Antonio in the rigging and a book review

  

 Those of you who have read Threading the Rude Eye may recognize this scene in which Antonio dares the British to do their worst. He, of course, has great confidence in his enchanted ward against British ball--as well as his personal charm with women.

Earlier today, I spent a short time Les Freres Corses, and we did one of our talking adventures. (These adventures don't use dice or abilities etc; each participant makes a suggestion of what happens next in the adventure--like being spotted by dinosaurs, making it the ruins, suffering a fall, or what happens when the single lit button in the ancient UFO is pushed--and then everyone votes by playing one of three cards dealt to them to start the game. The suggestion that receives the high card is what happens; and the players each draw another card). Anyway, I'll spare you the turn by turn, but in less than an hour, the heroes escaped dinosaurs, discovered a secret passage into the ruins, activated an ancient starship and survived the crash thereof, were attacked by a giant spider and dinosaurs, did some highly cinematic battle sequences, and completed the mission while suffering some serious wounds.

One of the things we talked about was the imminent release of Accidental Wizard - the sequel to Accidental Pirates. (Amazon Associate link acknowledgement: I, or someone else, may receive some kind of remuneration or commission when the link is used). Let me share with you something about the new book before we get to the book review for this week:

Chris and his twin brother Kenny step into a fallen log on a hike with their grandfather and come out on a grassy hill in a kingdom at war. The court mage who summoned them is dying on the spot from the cost of the spell. Within the hour, Chris has been handed a cut palm and an order to produce fire.

The magic in this book is not free. Every spell Chris casts opens a wound somewhere on his own body — the book calls it the mulct — and it never stops being true. Power costs something and he is the one who pays it.

There is no romance subplot and no crude language. What there is: two brothers who refuse to be separated, and a grandfather who sends them off expecting them to come back having learned something.

ACCIDENTAL WIZARD is on sale this month.

Check out the cover: 

 

Book Review:

 

I finished reading Rick Cutler's excellent book, Colt Ostergaard: Man with a Gun. I've already sent him a note of appreciation for writing the book. It's a rip-roaring good time and a rootin' tootin' shootin' read. Colt's a man of honor surrounded by dishonorable people from both sides of a war, the wounds from which have never healed. Colt is the man in the middle, the honorable man who is therefore a target and scapegoat for those carrying the wounds. Speaking of wounds, Colt's not the white knight hero who never gets a wound. In fact, if there is something that is opposite of the guy who never gets a scratch, it would be Colt. Get his book on your list to be read immediately.

I could tell you more about this book, the planet Fenris, the war with the Alphies, the fur snakes, the 40 year winter, the exoskeletons, etc., but I won't ruin the delightful discovery of these things for yourself. 

 

The Oracle

 

I was able to spend some time with Les Freres Corses last week. In addition to having pizza, we found time to bust out some tabletop gaming. Above is the picture of the board they prepared for their two adventurers. I called it The Oracle, because of the crystal ball in the center. The T-Rex on the hill was the guardian of the oracle and the plastic army men were another group coming to seize the oracle for their warlord.

What do you use to measure movement when you don't have your red, blue, and green gaming measurement sticks? You use the Bunny System, of course. Everything moved in increments of one, two, or three bunnies. The ghost was some mysterious creature that only activated on an 11 or 12 on a d12, and if active, would go dormant on a 1 on the d12. It was not a big factor in the game.

The oracle activated whenever anyone came into contact with it. Naturally, that attracted the attention of the guardian.

 As it turned out, I think T-Rex gobbled one soldier and the adventurers killed one soldier while taking little or no damage themselves--not counting the incident. The incident involved K-man's character getting to the oracle and activating it and stating his wish. On a wild fluke (a 1 on a d20), the oracle took a sudden and intense dislike to the character and struck him with a bold of lightning--probably not unlike Apollo striking Scotty with lightning in that Star Trek episode--which proved fatal to this character.

RC's character was not dissuaded and made his way to the oracle to get his one wish. He was not struck dead and his wish was granted. Unfortunately, his wish was not for his brother's character to return to life, but he was able to restore him with some particular magic power he had from an earlier adventure. Thus the K-man was also able to live and get a wish. Meanwhile, the surviving soldiers decided to ignore their orders and each used his wish to make himself a super soldier who had no need to follow the directions of the warlord. 

Meanwhile, the adventurers found a teleportation device that took them to town--from which they were soon chased. I forget the reasons.

On a second scenario, after being chased from town, they had to take the tunnel beneath a mountain and find some kind of treasure. After uncooperative dice prevented them from finding the treasure at any of the locations indicated on their map, they had to search the base of the mountain, and eventually found it. They escaped the dinosaurs stalking them by causing a cave-in on one of their pursuers.

In a third scenario, they had to return to and find a passage through the collapsed cave and get off the far side of the board. 

