Month: April 2025

A Galaxy Too Close: Sexual Violence in Season 2 of Andor

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I’m starting to think I need to create a sub-category on this blog dedicated purely to discussions of sexual violence in media, because, here I am again. Let’s get this out of the way: there will be spoilers here. So, a little background: after watching the first three episodes of Season 2 of Andor, I was not surprised that my husband was upset and bothered by a scene of sexual violence that occurs. I was a little more surprised, however, to discover that I was not. At all. I decided that I needed to unpack why that might be, because as a general rule, I am very rarely cool with depictions of sexual assault in media. Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a huge Star Wars nerd. I grew up on it. I played with the action figures. I know a truly embarrassing amount of trivia about the larger Star Wars universe. I’m still hoping that Disney’s going to give me that call someday to hang out in the writers’ room. (Seriously, Disney: call …

Splash page for the scifi crowd-funded novel FULL NEGATIVE.

Last Chance to Pledge for Full Negative Book

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Friends. Readers. Fellow nerds with impeccable taste. We are officially in the home stretch. The final 24 hours. The last lap. The dramatic climax of the movie where everything explodes in slow motion and the music swells and someone says something heroic right before punching a fascist in the face. (Okay, that last bit’s just wishful thinking, but after the week we’ve all had, I think we deserve it as a treat.) My point is: we’re down to the last days to pledge for FULL NEGATIVE, my big, bonkers scifi space opera that asks the question: what are you willing to give up for freedom? And also, what happens when the trolley problem is measured on a macro sale. (Spoiler: it gets messy.) Why does it matter? Because, for me right now, and hopefully for you, later, this isn’t about publishing a book. It’s about launching a world—telepaths, shapeshifters, space empires, doomed romance, glorious betrayals—and all the weird, wild joy that comes with that. It’s also about proving that stories like this—genre-rich, character-driven, unapologetically extra—have …

Your Book/Game/Project Needs Better Promotion (and so does mine)

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Hello, dear friends! So, a funny thing happened last night. Some context: every other week, I play in a Fading Suns TTRPG campaign with Bill Bridges. Yes, that Bill Bridges, the one who co-created Fading Suns and worked on little-known titles like Vampire: The Masquerade and Werewolf: The Apocalypse. (Fortunately, he’s also an incredibly gracious human being and has never once pulled the dreaded “Well, actually…” on the GM.) Anyway, last night, our GM casually mentioned that a revamped, enhanced edition of Emperor of the Fading Suns—the 4X video game that Bill and Holistic Design, Inc. originally created—is launching this Friday, April 4. Better graphics! Better sound! More empire-building goodness! It’s hitting Steam, and if you want to check it out, here’s the link. Naturally, I turned to Bill and said, “Why didn’t you mention this?” To which he replied, “I didn’t think I needed to. It’s been all over social media for weeks.” I, of course, informed him that my social media feed had not breathed a word of it. Cue much cursing of …