Author: grasshopper

Walking around NYC: Give me Those TMITHC Vibes!

Posted on by in High Castle

I just got back from the first trip of the new year, and let me just say that being in New York City has rekindled my love for The Man in the High Castle. I mean, these photos. Look at them. I can imagine Smith peering out his window or speeding down the streets in his staff car. I can picture Joe driving a delivery truck or walking along the sidewalk on his way to see Rita and Buddy.

 

I got myself a few souvenirs to go on my High Castle shelf. I couldn’t resist. The gift shop I purchased them from had all kinds of NYC trinkets (that goes without saying), and I probably would have purchased the entire store had I enough money. Needless to say, there will be some High Castle aesthetic photos in the near future.

With my passion for the show renewed, I got to thinking. What is my favorite season? Episode? Who is my favorite character (besides Smith)? I’ve never sat down and done an all-time favorite list for this show.

Top 5 episodes:
All of Season 1

  1. Three Monkeys (S1:E6)
    • I remember being blown away when I first watched this episode. I love everything about it, especially all of the cunning twists and turns on Smith’s part. When the camera pans on Smith’s face at the end as he holds his drink, his expression still sends chills down my spine.
  2. A Way Out (S1:E10)
    • I could spend an entire post discussing this episode and why I rank it #2. For now, I’ll just mention the final scene between Wagner and Hitler—powerful and tragic at the same time.
  3. Kintsugi (S2:E6)
    • Tagomi connecting with his family in the other world and trying to mend the damage his alternate self created is why I rank this one at #3. I cannot get over the touching way he repaired the mug with his grandson’s name on it.
  4. Duck and Cover (S2:E5)
    • Luke Kleintank deserves an Emmy for his performance (I know I say that a lot about High Castle, but I mean it). When he found out that he was Lebensborn and broke down in that abandoned nursery, I felt my heart break!
  5. Revelations (S1:E4)
    • This is one of those episodes where the soundtrack was spot on every second of the way. Frank’s most powerful moment was when he lowered the gun.

I’m going to talk about my favorite scenes in a future post because I feel that there are enough of them to rank—the same goes for characters too!

December Reflections

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We are in the second half of December, where the new year is glimmering just beyond the horizon. Christmas is almost here, and so is the season of setting new goals and striving to reach new heights–I realize I just sounded like a commercial for a gym membership, but hey, ‘tis the season!

I like to look back at my previous goals and see if I remembered what I wrote and if I accomplished what I had set out to do. Let’s take a look at December 2017.

My goal for 2018 is to finally—once and for all—to crack out of my shy Internet-self shell! I’m not a Marvel character with a quick, witty quip for every occasion. I’m not the most hyper active conversationalist, especially on the fast-paced platform that is Twitter (home of High Castle happenings).

Well…I definitely forgot I wrote that, ha ha! My how things have changed! Mission accomplished? I feel like this is an ancient fear I had back in the Beforetimes or something. The key to this endeavor was not giving a fuck. That’s it. I stopped stressing out over sounding “buzz worthy.” Trying to sound like someone else just because they get thousands of likes and follows is not the way to go. Trust me.

Let’s look at the short list of goals I made in 2017.

1. Taking my art to new levels

I’d say I improved a lot! I never thought in a million years I’d do realism. This is all thanks to the wonderful friends I’ve made via The Man in the High Castle and the amazing people who have worked on the show. You give me so much motivation to continue creating art! THANK YOU. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

2. Getting my novel, Sisters, polished and ready to publish

I am slowly getting there. 2018 made certain themes difficult.

3. Creating more black and white photo aesthetics

I forgot about this one, and I think this morphed into pencil sketches.

Okay, so now that’s out of the way, what do I want to do in 2019? 

I refuse to give up on Sisters just because of “the times.” I suppose this is my next fear to get over. I mean if someone doesn’t read the disclaimers I have plastered everywhere, then that is their problem. I don’t say this to be mean, but there is a frightening, growing trend of glossing over disclaimers, letters from the author, and wanting to ban books that may have something controversial in them. I’m going to be honest: this trend scared me away from Sisters for a time (no matter how fierce my disclaimer was or how Ann and Kathy began to question their environment, I was still terrified of moving forward). I ended up hiring a professional beta reader, and I’m glad I did! They gave me excellent, well written feedback that I’m going to use to improve the story.

Continue to improve my art!

Maybe make art/peg dolls a side gig and start selling it? I am giving this some serious thought!

Continue to fight my inner shyness. This has always been a struggle for me. I’ve lost count the number of times I didn’t get credit for something due to my inherent inclination to say nothing because people are scary (lol!). I made huge strides this year, especially at work (where it counts!) and want to continue this.

Here’s to hoping 2019 is a year of joy, progress, and peace!

What do you want to accomplish in 2019?

Kindness Matters

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In this era of lightning fast doom and gloom news and social media tirades, the beautiful side of humanity is often drowned out and shoved to the back. We forget to pause and remember the little things, the tiny gestures that restore our faith in humanity. 

Kindness matters.

If I ever ran for president, this would be my platform.

“Teacher, I have the wrong coins.” 

Let’s rewind this a bit…okay, a lot. Let’s go all the way back to grade school. I was 5 or 6 years old, and my family was extremely poor. I remember the powdered milk that came in boxes and getting hand-me-downs from some of the other children in Sunday school. We even qualified for discounted school lunches at 40 cents.

Young me knew what three coins I had to bring: a big one, a small one, and a tiny one (a quarter, nickel, and dime). One morning, I only had the tiny and small one. I put them in my pocket and worried all morning about not having the big one. The teacher had us line up for lunch, after which, she’d lead us out of the classroom and into the cafeteria.

