Love Letters From Robots - Published!

It is my most distinct pleasure to announce that my flash piece, Love Letters From Robots is now available to read at Daily Science Fiction!

And with this, I can finally say I am a published author.

Feels good, y'all.

Dear New Novelist: Push Down, Lift Up

I had someone recently ask my thoughts on what to do about a villain. They said it's more believable and socially acceptable for the devious, calculating villain to be a white male, but more progressive to have the racial and gender identity fit the character instead of shoving them into the white male block, even if they're the one facing the fall at the end. Should they be true to their story and character, they asked me, or should they make it fit the easiest hole to fill. This is what I told them.

Dear New Novelist, it's about balancing the scales. If you're going to push down on a type of person that exists in real life, you need to raise up someone of the same type. If you've got a bad orc, you don't need a good orc to counter it. Orcs aren't real. But if you've got a black villain, you sure as hell better have a black hero on an equal level. By equal level, I mean you can't balance out your black Big Bad with the black bartender who overheard an important tip. The villain has considerably more weight to the story. It doesn't balance out equally. You need someone on the level of the hero, the #1 companion, and/or the mentor to balance out how much you're pushing down on the villain.

For example, consider the absolutely amazing Black Panther movie (minor spoilers ahead). There are only two important white characters: Ulysses Klaue and Everett Ross. Imagine, for a moment, if there was only Klaue. A whole movie, and the only white character is a villain. Not THE villain, but A villain. How would that feel? Some white people might not bat an eye, while others would wonder, "Is this a statement about my race as invaders and villains? Do the makers of this think I'm a bad guy just because of my skin?" Probably wouldn't have been, but it would FEEL like it, because that's the only representative of our race in the movie. But he wasn't. There was also Ross. Not the most important character, wasn't much of a good guy in the last movie he was in, but this is his redemption arc. He gets to be a hero. Not THE hero, but A hero. Exactly equal to the other white man. One was pushed down, one was raised up. Perfectly balanced, and it made the movie stronger for it.

Your novel is the exact same. People of many races and genders are going to be reading your book, new novelist, and they'll be looking for themselves in it. If they only see themselves being pushed down, some will wonder, "Is this what the author thinks of me?" Your intent doesn't matter. You can't go to every single person and tell them, "No, I don't think that way, I swear." You have to show it in action in your story. If you're going to push down, balance the scales.

Fear is the Right Direction

The other day, Neil Gaiman made a tweet that I've actually thought for a long time, but it's Neil Gaiman so of course he said it a thousand times better than I could:

It's true. That fear you feel when you're taking the first new step of something, anything, is paralyzing. "What if I'm not good?" "What if I fail?" "What if I can't?" In your mind, you know the answer is, "Then keep going." If you just try, you'll learn that you can, even if it's hard. It may not be good, you may fail a lot, but you'll learn. Keep trying, keep learning, and eventually, you'll stop falling flat. But first, it's gonna scare the crap out of you.

It's like walking through the middle of an endless barfight. You know if you step in there, you're gonna get hit, by fists if you're lucky, bottles and mugs if you're not. You know it's gonna hurt either way. You know in the worst case, you might not even make it through to the drink waiting on the other side. You can stand on the edges and study, watching for patterns to try and stop yourself getting hit, watching other people run the gauntlet, study the experts as they dance through the blows untouched, but study can never be as good a teacher as action.

You have to step in and start taking the punches. Maybe it won't be as bad as you expect, or maybe it'll be worse, but you're in it now. The first step is the hardest. Now you can run. Once you're on the other side, maybe you'll realize it wasn't so bad. You can do it again. You do. At the end, you'll realize you've become the dancer that others are studying. So go on. Write that book. Submit that query you've been starting and restarting. Take that trip. Ask that special someone out. Do that thing that's scaring you.

On a related note, I'll be starting up that video game streaming I discussed way back in Sept 2016. If you want to watch me make a complete idiot of myself playing classic games, I'll be live Wednesdays at 7 starting tomorrow at twitch.tv/MaxNChachi. And I am scared shitless, so I know I'm heading in the right direction. Come with me?