Steven Harper's Blog

So we have this cat. Her name is Dinah. She's a gray tabby. She adores Darwin. She likes me. She tolerates our other cat Dora.

And she has turned into a screen warrior.

A few weeks ago, Darwin and I were yanked awake one night with a screeching yowl. I dashed out to the dining room, where the noise was emanating, and found Dinah attacking the sliding glass door. She clawed at it and leaped at it, and, apparently forgetting about the glass,  bounced off it. Then she did it again. It was like she had gone crazy. For a fleeting moment I wondered if she was attacking her reflection, but she'd never done that before. 

I finally realized what was going on. Another cat was on our back deck. All black. It was sitting close to its side of the glass with its tail curled around its legs, taunting Dinah. Dinah was a madcat, spitting and yowling and screaming. I rapped on the glass, but the cat didn't move, so I yanked the door open. That made the cat run, but Dinah dove for it. She hit the screen door and swiped at it before I could shove her aside with my foot. I shut the glass door, shooed Dinah away from it, and let her calm down while I went back to bed.

Last night, we had the windows to the back yard open against the climate-changed warm night air, and again we got the screaming, yowling noises. I sighed and went out to deal with it. 

This time, the black cat was sitting on the deck rail, which put it at window-sill level. Dinah was leaping up at the screen, spitting and screeching. I chased the damn cat away and shut the windows, but Dinah had torn out chunks of the screen. It'll have to be replaced.

Darwin was ticked off at Dinah until I pointed out that it's not her fault. From her perspective, the cat is a threatening invader and she has no choice but to retaliate. It's the fault of the other cat's owners for letting it go outside. (The cat isn't a stray--it's well-fed and its coat is sleek.) This is NOT a good area for cats to go outside. We have coyotes. We have a busy road. We have assholes who speed down said road because it's smooth and straight and they like having a place to floor it. All of it is a bad combo for cats. But whoever these people are, they let their cat outside. 

And it turns Dinah into a screen warrior.

It's too cold now to have the windows open, so the worst that'll happen is that she might attack the door glass again, but in the spring, we'll have to remember to keep certain windows shut. After we get the screen repaired.




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By most definitions, I'm not a video game fanatic. I don't have shelves of games and ten different platforms. I play only on my PC, and I tend to play one or two games, and that's it. Right now, those two are Baldur's Gate and City of Heroes.

But even a dilettante like me has noticed the changes.

The first video game I remember playing that had an actual story to it was Adventure on the Atari platform. Remember that one? You were a little cube wandering through different screens, able to carry a single object--a yellow arrow that was supposed to be a sword, or a blocky key. You were bothered by a mischievous bat that would steal your object and menaced by 8-bit dragons that would swallow you and end the game, all during your attempt to return a blocky glowing chalice to a blocky gold castle. The game was a best-seller, and my brother and sister and I played it over and over.

Now the game seems silly and simplistic, like a Model T or a rotary phone.

Games continued to evolve, though. Graphics improved by leaps and bounds. Computers got faster and memory got bigger. And we finally got full-blown animated characters, 3D worlds, and rich storylines.

But when story-based fantasy games like Final Fantasy and Zelda and Dragon Age came out, they kept up strict guardrails on character creation. Very few choices about what your character could look like, and very binary gender choices. The males were all manly men, the women were all womanly women. The games also included romantic subplots in the stories. Your avatar could romance certain characters in the game--or not. Your choice. These romantic choices were all strictly heterosexual. Absolutely no hint of male/male or female/female romance. Building-sized dragons, sorcerers with world-changing spell, and minotaurs charging into battle? No problem. A man kissing a man? That's too ridiculous to consider.

Also, the major mainstream games had no adult content. With the exception of the deliberately over-the-top Grand Theft Auto games, every story was, at most, PG-13. Characters could kiss. Sexual activity took place off-screen and wasn't discussed. No nudity.

"Well, yeah," said the big video game companies. "Kids and teenagers are the majority of our market, and we don't want to piss off their parents. And those right wingers boycott you and Wal-Mart won't carry games with adult content anyway. Besides, adults will still play teen-oriented games, so why should we include content for adults at all?"

It was really Walmart, though. WalMart dictated content for everything. Publishers of books, magazines, and video games NEEDED WalMart to carry their stuff, because everyone shopped there. You cut your own throat by risking WalMart's wrath. Book covers and blurbs were designed with WalMart sensibilities in mind. Video games wrote for children and teens. If you broke the rules, WalMart wouldn't carry your stuff, and you were relegated to niche markets in small gaming stores.

