Author Archives: Bob Evans

Trump’s Obesity Should be Off the Table

Listen, I am far from any fan of the current narcissistic man-baby occupying the Presidency. In my opinion he is a conman, corrupt, dim-witted, mean, lying and morally reprehensible. The sooner he can be removed from this position and someone of general competence installed the better for this nation and yes for the world. The current pandemic illustrates perfectly why there is always someone to vote against and that the office of President of the Unites States of America is not place for On-The-Job training.

That said attacks on his weight are offensive and stupid. The man’s corruption and incompetence are a factor of his BMI. People who would consider themselves sensitive to marginalized communities will still, gleefully, share memes and gifs that are hurtful far beyond their target of the man-baby president. These attacks belittling him due to his size are no better and in my view equivalent to Trump’s mocking of a disabled reporter. Is that really the company you want to keep?

I also despise the food snobbery people direct at Trump and indirectly at others. Food is one of the purely personal pleasures in life. I’m not going to judge you by what you eat to make you happy and if that’s what you do to others then in that instance, you’re the asshole.

I’ll vote for a potted palm to get this cruel, petty, dishonest, conman out of the office but I will maintain my morality while I am doing it.

 

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Things Named Vulcan’s Forge

I titled my novel Vulcan’s Forge as a reference to the Roman god of fire and smithy because the McGuffin at the center of the sf/noir was capable of producing effects well beyond the character’s normal access. Of Course, I was aware that Star Trek had popularized Vulcan as an association with its particular alien species. In fact, I had expected that there might have been a push from the publishing house to re-title the novel and that would have been fine with me, I am generally not precious about my titles.

The book sailed through the editing and publication process without any ever suggesting or hinting that an alternative title should be explored and now I am discovering all the other things that are called Vulcan’s Forge.

Vulcan’s Forge 1998 a techno-thriller, that’s when you don’t want to be marketed as present day science-fiction a category invented by The Hunt of Red October, by Jack Du Brul.

Vulcan’s Forge a 1997 Star trek­ tie-in novel set a year after the events in the movie Star Trek: Generations.

Vulcan’s Forge a custom Jewelers located in Kansas City Missouri.

Vulcan’s Forge a thoroughbred racehorse from the 1940s.

 

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No Two Books Get Written the Same Way

Mind you that title isn’t referring to no two authors write their books the same way I am talking about that as an author myself each book follows its own unique process from concept to manuscript.

My editor recently told me that he’d like to see material that is closer in tone to Vulcan’s Forge than the military SF adventure I recently showed to him. I’m good with that, after all I did write Vulcan’s Forge and I understand the wisdom of keep a stylistic and tone consistency to help build a readership. So, I responded with a few ideas that had been bouncing around my head and he came back indicating which one at this point interested him the most.

Now, I’m drafting the outline for this book using my typical five act structure as a framework. Her, it is was good enough for old Bill Shakespeare it’s good enough for me.

As is typical for me the very act of outlining, in even the basic form, expands and deepens my concepts turning vague ideas into concrete story and plot elements.

But, it’s not the same process I used on other books. Sometimes I just write out a long prose document telling the basic story from front to back, leaving spots that I know are too thin that I will have to work out later. Sometimes I craft careful character studies and maps first and then start the outlining, and this time it’s numbered bulleted points for act of the five acts with a separate character files that grows as I explore the story and structure.

The point is when you attend a con or a writing workshop and someone tells you from on high that this is the ‘one way’ to write a story know that what they are passing is bunk. There isn’t one way for different writers and not even for the same writer. Experiment, investigate, and discover the way that works for you for the project at hand.

 

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It’s My Birthday

Today May 14 is my birthday and I feel pretty fine about that. I have friends and family for whom these events no longer happen and sop I know the blessing and privilege it is to have another go around our local star.

We’re here in the middle of a global pandemic with tens of thousands dead and more to come, our economy freefalling and our political world in utter chaos but I can also recognize that my life is going pretty damn well at the moment.

Six years ago, I transition from a contract, read ‘Temp’ worker to becoming a full Kaiser employee and this has hand down been the best place I have ever worked. My associated are good people and there aren’t any that I have personality conflicts with, I am well paid, and I have very good benefits.

Later this year will make 13 years married to my sweetie-wife and those have been good happy years.

March saw the publication of my first professional novel and I am working on a proposal for another book for this editor while waiting for a different house to finish evaluating my military SF book so artistically I have little to complain about.

