Jared AxelrodWriter of Adventure

Fables of the Flying City, Episode 13 “Story Marks”

Scene: The tent Ashe and Mari share

Characters involved: Ashe, Jobrani

References:  As stated in the Guide for Episode 7, aloe vera salve is not really that good for wounds.

Notes: This is a big tease of an episode, where I draw out little details of our main characters lives only to say how unexplained they are. The facts are these:

• Ashe’s has very little memory of her life beyond a few years ago, when she woke up in the middle of a lightning storm on a pile of bricks.
• Her tattoos came from that missing period, and she has no idea where they came from or what they mean. Likewise for the scars that spread out from her spine like a tree.
• She was not a very good thief.

We’ll get some more detail into Ashe’s life as a criminal in a later episode, but this is all the clues we get to history written on her body. For now.

Jobrani seems to be…massaging Consanguine’s teachings a bit, doesn’t he? While it true that Consanguine does promote protection of the community, it may be a bit of stretch to think that someone who preaches the inter-connectivity of everyone to be cool with a follower joining a military group. But then, Jobrani never said he was a good follower of Consanguine…

photo  by paula.walker

Henny’s tumblr has the context, but c’mon. How much do you really need?

There comes a time in every costumer’s life when she or he must look at the various and sundry items the have in storage and say: “I haven’t worn this stuff in years.” Such has that time now come to the Axelrod/Blackwell household, as we are now selling off a great deal of costumery that we do not see ourselves wearing again. After all, we gotta make some more room for new stuff!

What you see here is the very tip of the iceberg (my wife has a small representation of some of the women’s wear we are selling over at her journal). We’ve got loads of other costumes. The actual sale is on the 5th, but if any of you lovely internet folk want to stake a claim on anything here, shoot me line. I’m sure we can work something out.

Steampunk Superman jacket SOLD!

Just the jacket, which is real leather with replica Civil war buttons. Cape is not for sale.

Flash jacket

Red and gold vinyl. Cowl is not for sale.

Green Lantern jacket SOLD!

Green and black vinyl. Gloves, mask and ring not for sale, but I will throw in the belt buckle if you want it.

Booster Gold jacket

Yellow and blue lightweight denim. Pants and glasses are not for sale, but the spandex “head condom” is included.

Monarch Henchman costume

Mask, belt, shorts and tunic. Body suit and gloves not for sale. Not shown: giant butterfly wings, unopened

Venture Brothers shirts

White shirt and kerchief, off-white collared shirt and sweater vest

10th Doctor suit SOLD!

Brown pinstripe women’s suit. Shirt, tie, and sonic screwdriver not included.

Fables of the Flying City, Episode 12 “Gatling Has No Trouble Squinting”

Scene: Ostensibly a room in the Redlaw Arms, but Gatling episodes tend to wander

Characters involved: Hanner Gatling

References: Gatling is clearly a fan of William Carlos William’s poem “This Is Just To Say”, despite living in a world far removed from his. Amperstam’s practice of copying all the books visitors brought with them was started with the Library of Alexandria, where you couldn’t visit the city without have your boat searched and your scrolls (temporarily) confiscated.

Notes: This episode, like “Gatling Strides Forth,” is peak into the most popular one-sheet in the world of Fables of the Flying City: Hanner Gatling’s The Hunter. Gatling is, my favorite character to write, because she gets to be bold. The cast of this story are frequently trapped in their own uncertainty, but Gatling will have none of that. Ashe is getting there, and we see in Gatling who Ashe might one day become, but even Ashe is plagued by doubts and worries. Gatling is plagued by nothing but her own drive and her search for the Truth. She may be a woman with regrets–something we’ll see more of, later–but she has never doubted who she is or her place in the world. And with a cast of young people trying to find out who they are, it’s refreshing to write someone who’s already got it all figured out.

