Tales of the Once and Future King
I’m in an anthology! Go buy it!
…OK, you want more information. Fine.
Tales of the Once and Future King is a hybrid between a novel and an anthology. This anthnovology consists of the main frame story, about the new King Arthur in a post-apocalyptic future, interspersed with other Arthurian stories. One is written by yours truly, Matthew P. Schmidt.
What’s my story called? Tristan and Isolde: A Chivalric Tragedy with Giant Steampunk Battle Robots (also vampires). The name should be self-explanatory.
What to the Modern White Guy is “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”?
I have always been inspired by the story of Fredrick Douglass, a slave who escaped slavery to become a renowned orator and author. His is not the story of a man who was second-rate, shooed into the spotlight only for his relative accomplishments compared to his past. What use would that be? No, he was not merely any random speaker, but Fredrick Douglass, a name that survives to this day in history books, no matter how often it is skimmed over.
Signal Boost: SINGULARITY SUNRISE!
A shameless plug for someone else.
The Taste for Realism
I have seen, and admittedly indulged in that fan activity I will call the Fact Checking Game. It goes like this: First, you take some work of fiction, particularly a popular one, and you find some fascinating idea or claim it has. Then you deconstruct it with real world logic, checking all the facts and invariably coming up with an unrealistic or at least implausible conclusion. At this point, bemoaning that the creator did not think of this may commence. As a sequel, you can find some plausible counterpoint, and argue with the proponents of the former conclusion until the cows come home.
This is not, in itself, a bad thing.
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