It is important to find hope, wherever you can find it, and nurture it rather than crush it. Hope can carry you through the tough times. And we are going through some of the toughest I’ve ever seen.

There are quintessential virtues, load-bearing ideals that we can build upon. Build what? Everything. A person. A story. A society. Literally everything.

A partial list of these virtues includes: honesty, integrity, empathy, compassion, and generosity. There are more virtues, some more arguable than others, but the ones I’ve listed are the ones I hold dearest, and the ones most core to my personality.

Why am I talking about this?

In the last couple of weeks, I’ve seen terrible things. The murder of representatives by political activists. The arrest of elected officials, perpetrated by the new American Gestapo. Illegal, immoral actions involving the national guard and marines. Crushing, despotic behavior by a would-be tin-pot fascist, on the backs of greedy, opportunistic people that claim to love my country but demonstrate through their actions a profound hatred of the foundation and ideals that this country was built upon.

Maybe I’m naive, and this country was always built upon hatred and greed. But, there is an ideal I grew up accepting, which is better, more noble than the aspirations of the people in charge today. To that ideal, I will continue to hold true.

It’s through the quintessential virtues that we can look at the actions of those in charge and make our judgement. Is what they are saying true? Are they doing what they said they would do? Are they working for the interests of people other than themselves, and are their actions compassionate? Are they providing for those that cannot provide for themselves?

These are the questions you can use to judge your own actions, as well as the actions of those that are supposed to be working in the public interest.

Those that are operating without virtue are the villains of our story. They can easily be identified by what they are saying and doing.

And this is where hope comes in. My hope is in the belief that those acting for their own interests are not as powerful as those that band together for the common good. My hope is that this time of darkness and deceit will be vanquished by people waking up to a renewed appreciation for truth and goodness.

I attended the No Kings protest and saw a lot of people outside, raising their voice against the cartoonishly evil people in power. Those of us that favor a free and despot-free America outnumber those that wish to cosplay Nazi Germany.

Before Trump and Musk and RFK Jr and the rest of Trump’s junk-drawer-of-a-cabinet started dismantling the country, the system was broken to its foundation. Inequality is baked in. Perhaps the only way for us to build a better system is for things to get so bad that we break down the entire structure and rebuild from the ground up.

Do I believe that will happen? Not really. But I can hope and dream, and maybe if enough other people also wish for us to aspire to a better version of ourselves, one in which we invest in our people, use technology to prop people up instead of take advantage of them, and one in which the quintessential virtues illuminate the way in which we administrate and grow our country… maybe in my lifetime, we will make a better place for everyone.

But to get there, we have to support each other, stand up against the people that would oppress us, and remain hopeful as we hold ourselves to a higher standard.

That all sounds great, but what do actually do?

For my part, it means I need to keep writing, both my blogs and my fiction, and keep my eyes open for opportunities to help. It means attending protests. It means listening to people that are different to me. Maybe… just maybe… it means running for local office and getting directly involved in public service.

This is all I can do at the moment. Write the words, and put them out into the world. Try to make some sense of what is going on, and if I have the strength, find a way to hope.

Earlier today, dog murderer and director of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, gave a press conference in LA where she said that she and the Trump administration were not going anywhere, but would stay as long as they needed to in order to “liberate” the city from its socialist and “burdonsome” mayor and governor. You know, the people that were elected.

At that point, Alex Padilla, U.S. Senator from California and ranking member of the Senate’s immigration subcommittee, raised his voice to ask a question. It was a disruption, certainly, but he didn’t shout, lunge, or incite violence. He called from across the room, and was then physically removed, thrown on the ground, and handcuffed.

Here’s video, from Fox no less, which shows exactly what I just described:

Fox, of course, puts their own spin on it, describing Padilla as screaming. And the Fox audience in the comments are eating it up.

Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House of Representatives and grinning, professional Trump-ass-kisser, immediately called for Senator Padilla to be censured.

That’s bad. Everything about this is bad. The military should not be deployed on American soil to attack American citizens. ICE shouldn’t be allowed to kidnap people and violate their right to due process. The head of the Department of Homeland Security should not be threatening a continuous military invasion of a California city.

All of this makes me mad. All of this should make you mad.

