N.C. Reed's Blog, page 10

Sorry about last Friday, folks. I was out of town and despite my increasing tablet skills, updating a blog or website from a tablet and a HotSpot remains outside my skill set, at least on a level of competence I’m comfortable with :)

Today’s question is one I get a good bit from time to time, especially about certain characters, and that is;

Where do your character ideas come from?

There is no one size fits all answer for that question, partly because there’s no ‘formula’ that I follow in setting up characters or story lines.

Sometimes I write a story line for a character that I’ve come up with, and other times I write a character to fit inside a story I want to tell. So many people write and tell me “You know, I have someone like Billy in my family” or “I know a guy that’s a lot like Roland” or “Parno reminds me of this character or that guy” and so forth.

To tell you the truth, that’s usually what I’m looking to do. Almost all of us know someone like Billy Todd. A person who has challenges but doesn’t allow those challenges to rule them. To box them in or define them as people, or decide how they live. Those individuals are some of the people that I have the greatest respect for. Despite the curves life has thrown at them, they refuse to just lie down but instead meet life head on.

You simply cannot fail to respect someone like that, in my opinion. So many times I see people who overcome issues like that and it makes me question myself. Could I be that strong? Could I overcome that difficulty, or deal with that situation? I know it can be done because I see people who do, but would I, personally, have that kind of strength? Would I have the determination to overcome? To keep plugging away regardless of how hopeless it might seem to others?

Like most of you I daresay, I’d like to hope that I would. And, again like most of you I suspect, I always enjoy seeing someone triumph over such difficulties. It’s uplifting, it’s motivating, it’s inspirational.

Some of my characters are sometimes based loosely on people I’ve known in real life. Not directly of course, but in toto. For instance, a character in a story I’ve created might have a trait from this person I knew, and another trait from someone else I knew, and so on down the line.

In other words, the character isn’t a direct representative of any one person I’ve known, but a combination of traits that I’ve encountered among several people over my life. A little here, a little there, and a little bit more from over ‘yonder’ so to speak. I always strive for realism, so I try to use real character traits. There is no ‘perfect’ person, so there aren’t any ‘perfect’ characters in my stories.

People make mistakes. People have character flaws. People do wrong things. People do good things. People do bad things, though perhaps for a good reason. That’s real life, and I try to make my books and stories about ‘real’ people, insofar as I strive to create characters that you, the reader, can look at and go ‘yeah, I know a guy/gal like that’. Or even ‘that’s what I would have done in that situation’.

Or in some cases you may say ‘there’s no way I’d have done that the same way’. Since real life is sometimes flawed, characters in good stories should have those flaws too, in my opinion. My goal is always to create a good story that is not only entertaining, but believable.

I mean, we’ve all read the story where the hero had been beat up repeatedly, shot three times, gone days without rest, food or water, but still manages to save the world, right? Same for the movies. But let’s be reasonable. There’s very few people who are capable of that kind of thing. It’s not beyond the realm of possibility of course, as is proven by many of the men entitled to wear the Medal of Honor. But it’s unusual. Rare.

There are some truly incredible people in the world, however. Capable of going beyond even what they themselves believed they were able to accomplish. Sometimes they are motivated by something within themselves, sometimes by outside factors such as a great leader. The thing that strikes me the most, though, is that when you speak to such people, they’re, well, people. They aren’t machines, they aren’t robots, they’re people; incredible people to be sure, but they’re real.

I always hope to ‘create’ such real people, real characters, in my writing. I don’t think I have a single character that would come close to the definition of ‘perfect’. But then I’ve never met a perfect person in real life, either.

So there’s really no absolute ‘rule’ for character creation for me. The only real litmus test for anything I do is that it needs to be ‘real’. The reader needs to be able to believe that the character could be real, and could really accomplish what he/she is doing.

Now, that doesn’t include certain genres that I sometimes dabble in, such as the fantasy or supernatural realm, but those terms themselves are indicative of the character not being real. That’s the whole point, after all. A character that’s beyond anything we are, in a story that’s beyond anything we’ll ever encounter.

And even then I strive to avoid the ‘perfect’ character tag. Even those characters that are larger than life are usually still flawed in some way, even if it’s only minor. And I think that’s important because it still allows the reader to connect with that character even though they can’t honestly identify with someone who has abilities or ‘powers’ that otherwise transcend real life.

