jmattsaunders

[jmattsaunders]

Ok some random thing I’ve been thinking about: I’m more of a Star Wars guy than a Star Trek guy, and I think I’ve figured out one of the big reasons why. One of my big critiques of Star Trek is that the Federation is supposed to be a post-scarcity society, meaning no one has to work to have their basic needs met, meaning that everyone has all the time they want to pursue their passions. It should be an era of unprecedented flourishing in the arts in all forms. It should be the Renaissance on crack. Yet we see zero evidence of that.

All the interiors in TNG look like a Holiday Inn from 1983. And save for Wesley’s ugly sweater collection, all the civilians wear gray jumpsuits. You have a machine capable of producing any object that ever existed on any known planet. Why aren’t you dressed like a pirate? With a sword? Every day? Lando lived as a smuggler on the fringes of the Empire and managed to have a cape collection.

Why does everyone lack imagination? I remember even as a kid watching reruns of TOS and the original run of TNG thinking how boring it must be to live then if you weren’t in Star Fleet. No one watches television or mentions movies or contemporary music or watches sports.

And don’t get me started on that stupid episode with Lt. Barkley that was all about, “YoU hAvE to LiVe in The REaL WoRLd. YoU Can’T ESCapE to A FanTAsY WoRLd on THe HolODEck.”

Dude, fucking watch me.

[jmattsaunders]

Shampoo by any other name

It’s weird to me that the French word for “shampoo” is “shampooing”. They didn’t borrow the actual noun. They borrowed the gerund derived from the verb. But then this is the same language that expresses the number 99 as “four twenties plus nineteen” so I guess being extra is on brand.

German borrowed the English word, too. “Das Shampoo.” But an alternative term is “das Haarwaschmittel” which basically just translates as “hair washing substance” and that’s all you really need to know about German.

And in Spanish it’s “champú” which looks like it should be French but is in fact not.

[jmattsaunders]

Two were dark, and one was fair...

Played around with Night Cafe Studios to create AI portraits of the Brides of Dracula from my Daughters of Shadow and Blood trilogy.

Meet Yasamin, or rather, hope you don't.

Elena will not help you find your way home.

Elizabeth is pleased to make your acquaintance. You should run.

[jmattsaunders]

Those things

"Jamie hesitated outside the hardware store, wishing he’d sent Eddie to get the stuff they needed for the garage. Doing it himself seemed like a good idea at the time. Get out. Clear his head. Try to forget those skinless things with their sharp claws and terrifying grins flying through the night."

[jmattsaunders]

The Magic of “Fall Back” Day

My earlier rant aside, I do enjoy “Fall Back” Day. There’s something a little magical about it, the way the angles of the light make everything look just slightly unfamiliar and the way time does seem to move at a different pace.

[jmattsaunders]

Falling back for good

Okay, I get we don’t like changing our clocks back and forth, but what I don’t understand is the fixation on making Daylight Time permanent rather than Standard Time. Yes, you get more light in the afternoon, but that means more dark in the morning. We already tried this experiment in 1973-1974, and people hated it. Sunrise in January at the latitude of Washington, DC wasn’t until 8:30, and it got later the farther north you went. In Minneapolis, MN, it wasn’t until almost 9:00. There was such a surge in early morning traffic accidents and fatalities that support for the move went from 79% to 42% in 3 months.

Also ST is more in sync with the human body’s natural rhythms. And in the winter, short days mean no one is enjoying the extra afternoon daylight anyway.

And then there’s the nomenclature. In the winter the East Coast would effectively be on Atlantic Standard Time. Do we call it that, or do we keep calling it EDT just to be confusing?

So yeah, let’s get rid of the time change, but let’s keep Standard Time.

[jmattsaunders]

Some terrified dude is traveling, all alone, in the middle of nowhere, in snow and darkness, with a companion gradually turning into a vampire, who’s acting like she isn’t, and she can complete her transformation at any moment and is already displaying red flags; And though he usually doesn’t write in a journal, just this once he makes the exception and addresses it to his dear old friend. Will he be ready when she turns? Will he even be awake, is she already planning how to subdue him and get around his counter-measures? How does he hide his plans from her, especially when she can check every time he’s asleep?

He’s terrified out of his fucking mind but can’t really display it, so he just painfully smiles back at Mina, not openly admitting to himself that he hopes this message can outlast him if he dies. Jesus, this is some horror movie shit, this is like the Log of the Demeter, VH’s entry is like what you’d find next to a skeleton while you go vampire-hunting. Not knowing if you can trust your companion who may or may not be fully infected, in an environment like this, getting some The Thing vibes here...

[jmattsaunders]

Hi, there!

I'm Matthew Saunders, author gothic and historical fiction, including the Daughters of Shadow and Blood trilogy inspired by the Brides of Dracula, the Dreadful Penny occult detective series, which has been described as "Supernatural meets The Rockford Files," and Nothing but the Blood, a Southern Gothic with werewolves. I'm also a member of HWA and SFWA.

Here's a link to my website if you're interested in more.