Ben Bequer's Blog

Hey all, Ben here! I did things - finally - and posted mass version.
It's still on this page, and no, I couldn't link or post PDF files here, but it's more complete than the scattershot segments so far. And there's a link at the end, leading you to the next file.The link to part one is below. There are 5 up already, of 7 or 8 total - so we're close to finishing the book.https://www.patreon.com/posts/21656632This link only works if you're a patron of ours. If you want a free sample of Blackjack Messiah, try this link:https://www.patreon.com/posts/21657343Do you folks think I should add links at the beginning leading you back to the previous file? I didn't think it was necessary, but if you guys want that, it won't be a big deal.Anyway, we're ramping up the Blackjack experience and now, if you're new to our Patreon page, all you have to do is start at the front page and start reading. There's a link just below the picture of Blackjack and Apogee.Oh, and I commissioned a new artist on a sample cover for book 4. I'm not sure what it'll look like, but I'm excited to be heading in a new, more serious, direction with our cover art.As soon as I have a real sample to show you guys, I'll post it here.Okay, last week I did a list of things and I got a bunch of stuff done. This week's already halfway done, but I'm going to try another, abbreviated list. It's a motivational tool, people.1. Cross post this onto Facebook, Twitter and the blog.2. Write 3 Trevor Kane scenes:Bingo kata scenes2nd part of Bingo talks to Shun and Zilin (was Jian, Lian, Mei Ling)Trevor and Adam talk Thursday night (the night before the match/finale) about the negotiations with the other clans.3. Write outline to the Finale of Trevor.Okay, that's the sweet spot of stuff to do. At least to start the week.Alright, I gave you guys a lot of stuff to read - now let's do this!Ben out!

If it’s Monday, it’s time for a new Blackjack Beatdown!Ben here, and glad to be with you. This week we’re doing a more traditional Beatdown with the pictures and categories and all the fun stuff. Oh, and there’s also some information on what’s happening with the new Blackjack series. I’m so excited about that one that I’m letting the cat out of the bag early and letting you know what the plan is now.But I'm still in my anti-writing funk and it's killing me. I sit down and nothing happens. Screw bookstores, seriously. You were my only hope and you let me down. I'm self-sabotaging, auto procrastinating, and ten other forms of self-flagellation resulting in my lowest 2 month word output since I started writing. I blame society.Anyway, on with the Beatdown!Where my progress on (INSERT BOOK TITLE HERE)?Trevor - On hold for the moment. I admit I kind of hit a wall. Putting on the shelf for a few days.Blackjack Elseworlds - Worked on it a little, including some stuff I’m including later on in the Beatdown. Got a good idea for an overarching bad guy and for his ultimate goal. Good times!Sunset Rollins - WTF is this? Something that’s nagging at me. I’m working on an outline today. This one’s gonna be fun as hell.Where I wish I was: Talkeetna, Alaska. I wrote it as the home of our lead character in Patriots & Tyrants for a reason - to visit it at some point to do "research." It's the same logic for placing the story of Trevor Kane in San Francisco - I need to go back there for a week to do some scouting.It's for work, right? You guys believe me...Anyway, I'm dying to hit Alaska, to see it, to be there. To do what?Breathe.What I watched on TV last week?Brooklyn 99. Yes, everyone told me. Repeatedly. But I'm an idiot. I admit it. Now it's our binge target. Forget you, Lucifer, we're hooked.Need to finish The Expanse and Jessica Jones 2...What's causing some of my writing problems? Here she is, the main reason I'm procrastinating. I know, some of you will argue that it's the other way around - I'm procrastinating and finding reasons to sabotage my writing. If you think that's true, just look at her. Look at those eyes. I might write some Brigitte fan fiction - 50 Shades- style.What I watched again yesterday?Guardians of the Galaxy 2. Seriously great film, isn't it? If you disagree, maybe you don't have all the daddy issues I do. Get with it.It may be my favorite MCU film so far, with the original GOTG coming in second. My rankings aren't worth shit, though. Just my personal opinions.Favorite Quote of the WeekThis is more regarding my current state of affairs (writing constipated) than any sort of political statement. I really need to get out of this funk.“ Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it. ”Edmund BurkeFunniest shit I've seen for days: I was jonesing for...The Beastgrip thingie for the phone. That was for the production side. I got one. It's awesome. More on that later in the week but a quick note, though:We're delaying all talk of production. I reserve the right to change my mind 27 times before the day is through.But, for financial reasons, and other reasons, we're putting it on hold. I'll explain more in a VLOG I'm planning.Amazing art of the week:This guy's art makes me want to write something. Not sure what, but something. Trevor, that's it! It makes me want to write more Trevor. NANOWRIMO?Start another one in June? I did do 2,700 words for a gap scene I needed for Blackjack. That was 6/1. Since? NOTHING. I hate the world.But maybe let's do something less ambitious, less intrusive. Time for a new goal:1,500 words a day. Can we do that? We'll see. It starts today with a Trevor scene I need to finish and an outline I want to start (Sunset).Second funniest shit I've seen all week: 
WTF is Blackjack Elseworlds going to be about?One of the things that helps crystallize any story, when you're starting, is a one/two sentence breakdown of what the story is about. I started on that. This doesn't tell what the story's about - I'm working on it - but it gives an idea of the concept. It's also a good write up for the Amazon page.I hope you enjoy:Blackjack is many things; a brute, an antihero, a libertine and scoundrel, but for a short while there, he was the one thing we loved most about him, A VILLAIN. Yes, we’re going back in time, pretending that the second and third book never happened - Hell, we’re wiping the slate clean on 90% of the first book.Why?Does that matter?This is Blackjack as he should have been, Blackjack unleashed.The most fearsome supervillain of all time returns in an all-new story!Follow your favorite supervillain in a story that asks a simple question, “What if?” What if Blackjack had never met Apogee? What if he’d never joined the Impossibles? What if he’d never made the turn to good?WARNING: “Blackjack Elseworlds” contains nudity, gratuitous sex and violence, bad language, dismemberment and body parts used as weapons, snarky dialogue, dirty law enforcement, excessive magic, Deus ex Machina gone wrong, mind controlled orgies, partial cannibalism, organized mayhem, deplorables and disposables, guns and knives, homeless piano players, Tantric sex, various rampages, city-wide panic, and more super villains than you can shake a stick at.---Okay, so that's the idea. A louder, more irreverent, more adult version of the same character, assuming that he went a little bit off course during the events of the first book.Anyway, that's it for the Beatdown. I hope you guys have a great week, and I'll see you soon.Ben

If you're a Blackjack Patreon Patron, move along! This is shameless promotion, a plug for those that haven't gotten a chance to read the fourth Blackjack book, Messiah.Patrons of this site are getting this on a weekly basis, and they're already two months into the story.Don't you want to be a Blackjack Patron?