The bottom line is, any character you create is limited by only two things; your own life experiences, and your imagination. Your life experiences help you make characters that ‘feel real’, while you imagination makes those same characters fascinating because of their individual qualities and the situations they find themselves in.

A second question today is more of a sidebar in this case, and that is; “When will we see Friggin’ Zombies?”

The answer is soon, but I don’t have an absolute date as of this writing. I know that the cover work is finished other than whatever ‘tweaking’ the artist does (and I have to say it was pretty cool. I’ll be posting the final rendering here when I get it) and the type/proofing is all but finished. So it’s possible we may see it even later this weekend on Amazon, or early next week.

When it’s ready, however, I’ll post a notice here, on Facebook, and Twitter as I always try to do.

Thanks to everyone who takes the time to send me a comment, or to ask a question. I always enjoy it, even if it does take me some time to get around to providing an answer. I always assume that you’d rather I be writing than talking, though :P

Until next time!

NCR

It is that time once more! I could have sworn I just did this yesterday this last week went by so fast. Sometimes it seems there’s not enough time in the day anymore.

I chose two questions today that are asked fairly frequently in e-mails that I receive. The first one is,

where do you get your ideas?

That’s a good question, and I’m not sure I know the exact answer. I’ve always had a pretty good imagination. As a child I read a great deal, everything from sci-fi to the World Book of Knowledge (yes, I’m that old). I’m very fortunate in that most of what I read will stick with me, at least for a while, and it’s possible that all of that reading helps my imagination work like it does.

It honestly seems sometimes as if there’s no way to have an actual ‘original’ idea anymore. Everything you write is simply a new twist or turn on an old idea or theme. I try to work around that and come up with truly unique ideas, but I don’t always succeed. And sometimes I do have a great original idea but I just can’t find a way to make it work in a story line. Once in a while you just have to give up and move on I suppose. I hate doing that to be honest, but sometimes you simply hit a brick wall that won’t come down no matter how hard you slam your head into it.

When a notion comes to me I’ll write it down. Then, even as I’m doing something else my mind seems to always be turning that idea over, looking at it from every angle I can think of. Sometimes I’m able to turn that into a story, and sometimes I can’t. But in all honesty, I never know where the next idea will come from. I’ll give you a for instance that’s a bit of a spoiler.

Even though “Friggin’ Zombies” has yet to be released, I’ve already started a new Zombie novel based on youngsters in my own family. The idea popped into my head and wouldn’t go away, so now it’s already several pages along as I work to flesh out the characters and the plot. The idea that gave life to this new story was as simple as ‘how well do you think ‘so and so’ would do in the Zombie apocalypse?’

Which led me to evaluate the young people in my own family, which led me to the conclusion that they would probably do okay, since they’re all rough and tumble and can shoot the wings off a fly (and that’s only a slight exaggeration).

So that’s a peek into my thought process, such as it is. I admit that sometimes it simply doesn’t make sense, even to me. I go through a lot of paper though sketching outlines that never amount to anything, :)

The second question is one I’m sure all writers get from time to time, and it’s fairly simple; how do you find time to write?

You don’t. You make time to write. You have to decide if you want to write or not, and then make time to make it happen. That means you have to listen to the game on Saturday instead of watch it. It means you catch up on your favorite TV shows when you’ve got a writer’s block instead of watching it every week when it’s fresh.

You have to prioritize your time. You learn to carry a notebook and a pen/pencil everywhere you go because you never know when a good line or idea will hit you, and if you don’t write it down you may forget it later. I’ve lost many a good one-liners due to lack of a writing instrument.

There are times when you don’t want to write. You want to watch the game, you want to read someone else’s work, you want to catch a movie with your spouse or take them to dinner, but. . .you write instead as long as the words are flowing. If you don’t, then you won’t make it.

The thing is, it gets easier to do as you go along. Maybe it’s a habit you get into or it’s simply a state of mind that you acquire as you mature as a writer, but it becomes less of a challenge to ‘find’ time to write. And once you have a book or a magazine article in print, that’s about the best motivation you’ll ever imagine for ‘finding’ time to write more. If you want to write, then you have to make time to actually write.

