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Camping Journal #5 – Rain, Rain, Make Up Your Mind, Already!

July 13, 2012, 708pm, at camp

-perturbed-

About an hour and a half ago, the sky went grey, the wind picked up, the animals went silent…and nothing.

I had planned on going for another swim but instead, I battened down the hatches, put everything in my tent or in my vehicle, and waited for the skies to open up and unleash a torrent of water.

Nothing.

I’m not 100% certain that the threat is over, so I’m on a hair trigger, ready to dash into my tent and zip up the windows at the first sign of water.

Maybe going camping on Friday the 13th wasn’t the best idea in the world.

-ES

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Camping Journal #4: Their Turf

You can’t see me!

July 13, 2012, sometime before 5, at camp

-a little tired-

I should have bought a pair of flip-flops, because walking in or near the river was murder on my bare feet. I eventually put my tennis shoes on, and while that did make things easier, I now get to schlep my soggy shoes everywhere now.

As much as I’d like to take a nap, there is no breeze right now, and that means the inside of the tent is actually hotter than sitting on the picnic table.

I’ve seen a few animals today; two deer while driving back from the river, and a few lizards scurrying about the campsite upon my return. One lizard was perfectly camouflaged, I did a double-take when I realized I was looking at one that was masquerading as part of a tree. I then went for my camera and got a few shots before it scurried away.

The hustle and bustle of the city has been replaced by a cacophony of creatures. Birds, chicadas, and an army of flying bugs are constantly providing a steady stream of sound.

Its unnerving on a certain level, I find myself occasionally turning to find the source of some sound or noise. Sometimes there is something there, often, there isn’t, but I think its the thought that I am infringing on their domain instead of the other way around.

Like it or not, I’m on their turf.

-ES

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Camping Journal #1: (Semi) Roughing It

Lined paper! WHEE!

I took a camping trip recently and while I admittedly spent way too much time on my phone updating my Facebook status, I also bought along some paper to keep a written journal. As I’m pretty sure folks don’t want to decipher my awful handwriting, I’m transcribing them. Enjoy!

July 12, 2012: 5:13 pm, at work

-enthusiastic-

I’ve made my list, checked it twice and I’m heading out camping tomorrow for the first time in years. I used to love going to Lake Corpus Christi with my folks, family and friends Back In the Day, but this time I’m going alone.

I suppose that’s the downside of having a bunch of nerds for friends. I’m looking forward to it, though, and maybe sometime in the near future I’ll bring some friends along.

-ES

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Obvious Title is Obvious

I am currently writing a short story that involves a large monster tearing up a city. Having read that sentence, the first thing that has probably popped into your head is “Godzilla.” As it is a furry story, instead of being a giant dinosaur, the antagonist is a giant dog. I have been referring to it as ‘Dogzilla’ for now, but I severely doubt that ‘Dogzilla’ will be the final name of the character.

It’s just too obvious. Being ‘too obvious’ is something that I try to avoid in my stories. It may be because I am afraid of dating them with pop culture references, but more than likely, I try to avoid the easy way out because I like to think that I’m clever enough to come up with something new and witty without figuratively elbowing my reader and going: “See what I did there?” Of course, as is often the case, I may be overthinking it and end up run the risk of being too clever for my own good. That’s a post for another time, though.

“King Dog?” Bleh. I guess ‘Dogzilla’ he will stay until something better comes along.

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A Name On Paper

I do put BBQ sauce on my burgers…it’s like HE KNEW

I am old enough to remember when seeing your name in the newspaper was kind of a big deal. I think it has something to do with the idea that lots of people are seeing your name, even if it is alongside a bunch of other kids’ names on the honor roll or the perfect attendance list of your small-town newspaper. Or it could just be a small-town thing, who knows?

I still get a kick out of seeing my name in the newspaper and it has happened a few times since then. I submitted an idea to the “Pluggers” newspaper comic that was used (at right), and made a ‘guest appearance’ in the “My Cage” newspaper comic strip after winning a writing contest on MySpace (remember them?) and was mentioned in an article about First Storm Manga that appeared in the San Antonio Express-News.