A sitting Senator raised their voice to question a military coup and is violently thrown to the ground. The party that screams “state’s rights” is comfortable deploying military in defiance of the state’s elected officials. The administration that is comfortable putting stipulations on natural disaster relief has no problem spending $134 million deploying the military to a place where peaceful protests are going on.

They lie and say that L.A. is in chaos. It’s not. ICE and the military presence are escalating tensions.

Fucking ICE. It shouldn’t even exist.

This short sums up my feelings about immigration and illegal aliens perfectly.

ICE is a terrorist organization, running around with their faces covered and without uniforms. Taking people without due process is a terrorist act, to families and to communities. Standing against them is morally right and correct — and also scary as hell.

I read about what happened with Padilla and then struggled through the rest of my work day. It’s so hard to just go about my business as if everything is normal. I want to do something. But what? I can’t quit my job, buy a gun, and take matters into my own hands. I’m not a superhero in an action movie. I’m an old man, a little overweight, with high blood pressure, a broken tooth, and eyes that are starting to go bad.

I’ll go to the protest on Saturday, but what else can I do, really? Run for office? I can’t get more than 350 people to follow me on social media. I never have and never will win a popularity contest.

I struggled through the day, and just a little while ago, I read that Israel has begun air strikes in Iran. Israel tried to kill the entire Iranian leadership, and it sounds like they had some success. Iran will retaliate. This is not a situation where cooler heads will prevail.

It is not unlikely that nuclear weapons are going to go off in The Middle East.

This is… too much. It’s too much.

There is just under a dozen of you that see these posts of mine. You mostly see things the way I see them, but a handful of you are more conservative than I am.

We are more than our political parties. We are more than the color of our skin, the reproductive organs in our pants, the amount of dollars in our wallets. We are people, all of us, children of God, Whoever you imagine Them to be. We are made from stardust, we breathe the same air, and the same blood pumps through our veins.

If we are going to survive these times, it is together. We have to find the things we have in common, find the values that we share, and move together to create a future that we can all live in.

If you’re reading this, I ask that you do the following:

• Look at the news yourself. Maybe what I’ve said so far is hyperbolic, or maybe I’m misinterpreting what my eyes and ears are clearly telling me. Just look for yourself, without the spin, and try to come to your own conclusions. Try to do it without letting the political filter cloud your vision.
• Look at the people around you, specifically the ones you disagree with. Ask yourself what you and the other person might find in common. Find the common ground and hold onto it. If things get as bad as I fear they might, we all need to hold onto each other and lift each other up.
• Look into your heart and ask yourself what you’re willing to live with. Then ask yourself what you’re willing to do about these times we’re living through. I’m still planning on peacefully protesting in Sacramento this Saturday. If you’re disagree with the protests, so be it. But please consider why so many people are willing to go out in the streets, and what the alternatives to protest may be.

Melissa and I are sitting in the airport, about 5 hours early for our flight. We have our laptops setup near our gate, and a bit of time to either read some slush (Melissa) or poke at our next novel (me). Before I get to the fiction, I want to capture my closing thoughts and feelings on The Nebulas.

I think I connected with people at this event better than any event in recent memory. Several really cool people. I hope to see them again at future events. Maybe Worldcon? Who knows?

I moderated a panel yesterday morning. The panel was about perseverance as a writer, and I structured it so that we talked about both persevering in creativity as well as in our careers. I had some great panelists, and I listened and asked follow-up questions. It went very well, and several people offered me compliments.

People bought some of my books from the Book Depot, and a couple people bought my books at the book signing. I fully expected to be bringing all of them home today, but I only have about half what I arrived with.

I wrote while on this conference. I’ve been struggling to get into the next Mel Walker novel, for a variety of reasons, and I made progress this weekend. I’m almost to the parts I’m looking forward to the most.

We ate good food, met cool people, and napped every day. I remember struggling with the time difference at previous events. It turns out you can just take naps and be fine.

I’m coming down from a very joyful weekend. Tomorrow, Melissa and I get back to work. I was somewhat shielded from the atrocities of recent events. I heard about ICE plowing through protesters in LA, and firing gas canisters at a 13 year old girl. I heard about these events, but it seemed like those things were taking place in an entirely different world. The one we never left, but returning to nonetheless.

