’ said the Lady. ‘Must be very crowded during visiting time. How do they manage catering?’

‘Probably get in lots of black pudding. Hold the oatmeal, fat and suet.’

‘Charming thought. So where would our killer be hiding?’

‘At this hour? Up at the top. Where there’s greatest safely and least light.’

‘Right. Why don’t you go up there, and I’ll wait down here. Flush it down, and I’ll pin it down. We can interrogate it.’

‘Yeah. Thought you’d say that.’

‘Then why are you still down here? Go on.’

She might have been sending away a servant on an errant. Grumbling under his breath, Ranger began climbing the outside of the tower. The ivy gave him perfect grip, and his heightened strength and senses allowed him to scale the structure without fear of mishap. The Lady watched him climb with admiration. His Sunwalker heritage was clear to see, and it impressed her. She didn’t like them as a rule, but this one was a clear exception.

As he reached the top of the tower, the Lady reached into her jacket and pulled out her weapon. It was a special type of Luger salvaged from an armoury belonging to the Europäisch Geheime Polizei predecessor the SS’s Geist Gegenschlag division. It was modified to fire iron bullets, which to her usual prey was like firing bullets of lava. She watched as Ranger’s figure disappeared through one of the windows at the top of the tower, covered by shutters of rotted wood.

A second after the initial splintering of wood, there was an inhuman shriek from inside and a crash. Then the Lady heard a heavy object falling from the top of the tower, landing with a crash which made her wince. There was a splintering of wood, and the monstrous Nightwalker burst from the door leading into the tower, giving a horrific roar of agony as it passed through a beam of sunlight. The Lady was thrown back as it slunk into the shadow of the tower and crouched like a wild cat disturbed by a rival.

For a moment, the Lady caught sight of a humanoid form made thin by fasting, leathery skin stretching over a skin-and-bone physique, a head too large for the rail-thin neck which supported it, and fangs so large that the beast couldn’t close its mouth properly. It crouched down and the Lady aimed her weapon, but then a dark shape rushed from her left and pinned the monster down. It was Ranger, and as she watched his mouth widened, a barb extended from his tongue, and he bit deep into the Nightwalker’s neck.

There was the sickening sound of sucking, like a pump draining the last dregs of liquid from some ancient cistern. The monster rasped in agony as its precious lifeblood was drained, its struggles weakening as Ranger fed. After a minute, Ranger broke away, wiping his mouth with a grimace. The thing tried to get up, but as its captors watched its limbs shrivelled even further and it collapsed like a giant crab out of water. Before Ranger said anything, the Lady stepped forward, aimed her gun, and shot the monster in the head. It was over.

‘What a pathetic creature.’ said Ranger. ‘It’s been fasting for months.’

‘Fasting? Or starving?’

‘Both? Let’s look in the tower.’

They did, and quickly found a stash of letters on modern paper. Bringing them into the light, they read through them. The tale they told was not pleasant, and the Lady felt sick at some of the details. Finally Ranger looked at her.

‘We’ll have to tell my Head.’

‘I know.’ she gestured to the corpse. ‘what about that?’

‘This place’ll be in full sunlight soon. By tonight, there’ll be nothing left here but ashes. Let’s leave it.’

A week later, they were back in Regensburg reporting to Ranger’s Head. The story they told shocked him.

It appeared that Ardeleanu had discovered the monster hiding in the Rodna Mountains, half-starved since the locals began using local herbs in their cooking which made their blood poisonous. The ambitious woman had struck a deal with it; she would provide low-level employees as clean meals if Nightwalker incidents stopped in Romania. The arrangement had continued until two weeks before, when the loss of agents was causing gossip. Ardeleanu had decided to cover her actions by framing the Nightwalker as the sole culprit. Her betrayal had left to swift retribution, while the secretary had merely been collateral damage.

The Head pondered the question for several minutes. ‘We can’t let this get out. If it became known that one of our own consorted with a Nightwalker for personal gain... Ranger, I’m sure you understand.’

Ranger nodded. ‘There’s enough prejudice against me already without some kind of witch hunt. What about you, Lady?’

The Lady nodded, though she was clearly unsatisfied with the decision. She took her leave a week later. As she stood on the platform waiting for her train back to Paris, she was surprised to see Ranger come to see her off.

‘Thought I’d let you know.... There’s been a top-level meeting, and the Europäisch Geheime Polizei’s going to be investigated.’

‘Cleaning out their skeletons?’

‘Something like that. They still want the Nachtwanderer Secktion, but I’m not sure what’ll happen to how it’s run.’

‘I think we can assure some kind of continuity on our end. If you want a transfer.’

‘Is that an offer?’

‘It’s a possibility.’

‘What a team we’d make. Ranger and the Lady.’

‘You know, I quite like the sound of that. Of course, it’d probably be cooler if you told me your name.’

The Lady wagged her finger. ‘Nothing doing. And here’s my train. I hope we need again soon. Weidersehen.’

‘Auf bald.’

The train had pulled in. The Lady got into the carriage, closed the door and lowered the window. They exchanged some final words, then the train moved off. They waved until each lost sight of the other. Then as the Lady closed her window and settled down for the journey, Ranger began his walk back to the Regensburg division of the Europäisch Geheime Polizei – Nachtwanderer Secktion.

