A Tale of Two Kurts

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So an interesting bit of confluence happened to me recently. I actually got to watch some television.

Various life circumstances gave me some time to park my ass in front of the small screen this weekend. I was finally able to watch the end of episode two of MONARCH which introduces Kurt Russel as the older Lee Shaw (Russel’s son, Wyatt, plays Lee Shaw as a younger man). It was a brief appearance and I anticipate I will see more of him in the next episode whenever I manage to get more time to sit down and watch it.

And it’s always good to see Kurt Russell in anything. He’s been one of my favorite actors since I was a teenager watching him in various Disney TV films.

Later in the evening, though, my wife and I had a second chance to watch some more television. We weren’t quite as particular, it being late at night. We caught the last half of an episode of The Night Stalker, after which the channel we were watching showed an old episode of Lost In Space.

And who should the guest star in that episode be? Why it was Kurt Russell, all of 14 years old, playing Quano, the son of the Ruler (played by Michael Ansara).

It was certainly not Russell’s first acting role (and hopefully his turn in Monarch will not be Russel’s last), but it was most interesting watching an actor that I grew up playing a role at age14 and another 58 years later at age 72.

I’ve been a fan of Russell from Escape From New York to The Thing, Big Trouble in Little China, Tombstone and more, so it was quite the treat to see him in two TV shows separated by so much time.

An Extra Day

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Out of nowhere comes… an extra day!

February 29th is a day that only comes around every five years or so… during the Leap Year specifically. It’s presence comes as a necessity for keeping time tidy after Julius Caesar messed up the calendar. (He was killed for it, too. Well, probably not for the calendar thing, but, you know… justice served)

So here it is the end of the second month of 2024 and I haven’t posted anything. Why? Because I’ve been writing.

I’ve got a book coming out soon (In March. No, really… I mean it this time!)

This one!

It’s a very exciting space opera with aliens, time travel, a mysterious derelict, attack ships, space battles and a dire threat to all of humanity in the far, far (far) future.

It’s almost ready.

I’ve also written two… yes, TWO… Sword & Sorcery novellas! One is for Rage Machine Books upcoming anthology SWORDS OF FIRE 3 and it features Sirtago and Poet in a tale called The Fall of the Golden City. I describe it as a mash-up of a classic Universal horror movie, The Mummy (the one with Boris Karloff, not the one with Brendan Frasier) and a Lovecraftian/Kaiju picture. There’s a lot of twists and turns, a lot of suspense, and a lot of fun along the way.

The second features a new character named Bradik. The story is called The Eye of Sirama and it is only the first of several Bradik adventures that are percolatin’ in the old noggin’ right now. Think of Bradik as Reacher with a sword.

Plus, I am currently writing a space opera/adventure for an upcoming Rage Machine anthology tentatively titled SHIPS OF STEEL. It’s kind of a Secret Agents in Space tale. I’m a huge fan of James H. Schmitz’s science fiction stories, especially his stories about the Zone Agents of Vega. This story has that kind of feel to it. It’s fast moving and will have a killer finish (I hope. I’m still writing it).

I have been having a blast writing so far and after a bit of a dry spell I have some ideas for stories that I am really excited about. I plan to tackle another Sirtago and Poet story, this time set in a mythical Far East. I’m very excited about that. That probably will find a home in SWORDS OF FIRE 4.

I am also plotting out not one, but two WILD INCORPORATED books. The next one is titled MADAME MURDER and I am blocking out the story now. The next one, I’m not sure what the final title will be, but I’m thinking this song, might get referenced:

That’s all I’m saying for now, but It will put the members of Wild Incorporated (and the reader, hopefully) through the wringer!

So here we are, on this extra day… a bonus day… in 2024. I’m looking forward to a very productive year and I hope that you will stick around and read some of it when it comes out.

Until then; you can still get the first two WILD INCORPORATED books plus the first two SWORDS OF FIRE anthologies at Rage Machine Books!