Blackjack Messiahby Ben Bequer and Joshua Hoade
Point Nemo doesn’t exist on any map. Located in the South Pacific, 2,600 kilometers from the nearest land mass, and surrounded by 26 million square kilometers of open ocean, it’s considered the most remote place on Earth. If you happen to be there, you’re wading in water that is close to freezing, and the closest humans are orbiting 400 kilometers over the surface of the Earth in the International Space Station. I approached in a small boat that navigated based on a waypoint triangulated from satellite photos and star charts. It felt very old school but for the autopilot that made course corrections while I ran numbers on engine output. I built them from scratch in the engineering wing of Superdynamic’s Tower of Babel, along with the rest of the boat. Designed to be quiet and powerful, I was surprised to discover a way to make them nearly undetectable. Superdynamic damn near squeed when I showed him the models. Well, ok, he showed me two equations I had overlooked, then worked the kinks out with me, but I could tell how excited he was in the gentle way he corrected me. “Ahoy captain,” Apogee said over comms. She was trailing me on The Cicada, Superdynamic’s flagship, now in its umpteenth version. Cloaked in ten different ways, we decided to keep the ship at a high cruising altitude just in case. She wasn’t alone. At least a hundred other heroes had joined us on the mission. Superdynamic’s team, Battle, was the spearhead of a group everyone was calling Task Force One. “I’m sending some more data to you.” “I’ll log it with the rest,” she said. “If you could take a break from your nerd exercise, our readings say you should be able to see it.”In theory nothing should have been out there. No land mass, no people, just water and fish, but an island of black rock grew larger as I approached. The boat’s computer could have run an analysis, found out how deep it went, the kind of rock, but I didn’t need all that shit. The castle rising out the middle of the island was pretty much the only information that mattered. See, as fun as it was to field test my boat, this was really a whale hunt. The whale in question was Primal, most recently the dictator of Madagascar. According to the people who worked in his “government,” he left because people were not worth the trouble. That’s a direct quote. He was an old school super, cut from the same cloth as Retcon and Global, but he wasn’t one of the Original Seven, which meant he was only a demi-god. He had some kind of pyroclasmic power that he had used to create the island and all of the structures on it. Tossing aside my heavy coat, I changed the waypoint in the boat’s navigation suite. I shifted my feet to keep my balance as I stepped out of the small cabin as the boat swayed to follow its new nav point. The prow was almost facing away from the island when I engaged my rocket boots. I let the thrust carry me high so I could take in the totality of Primal’s island. It was the size of a football stadium, and made from what looked like a single contiguous piece of rock. I couldn’t help but compare his castle to the one I had built no long ago. What was it with villains and castles?I stayed high for another reason, I wanted to be seen. Primal wasn’t alone. The island was intended as some sort of supers haven, catering mostly to the criminal types. We had no idea how many had taken the offer, but it was enough to worry the shot callers in the hero community. They wanted a preemptive strike. Orbital bombardment, or the old hit hard and fast, count the bodies later strategy. I felt like Frodo watching the different factions fight over how best to rid themselves of the One Ring. My plan was the only one that didn’t end in a bloodbath. Superdynamic smiled when he heard it. We had sent a message, but didn’t want any surprises. I fell forward into the island, letting my boots slow me on approach and it didn’t take long for Primal to arrange a welcoming committee. A dozen or so fliers made their way to me. I kept my trajectory, slow and looping, arms wide open. “Here we go,” I said.“Don’t let them talk you into changing sides,” Apogee said with a laugh, then got serious. “We’re right here, babe.”My rig had an integrated computer tied into Superdynamic’s system that allowed me to target and ID most of the incoming supers. Small popup boxes flashed into view just above my eyeline. Of the bunch, only one packed a punch strong enough for me to feel. He went by Flamestrike and he was more than capable of vaporizing me. From what the files were telling me, he was a headcase who liked hurting people. He had been jacked into the Utopia mind prison, along with Primal, and me. The three of us, along with at least a thousand others, escaped at the same time, when a madman named Zundergrub destroyed the place trying to kill me. I still had to convince people that wasn’t my fault. “Look who it is,” said a woman the computer identified as Shadowflank. She was a Class-C nobody. I could pluck her out of the air and beat two of the others to death with her corpse before any of them could react. I had no white flag, no olive branch. The only thing that kept them from attacking me on sight was my rep. “They’ve sent us their lapdog.”“Blackjack,” Flamestrike said. He was bad. I mean as a human, he was awful. His warm, throaty voice was harsh and exaggerated. “I come with terms,” I said. I sensed a crackle in the air, the urge to get violent. I soaked it up and it felt like waking up from a long, restful sleep. I ignored the idiots as they did their mental gymnastics. This part of the plan relied on a mixed bag of psychos choosing self preservation over ego and whatever other voices whispered in their ear. They were each running a calculation, deciding if it was worth the risk. The formulas were different based on who you were dealing with. For the heroes, bless their stupid hearts, laying out for strangers was part of the contract. They actively looked to martyr themselves. I had my own experience with that and it generally ended up with me needing replacement organs. The villains generally wanted different things, but in almost every instance, what they really wanted was freedom. Mostly, freedom from the rules. Within that there was a level of pragmatism that I admired. The question on each of their minds, with the possible exception of Flamestrike, was, “Which one of us is going to die?” From what the little boxes were telling me, the answer was probably most of them. I hadn’t been in a scrape for months, and my blood was singing for it. They knew it, too. They also knew that restraint wasn’t my strong suit. Oh, sure, have your fun and banter a little, but throw a punch and I’ll rip your fucking head off. See, I was doing my own trigonometry, and if my math was right, no less than eight of these people were a breath away from feeding fish at the bottom of the South Pacific. “We should frag him,” Shadowflank said. I made a mental note, classifying her either crazy or stupid. “Take it easy, Tara,” said a guy called Redline. Another minor leaguer, he hovered close enough that I could tell they were more than friends. “That dude’s dangerous.”“I’ll speak only to Primal,” I said with a sly grin. I didn’t really want to fight, but they would pounce if they saw weakness.“We should frag him,” Shadowflank said. “Flamestrike, we can take this fucking loser. Rip his spine out, and the rest of those pansies will shit themselves.”A couple of the others were arraying themselves around Shadowflank in a loose formation. Redline drifted away from her closer to Flamestrike, the only vote that really mattered. He was about to speak, but Flamestrike cut him off with a gesture.“You’re from the Task Force?” Flamestrike said. His voice was so forced, so terrible, it was hard to keep a straight face. I held it together and nodded. “Okay, follow us,” he said and turned away, leading me toward the island. He wasn’t afraid of me. He wasn’t projecting his nerves like the others. Maybe if Primal had the same attitude, this thing could come to a friendly conclusion. If not…things were going to get nasty. I leaned forward and throttled my rocket boots, my Asskickers, and followed Flamestrike. The other supers surrounded me, like buzzing pests, all the way there.A group of people waited for me on a platform jutting out of the main castle. I thought about hitting the ground hard, cratering the pretty tiles and scattering the onlookers, but that was for a person trying to look strong from a position of weakness. I didn’t need that shit. I landed softly, a cloud of debris wafting around me, and without waiting for my escort, walked towards the group. There were a dozen supers standing there, flooding my targeting computer, but I ignored the readouts, because standing in the middle of the bunch was Primal.Compared to the bright spandex and leather of the supers accompanying him, he was thoroughly unassuming. Primal wore a thick, black wool coat to protect against the chill and the elements. His face was dark, lined with scars like some topographical map, and he wore his gray hair short and scraggly. A shade over six feet, with squared shoulders, he seemed to hunch, as if trying to disappear amongst the peacock supers surrounding him. And he would have, if not for the blue glow of his eyes. They were tiny, deep set in that scarred face, like portals to another dimension.“That’s enough, Blackjack,” one super said, stepping in my way. I took one last step, so we were close, inches apart. He was bigger than me, with a blue and white costume that sported a long, flowing cape. The readout in my goggles read, “Father Superior,” but I didn’t bother with the rest of the information it was giving me, nor did I even care to let my brain scramble for whatever vestiges of data I had stored.  