The world I want to live in includes stories and friendship and uplifting people that could use some help. The world we’re returning to is violent, greedy, and isolating. I hate it here, but the right thing to do is be brave, make art, stand firm, and uplift. That was the message and the call-to-action delivered during The Nebulas ceremony last night.

I had a really great time at The Nebulas. It’s painful to leave and come back to reality, but it’s what we’re called to do.

It’s Friday afternoon, so we’re almost halfway through the event. Yesterday was Melissa’s birthday. We went through registration easily, dropped off some books for the Book Depot, and mostly hung out. I’ll tell a story about going to a burger place in just a moment.

Today, I attended a career planning workshop, which was fine. I didn’t learn a ton, other than I just need to get off my butt and query my SciFi stories. I’m still not sure why I have such a difficult time writing and sending queries. I don’t think it’s purely fear of rejection at this point. I’ve received several rejections and it’s honestly not that bad. There’s something else going on in my head or my heart, and I need to work through it.

This afternoon, I was part of a lightly attended Author Meet and Greet. Again, it was fine. The whole event can be described as “lightly attended.” Some people I’ve talked to attribute the smaller size of the conference to the recent SFWA troubles, where all of the leadership quit. SFWA exploded, not quite as catastrophically as RWA, but some of the ripples can be felt this weekend.

The people running the conference are great, though. Friendly, on top of it, and really doing their best. I don’t think it’s their fault that there are so few attendees.

This is the second Nebulas I’ve attended, and it feels very different from the first time. I remember before feeling out of place. I remember having trouble meeting people and talking to them. Now? I’m making friends and chatting with people here easily. I feel like I belong here as much as the next person.

I actually paused writing this to see if I wrote something about my first Nebulas attendance. I did. I apparently didn’t have a very good time, and felt overwhelmed most of the time. I’m not feeling that now, and while I was afraid to talk about my stories back then, I have no problem in 2025. I’ve come a long way.

BRGR

In 2016, Melissa and I came to Worldcon in Kansas City. I remember us having a good time! One of the things that stands out in my memory is walking a short ways from the convention and eating the best burger I’d ever tasted.

It stood out in my memory as having blue cheese, but the flavor profile was perfectly balanced. It was soft and crunchy in just the right ways. I remember it being amazing, and I’ve been looking forward to finding that place and getting another taste of that burger ever since finding out we were coming to The Nebulas this year.

Melissa and I decided we would go to that burger place for lunch on her birthday. With some help from another person attending The Nebulas, we found the place online. I recognized the pictures of the interior and the menu. We found it! BRGR Kitchen + Bar, and the specific burger we wanted was called a Fast Cow.

We took an Uber to the place, which was about 4 or 5 miles away.

And…

It wasn’t that good.

The blue cheese was too strong, and the burger itself was too salty. I could eat it, but it didn’t delight me like it did 9 years ago. Very disappointing. The waiter said a lot has changed over the years, and that’s too bad.

Sometimes, you can’t go back. You can only go forward.

Today, we found an Irish “gastropub” that had a very tasty Reuban. Melissa tried the shepherd’s pie and said it was very good, too. The place is called O’Dowd’s, and maybe that’ll be the place I look forward to revisiting in another 9 years. Who knows?

Chances are, it won’t be the same. Nothing stays the same. Some things live best in our memories. Some conferences grow, or shrink. Some authors become better at talking to people. Everything changes.

It’s important to enjoy the ride.

I’m sitting in a Kansas City Marriott, about to launch into an adventure at the 2025 Nebulas. That all picks up and starts tomorrow. Today, I need to take a moment and talk about the Sacramento Book Festival and the Bay Area Book Festival that just transpired a few days ago.

Sacramento Book Festival

Going into this event, I wasn’t sure what to expect. The guys running the event did a fantastic job of promoting it, and I heard there would be around 140 local authors attending. But, it’s Sacramento. How big could the festival actually be?

It turns out, pretty big! It’s estimated that over 5000 people attended the event. And, the event made really good use the facilities, in spite them being somewhat small.

