JamesSavik

I've come to the point where I see that Hollywood is thinking of adapting an old favorite, I speculate on how they're going to screw it up. Unless it is Peter Jackson or Denis Villeneuve, I dread it. After what was done to Heinlein's Star Ship Troopers and Max Brook's World War Z, I have to wonder WTF were they thinking?

Talk radio runs on the angst of its ultracrepidarian hosts and audiences.

The jentacular aromas in my kitchen are different as I'm allergic to eggs.

Invented in the 1830s, the ebullioscope became an important instrument for chemistry and physics. Its original use was to determine the proof (alcohol content) of wine and spirits. It quickly became a staple in chemistry labs and a pain in the ass lab assignment for chemistry students calculating boiling points and molecular weights.

In the past, moral turpitude was put in employment contracts to provide employers grounds for firing gay employees.

When you write a story, you create a little world for your characters' drama to play out. If the elements (setting, characters) are solid, it's possible to continue and ask yourself what comes next? Unlike Hollywood which often rushes a sequel to cash in, ask yourself: are there possibilities to explore? Is there more to reveal about your characters? What makes them tick? In Hypothetical Kid, we learn a lot more about LJ and the boy who had been bullying him, Rebel. That piece made you understand the two characters much better and how and why they acted as they did. Initiation Weekend tells you much, much more about a character who only appears briefly, David. Can you imagine arranging for your new boyfriend to be paired up with your old one? David did and Tommy benefitted from it. The important part of making rational sequels is to make them consistent, make any changes in the characters reasonable, and give it purpose. You want your sequel to be more like Terminator 2 which is consistent than Aliens 3 which throws out the elements that made its predecessor successful.

When I did the short story Boyfriends for Christmas, the characters spawned two sequels- Hypothetical Kid and Initiation Weekend. Those pesky characters just won't shut up.

Thaumaturgy was a branch of magic which used the assistance of astral beings to work a spell. Different types of entities conferred different spells. They came to the attention of the Knights Templar when they discovered they were in competition with thalmaturgists for holy relics who needed them as spell components. ⚔️💀

Tin roof + the rataplan of a nighttime thunderstorm == insomnia

In the South, the rowdiest teen rampallion in town (or a school) used to get the nickname Rebel. In a shocking confession, I used to fall for them with dreary regularity. 🙄

Lots of Mississippi and Louisiana are so swampy, in the summer, it's like living in a ranarium. We have every possible species of frog from big old bullfrogs to tiny colorful tree frogs. They all sing like they are happy... ALL NIGHT LONG. Sometimes it's like they compete with the cicadas to see which species can raise the most hell.

Done.

Saruman considered Radagast the Brown a ragabash, but at least he wasn't under Sauron's power.

Sometimes when I'm writing, I leave a lacuna to come back to later.

It's an ugly thing to witness an innocent have their panglossian outlook shatter on hard reality.

Narcarat dawn skies at sea are often a sign of rough weather.

I study kalology in the gym. Others may call it eye candy, but I have more refined tastes.

The city of Jackson is a messy old town at the junction of numerous railroads and two major interstates. The cities kenspeckle is the Pearl River which forms the cities eastern border with Rankin county and was immortalized by Kid Rock's Jackson Mississippi. The song does an excellent job describing the poverty and addiction so common here. Facing North, Jackson is on the left, the bridge is over the Pearl River is Lakeland Drive and to the right is Rankin County.

I love delinquents. Some of us are just older. 😜

This was fun. I especially like the protagonist's snarcasm. I'm glad to see the subtle art of mixing snark and sarcasm is still being practiced.

Summer nights in the South should be pleasant with the canorous songs of night birds. Instead, we've got cicadas and frogs raising hell.

Unoccupied churches are a little creepy to me, day or night. In daytime, they are lit by light filtered through stained-glass. At night, they are dark as pitch. At any time, they are quite, still caliginous places.

Don't tell me to stick to my bailiwick. That would be boring!