But games like The Sims started sneaking in LGBT content. Just hints of it. Players scratched their heads. "Is that character ... gay? Huh." The internet remained uncertain, but the game sold well.

Then, some ten years ago, one of the Dragon Age games allowed a male avatar the chance to romance two male characters. One of these characters was a flaming queen, and the other was a huge, hot-tempered minotaur, done up for comedy relief. But they were there.

Parts of the internet lots its collective shit, of course. The trolls howled. Parents snatched up their children and ran to church. Wal-Mart refused to carry the game. 

And it didn't hurt sales one bit.

See, society had changed. Same-sex marriage was legal. We were starting to see gay and lesbian kisses (well, lesbian, anyway) on TV. LGBT storylines were becoming cool.

And something else had happened. BioWare (maker of Dragon Age) released the game both as a disc and as a download, meaning you didn't have to go to the store for it. And anyway, if you still wanted the disc, Amazon would ship it to you overnight. Who needed WalMart? Fuck you, Sam! 

I also think the game creators realized that they had been trapping themselves in hetero-centrist thinking. It simply hadn't occured to them to allow a male avatar to romance a male character or a female a female. But finally someone said, "And why not? The non-player-character's dialogue would be exactly the same, whether the avatar is male or female. It's actually EASIER if we write the game to be gender blind. Besides, we have same-sex marriage in the real world. Why shouldn't we have it in our fictional world?" And so it happened.

Sexual content and nudity also crept in. Holy crap! Adults like adult content in their video games! Who knew? And who has more money to spend on video games, adults or teenagers? 

Yeah.

Along came Baldur's Gate. Character design that lets you play any type of body. You can be cis-gender, transgender, non-binary, or anything in between. You can even customize the character's genitals. (!) Turned out the option of playing a female-presenting character who also has a penis became an astoundingly popular choice. Your avatar can romance any character, regardless of gender. And very explicit sexual content. 

The game broke sales records all over the world and won countless awards.

Oh yeah--WalMart carries it. Guess their principals don't stand up to the chance at profit. 

Now BioWare has released the newest Dragon Age game. It also allows highly-customizable characters and sports gender-blind romances.

It's freaking awesome. I would have committed cheerful murder for even a speck of gay content in a video game when I was growing up and when I was a young adult. The chance to play Someone Like Me? Wow. 

It does highlight how bad things used to be for LGBTQ people, of when we were invisible even to entertainment. But the days of retailers dictating content are gone. WalMart doesn't have the near-monopoly it used to. We've become visible.

Now? Let me put it this way. When I mentioned the LGBT content of Baldur's Gate to the students in the Gay/Straight Alliance at Nameless High School, none of them had heard of it. 

Let that sink in. This level of LGBT content has become so normal that it can be overlooked! A long, long way from the firestorms a hint of gay content once created.

These days I only read books with gay protagonists. I'm catching up after decades of being forced to read about straight people. And now I can play gay men all I like in video games, too. I've played Baldur's Gate several times through with different avatars, and I've never once romanced a female character, not even to see what happens. After decades of being forced to have straight romance or nothing, I can have all the gay content I want. It's fan-fucking-tastic.

As I write this, my computer is downloading Dragon Age: The Veilguard. I'm going to build a male who's good-looking by my standards and pay attention to romantic overtures only from male characters. Because I can.

And I'll slay some dragons, too.



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 I cancelled my subscription to the New York Times years ago because I couldn't stand the constant teacher-bashing and teacher union-bashing.* I switched to the Washington Post.

Now what?



*And anyway, the NYT's paywall is childishly easy to defeat for the rare occasions I want to read something there.



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I know a lot of people buy a breadmaker saying, "I can make delicious, fresh bread anytime I want!" They make a loaf or two, and then the machine vanishes into the dark depths of the cupboard or is banished to the basement, never to be seen again.

Mine isn't one of those.

I got a breadmaker back when they first came out, and I used it semi-regularly, usually a couple-three times a month. It was a supplement, though, and not a regular part of the kitchen routine. We still bought store bread. But I loved setting it to bake bread overnight and having hot, fresh bread at breakfast. 