The Water Dragon table was in the smaller East room, which had air conditioning and lots of good natural light. The Graveside Press table was outside the East room, and in spite the hottest May 31st in Sacramento in 100 years, both tables did very well!

The parking was a bit of a pain. As I said before, the facilities were small. If you needed to go to the bathroom, you had to walk through the room used for presentations, which felt uncomfortable and weird. In spite that and a handful of other nuisances, the event was actually kind of amazing.

We outsold and outperformed the LA Book Festival from just a couple weeks ago. In LA, taking in the cost of the table, we lost money, even though there were over 180,000 people in attendance. In Sacramento, on the other hand, we made nearly $1,000. I think with a bigger space, the Sacramento Book Festival will be an even bigger success.

I’m looking forward to it next year. It was a lot of fun, and I was really happy to see so many familiar faces.

Bay Area Book Festival

The day after Sacramento, Melissa and I got up early and went to Berkley.

I did this event last year, in weather that was sunny and hot. I wound up severely burned last year, and so we armed ourselves with a hat, sunscreen, and attire that’s perfect to handle a really hot day. We had just had the hottest day on record for a May 31st, so this seemed reasonable. I should have looked at the weather for Berkely.

With the temperatures never really getting over 65F, and often being lower that, with lots of shade a breeze, I was not appropriately dressed for the area.

It wasn’t that bad. But as we setup, I looked around and had serious doubts about our prospects. Our space was on an off-street. The main event took place on the other side of a busy street. Given the geography, I really didn’t think we were going to get that much traffic.

Again, I was wrong. Plenty of people came by our booth, which had Graveside, Cupid’s Arrow, Water Dragon, Paper Angel, and Small Publishing in a Big Universe organized in a U shape beneath a canopy. Lots more books on display than in Sacramento. Much larger space, and easier for people to get in and look at everything.

In spite the easier access and plenty of traffic, sales were not as good as they’d been in Sacramento. We still made a profit, and Graveside Press was the big seller, but I continue to feel like the answer isn’t to put more books out on the table. I think a smaller, more focused offering is the way to get more sales. Feature the authors that are at the event, have backlog easily available on demand, and have really solid pitches and summaries for the books on the table. I think that’s the route to success.

A good time was had by all. I enjoyed promoting Arlo Z. Graves’ book, Black Rose, almost as much as I enjoyed promoting my own titles. The author attended the event, their first time doing something like that, and for their debut novel, and they were clearly having a great time. Also, Arlo Graves is a fantastic author. You should check out their book.

In Closing…

I like selling books from our table. I really like selling one of my books, because those sales carry the hope that I might entertain someone and improve their day. Mostly, I really enjoy talking with people at these events about books, stories, storytelling, the industry, and all of the other topics that come up when surrounded by so many books.

I don’t make a ton of money from these events. My writing career costs more money than it generates. But I love it, and I’ll keep doing it for as long as I can afford to do so.

Oh, and I broke a tooth while in Berkley. It doesn’t hurt at the moment. Haven’t had time to have it looked at, though. Hope that doesn’t come back to bite me. (Pun intended)

I think this is the third time I’ve talked about A.I. and writing. The first time, I concluded that the main problem with A.I. and writing is that we live in a Capitalist society which is always looking for the cheapest labor and a better bottom line. The second time, I came down harder and talked about how it is a machine designed to steal the voices and styles from artists and writers.

My day job is programming. I have an understanding of machine learning, and there are absolutely wonderful uses for A.I. that are not confined to large language models (LLMs) and art simulation. Seriously, when technology is used for good, it is great, and I’m always going to be a fan.

But, there are people using LLMs to write stories, and there are people using LLMs to write code. On the code-side, the term is “vibe coding.” A couple of decades ago, we called this “intentional programming,” in which a programmer uses tools to generate code based on their intentions, rather than having to roll up their sleaves and do all the plumbing themselves. We have frameworks and libraries and development environments dedicated to reducing the busy-work in programming.

I don’t blame anyone for wanting to make their life easier. As with all things in life, there is a balance. If you want to use an LLM in order to walk through a dataset or a database and create a bunch of standard plumbing code, go for it. Before you do, make sure you know how that plumbing code works. To gain that understanding, you’re probably going to have to write it yourself a time or two.