Peak television and the explosion of streaming services along with the wonderful work done by people like Film Geeks San Diego and Horrible Imaginings film festival are doing wonders for broadening my exposure to interesting and challenging cinema expanding my horizon and making me a better artist.

All in all, I have to say that life is good.

 

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One Possible but Unlikely Scenario

With Jared Kushner’s irresponsible and utterly unsupported and unsupportable statements about not being ‘committed’ to holding the Presidential contest on the scheduled election date, and you can imagine the utter freak-out if anyone close the Obama had ever even whispered such an idea, people are concerned and frightened for what this lawless corrupt conman of a president might do to steal the election.

Moving the election date requires an act of congress and the House ain’t going to do that. Canceling the election is not going to happen. No, there will be an election but it is vital to remember that in November you are not voting for a person but a slate of electors committed to voting for a particular candidate. The constitution does not require that the people have a direct say in how the electors to the electoral college are selected, that is a matter left to the states. Voting for slates of electors to support this or that candidate arose very quickly after the constitution was adopted but it is not required at all.

So, take an important swing state like Florida, currently under GOP control in both the executive and the legislature. There’s nothing constitutionally preventing the Florida Senate and House in coordination with the governor from setting aside all votes cast in the November election and sending a slate of electors of their own choosing to represent the state in the electoral college. Such an action would take place after the popular voting and before the Electoral College meets and could swing the legally results of the election.

Our system is built on a foundation of trust and norms that presupposes honorable people acting with moral motivations and there lies it fatal flaw.

This scenario is vastly unlikely but entirely plausible.

 

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Noir Review: 5 Against the House

Continuing my expedition into Columbia Noir hosted on the Criterion Channeland early Kim Novak performances Sunday night I streamed the 1955 noir 5 Against the House.

Directed by Phil Karlson from a screenplay by Stirling Silliphant and John Barnwell based on a novel of the same name by Jack Finney who is better known for penning the novel The Invasion of the Body Snatchers. 5 Against the House is about a collection of college students that decide to rob a Reno Casino as a prank with intentions to return the money. Naturally the plan goes from prank to plot when one of the students seizes on the idea that this sudden influx of cash will end his troubles.

While the characters attend Midwestern College, they are older than the usual student body because they are Korean War Veterans going to school on the G.I. Bill, particularly Al, played by Guy Madison, whose life was saved in combat by ‘Brick’, played by Brian Keith. Brick suffers from what is now known as PTSD and struggles both academically and socially due to his difficulty integrating back into civilian life and leaving the horrors of the battlefield behind. His instability coupled with a tendency towards violence drive much of the films tension for the second half.

My trouble with this movie is that while there is taunt tension in the second half the first is devoid of any serious conflict and none that concerns all of our major characters. Al wants to marry his girl Kaye, played by Kim Novak, but she’s uncertain about their love and skittish to commit while the others in the friendly clique engage in freshman hazing and comic banter that is well written but serves no function in advancing the plot, making this 83 minute feature feel much longer. The actors rang from adequate to quite engaging with the obvious star power of Novak and Keith driving much of this movie’s appeal.

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COVID-19 in the Executive

With reports that members of both the presidential and vice-presidential Staffs have tested positive for COVID-19 the pandemic has now reached the executive branch of the United States of America.

It is not inconceivable that both the president and the vice president who have been directly exposed to members who have tested positive for the virus may themselves catch the virus and become ill. Should that occur with both men being of the demographic group likely to be hard hit by the virus it is equally conceivable that both men could be incapacitated and admitted to intensive care units to deal with a raging infection.

If you think the current political environment in Washington DC is not chaotic enough just imagine the sheer pandemonium that would result from such a situation, the succession of power for the presidency is clear. In the event that the president is incapacitated and fulfill his duties those duties devolved to the vice president if vice president is also unable to fulfill the requirements of the office then the powers devolved to the speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi.

I can think of no greater political thermonuclear device and our heated divided and sharply partisan times then to have the powers of the presidency residing with Nancy Pelosi. That is not to make a comment on whether she would wield those powers well or badly or if this a desired or undesired outcome only an observation that such an event would prove catastrophic Lee cataclysmically disruptive to our national political conversation, such as it is.

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Masks? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Masks

As with everything else in the current United States the simple logical and socially responsible act of wearing a mask in public had become a signifier of one’s political and tribal identity. In order loyalty-signal that one if a true and virtuous supporter of the President and all things beloved by Trump a mask in public must be forsworn, save for the township of Santee, CA where a KKK Hood is considered an acceptable substitute. Even in the White House and people who have direct contact with the nation’s chief executive, despite that the wearing of such equipment is about protecting not the wearer of the mask but the people that come into contact with, one does not wear a mask lest you provoke a Trump tantrum.