We departed from the usual rules in favor of a "story adventure" in which we used no dice. Instead of measuring movement and rolling dice, we each stated what we thought would happen next. After everyone had made their statements, we voted on the statements by playing one of the three cards we held in our hands. Whichever possibility received the highest card in its favor was adopted. Of course, once a card was played it had to be discarded and a new card drawn to replace it. The system made for a faster game and gave the boys a chance to state possibilities, so there was never a time when nothing really happened. It did seem like one of them always drew better cards than the rest of us, but we did have some close calls and some injuries.

We may have even played a fourth scenario because the "story adventure" system finished quickly enough that we had time for another game under the usual house rules.

______________________ 

Also, this is still happening: 

When island warriors capture Kenny and Court in a net trap, Chris is the one who stays free — hidden in the stream, watching. He could run. Instead, he follows them at a distance, alone in unfamiliar territory, determined to find a way to help.

It's a quiet but powerful character moment: an ordinary kid choosing to stay close to danger because his brother needs him, without any superpowers to make it easy.

Accidental Pirates is on sale this month

 

 

 

 

Books for Boys

I've got Accidental Pirates on my mind because I dropped in on Les Freres Corses this week. They're not bookworms by any stretch of the imagination. I don't think they've ever even read a chapter book from beginning to end. Accidental Pirates has changed that. When I stopped in for a short visit. Chris, the brother upon whom the character telling the story in the book is based, immediately grabbed the book and showed me that he was reading it, pointing out that he only had one chapter to go. "They should make this into a movie!" he exclaimed.

That response makes all the time I spent writing Accidental Pirates a complete success. Getting even one boy to read is a victory. Most of the boys I know--arguably, not that many--don't read much at all. Many boys do read, but young male readership has dropped off steadily over the last decade or two. In fact, some report (by which I mean the standard search engine) that reading for pleasure among 11-16 year old boys has dropped steeply in the last 20 years. Only 12% of Gen Z boys read books. Why? 

I suppose there is no single reason. Casting around for suspects, I know that video games provide immediate feedback for less effort invested than reading. Video games require less imagination and often channel non-stop excitement--a steady stream of mind crack that rapidly addicts the player to the immediate rush feedback. The digital rush leaves the mind in a state of decay with nothing to show for the time spent. I liked video games as kid, but I couldn't play them continuously. I had to go to the arcade and the quarters or nickels soon came to an end. Video games were a rare delight. Now many players spend fewer hours at a full-time job that they do with their eyes glued to the gaming screen. I still like video games, but they can't hold my interest like they did when I was a kid. At any rate, getting boys to read faces direct competition from video games.

Suspect number two is the short video. Boys can watch an endless scroll of short videos on youtube and other sites. Watching short videos requires even less effort than playing video games. There's a lot to be learned on these videos, but mostly they absorb time and brain cells with little long-term benefit. Don't ask me how I know.

We should look at another suspect in this crime against boys: Publishers. Who runs the publishing companies and decides what books get published? It's not men. Women and girls read more than men and boys, so it's natural to expect that more books directed to women and girls would be published--but boys suffer for it. It's a truism that most girls will read books with boys as the main characters. The opposite is not true. Boys rarely read and enjoy books with girls as the main characters. Boys want action and adventure. They want to be able to imagine themselves as the heroes who save the day, solve the crime, and vanquish the foe. Tea parties, frilly dresses, girls engaged in long conversations, and even tomboys doing fun and weird things (I'm talking about you, Pippi) don't hold much appeal for boys. Put a girl with red pigtails on the cover and you turn away 90% of boys who would be interested if a boy were featured. Maybe boys are sexist. Maybe I'm sexist. I don't think I am, but I do know that I can usually tell after reading a paragraph or a page whether a man or a woman wrote the story. Most women tell stories with a different tone and emphasize different aspects that do men. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but I came to recognize the difference at an early age and realized that I usually preferred the male tone, even though I continue to enjoy stories written by talented women.

I'm happy to report that Raconteur Press has taken up arms against this sea of suspects. Raconteur Press continues to publish adventure books for boys to promote the dreams that come by exploring the undiscovered country of an exciting tale. RP has already published several great adventures for boys in a variety of genres:

Dreams of Fire and Gold by Fred Philips

Meteor Men by Scott Schad

Boy's Own Starship by Christopher Nuttal

I've Got This by Frederick Key

Fossil Force by Graham Bradley

Accidental Pirates by Stanley Wheeler 

I've probably missed a couple titles, but if you have a boy who reads, or who would read if he had the books before him, you can't go wrong with any of these titles. 

 

 

 

 

Passing of the Chateau

 

Le Chateau au Chat Gris has passed over the horizon. Not to worry; the cat is fine. This weekend we left Byzantium to visit family and look into a replacement for the 1999 Rattling Battle Wagon. The latter is now up for sale, and I'll be cruising in La Longue Carabine Rouge. 

