Within Temptation: Whole World is Watching

Ignore the guy's voice, focus on hers ....

And pretend this is an ad for Wounded Warriors.

This one is for Ava Armstrong.

Sad Puppies Bite Back (Part 2)

UPDATE:  It's now a series. Click the Tab above for new content.

Yeah. So, Monday's post went over well.

Very, very well.

Within 36 hours of posting, it was already one of the top ten blogs of all time.

So, something like that requires a sequel...especially when you have half a dozen people literally demanding a sequel. If you didn't read the first one, check it out here.  Be warned, however, it already has a confirmed kill of at least one keyboard that I know of.

Basically, what would happen if certain Sad Puppy supporting authors were targeted for being SWATted.  I missed a few last time, in part because the voices in my head didn't pester me about them.

But when I get requests for a follow-up post? Of course I'm going to give it a shot.

And now? UNLEASH THE PUPPIES

Within Temptation - The Howling

Yesterday's post went over really, really well.  If you haven't read it yet, I've gotten great feedback, and you should try it.

And if you have ... well, this video has shiny graphics. Go play.

Sad Puppies Bite Back

This puppy is ready for WAR

This is one of those fever dream moments. You know, that bit where you don't know where the ideas came from, or what you were thinking, or even why it happened in your head at all? It's sort of like how I wrote It Was Only on Stun! (if that doesn't explain the book, nothing does).

In his books, Love in the Ruins, Walker Percy wrote that anyone not on the left tended to adopt insults as a battle cry.  I think he was referring to something Barry Goldwater did.

Anyway, that tradition really has continued, with politicians adopting nicknames that is basically a reductio ad absurdum of every insult ever thrown at them.

That's why, if you look down the Sad Puppy backers, you have "Sarah Hoyt, Evil Yet Beautiful Space Princess" (Yes, as a proper name), Larry Correia has adopted the moniker as the International Lord of Hate.  Brad Torgersen .... anyway, we'll get there in a moment.

To be honest, I have no idea how many were self-named, and how many just sort of ... happened (and how many originated with John C. Wright having fun with it all).  I'm not that close with them. I'm "friends" with Brad and Larry on Facebook, and we all know what that's worth.  Sarah Hoyt's nickname is especially hilarious since she's about as Evil as, well, a puppy. A real puppy, not a sad puppy... oh screw you, you know what I mean.  She's downright pleasant and nice, and will even talk to losers like me.  I also know Cedar Sanderson ... though I don't know if we're friends friends, or acquaintance-friends. Sarah and Cedar talk to me. So you now know the extent of our relationship.

Anyway, back in January, I tripped over a funny piece by Vox Day -- presumably before Vox declared "Burn this bitch down!" about the Hugos -- which basically boiled down to "The monthly staff meeting of the Evil League of Evil" (in the Lair of the Puppies).

For some reason, ever since I heard about the death threats on the Puppies, and I wondered when Larry Correia or Brad would be SWATted, all I could think of was, well, what would happen?

For those people who are not familiar with the concept of SWATting, it's the practice where someone calls 911, insisting that the target has a gun, is violent and actively threatening to shoot people, in the hopes that the SWAT team knocks down someone's door and possibly gets them killed. Fun, huh? This has been a tactic that's come up in the last year. I was going to call this SWATing Sad Puppies, but I can't see that title going over well.

But just imagine....

Within Temptation: Faster

Music to drive to... a song called Faster.

Yes, I've done an awful lot of Within Temptation lately.  Apparently, when I find someone new (to me) I play them to death.

News to me, too.

April is the busiest month [in review]: killer puppies, Daredevil, and more.

Yikes, a lot happened this month.

The Political Cliche's in writing, in which I bitched about the various and sundry mistakes and forced crap shoved into the faces of your standard television watcher.  It was a follow up to the one about Christians.

This was before the attack of the puppies.

The month of Daredevil, from the trailers to the series itself.

Then, of course, we had the Puppies of April. First we let slip the Puppies of War, then we watched the backlash go insane.  Then again, the Puppies are responsible for my FANifesto. Sort of.

Then there was the week of the trailers -- Batman v. Superman, Ant-Man, Star Wars, and the post script for my Daredevil review.