Years later, when I got divorced and it was me and three boys (two of them teenagers) and we didn't have any money, I was looking at every way to cut household costs. I realized we were going through three loaves of bread a week at $2 a loaf. That was $25 a month, just for bread.

I did more math. Flour, salt, yeast, and a little oil for a loaf of bread came to about 25 cents. (!) So I could go from $6 a week to 75 cents, or from $25 a month to $3 a month. The breadmaker itself cost $50, so it would pay for itself in less than three months.

The breadmaker became a permanent resident on the counter. I became adept at quickly throwing the ingredients in and letting it crank through yet another loaf every other day.

Years passed, and the financial problems eased. But I still used the breadmaker. Not only is it cheaper, but the bread is also better in all ways. 

Eventually the bread pan started to fall apart. The gasket sealing the bottom went bad, and it leaked. Fortunately, I was able to order a replacement part on-line, and life continued as before.

More years passed peacefully, as far as the breadmaker was concerned. Then a few weeks ago, things started to go south. The second bread pan was going bad. The breadmaker was making an alarming GRONK GRONK GRONK noise when it kneaded the dough. After 15 years of labor, it was time to retire.

I wasn't going to give up a breadmaker, though! I started shopping for one and found that they haven't changed much in the last 15 years, except in price. The model I had bought for $50 back then went for $100 now! Goodness. 

More shopping ensued, and I found a different, cheaper brand of maker that looked promising. For one thing, it had two paddles in the bottom, which would make for better kneading, and it had more settings for different styles of bread. And the shipping information said it would arrive in three days. Well, good!

I ordered it. A bit later, I got an email that proudly announced my breadmaker would be on its way and arrive in a couple weeks.

Wait--what? 

I double-checked. The original listing still had the breadmaker arriving in three days, but apparently that was a lie. When you buy it, suddenly it's two weeks. I suspect it had to be shipped from China or India or something, but they didn't want to say this, so they lied.

I tried to cancel the order and was informed it was "too late, as the product has already shipped," even though the web site said the order hadn't been filled yet, let alone shipped. I complained higher up the food chain and was finally told the order would be canceled and my money would be refunded. And lo, my money was returned. 

Meanwhile, I ordered a similar breadmaker from a different company. Paid a smidge more, but it would arrive at the agreed-upon time (three days).

Also meanwhile, I got an email alert that my original breadmaker had shipped and it would arrive Real Soon Now. Huh. Okay.

The second new breadmaker arrived and it's a delight! I love the dual paddles. It also solved one of the perennial breadmaker problems--the stuck paddle. When you shake a loaf from the pan, often the kneading paddle comes with because it's buried inside the bread. You're stuck with two alternatives. You can pluck it out of the hot bread, or you can wait for the bread to cool and remove the paddle then. The first way leaves the loaf relatively undamaged but singes your fingers something awful. The second way saves your fingers, but the bread adheres to the paddle as it cools and pulling it out brings a big chunk of bread with it. I usually ran cold water from the faucet, pulled out the hot paddle, and immediately went for the cold water.

Anyway, this breadmaker provided a little wire hook that slips into the paddle and flicks it out of the bread in a trice. It's a no-contact solution to singed fingers and damaged bread. I love it!

I've also started baking bread with whole wheat flour. It's more effort--whole wheat bread needs more ingredients if you want something chewable--but it's healthier, and Darwin can eat it. I also know for sure it's whole wheat. A LOT of store-bought "whole wheat bread" ... isn't. The definition of "whole wheat" leaves a lot of wiggle room. But mine doesn't, thank you. The dough is HEAVY, though. My old breadmaker was too old to handle it, but this new one cranks right through it and produces lovely loaves of honey-and-molasses wheat goodness. Very satisfied.

And then the first breadmaker I ordered arrived. It was on my porch one day when I got home from work. Um...

I use my breadmaker way more than most people, but not enough to need two of them! I double-checked my debit account. Money is still there. And not a peep from the company about returning it. So I got a free breadmaker. It's still sealed in the original shipping box, waiting for me to figure out what to do with it.

Maybe I'll sell it on eBay. Or donate it somewhere.

Ideas?

Meanwhile, as I write this, the house smells of baking bread.




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Around here, supper comes at odd times. I eat lunch before 11:00 AM because high schools start so ungodly early. I get home around 3:30 and, since it's been four hours since I last ate, I'm starving.

