Starting on the Wrong Side
Howdy! This newsletter includes: an essay on antihero/villain protagonists, hexarchate art, a FAQ (foxily asked questions), and a catten pic.
If there's a topic you'd like to hear about (writing, games/game design, art, and music composition are always fair game), please email deuceofgearsart@gmail.com. :3
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Starting on the Wrong Side
I was once on a panel for Rick Riordan Presents, and fantastic fellow author J. C. Cervantes (The Storm Runner and sequels for middle grade, and others for other ages!) talked about how her favorite protagonists are heroes. This is a perfectly good philosophy of protagonists! My husband loves this kind of story; even if the protagonist has done something horrible in their past, if they're attempting to redeem themselves (more or less), he's all in.
My answer was the opposite: I like characters who are messed-up, on the wrong side, maybe outright villains (hi, Jedao!). I don't think this is a surprise to anyone who has read my books. Kel Cheris in Ninefox Gambit is working for the evil empire and helping carry out a genocide, not just as a rank-and-file soldier, she's an officer. Jebi in Phoenix Extravagant is a politically apathetic collaborator in a country occupied by a foreign power. Even in Dragon Pearl, a middle grade book, Min is an impulsive trickster who starts out by bashing a government official over the head when he sniffs for clues about her brother, who has gone AWOL, and then merrily spends the rest of the book abusing her gumiho shapeshifting/mind control powers until the consequences catch up to her.
Jedao is the main character of Machineries of Empire even though Jedao One is never a protagonist in the three books of the main trilogy, and he is definitely not a good person. Or anyway, if you think that mass murdering a million people, including YOUR OWN ARMY, is morally okay, to say nothing of, y'know, loyally serving the evil empire in genocidal campaigns for decades to centuries, I am VERY CONCERNED and we need to have a conversation. Which is hilarious because I'm saying this as an ends-means utiliarian.
I have been extremely baffled/amused by some of the hot takes I've seen about Cheris and Jedao in particular:
(a) Cheris is nice to robots therefore she is a good person!
Me: Cheris helps commit genocide and is working for the evil empire. You suck at morality, and I'm saying this as an ends-means utilitarian.
(b) Jedao is nice to Cheris and reminds her to sleep therefore he is a good person!
Me: Jedao is a mass murderer and he's only nice to Cheris because he's a disembodied voice and being intermittently nice to her gets her to do what he wants (I'm sure he knows about operant conditioning and variable reinforcement schedules if I do), and did we mention the mass murder? You suck at morality, and I'm saying this as an ends-means utilitarian.
I do know that "fun to read about" or "I enjoy this fictional character" are distinct from "I genuinely think this character is a good person because I enjoy them." But boy howdy, I do see a lot of people twisting themselves into pretzels with "I like this character but liking a character means they have to be GOOD and TRUE because I am a GOOD and TRUE person who only likes GOOD and TRUE characters ergo this specific problematic fave is actually GOOD and TRUE."
I personally enjoy writing about people who start on the wrong side, who start out as villains or antiheroes or monsters, because that gives them somewhere to grow, or possibly fail to grow, and I find that tension narratively exciting. Simon R. Green's fantastic Deathstalker Saga space opera includes a pair of secondary characters (my favorites, if I am honest!) who are given a chance to turn their back on an evil empire, and their tragedy is that their loyalty and honor, their good qualities, are also the flaws that keep them bound to that empire.
I also find that tension and potential exciting as a human being who has flaws and who has made bad decisions (although no mass murders, thank goodness). I like the type of story that has a villain or antihero who has made a lot of bad decisions, who continues to make bad decisions at least sometimes, but the thing is every decision is a new decision and there is a chance to choose better; and as a corollary, even after a character does something right, there is a chance to choose wrong. That's exciting. I've always been a sucker for a redemption arc, or even a failed attempt; I love the idea that it's our choices that define us, all the way down.