Then I had my analysis of porn ... yeah, that was odd.  Then again, that came after my Rape article, as well as my sword video.

And of course, there was my update -- my book is about to be published.

Then, of course, there was the epic return of Lindsey Stirling to the blog.

8 blogs, 3 weeks, and we're not even counting the six music posts.

I seriously don't know how Larry Correia does the 1000-word articles every single day.  Yikes.

Within Temptation: Iron

Because Within Temptation is my playlist lately.

When Puppies Attack

This isn't about Sad Puppies again....

Okay, I have a Sad Puppy Primer up at Liberty Island -- you can see this train wreck from the beginning. It's not nearly as snarky as my last two piece on the topic, but it does link for a few of my own blog posts. Because I can use the hits. :)

However, a fun piece of Sad Puppy news from Brad Torgersen's FB page.

First, a post by Brad himself.

You know, once upon a time, I really did like to just goof around on Facebook. Share funny stuff, enthuse about this or that passtime, occasionally be risque, often have a laugh with friends (on every "side" of any given thing) and *always* with the intent to have a good time.
That was before I embarked upon my political career as Skeletor.
Well, Skeletor is getting tired.
The skull mask is gonna slowly go back into the toy chest over the next few weeks.

To which someone answered: "If you are Skeletor does that make Larry Cobra Commander? Is Sarah Hoyt the Baroness?"
"John C. Wright must be Megatron then."

I love nerds.

In other news.

My vampire novel, Honor At Stake, is up and running.  The editor has gotten back to me. We're getting along like a house a fire. Sort of.

And she let me keep the line "Would you rather vampire sparkle?"  "Do you want to live?"

Oh yes, we're going to get along so very well.

I'm also on the final rounds of edits before the typesetter gets their hands on the book.  Yes.  I might get proof copies in short order. Isn't that something else?

Let me see, I'm actually going to be paid money for several projects. Yes. Money. Strange, isn't it? Someone wanted my opinion on their book, and boy, are they going to get it -- MUAHAHAHAHA-- and the Sad Puppy piece might actually bring in some sales.  Who knew, huh?  Cash.  I'm shocked, shocked I say.

But as I write this, it's almost 2:30 in the morning, so I'm going to turn in.

Within Temptation: Paradise

We'll ignore that it looks like Fallout 3 ...

Oh heck, that's half the charm.

Within Temptation, and Tarja, the former lead singer for Nightwish.

Because Nightwish.

Pornstars are People Too

It's occurred to me that this blog has had a sudden uptick of porn lately.

This is sort of odd for a Conservative-ish Catholic who writes novels about Vatican ninjas and hates sex scenes in mainstream fiction.  Had you told me I'd be talking about porn on my blog when I started it, I would have laughed in your face.

But, first we had retired actress Celine Tran, doing a nice sword fight video.  Then there was Sarah Garlits and the blog on rape.  It's starting to look a little strange. I can almost hear some people saying "Declan, is there something you want to share?"

Let me elaborate a little on my history with porn ... That sounds worse than it is. It's actually much stranger than that.

Before The Pius Trilogy ate up a quarter of my life, I had other projects I wanted to work on.  In fact, the one-volume A Pius Man was going to be the end of a series of books, with each of the characters appearing in other novels.  My series about the Secret Service Agent and the CIA assassin featured Father Frank Williams, the Pope, Giovanni Figlia, IRA leader Deaglan Lynch, the author Matthew Kovach, Scott Murphy, and mafia kneebreaker Jon Koenig, scattered in various and sundry parts throughout.  It's where the FBI computer hacker Blaine Lansing first appeared with Jennifer Lance.

It Was Only On Stun! was the first novel with Sean A.P. Ryan, and the first of a trilogy. If you've read the book (and I don't blame you if you haven't) I like dropping Sean into places where he is out of sorts and uncomfortable. The second book was supposed to feature protecting someone who was NOT Natalie Portman during her time at Harvard.

The third book was supposed to be Sean protecting a porn actress. Which would be hysterical.  He's not a prude, but he is really uncomfortable being around a naked woman he's not involved with. I figured it would be hilarious.

However, I knew nothing about porn.  But, having been to an all-male high school that shall not be named, I had heard the name Asia Carrera.  It was someplace to start.