And whatever you’re doing, write. You may write two hundred pages of something that will never see the light of day and think it’s a complete waste, but it wasn’t because you learned something about your craft as you wrote it. Maybe you learned how to better describe a character’s traits or actions, or perhaps how to better lay out a story line or introduce a new story or character. Whatever it might be, you can just about be sure that somewhere in that two hundred pages that you may despise as a waste of your time, you learned something that’s going to make you a better writer down the road.

So don’t think of it as wasted. If you have to have a category for it, consider it ‘practice’. Whatever you’re doing in life, you have to practice in order to get good at it. Writing is no different. It’s work, and it takes dedication and discipline, both of which are as important as any kind of ‘natural’ talent because if you don’t have the discipline to do the work, then you’ll never make use of that talent.

I’ll end today’s session with this word of advice to anyone who wants to write; DO IT. Make time, sit down at the desk or wherever you choose to work, and just start hammering away. You may hate that first effort, and you may still be hating at the tenth effort, but you’ll be better by then, too.

Tell your story. Only you can.

NCR

Technically it’s still very late on Thursday, but since I’m answering comments and e-mail I decided to go ahead and do this a little early. First, thanks to everyone for both the public and private responses to the first Q&A Friday! I really appreciate it just like I appreciate your following me and my work.

Today’s first question relates to how I release novels, such as ‘why so long between sequels’ and ‘why are there other books in between’, and so forth.

Answer:

I work on multiple projects at once, sometimes working on as many as six things in any given day. That means that I might go several months (as I did this year) with little in the way of released material, then have three or more works released in just as many months as those projects are finished one after the other. I’ve always worked that way and find it to be a more efficient use of my time. If I’m ‘stumped’ on one project, I move to another and work there. Sooner or later, sooner if I’m lucky, my ‘block’ will lift and I’m back working on the first project. If it doesn’t, then I’ll move on to something else while my mind mulls over the problem with the first work.

I’ve read of authors who work like this and others who say they simply cannot do it. I don’t know which way is better, and believe that it depends on the individual. For me it allows me to keep working even when the primary project I want to complete is at a standstill because I can’t work around a problem in the plot. It keeps me busy, that’s for sure.

Another thing is that I sometimes get a new idea for a new story and have to start working on it right away, a compulsion that I can’t seem to beat and I’m not sure I’d want to. Billy was a compulsion. Roland was at least somewhat a compulsion. Tammy and Ringo was absolutely a compulsion. So for me this approach works.

BUT, this also means that I might release three, four or five works before the first gets a follow-up or sequel. Also, neither Billy, nor Roland were intended to have such followups. Parno was always intended to be a trilogy, and even with that plan in place it’s a slow process. Ideas are easy it seems sometimes. Dialogue is not.

There is also how well a story is received. For instance, I released a short read called ‘Monster of Creasy’s Hollow’ last year that was intended to be part of a series of short reads. It was completely outside my normal range of work and genre, but something I had immense fun writing. It did okay, but was not as well received as Billy or Roland and so on. That being the case, I tend to try to focus my efforts on what readers want to the extent that I can. I think that’s only fair, since it’s the readers who make it possible for me to keep doing this. I want to entertain. If you aren’t enjoying the story then I’m not doing it right; that’s how I’ve always looked at it. As I’ve said before, I’m less of a writer and more of a story-teller. I want the story to draw you in and take you to where the characters are. I want you to feel like you’re part of the story yourself. When you don’t, then no matter how well a book is received I still feel like I let you down a little. I try not to do that.

So, long story short, the Defenders of the Rift saga is still ongoing, but I haven’t spent a great deal of time on it, relegating it to the same status as “Bonespear”, that of a guilty pleasure that I work on when I really should be doing something else but can’t seem to get it together.

And that is why my release schedule seems so scattergun in it’s approach.

Second question: Why are some books so much longer than others?

Answer:

There’s more than one answer to this. First, I don’t write according to page count. If I go by anything length wise it’s wordcount. Page count can be changed by such simple things as formatting, spacing or even type setting. Word counts on the other hand remain the same regardless of all of those changes and most others.

For instance a reviewer on Amazon once complained of one of my works that I had ‘padded’ the story by double spacing the lines, having a blank line between paragraphs, blank pages between chapters and so on ALL TO RAISE the page count and give the ‘appearance’ of a longer novel.