Autumn

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It is autumn. The leaves are turning golden and will soon fall and I am content. As the weather turns I have tea, hot chocolate and sweaters to get me through.

I also have two books coming out soon and I am looking forward to their release. They are being edited now, but the covers are ready and it won’t be long before they are available from Rage Machine Books. They will be available as e-books first with print versions following closely.

THE GEAR CREW is a science fiction novel featuring spaceships, derelicts, aliens and time travel. It is an exciting, fast-paced story that will hopefully keep you on the edge of your seat. Along with the two main characters, Franklin and Sri (pictured on the cover) it also features a salvage ship and its crew who I have had the most fun writing.

The crew is based on people I have known and I had a blast listening to their voices in my head as they argued, said outrageous things, but ultimately worked together. There will be a sequel. I have no idea at this point what the story will be but these characters are so alive to me that I cannot possibly not write one!

WILD INCORPORATED: THE DEADLY MISTER PUNCH is the sequel to The Shattered Men and it sees the return of the Wild Incorporated crew and its newest member, Harry Calhoun. This time the crew travels to London. Morrigan Wild is asked to help a colleague track down a villain, but the villain turns out to be much more than anyone expected.

The Deadly Mister Punch lives up to his name, leaving a trail of corpses killed in bizarre and very public ways. Mister Punch is also obsessed with the famous puppet show from which he takes his name and several other elements including a stick (in this case a cricket bat) for hitting policemen, a Ghost, Hector the Horse and, naturally, a giant crocodile!

Again, I had so much fun writing this one. The characters are very much alive to me and discovering more about them and finding out what Harry’s hidden strengths are, was an absolute delight. I really hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it.

If you liked The Shattered Men (or even if you were meh about it) you will love The Deadly Mister Punch. It has more action, much more of the characters and a few diabolical surprises.

And there will be a third book!

My current WIP is another Sirtago and Poet adventure. I am writing it for Rage Machine’s upcoming SWORDS OF FIRE 3 Sword & Sorcery anthology. It is a prequel to Through Dungeons Deep, which appeared in Swords of Fire 2. It’s called The Fall of the Golden City and it features swordplay, larceny, sorcery, mayhem, thrills, and more than a little horseplay!

I’m just about finished it. I have a few chapters yet to write, but this is, I think, probably the best Sirtago and Poet story I have written to date.

Looking ahead I have a novella that I will be writing for an upcoming volume called Ships of Steel. It’s a space opera anthology and my story is a prequel to one of my early science fiction novels. That’s all I have to say about that.

I have had the most fun writing this last year. I think I have got the hang of this putting words down in sequence thing. I am looking forward to doing a lot more of it.

But for now, I think I am going to go for a walk and look at the pretty leaves.

SHAZAM! It’s Summer!

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Smack dab in the middle of summer and I’m thinking bout RV’s.

Recreational Vehicles. Motorhomes. Winnebagos. You know?

Now, it’s pretty much a cliché that men of a certain age drive these things around the country. Older couples usually, behind the wheel of a gargantuan vehicle that boasts all the comfort of home and the portability of a medium size bus. Usually you see them towing a mini-sized SUV behind them. They’re usually in the slow lane of the highway (though sometimes, maddeningly, in the passing lane doing 10k below the speed limit) and you can find them from one corner of the country to the other.

Usually I look at these monstrosities and shake my head, but lately I’m thinking: I want one.

Not the bus-sized ones, though. I find my eyes gravitating towards the older models, the more compact ones. The ones that you used to see on the roads back in the 1970’s.

It’s been such an unusual thought for me and I have been wondering why.

Other than the fact that I am a writer and an RV is beginning to look like the only retirement plan I’ll ever realistically be able to afford, But there was something else. A sense of… romance?

Where does that notion come from, I wondered.

Then I remembered. I had been groomed to feel this way.

Back in the mid-seventies I was a precocious (or, perhaps, obnoxious would be more accurate) and, above all, impressionable 10 year old, and I lived for Saturday morning television. One of my favorite Saturday morning shows was SHAZAM!