I looked past him at Primal, and the old guy seemed content to let it play out. It was prison logic, I had to prove myself by breaking one of his big guys over my knee. I let my eyes focus on the foppish prick, a scowl parading across my face. “Pretty little outfit,” I said, surprised by the charged energy in my voice.The villain didn’t react, but in the back of his eyes, way back there, farther than even he could tell, I saw fear. He was trying to impress people, but it was time for everyone to learn that this was my show. I lowered my voice until the natural baritone became husky. “You know, last time a guy got in my face like this? I bit his cheek off.”I could tell by the minute shift in Father Superior’s posture that he did know, or he knew enough. A hundred supers had come to kill me in the Australian outback. I was the only one to walk away from that fight, but thanks to the sociopath A.I., Mr Haha, it had been broadcast worldwide. The footage was banned on most respectable social media sites, but there were plenty of pirated copies. Bootlegs of it sold like crazy at conventions. “I’m hungry.” I leaned in, sniffing at his face, and he took a full step back. Behind him, fists clenched and more than one anima banner flickered to life. “I come with a message, Primal,” I said, staring at Father Superior. “But there’s a meatbag standing in my way. I assume you’re trying to test me or something...”The guy turned back to Primal, who said nothing. Did nothing.His mistake.My left hand shot out, getting a grip around Father Superior’s throat. I lifted him high and squeezed. I felt the flesh tense in my grasp, his breath pinched down to thin whistle. He squirmed wildly, batting at my arms and kicking at me with little effect. I could feel movement around me, heat and static building around me as the villains readied to kill me. I didn’t bother with the others, devoting all of my attention to Father Superior’s face as it went from light tanned and handsome to distended and purple.“Blackjack, enough!” Primal finally said. “I agree. I came with a message. Either listen to me, or fight…either way, fuck you and your little fuckboys.”Father Superior’s throat clicked against my palm, his eyes bulging out of the sockets. Primal held up a hand, and the others relented. They spoke in harsh murmurs as I dropped Father Superior who immediately vomited, then curled up next to it, breathing in harsh gasps.“Superior…” I muttered, walking past him.“That was my fault,” Primal said.I nodded. Our relationship was starting off with a bang, not that I expected it to go smooth. Several of the others scowled at me, but Primal waved them off. “Lashwave, Le Kill, take him to the medical quarters. Have The Fates look to his wound.”Two supers circled me and helped Superior off the ground. His neck was a bruised mess, like chopped meat before the grill. “Thought he was tougher,” I said apologetically.Primal smiled, “Me too. Now let’s talk.”Another man stepped in my way, “First he gets rid of all that gear.”I stared at the guy. He was more muscle than brains, and liked having his hairy chest exposed. He dwarfed me, with biceps the size of pit bulls and chains wrapped around his waist and wrists. My computer ID’ed him as Praetorian, a Class-A tough who’d tussled with Epic a few times. From the broken nose and funny, uneven look of his jaw, the guy hadn’t done well.“You’re welcome to try,” I said, but Primal was done with the bullshit.“No, no,” he said, interceding between me and his man. “Let them monitor this, I don’t care much now.”I gave Praetorian a wink and followed Primal, who walked away without me. Nobody followed. I hurried to catch up as Lashwave and Le Kill passed us, hurrying with Father Superior in their arms. “Cant…breathe…” he gasped, as they reached elevator. The doors opened, and I made a move to step in, but Primal held me up with a gesture, allowing the Lashwave and Le Kill to muscle Father Superior in. “I had to make sure it was you,” Primal said absentmindedly as the doors closed. “I’ve never seen you in person. I had to…well, it wasn’t my best idea.”“And this place?” I gestured to the island. “This wasn’t that smart either. You didn’t think we’d find out about it?”“Technology,” he said. “I’ve never kept up with new developments, with everything that’s happening. Others warned me, but I can be pretty obstinate. ‘It’s the remotest place in the world,’ I told them. What do I know, anyway. I was a geologist when the accident occurred, when I became what I am now. As you can imagine, I travelled the whole world – Africa, Asia, Australia – everywhere, really, and in my travels I heard of this place…and it always struck me as romantic, you know, a place so remote.”“You might’ve gone underground,” I suggested.He raised an eyebrow. “Maybe next time.”“I’m sorry, Primal,” I said, serious for the first time. “This isn’t one you’re going to walk away from. I come with terms-”“Not yet,” he said with a raised hand. “So you don’t have to repeat yourself.”Just then the elevator doors slid open and we entered. The thing dropped with more speed than was probably safe. He was unaffected, but I felt the floor leaving my feet behind as I began to lift slightly off the ground. “Slower,” he said and the elevator obeyed, allowing me to land, but I could tell he wanted to say more. “It’s fine,” I said. “Where are we going?”“What was Utopia for you?” he said. It was my turn to stammer. As a super felon who had been convicted for crimes against humanity, I had been sentenced to a lifetime in Utopia. A metahuman supermax built to keep monsters placid, the inmates were fed personalized virtual fantasies that were for all intents, real. I hadn’t thought of my experiences in the mind prison for a long time, but at his prompt, memories elbowed their way through the tension of the moment. Flying boats and swords and fun, man it had been so much fun! It had also been a horrible reflection of all the bad things nestled deep in me. I never talked about it, not even with Apogee.Primal nodded into the gulf of my silence. “Silence is the most common answer to that question. Even the worst of the lost souls have trouble with it.”“Why do you ask?”“I’m glad they sent you. You can understand what it was like. An illusion, but so real. For me, Utopia, was, well, utopia. I managed to bring us all together. Obviously, there were far fewer of us than there are now, but the ones who were there lived in a world where we all worked for the common good. Retcon made peace with Valiant. Did you know they were best friends before the accident?”The elevator had slowed to point where it felt like we were barely moving. I had nothing to add, so stayed silent, watching his mood darken in the deepening lines around his mouth and eyes. I was starting to worry. If I had Primal pegged right, every inch of this place was his to control. He could kill me right here with little effort. “A guard pulled me out of the pod when all the machines shut down,” he said in a whisper. “He could have left me to die, but he made a choice. When I regained my strength, I tried to lay low, but the vision of my utopia clung like spider webs that I couldn’t brush off. I tried it in Madagascar, but the people…”“Weren’t worth the effort,” I finished for him.He shrugged. “It’s the truth. So now, I am trying it here, with our people.”“How many people do you have here?”He didn’t have to answer. The elevator stopped abruptly, the door opening to reveal a vast semi-circular chamber, designed with rows and rows of desks and chairs, like the security council of the UN or the U.S. House of Representatives. Sitting and facing me was a mob of villains, hundreds of them packed into chairs, or standing and waiting. Primal motioned me towards a podium that overlooked the whole room. A microphone sat on an adjustable stand. “Go ahead,” he said. “Tell them all.”Boos met me at the podium, along with some feral growls and curses that may have actually been magical. I tapped the microphone and was rewarded with loud scratches. There was a wave of laughter at that, and I could tell they weren’t laughing with me. The podium was raised, looking down on a pit that was standing room only. There were a sea of faces down there, but I didn’t recognize most of them. The computer link was trying to keep up, but this many targets was the equivalent of a DDOS attack. Past them were five rows of chairs arrayed in concentric circles, each a half step higher than the one in front. Not a single seat was empty.   The row furthest from me was twenty or thirty feet high, giving the chamber a stadium-like feel, and amplifying every sound.“Hello,” I said, immediately hating how passive my voice was. The villains jeered and sneered.I’m not a talented public speaker. My voice is kind of deep and rough, and I lack what you would call stage presence. I’m more the guy that stands behind the guy doing the talking - looking menacing is sort of my speciality. But I had agreed to this, and here I was, with no way out but through.“My name is Blackjack,” I said.A massive figure stood from up in the front row of seats. Mottled green scales moved sinuously as he parted the small mob below, and a tail bobbed around as if it had its own mind. Slitted yellow eyes stared out from a snout.  My reticle identified him as Tooth, from the villain combo Tooth and Claw, though where his partner was, I couldn’t tell.“He said his name is Bitchjack?”The jibe was just stupid enough to elicit laughter from a crowd that was already predisposed to hate me. I was tempted to ignore it, but that could be seen as weakness. I scrolled fast through my intel scan and found a nugget that I couldn’t pass up. “You’re Tooth, right?”He turned to me, drooling out of the side of his mouth, “That’s right, Bitchjack.”“Didn’t Epic put you on your ass?”The relevance escaped him for a moment, realization dawning with the widening of his slitted eyes. Not everyone knew my face, but anyone who knew my name knew I pancaked Epic. “You ain’t sh-”“Sit down and shut up, stupid. The adults are trying to figure this thing out.” I waited two seconds then went on, ignoring him. “I come with word from Superdynamic and Task Force One.” Tooth was still standing, confused. “We are not unsympathetic to your situation, and have a potential solution that might work for most of you. Surrender to me, now, and you’ll have your sentences cut in half. I don’t think it can get better than that.”I stared down at Tooth, who slinked back to his seat.“Run and we’ll chase you. Fight and we’ll beat you. Surrender peacefully and we’ll be merciful.”I felt something behind me and saw Primal inching forward. I took the unspoken cue, and gave him the podium. “You heard him. The offer is on the table and I gotta admit, it’s pretty good. If you’re tired of running, if you think enough is enough, then I suggest you take it. None of us will think any less of you.”“Fuck that shit, I wanna fight!” Tooth said, and half the stadium erupted.Primal waved him down, but my attention was drawn to a young woman sitting a few rows behind Tooth. She had pale skin, dark hair that she kept mostly hidden under a heavy cloak and the bluest eyes I’d ever seen. She was staring at me, but my targeting computer was giving me issues with her ID.