Addendum

You could really play up the framing device, just bore everybody for no reason. Cast your one big name as the guy who looks at Mercury and give him at least 10 minutes each episode. Better yet, start the actual story in the last episode of the first season as a cliffhanger, then act surprised when there's no season two.

Streaming Pitch

If nobody's going to watch anyway, you might as well adapt The Worm Ouroboros. And don't try to pretend people are going to watch your streaming show. We all know.

The Truth of Art

The smile of Fabenouw the inventor, when he left his atelier that day, was heavier with menace than ever before. The citizens of Werdecu expected that sort of thing and thought nothing of it, a complacence which aided him in his scheme.
"Neighbors!" he called out. "This is my latest invention, the camera! It takes a picture of whatever I point it at! Limitations apply."
The city folk whistled and admired the object he flourished. They took his achievements more seriously than his attitude. "Is it expensive to operate?"
"A little pricey, but nothing unmanageable."
"Is it as good as Master Magonim's portraits?"
"Not yet, and that's why I want your help in developing it further. Wasn't it kind of Master Magonim to promise every one of us a portrait for free? Even though he warned it wouldn't be his best work, think of how much he's losing because of his charity. Now once this camera is better . . ."
The novelty would have been enough, but with the prospect of helping the generous Magonim added, the citizens rushed to participate. They even brought Magonim over despite his protestations. He struggled a little like a man of true humility.
Fabenouw chuckled with satisfaction when he retired to his atelier, but soon his wicked contentment succumbed to shock. "This one too! And this one! And him! Where are their souls? Does my camera not work after all?" Feverishly scanning his developed pictures, he grew increasingly agitated until one of them made his mood explode. "He already took them! Magonim! He has all their souls!" The inventor tore apart the portraitist's resemblance while he imagined greater tortures than that.
Finis

Addendum

And the covers!

The Dreadful Future

One day, authors will realize how easy it is to insert a note about somebody's feet every few chapters and how much of a boost they get from it, and pretty soon the feetsters will run the entire literature industry.

Addendum

"I grasped my phone and checked my messages. There were none." How much of a jerk would you feel like if you said that? Borgia-level at least, right?

Fantasy Word of the Day: Grasp

How often do you describe anyone as grasping something in daily life? Grasping for, sure, but grasp? I don't know if the problem is with fantasy or daily life. Now that I've said that, daily life is definitely the problem here.

Capitalization Condemnation

Title capitalization. It's stupid. "Of" and "and" are crucial words! Why shouldn't we capitalize them? Just capitalize everything. That's the better way. I may have said this before. Maybe I should make it a monthly post. Hourly? That's how things get done.

Nomenclature Gap

All mech properties know you need to call your mechs something different, whether mobile suits, arm slaves, or cataphracts. The rest of us are falling behind. Shouldn't your knights be dragon breakers and your wizards be elemsplays? No, but you see what I'm getting at. At what I am getting.

The King's Last Resort

The Gontic kingdom, long feared for its overwhelming might, faced its final days. How such a state befell it still puzzled all the peoples of the world, but nevertheless the armies of three kings surrounded their shared enemy. King Gons VII and his enflamed spirit looked over the enemies which surrounded his last redoubt not with resignation but with ferocity.
"In all this Gontic kingdom established by my ancestors at the behest of the gods and blessed them so that each of us is more than human, stronger on the field of battle than three normal soldiers at the weakest, is there no one who will bring me King Blanned's crown, his head still wearing it? The man who does shall have for his wife my own daughter!"
To the side, a warrior even then submitting his person to his squire and his attendants that they might arm him with the silver armor that once the war god wore before bequeathing it to Gons III for a service done him and the sword whose smith tested it on the earth and created Mykress Canyon, turned and scowled. "I intended to do just that," said Prince Haufen. "Now I cannot."
"My brave son! Know that I have never taken back a word I said. I will add this though, that he for whatever reason is not to wed my daughter will instead be given this peerless cup studded with one gem from every land in which I killed a dragon, for their hearts are clumps of such jewels!"
"So then, my sister is worth a single cup, you say? I've changed my ideas about which king to kill!"
The nobles rushed to restrain the two royals, a difficult task because of their heroic strength and mythical passion. In the end the father and son made a wager that whichever of them killed but one king owed an apology to the killer of two. The prince won, and as for the princess, she was left to wonder why her father wanted to get rid of her so badly.
Finis