Don’t use an LLM in place of learning.

What about writing fiction? Is there a place for “vibe writing?”

No.

The most generous take I can give is that, there are visual artists that can take a squiggle on a piece of paper and turn it into art. It may be possible for a writer to take A.I. slop and turn it into something decent, but I can’t see a real writer doing that because they’re depriving themselves of the fun part.

Editing A.I. slop doesn’t save time. There is no such thing as “standard” fiction to tack onto your story. Writers create characters with voices, and they place those characters into situations baked from their imagination, which test truths that resonate in the writer’s soul.

How do you write a book? One word at a time.

Every word is a choice. Every verb and adjective. Every sentence fragment, every comma splice, every imperfection laced into the narrative, like the vocal fry of a singer as their belting out their biggest hit. Authorial voices are diamonds, given beauty by the flaws more than the perfection.

Machines abhor imperfection.

A writer sees the world and then writes something to the world about the world. LLMs regurgitate the words from the stories they were trained on, using math and probability to generate something that looks like a statement, but isn’t.

Vibe coding is giving the idea to the machine to generate a solution to a problem. Vibe writing is giving an idea to the machine to generate a story, but as I have said before, ideas are cheap. The idea is usually the least interesting thing about a story.

Writers do not need a machine to give them ideas. They’re already drowning in ideas. And they don’t need a machine to do the writing for them, because it’s the writing itself that sustains them and gives them joy. That’s why we do it.

I will conclude with stating something that is obvious, but related to this topic. There is a difference between making something and having something. There are many people that want to have written a story without going through all of the work to write it themselves. Most people that set out to write a story do not finish.

If you have started a story and stopped before reaching the end, hold your head up high. You’re in good company. Try again, and keep trying until you finish, because one of the defining characteristics of a writer is perseverance.

Don’t be fooled or tempted by the plagiarism machine. If you whisper your idea into ChatGPT and it gives you “your book,” you didn’t write it. You didn’t create anything. You may have a story, but you didn’t make it, and you have my pity, because you deprived yourself of something you may not even understand.

I went with my kids to see Thunderbolts* Thursday evening. As a reminder, Chris turned 27 last month, and Bryanna turns 29 in August, so I wasn’t bringing small children to a Disney movie. I brought adult children to a bloodless but still violent Marvel movie.

My Bias:

I remain a Marvel fan boy. I don’t go out to the movies as much as I used to, but I still go to see the latest Marvel flick. I’m part their target audience.

I don’t really believe in “superhero fatigue.” I think that audiences want interesting stories that come from the heart, regardless of whether or not there are fantasy, SciFi, or superhero elements involved. They don’t want to be fed something generated from a formula. They like being forced to think, but they love being made to feel.

Computer generated eye candy is not a replacement for good storytelling. Special effects are not a good substitute for solid setups and payoffs.

Finally, Marvel movies suffer the same problem that other large franchises suffer, which is toxic fandom. These are fans that are looking for excuses to shit on movies. These are fans that are taking popcorn filler way too seriously.

I am a fan of good storytelling. I am a fan of giving artists and directors the freedom to make something unique, even if it must exist within a larger playground. I am also willing to turn my brain off for a few minutes and just have a good time for the sake of a good time. For me, the story does not have to adhere with maximum accuracy to the comics that may have preceded it.

That is my bias. I think every reviewer should state something like this before their review, because the consumer checking reviews may or may not be looking for something that the reviewer has to offer. I know a bit about the comics, but if you’re here to see if I will give an account to the “accuracy” of the movie, you’re in the wrong place.

My review will be from the perspective of a writer, and from someone that has watched all 36(!) of the preceding films.

Spoiler Free Review:

Thunderbolts* is a solid movie that relies more on good storytelling and excellent acting than special effects. It is emotional. It is thoughtful. It has humor without becoming a comedy. The stakes are high without becoming cosmic.

I had a good time with this one. Florence Pugh is the star and plays the main viewpoint character. She gives an outstanding, emotional performance. I enjoyed her in Black Widow and the Hawkeye series, but she really stands out in this movie. I’m looking forward to seeing more of her in future movies.

