Category Archives: Misc.

Off Topic: On the Subject of Me

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I don’t really talk much about myself on this blog. This is a conscious decision; I decided going in that this blog was about awesome things like sci-fi, fantasy, video games, and writing. By comparison, I’m pretty boring. This is my blog, but it’s not about me, per se.

My blog's bannerHowever, I’ve been posting here multiple times per week for over three years now, so perhaps it’s time I let the readers get to know me at least a little bit.

I now present you with a rambling list of fun facts about me, presented in no particular order.

On the subject of me:

I have never set foot outside of Canada, but I have looked out across the Atlantic from the tip of Cape Spear, gone on road trips so far into Quebec no one around spoke English, crossed the Straight of Juan de Fuca by ferry, and hiked in the old growth rainforests of British Columbia.

My favourite colour is purple.

My favourite band is Metric, but my favourite song is King and Lionheart by Of Monsters and Men, and if I was to pick a song to be “theme song of my life,” I’d go with All These Things That I’ve Done by the Killers.

The song I want played at my funeral, however, is Invincible from World of Warcraft. That or Help, I’m Alive by Metric, purely for the irony.

I have trouble picking a favourite television show. It’s sort of a toss-up between Star Trek: Enterprise, The Simpsons, and Futurama.

My favourite book and my favourite movie are one and the same: The Lord of the Rings trilogy. I might as well count them all as a single volume, since I can’t pick a favourite from the trilogy.

My favourite video game character is Jim Raynor. I don’t believe I could pick a single favourite character from books or television. Candidates from literature include Cryl-Nish Hlar, Xervish Flydd, Seda, R.M. Dahl, Michael Liberty, Samwise Gamgee, Remus Lupin, and Kellen Tavadon. Candidates from television include Jean-Luc Picard, William Adama, Hoshi Sato, Dr. Phlox, Quinn Fabray, Bert Hummel, Karl “Helo” Agathon, and Dr. Zoidberg.

Similarly, I love food far too much to ever settle on a favourite meal. Potato roti could be a strong candidate, as would be aloo chole with puri. My father also makes surprisingly good falafel for a WASP, so that could be in the running. Or maybe a bowl of sambar with a nice side of naan…

My favourite sound is wind blowing through the trees.

My all-time favourite video game is Warcraft III. My current favourite game is The Secret World.

My Dragon under the moonlight in Blue MountainMy favourite time of year is winter, though autumn is a very close second. I despise springtime, and I have little love for summer.

I have only ever broken one bone: my skull. I leaped out of my mother’s arms as a baby and fell head-first onto a concrete floor. I am apparently lucky to be alive, and luckier still to have suffered no brain damage as a result. I was so young at the time that I have no memory of any of it.

I am neither a dog person nor a cat person. I am a rat person.

In the past, I ran the international campaign to save Star Trek: Enterprise for several years. This is the same campaign that held large public rallies and raised several million dollars to fund a new season (unsuccessfully), though such heady days were long past by the time I took over. I mostly just organized letter-writing campaigns and publicity drives for our petition.

The worst movie I ever saw was the remake of Bewitched starring Nicole Kidman and Will Ferrell. Having my testicles electrocuted for ninety minutes would have been less painful.

The happiest I can  ever remember being was reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in bed on the eve of my fourteenth birthday, as a thunderstorm raged outside. This could be interpreted as a sad commentary on my life to date.

Cover art for the fifth Harry Potter novelI have never set foot in a church.

I stole the name of this post from a Kids in the Hall sketch.

I have not cut my hair in nearly fifteen years. It’s not as long as you might think, though.

I am of primarily British and Nordic descent, meaning there is an excellent chance that, 1,000 years ago, my ancestors on one side of the family were raiding my ancestors on the other side of the family.

I am a chronic insomniac. Sleep is for the dead.

Lord of the Rings and the Emotional Cadence

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Recently, I’ve started rereading Lord of the Rings once again. I forget exactly how many times I’ve read these books now, but it has been quite a few years since the last time. Importantly, this is the first time I’ve read them since I became a writer, so although I’ve read them many times, this is the first time I’ve studied them.

A map of Middle EarthI notice a lot of interesting things by looking at Lord of the Rings through my WriterVision™ — such as how big the physical world of Middle-Earth feels compared to modern fantasy settings, likely a side effect of rapid transit effectively making the world smaller for people in the modern era.

However, what strikes me the most is what I like to call the emotional cadence of the books.

This is something I noticed even when I was much younger, but now that I’m looking at Lord of the Rings through a writer’s eyes, it’s even clearer.

If you lay out the story of Lord of the Rings, it could seem almost crushingly bleak. An almost omnipotent dark lord plans to cover the entire world in darkness. Ancient races and civilizations are mere shadows of their former selves, and there is little strength left to resist the shadow. The only hope comes in the form of a fat, spoiled rich kid with no knowledge of combat or adventure who is slowly being driven mad by the evil artifact he carries.

But it doesn’t really feel that oppressive when you’re reading it, does it? It’s a dark, intense story, but you never feel it start to weigh on your mind the way such stories can.

A Lord of the Rings image created for a graphics contest at GalacticaBBSThis is because Tolkien made sure to regularly interrupt the peril and the impending doom with moments of peace and levity: staying with Tom Bombadil, recovering in Rivendell, resting in Lorien, smoking in the ruins of Isengard, even stewing rabbit on the borders of Mordor.

It is this balance between joy and sorrow, peace and peril, that makes Lord of the Rings the brilliant story it is. The balance between the darkness and the light allows the reader to feel each more keenly. A candle shines so much more brightly in a darkened room.

This is something few other authors seem to be able to replicate — save perhaps J.K. Rowling with the Harry Potter books, and is it a coincidence those became monstrously successful instant classics? Too few seem to realize that “emotional rollercoaster” means you have ups as well as downs.

A lot of authors seem to struggle to strike this balance. They just keep ramping up the tension endlessly with no relief until the reader becomes depressed or simply desenitized, or else they offer little to no tension at all, creating a bland and flavourless story of basically nice people doing basically nice things with no excitement.

Even my literary idol, Ian Irvine, has occasionally struggled with this, notably with the Tainted Realm books, which at times delved too heavily into darkness without offering the reader a chance to catch their breath.

The covers for the "Tainted Realm" trilogy by Ian IrvineNow, there is room for some variety in how one interrupts the balance of light and darkness. Some stories are very dark, and will rarely offer the opportunity for peace and calm. Others are light-hearted and never let the fear or the sorrow become too intense.

But regardless, that cadence still needs to exist. You need to have some highs, and some lows, and they need to spaced out with some degree of regularity. Go too long without some positivity, and readers will become emotionally exhausted and lose interest in the story. Go too long without some intensity, and you’ll bore people to tears.

This is something I’m very conscious of in my own writing. I work very hard to keep the darkness and light balanced in my fiction. This is why Leha almost freezing to death is followed by her befriending Benefactor, and why the quiet comfort of Leha and Tyrom keeping each other sane on the streets of Tallatzan is followed by the crushing realization that humanity is in its waning hours.