Short story - Ranger and the Lady; Part 1

‘Ready.... Now!’

Ranger flew forward, his articulated mouth widening his canines thrusting forward to bite into the dummy’s simulated flesh. His old secured, the hollow barb in his tongue shot out and pierced the jugular vein, sucking out the coloured nectar used as blood. The bell rang, and Ranger pulled away. The tiny wound caused by the barb sealed instantly, leaving only a drop of the red-dyed nectar to betray its existence. The overseer stepped from the shadows, a smile on her face.

‘Ten seconds. A new record.’

‘For biting. Not for sucking.’

‘Sorry, but that record must wait. The Head wants you.’

Ranger groaned, but dutifully slipped on his top and walked up the seven flights of stairs from the basement training room to the Head’s office. This “Head”, or more properly “Abteilungsleiter ”, was a gaunt figure whose dark complexion served to reinforce his position as leader of the Regensburg division of the Europäisch Geheime Polizei – Nachtwanderer Secktion. Ranger sat down in one of two chairs placed on the opposite side of the desk to the Head.

‘You sent for me, Sir?’

The Head nodded. ‘We’ve had an alert from our colleagues in Cluj. We’ve had a murder. It’s Nightwalker related.’

Ranger scowled. ‘Nachtwanderer Schweinhunde. What’s their deal this time?’

‘More territory. More food. More everything. They’re still not content with the way of things.’

‘Why call us in? It’s Cluj’s problem. Let them sort it out.’

‘That’s not an option. Their Abteilungsleiter was the victim.’

This made Ranger sit up and take notice. ‘Their Head’s dead?’

The Head tried not to groan. He didn’t like Ranger’s blunt and informal way of putting things.

‘According to the report, “dead” is a mild understatement. Her body was ripped limb from limb, her torso disembowelled with extreme prejudice, and her head was thrown through the wall into the next room. Gave her secretary quite a shock.’

‘How do we know it’s a Nightwalker?’

‘The secretary. He ran inside to see what was happening and saw the attacker silhouetted against the window. He swore that it was a Nightwalker, in a highly advanced stage of....change.’

‘A Strigoi?’

‘Possibly.’

‘And why send me? Why not Klauser or Sigsun? They’re free. I’m still in training, as you’ve reminded me when I tried requesting missions.’

‘You’re the best we’ve got.’

‘I haven’t even passed my exams yet.’

‘Aren’t you committed to following rather than questioning orders?’

‘I feel justified in questioning unusual orders.’

‘Need I remind you that you were transferred here from Berlin for insubordination, and that if you weren’t the best trainee Nachtwanderer Secktion’s ever seen, you’d be out on your ear and in the hands of the authorities? Or have you already forgotten who you once worked for... Vernichtungslager Aufseher?’

Ranger squirmed in his chair. He never liked reminding that he had once been a part – however unwilling – of the worst war crime in Earth’s history. He swallowed his questions and became the dutiful servant.

‘You won’t be going alone.’ said the Head. ‘We’ll be sending someone with you. It wasn’t only the Cluj Head – a woman called Ardeleanu – who had died. Before leaving, the attacker wounded the secretary. He died just yesterday, shortly after the initial message was sent.’

‘Whose this person coming with me?’

‘A human. Quite a character from London. She’s been the top operative of that country’s Nachtwanderer Secktion for three years.’

‘Her name?’

‘I’m sure she’ll tell you herself.’

The Head pressed a buzzer on his desk, and a young woman came in. Ranger looked her up and down. In her late twenties, wearing a strange fusion of men’s and women’s clothing, hair that hung down in defiance of post-war fashion, she immediately appealed to Ranger’s jaded tastes. The woman bowed theatrically, and spoke to the two men with a smile.

‘Lady Isabella Harker-Morris, at your service.’

Introductions were made, and the mission briefing was given. They were to travel to Cluj by train from Regensburg. This, as Ranger knew, would entail a change at Munich and an uncomfortably long journey across Austria and Hungary before another set of changes out from Bucharest. The journey was as long and tedious as he expected, but to his surprise his new companion remained in high spirits. During much of their time together, she played with a length of twine, making shapes between her fingers. Ranger couldn’t help but smile at her antics, and the easy way she talked with virtually everyone she met.

During one particularly uncomfortable part of the journey, where they were bumping along “temporary” tracks laid during the final years of the War, Ranger decided to engage his companion in conversation. ‘Are you really called Harker-Morris? Rather an odd name, isn’t it?’

The woman looked sheepish for a moment, then grinned. ‘Nope. It’s not. I just use it for my professional life. It’s good to have pseudonyms. What about yours?’

‘Call me “Ranger”.’

‘That’s not a name. That’s a title.’

‘Then we’ll both have them. I’ll call you “Lady”. Suit you?’

‘Lady...’ the woman considered long and hard. ‘Well....Alright. But only with you. To everyone else, I’m Harker-Morris.’

‘It’s a deal.’