While the true identities of the band Spoiler Alert! are shrouded in mystery, Art Brut frontman Eddie Argos’s website clearly says that “they are a band definitely not made up of mild-mannered Dyan Valdes, Keith TOTP and Eddie Argos, even though they sound like they might be. ”

We may never learn who is imitating Argos’s trademark halting lyric readings, you’d have to have a heart of stone not to crack a smile as he goes through a normal night with Batman: “Swing! Punch! Smack! Another cunning sneak attack!” Spoiler Alert! also tackles the convuluted legacy of the Blue Beetle, managing to tie together Dan Garrett, Ted Kord and Jiame Reyes much better than any synopsis I’ve seen yet.

But the true gold in the bunch is their tragic ballad take on the origin of Booster Gold:

What I love about these songs is they great affection they have for the subject matter, but instead of overlooking the silliness and inconsistencies, they celebrate them. There’s a great interview with Eddie Argos about the project over at Comics Alliance, where he reveals that the plan is to write a song about every member of Justice League International. As a man who believes that the JLI era was the finest superteam comics have produced, I cannot wait.

I only hope there’s a song dedicated to G’nort.

Way back at Balticon 44, Dr. John Cmar, and I revealed the truth, using slides created by Laura Burns and JR Blackwell. And now, through the power of Chooch Shubert, we bring the Truth About The Universe to you!

From the official Balticon Program:

JR Blackwell, Laura Burns, John Cmar and Jared Axelrod present both historical misinformation and lies they made up on the fly in this discussion about the nature of the universe. From the smallest microbe to the biggest gas giant, learn how things aren’t–but could be–presented by a panel of experts. Just, don’t believe anything they say. Moderator: Arioch Morningstar.

The Truth About The Universe was performed live at Balticon 44. Slides were created by Laura Burns and J.R. Blackwell;. The dialog was improvised on the spot by John Cmar, Jared Axelrod, and Arioch Morningstar. Music, editing, introduction and mulptile formatting by Chooch Schubert

Special thanks to Paul Fischer and the Baltimore Science Fiction Society

The following alternative download formats are available on Archive.org:

• Full resolution mpeg2 [302 MB] version
• Compressed mpeg4 [46.6 mb] suitable for Apple iDevices – it can be added to podcast feeds
• Open Ogg Theora [43.7] format that can be played on most Linux systems as well as other OSes if they have the codecs loaded
• Chooch also split it in half and uploaded them to YouTube (they have a 15 minute limit per video) for people that are more comfortable with YouTube streaming/embedding (Part 1, Part 2)

Spread the Truth About the Universe!

Fables of the Flying City, Episode 11 “Fall To The Edge”

Scene: The top of the Provost’s Tower, the neighborhoods of the Throws, Brickstone & Crumbleden,  Pursestring Row, and a brief fly-over of Terminus Market

Characters involved: Ashe, Sargent Slanger, Cerranah, and all of the rest of the pilots and observers in training.

References:   Ashe’s glider is based on Leonardo DaVinci’s design.

Notes: A lot of world-building in this episode, as Ashe sails from the center to the city to the edge. Posh neighborhoods like the The Throws surround the Provost’s Tower, which bleed into middle-class-ish merchant homes, which then gives way to shabby, rundown places like Crumbleden. We don’t spend a lot of time with the middle-people in this story–the action ping pongs from Ashe in the air and on the docks, and the politics of the Provost’s Tower–but it’s nice to show that it’s there, that there are more people who live and work in Amperstam.

Because I cannot stop thinking about things, I’ve given a great deal of thought about how, say, the families of Brickstone live their lives. Perhaps one day I’ll write a story about such a family, A Tree Grows In Brooklyn-style, set in the sky of a fantasy world, where everyone scrimps and saves in order to get by in the greatest city they know. I touch on it, a bit, in a later episode. But it would be cool to one day dive in. As it stands, it’s enough that there ARE people like that in the city, and that Ashe has been in the bottom for so long, such a life looks like a step up.

At the end of this episode, everything changes. I’m sure more than a few listeners saw this coming–”Bitter Brew” all but announced it–but it gives me a lot of satisfaction just the same.

Though, as you can see, the learning the trapeze was pretty darn awesome. But that’s another post.