ALL OF THOSE ITEMS are industry standards for the most part, and are part of the formatting guidelines that Amazon asks writers to use in preparing manuscripts for publication on Amazon. You don’t have to follow them I suppose, but when the platform you’re placing your work on suggests you do something, I try to listen. When the publishing company who pays for your advertising and printing asks you to do it, I try much harder to listen, lol.

Also, I don’t write looking at page counts. I write to tell a story. When that story is finished, I stop. If it’s part of a longer story then when the part I’m working on is finished, I stop. I don’t start out saying ‘okay, this will be a four hundred pager’. I start out with ‘this is the main character and this is the story I want to tell’. That’s what I work with. I stop when I’m satisfied that the story, or at least that part of it, is told.

For instance, I had a e-mail concerning Tammy and Ringo having fewer pages than Billy. Being about a third as many words as Billy that was almost certainly going to be true. But where do you stop a story that looks like the end of the world? At least the end of civilization as we know it? When T&R ends, they are isolated, fairly safe, and have just discovered there no ‘cure’ will be forthcoming. No matter how well prepared you are, that’s a mind blower for most folks. That leg of their journey is ended, one way or another, so that part of the story ends there.

Also T&R will, Lord willing, be part of a longer story in the months to come, so the ‘story’ isn’t really finished, just their part of it. Or not, as I said before, since they will almost certainly appear again at some point when I get the second story working again. Or the third, depending on how the second story develops as I work on it. Right now there is give or take as to whether they will enter the second novel until the very end, setting up the third story.

Anyway, the difference in ‘length’ is the difference in stories. How the story is told, from what perspective it’s told, and how far-reaching the arc is going to be. Some stories are longer, but have only one book because that’s all of that story. Some are shorter because that part of the story is ended, yet there is more behind it in another story line set in the same circumstance.

And with that I’ll end this session of Q&A Fridays with a large THANK YOU to all of you who support my work. To me, the fact that you ask these questions means that you are interested not just in what I’ve done so far, but what I’d doing next. That, to me, is probably one of the highest compliments a writer can receive, and I thank you for it over and over.

Until next time,

NCR

Today I’m going to try and start something new. As a rule over the years I haven’t had regular blog posts since I’m reluctant to start something or make promises that I may not be able to keep. Sometimes there just isn’t anything to write about a subject, no matter how interesting it might be.

Since then however I have entered the lofty (though in no way high paying, lol) realm of Author, and people sometimes want to know things. I try to reply and respond to personal messages as often as I can but it is time consuming and sometimes I just don’t have enough time in a day, or even a week. And in many cases, several people a similar question. Because of those similarities, I’m going to start trying to do this Q & A Friday to answer some of those most commonly asked questions. Comments and additional questions are always welcome, and as with any others I will try to reply/respond when and if I can.

That being said, here goes, the first subject being ‘sequels’, as in, will _______ have a sequel? I’ll go down the list.

ODD BILLY TODD – possibly at some point in the future, though it was never planned. Billy was always meant to be a single story and I pretty much ended it on a good, solid note. Because of so many requests I have begun to sketch a bare bones outline for it, but that’s all it is at the moment and no work is currently being done on it.

ROLAND – probably. I am currently working on a sequel to Roland, called Paladin Rising. It’s roughly a third of the way finished at this point though it needs polishing and a little character re-work here and there. Lord willing I should live so long and stay healthy then Roland will almost certainly at some point have a follow-up.

PARNO – Absolutely. Unlike Billy and Roland, Parno was always meant to be a trilogy. The second book, Parno’s Destiny, is well under way at the moment and doing pretty well I think. Lord willing I hope it will be released later this year, but at this point no release date has been set. There will be at least two more books featuring Parno, however if the Lord let’s me live to see them done.

Tammy and Ringo – Yes and no. Tammy and Ringo, though it isn’t listed on the Amazon page or in the novel itself, is set in a larger ‘universe’ so to speak called ‘Rabid’. There is already one partially completed work in that same universe that may or may not feature Tammy and Ringo or Hiram and Helen or all or none. At this point I’m not sure how the next book will go just yet. However, again Lord willing, Tammy and Ringo will in all likelihood return at some point in the series, perhaps even featured in their own story once more though that isn’t something I’m willing to promise.