Upon arrival in Romania’s fourth largest city, it was a long walk from the train station to the decidedly castellated headquarters of Europäisch Geheime Polizei’s Cluj division. The interior was dull and bland, much like Ranger’s memories of the place from his time in the German army three years before. They were shown first to the scene of the crime, where Ardeleanu and her secretary were brutally attacked and killed. Everything was untouched.

As he looked at the splashes of gore where the first murder had taken place, Ranger kept one eye on his companion. To his surprise, she acted like some detective from fiction; she stepped around the room on tiptoe with a peering expression, then threw herself flat upon the floor to examine some part of the rich carpet, before bounding up again and darting to each of the corners before stopping dead still to view a particular angle for upwards of a minute.

Finally she spoke. ‘The killer came in through the window. Ardeleanu was taken completely by surprise. She was hoisted from her chair and thrown over the desk, then the assailant swooped down on her and killed her. His...unusual use of her head as a rugby ball attracted her secretary, who came in through the broken door. It’s clear that the assailant was in the midst of departing when the secretary arrived, but for some reason they didn’t do to him what was done to his Head.’

‘A warning.’

‘Hmm?’

Ranger picked up the blotting pad on the desk. There was a slight spray of red from its owner’s death, but the mirrored writing was otherwise legible. The Lady came over and studied it in the small mirror Ranger produced.

‘Look at this. It’s a report to Europäisch Geheime Polizei headquarters in Berlin. Let’s see. “Two agents lost in the Rodna Mountains....” then there’s “...alert headquarters and... Castle Vytautas–”. It’s cut off there. Guess that’s when she got her last visitor.’

‘Isn’t that going a little far?’

‘You obviously know the name. Castle Vytautas. You’ve heard the title if not the full name. I saw it in your face.’

The Lady frowned. ‘Alright. Yes. We’ve had trouble there for some time. This region of Europe’s always been a stronghold for Nightwalkers, ever since the nearly 300s. We’ve been doing our best to keep numbers down, or failing that keep them contained. If they started spreading–’

‘Looks like we’ve got an excuse to go there.’

‘Eh?! You’re not serious?’

‘You expect us to go back without doing anything? That’s insane.’

‘You’re the one that’s insane, wanting to chase after Nightwalkers.’

‘Hey, I’m not afraid.’

‘But you’re human.’

As answer, Ranger extended his four fangs and barbed tongue, showing his true heritage. His gaze momentarily darkened, as if rain clouds were passing behind his eyeballs, then he was normal once again. His widened mouth snapped back into a normal shape, and his eyes became bright once more. The Lady looked at him for some moments, then smiled.

‘I see. That explains what your Head said to me about “being prepared for unexpected developments” when he acknowledged our telegram. Guess he didn’t want me getting startled by one of his operatives being a Sunwalker.’

Ranger’s smirk was harsh. ‘Yeah. It’s what my comrades called me. Sonnewanderer. Someone whose abandoned the dark and chosen a life among humanity. There’s more than some might think.’

‘I know. I’ve worked with some of your kind. And killed a few too.’

‘Some don’t make the transition well. They’re still Nightwalkers at heart.’

‘And you’re not?’

‘We all are. So what next? Go home and report?’

The Lady smirked in return. ‘No. I think we’ll go to the Rodna Mountains and catch ourselves a killer. At least once we’ve found out what we can about Castle Vytautas.’

Come read part two of this narrative here!

Crazy Idea - Freischütz + Asushunamir + Fab Music = Maho gun battle!

Now this really is a crazy idea. So crazy it might be truly wonderful at some point. It comes from two/three different sources.

The first is a character in from the manga/anime franchise Hellsing called Rip Van Winkle. Winkle is a Nazi vampire who only lasts one volume/episode, but she has a very special ability that puts most of her cohorts to shame. She has a single bullet for her rifle, and once fired she can guide its course to hit whatever she wants. Her character directly references both the legend of Freischütz and the German opera based upon it by Carl Maria von Weber. The legend of the Freischütz -- or its Slavic equivalent the sčarostrelec -- tells of a marksman entering a Faustian pact and blessing seven bullets. Six out of the seven bullets will hit whatever the shooter desires, but the seventh bullet is completely under Lucifer's command.

The second is a character from pre-Islamic Middle Eastern mythology (very well summarized here). As part of the myth of Ishtar's descent into the underworld, the creator Enki fashions a non-binary gendered being called Asushunamir to rescue the goddess from her captivity. Asushunamir successfully entrances the underworld goddess Ereshkigal and manages to rescue Ishtar, but during the escape Ereshkigal curses Asushunamir and all like them to be shunned and despised by the rest of the world. While she can't undo Ereshkigal's curse, Ishtar gives Asushunamir and all like them the gifts of knowledge, healing and prophecy.

So my crazy idea mashed these two together into..... LGBT Maho soldiers! Wait, hear me out.

So I had three characters in mind within about five minutes. The first was -- obviously -- a woman. When a swarm of monsters is attacking our helpless everyman "protagonist", she apparently causes every radio around her to switch on and start pumping out some mean music. She then produces first a pistol out of nowhere and begins shooting down her enemies, then she eventually gets a long-barrelled cannon and blasts away the mounting hoard. With the final attack, she uses the the cannon's barrel as a prop and spins on it, summoning a gattling gun to blast away the last remnants of her enemies.