I am currently represented by Beth Fleisher of Barry Goldblatt Literary. Barry, in what clearly is a stroke of staggering genius, does annual retreat where the many of the writers under his umbrella get together and talk. This year, it was at Club Med in Sandpiper, FL (which has trapeze lessons as one of its athletic options). Some of the talk is about craft, some of it is about business. But mostly, it’s about speaking to people who in your career but are maybe just ahead, or just behind, or way ahead or exactly where you are. I was one of the New Kids this year, which gave me the license to ask the Embarrassing New Kid Questions and actually, y’know, learn stuff. Which was great, because I had alot to learn

Some of the highlights, no particular order:

•  Making a living from writing is incredibly difficult to achieve
• This is not a business where you can count on anything
• Midlist is not death-some midlist stays in print forever
• Barnes and Noble controls a mind-boggling huge share of book sales
• Time management is key: Not only do you have to respect your creative time, so do your friends and family.
• This is not a hobby
• Scrivener is worth the money for the “Outliner” function alone.
• Work For Hire is not a way to build a career, it’s a job. There’s a difference
• “No matter how long you work, you always think the next project is the one that’s going to change everything. And it never does” –Charles Vess
• Wanting Neil Gaiman’s career isn’t healthy
• Blogging and Twitter is optional. A website, however, is mandatory
• When thinking about online content, ask yourself what you get out of it
• If the love triangle between your YA characters does not exist, it will be invented by the readers
• Real writers are not competitive
• Give yourself permission to not do everything
• Don’t say no to an editor without a counter suggestion
• Noodletools is worth the money because of how easy it is to use
• When interviewing someone for research, use specific questions…
• …but be open to listening to where their story goes.
• Mortified is an excellent resource for the specific details and shared generalities of being a teenager
• Fantasy is the inner journey explored outwardly
• Sara Ryan has done an excellent favor for comic writers everywhere, What Artists Wish You Wouldn’t Do: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 (also, Getting a Robot to Make a Sandwich)
• Holly Black’s rules for fantasy world-building work for sci-fi (just replace “magic” with “technology”), and for realistic fiction, thanks Jo Knowles’s impressive insight.
• When coming up with your magic system, think like a gamer: how can I cheat the system? How can I break it?
• Smell description is the best way to get people into a world
• I need to read more. A lot more.
• I made the right choice signing with this literary agency

he Maze of Bones is Book One of the popular middle-grade adventure series The 39 Clues. It was recently suggested to me that read it for tips on plot construction, and I now I see why. Rick Riordan has created a storyline that is plotted with a mathematical precision that is astounding.

How astounding? There are twenty chapters in The Maze of Bones. Here are the major points of plot, for each chapter:

1. Overarching threat is hinted at, the plot is set in motion
2. Protagonists and antagonists are introduced, meet. Threat is repeated
3. Stakes are set, protagonists make a “Point of No Return” decision
4. Threat is reiterated. Supporting characters #1 & #2 make contributions
5. The 1st step forward in the plot is made. Reversal of fortune #1 occurs
6. Sacrifice #1 to continue forward in the plot is made, Protagonists escape Death Trap #1, Supporting character #3 joins the plot
7. Focuses on the antagonists.
8. Plot step #2, Reversal #2, Death Trap #2 threat is reiterated
9. Sacrifice #2, 2 stakes are raised
10. Focuses on the antagonists
11.  Reversal avoided
12. Plot step #3, escape danger without sacrifice
13. Focuses on the antagonists, reveals the source of previous danger
14. Plot step #4, Reversal #3, Death Trap #3 with escape
15.  Supporting cast provides plot support, more info is revealed
16.  Plot step #5, Reversal #4, Sacrifice #3 in order to escape Death Trap #4
17.  Plot step #6, Reversal #5
18. Character arc completion, Plot step #7, Death Trap #5, Reversal #6, Sacrifice #4
19.  Plot step #8, Protagonists are rewarded, new status quo is established
20. Threat increases

On first glance, it’s easy to see patterns emerge. Almost every success the characters have in terms of plot is immediately taken away from them (literally, in this case, as the plot points are all clues that lead to next part of the story, like a scavenger hunt), and is followed almost immediately by a sacrifice. This is standard plot stuff, but what’s interesting is how often it happens. The two main protagonists have to make two sacrifices apiece before the story is over, and have the tables turned on them six times. There are five brushes with death. A great deal happens in the books 220 pages.

