Power of the Light Side

So our friends over at the ForceCenter Podcast have put out a call for those of us within the community to share their thoughts and ideas of how Star Wars has brought the Light Side into our lives. Or how it has  elevated our understanding of things in life via the space fantasy / melodramatic metaphors we find from the stories told in a galaxy far, far away.

Given the things happening in my life right now, it's probably not surprising this is what's on my mind:

Sometime in the winter of 1983 my dad surprised me one evening and said "We're going to go to the movies." While I'd certainly watched movies with Dad before hand - usually whatever happened to be playing on one of the 5 channels available to us over the Winnipeg airwave rebroadcasts -  this was a special thing. We were going out to the theatres! A special trip, just me and my dad to the (locally) famous Metropolitan Theatre in the heart of downtown.

Turns out (spoiler alert), it was a double feature of Star Wars and the Empire Strikes Back. 

Watching on the big screen the adventures, the fun, the fear and the tragedy of those first 2 life-changing movies not only left an indelible mark on the way I look at the world, but created a real bond between myself and my dad. 

It's not an uncommon thing for sons to have trouble connecting with their parents, clearly. My father's upbringing was rougher than mine from a different era. And while he always treated me fairly and with love, I often grew up feeling like he and I were different. That we were interested in different things and didn't have very much in common.

Turns out - naturally - that as I gained life experience of my own that obviously we are very similar. We have shared interests, ideas, perspectives and are undeniably bonded in ways that go beyond our love of "westerns in space that tell family dramas in a succinct, spiritual format."

As such, being able to introduce my dad to the Mandalorian while I was recovering from a minor procedure took me back to being (almost) 7 years old. Watching his eyes light up and his smile broaden as Din Djarin and IG-11 mowed down that town of Child Rustlers in the most sci-fi realization of a classic western shootout I've ever seen committed to digital film was simply magical. Seeing him relive his own childhood in that moment, seeing his mind expand and his imagination awaken because of Star Wars rekindled the bond between us that honestly never left, but ebbed and flowed over time as everything does. 

That afternoon with him was one of the best times of my life.

As I write this my father is nearing the end of his time with us. No bacta tank or teched out mod will be able to keep him from passing on into the Force. But through the tears I am smiling. Because we are meant to grow beyond the paths they lay for us, as my daughter one day will do to me. Obviously there are many other important things that Dad gave and taught me beyond our oftentimes silly space shows, but being able to revisit something he'd shared with me that meant so much to the both of us ... well, it's just another way of knowing that "No one's ever really gone."

Thank you for reading. If my words today have moved you in any way please consider supporting a local Cancer Care Charity of your choosing. For example the good people at the Canadian Cancer Society are doing tremendous work in difficult times to provide help to as many suffering people as possible.

#MTFBWY

AK

Book Review: Tad Williams' "The Witchwood Crown"

(review also available on

Goodreads)

In today's modern media landscape where it seems like everything that's old is new again (and / or recycled to give a nostalgia hit to those who crave feeling young again) it was so refreshing to finally dive back into the realm of Osten Ard, reconnect with our heroes / characters / locations from Tad Williams' groundbreaking "Memory, Sorrow and Thorn" trilogy of Epic Fantasy and find just so much more to discover.

As someone who originally took out "The Dragonbone Chair" from his local library at 11 years old and continued reading through the whole trilogy until finally finishing it in my early 20s it was fascinating at that time to grown up with Seoman, Miriamele, Binabik, Tiamak and others. To sit under the wisdom of Duke Isgrimnur and to understand as the characters did just how tricky it is to actually live in a "grown up world" where right and wrong are both easy and hard to decipher. Where good people can become corrupted not just by evil wizards and ancient evils, but by their own hubris, aspirations and trauma.

Now here we are, 25 years later returning to this world. We see how the world has changed (and somehow NOT changed) after the events of Green Angel Tower. We learn that just because you've slayed a dragon or stayed off the coming of a great and powerful evil that there's always more evil in the hearts and minds of men. We get to spend so much more time in the grey areas of the mysterious Norns, learning about their hierarchy, their culture and how their world view has changed after losing the battle that was supposed to deliver them Osten Ard. It is very much a more grown up tale with experience, passion, fear, a real earned sense of history and yes ... lust that is a natural evolution of the books I read in my youth.

Tad Williams remains one of my all time favourite authors. This book has been sitting on my TBR Pile quite literally for 4 years as I was both intimidated by it and fearful that it couldn't possibly live up to my expectations. Those fears were assuaged easily as the authors work has matured along with my tastes and need for complicated characters and stories.

AK

Okay, so... It's been Awhile

Life is funny in the sense that I'm constantly trying to think of new things to work on and manage that somewhere along the way I forget that I've already started things that I need to get back to. This blog being one of them.

Since last I posted anything I've been working with a group of Indie Authors putting together an compilation of Fantasy / Sci-Fi short stories - of which Joe's Shanghai adventure "International Incident" will be a part of (in 2 parts since well, it's a bit longer than most of the other tales.) This compilation will be FREE to download on Amazon Kindle on May 23, 2022. I'll get the links attached when it's ready.

Book 4 of Overdrive is going - slowly as is my usual stop/start bullshit process. I've got a good chunk of the beginning going and I quite like my outline. I'm considering adapting my process a bit and doing things in more of a start a chapter, write what's in my head, then make notes for what else needs to happen in this section - then immediately move onto the next chapter and do the same thing. I've heard of this "hatchet process" working well for other writers but it makes me nervous. I've always tried to write in a linear fashion whereas this kinda feels like an extended Layout. Though, in my head it's probably more like a literary story board.

Whatever. The point remains - people are asking for the next book and I'm just dicking around with it instead of actually putting in the work. I'll get there.

Finally I am considering hiring a proofreader / editor for the first 3 books of Joe's adventures to fine toothed comb them. The most common criticism I get with my books is that - well - they've all been written and edited by me. So it's easier for me to miss things than an objective eye (or my readers) would. If / when I go this route I am also considering finding a new cover artist and repackaging my books for a 2nd edition Re-Release. Not that I'm unhappy at ALL with the work that Dar Dixon has done for me. Just that if I'm going to relaunch the titles, perhaps I should start'em again from scratch in a way. Time it for a release with Book 4 when she's ready to go.

I'll keep you (in theory) up to date. Provided I don't fall down a 1000 Star Wars rabbit holes what with Kenobi about to come out on D+.

AK

International Incident: NOW Available on Kindle!

Thanks to all 350-plus of you who popped by to give my first "Overdrive" short story a view here on the blog. That type of engagement is always awesome. Here's hoping you'll continue to follow my words as I move them over to Kindle where the rest of the series is currently homed.

Find "International Incident: A Queen's Guard Story" LIVE right now on @AmazonKindle for only $0.99 (Or #FREE with #KindleUnlimited!) Read about Joe's first adventure outside of Winnipeg and his comfort zone in service of his new position.

Its another "ripped from the headlines idea" with the Overdrive spin. 

Please check it out And thank you for all your support.

AK