The Monster of Creasy’s Hollow – Yes, assuming it ever gains any real interest. This is far outside my normal writing area and is meant to be a series of novella type YA books. The second one is on hold at the moment because of other projects, but is about forty percent finished I’d estimate.

The Kid – No. Always intended as a short story with no follow up.

SECOND QUESTION (ish)

When will your new book be out?

My latest novel is called “Friggin’ Zombies” a working title that by consensus of the proof readers has stuck. It is a hopefully funny look at a man who realizes that zombies are real, and they are coming, and follows his attempts to prepare himself for it. It was delivered to the publishers at Creative Texts Publishing yesterday. It will have to be edited, proof-read and formatted, after which it will be available as an e-book and in paperback.

SIDE NOTE: All of my titles that were released as an indie self-published book will eventually be given the professional treatment as Parno was and then offered in paperback. Those take a back burner to newer works of course, and I am far from their only writer, so please be patient. Their work in these areas is soooo much better than mine I promise it’s worth it.

THIRD QUESTION; ARE YOU EVER GOING TO FINISH BONESPEAR? Note the caps. That’s because I often get messages in caps about Bonespear.

The Bonespear Chronicles was supposed to be a lark. A joke. Something I did when I had writer’s block that would let me free my mind a bit and still entertain people.

Only it grew, and grew, and then grew some more. I have had many many many people (Mrs Bad among them) want more Bonespear. And I hope there will be more one day, but. . .writing in the Bonespear world is not always easy. It’s in first person and I have to think in terms of the North Pole that I ‘grew’ in my head all the while just thinking this was a lark. A lampoon even. So I’m trying. But taking something that you were just intending to have fun with and turning it into a finished product is a lot harder than I just made it sound. I’ve tossed at least five ideas out the window about how to continue the story so far, but I do still spend a great deal of my copious spare time working on it. I actually like it myself and enjoy the story, but sometimes characters take on a life of their own, as do stories, and Bonespear was one of them. I’m honestly trying, but as I’ve said many times before, I always try to present the reader with the best possible story I can. Far too many people have been kind enough to support my writing for me to just shovel something half-baked out to them just so I can say ‘Hey, another one!’. I don’t think it’s ethical, and as a reader it always makes me angry when someone does it to me.

That’s not to say that there won’t be works of mine you don’t like because we don’t all like the same things. But it hopefully won’t be because the story is bad, it will simply be that it isn’t your kind of story, which is a different kettle of fish altogether.

And let me add here that I cannot ever thank all of you enough for your kind words. You can’t imagine how nice it is to get a compliment on something you’ve worked so hard on. Thank you all so much. I don’t write to ‘be’ a writer. I write to entertain. To take you someplace you’ve never been (and in some cases I hope you never go) and maybe let you live vicariously (as I do) through this often troublesome and always disobedient characters of mine who so often refuse to do what I want. Like I said, sometimes character take on a life of their own and you can either go with it, or just quit. I prefer to go with it and see where it takes me.

So there it is for today. I’ll try and revisit this particular idea each Friday, or when there is sufficient interest in something ( which is anyone asking me something I can answer ). Despite what I constantly tell Mrs Bad, I do not actually know everything :)

Again, thank you all. I could never say that enough.

NCR

I have no idea where the time has gone folks. One minute it’s starting to warm up and the next minute it’s below sixty at night and I’m needing a blanket. Everyone used to tell me that time would go by much quicker as I got older, and they seem to have been telling the truth.

Despite having yet another surgery, (sigh) I have been busy busy busy. I honestly wonder sometimes how I keep projects separate in my head. One of these days you’re going to be reading a Parno sequel and Roland will be asking him a question. Or you’re reading the Roland sequel and he’s wondering who in the hell is Parno McLeod. Well, hopefully not, but you see what I mean.

It’s also drawing near to football time. UT will kick off the season on Sept 5 against Bowling Green. And just like that my Saturdays are full, lol.

Meanwhile, the last touches have gone into the Friggin’ Zombies novel. It’s getting a proof read or two and then it’s off to the publishers for edit and then there it will be. It’s not the typical zombie story since this focuses on one man’s attempt to be prepared for what he thinks is coming (zombies) without being committed to a mental institution. I’m already planning at least one sequel, but other than that we’ll see how it goes.