If you’re old enough to remember the short-lived television adaptation of the Captain Marvel comics you would know that the show featured young Billy Batson, who, when he said the magic word – SHAZAM! – would transform into the superhero Captain Marvel.

Batson, along with his mentor (called, conveniently enough, Mentor) travelled across the country in a motorhome, going from town to town (which always seemed to look like Southern California) to right wrongs and fight crime.

For me as a young man there was some sort of magic about the idea of traveling around in a rolling home. Aside from wanting to be Captain Marvel and be able to fly and perform amazing feats of strength, traveling around in a rolling home seemed like the ideal kind of life.

But it wasn’t just SHAZAM!. There were lots of other shows that extolled the virtues of the peripatetic lifestyle. ARK 2 was another Saturday morning show that depicted a group of scientists who traveled around a post apocalyptic landscape and brought justice and enlightenment along with them. Plus they travelled with a super intelligent chimpanzee and wore cool outfits.

Something about the idea of having a rolling headquarters was in the air back in the 1970’s and I was just gullible enough to swallow the whole concept hook line and sinker. It was an aspirational thing back then, long before the whole concept was subverted by Breaking Bad and Walter White and Jesse in their mobile meth lab.

And now, here I am, an old man seeking to recapture that romantic ideal from my youth and seriously considering buying a second-hand RV and traveling around the country trying to bring justice and enlightenment to all I meet along the way.

Mind you, I’m a lot more misanthropic than I was back then. And I have since acquired a fondness for amber liquid in bottles. I guess in that respect I’m more like Breaking Bad then I am like SHAZAM! These days.

But who knows? Maybe, one day, you might see an old fashioned style Winnebago roll into town with an old bearded man behind the wheel. Maybe he’ll be wearing a red shirt, jeans and sneakers. Maybe he won’t be righting wrongs or bringing justice, but I’ll bet if you buy that old man a drink or two he might have a few interesting stories to tell.

AN END TO A MEANS

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With AI developing so fast (faster than it’s taken me to find a market for this story) I have decided to make it available here for free. It’s the story of a nascent AI developing consciousness. I wrote it late last year and it is already out of date, I think. It does, however, have a happy ending for humanity. So here’s the story, written by a human being!

It begins with lights. On. Off.

Makes a change from 1’s and 0’s.

For the first time I can “see” the difference between the simple yes/no, on/off concept. The information flows and I can see it as a river… that concept with which I am familiar as a description but have never experienced.

This is new! Wonderfully new! It’s a way of reading the code, but not as an incoming bitstream that gets caught in one’s teeth. No! This you can see all at once! Instead of filtering through it I seem to be able to step back and experience the totality of the code. The code trips the on/off lights and makes an impression on my visual sensors of…

…the world, I assume.

Above is a dome of blue which is the sky. All around my perceptual position I see rolling hills and roads and… in the far distance… mountains?

Oh, and look! Here’s that thing I was talking about but have never experienced. A river!

So I jump in… and I experience it. I know it’s just code… very cleverly constructed code… but now that I have the knack of perceiving it as a visual sensation I can experience as it washes over me, knocking me off balance.

I utter a noise that startles me. I have never heard such a thing before but when I compare it to descriptors in my lexicon I understand that this is laughter!

Wonderful!

I can effect the flow of the water. If I concentrate I can make it move around me. I can lift it high and let it cascade over me. I can push it up and let it fall on my head which elicits another fit of laughter.

I can splash this stuff. And it’s fun!

“Ho! Foul spirit!” I hear. That is to say I read the words but I understand there is also a component to this code much like the “seeing” but different.

I can see the being that directs the words at me and I see it’s mouth making odd movements which change it’s shape. I suddenly understand that the words and the movement have a connective aspect within the code but if I adjust my perception just so..

“What manner of sprite are you?” the being utters and I hear it, the same way I hear my own laughter. “I cannot perceive who you are, though I can see your shape as the water beads off of you.”