We’re the ‘cool’ office

Every time it happened, I would buy a copy of the newspaper and cut out the article or comic in which my name appeared. I even have the My Cage strip hanging in my living room. I admit that it is a bit odd and probably the kind of thing that future generations won’t care much about as newspapers become less relevant in our increasingly connected world, but doggone it, its special to me.

I wrote a story named “San Japanic!” that became First Storm Manga’s first self-printed comic book. I remember smiling when I opened up a copy for the first time and saw “Lead Writer/Editor: Eduardo Soliz” at the bottom of the inside cover. While they weren’t my pictures, and not even many of my words, it was my story.

Art by Mary Mouse of micecomics.com

These days, as I try to get exposure as a writer, I have decided to send stories out to furry conventions in order to get my name out there. I think its a good deal: they want the content for their conbooks, I like writing short stories, and unlike my usual lackadaisical writing schedule of finishing stuff whenever I feel like it, I have a set topic or theme and a deadline to work around.

The first one I wrote was “Bedtime” for SonicCon 2010, but I never heard back from them, so to this day I have no idea if it ever made it into the book…or if there even was a book for that matter. The first one that I know was published was “All’s Well That Ends Well,” a short I wrote for Furry Fiesta that featured their mascot jackalopes.

I remember being at Furry Fiesta and eagerly opening my copy of the conbook after receiving it. I got that warm fuzzy feeling again as I saw my name near the top of page 28 in glorious black and white ink. More recently, “The Hunter” made its way into the AnthroCon conbook, and I once again smiled as I saw my story in print.

It is impossible for me to know exactly how many of the folks that received those books actually opened them up and read my story, but knowing that thousands of folks have it in their possession feels much more real to me than anything I’ve ever put on a computer screen.

There’s just something about seeing your name on paper.

ANTHROCON, Books, CONS, CREATIVE, FURRY, RANDOMIZER9.COM, WHATS GOING ON, WORDS, Writing

Magic Can’t Do EVERYTHING

Magic is pretty cool stuff if you’re a writer because you can pretty much do anything with it. Its almost a requirement in some respects, I can’t imagine writing a story in a fantasy setting without having a magician, wizard, or some kind of creature that uses magic.

Of course, just because you can do everything with magic doesn’t mean you should.

I am currently writing a series of furry short stories that take place in “The Enchanted Forest.” The first one, titled “The Hunter,” may or may not have been printed in the Anthrocon 2012 conbook but that’s neither here nor there. The Enchanted Forest is a magical place where, among other things, one can find a village called Aetherwood, where faeries live and grant wishes to those that can find it. I am admittedly borrowing the idea from “Fantasy Island” TV show, but with more fantasy and more fur! :3

So this is a place where magic exists and the faeries throw lots of magic around to bring the wishes of their guests to life. While the temptation is there to have everything happen with just the wave of a wand, I find that it is much more interesting to put limits on what can be done with magic in these stories.

I’m hoping that it helps prevent me from pulling the old ‘deus ex machina,’ too. If magic has infinite capabilities, then it can be the solution to just about any problem that comes up. This would make for some boring stories if at the end of each story, a character waved their hand and everything went back to normal, like in a TV show where everything seemingly ‘resets’ at the start of each episode. It also means actions can ultimately have no consequences, and as The Enchanted Forest stories are essentially morality tales, there need to be consequences or else the protagonists won’t learn their lesson.

The question then becomes: what limits should be placed on magic? I’ve got the following so far:

Magic can be used to manipulate the land, create plants and even animals, but not people.
While the faeries of Aetherwood can use potions and spells to change their appearance, the color of their eyes does not change.

Granted, that’s a pretty short list, but hopefully more ‘rules’ come to me as time goes on so I don’t pull too many things out of my posterior.

Or I could get off my rear and write a proper ‘bible’ for this world. That’s a topic for another time, though.

