Tag Archives: Watch The Skies

Process and Choices

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Along with writing, running games and creating stories I still create art. Well ‘art’ is a strong word, but I still make covers for Watch The Skies. At this point I know I’ve done more than 200 different pieces. Working and reworking those covers is a process. I’ve gotten a lot better and a lot faster at the process over time, but there are still a series of choices that have to be made each time. Sometimes I create options for the covers that never see the light of day. This month was an example of my method and I thought it would be a good idea to post up a couple of the options just for the sake of seeing the process. 

 When I’m working with photos in particular for any of the things that I’m creating, I often will use various filters through the computer to make these pictures look more seamless than they really are after I’ve compiled all the pieces. I know that using filters isn’t necessarily the same as drawing and/or painting with color to create the same effect, but given a shortened time frame the computerized tools are generally the option I need to go with.

 Here are a couple of alternates that I created for this month’s cover of our Fanzine.

Copies for each variation. I'm still partial to the neon in the bottom left corner.

Hopefully seeing these variations and knowing that there were other covers, other pieces that were attempted and discarded would help anyone who’s looking at the process of others in order to inform their own working steps. Creating a draft for writing is essentially the same thing. Computers are fantastic for copies. You have the ability to create a thing, then take that base and start again in a different direction. Running multiple iterations until you find the one that you think will work can be a long process. I think that could be an interesting discussion topic actually – how many iterations of a thing are you comfortable with before you put it out where the public can see it?

Cold Something

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Cold Water by Dave Hutchinson

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I picked this book up because it was a book club selection (science fiction). It’s a slog. I read the whole thing… but honestly can’t tell you with certainty why some people are calling it science fiction. Beyond one quasi-science fictionesque bit, this could be a current day spy novel. Sure there are ‘alternate’ world aspects here, but there isn’t enough difference to make me believe any of it. The vast majority of the references and cultural world building stuff could just as easily be today.

Notably I didn’t call it a ‘spy thriller’. I didn’t find it particularly ‘thrilling’ either. I just kept rolling to confirm what I thought about the plot. I was essentially correct, but the ending (that slammed down very quickly) didn’t seem to fit the rest of the book. The reason behind the mystery wasn’t enough to wow me… or impress me at all really.

I couldn’t really tell you the difference between the main character from Texas and the police officer from… Poland? Estonia? Dunno and don’t really care. The young woman hacker that we got almost no information about was just as interesting (cloth computer?) None of them moved me.

I’ve seen that this is being developed as a television series. I can’t imagine that working, but I’ll be interested to see how they handle the visual aspects of the lone ‘science fiction’ piece of it. I don’t suspect it’s a thing I’ll watch more than one episode of.



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Still Making Art

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A lot of what I’ve done in the recent past has been more illustration or collage, but I am still working on making art. It’s taking time to get the creative battery charged up, but it’s going.

This piece was inspired by an AI driven teddy bear nanny bot using a mini-gun in a recent Watch The Skies book selection. It was originally published in Watch The Skies, the January 2025 edition.

Day Zero

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Day Zero by C. Robert Cargill

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


It almost took me zero days to read this one!

The writing here grabbed me right from the start. This was an engaging, thoughtful story with very believable characters. Things happened in the greater world, but the story stayed tight on Ezra and his Nany-bot. Seeing big events through the small window of people not associated with them was excellent. It gave time for reflection and a lot of philosophical thought.

I did like the action. It was slow and purposeful, at least at first. Toward the end, things felt a little rushed. There were some fantastic images in there and I kind of hope this gets turned into a movie. I’d love to see the teddy bear nany-bot with a minigun on top of a bus.

This is absolutely worth the read AND I’d absolutely recommend reading the dedication and acknowledgements. Well done all around. Go grab this one.



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Black Company

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The Black Company by Glen Cook

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I have an old copy of this paperback. I got it when I was younger and tried to read it. I couldn’t get into it. I tried again later when I heard a famous author sing the praises of the story. I couldn’t get into it then.

This month it was the selected book for Watch The Skies. I tried again, and apparently the third time is the charm. I managed to get through the whole thing.

I understand now why there was praise for this book. I get it from the intellectual point of view, but it was not the page turning masterpiece that some others had claimed. It’s decidedly old school sword and sorcery fantasy. There is casual misogyny in there. Rape, murder and abuse are in there too. It is decidedly of it’s time. Also – the part that likely drew the praise – it is unlike other ‘heroic’ fantasy of its contemporaries because the main character(s) fights for the villain. Croaker is an unreliable narrator and not a hero in any real sense. The Black Company earns the name – black hearts all.