Other projects are very far along as well so I’m hoping to have a very productive fall.

Let me take this opportunity as well to tell each of you how much I appreciate your kind words as I recovered from surgery, and your support for my work. I told someone the other day after a complain about my sentence structure that I was a story teller, not really a writer. Sometimes my sentences probably wouldn’t get a good review from the teacher. I use dialect a good deal, hoping to convey the speech of someone is a more accurate way (hopin’, as it were).

If these things confuse or annoy you I sincerely apologize. I’ve always sought realism in what I write, above all else. I want you to read these stories and then think ‘yeah, I can see that’.

I want to entertain you. I’m not looking for an award of some kind, save to hear those of you who read say you’ve enjoyed the experience. That’s better than any award from anywhere.

Thank you all,

NCR

My newest title, “Tammy and Ringo” has been released and is now available on Amazon on e-book and paperback! This is my first release with them and I admit I’m very excited about it. Below is a link to the new novel! I hope you enjoy!

Tammy and Ringo

I realize that I’ve been slow on the update here, but there’s a good reason for that. Actually there’s more than one, but the major one is that I have just signed an exclusive publishing deal with Creative Texts Publishing! This has been in the works for almost a month and is now a reality. Very soon all of my current work will have been re-vamped by CTP and then offered in e-book AND print through CTP and Amazon.

As you may imagine I am suitably happy about that, and it’s because of all this and the fact that I was working to get everything in order for the transfer that I really haven’t been active on this blog for the last three weeks or more.

Here’s a link to Creative Texts website if you want to check it out.

http://www.creativetexts.com/

I’m really excited about this for many reasons, not the least of which is the promise of professional cover design and editing services and the chance to see my books in print. I’ve had many people ask about that over the last year so it’s a wonderful thing to be able to announce that they will soon be available in print.

My next title, as I had announced before, will be Tammy and Ringo, the first two chapters of which are available for viewing right here on my blog.

Thanks to all of you who have supported me. I can’t thank you enough, I just don’t have the words. Lord Willing I will be able to thank you by continuing to produce works that you enjoy.

Thanks again,

NCR

I’ve just completed work on my next book, tentatively titled “Tammy and Ringo”. That title may change but it’s been the working title since I began so I’m still using for now. I’ve posted the first two chapters of Tammy and Ringo under a new page that should be visible atop the page here.

This is the raw work so please keep that in mind as you read. There’s been no proof reading or editing other than just fixing what errors I happen to see while working. I hope you enjoy it. The book itself is about seventy thousand words and follows the exploits of two young people who find themselves in the midst of a man-made catastrophe. Stranger thrust together by circumstance they work together as the world unravels around them.

Feel free to leave comments on the blog, I’d love to hear what you think. Look for this title as soon as I can finish the proofing and what have you.

NC

DEFINITE SPOILERS FOR SEASON FINALES!!!!!!

If you have not seen the finales for Grimm, Arrow, and Flash, then stop reading this post so that I don’t ruin them for you. If you have seen them and want to read and discuss, do continue on!

Oh, where to start! Grimm first since it was the first one I saw. The last two, maybe three episodes really kept me guessing. Seeing Trubel return was awesome but the death of Nick’s mom was a total bummer. I had soooo hoped that Juliette would get her act together and not be quite so evil and maybe even be a boon to Nick and by extension Renard. We don’t know for sure that Trubel killed her but even if she didn’t, I think it’s safe to say that the romance there is dead as a doornail. And what was up with that FBI Wesen chick at the end sending her hit team after Trubel? I don’t think she knows that Nick is a Grimm, so here’s hoping that comes as a rude awakening. I’m always happy to see someone like that get their comeuppance. I can only imagine what the season opening will be like since it should start out right where this one left off. And finally, how about that deal with Renard? Being possessed by Jack the Ripper? And the cool way they framed his ‘cousin’ for the crimes, I loved it! On top of that, the King gets chucked out of the helicopter! That adorable little girl is now in the hands of the Resistance, and I can only hope that they have good plans for her. Oh, and that makes me wonder about the new baby that’s going to be half Hexenbeist and maybe half Grimm. This show definitely left more questions than answers for its next season.