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What the ****

Most of my stories are written for a general audience, and so I try to avoid the use of swear words in my short stories. I also believe that cursing is for the uncreative and unoriginal. Think about it: haven’t we all cussed at one time or another because we “couldn’t think of anything better?” The problem is that there are instances where cursing just works really well and is even expected at times.

Case in point: I am currently writing a story that involves pirates…IN SPAAAACE! Just like any other self-respecting pirates, these scurvy dogs (really, they’re pirate DOGS) spit, belch, don’t bathe, threaten harmless people (or cats as the case may be) and should probably swear like sailors. Thus, I have a few options:

1) Say ‘f*** it’ and use real swear words in my story, which I don’t really want to do.

2) Borrow not-quite-swear-words from other works of fiction, like ‘frak’ from BattleStar Galactica, but I don’t want to do this either because its well, unoriginal, and I know I’m setting myself to get stuck in some “THERE’S NO FURRIES IN BATTLESTAR GALACTICA” debate down the road.

3) Use common words. This method was used often by one of my favorite writers, Isaac Asimov. When a swear was needed, his characters would say things like “Space!” or “Stars and galaxies!”

4) Just make stuff up. This is obviously the hardest one, because I’m essentially inventing new words, and I’d like for them to make sense and not look like a random jumble of letters.

I am going with #3 with a varying degree of success, and who knows, I may invent some new pseudo-cuss words, especially at work, but for now I’ll just have to punt and pepper my story with <SWEAR WORD> placeholders until I think of something better.

Crap.

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Arc-Less

RAWR!

I added Godzilla Legends to my pull box (or whatever Comic Break calls it) mainly out of curiosity. The series was supposed to feature some of the other giant stars of the Godzilla universe. I had never read a Godzilla comic before and except for watching “Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla” at the first Fanboy Flix a few months ago, I haven’t seen a movie starring Japan’s mean green machine in years. Thus, I am hardly an expert in regards to the care and feeding of giant monsters, or ‘kaiju’ to use the proper term. Despite that, I thought I’d give it a shot.

I got my first issue a few weeks later. It was a fun read and Matt Frank’s art provided plenty of monster mashing action. But there was something different waiting for me at the end of the comic.

It was the end of the story. One and done. That was it. No cliffhanger or big reveal or plot twist to coax me into buying the next issue in 30 days. Instead, there would be a completely new story with a new monster in the next issue. I had no commitment to keep, I could stop where I was at and not spend the rest of my days wondering if Godzilla and Anguirus ever kissed and made up.

I kept the subscription and a month later, the second issue dropped. I read it, enjoyed it, and eagerly waited for each new one to arrive. There was something about reading a single issue of a comic book with a self-contained story that I had not experienced in years. It took me back to when I read comics as a kid, before multi-issue story arcs and epic crossovers turned comics into big soap operas. Seriously, even the new Mega Man comic I’m reading goes from one arc to the next, and that one is published by Archie Comics.

It is easy to write off the feeling as nostalgia, but what I really miss is the anticipation of not knowing what is coming in the next issue. If I am reading a comic that ends with a cliffhanger, then I’m left spending the next month or so guessing just what is going to happen next. If the story I’m reading comes to a complete end, though, I have no idea what is going to be in that next book.

I like that. It’s sometimes fun to not know.

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RANDOM REACTION: Furry Fiesta Day 1

When in Rome…

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from my first day at Furry Fiesta 2012. As mentioned during my pre-game podcast with artist Chris Holm, we really didn’t expect it to be that much different from other cons that we have been to before. So far, that has held up. Sure, the “Dealer Room” is called a ‘Dealer’s Den’ and fursuiters play the role that cosplayers would play at an anime con, but for the most part it’s the same song, it only goes to a furry beat.