“Blackjack is right, the Task Force is formed from some of the most powerful supers on the planet. They’ve got many of the same heroes that put us away,” he gave Tooth a baleful stare. “We might have numbers on them - maybe five times over - but those supers are as strong as they come. Some of us have the bruises and scars to prove it, right?” He gestured to the side of his face, eliciting some laughter and chuckles from the crowd. Primal looked back at me, following my eye. A smile crossed his face. I couldn’t stop staring at her, even as all of her focus was on Primal. I began to think she was using a power on me. Looking away was like sliding my eyes across molasses, and a second later, they were back on her.“Now I know that some of you are itching for a good fight after many years on ice,” Primal said. “I understand completely and, frankly, I can’t blame you, but I want you to do me a personal favor and seriously consider the offer. While it might be fun to trade punches with the bastard that put you away, if only for old time’s sake, I’d appreciate if that’s your decision, it’s only the last resort.” He paused a second for dramatic effect, then dug his hands in his pockets. “Thank you for listening to me,” he said, stepping out of microphone range. “We’ll, that’s that.”“Nice speech,” I said. “Motivates the more fearful ones to run or surrender. And gives the crazies reason to fight - maybe to cover your escape?”“That girl you were looking at - what’s your interest?”I had my face gear, goggles to cover my eyes, concealing me from him, but somehow I felt like I couldn’t lie to the guy. “I was trying to identify her.”Primal nodded, “I figure this whole contraption is tied into their network - or however that works. They said to make you take it off, or to use jamming equipment…”He looked back into the chamber to see it emptying out. A couple of them might fight, but to me they looked like the runners. I hoped most of them would just surrender. Some had only a few years left on their sentences, and their remaining jail time would be minimal. Others stayed at their seats, arguing and yelling. A few fights broke out. Those were the scrappers. Not much point of cutting multiple life sentences in half. I could empathize. I had multiple life sentences hanging over my head, too.“Most will run,” Primal said, walking away. “But some will give it a go.” He stopped a few paces from me and gestured for me to follow. His leadership cadre joined us. There were two dozen of them. “And you?” I said.He raised his eyebrows and shook his head, “I had this all figured out, my boy. This was meant to be a real haven for those that had no other option - super or not. A home for all the world’s homeless, regardless of reason.”“Kind of like the French Foreign Legion?”“Something like that. Well, as you can imagine, making something like that requires a great deal of effort and time. And while we had a large number of people respond, time became short thanks to your Task Force.”“I’m sorry for that,” I said. The idea had a romantic novelty to it that seemed attractive even to me - a place where a person could start from scratch. I found my second chance with Apogee and Superdynamic. They saved my life and my soul. As I looked out over that audience, I saw plenty of people in the same jam that I had been in.“I think it was doomed to failure long before that. See, I was sold on the idea of making this some sort of democratic utopian society,” he gestured to the figures that raced behind us. “And before you knew it we had factions…let’s see, there’s the Progress Group, who favor some sort of republican ideal, with an elected body - that chamber we were just at was their idea. There’s also the Brothers of Allah - you’d be surprised how many supers come from the Middle East. They actually want me to lead in an authoritarian fashion - after I renounce my former Baptist ways and embrace Islam.” He shuddered.“Then there’s the Anarchists…I call them that but they have some sort of acronym that I can never remember. In any case, it’s been…interesting, to say the least. Especially for someone my age, someone not all that used to the fine art of politicking.”We continued down a long hallway, decorated with wall to wall red plush rug and old tapestries like you’d find in some ancient medieval castle. The roof was high and arched, and ahead were a pair of brass-laced double doors and a pair of servants who opened them for us. “I’ve done my best here, you see, but I think this is the stuff of younger men. I know I don’t look it, Blackjack, but I’m eighty-two years old.”He looked it. That and then some.“I’m tired of fighting,” he said, walking into the massive chamber. Sitting in the middle of the room was a table with two dozen settings. The floor was polished marble, almost as if it was one huge piece that spanned the whole place, red with natural patterns that you’d get lost in if you stared for too long. The walls were draped with mirrors and tapestries and the roof was high and arched, the columns decorated with cherubs dancing and frolicking. If not for the harsh sea visible out the windows that surrounded us, it would be easy to think this place was a part of a Renaissance European castle.We spilled into the room, following Primal to the table, but he didn’t take a seat, instead, standing against one of the ornate chairs. “Impressed?” he said, shaking his head at my awe. “It won’t last, my boy. Nothing ever does.”“Listen, I don’t speak for the others, but I don’t see a reason why we can’t…”He raised a hand, and I fell silent.  “I came here, eager to change everything,” he started. “Angry at my past…I wanted a new start.”“If you know anything about me, you know I understand that.”“The problem is that there’s no such thing, Blackjack. It doesn’t exist. There’s this and there’s nothing else. And despite my best intentions, regardless of all my work, nothing we’ve done here is different…or better. It’s all the same, you see? All the same conflicts, come to follow us here that exist everywhere else. What does that tell you?”I shook my head.“To start fresh, you have to leave everything behind, Blackjack. God, I wish I could show you.” He turned to one of the group that followed us, an older guy - older even than Primal. “What does it read?”The man held what amounted to a bulky smartphone in one hand and what looked like a tube of lipstick in the other. He waved the small tube in my general direction as I stepped away from the group, edging away until my back was closer to the wall. “What the fuck?”“No, no,” Primal said. “This is just a…dear me, I don’t even know what it’s called.”“It doesn’t have a formal name,” the older man said, chuckling. No data was coming up for the guy. “It’s like a Geiger counter-““Right,” Primal shot in with a sudden burst of youthful vigor. “It’s like a Geiger counter, but instead of testing radiation, it tests…well…radiation.” Lost again, he turned to the older man.“It tests the emission of the same radiation that made the Original Seven,” he said, his attention mostly on the device. “As I feared, they’re using some of dampeners. I’d wager they’re built into his gauntlets.”I clenched my fists. “If you think you’re going to…”“No, please,” Primal pleaded. “He’s just testing. We’re just testing.”“What’s this all about?”He lowered his head and gave out a little snort, “Well, I’ve found a new way to look at things. A new point of view. A fresh start, Blackjack, for crying out loud. What have we been talking about here? That’s what this is all about.”“And the castle, and all the people out there?”Primal shrugged, “I told you, it was a failed experiment.”“Yes, his gauntlets are suppressing the emissions, but I can still detect them, Primal. They’re there, undiminished. Superdynamic must have figured out a method to contain them.”“How do you know about that?” I said. I knew the answer, of course, my little secret was nothing of the sort. A lot of people knew that I was changed from my encounter with the Lightbringers, the Godlike species that “made” the first supers. It was a long story, but the punchline was, I emitted energy like a nuclear reactor, energy that turned normal humans into supers, and supers into even more powerful supers. Superdynamic had devised a suppression device that was integrated into my gear, and the main devices were implanted in my huge gauntlets at the wrists. They sapped a little bit of my strength, and made me feel like I had a permanent fever, tired and sluggish, but they protected others from my emissions, and allowed me to live a normal life.Geiger counter guy looked confused, waving the small tube just to the left of me. “That’s strange…”“What is it?” Flamestrike said, standing near enough that I could feel ambient heat radiating from him, and a smell like burning kerosene.  Space cleared around him almost unconsciously. Only Primal seemed indifferent to how unsettling Flamestrike was. The old guy with the meta geiger counter audibly gulped. “Sorry, Flamestrike, but I’m getting duplicated readings.”Flamestrike turned on me and heat wafted from around him in waves that reminded me of a Nevada highway during the summer. “Let’s get on with it, Primal.”“We’ve been given a second chance, Blackjack,” Primal said. “We can change everything, we can show them all.” I breathed a deep sigh and shook my head. I should have known there was a game at the center of this. I used to laugh at how straightforward heroes were. I thought their simple good versus bad standards were stupid and naive. Then I found myself neck deep in dumb villain schemes. I learned that every person needed a set of ethics to live by, otherwise you were just an overpowered baby throwing tantrums. I’ve thrown a tantrum or two in my time.  “All those years on the run,” Primal continued. “All that effort and pain for the slim chance to belong, and what have they given you? An outsider’s view of the banquet. We mean to give you the head table,” he said, motioning for the others to gather around me. Primal pulled back the head chair. The others came closer, one of them producing a pair heavy manacled power dampening cuffs.My attention was diverted to the old man and his device as he kept scanning the area. Primal reached out and put his hand on my shoulder, “This isn’t a religion or a cult. It’s a new way for us to live, a new outlook on life, a new sense of belonging - something I know you’re searching for.”“Oh dear,” the Geiger counter guy said, drawing my attention for a moment. He was standing beside me, waving his device to the area adjacent to me. “I think I figured it out.”Crackling energy preceded an explosion of light and energy that knocked me and most of Primal’s entourage on our asses. When the flare dimmed, Apogee stood next to me. Yanking me to my feet, she said, “I waited as long as I could.”

