Month: December 2017

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Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency

So in the wake of some truly terrible things going on in both the world and the country I live in, I am going to talk about some things that bring me joy.

Tonight I am going to talk about Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency and why I love it so much. I’ve always loved Douglas Adams a lot ever since I picked up the Hitchhiker’s five book trilogy. However, it’s hard to translate that brilliance and that weirdness to screen.

This TV show is exactly what I would expect from Douglas Adams and it’s glorious. It’s absolutely glorious. The cast is amazing and diverse. It’s inclusive and it will make you feel the most wonderful joy and the fiercest anger (look I still have feelings about the cliffhanger ending of the first season that involved me Twitter yelling at the writer/producers who promptly liked all of those angry tweets and tweeted back appropriate gifs).   The most badass people are women.  One of them, the queen of kickassery is a woman of color, played by the unstoppable Jade Eshete.    In season two, we get disabled characters who become superheroes in their own right WITHOUT magically curing them of their disabilities.  I literally could not tell you another show that did something like that.  I cannot even put into words how much that meant to me.

Amanda with Wapti Wanasi

It captures the wonder and mystery and sheer undiluted or disguised glee that I can only compare to the feelings I had when I first discovered fandom online in the beginnings of the Harry Potter heyday.   Before the wank started or the shipping wars got serious, there was just this sheer awesome feedback loop of so many excited nerds all nerding out about the same thing.  All of that collected joy and excitement overflowing everywhere as the fandom kept growing.

That’s Dirk Gently.   That’s the show in a nutshell.  That’s the collected fandom in a nutshell.   We’re all wonderful hilarious nerds gathered together (because everything is connected) to love on this show.  The showrunners, cast, crew also know that and are more than willing to engage with the fans in increasingly fun and hilarious ways.

Dirk Gently s2 partial cast picture. Feat: Rowdy 3 (five members), a holistic detective and his assistant, a good prince and his sworn sword, and the evil power mad queen.
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Update: Patreon Shenanigans

So in an update to this post, I am deliriously happy to report that Patreon has acknowledged that they done screwed up and that they are not actually rolling out the updates to their fee structure that they had announced.   So I am thrilled they are being not evil in this particular way.  However,  they have burned a lot of trust and I will be continuing to watch and research other alternatives in case something like this goes down again.

You can read their apology post here.

So currently on Patreon is the story of why my mother has a Russian Motherhood Medal and then the December short story will be posted soon.

Any Patreon alternatives you want to drop in the comments, I’d be appreciative.

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In Response to the recent Patreon News

After being notified of the changes that Patreon is making to their fee structures and seeing the responses from all of my fellow creators about this  –   I’ve come to a couple of conclusions.

I’ll be pulling stuff off my Patreon probably before the end of the month, to spare my patrons those fees unless they change their tune before it’s effective.  I will, however, leave it up until I make the switch to another site.  I am still researching options,  my dear friend and fellow creator, Kitty Chandler has a breakdown of different options other than Patreon here.

There’s been a lot of buzz about this lately.  From the way this was handled to the way they are responding or not responding to the criticisms.  My opinion on it is that it is absolutely crap timing, that I will be emailing all of my patrons personally to explain a little more about my rationale, where I’ll be heading and where they can find me.    It sucks.   It sucks and it’s not fair to my patrons and I hate being pinned between a rock and a hard place.

There will be a longer post later when I have a moment to really stop and compose my thoughts further and when I’m not be-bopping between places like a mad thing because December and because real life is crazy busy this month, even without bringing the holiday into it.

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Wednesday Reads (On Thursday)

Because I like to be a rebel and Wednesday was  full of preparations for this early Thursday morning and also troubleshooting cable issues ( apparently all the channels decided to change and that disrupted a lot of things).

So what am I reading, what have I currently read, and what’s still upcoming from the To Read Pile?

Well, glad you asked.

What I’m Reading:

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel – which has been recommended to me by many places and people and I am happy to report that they were all correct. This book is fascinating for many reasons. It will draw you in with the dialogue and ease of reading and keep you by the narration of the life and viewpoint of a very well known man in one of British history’s most well known periods. The prose is captivating and Hilary Mantel weaves the historical details into a narrative that is easily understood. I haven’t yet seen the PBS Masterpiece Special they’ve based on this, but if they’re true to the book, then it will be fantastic I’m sure.

Fading Suns: RPG book – because this will factor into Christmas gifts and I am making sure that I am familiar with the system and requirements so that modules can be built.   I’m dipping more into GMing which will be fun.

What I’ve Finished:

The second Mitch Rapp book, (chronologically) Kill Shot by Vince Flynn was a hell of a sequel to American Assassin. Mitch gets himself into and out of trouble with a little bit of help from Irene and Thomas and we see Stan Hurley and our good old friend Victor again. It was overall a fairly satisfying read and I’ll be fascinated to see if this is the next Flynn novel to get movie treatment.  I have a lot more feelings about this book, but they are all massively spoileriffic so if you’ve read it,  poke me in the comments and we can flail over it together.

Church Refugees by Ashleigh Hope and Josh Packard

This was an interesting book that I was reading, partly for research and partly for personal reasons.  It’s amazing and also painful.   It talks about the Dones, people who are followers of a certain religious path that are for one reason or another, done with the Church as the institution we are familiar with, but not done with their faith. It takes a sociological look at this phenomenon  and though both contributors are themselves believers in this religion, they try and minimize their internal bias to only focus on the data gathered.  Their academic and scientific standards have been top notch and I want to throw this book at every pastor and missionary I know.   Because I believe it will be that helpful, because I think it will be able to express things in a way that will make sense and be better able to communicate why precisely there are a lot of people leaving the church in order to serve God more.

Murder on the Orient Express – Agatha Christie’s amazing novel about a murder on a train and the detective who has to solve the mystery while the train is stuck in the snow. One of the more interesting character novels, as it provides a great insight into Hercule Poirot’s mindset and personal set of ethics.

What’s Next:

Old Man’s War – my first Scalzi novel! I’m excited to read this.

The King in Yellow – Robert Chambers – this one is for research purposes, but I am so curious about it.  I’ve heard so much about it here and there.

What are you reading?   Share in the comments!

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