Containment Protocol Postmortem By Ray Tabler Containment Protocol is my first serialized novel on Substack, and it ought to have taught me a thing or two. Time will tell if the lessons sink in, or sail in one ear and out the other like so much of my education. Never…
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Dark Star’s Number 20
Dark Star’s Number 20 By Ray Tabler Not long ago, I posted about standout minor characters in science fiction and fantasy. Then I posted again about one I’d neglected to mention. As time goes on, more and more of these side-plot heroes come to mind. So, this might become a semi-regular thing. Apparently good…
Flopaganda
Flopaganda By Ray Tabler In the 1950s, Jean Shepherd was a New York City radio host, with a large following. Later on, Shepherd co-scripted the movie A Christmas Story, based on his childhood. Shepherd was of the opinion that the celebrated lists of best-seller books were too easy to manipulate….
What’s My Line?
What’s My Line? Professions in Science fiction & fantasy. Essay. 900 words, 5-minute read. Everybody’s got to do something to put food on the table. Fictional characters are no exception. What those jobs are sometimes tells us something about the character. Or maybe it tells us something about us. In…
Book Lengths Over the Years
Book Lengths Over the Years By Ray Tabler Since writing my first novel, the subject of word counts has haunted me. In short, I struggle to write long books. This is a problem these days, because long books are in vogue. Publishers prefer word counts north of 80,000. The farther…
Bill, Trans Dimensional Electrician
Bonus mini-essay. 200 words, 1-minute read. Bill, Trans Dimensional Electrician By Ray Tabler Last week, I posted an essay about minor characters who deserve their own stories, Dangling Threads. In an inexcusable oversight, I neglected to include a prime example, Bill Towner, the electrician, from the movie House II-The Second…
Series vs. Standalones
Reader PTSD. Essay. 700 words, 4-minute read. Series vs. Standalones By Ray Tabler Kirk or Picard? Boxers or briefs? Pineapple on pizza, or not? Great, unresolved questions of our time. Thanks for reading Ray Tabler’s Substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. To which I…
Gaming Is Bigger Than Anything
Well, here it is. Scientific proof that gaming is bigger than anything.
Dangling Threads
Dangling Threads By Ray Tabler There are so many spoilers below that I’ll just issue a general warning right off the bat. Read on at your peril. The other day Indiana Jones-Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was playing on the cable, and I left it on, running in the background….
The Book Was Better
The Book Was Better By Ray Tabler Based on the image above, you might expect this to be a rant about the 1997 movie Starship Troopers. It isn’t. Not exactly. I cynically used that image to rope in people on either side of the controversy surrounding the film. I feel…