David Harbour plays a more comedic character in the scenes, but again, it isn’t treated like a comedy. He does and says things that are funny, but there is an earnestness to his performance that balances it out. An argument could be made that he steals every scene he is in. The scenes that involve him and Florence are great. They play off of each other perfectly.

Lewis Pullman also knocks this out of the park. He’s asked to do a lot and he delivers. He must be vulnerable, sympathetic, menacing, and powerful, and he succeeds at all of it. I hope we see more of him in the future, but given the nature of his character, I think this is probably the only time we’ll see his character in this way. I hope I’m wrong about that, but I think his character is difficult to write around. You either relegate him to the background and hope the audience forgets about him, or you center your story around him because he has that much gravity. Again, this is the spoiler-free section. I’ll talk more about him in the spoilers below.

I enjoyed seeing Wyatt Russell again. He and the rest of the cast didn’t have as much to do, but they all did their part, and they all had moments to shine.

I can’t think of any parts of the movie that felt slow or uninteresting. The pacing was fine. I can see people saying that the resolution was a little rushed, but I don’t agree with that. I’ll talk more about that in the spoiler section, but I think that people unsatisfied with the ending probably didn’t understand it.

At least one other reviewer has said “this is the best one since Endgame” and while I had a great time and highly recommend this movie, I’m not sure I like the comparison. I think it sets up an expectation that the movie will not quite meet.

Endgame gave us payoffs to story arcs that spanned about a decade of storytelling. There were moments in Endgame that got the audience jumping out of their seats, cheering. Thunderbolts* does not do that.

What Thunderbolts* does do is give an audience a chance to cheer for underdogs and misfits. It tells a story of hope and healing, which is exactly what we need right now. It sets things up rather than pay things off.

Thunderbolts* is better than Captain America 4. It is not as funny as Deadpool and Wolverine. It is not as exciting or as nostalgic as Spider-man: No Way Home. If you go into Thunderbolts* expecting to see something that will make you jump out of your seat, you will probably be disappointed.

However, if you’re looking for a really good movie that just happens to have superheroes in it, something heartfelt without being sappy, then this is the movie for you.

Spoiler Details:

This is a sentence to give people a chance to bail out because they do not want to read spoilers.

This is also a sentence that does that, while also setting up a lie/lame joke. That is, I couldn’t believe it when the film stopped part way through and just starting playing the first twenty minutes of James Gunn’s Superman movie. It was a crossover none of us expected!

Okay, that’s enough padding. If you’re still reading this and you don’t want spoilers, that’s a you-problem, not a me-problem. You’ve been warned.

Let’s talk about Lewis Pullman and Sentry.

I went into this movie with some knowledge of Sentry from the comics, and I’d seen just enough of the advertisements that I knew Sentry was going to be in the movie, which is a little bit of a bummer. I think my viewing experience would have been slightly improved to have Bob Reynolds/Sentry revealed, rather than spoiled.

Pullman knocked it out of the park. Seriously. I’m not sure another actor would have succeeded in making Bob Reynolds sympathetic. But Pullman did it. And then when Sentry is revealed in his costume and becomes terrifying, Pullman succeeds again. Florence Pugh and David Harbour deserve their flowers, but I think this movie wouldn’t have succeeded if Lewis Pullman hadn’t performed the way he did.

I didn’t talk about Julia Louis-Dreyfus, not because she did a poor job, but because I didn’t want to spoil things. We’ve seen her character in previous movies, and I think she subtly added more nuance to her character. On the surface, she’s a cartoonish villain, but there’s more to it, and not just because we got to see her father killed in front of her when she was a child. There’s something in her eyes, and the tightness of the way she holds her body.

I’m not a fan of flat, unmotivated villains. Her character could have been that, but I think her performance elevates into something I can respect.

Let’s talk about the ending.

The entire movie is about dealing with trauma and depression. From the opening dialog to the final conflict resolution, it treats the subject honestly and seriously. It doesn’t overstate or understate the themes. It is sincere.

Depression is the real villain in this movie. Trauma. Self-loathing. It is represented by The Void, but it is something everyone carries with them. The characters. The audience. Everyone.

