I hope everyone has had a good 2019 and is now enjoying a warm holiday season. I don’t mean Las Vegas-warm, of course, although if you live in warmer climes like I do and consider this the perfect weather, God bless you. But I hope you have a Hallmark-style, heartwarming Christmas.
This is not so much a news update as a thank you to everyone who’s stayed with me for the ride that is the Wearing the Cape stories. Who knew a self-published novel (sold for $.99) in 2011 would result in a full-time writing career and all of the experiences that have come with it. I’m talking about the tremendous feedback and support, the travel to conventions to meet readers across the country (I’ve been to such exotic cities as Minneapolis, Indianapolis, San Diego, and Heartford, and next year I’m going to check out Seattle, Atlanta, and Orlando), and to meet fellow authors (this year I discovered a great steakhouse in Salt Lake City with Jodi Lynn Nye and Phil Foglio).
(Note: huge thank you to Alexi Vandenberg, the magician of Bard’s Tower who’s made it possible for me to ride the convention-circuit. If you attend any comic conventions anywhere next year, look for Bard’s Tower, buy a book, and talk to the author. If your local convention doesn’t host Bard’s Tower, then get them to.)
So, other than how late Repercussions turned out to be, I’ve been very happy with 2019. Also, it turns out I did one last little thing this year; I wrote the Wearing the Cape Christmas Episode.
Everyone who picked up Wearing the Cape: The Roleplaying Game and decided to spring for the little Christmas mini-adventure, Operation Pole Star, will already know the general plot: Santa Claus comes to town. With most of a year for me to think about it, the story has turned out slightly different than it does in the mini-adventure, but it’s the same spirit. And it fills yet another superhero-comic trope! The Christmas adventure where the heroes help or are helped by Santa.
Yes, this story is canon. No, it’s not a big story with Plot Implications for our heroes going forward. I hope you’ll find it funny, heartwarming, a holiday treat, but if you’re not into Christmas stories you can always skip it without worrying that you’ll miss something you’ll need to know for Book 9 and onward.
So sing some carols, eat good food, share some time with the people close to you and with people you’ve never met. Celebrate with readings of the sacred story—and with ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, White Christmas, It’s A Wonderful Life, and as many versions of A Christmas Carol as you can find (I love them all; every one of them has a song or a scene that stands out as a jewel). And if you curl up with this little story and find it an enjoyable addition to the season this year, thank you.
Merry Christmas.
MGH
Marion G. Harmon, A Writer in Vegas. 
Merry Christmas!
(Even if you gave me something that I Just Have To Purchase.) 😉
Nice Little Story!!!! 😀
Best. Christmas. Present. Ever!
Faith!
And: Why is this story so short?
And: Could we get a cape file for Faith? I feel like she would be a fun NPC to add to a campaign.
Wow, somehow this comment got stuck in the wrong email box and I only saw it just now. Glad you enjoyed seeing Faith. It was neither too short nor too long, but as long as it needed to be. But the next story will be bigger.
Merry Christmas!
I wonder what it would take to convert the Joyeux Plane into a spaceplane…
Pressurization refit shouldn’t be THAT hard… beyond that, as long as it’s small enough for Astra to lift by herself, she should be good to go… just give her a lifting harness at the center of gravity, and a decent navigation tool.
There should also be a way to strap Megaton to the back, in order to acquire extra thrust….
For a moment, I was thinking it was already a spaceplane, but then: “No, but try telling third graders that.”
OTOH, we don’t know that it isn’t already vacuum proof, only that it cannot fly to the Moon… ^_^
IIRC Most high speed aircraft could be considered “vacuum proof” because of their pressurized cabins.
What makes them “un-space proof” are their engines. If their engines are “air-breathing”, then they can’t “fly in space”.
Yes, Astra could maneuver it in space and Megaton could provide trust, but IMO Joyeuse Guard would be wiser to get a true spaceship if they had missions in space. 😀
Good point, Paul (Drak Bibliophile) Howard. Some measure of delta-v that doesn’t require an Atlas-type or Megaton (and Megaton would require a vacc suit that was thin enough to put his thrust outside of, like he does his clothes/costume but apparently not his prosthetic legs, or maybe a thin panel on the hull he can put his palms against…). Also useful would be some radiation shielding, a means of extending the air supply, and airlocks. Then they could go anywhere (within those limits, at least) they wanted to go.
“That’s what a ship is you know. It’s not just a frame and a hull and life support and drives, that’s what a ship needs, but what a ship is… is freedom.” – Some notorious pirate or another
Well, that explains it. Never understood why Japan’s quantum interdiction zone would be so all-encompassing.
Merry Christmas to All!
And a Joyeuse Noël to the Joyeuse Gaurd! ^_^
BTW, is the Mrs. Lowry referred to by way of introduction to Susan Sherwick the same Mrs. Lori we’ve met in earlier stories, or is there another grande dame of Chicago?
I’m assuming that it’s a typo. 😉
Yup, typo.
I bought your Christmas story, loved it.
With everything Faith said about HER Astra… I want to hear more!
Set something like six years in the past, I want to hear about her experiences at Hillwood.
(Which the students probably call ‘Hogwarts for Supers’ and probably other less flattering things)
Her dorm room in the re-enforced Atlas/Ajax wing? Roommate(s)?
One Ajax-ette who unlike Hope got a physical transformation and like Hope is somewhat self conscious about her height but in the opposite direction.
Maybe she had body image issues before but now it’s like she made a poorly worded wish.
She shouldn’t complain when some other students got bad transformations.
(Where did I read about a Reptile-Girl who molted just before the big dance and everyone Oooed and Ahhhed about how her scales were iridescent vividly colored greens and yellows?)
Cool ideas; someone should write a boarding school Hillwood story.
Someone probably has. There exists a fanfic site I’ve been meaning to visit, where Mary Poppins is a substitute teacher at Hogwarts. I plan to set the author onto Hillwood, if I can.
I haven’t read any of them but there’s already a Cape High series.
Faith’s gizmo from WTC A Christmas Carol will let the Astras email each other.
(Ha! OUR Astra is the cooler, Butt Kicking Astra!)
Oh… Minor typo at the end of A Christmas Carol.
Atlas and Ajax are reversed.
You need to quote the exact line.
Atlas* offered Astra his hand. “We’d better be returning too. It was good to meet another Astra. And your amazing team.” They shook and he stepped back, ceding his place to Ajax*. Hope ignored his hand to throw herself into a hug with the startled hero.
*Pretty sure that those should be switched around.
Actually, no. Refer to Hope’s conversation with Faith immediately after. Let’s just say that she felt all sorts of conflicted stuff on meeting Atlas again three year later, especially after finding out that her self in Faith’s reality was dating him now (and she probably hopes that her other, now older self, approaches it more maturely). With Ajax she wasn’t conflicted at all; she remembered him as a steadying teacher-mentor who she also saw die. No mixed feelings in the way of a hug.
At least that’s the way I approached it. YMMV, and write your own scene in!