The next scene would be later when the woman's incapacitated, and the protagonist is temporarily gifted with her powers; he also triggers a blast of music, and does something similar in a one-on-one bout with a shotgun, six-shooter and a small railgun. His fight is more brutal, simply because his temporary power requires more energy to keep from dissipating, and his opponent is a lot tougher than a simple grunt of the wayward soul.

The next merry character is initially portrayed as the hostile outsider, but he also shares the woman's abilities, only he has a special trick. His own gun can shift form between a pistol and a very long rifle (both single shot only), and he only needs one bullet; he can fire in any direction, and any target selected with his eyes will be hit. Once done, the bullet returns and will be reloaded for the next fire.

And basically, all of these people have an inherent gift; due to their ambiguous gender or non-heterosexual status (to use an archaic term), they have the blessing of Ishtar to be medics for the soul, whose woes are manifested through monstrous beings.

And that's my crazy idea. Vaguely like an anime, but going much further into LGBT territory than any mainstream anime dares go in this day and age without resorting to stereotypes like the onee.

I hope you all have a marvellous New Year. Enjoy!

Crazy Idea; Opening Inversion

As part of my ongoing series of "Crazy Ideas", I've decided to tackle something slightly different. The opening of a fantasy story, with an idea that probably isn't that crazy when taking the entire genre into account, but still has very little place in the mainstream. Oh, and apologies about the title if anyone's offended by the terminology.

When I ask about fantasy worlds, what comes to mind about openings. Certainly in visual media movies and television, it's about a mysterious locations and the enigmatic character who may or may not be the main protagonist. The concept has been used so often that it's become something of a cliche in the genre, and spread across to other genres including science fiction, mystery/thriller. But can we trust it?

Here's my idea, or rather my vision.

You're in a woodland setting, divided between two parts of the same forest. The two leads of this particular scene are walking with their faces hidden. They look somewhat similar, except for their clothing. One is slightly broader, wears trousers and armour, has a sword at their belt, and close-cropped hair. One clearly as longish hair, is slimmer in build, and walks with a delicacy you don't expect from the average traveller. One is a knight, one is a mage, both are on the same mission.
The knight's name is Aileen, and the mage's is Franco. To use modern terms, she's butch, and he's girly. But we don't know that until the last second, when we first see them. 

And in this one scene, a standard expectation is thrown out the window. Our expectations, as set up by countless movies and games that have used stereotypical physiques for male and female roles (even Cassandra from the Dragon Age universe is notably slim when compared to other female knights in that universe), are subverted.

Like the article's title suggests, this is just a crazy idea, and a fairly weak foundation for most stories without a lot more thought and fleshing out. How many times have you just flipped physique and gender roles out of frustration?

Crazy Idea: "A Miss Werewolf to see you"

Remember my last crazy idea? Well I've been brewing another one for some time. Slightly more fantastical, and just as obscure. It came from watching several movies and absorbing other media related to werewolves. Have you ever noticed that while female vampires are plentiful, female werewolves are anything but. You'd think that werewolf kind was some kind of male-only realm like the Garrick Club. So I thought to myself; what about a female werewolf?

Before anyone says anything, I know female werewolves have been seen. Once. In the final scenes of The Howling. But that hardly counts. And they are present in fiction such as Housman's The Were-wolf, just not mainstream stuff and not often in the sympathetic light shone on female vampires such as Carmilla. In popular culture, the figure of the werewolf is still very masculine, as has been noted in this article on Artsy.net.

So there's the vision I had. Not only is this werewolf female, but it's not the atypical ravening beast so many have come to expect. Imagine this.

You walk through a forest in the dead of night. The moon is full above you, the air is cold and damp from a clinging mist, there are no lights within range aside from the single lamp swinging in your hand. Then you see a form reclining on the bow of a tree up ahead. A humanoid lupine figure with a long tail swinging absently below it. It turns its head, and its eyes reflect the lamp light's gleam. It shuffles and jumps down, standing a head taller than you, digitigrade legs propelling it forward with stately grace. You are frozen to the spot in fear. It speaks.
'A late night to be out. Where are you heading? I'll be your escort, if you wish.'
A woman's voice; deepened and with a subtle growl in the throat, but a woman's voice nonetheless. You nod automatically, too dazed to think clearly. And that night, your escort is a female werewolf. She talks in a candid way about her travels during the night of the full moon, wandering the forest. She talks of flowers, or badgers, of loneliness, of the difficulty telling people she "just wants time to herself each month". You reach the bridge across to the town where you are staying for the night. After a cordial farewell, the werewolf vanishes into the night.
Little do you think that the following full moon, your servant will come in and say,
"A Miss Werewolf to see you. Are you in?"
And even less do you think that the following night would be one of cordial and interesting conversation with a dark-haired lady. Or rather, a lady with dark hair all over her. 

This werewolf isn't a voracious monster, but is still a wild thing. She is able to comfortably wander through a land that terrifies and bamboozles normal people, as any woodland animal would. But she hasn't lost either her humanity or her key female elements by becoming a towering humanoid wolf creature. Bear in mind, this is a prototype for a "crazy idea", and needs both time and polish before it becomes anything substantial.