It goes on, I promise. Patreon readers are now 100+ pages into the story.Join us at www.patreon.com/unreliable

...or die!

The latest Beatdown is up on our Patreon.https://www.patreon.com/posts/blackjack-ep-05-18064844Won't post it here again - cause it's kinda huge.

Oh, and I had an issue with numbers. I blame all the times I hit myself in the head when I was a kid. I blame walls and floors.

Anyway, THIS is the 5th one, not the last one.

Move along...

Hey guys, Ben here!Some weeks aren’t fun and games. Some weeks punch you in the balls. This week, we lost a loved one and this one hit us hard. Thanks for bearing with us.
But we’re coming back hard(er)core this week with a full slate of items for you.
Monday the Beatdown hits (you're reading it) and we should have our technical difficulties taken care of so we’ll get back to the VLOG’ing that we’ve come to love. In this VLOG, I'm going to talk a little bit about our video plans (more below). All of this is in broad, generic terms, but it should be a fun video to watch. It should be up in the afternoon.
Tuesday you get more Blackjack Messiah. In the aftermath to the Point Nemo attack, Blackjack's mending from the nasty wound he got, and trying to put together a plan that will keep him off the shelf. This of course goes against the efforts of Superdynamic, one of his few supporters.
Wednesday I’ll write another crazy post and I might have the some Trevor scenes for the folks in the Insider's Club. If you read the near 200 pages of Trevor that we have so far, you know there's some holes. Well, guess what I'm going to be working on, starting Monday?
Thursday we get the next installment of Patriots and Tyrants. In this part, we finally get to meet the heroine of our story, Adrienne Simms. She's a former DIA JSOC adjunct who is no freelancing for an old commander on behalf of a DOJ investigation into former CIA officers gone black. This one in particular, Willie Marquez, is a bunch of laughs - especially with his plans to start wars all over the world. Willie makes Dick Cheney look like a bad tic-tac-toe player.
Friday the plan is to have another VLOG and maybe our first Unreliable Narrators podcast. Josh is coming back with a vengeance, so we might try to get it down on tape. Oh, and I might have some behind the scenes stuff in the VLOG of my first attempt to do video in 13 years. It should be pretty embarrassing.
There’s more, though, in the form of a not-so-big announcement.
All this playing around with lights and cameras and lenses has done something to me – the sleeper has awakened. I come from a production background – I quit the business about a decade ago to concentrate on my kid and my writing. But now I think I’m back.
Tech is cheaper, more mobile, and you don’t need a $5k computer to run Premiere or a $120k Avid to edit decent videos. My experiences of the past couple of weeks has given me a direction – that I’ll be talking about more in the coming days. Basically, I’m bringing back my old production studio and we’re going to start making short films (with the end goal of doing a series or something longform).
More info to come. Right now, my head is buzzing with ideas - and yes, a Blackjack series is what I'm talking about.
Where my progress on (INSERT BOOK TITLE HERE)?Nothing. This week I wrote about 6k words, which is about half my pace, and most of that stuff was rewriting old junk that made no sense. I admit it, my first draft is sort of like a 0.5 draft sometimes. There’s days I’m not feeling it, but I push myself and do it anyway – and it’s basically crap that comes out. Not the usual crap, too, but crappy crap. The stuff that you just toss aside and rewrite from scratch. That was this week – the clean up.
Why?I finished B4, with all that’s left is a list of changes and edits and it’s kind of a weird feeling. It’s like when we had our daughter: that first night everyone told us to give the kid to the nurses – so we could sleep. We did it, and I’ve always regretted it. My baby was done, now I wanted to spend time with her.That’s not exactly like what I’m going through, but it’s a post-finished draft thing that is getting worse and worse with each book. After Pats, I spent a full month like a drunk, wandering the streets. It’s a fog, where all you’re thinking about is one thing, then that thing is gone. I’m trying to pivot hard, but all the other projects I have aren’t calling to me.I still have my edit list, and I’m going through it methodically, but it’s not the same. Editing and writing are two different animals.And I need to write.
So what are you going to do?I’m tempted to write a short work in the meantime. Maybe the first little bit of the next project. What I should do is pivot to Trevor. We have almost 200 pages of that, and it’s just the first act. Within those two pages are several gaps that I need to fill – so there’s stuff I can start writing now. To go on, I would need to start plotting the second act – which is the Hogwarts part – and I’m frankly a little intimidated by what’s to come. I have a bunch of characters in my head, and I have the essence of what happens, but I don’t have the basic plot. And the third act is kind of a blur. I’m scared to move into something unless I have a clear path forward.The same with B5. I have the first scene in my head already – easy peasy. Then I know what happens after that, and I have a villain in my head (inspired by some of the ideas you guys shared with me in the blog) and an overall character arc and story, but it’s a shred of an idea. A wisp in the wind.Maybe that’s it. Since I don’t have a project with a solid plot, I’m waffling a little. You know what that means, right? Time to ask you guys for help!
What do I do next?Looks like I’m going to hit some Trevor. I posted what I’ve got so far on Patreon in case you want to take a look. It’s 0.5 draft stuff, so beware. But yeah, maybe close the gaps and start on the school stuff. I can’t wait to introduce Aeryn Worley and Kemper Valerian...
What I watched on TV last week?Finished Collateral with the wife and we’re up to date on The Alienist and Agents of Shield. Collateral is a pretty decent British series on Netflix that’s kind of on point with regards to the immigration issues they’re dealing with. It has problems that it kind of beats you over the head a little, but the acting is great and overall it’s good.The Alienist is a sublime work that’s on TNT at the moment. I can’t suggest it more. Daniel Bruhl deserves some sort of award for it. In fact, we’ll give him one:“And for best goddamn actor in the Blackjack Kickass Awards…DANIEL BRUHL!”It’s no secret that I loved him in Civil War, and now he’s cemented himself as a top-notch actor in my book. Luke Evans is at his usual best as is Dakota Fanning, rounding out an excellent cast. If you’re into police procedural dramas, I highly recommend it.Agents of Shield…gosh, if you’re not watching this then there’s something wrong with you.
What I’m watching on TV this week?I need to finish Altered Carbon and if I ever expect to regain my daughter’s love, I have to hit up Gravity Falls and Steven Universe. I. WILL. NOT. FAIL!
Favorite Quote of the Week"I’m back!” - Arnold Schwarzenegger’s first words after waking from an emergency open heart surgery.
Surprise Movie of the WeekLove, Simon. Wow, what a movie. It’s not terribly subtle, but it’s not supposed to be. It’s trying to be a Pretty in Pink for a new generation. Nick Robinson was excellent - and I thought nothing of him after Jurassic World. My kid dragged me, kicking and screaming to see it, and I walked out of it wiping away a bucket-full of tears.Also, Tomb Raider. Yeah, it’s not Black Panther. It needed a serious rewrite/polish at the hands of my bud, Joshua, and some of the acting was a bit flat - I’m looking at you Goggins. Same with Dominic West. Seems like the senior Croft was written by someone that’s either never had a father or never been a father. PEOPLE DON’T TALK LIKE THAT, DUDE. But Alicia Vikander is just mesmerizing and I kept wanting to see more of Daniel Wu. Am I an idiot for discovering him only now? It was fun, and not Michael Bay/mindless fun. Really, really fun.
What I saw on Saturday:Ready, Player One. Man, I can’t wait. I know, I know - Spielberg’s got a few missteps of late, but the reviews are great so far. I’ll give you guys a full review with this post.So, how was it?Okay, I’ll tell you...really good. A bit by the numbers, but it's fun from beginning to end and more like Jurassic Park than I care to admit.Cyclops is pretty good, and he has his "stare into the near distance" thing going - a requirement for any Spielberg movie. Olivia Cooke is also pretty special in this. Someone to keep an eye on in the future. The rest of the cast is kind of forgettable - including Simon Pegg.The effects and the action sequences are great, sure, but they suffer from something that's plaguing a lot of modern CGI movies - too much on screen at once. Too busy, too much crap to keep track of, and that's a particular failing of this movie. See, it's replete with pop culture references, to the point that sometimes you don't follow the narrative because you're geeking out about Iron Giant, or Tracer, or, or, or...Someone needs to get the message to Hollywood to tone it down a bit - yeah, that's going to happen. Also, there's a darker narrative that's not-so between the lines; it's a repudiation of all that pop culture that it seems to embrace. Spielberg's not terribly subtle here either - he makes the third act the antithesis of the first two. It's a good argument that needs to be made - are we letting our world fall apart while we spend all our time on Facebook and Twitter - but Spielberg uses a cudgel when he should have used a scalpel.All in all, I really enjoyed it. It's worth every cent and it's the kind of movie that's best viewed in the big screen. "Spectacle Spielberg" is at his best here and if you've been alive the past 20 years (or 30 or 40), I doubt this will be a movie you won't have fun with.Rating: 8/10
Guy who I’d cast as Cool Hand Luke:Sam Rockwell. Hell, I’d cast the guy as anything in anything. He can be Apogee if he really, really wants to. I mean, give the dude a push-up bra and a domino mask and he’d be good, right? I gotta break out the Photoshop...
Thing I’m only willing to admit because of Love, SimonIn the spirit of the movie, I’m going to come out with something. Something I haven’t admitted to anyone as of yet:I love that Graham Norton show, Kitchen Nightmares. It’s more than love - it’s a fascination. And it’s a sick one, I admit. If you’ve ever seen it, then you’re as horrified as I am about how some of these places run their business, and how poor their health practices are. Everytime I go to a restaurant and feel sick afterwards, I know. That place is a Kitchen Nightmare.Makes you want to cook at home...
Writing Tip of the WeekThe first draft is called the vomit draft for a reason. It’s supposed to suck. You don’t publish that, you barely even let people near it. One of the things I see often on Reddit and in all the blogs I visit is other writers suffering from the anxiety of getting something decent on paper. They’re so worried it’s going to suck that they never finish the page, re-writing and re-writing until they basically going in circles.Well, that’s not how this thing works. You know how when you build a plane, first you have to draw the designs? Then you have revisions then you start making the parts and finally you can put them together. Well, writing is the same as making an airplane, or a building. You don’t put the flag on the top of the building on day one.Writing is re-writing and you’re crazy if you expect your first draft to be killer. Faulkner re-wrote, Dostoevski re-wrote. Hell, Shakespeare re-wrote. And you think you’re better? No, of course not. Anxiety about the first stuff you put on the page is fine, overcome it, get past it. Keep going. When you’re done with the book, that’s when the real work starts. Time will make you a better writer, and as you get more and more pages under your belt, your first draft will start getting better and better. Ask my editor, Josh - he'll tell you. The stuff he's working on now is closer to final draft than the stuff from Villain. But it's not perfect, final draft stuff. No one accomplishes that. Not Stephen King. See, King's written countless books and screenplays and short stories...and and and...so his stuff comes out much closer to finalized. He prides himself that his first draft work is so good.But how many books have you written? Yeah, not as many. So write and don't bother editing until you're done. Don't edit anything. Don't even fix your spelling errors. Another thing, as you progress with the story you'll have natural changes that affect the earlier parts of your novel. DON'T GO BACK AND FIX IT. Write yourself notes, write a book of notes, but don't touch what you've written.Not until the book/story is done.
About all the production talk above…I’m 100% serious. I’ve already sent out feelers to some of my nearest friends, two of which are all hot for this idea. One of them, Jeff Oberg, is a chef and wants to start a cooking show. I’ve eaten his food, and had him help me while I was cooking something, and I can tell you that his show would be spectacular. Well, I’m going to assist him in whatever productorial capacity I can. My plan is to start small. In the years since I’ve shot and edited anything, technology has taken leaps and bounds. Steven Soderberg’s latest movie was shot on an iPhone! So my idea is to return to my 12 year-old self and start from scratch. Back then I would shoot silly ninja movies with my cousins, editing in-camera. Likewise, I’ll start small and build from there. The end goal would look something like a YouTube series, or a full-length feature. And yeah, Blackjack...something Blackjack.
See you all next week!

