StanleyWheeler

This weekend found us back at the manor engaged in the battle with the green horde threatening the estate. After major battles with the assailants of both the chemical and mechanical nature, I found time for two other battles with one of Les Freres Corses .  Before I address those difficult conflicts, I need to engage in some thoughts of a vain, presumptuous, and solipsistic nature. Raconteur Press posted a piece on its Substack page entitled "On Witty Dialogue Choices for Writing Noir and Hard Boiled Characters." Naturally, having had a story accepted for publication in the upcoming moggie noir anthology, Dames, Derringers, and Detectives , I had to consider the possibility, based on this line from the post ("I’m thrilled to say that at least one of the new Moggie Noir stories features a bit of wordplay that takes me back to classic exchanges..."), that my story entitled "Calypso's Count" might have inspired the post. Odds are pretty good that some ...

  Interview with Thomas Kast Author of The Great Convergence   Please tell me a little about your current work in progress . My debut novel, the Great Convergence, was published a couple of months ago. It’s a thought-provoking philosophical science fiction and a social satire. Two competing academics living ten million years in the future travel back in time to 2022, wrecking reality in the course of their investigation into a mysterious event — the Great Convergence. Currently, I’m working on the humorous and philosophical comic book series Bablah’s Odyssey, which is scheduled for release in August 2022. Bablah’s Odyssey features a mad scientist, lord Bablah as he traverses the universe, mansplaining the ‘wonders of progress and civilisation’ to his unassertive yet perceptive mutant sidekick, the Pet-Thing. It’s colourful, psychedelic and contains a lot of irony and dark humour. I’m both a writer and illustrator. Where did you get the idea for this book or series? I...

  We had a re-watch of Willow (1988, Directed by Ron Howard, staring Warwick Davis, Val Kilmer, Joanne Whalley, Jean Marsh, and others, including Billy Barty) last week. The movie has some weaknesses but it has a certain charm, its writer (George Lucas) borrowing from his Star Wars trilogy and blending in Arthurian and Tolkien elements. In short, the story begins with a baby cast upon the waters and being discovered by some folks who are definitely not hobbits. I forget what they called themselves, but everyone else referred to them derogatorily as pecks. Willow's wife takes the child and that eventually brings bad tidings for the village, where Billy Barty is the resident magic man and from whom Willow seeks an apprenticeship.   Willow is tasked with taking the baby to the crossroads to hand off to the first person he finds.  As good or bad fortune would have it, Madmartigan is caged at the crossroads and takes the baby in return for his release from the cage. He's an ob...

  Fun Fact: After subjugating Egypt, Napoleon led his small army toward Syria in February of 1799. The army of 13,000 was divided into four divisions under Generals Kleber, Reynier, Bon, and Lannes. The latter would go eventually become a Marshal of the Epire and die in 1809 following the battle of Aspern-Essling in which he was struck by a cannonball and had a leg amputated.  Bonaparte wanted to take the port of Acre, but the British navy, the formidable walls, the defenders' stout resistance, and the plague all worked to prevent Bonaparte's success. Before he got to Acre, he first overcame resistance at El Arish and Jaffa. The garrison at El Arish, which had surrendered and sworn not to take up arms against the French, went and joined the Jaffa garrison. Bonaparte had lost two valuable weeks in the siege of El Arish, and had to get back to Egypt to contest an expended landing by Ottoman forces. He hoped to make up time with a quick conquest of Jaffa. Plague was already worki...