I was reading a critique of a series, a successful series, of novels. I think it's an urban fantasy/horror thing where the main character has a specific paranormal ability, limited, but useful in her detective work. She had a love interest, who was maybe on and off, but ...

You Kids Are Testing My Limits
Banes at 12:00AM, March 2, 2023Prose v Comics
Banes at 12:00AM, Feb. 23, 2023
When I first started putting together my story idea for Typical Strange many years ago, I imagined it to be an animated series. With a lot of time and effort and learning Toon Boom software along the way, I had a pretty strong idea of the main characters, and a ...
The Modern Classics: Die Hard
Banes at 12:00AM, Feb. 16, 2023
Die Hard was a surprise smash hit back in the day, and became famous in some circles as a template for screenwriters to pitch their stories (“It's Die Hard on a bus”…or a boat, or a jet, or in a house).
It's also talked about as a ...
Shmuck Bait
Banes at 12:00AM, Feb. 9, 2023
Shmuck Bait is the name, I think coined by one of the Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul writers, where a cliffhanger or shocking ending leads the audience to believe something major has changed. For example, the appearance that a major character has died. But when the next episode/issue/book ...
The New Duck Webcomics Anthology Project
Banes at 12:00AM, Feb. 2, 2023
Hello everyone, Genejoke here to talk about the second drunkduck anthology.
Things have been ticking away slowly in the background and we have four complete stories and a number in the works, however things have gone a little quiet since the holidays so it's time to get things moving ...
The Cure For Procrastination
Banes at 12:00AM, Jan. 26, 2023
I've been a notorious procrastinator. Well, notorious in my own mind at least.
Last summer my folks were goodly enough to give me a large pile of dirt.
Hey, did you say that's more than I deserved? You cheeky devil!
It was to fill some holes and ruts ...
The Challenge of Part Three
Banes at 12:00AM, Jan. 19, 2023
And a One and a Two and a–
The third and possibly final volume of the Guardians of the Galaxy films is coming out later this year. Or next year. Or whatever.
I liked the first two a lot, and in an interview snippet, James Gunn mentioned how the third ...
The Cure for Jealousy
Banes at 12:00AM, Jan. 12, 2023
Hey, you!
I've rarely been jealous of anyone. Certainly moreso when I was younger. Other people would sometimes (well, often) seem to have more going on in some area of life. There were plenty of folks who I'd look at and imagine having their intelligence. Or their confidence ...
What Would Happen If...
Banes at 12:00AM, Jan. 5, 2023
what if there was a creepy basement…
Barbarian was one of the new movies I enjoyed last year. As far as I know, it got good reviews, and a mostly-positive reception. Some people criticized it for making no sense. It's a fair point - although like I said, I enjoyed ...
Four Endings
Banes at 12:00AM, Dec. 29, 2022
As we approach the end of another year, I had a few ideas about topics related to endings.
If you've read my articles for awhile, you may remember discussions about wants and needs - the plot objective that is more ‘physical’ is the want, and the emotional or thematic pursuit ...