Hey guys, Ben here!Some weeks aren’t fun and games. Some weeks punch you in the balls. This week, we lost a loved one and this one hit us hard. Thanks for bearing with us.
But we’re coming back hard(er)core this week with a full slate of items for you.
Monday the Beatdown hits (you're reading it) and we should have our technical difficulties taken care of so we’ll get back to the VLOG’ing that we’ve come to love. In this VLOG, I'm going to talk a little bit about our video plans (more below). All of this is in broad, generic terms, but it should be a fun video to watch. It should be up in the afternoon.
Tuesday you get more Blackjack Messiah. In the aftermath to the Point Nemo attack, Blackjack's mending from the nasty wound he got, and trying to put together a plan that will keep him off the shelf. This of course goes against the efforts of Superdynamic, one of his few supporters.
Wednesday I’ll write another crazy post and I might have the some Trevor scenes for the folks in the Insider's Club. If you read the near 200 pages of Trevor that we have so far, you know there's some holes. Well, guess what I'm going to be working on, starting Monday?
Thursday we get the next installment of Patriots and Tyrants. In this part, we finally get to meet the heroine of our story, Adrienne Simms. She's a former DIA JSOC adjunct who is no freelancing for an old commander on behalf of a DOJ investigation into former CIA officers gone black. This one in particular, Willie Marquez, is a bunch of laughs - especially with his plans to start wars all over the world. Willie makes Dick Cheney look like a bad tic-tac-toe player.
Friday the plan is to have another VLOG and maybe our first Unreliable Narrators podcast. Josh is coming back with a vengeance, so we might try to get it down on tape. Oh, and I might have some behind the scenes stuff in the VLOG of my first attempt to do video in 13 years. It should be pretty embarrassing.
There’s more, though, in the form of a not-so-big announcement.
All this playing around with lights and cameras and lenses has done something to me – the sleeper has awakened. I come from a production background – I quit the business about a decade ago to concentrate on my kid and my writing. But now I think I’m back.
Tech is cheaper, more mobile, and you don’t need a $5k computer to run Premiere or a $120k Avid to edit decent videos. My experiences of the past couple of weeks has given me a direction – that I’ll be talking about more in the coming days. Basically, I’m bringing back my old production studio and we’re going to start making short films (with the end goal of doing a series or something longform).
More info to come. Right now, my head is buzzing with ideas - and yes, a Blackjack series is what I'm talking about.
Where my progress on (INSERT BOOK TITLE HERE)?Nothing. This week I wrote about 6k words, which is about half my pace, and most of that stuff was rewriting old junk that made no sense. I admit it, my first draft is sort of like a 0.5 draft sometimes. There’s days I’m not feeling it, but I push myself and do it anyway – and it’s basically crap that comes out. Not the usual crap, too, but crappy crap. The stuff that you just toss aside and rewrite from scratch. That was this week – the clean up.
Why?I finished B4, with all that’s left is a list of changes and edits and it’s kind of a weird feeling. It’s like when we had our daughter: that first night everyone told us to give the kid to the nurses – so we could sleep. We did it, and I’ve always regretted it. My baby was done, now I wanted to spend time with her.That’s not exactly like what I’m going through, but it’s a post-finished draft thing that is getting worse and worse with each book. After Pats, I spent a full month like a drunk, wandering the streets. It’s a fog, where all you’re thinking about is one thing, then that thing is gone. I’m trying to pivot hard, but all the other projects I have aren’t calling to me.I still have my edit list, and I’m going through it methodically, but it’s not the same. Editing and writing are two different animals.And I need to write.
So what are you going to do?I’m tempted to write a short work in the meantime. Maybe the first little bit of the next project. What I should do is pivot to Trevor. We have almost 200 pages of that, and it’s just the first act. Within those two pages are several gaps that I need to fill – so there’s stuff I can start writing now. To go on, I would need to start plotting the second act – which is the Hogwarts part – and I’m frankly a little intimidated by what’s to come. I have a bunch of characters in my head, and I have the essence of what happens, but I don’t have the basic plot. And the third act is kind of a blur. I’m scared to move into something unless I have a clear path forward.The same with B5. I have the first scene in my head already – easy peasy. Then I know what happens after that, and I have a villain in my head (inspired by some of the ideas you guys shared with me in the blog) and an overall character arc and story, but it’s a shred of an idea. A wisp in the wind.Maybe that’s it. Since I don’t have a project with a solid plot, I’m waffling a little. You know what that means, right? Time to ask you guys for help!
What do I do next?Looks like I’m going to hit some Trevor. I posted what I’ve got so far on Patreon in case you want to take a look. It’s 0.5 draft stuff, so beware. But yeah, maybe close the gaps and start on the school stuff. I can’t wait to introduce Aeryn Worley and Kemper Valerian...
What I watched on TV last week?Finished Collateral with the wife and we’re up to date on The Alienist and Agents of Shield. Collateral is a pretty decent British series on Netflix that’s kind of on point with regards to the immigration issues they’re dealing with. It has problems that it kind of beats you over the head a little, but the acting is great and overall it’s good.The Alienist is a sublime work that’s on TNT at the moment. I can’t suggest it more. Daniel Bruhl deserves some sort of award for it. In fact, we’ll give him one:“And for best goddamn actor in the Blackjack Kickass Awards…DANIEL BRUHL!”It’s no secret that I loved him in Civil War, and now he’s cemented himself as a top-notch actor in my book. Luke Evans is at his usual best as is Dakota Fanning, rounding out an excellent cast. If you’re into police procedural dramas, I highly recommend it.Agents of Shield…gosh, if you’re not watching this then there’s something wrong with you.
What I’m watching on TV this week?I need to finish Altered Carbon and if I ever expect to regain my daughter’s love, I have to hit up Gravity Falls and Steven Universe. I. WILL. NOT. FAIL!
Favorite Quote of the Week"I’m back!” - Arnold Schwarzenegger’s first words after waking from an emergency open heart surgery.
Surprise Movie of the WeekLove, Simon. Wow, what a movie. It’s not terribly subtle, but it’s not supposed to be. It’s trying to be a Pretty in Pink for a new generation. Nick Robinson was excellent - and I thought nothing of him after Jurassic World. My kid dragged me, kicking and screaming to see it, and I walked out of it wiping away a bucket-full of tears.Also, Tomb Raider. Yeah, it’s not Black Panther. It needed a serious rewrite/polish at the hands of my bud, Joshua, and some of the acting was a bit flat - I’m looking at you Goggins. Same with Dominic West. Seems like the senior Croft was written by someone that’s either never had a father or never been a father. PEOPLE DON’T TALK LIKE THAT, DUDE. But Alicia Vikander is just mesmerizing and I kept wanting to see more of Daniel Wu. Am I an idiot for discovering him only now? It was fun, and not Michael Bay/mindless fun. Really, really fun.
What I saw on Saturday:Ready, Player One. Man, I can’t wait. I know, I know - Spielberg’s got a few missteps of late, but the reviews are great so far. I’ll give you guys a full review with this post.So, how was it?Okay, I’ll tell you...really good. A bit by the numbers, but it's fun from beginning to end and more like Jurassic Park than I care to admit.Cyclops is pretty good, and he has his "stare into the near distance" thing going - a requirement for any Spielberg movie. Olivia Cooke is also pretty special in this. Someone to keep an eye on in the future. The rest of the cast is kind of forgettable - including Simon Pegg.The effects and the action sequences are great, sure, but they suffer from something that's plaguing a lot of modern CGI movies - too much on screen at once. Too busy, too much crap to keep track of, and that's a particular failing of this movie. See, it's replete with pop culture references, to the point that sometimes you don't follow the narrative because you're geeking out about Iron Giant, or Tracer, or, or, or...Someone needs to get the message to Hollywood to tone it down a bit - yeah, that's going to happen. Also, there's a darker narrative that's not-so between the lines; it's a repudiation of all that pop culture that it seems to embrace. Spielberg's not terribly subtle here either - he makes the third act the antithesis of the first two. It's a good argument that needs to be made - are we letting our world fall apart while we spend all our time on Facebook and Twitter - but Spielberg uses a cudgel when he should have used a scalpel.All in all, I really enjoyed it. It's worth every cent and it's the kind of movie that's best viewed in the big screen. "Spectacle Spielberg" is at his best here and if you've been alive the past 20 years (or 30 or 40), I doubt this will be a movie you won't have fun with.Rating: 8/10
Guy who I’d cast as Cool Hand Luke:Sam Rockwell. Hell, I’d cast the guy as anything in anything. He can be Apogee if he really, really wants to. I mean, give the dude a push-up bra and a domino mask and he’d be good, right? I gotta break out the Photoshop...
Thing I’m only willing to admit because of Love, SimonIn the spirit of the movie, I’m going to come out with something. Something I haven’t admitted to anyone as of yet:I love that Graham Norton show, Kitchen Nightmares. It’s more than love - it’s a fascination. And it’s a sick one, I admit. If you’ve ever seen it, then you’re as horrified as I am about how some of these places run their business, and how poor their health practices are. Everytime I go to a restaurant and feel sick afterwards, I know. That place is a Kitchen Nightmare.Makes you want to cook at home...
Writing Tip of the WeekThe first draft is called the vomit draft for a reason. It’s supposed to suck. You don’t publish that, you barely even let people near it. One of the things I see often on Reddit and in all the blogs I visit is other writers suffering from the anxiety of getting something decent on paper. They’re so worried it’s going to suck that they never finish the page, re-writing and re-writing until they basically going in circles.Well, that’s not how this thing works. You know how when you build a plane, first you have to draw the designs? Then you have revisions then you start making the parts and finally you can put them together. Well, writing is the same as making an airplane, or a building. You don’t put the flag on the top of the building on day one.Writing is re-writing and you’re crazy if you expect your first draft to be killer. Faulkner re-wrote, Dostoevski re-wrote. Hell, Shakespeare re-wrote. And you think you’re better? No, of course not. Anxiety about the first stuff you put on the page is fine, overcome it, get past it. Keep going. When you’re done with the book, that’s when the real work starts. Time will make you a better writer, and as you get more and more pages under your belt, your first draft will start getting better and better. Ask my editor, Josh - he'll tell you. The stuff he's working on now is closer to final draft than the stuff from Villain. But it's not perfect, final draft stuff. No one accomplishes that. Not Stephen King. See, King's written countless books and screenplays and short stories...and and and...so his stuff comes out much closer to finalized. He prides himself that his first draft work is so good.But how many books have you written? Yeah, not as many. So write and don't bother editing until you're done. Don't edit anything. Don't even fix your spelling errors. Another thing, as you progress with the story you'll have natural changes that affect the earlier parts of your novel. DON'T GO BACK AND FIX IT. Write yourself notes, write a book of notes, but don't touch what you've written.Not until the book/story is done.
About all the production talk above…I’m 100% serious. I’ve already sent out feelers to some of my nearest friends, two of which are all hot for this idea. One of them, Jeff Oberg, is a chef and wants to start a cooking show. I’ve eaten his food, and had him help me while I was cooking something, and I can tell you that his show would be spectacular. Well, I’m going to assist him in whatever productorial capacity I can. My plan is to start small. In the years since I’ve shot and edited anything, technology has taken leaps and bounds. Steven Soderberg’s latest movie was shot on an iPhone! So my idea is to return to my 12 year-old self and start from scratch. Back then I would shoot silly ninja movies with my cousins, editing in-camera. Likewise, I’ll start small and build from there. The end goal would look something like a YouTube series, or a full-length feature. And yeah, Blackjack...something Blackjack.
See you all next week!