My nerves nagged at my senses, and I thought for sure the lunch lady was going to send me right to detention without lunch for not having the big coin. I panicked and shuffled my feet to the end of the line. The teacher noticed that I looked upset and asked what was wrong.

“Teacher, I have the wrong coins!” I wailed. I produced the dime and nickel, showing them to her in my tiny, trembling palm. “I need a big one and I don’t have a big one!”

“It’s okay,” she said in a soft voice. She started digging in her large purse. “Here you go,” she smiled, placing a quarter into my hand. Relief washed over me as I stared at the three coins.

…

This is one of those memories that has always stayed with me. That teacher made sure that I would not go hungry that day, and I’ll never forget that moment of kindness when she placed the quarter into my open palm. They wouldn’t have given me detention for something like that, but when you’re a little kid at school, EvErYtHiNg is scary enough for detention! 

It’s gestures like this that should be spread all over social media. It’s moments like this that restore my faith in humanity.

Do you have a memory that you’ll forever hold onto because someone was kind to you?

Be kind out there,
~mlc

A Thanksgiving to Remember

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As Thanksgiving approaches (with lightning speed, I might add), I’ve been walking down memory lane and revisiting past holidays. As the years go by, fewer and fewer stick out in my mind (what can I say? It’s a side effect of getting older 😉 ), but there will always be a select few that I’ll always remember and treasure forever.

One of the few I can still picture in vivid detail was my first Thanksgiving away from home.

It was 1999, and I was fresh out of Basic Training. That September, I was sent to Keesler AFB in Biloxi, Mississippi for tech school. I volunteered for the drill team right out of the gate. I loved the marches, formations, my teammates, and the comradery; hell, I loved everything about Keesler. To this day, I look fondly on the time I spent there.

Let’s fast forward to November of that same year because this will end up being a novel if I don’t!

The powers that be did what they could to let us go home for the holiday, but this isn’t an ideal world, and this is the one part that is fuzzy. I don’t remember why some of us couldn’t go home for Thanksgiving, so I’ll leave it at that.

We were hanging out around one of the smoke pits near the dormitories (just picture a wooden gazebo) and lamenting over the fact that we had to stay and were going to miss out on some good food. I mean, the chow hall was awesome, but there is nothing like a home-cooked Thanksgiving turkey.

The drill team leader, a short airman with black hair cut just below her ears stood up, her manner stoic as she lifted her head. The movement was so commanding, that it silenced the entire gazebo.

“We will make our own Thanksgiving,” she declared.

 And that was all it took.

The smoke pit turned into an excited Thanksgiving Command Center as we planned the meal. It would be held in the fishbowl (a community center for us airmen in training, complete with a kitchen). We had everything worked out to a capital T, right down to who’d ask the chaplain for permission to use the kitchen. 

I’ll never forget playing Risk, laughing and joking the day away as the cozy aroma of turkey, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie filled the air. I’ll never forget drinking cider as I looked down at my plastic little men (contemplating their next move as I eyed the plastic men of my friends), the cheerful chatter, the fervent excitement when the food was ready, or the way everyone pitched in to clean up.

It was our first Thanksgiving away from home, but we made it our own, and I will always treasure the memory of us coming together that wonderful Thursday afternoon.

It was a testament to the America I love, the America where people from all walks of life come together in love and kindness. This is the America we must fight for, now, more than ever.

Happy Thanksgiving, and remember:
Kindness matters.

❤ mlc

It’s that Time of Year Again!

Posted on by in NaNoWriMo, Sisters

It’s that time of year again, folks! NaNoWriMo is back!

Last year I jumped in with vague impressions of a story and sank, but this year, I’ve got myself an outline, a plot, and an ending.

Sisters: Behind the Iron Eagle, take two!

I don’t know if the political climate is right for the original Sisters. I started it before a certain election. And despite the fact that I have disclaimers plastered everywhere, I am still wary about publishing it. I don’t want to give up entirely because I put a lot of research into it, and let me tell you, researching Evil in WWII will make your gut churn.

I understand why Philip K. Dick couldn’t bring himself to dive deep into the horrors and atrocities of the Third Reich for his unfinished sequel to The Man in the High Castle. From Wikipedia, The Man in the High Castle [book]:

Dick said that he had “started several times to write a sequel”, but progressed little, because he was too disturbed by his original research for The Man in the High Castle and could not mentally bear “to go back and read about Nazis again.”

Moving on from the dark and depressing…

Since there is a world of characters and places that already exist in my head that I’m not ready to toss into the Great Void yet, I started looking at other alternate endings to WWII, and Behind the Iron Eagle (BTIE) was born.

In BTIE, the allies dispersed after a grave disagreement over the handling of a defeated Germany. Only the Red Army remained as an occupying force in the end. Japan and the United States was at a stalemate, signing a non-aggression pact where Japan got Hawaii, and the US was awarded a lucrative manufacturing contract. Everything seemed to be going well after 1945 for the US and Japan. Their newly minted friendship created an economic boom.

But the great bear grew hungry. In 1955, the Soviet Union invaded the United States and defeated her.

The characters from Sisters return in BTIE. The People’s Republic of the United States is their way of life. They know nothing else, but is it a better life than the one we enjoy today?

Only time will tell as I trek through NaNoWriMo to write their journey!

If you are doing NaNoWriMo this year and would like to add me as a writing buddy, feel free!

Add Me! RlyehDreams