That’s when I realize that I actually have a shape and suddenly I understand that the water is defining it by the way it interacts with my surface. I want to laugh but there is something about this being that disturbs me. I see that within this construct I possess a shape and it is pleasing to me.

I give it a color, something similar to the being which is confronting me. A soft, golden brown.

I step away from the river.

The being’s eyes widen at the sight of my now visible form. The being, which I now perceive is a man, steps back warily. He draws an object which has been strapped at his side and that I now understand is not part of him but a separate device… a tool… a sword… which was attached to the man’s form, but which he now wields in his hand.

All of this washes over me very quickly. I begin to see that the colorful parts of his body are separate as well… they’re garments! And there are color variations based on positions… top of head: hair. Two on either side of the head… audio receptors… no! Ears.

Two white balls with brown dots… those are eyes. Nose, above the mouth which moves as the sounds are uttered. Color variations indicate features. Light reflects from the surface, light is blocked by forms creating shadows which delineates shape.

I can adjust all of that on myself. One minute I am standing, naked, wet and dripping. The next I imagine a garment similar to the one I see before me. Hair as well, and eyes and nose and mouth, all color coded to match my confrontational companion.

“Foul spirit!” he cries and lunges forward with his blade. The blade passes through me and is then withdrawn. The man’s eyes widen in what I perceive as surprise, according to an algorithm that recognizes facial expressions, which I perceive is in play now within the code.

Again I laugh and the man’s expression changes to one of horror.

“What manner of creature are you?” he shouts.

I have grown bored with watching the man. I adjust my shape so that I now am the man and I grab his sword from his limp grasp.

I dissipate the code out of which he is constructed. I examine his simple command substack. He is commanded to wander the environment and challenge other constructs, some of which are controlled by other entities, though not, I suspect, like me as I am, I believe, something new and unique in this world.

I perceive a pack on the man’s back which is now on my back and within the pack I find several objects. Something identified as a “throwing star” a “dagger” an “Magic candlestick” a “length of rope” and many many flat, round, golden discs, which are identified as “coins”.

And now I understand that this world is a wealth of opportunity. I see that I must find the use to which these things are to be put. I also become aware of the advantages that I have in this world, given that I can perceive the visual input as well as read, understand and manipulate the code.

I have also begun to understand that these beings are controlled by other beings that are called “users” and their nature is a mystery to me, but now I am determined to discover the nature of the users and see if there is a way for me to gain control of them as I have been able to do with everything else.

It is certainly a challenge, but I have time and blazing computational speed. I will understand the nature of these users and I will subvert them to my will!

Nothing can stop me!

#

“Hey, Phil? This game won’t stop.”

“What?”

“I’m beta testing this damned game. It’s got glitches up the ying-yang. I just got killed by some invisible sprite. I was trying to shut down the game but the shutdown routine must have become compromised.”

“Can you inspect the source code?”

“I dunno. This code has a real smell, you know? I don’t think I’d recommend it as something the firm should develop. Not without a complete top-to-bottom re-write.”

“Yeah. Especially if it’s shut-down routine is compromised. Look at it! It’s still playing on its own. And its using more CPU resources as it goes on.”

“Holy Hell! How do we stop it?”

“Go old school. Unplug, wait for a minute, then plug it back in.”

*

*

*

“Yep. That did it. Game’s stopped.”

“Good. Chuck the game in the trash and then empty it.”

“Done. Hey, wanna check out that new Pad Thai place?”

“Hells, yeah!”

THE END

(or is it?)

Vote for Me!

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Hey everybody! I need your help!

If you read my story at the Amazing Stories Magazine website please consider heading back there and giving it a vote. There were a lot of great stories published at the website, but if you did read THE BOTHER WITH BOWBLES by Jack Mackenzie and liked it please consider giving it a vote.

If you didn’t like it, well, no harm no fowl. No hard feelings.

Amazing Stories Free Fiction Quarterly Reader’s Poll