Hey, Ben here. Okay, we’ve been talking about it for, like, 2 minutes, and now we’re doing it…www.patreon.com/unreliableBlackjack (and all our other stuff) is coming to Patreon, starting this Tuesday (TOMORROW!). The page is up right now with a ton of content, but this coming Tuesday we’ll have Blackjack Messiah – part one, a full six months before it publishes and the story will keep rolling out until we're done. We’ll also have a ton of free stuff online, but if you want to read Messiah early – as in, months and months before it comes to Amazon – then you’ll want to join our Patreon campaign.What is Patreon? Maybe you haven’t heard about Patreon, it’s a content provider’s paradise, allowing us to cater the experience to all our fans depending on how much they want to get. There’s different reward levels that you join in for, starting at $1.00 a month going up to $100.00 a month for our Writer's Academy. What do you get for all that stuff? Well, below I break down the reward levels. Suffice it to say that we’re frontloading the $1.00 level, so if all you want to do is read your Blackjack early – before it hits the stands – then that’s all you need. If you want to go deep, and see how we function, and maybe even become part of the process, then there’s a reward level for you.Here’s all the different reward levels:BLACKJACK’S CREW ($1.00/month)
· Access to the patron-only activity feed!
. Access to Blackjack Beatdown, our weekly newsletter!
· Access to the new ongoing story Blackjack story: Messiah!
. Access to our brand new story Patriots and Tyrants!
· Patron thanks in all our books!
· Access to our Convention Diaries!APOGEE’S REVOLUTION ($2.00/month)
· All rewards above this!
· Access to the VLOG!
. VLOG and podcast shout out!
· Access to our monthly Unreliable Narrators podcast!
· Have all your questions answered in the monthly Twitch Q&A!
· Access to the archive (only the early chapters of Blackjack 1-3 until May 2018 - the full works afterwards)!
· I will follow you on Facebook & Twitter! (message me your links after signing up.) THE INSIDER’S CLUB ($5.00/month)
· All rewards above this!
· Access to a third, ongoing story, starting with part one of the Trevor Kane saga starting in April.
· Extra material not included in book - Deleted scenes, character studies, or simply just nonsensical scribbles that were the starting point our stories, they're a fun and personal reward only available to you.
· Epub/Mobi/PDF of all our upcoming publications.THE VILLAINS LEAGUE ($25.00/month)
· All rewards above this!
· Monthly group workshop - We'll help get YOUR story/character/plot right.
· Access to early drafts! As our most loyal fans, you’ll get the unique the chance to help make our work even more amazing.
· Get a Free ongoing Blackjack story, available to you exclusively. This all-new “Elseworlds/What-if?” story won’t be available anywhere else and will feature an original storyline set in the prelude to Blackjack Villain, potentially leading us to a new timeline. (Coming Summer 2018)
· Personally signed printed copy of all our upcoming works.
· Access to private convention panels. If we're at a convention near you, expect a personal invite to our booth and to the Convention Diaries.There’s also a writing academy that’ll include private online workshops, catered to your project’s specific needs. Need character work, we’ll help your characters pop off the page. The same with dialogue, pacing and overall story. We can also guide you through the publishing process – which isn’t that bad once you get a hang of it. An additional service in the workshop is to put a small segment of your work (a short sequence or scene) in the back of our future publications to promote your work.Our Patreon campaign is a great avenue to provide you with as much Blackjack (and our other stories) as you can handle in the way we like to work, directly with you. We thrive on your feedback and comments, and through Patreon, you’ll be closer to Ben & Josh than ever before. So check out the page, sign up if you can, and saddle up – we’re in for one hell of a ride!Ben & Josh

Wow, last post on our blog (www.blackjackslair.blogspot.com) was in August. I really suck. I'll admit, I’m all spread out all over with Facebook, Twitter and now Patreon so that I don’t know which direction I’m headed sometimes.It’s my and Josh's fault for not integrating things better, for having a stronger and more cohesive presence online. Well, not so much Josh, he keeps pushing me to stop being such a screw-up. And it's a shame, too, because one of the best things that have come out of the whole Blackjack experience has been getting to know some of the people that like the books. Whether in blogs, forums or chats, or at the couple of conventions we’ve gone to, talking to you guys and feeling your enthusiasm gives me an infusion of energy that carries me through.But there’s good news in the horizon. We’re going to make a bigger effort keeping everything together and putting everything Blackjack (and all our other ideas) under one roof.That’s Patreon.We’re still unsure of how to brand it, whether it should be mainly a Blackjack site, or just a writing site, but one thing we’re certain of is that Blackjack’s coming to Patreon and in heavier doses. The books will still be available on Amazon, the website and blog will still be alive (and more active) as will we be on Facebook and Twitter more often. All those links/info will be made available very, very soon. For now, keep an eye out here or on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/ben.bequer).So, what will it consist of? We’re still talking and debating (I’m undefeated in head-butt matches), but for now we’re certain that we want to bring all the Blackjack experience into one site. This includes the next book, Blackjack Messiah, and all other Blackjack stories and art. It also includes other properties we’ve been tooling with, including Interstellar Overdrive, Patriots and Tyrants and a couple of newcomers to the stable; Legend of Sunset Rollins and Trevor Kane and the Heaven Sword.But wait, there’s more! Yeah, but without selling or bs’ing you, we want to give everyone the experience they want, without gouging an eye out. Those that just want to read some cool stuff about Blackjack, and maybe another additional story along the way, will have easy, cheap access. I emphasize cheap. I don’t think a fun story should cost an arm and a leg. That’s why the Blackjack books are 3 bucks on Amazon, and they will remain that price as long as Josh and I have something to say about it. Other writers and friends have chided Josh and I for the pricing, telling us to raise it to 10 bucks a pop, or at the very least $5. Well, no thanks, and the same will remain for the Patreon experience. The cheapest membership is one buck and, for that $1 you’re going to get a ton of stuff. We’re front-loading the initial “rewards” category so you don’t have to go deep into your purse/pockets to get what you want.And if you want to, if you can, there’ll be more. More stories, audio read-throughs, text Q&As, Skype Q&As, podcasts, Twitch engagements (watching me rant and rage with our group playing Overwatch or PubG is silly, stupid fun), and so on. I’m also in the planning stages for a new Blackjack series that will ask a simple question: what if Blackjack never made the turn for good? Remember those few beginning chapters of Villain? Remember the feel and the tone? How about more of that? Yeah, he’ll never get recruited to Dr. Retcon’s team and he’ll never meet Apogee and them (or will he?) but there’s so much untapped potential for a TRUE Villain story there, that I can’t stop thinking about it. I don’t know about you guys, but I used to love Marvel’s What if? and DC’s Elseworlds series.A quick aside about the podcasts: Josh tends to talk a lot. There’s nothing to be done about this. I’ve tried the rear-naked choke, I’ve tried drugs, we've tried counseling. His mouth is independent from all other bodily functions. It helps that he’s brilliant and funny as hell, but be warned, his ability to fill silence is legendary. I will try to drop a nugget here and there. All in all, I can’t wait to get those started.There IS more, though. One thing we noticed in our Con experiences was that a lot of you are nascent writers. We sat down with some and hashed out their stories, and I gotta tell you, that was one of the coolest experiences ever. We plan to provide a sort of catered service, including Skype conferencing and a new video series, where we can guide you through the creation process. Sometimes a little help goes a long way. And yes, if you want to, we'll put some sample chapters on the site (for free) so alpha readers can give you feedback and everyone can get excited with your work.All this stuff comes within the bounds of bringing you more Blackjack, more often, and more overall accessibility. I don’t know if you guys remember the Villain contest that ended up helping me develop Brutal (Dead or Alive’s main villain). Well, that’ll be how we develop the new story – with your help and participation. That’s part of the reason I’m eager for a semi-new beginning: we can blaze new trails.Now, most of this is on a big whiteboard and none of it is final – except that we’re going hardcore on Blackjack and plan to bring it to you on a more regular basis.As far as when? Well, the Patreon site is coming up soon with the first chapters of Messiah and of Patriots and Tyrants. I’m deep into the third act of B4, so it’s on Josh to see when he’s done editing the Point Nemo sequence that opens the new Blackjack book. You hear us, Josh? Snap to it, dude!We'll update you soon. Keep up with this blog or the Facebook to stay in touch.In case you’re curious, below’s a brief breakdown of the projects I mentioned above:Blackjack Messiah – In the aftermath of the Brutal Incident, Blackjack has a real opportunity to finally move his life in a positive direction. He has friends, like Superdynamic and Apogee, who are helping him to rehabilitate himself and his image, but there’s also enemies – some new and some old – who will do anything to see Blackjack fail.Patriots and Tyrants - Michael Grayson is a former Navy SEAL turned private military contractor who discovers that his partners are using his company to enact regime change in northeastern Nigeria utilizing an army of mercenaries and weapons of mass destruction, blaming him in the process. Together with Adrienne Simms of a newly formed Department of Justice taskforce investigating Michael and his nefarious partners, they must stop this effort in fear that it might spark outright war and genocide in Africa.Trevor Kane and the Heaven Sword - Think Street Fighter meets Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon meets Harry Potter, Trevor Kane and the Heaven Sword is a story straight from the legends of Wuxia, steeped in Chinese mysticism and history, with high action and powerful abilities that will make the Earth tremble.The Legend of Sunset Rollins – Sunset Rollins is like every other sixteen year old in her school, struggling with the transition from childhood to adulthood, but unlike everyone else, she’s given a unique opportunity – join an intergalactic combat sports team, represent humanity in the universal stage, and help change the course of history. Inspired by games such as Overwatch and Mass Effect, and movies like Death Race 2000 and The Last Starfighter, The Legend of Sunset Rollins will tell the story of someone who dreams for more – and gets a chance of a lifetime.Blackjack New Beginnings – What if Blackjack never joined Dr. Retcon’s team, or met Apogee, what would have become of him? Written in a shorter, serialized fashion, we will see the villain Blackjack was and follow him into the monster he will soon become.Interstellar Overdrive – Follow four intertwined stories from our distant future, where humanity has left our galaxy and moved into a brighter tomorrow. Then again, human nature can sometimes be our worst attribute…MAJOR CAVEAT: Hey, we’re warning you. None of the above is set in stone. We’re still talking (and arguing) about what non-supervillain stories to bring alongside the Blackjack books. SO DON’T GET MAD IF STUFF CHANGES!

