Over on my MASKED MARAUDER MATINEE page you can:

• Take in a sketch of SKY SENTRY the current hero to star in the TERMINAL TEMPEST SAGA
• Listen to our first, of what we plan to be many, PODCAST Reading episodes of the TERMINAL TEMPEST SAGA (consisting of the entire first chapter).
• Read the first part of the second chapter of the TERMINAL TEMPEST all here.

I've just finished "The Adventures of Fortune McCall" by Derrick Ferguson through Pro Se Press and I have to say it was great! Fortune is a character for the ages. Mr. Ferguson has chiseled a mean and lean character out of pure granite. It's clear he's taken inspiration from such obvious places as the classic pulps and gangster movies but Mr. Ferguson also draws from other places such as literary characters like Batman and cinematic characters like Lando Calrissian.

It's not a stretch by any sense of the word to envision Billy D. Williams as Fortune McCall.

The book consists of four large scale "short stories", each about 35 pages or so.

THE SCARLET COURTESAN OF SOVEREIGN CITY
THE DAY OF THE SILENT DEATH
THE MAGIC OF MADNESS
THE GOLD OF BOX 850

THE BAD (If you can call it that):
Each of the stories is crafted from a "physical plot". The "rescue plot", for all but one, to be more precise. Now it could easily be argued that having to rescue someone or having to be rescued your self is a long time tradition of the adventure genre. I would tend to agree and loved each of them. I think it might be nice to see Fortune tackle some of the other "physical plots" in the next book like "Pursuit", "Escape", and "Revenge" although to be fair there were small amounts of each of those three elements present in this book.

THE UGLY:
The book takes place in a major metropolitan area in or around the year 1935 and Mr. Ferguson doesn't shy away from some of the uglier elements of life back then. While they are subtle Mr. Ferguson includes elements of racism, classicism, and sexism in this book. I think this book and the stories within it would have been just as good if there was never an issue concerning race amongst the characters but the book isn't hampered by those issues either. Fortune and his crew are stronger because of facing them.

This is a great book that any lover of pulp can sink their teeth into. In addition I'd say that if you've never read any pulp before this may be a great place to start because it's delivered to you as the reader in small easy to absorb doses story by story. You'll love pulp upon turning the last page and be bugging Mr. Ferguson and Pro Se Press for more.

Purchase it here.

A recent blog post from a writer of comics and long form fiction included the following statement in a blog post about "GOOD STORY":

"A good story doesn't allow them to be the same person at the end they were at the beginning."

Writers/Authors/Creators who blog about their craft often site this as a given fact even though there are hundreds of examples that debunk it. 

Read any Robert B. Parker (or Crais or MacDonald or Stark or countless others) book and the characters in them are not changed in any way at the end of any one book.  They are not changed (with the exception of being updated over time - which is not what the above statement is about) over the course of a series.  They are not changed by a television series or movie made about them.

Spenser (as well as Hawk, Elvis Cole, Joe Pike, Travis McGee and Parker) is the same man in every Robert B. Parker book.  Period.  In fact, the books are written from the stand point that Spenser is as good as he is BECAUSE he WON'T change.

In film James Bond is portrayed exactly the same way.  All of the peripheral characters: Moneypenny, Q, and M complain about how much he won't change movie after movie.

In comics Batman is the same way.  Alfred, Dick, Tim, and Barbara are always getting on him about taking a case to personally.  About not getting enough sleep.  About not going out in public as Bruce Wayne enough to keep up his cover identity.

Why do many Writers/Authors/Creators feel as if a GOOD story HAS to involve the primary character(s) changing?  Are Parker's books not good?  Are James Bond movies not good?  Are Batman comics not good?

Please feel free to weigh in here with comments....

I've not been hitting mine (1k words a day) and so I estimate I've got about 3K words to make up.  One thing I've learned this week though: if your stuck, why not try something kind of drastic like changing a characters gender?  It may just help you get your creative juices flowing. 