There is an really good quote from this work, “Evil is relative… You can’t hang a sign on it. You can’t touch it or taste it or cut it with a sword. Evil depends on where you are standing, pointing your indicting finger.”

There are tidbits like that throughout the book. The story is solid. The characters are believable, if not likable and the book has a reasonable conclusion. In all, if you want to dig into sword and sorcery from back in the day, this book is for you.



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Cover Me

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I spent my evening at the monthly meeting of my local science fiction (and fantasy) fan/reading group tonight. We’re about to wrap up our 26th? year. We’ve been at it a long time. One of the things we’ve been doing during that time is creating a monthly fanzine.

There was a time when I was very bitter that we were clearly eligible for winning a Hugo award in the fanzine category and could never gain any traction, even with our own members. That eventually slid into disappointment more than bitterness, and then into happiness that we weren’t tied to scandals and terrible nonsense.

These days, we keep creating the fanzine because it’s a small thing that brings us joy. A few dozen ‘subscribers’ and a way to get some relatable content out to our friends. Yes, we’re still eligible to win a Hugo but I’m no longer certain it’s a thing we would want.

Jeff dug up some physical copies of old covers. For many years we had an actual, printed paper copy to hand out live and in person to anyone showing up for the meeting. These old pages showed me a variety of the kind of artwork I’ve done over the years. A lot of what I saw here was cringeworthy. Some of them I like to this day.

I don’t post as much about my art here these days in part because there’s less of it than there used to be. I just don’t have the same amount of time I did before. There are so many things to do in this world that sometimes I lose track and don’t create as much art as I’d like. Even the cringey stuff. Gotta break some eggs and all that.

I suggest doing art. Create something. Save it if you like OR give it to somebody. Someday it might come back to you so you can see how far you have come.

Nameless

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The Nameless Restaurant by Tao Wong

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This is a Watch The Skies choice. I suspect I would have missed it if not for the book club selecting it. I look forward to the discussion on it… because it isn’t something I would have picked.

This story does fall into the new ‘cozy’ category. It’s not a high stakes, save the world type story. It takes place entirely inside the restaurant and the adjoining kitchen. There may be repercussions outside the entry doors, but we don’t see that. We see almost nothing in terms of action actually.

I think this is an odd cross between a character study and a food network show pitch.

It’s clear and well written. It has interesting characters. It clearly loves food and cooking. There are hints at powers and politics, but all of that is wiped away by dessert. I will say I like it, but I don’t know that I’ll be reading more. It’s good, I’m just not sure it’s for me.



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Annihilated

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Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Two stars has the little pop-up ‘it was ok’ and I think that’s fair.


I would place this work squarely into the existential horror category. It’s shades of Lovecraft through and through. IF you’re a fan of that, this book is likely right up your alley. I can’t really call myself a fan of this kind of thing, but I’m not NOT a fan. This is a compelling book, but I just don’t get as worked up about the existential stuff as a lot of fans apparently do. Some things happened, sort of, I think… but I’m not sure. Maybe that’s the point? What did happen? Did it really happen? Wouldn’t a walk on the beach be a good thing to do?

I read and finished this one, but I wasn’t excited about it. I was often just waiting for something to happen. I’m still kind of waiting for something to happen.

This book also (apparently) had a film made of it. I looked at the old trailer and I believe I watched the film. I’m uncertain as not much of it is a clear memory. I didn’t connect the thing I watched to this book at all and had to have it pointed out to me.

I think those two things, no clear memory and waiting for action, amount to a solid summary of my thoughts here.



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Check out the trailer for the Netflix movie too:
https://youtu.be/0m3cPEbwwhg?si=5nFbXdNhcNzOYM37

Six of something

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The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I struggled with this book right from the start. It begins with the “I hate you. I love you.” relationship mix. That has to be my least favorite – ever.

I pushed past that because I was hoping to get into the mystery of this order the six get selected to try out for. I was hoping for something about the magic system or the books they use to overcome something thought to be lost to time.

I hoped.

I got a fat pile of angst and a magicians style big brother house. Maybe that’s too harsh. I did not like it, and the longer that simmered, the more reactive I got to it. I’ve tried to temper my reaction by giving this review some time, but it hasn’t helped. It didn’t work for me and I won’t be picking anything else up from this author.