And the answer to dealing with depression isn’t pushing it down and bottling it up. The answer also is not beating it down, because when you fight your depression, you fight yourself. It is part of you, and you deserve to be treated with care.

The answer to fighting depression isn’t to duke it out. It’s not punching and shooting your way out of the problem. The answer is to face the tragedy head on, with courage and without shame, and it is to face it together. Get help. Put away the violence and hold each other up. Which is exactly how the conflict was resolved.

Not only that, but it was a group of unlikely misfits that did it. The group had super powers, certainly, but it wasn’t through force of strength that they overcame the villain. It was by holding onto each other, defying the darkness, and giving each other light.

That’s good storytelling. It’s honest, true, and hopeful. Because if these not-quite-heroes can defeat The Void by banding together, what can we do?

From that perspective, maybe this is the best Marvel movie since Endgame. I’d rather not put it that way, though, because I’m not sure the average movie-goer is going to read into it as deeply as I have.

It’s popcorn fun, and it does have good special effects. I think the real beauty of the film is something that will ultimately go over the head of the average movie-goer. Maybe that’s me being cynical, but I haven’t seen much lately that would change my mind.

Final Thoughts on the After Credits Scene:

I think it was fine.

It was directed by The Russo brothers, and I enjoyed it for what it was. I’m also looking at it like it’s something completely separate from the movie that preceded it. You can skip it, if you like.

I’m excited to see The Fantastic Four, and seeing how it fits in with the rest of the stories that came before. This after credits scene gave us a hint how they’re going to do it, and I hope it wasn’t a spoiler for the movie coming out in a few months.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this review! If you think I left anything out or just want to talk with me about the movie, let me know.

I have lots of thoughts on the event, and I’m not sure where to begin. The TL;DR — I had a good time and I’m really glad we went, even if it wasn’t a pure financial success.

The thing about events like this though is that there are intangibles that are hard to quantify. For example, I was interviewed three different times this weekend. At least one of them was for a school project, I think. One might have been for a podcast. People enjoyed talking with me at the booth, and a few of those people had microphones and wanted me to answer questions and record my thoughts on writing and the industry.

I’ve spoken before how there is writing books, and there is selling books, and those are different skillsets. Enthusiasm helps with both, and both activities require practice. Working a table at an event like this is great, hands-on practice selling books directly. It’s not quite the same as marketing.

Really, the big thing I enjoyed the most about the event was meeting people. I met a system engineer that works for Riot, the company that makes League of Legends and Valorant. I met an actor/voice actor that sounded very interested in producing an audio book for me. I met a Chinese writer that, when she saw the title “The Repossessed Ghost” asked, “Is that real?” She talked about how her mind’s eye has remained opened and she’s helped people talk to the dead. She wanted to know how to get an agent.

One writer I spoke to wanted to know about tools to use, and I gave her a bunch of information. She went to take one of my cards from the table but grabbed Steven’s by mistake. I found out as we were driving home that she told Melissa that I was her new mentor, which would be great if I didn’t know how much she liked using ChatGPT to augment her stuff.

The event had its challenges, some of which I’m still paying for. As an example, I had to park pretty close to a mile away from our booth, and both days, I had to make multiple trips to the cars. My legs and back are sore from all the walking, and my feet are still complaining because of all the standing. The event ran until 5PM, and with tear down, we weren’t able to get on the road to come home until after 7PM. We didn’t get home until near 2AM, and I had to work Monday.

I’m tired and sore, but it feels like I did a good thing. The event was good for my mental health, though my physical health might have taken a hit. My voice is raspy and I’m right on the verge of getting sick.

Will we do the event again next year? Probably not the way we did it. We all might have enjoyed the intangibles, but the publishing company is a business, and we financially took a loss this weekend. I’m not sure what we could do differently that would get us into the land of profit.

I came away with some good experiences, some of which will show up in my stories. Now, I need to rest and recover, and take some of those good vibes and turn them into writing.

The festival started at 10AM today, but we needed to help set up the booth, starting from a position of greater disarray than normal. Steven suggested we meet him at USC around 6:30AM, and we tried, but that’s so early for us that we might as well have tried time traveling. We arrived a little bit later than asked, but we brought breakfast so all is forgiven.