Of course, it has now turned out that one of the presidential valets who serves Trump his meals did not wear a mask and has now tested positive for the corona virus. Sources describe the president as ‘lava mad.’ I suppose it will be two weeks before we know if Trump has been infected enough to become ill with COVID-19 throwing this country into a political crisis on top of an economic crisis on top of a pandemic crisis.

Seriously, think about Trump falling critically ill. IN theory, on paper there’s no trouble if the president become incapacitated the Vice-President assume the powers of the office and things proceed, but this Administration does not exist in a theoretical ideal state. It is staffed with bootlickers chosen for their personal loyalty to Trump with motivations that do not line up neatly with the political class’s objectives. Our nation’s capital, already a swamp of backstabbing and camera hogging would turn so vicious as to make King’s Landing look like an afternoon volleyball game.

For the GOP, decades of degrading expertise, rejecting objective knowledge, and fomenting grievance politics over rational thought has come home to roost.

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Revisiting Previous Works

For various reason I pulled out of duty digital storage a novel that I had written ten years ago back in the distant annals of 2010.

This novel was the first attempt to set a story in the fictional universe where Vulcan’s Forge takes place. In fact, without that previous setting creation I doubt that there would ever have been a Vulcan’s Forge as the setting gave me the answer as to what the McGuffin and core plot elements I had been searching for.

However, that manuscript when presented to the first batch of beta readers fell flat and I determined that the flaws were so deeply seated it would require a complete re-write from the ground up and place it aside.

Thinking it might be worth revisiting that story I loaded the manuscript up on my iPad and began my re-read.

The flaws from 2010 are still there and the book would have to be written over again from page 1 to be salvageable. Moreover, I can see where I rushed through sentences and scenes hastily putting things down without taking the time to let them breathe and create the tone that would have been required to sustain the tale. Still, the core conflict, characters, and plot elements all work. This is a book I can make work and now with a decade’s more experience I can see how to do that.

I am also in the middle of craft a new outline for a new story. The couple of sentence description interested my editor and so I have at least two worthy projects to chase.

 

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Streaming Review: The Girl with All the Gifts

This film has popped up once or twice on my cinematic radar and yet time and again had managed to slip away unseen until this past weekend. I became much more interested in the film after watching the documentary Horror Noir about the intersection of horror media, principally film, and the depictions of black people in media.

The Girl with All the Gifts is a 2016 post-apocalyptic ‘zombie’ film directed by Colm McCarthy from a screenplay by Mike Carey who also write the original short story and adapted the material into a novel of the same name. Glenn Close stars as Dr Caldwell a medical scientist searching for a vaccine against the fungus that creates the ‘hungries.’ (First rule of up-scale ‘zombie’ movies, never use the word ‘zombie.’) Caldwell works at a remote military installation where a number of children who are infected with the fungus but present as normal children most of the time are studied and dissected in the search for the vaccine. Gemma Arterton plays Helen Justineau a teacher schooling the class of children. Her star pupil is Melanie, played by Sennia Nanua with a skill and competence that promises a bright future as an actor if she chooses to pursue one. Melanie is fantastically bright, charming, inquisitive, and helpful except when she is taken by her feral hunger which can be aroused with a simple smell of human skin. When the base falls to a horde of hungries the three characters along with an Army Sergeant and another solider are forced to flee across territory abandoned to the hungries in an attempt to reach another secure facility near London. Along the way tension erupt between Caldwell need to use Melanie to produce a vaccine and Justineau’s growing affection for the bright friendly girl.

I placed the word ‘zombie’ in quotes not only because the film uses the term hungries but also that these infected are not living dead revenants. In theory these are simply human infect with a parasitic fungus that has usurped control undoubtedly inspired by the spores that does the same to some species of ants. However, in practical considerations the Hungries fall under the ‘fast zombie’ trope and are generally as mindless as previous cinematic generations of the undead. While the film attempts to create a plausible scientific basis for its unending hordes of hungries it is best to place to one side any actual scientific knowledge while watching the feature. Considerations for how quickly a mindless automaton would succumb to hunger and dehydration are typically ignored as are basic tactical operations that would render any well-armed force immune to the horde’s wave attacks. That said this is a really an excellent film that shares a lot of thematic components with Richard Matheson’s I Am Legendnovel. It is currently streaming on Netflix and while violent it does not luxuriate in the gore but rather focuses on idea of identity and character. It is well worth watching.

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