The sunset of the chateau is a sad event. Most of our children grew up there. The youngest may not even remember our other homes - and she just got married. Another daughter and Les Freres Corses lived there with us for a year or two and then for another year after we left for Byzantium. We didn't get to enjoy our last trips to the place because we were busy moving our belongings and hauling off the accumulation of debris--discarding memories.

Stuff accumulates in life, and it's a constant struggle to decide which items can still be of service, which are so attached to memory that they can't be discarded, and which ones should've been sent to the trash at least two moves ago. We had a lot of the latter and hauled several pickup loads to the graveyard of discarded stuff - unfortunately, those loads also included items laden with memory. I know I took too much time sorting through the junk and reminiscing, but some artifacts of anamneses require a lingering stroll through the valley of recollection before jettison into the void. Trash mingled with articles past their prime meshed with cherished souvenirs departed from our lives by the pickup load.

Needless to say, we were exhausted from both the physical labor and the constant questioning about the relative worth and resolution to retain or reject individual accretions of time. I can see the benefit of retaining nothing--the decision is made one time and never has to be revisited again. However, what happens to the memories when the triggers vanish? What then summons the genie of reminiscence? Does the recollection fade like Marty McFly's family photograph? 

I suppose, if there's nothing else to resurrect the remembrance, it dies that second death, buried forever beneath the deep soil of new experiences and recent recollections, never to rise again. However, I think other experiences, words, smells, and those with whom we made the memories can ignite the spark to blow the souvenirs from the tomb to enjoy a walk in the sun of life again--for at least another brief moment--and having risen once, the recollection becomes easier to recall, and may spring forth at new opportunities as the experience that prompted the resurrection becomes another association. Of course, there may be a way to seize pick and spade to extract the remains of memory from the sod at will, but the soil grows unyielding over the years and who can remember where to dig?

On a happier note, I did get to have ice cream with Les Freres Corses, and we discussed the adventure book to be published in November, as well as some possibilities for the sequel. As I expected, the one whose name starts with  C, as he put it, performed true to form and wants that character to get the magical powers in the sequel. The ideas are coming together. In the meantime, I have a detective story to finish.

The Count's Mansion

As part of the road trip to take care of things at Le Chateau au Chat Gris, we had to play the next installment of the adventure that started with the Cursed Ruins and the Cauldron of Mystery. Le Freres Corses were looking to meet with the Count who hired them to get the flask of fluid from the cauldron. I hadn't prepared anything yet, so I put something together on the fly.

Charo and Gretel arrived back at the Count's mansion and immediately discovered that it wasn't going to be as easy as provided in their Anticipation Proclamation. A mouthy guard at the gate demanded to see some ID and the Wizard Gretel obliged him by zapping the head of a statute beside the doorway. The helpful guard then offered to take the flask to the Count himself. 

Charo nearly gave him the flask--which would've resulted in a locked door and no reward for their efforts. They finally convinced the guard that they had to take it in themselves. The guard then took them inside the mansion and introduced them to Brutus, who took them to the next room and introduced them to Elmo. He took them to the next room and introduced them to Aero who sent them across the bridge over the troubled water to meet with the Count and Spearo, his personal guard.

Now that they were in the Count's chamber, they naively handed over the flask without getting payment. With flask in hand, the Count became highly uncooperative. The verbal struggle transitioned away from words to deeds when the Count ordered Spearo to employ his namesake weapon against the adventurers with extreme prejudice. As one might expect, our heroes reacted badly. In the fracas that followed, the Count proved entirely inept in using the flask against Charo and Gretel, while they proved adept at dealing with Spearo. Charo used the same zap spell he had used on the statute, and it produced permanent results on Spearo. At the latter's death, the Count became congenial and had Aero pay the heroes the promised funds with a little something extra to smooth over the misunderstanding.

Of course, once they were out of range, he rang the bell and ordered room service of the lethal variety be delivered to Charo and Gretel, and disappeared down a secret passage. They ran across the bridge, successfully passing their challenge rolls against finding the collapsing portion of the bridge. Once on the other side, Aero discharged some parting gifts--arrows--but the presence of Spearo's corpse apparently spoiled his aim. 

The adventurers fought their way out of the mansion with their skillful weapon-handling aided by Charo's fire-spraying-ring and Gretel's spells. The wizard was forced down to his last hero point to avoid a serious wound. He did find a mechanical dog, but he couldn't activate it. He also discovered a stuffed gryphon's head and a secret passage. Gretel managed to get himself trapped in the secret passage for two or three turns while Charo loosed his wrath on the wounded Aero and Brutus. Finally, they got out and dispatched the last guard at the gate. However, Charo, never one to let potential loot go unliberated--especially when the owner has tried to kill him--carried out the gryphon head. He doesn't realize it, but selling that item will lead the Count and his new, more powerful minions to the pair of adventurers.