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I may have committed a Cheris/Jedao painting. I call this one "Pwned" because I am a troll. Someone is in charge in this relationship and it's not Jedao lol.
Mixed media (mostly watercolor and watercolor ground, some acrylics etc.) on birch panel.
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Quick signal boost for a Kickstarter for a Pattern Deck for M. A. Carrick's Rook and Rose epic fantasy trilogy! The art is gorgeous; I backed this and I really hope it comes to fruition!
The pattern deck is a set of cards created for the Rook & Rose epic fantasy series by M.A. Carrick (a collaboration between Marie Brennan and Alyc Helms). You can use them for divination, for narrative brainstorming — the deck has even shaped our story! — and for card games.
And now it's being brought to beautiful, full-color life by our artists! With cards by A.C. Esguerra and Avery Liell-Kok and a back design by H. Emiko Ogasawara, the pattern deck will be a beautiful resource for many purposes.
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FAQ (Foxily Asked Questions)
What are you working on?
Since I'm waiting for my edit letter for Lancers #2 (#1 has not yet been scheduled, you haven't missed it! we don't even have a final title yet!)...I have been working on a linguistics-flavored space opera, a wacky short story, and, for yucks, Cheris/Jedao One/Jedao Two hijinks thing (plus bonus Jedao, Cheris, and Kujen backstory) that may or may not amount to anything, code-named "Nine Emotional Beats in a Trenchcoat." This last is absolutely bass-ackwards for me; usually I start with the PLOT and then have to figure out the characters/emotions, so going the other way around is very bizarre. OTOH, plot is SO MUCH EASIER than characters so I'm sure I can come up with something involving lots of explosions. Please, I live to blow up fictional things.
What's one thing you're reading right now?
The late Gene Wolfe's The Dead Man and Other Horror Stories from Subterranean Press, which I preordered! I discovered Wolfe in college; Willard Straight Hall (Cornell University) had a reading library, and I picked up some old sf anthology and was wowed by "The Fifth Head of Cerberus." I'd heard about The Book of the New Sun so I read that too, and some other shorts. I don't expect to like every story (I consider an anthology or collection to have an excellent hit rate if I like HALF the stories, because every reader wants different things) but it's Gene Wolfe so I am optimistic. :)
What are you listening to lately?
The Phantom of the Opera, still my favorite musical. My daughter fell hard for Hamilton, which is amazing, but by virtue of the timeline, Hamilton did not exist when I was in middle/high school playing musical CDs nonstop so I couldn't imprint on it as an impressionable teenager. And also, I'm never going to identify with a musical about politicians. Phantom is about A COMPOSER!!!
What's a game you're playing lately?
Baldur's Gate 3. Why did no one tell me earlier you are at risk of turning into a spelljamming mind flayer?! This is the body horror threat that I have been craving all my life!!!
Also, I'm running Jedao so I expect this will end in tears, muhahahaha. Or maybe tentacles. My husband, who is playing with me, already regrets our life decisions. ;)
Who's an artist you're enjoying lately?
My daughter introduced me to Velinxi a while back! Beautiful manga-reminiscent art.
How do you feel about the legal deprecation of the age calculation system that inspired the hexarchate's [in South Korea]?
I don't have strong personal feelings about the change either way, although hilariously my cousins/aunts/uncles always made fun of me (in a nice way) that I could not for the life of me ever calculate MY Korean age without help. XD There are probably cultural factors involved that I'm not aware of, though! I must ask my mom. :)
I have a foxy question you haven't answered here!
Sure, please email deuceofgearsart@gmail.com and I'll get back to you!
And the obligatory catten pic:
That's right, she's "helping" us get Total Party Kill'd by SITTING IN FRONT OF MY KEYBOARD!
Actually, it could be worse. I used to do BOSS FIGHTS with my husband in Path of Exile WITH THE CATTEN SITTING ON MY MOUSE HAND WHILE I MOUSED. I deserve some kind of prize!