But aside from that, what do you think? What female werewolves do you know about? Please share and comment. Until next time!

Crazy Idea; Flamenco Fighter

Hi there! Here's the first in a new sporadic series. It's called "Crazy Idea", and it's where I put out a few of the random titular concepts into the open so I don't forget them, and you can share in their craziness. The idea came to me on Friday morning when my father was playing a CD of concert performances by renowned guitarist and composer Paco Peña.

During a conversation about the flamenco dance, I heard that the moves were influenced by very old European styles of martial arts, primarily defensive moves against blade attacks such as knives or rapiers, plus a few moves related to breaking noses and crushing feet with arm and foot movements. Plus the rhythm of a dancer would lull the attacker into giving themselves an opening for a counterattack. Even if it turns out not to be documented or fully accurate, it makes for a cool idea. This gave rise to my own crazy idea.

A potential character who goes through something akin to the premise of the 2008 movie Wanted (average person trained as assassin, ect.). But rather than the impossible feat of curving the flight path of bullets, this character is trained to use realistic martial arts to the highest possible degree of skill. And the way they are trained to focus and improve their skills is to learn a flawless flamenco. This initially seems nonsensical to both the reader/audience and the character, but later during their training when they are attacked, they are forced to use the only skills they know to any degree; flamenco. The attacker is successfully fended off and defeated.

To myself, and to anyone who looks at this, the idea of flamenco being a realistic means of self-defense might seem nonsensical. But then again, flamenco is about coordination and movement. What better way to prepare someone for real martial arts?

And that's it, my first public crazy idea!

What's Missing?: Doctor Who

This is the beginning of a new blog series I've decided to dub "What's Missing?". Here, I look at stories from multiple media and look at how, over time, those stories may have lost something that originally made them iconic or helped them stand out from the crowd. This week, it's a classic of the science fiction genre: Doctor Who.

For those not in the know, Doctor Who is a science fiction series following the adventures of the Doctor, an alien being whose TARDIS machine is capable of space-time travel. Together with a changing roster of companions (human, alien and otherwise) and a changing set of actors (and now actresses) taking on the role, the Doctor becomes mixed up in more conflicts than any one world's history could comfortably accommodate. Originally running from 1963 to 1989, then successfully reviving in 2005 to the present day, the series is one of the longest (continuous and extant) drama series in television history.

The series' biggest shift, arguably, was with its 2005 revival. It saw classic monsters revived in new ways, and for its first series experimentation with monster and alien concepts comparable with the era of Philip Hinchcliff during the mid-1970s. But as the series has continued and gone from strength to strength, something's become apparent. While it still has moral messages and complex characters at its core, something else Doctor Who once reveled in is gone; commentary. For these comparisons, I'm taking three stories from the series' original run and comparing them with the revived series; The Daleks, The Green Death, and The Talons of Weng Chiang.

The Daleks (1963-64) is notable for introducing the series' most recognisable alien nemesis, the titular menace which has endured multiple exterminations and a temporal war. But what were they actually about? Their writer Terry Nation created the Daleks out of two prevalent ideas in the 1960s; the threat of nuclear war, and the legacy of the Nazi regime in Europe. The setting of The Daleks, where neutron bombs have turned most of the planet into a petrified wasteland. The Daleks' own attitudes, seeing all other races as either a threat or inferior and thus disposable, reflect the core Nazi ideologies of superiority and racial purity. Even without knowledge of these, The Daleks makes bleak watching for a modern viewer.

The Green Death (1973) reflects a different mood. It covers several different issues of the day; the possibilities of green energy, the dangers of new and untested energy sources, concerns about corporate power and their influence on politics, and labour issues. Global Chemicals acts as the focal point for all of these; through the sci-fi veneer of Global Chemicals's new energy process creating a poisonous mutagen which turns a population of maggots into giant killers, The Green Death tells a cautionary tale about corporate power gone mad. Even as the byproducts of their "clean" energy process literally start to swarm, Global Chemicals use their political muscle to have the problem hushed up. In these days of the suspicious dealings by politicians and questions about the states of private companies, The Green Death remains relevant even after some forty years.

The Talons of Weng Chiang has an interesting twist on its otherwise fairly conventional Gothic tale in the vein of The Phantom of the Opera and multiple Hammer classics. The character of Magnus Greel, posing as the eponymous Chinese deity, acts as a parallel to a phenomenon of the time. During the mid 1970s, several high-profile Nazi members were being located and brought for trial by a dedicated group of "Nazi hunters", many survivors of the regime's concentration camps. Greel's legacy as a war criminal with thousands of deaths on his hands who escaped through time mirrors how many Nazi soldiers and elites escaped to sympathetic countries like South America to hide from the Allied powers' retribution. His horrendous experiments, hinted at and partially seen in the serial, also reflect the terrible crimes of Nazi scientists such as Josef Mengele.

