Weekly Briefing from the North Texas Apocalypse Bunker, 04/05/24
Chocolate Rabbit Overload Edition
We would like to start this weekly update off by thanking all of you wonderful people on whatever social media platform isn’t currently triggering you for the well wishes and congratulations on our one year anniversary. The new “traditional” present for one year anniversaries is “paper,” for which there is only one really acceptable present for the two of us: books.
I hate that this shout out to tomes and folios comes on the heels of another long-standing Metroplex area Half-Price Books closing its doors after 30 years. Another small used bookstore in Waco is likewise shuttering its doors. What the hell, people?!
I know that for some of you, his newsletter is the most reading you do in a week, and I’m not throwing any shade. But some of you are here, reading this substack, via our relationship as author and reader, so I’m assuming you’re not pro-bookstore closures any more than I am. I know we’re still all some percentage of being in Pandemic Mode, but it’s time to fully embrace the new world order, get out of the house, and do more stuff in public and in person. You can still wear the mask if you want to, but for God’s sake, get out of the house and go somewhere you like and just be there. COVID has done enough psychic damage. It’s time to dust ourselves off and brace for the next thing coming down the pike. I can’t imagine what I would need to gird my psychic loins for, he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm, but I’m sure we’ll all be better if we weather it together.
April is the Pipe, Five by Five
This is the month I typically use to get ready for all of the conventions and gatherings I will be attending for the rest of the year. You can expect to find me at Robert E. Howard Days, SoonerCon, and ArmadilloCon for certain. There’s a lot of prep to do; check stock on books, on business cards, on whatever thing I’m promoting and choosing to give away, etc. I’d like to do more, but over the years, my interest in the giant cons has waned considerably, to be replaced with smaller and mid-sized shows that I can drive to with little difficulty. That’s not to say I wouldn’t attend GenCon or San Diego ComiCon again; rather, I’m not going to spend that kind of money to just “hang out.” If I’ve got something to promote, that’s a whole ‘nuther puddle of fish.
What is not on my schedule this year are the gaming conventions I’d very much like to attend: Gary Con, GameHole Con, North Texas RPG Con, and ChupacabraCon. Granted, only two of those four conventions are in Texas, but that’s not the point. These shows have the misfortune of being right next to or on top of other conventions and personal commitments that I have made, thus forcing me to make a choice—and prior commitments and personal events will win every time. The only hope I have is for one of the gaming cons to do a scheduling Zig when one of my other conventions does a scheduling Zag, thus allowing me the privilege of spending double the amount of money to go to conventions on consecutive weekends. I don’t think I’m asking for a lot, here.
Doing these shows is critical for me for a number of reasons. The most obvious one is that I am out in the middle of nowhere; three hours from both the Metroplex and OKC. If I don’t leave where I am to meet people, then I’m not going to meet them. As an author, I live and die by my personality; meeting me, you might think, “He’s so funny! I wonder what his books are like?” If that happens, my work here is done.
For game conventions, it’s important for me to be on hand to talk about and demonstrate the things I’ve written and designed. It’s similar to point one, above, in that my personality is brought to bear when rolling up a goblin name or creating a heist at the table with just a few d20 rolls, but hand-selling is a time-honored tradition and when you’re at the micro-level, as I am, every sale counts.
The third reason, but by no means any less important, is that I need to be with fellow writers and artists from time to time. It’s vital to my sanity. My wife is very creative and she’s a sharp reader, and not afraid to tell me when something I’ve written is unclear or not working. She’s great at that. But sometimes I need to discuss the 2d6 bell curve with someone who understands why that’s a big deal. I need to meet people that are doing the same or nearly the same thing as me, and we need to commiserate about that. For all of the things small town living gives me, erudite, meta-level writing conversations are not one of them.
The game conventions are a new thing in my life, one I’m trying to shoehorn into the existing structure, with little success. I like them because they allow me the chance to play the games, which is something I rarely get to do. I attended GameHole Con in 2021 and North Texas RPG Con in 2022, and both were a ton of fun, but I really only dipped my toe in. I’m sure the next time I have a weekend free and can somehow get to one of these shows, I’ll end up running several games rather than playing as a player. There is no rest for the guy willing to DM.
If you’re in the area and would like to swing by and say howdy, I would love that. I’m happy to sign whatever you want to bring—and I’ll sign anything. First editions, ex-library books, book club editions, whatever you’ve got. My name or the author’s, it makes no difference. Mark Twain? No problem! Maya Angelou? Nothing to it! See you at the show!
Weekly Report from the N.T.A.B. Division of Media Review
Note: We are attempting a new format whereby we try to give a more in-depth review, which means we’re also limiting the number of such reviews that we include in these digital missives. Your feedback on this policy change is most welcome.
Renegade Nell (Disney+)
Young Nell (don’t call her Nellie) Jackson has just returned from a stint of soldiering to find herself a witness to highway robbery. Before she can fully commit to helping them out, a glowing fairy flies into her mouth, imbuing her with supernatural strength and agility. She saves the carriage and starts a domino sequence that finds her family home taken from her, and she and her sisters on the run for crimes they didn’t commit.
I do not know what forces conspired to produce this cinematic chimera, but I did an awful lot of self-correcting while watching this breezy adventure romp; I kept wanting this to be a dramatization of Julie Julie d'Aubigny, aka Mademoiselle Maupin, and then her faithful Bugaloo would fly down her throat and she’d turn into Marvel’s Black Widow and I would wonder, not for the first time, if this was someone’s unpublished Y.A. novel series.
Nell’s fairy guardian is played by Nick Mohammed from Ted Lasso, and with his Bay City Rollers hair and sixties-mod waistcoat, he looks like the fifth Bugaloo. He’s a combination of Jiminy Cricket and the super soldier serum, delivering somewhat helpful advice that is usually ignored, forcing him to fly down her throat (um...?) and turn Nell into a wisecracking can of whoop-ass.
There’s a lot of moving parts in his series, and if you’re looking for deep insight and rich backstories, you’re not going to find it in Renegade Nell. I don’t know if this will be a problem for you; it wasn’t for us, because we were sufficiently entertained by what we were given, which feels a lot like a fourth grader making Caesar salad for the first time (“I like peanut butter so we put that in there, too!”) My suspicion is that this story changed formats at least twice. At some point in its development, it was either a comic book series or a book. Then it was a movie, Then a TV series, but not one they were willing to risk more than 8 episodes on, so, you know, let’s put all of our glowy eggs into one basket.
I liked Renegade Nell just fine. It had enough familiar trappings to sort of bolster the lack of world-building. Minor spoiler: we do not find out why she’s got super powers this season. At all. If you’re cool with not knowing all the details and just going along with the flow, less those annoying questions about why someone did what they did or why things are the way they are, then you’ll likely find Renegade Nell as pleasant, light diversion.
I hope GameHoleCon zigs when others zag (that's a phrase I never saw myself typing), and you can make it up this way. I don't know the first thing about 2d6 bell curves, but it'd be nice to meet in person and kibbitz.
THE GIRL IN THE HAIRY PAW was one of the first King Kong-related books I ever bought, when it first came out. The very first one, of course, was the novelization of the screenplay, in a paperback from the 1960’s. “KING KONG” (first seen on tv when I was 5, about 1958) was a formative experience, and the occasion when my mother got across to me the idea of the difference between fiction and real life.