Wanted, Foul, & Worthy, a Relic Worlds Novella

I've fallen into a pattern with Relic Worlds where one year I'll release a book, and the next year I release a series of short stories.  Then the next year is a book, then short stories, etc.  This year, however, I decided that instead of writing a bunch of short stories, I would write a serialized story with one chapter releasing each month that in the end is a complete novella.

It's called Wanted, Foul, and Worthy and it's a sci fi version of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.  I originally intended to do it as a short story; but as I started, I quickly realized that it needed to be longer.  I didn't want it to be one of the main books, so I decided to change this year up a little bit and just have this be one stretched out short story.  It was the perfect time to do it, too, as there were a few characters missing from book three, and they happen to be the perfect characters for this one.  I also had a criminal character from Jude and Little Jack's past that melded perfectly into this.

I will post chapters on this blog later this year, but for now, you can find the first chapter at: http://www.relicworlds.com/Wanted_Foul_and_Worthy_-_Part_1.pdf

Going to Nebraska to write and give a talk

There's a book that I've been meaning to write for a very, very long time.  In fact, I've actually written it a couple times before self-publishing, and before I got serious about being published.  It's the story about my life growing up in Nebraska in the '80s with my best friend who had terminal cancer.  It won't be non-fiction book, even though it's taken from a true story.  My intent is to make a novelization of it.

One big problem with this story is that I can't really get into it while I'm in LA.  But I can't wait to get into it whenever I'm in Nebraska.  There's something about being there; about the smell in the air, the reminder of the past, the pace of life, that reminds me of what it was like.  So I've known for a long time that I really just need to be there while I'm writing it.

And so I'm going there for three weeks to work on this novel; and while I'm there, I've been asked to speak at the Lincoln East Rotary Club.  If you're there and you want to drop by, we'll be at Valentino's on 70th Street from noon to 1 on July 3.  At the meeting I'll be talking about my book The Great Heist, and will probably also talk a bit about Pro Bono, as that's a big topic in Nebraska, and my cousin is the one who invited me, and we both grew up with that story.

The timing is also around my cousin's wedding.  He's getting married at the age of 52, and he's also just had his first child.  This cousin was the brother of my friend I'll be writing about; so it should be a good way to help me feel the subject I'll be writing about.

The Hypocrisy of the Academy Award Popular Film Category

This year the Academy Awards tried to add the popular film category; an attempt to appease viewers that ultimately got mocked and failed.  This category is widely seen to have been added because of two things: the popularity of Black Panther, a bandwagon upon which the Academy wanted to jump without actually considering it for best picture, and lower ratings of the show in general.

I'm actually not going to talk about whether or not Black Panther deserves to win, or even a nomination.  It was a very good movie, and it also had some glaring flaws.  Most of all, though, the whole subject of its merit brings out the absurdity of what a "best picture" is.  Can we really declare a single movie to be the best when there are so many genres and styles?  Isn't it like comparing apples and oranges to a degree?

But what I find particularly ludicrous is the hypocrisy that created this apparent need for a popular category.  The idea that something popular needs a separate category from best implies that if something makes a lot of money, it is inherently inferior to something that doesn't make a lot of money.  While certainly the motivation for wealth can be separate from the motivation for art, the idea that something that is popular can't be great is the very wrongful thinking that caused Hitchcock to never win a regular award, and why one eluded Spielberg for so long.

But what of you, Academy Awards?  Isn't the major reason why you're doing this so you keep your audience?  We all hear you every time you complain that the audience numbers are shrinking.  If the Academy Awards really believed that art and commerce are so separate, why are they so concerned with their own ratings?  It seems to me that if you're going to frown upon popular films that make money and smugly hold films that don't on a pedestal, then you shouldn't be so concerned about your own wealth.

But if ratings are so important, maybe stop looking down on those producers who are literally doing the exact same thing as you.