Now I'm not saying that the revived series doesn't do commentary like this. It's just changed its focus, and with the concept of overarching narratives dilutes it considerably. The two-part story The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People is an example of this. Taken on its own with excess drama put to one side, it's an unsettling take on modern labour issues, in addition to the question of personal identity. But that whole concept is somewhat undermined by the plot twist at the end, which yanks the viewer out of an thought-provoking self-contained narrative to throw them into a science fiction premise that - to me at least - seemed rather trite. You could say the revived series is less obvious about it, but to be honest the original series could be quite subtle about its themes. For every Silurians, there's an Inferno. For every Mutants, there's Seeds of Doom.

Now there are a number of factors which contribute to this, but the ones that leap to mind are runtime, themes, tastes, and audience. The runtime has changed drastically, with most single 45-minute episodes from the revived series equating to half or less than half an original story's length in the original series (except in the Colin Baker era, where it was a series of two-to-three part stories with episodes of that length). The series' themes also shifted from current events and issues to people-focused drama and focusing far more on the pseudo-mythical themes previous original series stories had dabbled in. Tastes also want more people stories and seem to move further away from reality, and when it does touch on reality it causes massive controversy where before it would be seen as commentary. And the audience has also shifted; while Doctor Who was always intended for children, it now seems to aim for evoke the child in us where before it reached out to children and adults alike (more towards teens to adults as the series went on).

Let me be perfectly clear. I'm not saying either series is necessarily better than the other. There are several original series stories that are just plain bad, and I very much enjoy some of the stories and monsters the revived series has produced (the Weeping Angels being one of my all-time favourite Doctor Who creations) The "What's Missing" series seeks only to show how something may have changed without many people noticing. On the surface, the two phases of Doctor Who are basically the same. But there is a different. Something missing, for better or worse. Now, let's go and find that old copy of The Unquiet Dead, The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances, 42, The Doctor's Wife, The Crimson Horror or Thin Ice...or whichever your revival favourites are, and enjoy!

Using a Genre; Straight, Satire, or Deconstruction - Part 3

In this series of blog posts, the first in some time due to a variety of factors, I've decided to focus on the three major ways people use genres in general; playing them straight, satirising them, and deconstructing them. Each has merits, and none are set in stone. That's what lovely about them!

This time, for this final post, deconstruction is the order of the day. So what is deconstruction, when not applied to Lego or philosophy that is? Well, it's generally applied to stories in various media which take the tropes of a particular genre and examine them with a critical eye and the aim of understanding its interior workings. While satire does something similar, deconstruction tends to be far darker. The word "deconstruction" has been associated most recently with anime, which has become notorious for relying on genre tropes to the point of exasperation, but many of these deconstructions don't actually count as such. They're just dark or violent takes on those same tropes without actually deconstructing them.

It's difficult to pin down what counts as deconstruction, so it may surprise you what I've picked out as fine examples of it. For books, I think one of the best examples for its time is the work of H. P. Lovecraft. Yes, his weird fiction may be a common subgenre now, but in its day it was groundbreaking. While most stories at the time focused on humans overcoming impossible odds, Lovecraft takes completely the opposite approach, using typical story beats of his time, wrapping his distinct and near-nihilistic views on humanity around them, and creating stories that can be seen as a commentary on how these stories are typically told, and how their protagonists are portrayed. Of course every book can have deconstruction in it somewhere, but there are very few which have it as a major part of their narrative.

The same can be said of movies and television, although there it seems to be spread even thinner on the ground due to...reasons. But there are plenty out there. Shrek, in between its bouts of comedy and genuinely moving romance, deconstructs multiple fairy tale tropes people take for granted, accomplished by making its lead character an ogre, a being typically portrayed as a villain or antagonistic minion. A series that I think does this well is Firefly and its movie conclusion Serenity. While it has the usual allowance of sci-fi tropes and concessions, its people are more real than most other sci-fi casts, facing its extraordinary circumstances with down-to-earth responses. A special shout-out must be given to Whedon's writing as he makes characters real even in the most outlandish situations.

In anime, deconstruction has sadly become more of a buzzword than an actual description of the anime's contents. Shows like School Days and Puella Magi Madoka Magica are labelled as deconstruction without actually understanding what a deconstruction is. In my view, they're just ultra-violent or downbeat takes on a genre's tropes without actually deconstructing them. There can be deconstructive elements there, but it's not like the whole show deconstructs the genre. One show I think is often overlooked in the deconstruction line is Neon Genesis Evangelion. It stands as both a prime example of the mecha genre, and a brutal examination of what real teenagers with real problems would do and how they would react when stuck inside a giant mech and forced to fight merciless monsters dubbed Angels.

Video games have a far richer field of view for deconstruction due to their interactive nature. But again it's an industry averse to taking risks, even more so than the movie and television industries as they focus more on high returns than art. The setting I most associated with deconstruction is Yoko Taro's seminal Drakengard/Nier franchise. On the surface a Medieval high fantasy world, its dark twist on multiple RPG-based storytelling tropes from the hero with animal companion and love interest (here a sadistic soldier with a racist dragon and a sister holding secret incestuous love) to the righteous cause of the main character (androids sent to Earth to defeat monstrous machines, only said machines aren't nearly so monstrous and their leaders not nearly so honest as they seem). One part dark fantasy, one part cautionary tales about prejudice and the nature of killing, one part deconstruction of what games are, this franchise is unique in the gaming world. And that's saying something!