Breaking the chapters in halves, we can see that everything happens faster. There are more plot points, more reversals, more death traps. It’s also worth noting that all of the characters are at least mentioned by Chapter 2. No one is introduced later who has not been name checked by then, and the final supporting character joins the story midway through the first half. No one new is brought in the second half.
Breaking it into quarters, everything becomes even more clear.

• Chapters 1-5 are all introduction: introducing characters, relationships, situations and the dangers our characters will face. The first quarter tells you everything you need to know about the book. If you’re not hooked by the end of Chapter 5, this isn’t the book for you.
• Chapters 6-10 are our nitty-gritty plot chapters. The supporting cast in finally complete and the plot begins in earnest. A clear pattern is of wins, reversals and sacrifices is set up. There’s two death traps in this quarter, both dramatic (a fire and a bomb). Half our protagonists sacrifices are made here.
• Chapters 11-15 break the formula, and show our characters learning from their mistakes. We get to see the heroes win without sacrifice, and we get the answers to some of the plot questions. The pace is slowed somewhat,  the treat of the death trap is less immediate (a pit that will be filled with concrete).
• Chapters 16-20 move at a breakneck pace, with three plot points, three reversals and two sacrifices. Two death traps (an underground train and a rooftop ladder during a storm), though it is noteworthy that neither are explicitly set up by the antagonists; the world is now out to get our heroes. The penultimate chapter rewards our heroes, but the final chapter implies that their victory is short lived.

That’s some pretty tight plotting—it mimics the Lester Dent Master Plot, while adding some “breather” space necessary for a larger work—but what makes the plot interesting is not what happens when you break it into quarters. It’s what happens when you break it into sixths.

The first and last chapters are essentially a prolog and an epilog. If we remove those, that leaves eighteen chapters, which can be broken down into six parts, each three chapters apiece. Here’s what happens in each part:

• Chapters 2-4: The world is set up, the threat is established, and all the characters are introduced.
• Chapters 5-7: The plot begins, the cast is set, there’s one reversal, one sacrifice, one death trap and the antagonists have some focus.
• Chapters 8-10: One plot step, one reversal, one sacrifice, one death trap and some antagonist info. Almost exactly like the previous part
• Chapters 11-13: The formula is broken. Not only does the reversal come before the plot step, but no sacrifice is needed to move forward. And there’s no death trap
• Chapters 14-16: Everything starts moving faster. Two plot steps, two reversals, two death traps and one sacrifice.
• Chapters 17-19: Again, we get a quicker combination of elements. Three plot steps, two reversals, one death trap and one sacrifice. One of the protagonists completes her character arc. The heroes win, but at a cost. The future is met up with a new feeling of accomplishment and apprehension.

What’s fascinating is how clean these breaks are. A place for everything, and everything in its place. You could build a monument on this plot, it’s so sturdy. Given that the books in The 39 Clues are written by a total of seven authors, such an exact plotting framework may have been a necessity to ensure that each book felt the same.

This plot framework isn’t necessarily the best for every story, but one could do a lot worse than learning from it.

Fables of the Flying City, Episode 10 “Grand Reveal”

Scene: The Soldier’s Mess

Characters involved: Cerranah, Bug, Ashe

References:   All the stuff I said about sheep knuckles and Liars Dice  last episode holds here. Bug and Cerranah play a variation with an “Ace,” essentially meaning that “1″s count as the number in the wager.

Notes: This scene, composed of the previous episode and concluded in this one, is a odd duck.  I wrote it after everything else was written, because there needed to be more of the soldiers doing soldier things–drills, drinking–and, quite frankly, there needed to be more reasons for Cerranah to hate Ashe. Getting into a food fight is one thing, but making you look like a fool and putting an end to particularly lucrative side-income? Now we’re getting into true hate.

Bug figures prominently, because Steve loves Bug with all this heart. If I was inserting a scene, it had to be one that gave Bug some more screentime. I like these two episodes, as they present some nice camaraderie with the soldiers, and there’s a pleasant, friendly tone to their interactions.

You can guess how long that lasts….