Darwin, meanwhile, often works from home and rarely eats lunch those days. 

So when I get home, we'll have supper. At 4:00. 

But on days when Darwin works at his office, he doesn't get home until well into the evening, like 8:00. On those days, I eat something when I get home and then we have a late, late supper, sometimes finishing at 9:00.

Our house has a weird mealtime schedule.
 

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 An original copy of the US Constitution turned up in the attic of a plantation home in North Carolina:https://www.smithsonianmag.com/.../this-forgotten-copy.../What's interesting to me is that my novel TRASH COURSE (written under the pen name Penny Drake) revolves around exactly this kind of find!

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My fellow PayPal users:

PayPal is updating their Terms of Service to let themselves sell your shopping habits to merchants starting November 27. They're banking on people not knowing about it. You can opt out, and you should!

To opt out, log into PayPal. Go to:
>Settings (the little cog in the upper right corner)
>Data & Privacy
>Manage shared info
>Personalized shopping

Set the toggle to off.

I shut it off just now.
 

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The novel I started has people with super powers in it. Last I knew, the terms "super-hero" and "super-villain" were jointly trademarked by DC and Marvel, meaning everyone else had to use terms like "supers" or "meta-humans" or "powered people" while pretending the word "super-hero" didn't exist. But I hadn't heard anything about this issue for many years, so I decided I'd better look into it.

I checked the web and discovered that a company called Superbabies had sued DC and Marvel over the trademark. They pointed out that "super-hero" went back to 1909, that DC and Marvel were NOT the first comics to use the term, and that the term has long been part of ordinary speech.

The deadline for DC and Marvel to respond to the lawsuit passed without a peep from either of them. As a result, Superbabies won the lawsuit by default. (I'm assuming the two companies decided it wasn't worth the fight.) So the trademark has officially been lifted.

When did this happen? Why, TODAY. This very day, September 29, 2024.

How weird is that?
 

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 I started a new book today. Character thumbnails, setting notes, plot sketched out. Go me!

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In celebration of Open Road Media offering new versions of some of my books, I'm blogging about the history of these novels and how I came to write them. A trip down memory lane! (You can find the books here: https://openroadmedia.com/search-results/books/steven%20harper  Buy a few copies for the kids!) For months I'd been toying with the idea of writing a steampunk novel. I'd already done a couple-three steampunk short stories, and found I liked the genre very much. But I needed characters. A world. A story. So I set about to make them ... by asking myself questions.[image error] There are generally two ways to start a science fiction or fantasy novel. You can start by building the wider world and deciding how the magic/science affects the world and the people in it, then narrowing the view down to one person and his or her place in this world. Or you can start with a person and slowly widening your view to the surrounding world, building the setting around the character. I always respond best to people rather than their surroundings, so I almost always start from the character and build outward. And so I set out to make some people in a so-far undefined steampunk setting.  Alice came to me as a young Englishwoman who owned a windup cat and one good dress. This is where the questions began. Why did she only have one good dress? What would she use it for? Where did her windup cat come from? I answered my own questions, and Alice took shape in my mind. I also knew I wanted two protagonists who would eventually form a romantic relationship, and I wanted a male who was very different from Alice, so I deliberately ran in the opposite direction to create Gavin. He was younger, barely eighteen, and unlike ladylike Alice, he lived a life of travel and adventure on a small dirigible, and he played the fiddle. But where did Gavin himself come from? How did he get on the airship in the first place? Why does he play the fiddle? I answered those questions, too.  Every protagonist needs an outrageous best friend, so I created Louisa to be Alice's. Louisa was great fun to write ("Puff up your chest, dear—here he comes with the petit fours!"), and as a result she ended up playing a much bigger role in the book than I'd originally intended.  And we need an antagonist. My favorite kind of antagonist is one who is (rightly) convinced that she's doing the right thing, and the protagonists are terrible people who need to be stopped. Out of this, I got Lieutenant Susan Phipps, who is probably my favorite antagonist of all time. Don't tell my other bad guys! Then I needed to build outward and create my world. I wanted zombies in my world because ... zombies! I wanted mad scientists who created impossible inventions out of brass and steel and steam. But how did these things come exist? Why can the inventions defy known physics? What do you do with inventions that could potentially destroy the world? You put them in the Doomsday Vault, of course. The Doomsday VaultThe Impossible CubeThe Dragon MenThe Havoc Machine 

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