Closing Note;
Playing it straight. Satire. Deconstruction. Each has merits. Each has pitfalls. I'm not telling you which to use or which to ignore, only showing what they have to offer. I hope you've enjoyed what I've shown you as examples of these three approaches.

Shameless plug time ;)
If you want a cheap sample of non-violent deconstruction, then why not take a look at When Ai Met Yu: A Modern Japanese Romance, my take on the LGBT-focused yaoi/bara genres.

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Using a Genre; Straight, Satire, or Deconstruction - Part 2

In this series of blog posts, the first in some time due to a variety of factors, I've decided to focus on the three major ways people use genres in general; playing them straight, satirising them, and deconstructing them. Each has merits, and none are set in stone. That's what lovely about them!

This time we're looking at satire. What is satire? According to the definition provided by Wikipedia, satire is: "a genre of literature, and sometimes graphic and performing arts, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, corporations, government, or society itself into improvement. Although satire is usually meant to be humorous, its greater purpose is often constructive social criticism, using wit to draw attention to both particular and wider issues in society". Well, that about sums it up. And by its very nature, satire can be hard to pin down as a single genre.

As with most aspects of fiction, satire is something which can be done right or wrong depending on whose reading it. Some people will of course be terribly offended, while others with clap with joy. The mixed reception is perhaps best exemplified by many works of French author and essayist Voltaire. An open critic of the then-prevalent Ancien Regime, his novella Candide provoked both support and criticism, and is considered a classic satire of the social norms of the time. Playing out as a picaresque novel, it lampoons the conventions of the adventure and saga genres while also making valid points about society in France at the time, which was heavily class divided and ruled through an absolute monarchy. I fully intend getting my own copy of Candide at some point.

Classical writers excelled at heavily critical works which can stray into the realms of satire; Horance pioneered it as popular entertainment, and later the Roman writer Juvenal (who became the inspiration for the word "juvenile" for obvious reasons) gave us. Other notable later writers include Alexander Pope with his parody of Homer The Dunciad (an attack on the society of Queen Charlotte, wife to George II thought by her critics as the monarchy's guiding hand), Jonathan Swift's novel Gulliver's Travels (in its original pre-Disney form a scathing satire of the English political system in Georgian England), and several works by Mark Twain.

In modern times, satire has taken different forms and tackled issues of the time, a theme that runs through the entire body of satire as a genre convention. A notable example is Catch 22, a novel by Joseph Heller which refers to -- quoting Gilbert and Sullivan for a moment -- "a most ingenious paradox", or a double bind if you like. An airman wishes to get out of a dangerous mission by being declared mentally unfit, but their wish to be taken off that missions shows they have a rational wish for self-preservation and so can't be classified as mentally unfit.

Leaving the realm of the written text into things like opera, we find several satires there as well. Gilbert and Sullivan for one. Well, technically it was Gilbert who did all the satires. Sullivan didn't like it, which partially led to the pair splitting up. Gilbert's plots mocked many conventions of British life during the Victorian era through unlikely and unreasonable situations. Each opera sent up something different; The Mikado focused on the English political system, H.M.S. Pinafore lampooned the rigid class system, and The Pirates of Penzance made merry with the idea of apprenticeship and a sense of duty and loyalty to one's profession -- however much it may be abhorred.

Television satire comes in many forms, but the form I'll focus on here is Yes, Minister and its sequel Yes, Prime Minister. This television series ran during the late 1980s, and acted as a ruthless satire of the governments first of Margaret Thatcher and then of John Major. Main protagonist James Hacker M.P., later elected Prime Minister in a situation similar to the recent ascension of Theresa May following Cameron's resignation, is in a battle of wits and policies with the Permanent Secretary Sir Humphrey Appleby, watched and more than once engaged in on both sides by Hacker's Principle Private Secretary Bernard Woolley. The series' comedy stems from Hacker trying to make changes to the established governmental and ministerial systems, and Sir Humphrey's determined efforts to keep things static. It's wonderfully funny, but is like that because it's lampooning how the British political system actually works. Later, it goes into the role -- or perhaps lack thereof -- of the Prime Minister.

Movies also have their fair share of satire hidden among the blockbusters and art pieces. These can range from Terry Gilliam's darker absurdist movies such as Brazil; the adaptation of Starship Troopers, which combines its summer flick action scenes with scathing satire and criticism of both the American military and the use of war propaganda; or comedic affairs such as Murder by Death, which takes apart and parodies the accepted tropes of detective stories from both the British Golden Age and the American Crime Noir movement.

Satire in video games can transcend what other media can accomplish due to the interactivity inherent to gaming. Due to the relative youth of the medium, it's also much rarer than in literature, movies and television, and also end up making more potential missteps. A notable example of video game satire is The Stanley Parable. In this game, you -- the main character -- are guided through a short story scenario by the narrator. Even the slightest deviance from the path causes the narrator to comment on the situation and do everything from gently persuade to passively abuse you. It points out the convention of a guided path through games that many take for granted. Other games that call out such conventions include Drakengard 3 (through the snarky comments and the actions of main heroine Zero and her disciples) and Danganronpa V3 (the reasons of which I won't spoil here).