I know, I know, we have a new page and we're only supporting that for now. I'm making this post exclusively for people that bought the print copies of the Blackjack series and found errors that require a refund. To those folks, please put your Paypal email here and the amount you paid for the book and we'll pay you back. You don't even have to return the copy of the book to us. If you don't have Paypal, maybe there's other ways to return your coin to you - we are open to ideas, but we'll be grumpy about having to figure new stuff out.

Another option if you don't have Paypal would be a free copy of our next book, which has nothing to do with Blackjack, and is coming out later in the year. I'd be glad to send you a sampler now (just a chapter or two), then the full version upon release at no cost.

Yet ANOTHER option - and this one's only if you have a ton of patience - is a free copy of the next Blackjack book, which is going to come out next year.

Anyway, we're sorry the print on demand copies came out crappy. It's our fault, not Amazon's, not Createspace, and we'll do our damned best to repay your trust in our little book series, one way or another.

Thanks,

Ben (and Josh)

P.S. I blame Josh.

Okay, so what’s happening?

I finished Blackjack book 2 and after that I wanted to stretch my legs. So I started a space opera that involved multiple points of view of a coming interstellar conflict. Then I had the crazy idea to do it as a serialized story. My writing partner and I brought in a new guy to give it a final polish, and to BS-check us. If you’ve followed the Blackjack series, you know I need industrial strength BS-checking.1,200 pages later, no one can keep up with me. We can’t keep the deadlines. My fault, I know. Too ambitious. Fine, put this sucker aside and let’s do Blackjack 3.

B3 comes out 10/15 and you guys were amazing. Thank you for the incredible response.But my legs, dammit…they need stretching. So I got this funny idea to do the kind of book that anyone could read. What does that mean? No alien warlords, no Arkalian battlecruisers coming out of warp on station point, no super powers. Let’s take a shot at something the moms could read, you know?

The idea is to something simpler, shorter…wait, it’s me – it’s 600 pages.

It’s done and in editing. I spent all last year and most of this year on it and I figure Patriots and Tyrants will hit Amazon come the end of the year. It’s the best stuff I’ve done to date, and you guys have been there to see the development. Again, I brought Joshua Hoade in to be my partner on this. While the idea and the impetus was mine, he’s guided me through some difficult times, come up with some killer stuff and now we’re rounding the final corner. I can't wait until you guys can get your hands on it.

Well, what about Blackjack? Yeah, that’s what I wanted to talk about. Blackjack. Well, we’re going to work on that next. A new arc, where our unfriendly neighborhood villain, turned hero tries to become established. And you know he’s going to screw everything up along the way.

We’re going to see some old villains and heroes again, and of course, we’re going to delve deeper into the mind of Dale “Blackjack” McKeown, a guy who can’t seem to get a break.

But we’re going to try something different this time. We’re going to publish as we go, we’re going to return to that thing we tried to do with Interstellar Overdrive, a more serialized approach. This time, we’re going to do it right (sure you are!). So you’ll have more Blackjack, and more of those other crazy stories that we’re coming up with.

For example, we previewed something called Heart of the Jungle a few years back, then had to throw it in the IO back burner. Well, it’s coming back. So is IO. I’m going to finish IO if I have to kill someone (you hear me Hoade?). And, really, the 1,200 pages of IO, when done, is only the first part of four big fat novels.

Serialized. You’ll have more, more often, but shorter pieces of a larger story. Think that’ll work? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Oh, and don’t worry about us keeping the prices up to gouge you – we’ll drop the prices to correspond so it’ll end up being about the same. Think we went with 99 cents per episode for IO, and the plan was for 9 or 10 and 1600 pages overall
. What’s changed from before, from when we tried it with IO and fizzled out? Everything, to be honest, but most importantly, the workflow between Josh and I is as well-oiled as ever.

Okay, fine, how’s it gonna work? We’re still working on that right now, but the plan is to have Blackjack 4.1 (The Messiah Arc) ready to go by the end of the year. There’s still debate as to what would be the other properties we’d work on. Patriots and Tyrants kind of works as a novel, but we’re going to test it in pieces as well, see if it can join Blackjack. We’re also going to talk about Heart of the Jungle, Interstellar Overdrive, and some others, including a side story about Ricochet and Templar from Battle (they go to Vegas and all kind of chaos and mayhem ensues) and a new story we’re excited about called Sunset Rollins, something inspired by the game series X-Com, Hunger Games and the Blizzard game Overwatch.

There’s another, ancillary reason for doing this – Cons. As in, conventions. We did a local con at the beginning of 2016 and it had a huge impact on us. We had a blast standing around all day, for three days, pitching Blackjack and his stories, and we made a ton of friends in the process. Surprisingly, we almost sold out of books to sell (sold out of Blackjack Villain late in day 2), and we learned a lot of what people like and what people want from us.

All weekend long we kept commenting how cool it would be to have more material, shorter works we could sell at a lower price. See, since the Blackjack books are huge monsters, to print them out costs a bundle. Selling them at near cost still brings the price per book to like 20 bucks. Now, I know that those thick books are pretty impressive, $20 at a con is kind of excessive. We’ve thought about it long and hard and decided to go back on the con circuit, this time with more stuff to offer. Our booth was pretty nice for first timers, too.

Oh, and we got to meet Darth Vader, Mr. David Prowse himself. In the minutes before the convention started, he was going around the place, taking a look at the displays, when he came by ours. I’m standing there and see him coming when all the air leaves the room and I’m paralyzed. Then he stops by our table and starts asking questions. I did my best, but I think I probably embarrassed myself, and all my forbears. Anyway, he was so nice, so charming – and it was funny how he didn’t like the prequels. I thought to take a picture with him, once he was long gone. Then again, I don’t think I had full frontal lobe function due to how star struck I was.

I do recall one exchange. “This is a book series about a villain called Blackjack,” I said, when he asked what we were about. He smiled, liking that. “Blackjack is a guy who’s very inspired by your work,” I added and his smiled widened. I know, it was just talk. I was nervous, and he was amazing.I’ll try to scrounge up a picture of our booth so you get an idea of what he saw.

Anyway, we hope you’ll give us a chance to bring you our fun little stories in this new format. I think if we keep to the motto: “more is better” and do our best to keep the deadlines, we can have you guys reading throughout the year, rather than a massive book once every year and a half.

One last thing, this blog is going the way of the dodo. We’re going to integrate everything into a single site that’ll be cooler and better and awesomer. Info and link will come on the same Facebook page, and I'll make a post so you guys don't miss a thing. 
More info soon!