Parking was a thing. When we entered the orbit of USC, we found a volunteer and asked where we should go. He directed us to the Royal parking, which as it turns out, is for authors and participants. I am an author, but I didn’t sign up as a participant. Melissa and I were just here to help with the booth.

The details get grainy and boring, but to spare you some of it, we parked where we were told, but did not have a code to complete a webform. I asked around to get a code, but no one working the event could help. Maybe I parked illegally all day? I don’t know. To try and rectify the situation, I used my phone to apply to be a participant. I don’t think they’re watching that form anymore now that the event has already started. I’m not sure what parking is going to be like tomorrow.

The parking garage is about a mile away from our booth. I made a few trips, carrying some wooden crates and two boxes of books. Not fun. Fortunately, the rain waited until after I finished hauling the goods.

I remember hearing there would be a 60% chance of rain on Saturday morning. It didn’t come as a surprise, but I didn’t expect it to be such a downpour. We pulled books from boxes, trying to get them in place on the table while at the same time, our space kept shrinking because rainwater seeped down the walls of our tent, threatening to ruin all our merchandise.

I’m not sure how we did it, but we kept the books and boxes safe. Some table cloths got a little wet, and packing paper placed to prevent precipitation from penetrating our place wound up soaked. Our neighbors on one side, noticing that their roof was drooping, decided the best course of action was to push the bubble of water up and out, which meant about 5 gallons of water flooded over our wall and into our space. Thankfully, we moved our stuff to the other side of the tent before they drenched us.

Melissa was ready to go to war. She managed to hold her temper until the sun came out, and we left to go eat $25 hamburgers from a van. After that, she calmed down and everything was fine.

I really enjoyed talking to people today. We didn’t get a ton of sales, but I had a good time.

Towards the end of the day, I spotted Chuck Wendig walking by and I said hello. I was going to buy him one of my books, but he didn’t have the space to take one. I walked with him to his next event and we chatted about writing and promoting books while the world is on fire. He remains one of the coolest dudes in the community, and it was a real treat for me to get to meet him again.

Melissa and I are back in our sketchy room. Outside, I can hear angry shouting and cars racing by. Melissa asked me to bolt the door, and for once, I did it without complaint.

Tomorrow should be sunnier. Hopefully we’ll have more people at the booth. I don’t think the sales will justify the cost of participating, but I’m enjoying the adventure, and I’m really glad we came.

This event is the first of many for me this year. I’m not sure what to expect. Looking at the festival’s web page, this is bigger in every way than I imagined. Chuck Wendig will be here! And John Scalzi! And so many, many more people!

I’ll be helping with the Waterdragon booth. If you’re at the event and you’re looking for me, I shouldn’t be far from the vendors.

I’m writing this from a hotel not far from the event. Probably a little further than I want to walk, but I hear parking is a nightmare, so maybe we’ll look at all our options before heading out tomorrow. Maybe Uber? I don’t know.

Speaking of this hotel, let me tell you a story.

Before Melissa and I married, we had a big argument that landed a good portion of my possessions onto the street. Afterwards, we decided to make up and run away together for the weekend. We picked Santa Fe, and the hotel was around $110/night. I remember thinking that it was kind of expensive, but nice. A perfect place for us to patch our relationship back together.

The hotel I’m in right now is also $110/night, but this is Los Angeles, and it’s 30 years later, and oh my goodness is this place a little bit sketchy. There are bars on all the windows. When we entered the room, a blacklight shown from the wall, which I assume is to help guests see that there aren’t any blood stains on the floor or blankets.

The parking lot is the size of a newspaper. Folded.

Melissa is understandably a bit intimidated by this place. It’s a step up from some of the hostels I stayed in when adventuring in Seattle a few years ago, but there’s a vibe about the place that maybe they don’t typically rent for the whole night. The attendant behind the glass did look surprised that we wanted to stay here 2 nights.

I’m not that worried. Sure, there was a guy half-naked walking around the upstairs landing, but he didn’t seem angry or hostile. Just stoned.

I still don’t know what tomorrow and Sunday will be like, but I’m sure hanging out with some cool people and talking about books will do me a lot of good. Maybe I’ll even sell a couple of books while I’m here.