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The Art of Fandom

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This was originally published in Watch The Skies, June 2024 issue.

A Kick in the Tastebuds

Here we are again with another of our multi-talented members! We all know Danielle as the triple threat author, editor and publisher but she also creates wonders with ginger. Danielle was gracious enough to chat with me about this venture.

What is Ginger KICK and how did you get started with it?

Danielle: Ginger KICK! is homemade flavor-infused candied ginger products. It started out of a cookie recipe I devised, Limoncello Coconut with Candied Ginger. I used to buy the ginger for the cookie but I was shopping with a friend one time and when I went to pick up a package he took it out of my hand and put it back, saying “That is so easy to make.” So we went over and picked up some raw ginger root and that set me on the path of this madness. My first attempt doing it the way he said didn’t turn out too good. It was too fibrous. But I looked up some how-to’s and tried again and the result was amazing! Originally I had intended it just for my personal cooking use, but since I was making lemon-based cookies I thought, ‘what if I add lemon to the ginger?’ I was doomed from then on out. Of course, it was a learning process with plenty of bumps on the way.

Growing and learning sound like part of the process. What is your favorite discovery so far? What is the worst flavor you’ve stumbled onto?

Danielle: I am going to answer those in reverse order. Really, I haven’t run across any “bad” flavor in my pairings. All of them taste amazing and unique, though there are a few that I don’t make as often for various reasons. One is Honey ginger, where I substitute honey for the sugar in the process. It tastes quite good, but when you are cooking it the honey itself kind of smells like vomit, kind of like a young mead can before it is really ready to drink. The other thing I tried was Pepsi ginger, which was a total fail. I tried this because I make a root beer ginger that is really good and the soda works fine in the process. I figured why not try Pepsi, since I like it. Unfortunately, some aspect of the soda reacted to the heat and it turned directly into hard candy, so my ginger was all stuck in a massive lump. Now, I will say, having said all of that, I do now make a Honey Habanero Ginger that is pretty awesome and for some reason I don’t have the same problem with the smell when I make it, maybe because of the added compound of the pepper, which I cut in half and place in a cotton bag to boil with the ginger. Some of my other, more unusual flavors are wasabi, umami, and coffee, the last of which is my absolute favorite and quite popular with fans of Ginger KICK!

Now… for your other question, one of the most important things I’ve learned is that ginger comes from all over the world and can have different properties depending on where it comes from. One of my best discoveries is that the common ginger… the big long nobby kind of ginger that most cooks feel is inferior due to the excess water content, is actually ideal for what I am doing because as you boil the ginger and the water is evaporated, the remaining flavor compounds and sugar are absorbed into the ginger making for a better taste and texture than if I had used the more delicate ginger with the lesser water content, because that tends to stay more fibrous.

Do you have any flavors that have surprised you or given you a special reaction from a customer?

Danielle: Well, I already mentioned coffee, which takes everyone by surprise, and umami always has them intrigued (it is basically soy sauce ginger, but the process makes it taste like salted caramel!). Any of the alcohol ones get a reaction… spiced rum, mulled wine, apricot brandy… and Chai has to be one of the absolute favorites that people come back for time and again. Mostly, though, it is the ginger in general that draws a reaction. Because of my process–I cook to a texture, rather than a time, so the ginger is very intense, but also very tender, almost jelly-like–no matter what flavor people try, there is generally quite a reaction. Most of the time it is awe and delight as the so-named kick takes them by surprise, but occasionally it is a hard nope because the flavor is too intense for someone. At this point I make over fifty flavors and combinations, so there is a high chance that those who like ginger will find something to pique their interest.

Excellent stuff. Where can folks go to get some of your ginger creations?

Danielle: Mostly people find me at a local conventions, such as the upcoming Horror at Main in Harrisburg the last weekend in June and at the upcoming Shore Leave in Lancaster at the end of July, but I also have an order page on my online store: Ginger KICK! Flavor-Infused Candied Ginger | eSpec Books where I offer the ginger, simple syrup, granola, and chocolate-dipped ginger. At events, I sometimes have other items, and occasionally I run Kickstarters to try new flavors and products like rock candy, toffee, cookies and beef jerky.

A very big thank you to Danielle for sharing this flavorful interview with us! Be sure to hit up her page or get out to one of our excellent local conventions to see her and pick up some candies along with some fantastic reads!