Category Archives: Uncategorized

Elves We Need, and Elves We Don’t

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*applause*

POCGamer

Elves. One of the founding player races in Dungeons & Dragons, they’ve always been a source of consternation for me, while at the same time being one of my top five favourite non-human, non-monstrous player races. But they have a convoluted history with a lot of internal inconsistencies in D&D, and one that is becoming more convoluted with the upcoming release of Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes. So it’s time for an intervention, because D&D has a serious elf problem. and by “elf”, I mean Eladrin.

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Spotted on Reddit: Kodos, Kang in Tight Race in North Vancouver

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Diane Morrison

A little nerd humour for the BC election today.

North Vancouver has become the ultimate battleground for a pair of intergalactic candidates.

Reddit user hpka spotted these Simpsons-inspired campaign signs on the Mount Seymour Parkway.

Read the full article at the Vancouver Sun.

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The Weird West

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Diane Morrison

I didn’t realize when I started writing my Wyrd West Chronicles that there was actually a genre for this!  No new ideas under the sun, I guess; but then again, it seems that my take is just a little bit unique.  Less dark overall than the usual depiction; more high fantasy.

Speaking of which, I’ll be releasing the first story, “Showdown,” on the Spring Equinox!  That’s March 20 this year.  It’s in the final editing stages and I’m just waiting for the cover image.  When I have all that, you’ll be able to get it by pre-order.

There’s Space Western for The WestIn Space!, and there’s Cattle Punk for The West meets Steam Punk. The Weird West is for when The West meets the supernatural.

Read full article at TVTropes.

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Book Review: The Drowned World by J.G. Ballard

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Diane Morrison

The Drowned WorldThe Drowned World by J.G. Ballard
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Read for the Apocalypse Now! Reading Challenge and the SF Masterworks Reading Challenge.

Method of the world’s destruction: fluctuations in solar radiation melt the polar ice caps, causing massive flooding in most of the world’s major cities, rising heat, and heavy rains that make the equatorial belt uninhabitable.

This was definitely not my favourite of the SF Masterworks collection. It’s my first acquaintance with the writing of J.G. Ballard, aside from his autobiographical Empire of the Sun, which made an enormous impression on me as a child when I saw the Spielberg movie. I never forgot the thousand-yard stare so accurately portrayed by the boy who played young J.G. after his ordeal as a British prisoner of war in WWII Japan. It was said in the introduction to the edition of this book that I read…

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Women of Harry Potter: Minerva McGonagall, Bright and Burning

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Diane Morrison

Brilliant article from Tor.com in a series about the women of Harry Potter.  Written by Sarah Gailey.

Born to a man who can’t possibly understand, and the woman who chose him over her magic.

Born to take care of two brothers who have powers they must, at all costs, hide.

Born to leadership.

Born to duty.

Minerva.

Prefect, Head Girl, winner of Transfiguration Today’s Most Promising Newcomer award. Minerva McGonagall is born into a home that requires stringent observation of rules; a home that will eventually attempt to conceal no fewer than four magical residents from the Muggles that surround them. Young Minerva is the brightest witch of her generation by many estimations. And yet, for as many years as Harry Potter will live in ignorance of his magic, Minerva is forced to hide her light behind a bushel in order to protect her Muggle minister of a father…

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Book Excerpt: Between the Rock and a Hard Place

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Diane Morrison

sables-privateers-book-cover

From the Wildspace Spelljammer blog, an excerpt from my fan fiction series that takes place in the Spelljammer D&D setting:

Spacefarers everywhere agreed: the Rock of Bral was a wretched den of vice, thievery and betrayal; the midden-pit of the Universe.  But everyone came there eventually.  That’s what Shaundar Sunfall was relying on.  Sooner or later, if his sister yet lived, she would come to this place.

He had been in port three months now, however, and he wasn’t sure he could wait here much longer.  The handful of coins he’d arrived with when he hit the shore had quickly dwindled away.  Shaundar had no idea how expensive everything was here.  The last time he had been on the Rock, he’d still been a member of the Imperial Elven Navy, and they’d seen to his needs at the base.  Now that he was officially a deserter, to return to…

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