Then there was Arrow. The show itself was good, but I was left with a lot of issues in how it ended. Not that it wasn’t well done, I just didn’t like it all. Hey, fan’s prerogative, right? Anyway, I know Diggle has a right to be angry, but it seemed to me that the way things were written Oliver really didn’t have much choice. He could play the bad guy or risk Ra’s coming after everyone he loved eventually. Oliver had limited options and had Laurel and Dig not interfered, he wouldn’t have had to resort to taking Lyla to make a trade. Hopefully Diggle will come to get that in the future. It’s a dangerous game, right? Be sure you can afford the buy in.

I REALLY don’t like the idea of Merlyn being the new Ra’s. If anything I thought that should have gone to Nyssa. Had I been Oliver I can safely say I would have buried a knife in Merlin’s guts and left him laying to see if he could ‘magician’ himself out of that. Of course it does set up some interesting possibilities for the future. I did enjoy that Oliver and Felicity drove off into the sunset together. What I don’t like is that the Arrow is exposed. Yeah I know Roy took the blame and then turned up fake dead, but still. . .how are they going to come back from that? Hated to see Roy go as well, but I suppose he had to go to make room for Thea to become Speedy. I’m afraid that the writers may have written themselves into a corner here, but we’ll see what happens. They’ve been very good so far and there’s no reason to doubt them. The last scene showing the top of Palmer Tower blowing up was a shocker, but we already know that ATOM will be part of the Legends so that’s not really a cliffie. And remember waaaay back when Ray had Felicity sign papers for transfer of ownership? I think she might have just been given Palmer industries. Or Queen Consolidated. Or whatever. Be interesting to see about that.

And then there was the Flash. The last three episodes were really great to be honest. But this is a show I have loved from the start and I am an unabashed fan. The finale was heart wrenching to say the least, but also full of good times and ended in the cliff of all cliffs. Hated that Eddie had to die but I suppose that was the only way for Iris and Barry to end up together. I really think it would have been better if it was Barry and Caitlin, due mostly to the good chemistry between Gustin and Panabaker, but if they’re sticking fairly close to the original comics and all then Caitlin was bound to end up with Ronnie Raymond.

I have to say that the one huge disappointment for me in the Flash was how Iris found out that Barry was the Flash. I hugely preferred the original way, with her seeing Barry change in order to try and stop Mardon’s tidal wave, but of course Barry went back in time and that all got screwed up. He finding out the other way and being all mad about it just wasn’t fair or right. I admit that’s just my opinion, but I’m willing to be that at least some fans agree with me.

Next season will start out with something special I guess as Flash tries to save the city. Don’t forget Grodd is still lose, and who can forget the Easter Egg of Jay Garrick’s helmet coming through the wormhole? That was unexpected but very cool. Cisco finding out he was affected by the explosion was pretty cool so I’m wondering how that will manifest in season 2 as well. There was a hint about Hal Jordan there too, and there have been two references that I remember to Ferris Air, so will we see a GL cameo? I think we might, but let’s face it; special effects for a Green Lantern on a regular basis is going to be costly. Maybe too much so. Still, having Jordan drop in once in a while would be pretty awesome. And remember that thanks to Snart’s betrayal all the meta’s that Flash had captured before are on the loose again. We may or may not see them again in season 2. I’m betting may to be honest, depending on what happens in the season premiere.

And last but not least don’t forget the Legends trailer.  I have to say that it looks awesome. Again I think FX will be the hanging point. The shows ratings will have to be strong in order to make enough money to pay for all the special effects but considering the build up in both Arrow and Flash I think it will do just that. Bringing back Caity Lotz’s character as the WHITE Canary is a pretty good move, and including Snart and Heatwave is another decent shot. Remember that I’m not a comic aficionado so I’m looking at his mostly from an entertainment standpoint. I think this show will be interesting, and I think it has humongous potential. Whether it can deliver or not we’ll just have to see.

I honestly can’t wait to see what happens with the new seasons of all these shows. And it’s a long, long time until then. In the meantime, there’s fan-fiction and reruns to occupy my copious amounts of spare time.

NC

I’d like to wish all of you a safe and happy Memorial Day weekend. Please remember to drive safely, and if you drink do so responsibly.

Above all, remember that Memorial Day is a remembrance of all those who have served this great nation and especially those who have sacrificed for it, and that includes their families. Freedom isn’t free, so remember to thank those who keep us that way.

NC