Well, that's all I wanted to talk about here. Now I've covered both playing a genre straight and satirising it, I'll move on to one of my favourite approaches when done right - deconstruction. Until next week, enjoy!

Using a Genre; Straight, Satire, or Deconstruction - Part 1

In this series of blog posts, the first in some time due to a variety of factors, I've decided to focus on the three major ways people use genres in general; playing them straight, satirising them, and deconstructing them. Each has merits, and none are set in stone. That's what lovely about them!

Playing it straight is something every author that has ever existed has done at some point. Whether it's through practice writing, or their published work on any scale, they will take a particular genre and use the straight approach for its portrayal. To be clear, this doesn't mean that someone has to play this completely seriously, or just focus on a narrative. There's a difference between satirising or deconstructing a genre and using it to communicate a particular theme or point. You can do one without doing the other, as many authors have proved. All genres are subject to this, but some show the distinction more than others.

The Lord of the Rings is one of the most notable pieces of fantasy fiction that is played straight. As old readers will know, my feelings on Tolkien are somewhat mixed. But even I'm going to admit that his work is more than impressive. It has scope, intrigue, drama, and a story that has inspired generations of writers following him for good or ill. He includes elements of comedy in the first book, but otherwise the story is serious, portraying the terrible events and troubles facing all sides defying Sauron's bid for global power, much simplified but still more than evident in the movie adaptation.

Many works of science fiction also play things straight, with those who adhere to scientific principals in most of their works being clearer examples than most. Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Azimov both create set worlds which often feature rigidly realistic rules (for their time) when it comes to space travel, scientific advancement, and artificial intelligence. The Robot novels by Asimov not only focus on complicated - or at least unconventional - murder mysteries, but also look hard at the social and technological differences between Earth and colonies on other worlds, and in later books how colonial planets such as Solaria and Aurora differ from each other.

Romances on all levels can involve any amount of raucous comedy or social commentary. Jane Austin's books are full of both witty dialogue and sharp criticism of the culture of her time, the class-driven society of Georgian England when what can be recognised as the prototype middle classes were emerging. Romantic elements are also added to a large number of stories, whether it's straight or LGBT, without it going into the realms of satire or deconstruction. Agatha Christie - while principally a writer of mystery - is somewhat notorious regard to romance, sprinkling in romantic interest and occasionally making improbably, questionable or even wince-worthy matches between surviving characters.

As with any form of fiction, movies, television and video games also share the differing takes on genres, and consequently have stories that play genre conventions straight. The majority of film noir such as The Maltese Falcon, Double Jeopardy and The Big Sleep are played straight and portray a depressing reality our detective (or in some cases murderer) protagonists negotiate during their journey. Video games can end up being criticised for taking themselves to seriously with their subject matter (many Call of Duty games and their competitors/clones are tripped up by this), while in other cases such as Fire Emblem and indeed most RPGs this seriousness is taken as a genre standard.

As with most subjects people write about, there are just too many to list within a single piece or even a series of pieces on the subject. So I think we'll leave it here for now. Next week, we'll be looking at approaching a genre from the angle of satire.

Using a Genre; Straight, Satire, or Deconstruction - Introduction

Hi there, I'm back with a very long post that needs several parts to say what I want to say. This time, as I've started work on a satire of the fantasy genre, I think I'd like to examine the three major ways people use genres in general; playing them straight, satirising them, and deconstructing them. Each has merits, and none are set in stone. That's what lovely about them!

The first part, playing it straight, is just that. Treating the genre's typical tropes, expectations and quirks as part of the standard ebb and flow of writing. In doing this, you can still do humor or going into the darker parts of the narrative, but you do so while still keeping within the bounds of a straight-laced tale in whatever genre you've chosen. You may slip into parody or satire, but in an approach like this you may end up doing so unconsciously.

Satire is one of the oldest arts in storytelling. The word itself comes from Latin, but satire goes back to Classical Greece and Ancient Egypt. For those a little fuzzy on what it is, satire is a means by which something the creator feels needs ridicule is... well, ridiculed. Be it social norms of the time, the political situation, or the particular foibles of a literary genre, satire holds them up and points them out for how ridiculous they are or can be. Satire can be dark and biting, but it also features parody, wit, and numerous other elements. Parody itself could be taken as its own standalone thing, but for the purposes of this blog post series, I'll be incorporating it as part of the body of satire.

Deconstruction is the most difficult to define, as it's the most easily abused. The term has been most recently associated with anime, and as this video ably demonstrates, it's often stuck on as a bling word rather than being a genuine description of something. To put it at its simplest, deconstruction is about taking a genre and examining its most common tropes and cliches from a real-world perspective, with the very act of deconstruction serving as a commentary on the genre. Deconstruction, when applied correctly, is most often used for more fantastic genres such as science fiction and fantasy, but can apply to action-adventure, romance, and other elements.

Now, as with anything, there is no simple line dividing these three, and there will be elements of satire or deconstruction in an otherwise serious or straightforward work, or there might be comedic elements without going into satire, or it might take the darkest or oddest approach to a story without actually deconstructing its tropes and cliches. In any case, I look forward to going through these different approaches with you over the next few weeks. Enjoy!