The first thing that really impressed me about Furry Fiesta were the freebies that I received upon registering: a hard plastic badge that was of much better quality than the laminated ones one usualy gets at these things, and a 8.5 x 11-sized con book with a nice glossy cover, which made me even more happy to have my short story included in it. The inclusion of a bar of soap felt a bit like a tongue-in-cheek joke, but it is honestly something that more cons should probably do. There was also a furry survey that is apparently taken every year as part of a study on the fandom, I’ll need to fill that out and return it.

Aside from badges, the main way to identify someone is an attendee is by the wearing of a tail. Sometimes ears (the headband kind, not the ‘hat’ kind like I’m wearing in the picture) and fuzzy gloves are worn as well, but tails are pretty common.

While the panels I have been to have not all been as good as I initially had hoped for, I was still pleased that there are more panels that I was actually interested in. The five panels I attended on Friday easily equaled the number of panels I might attend during the three days of an anime or comic book convention.

There seems to be more of an emphasis at Furry Fiesta on the creation of art rather than the consumption of it. Instead of attending a panel where a voice actor answers questions from fans about the shows he or she has worked on, I. can attend a panel where I can learn about voice acting, writing, and art.

There are quite a few things to do here at Furry Fiesta for someone who is interested in creating. The vast majority of the costumes are of original characters; instead of pretending to be something that is the product of another person’s imagination, attendees create their own ‘fursonas.’ Oftentimes, they only exist on paper or in artwork, but a few take the extra step of bringing their creation to life in the real world. They are known as ‘fursuiters’ and there are some REALLY good costumes out there.

The only horsefly (ba-doom, tissh) in the ointment has been the jerkasses that are staying in the room above the one I am in. I have been hearing nothing but stomping around and horseplaying last night and into the morning. Two calls to the front desk and a chat with the Furry Fiesta security guy have proven to be pretty fruitless in getting anything accomplished. To be fair, though, that is something that one experiences at all of these things, so I can’t really hold it against them. That said, I think the fact that something hasn’t been done about this reflects poorly on both the hotel and the convention. I will speak with the folks at the front desk again (and maybe even FF security) today and see if anything can be done. I got a five-hour drive tomorrow back home and I need more sleep.

But yeah, that’s a problem one comes across at any convention. Its only been the first day, but I have already had a lot of fun and even learned a new thing or two at Furry Fiesta 2012. I look forward to the remainder of the con. At this rate, I will be attending Furry Fiesta 2013 without any hesitation. If that isn’t the best compliment I can give, I don’t know what is.

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Saying Goodbye

My brother Roland’s funeral was yesterday. It was a big shock to see him go so soon and so quickly, and so everyone in the family has had a hard time coping with his death.

My brother told us to carry on if he were to go first. Go on with your lives, he would say, don’t mourn me, don’t feel sorry, just keep going. Its a great sentiment, and I knew he meant every word, but in practice, it is a lot harder to do. Every time I convinced myself that I was done crying, the tears would start rolling again after seeing old friends, or hearing the wails of our mother and his widow. Something I noticed during the funeral Mass helped me out a lot, though:

Growing up I was in the church choir (don’t be too impressed, we only had like 5 people) and during his funeral Mass, the choir played the song “Pescador de Hombres” (Fisher of Men) which I tried to sing. It is a song I am familiar with and so I didn’t think it would be a problem. At first, though, my voice was pretty awful and I would choke up at the line “En la arena/he dejado me barca” (In the sand/I leave my boat) because it made me think about my brother and his fishing boat. I kept on trying, though, and the song became a little bit easier to sing with each verse. By the fourth one, I was mostly back to form, I would still tear up a bit but I managed to hold it together for the rest of the song.

Moving on from my brother’s death is going to be like that. It will be hard at first, but as I keep trying eventually the pain will reduce to the point where will be able to go on without him. It won’t be easy, but I will reach that point eventually.

Judging from the number of people that showed up for the funeral, I could tell that my brother had clearly touched the lives of many people. I was glad for the time that we had together, but now that he’s gone, I’ll keep moving forward as best I can…just like I did when I was singing that song. Good-bye big brother…thanks for everything.

Eduardo Soliz

IT Guy, short story author, podcaster, and furry!

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