A second thing I've learned this week is that some characters and situations simply scream to get out of your brain and down on the page.  Take the words "Midnight" and "Talon" for instance.  When you write themed genre work you run into some of the same elements in each story.  Writing Batman, Nightwing, or Batgirl for DC wouldn't be completely foreign to writing Moon Knight for Marvel.  There would be some crossover in themes and such.  The same could be said for writing the Punisher and James Bond.

This is something that I need to be careful of because I have fully developed characters and story concepts that I've put aside but they keep creeping up into my current project.  I don't want to steal from one character and give those elements to another.  I don't want to be accused of going to the same well again and again for water.

I have this character on back burner:

He's my dark avenger type hero for a superhero story and I've spent quite a bit of time developing him so when I looked back at the outline for my current project I realized I'd named one character TALON and a vehicle belonging to another character Midnight. 

That's not all.  I'd also tried to steal custom "super powers" I've developed for a character and give them to a character of my current project.  Now, how original would my next project be when it came out if I did that?

Not very.  Midnight Talon clearly wants to come out and play.  I'd better move him up on the que of things to do next....

I've posted a few rough draft pieces of fiction from the Terminal Tempest here on my blog and now it's time to kick this thing off officially!  The Masked Marauder Matinee presents The Terminal Tempest part 1:

Excerpt.....

The Tier hotel’s tallest towers speared into the gray angry storm clouds like lighting rods, exposing guests to views of the intensified weather no one wanted to see. Particularly when they were seventy-five stories up and surrounded by glass.

The mammoth hotel was called the tiers because each of it’s five towering sections climbed taller into the sky starting at it’s center with the next to towers, on either side, shorter by ten stories. Then the remaining two towers, framing in the other three, shorter still by fifteen stories. All five climbing high from the central lobby and underground parking structure. The three elevators that serviced the central tower alone were banked together directly across the lobby commissary and required a special key granting you VIP access......

Read more here.

If you like it or hate it, please leave a comment.  I've also left links to the MMM facebook page and my twitter accounts if you'd like to be social.

Caine

WRITERS:
It seems to me that the big two are willing to let any writer they want to keep around do whatever they want to do with the characters in the their publishing stable.  Got a whim?  Why not explore it?  Hell, why not explore it in our flagship title?  Hell, why not let us reboot a title and let you relaunch it from scratch?  You won't even need to write about the title character if you don't want too.

"Stronger than GL"

Superman is now so strong that he can break the constructs of the Green Lantern's ring?  Those constructs that are strengthened by a will so powerful that the guardians of the galaxy uses it as one of their agents who is responsible for patrolling an entire sector of space on their own?  Come on Geoff Johns, really?

"The New Moon Knight"

Moon Knight has always possessed multiple identities that went far beyond that of just a cover.  Marc Spector was always a little nuts and really operated like an individual with multiple personality disorder but possessing a version of Wolverine, Spiderman, and Captain America within his mind?  That's nothing more than proving that Bendis can't write a story without Spiderman or Wolverine in it.  Thanks for ruining a great character Bendis.

NIGHTWING:
How about a little respect for the number two detective in the DCU second only to Batman huh?

"Dick Worried"

Scott Snyder doesn't really know how to use Dick Grayson/Nightwing if he did he wouldn't be writing him as a second string character who's only able to assist Bruce Wayne/Batman out of costume like a lackey. 

Dick should be in costume as Nightwing out on the roof tops backing Batman up.  Nightwing should be all caught up to Batman by issue 4 and right there to back Batman's play, and (GASP!) maybe even save Batman's life when he's not paying enough attention.  I don't want to spoil issue four but Batman falls for a stupid trap that he shouldn't have and any character could have helped him steer clear of it.
Why not have Dick express his worries in costume doing what he does best and keep Bruce from further pain and suffering in mean time?  That would be more in character for both Batman and Nightwing.

Dick Grayson isn't window dressing for the Batcave.