Month: January 2018

I can honestly say I HATE the Academy Awards because they just can’t get it right

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Image result for oscar nominees in 2018The nominations for the Academy Awards were released and, once again, Hollywood proved that it is nothing like the legacy it left in the rear view mirror. I can make my point with one, pertinent fact… In 1939, a majority of the top grossing motion pictures (Gone with the Wind, Goodbye Mr. Chips, Mr. Smith goes to Washington, Of Mice and Men, Stagecoach) were nominated for the Best Picture Oscar. This year, ZERO of the top grossing films were nominated.

In a year where women’s issues are at the forefront in Hollywood, the only movie with a woman as the director, producer and star (WONDER WOMAN, hint hint) didn’t receive a single nomination. Why? Why? Why?

This is why I don’t watch the Academy Awards anymore. I don’t recognize half the movies, actors or actresses nominated. Some of these movies are independent releases with no showtimes in theaters around the country except in big cities. At one time, you would hear the songs nominated for best song on the radio. Now, I recognize one song on this list and its only because of the movie trailer (“This is Me” from The Greatest Showman).

Although they added a Best Animated Feature category, the top animated film in 2017 (Despicable Me 3) wasn’t nominated. I don’t even recognize two of the films nominated and one of the films (Ferdinand) wasn’t released until the very end of 2017. I just don’t get it.

I think this is one of the reasons I watch a lot of Turner Classic Movies. You can’t compare Hollywood of today to the Golden Age of Hollywood. There are a lot of the usual comparisons (womanizing, to make a point) but  there is also a lot of class from that era you don’t see today. It’s a bygone era where Hollywood heroes enlisted to serve their country at war, entertained the troops not protested against them, and stood for something besides their own self worth.

Image result for red carpet with a bag o n their headHere’s a great example. In the old days of Hollywood, actors and actresses wouldn’t wear a bag over their head on the red carpet to make a political statement or wear a t-shirt emblazoned with the words “Poverty is Sexist” on it. Using award shows for politics is everyday today. Expect this year to be no exception, especially with President Trump in the White House. I think the best example of this is in 1973, when Vanessa Redgrave won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for Julia. She used her acceptance speech to get back at the “Zionist Hoodlums” who spoke out against her documentary, The Palestinian, which portrayed the Palestinian Liberation Organization in a sympathetic light.

She was followed by iconic author, playwright, and screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky. He said, “I would like to say — personal opinion, of course — that I am sick and tired of people exploiting the occasion of the Academy Awards for the propagation of their own personal political propaganda.” In 24 years, Hollywood still hasn’t learned anything. They’re only doing it louder via social media now.

So, as we follow the yellow brick road to “tinsel town” one more time, I hope that Hollywood had learned its lesson and go back to making the Academy Awards about the movies and us, the fans, not about themselves.

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51nd6H6sATL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_SKU-000941753Mark Piggott is the author of the Forever Avalon book series. Forever Avalon is available for purchase as a book/ebook at Amazon. The Dark Tides is available for purchase as a book/ebook at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and iUniverse publishing. The Outlander War, Book Three of the Forever Avalon series is coming soon.

Is it okay to cry over movies, music, or books? Even for a big, tough man?

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158979-163217I think every one of us knows a “tearjerker” when you see one. They come in many shapes and sizes. It could be a movie, a song, a television show, or even a good book. I am the first one to admit that I am a “big baby” when it comes to certain things.

I cried the first time I heard “The Christmas Shoes” by NewSong; during the final episode of M*A*S*H, and at the end of Les Miserables. One of the worst times I cried is when I was writing my second book, The Dark Tides. I have own “Red Wedding” scene (which was not meant as a ripoff to Game of Thrones, since I wrote it before I even read or watch the series) where a number of main characters were killed. It was quite heart-wrenching for me, as I had grown so fond of these characters and killing them was quite painful.

Even during my editing process, I found myself in tears every time I read those pages. Even now, it’s hard to re-read it without getting choked up, but that’s the kind of emotion I want to evoke in my readers. I want them to feel that emotional depth in my stories so it causes people to react.

“There’s no crying in baseball!” — Tom Hanks, A League of Their Own

According to Dr. Michael Bader, from his article “Why We Cry at Movies,” a wide range of phenomena are resulted from movies and books. He said, “that people repress feelings and perceptions that are too dangerous to experience, but, under conditions of safety, are able to finally begin to let them out.”

The safest place we feel is in our homes, a movie theater, even in our own car. At those moments, the repressed feelings we associate with the music, words or what we see come out.

When asked what made him or her cry in such a situation, Bader found that “it might involve a parent-figure, spouse, or friend understanding the hero, or offering protection or love. Right away, I know that these feelings have been there for much of the patient’s life.”

It’s hard to cry at the moments of pure emotion, especially for a guy. I think the old adage of a big, tough guy being brought to tears at moments like this is a “common norm” from the early days, as men were meant to be big and tough. In contrast, today’s “metrosexual” or “snowflakes” are in touch with their feelings, so crying is everyday. These are two huge contrasts, but it applies to many people today.

Image result for asuna and yuuki death sceneI think it’s okay to cry when the time calls for it. The other night, I was watching Sword Art Online II on my iPad while my wife was watching Shark Tank on TV. (FYI, if you haven’t watched SAO, you should, and spoilers ahead!) It was the episode where Yuuki, a girl with AIDs who was living in the VR realm, died surrounded by her friends and all the gamers in ALO. It was quite an emotional moment. I just couldn’t help it as the tears just poured out of me. My wife looked at me as if I was crazy, crying over an anime, but I just couldn’t help it.

I think these types of emotional outbursts helps us as cope with everyday life. We laugh, we cry, we feel joy, and we feel sadness. These are the emotions that authors, like myself, hope to bring out in people when they read my stories. I want those emotions to resonate and bring out that emotional response. It’s what makes us human.

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51nd6H6sATL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_SKU-000941753Mark Piggott is the author of the Forever Avalon book series. Forever Avalon is available for purchase as a book/ebook at Amazon. The Dark Tides is available for purchase as a book/ebook at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and iUniverse publishing. The Outlander War, Book Three of the Forever Avalon series is coming soon.

Authors have always been at the forefront when it comes to race relations

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Today we honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the voice he brought to equality, race relations, and civil rights. I was only a baby when Dr. King was alive, but I remember his influence growing up in the 70’s. I was a military brat, raised in a very strict environment, but race was never an issue with me.

One of my best friends in elementary school was African-American. I don’t remember his name, but I do remember him. We connected through our love of comic books. We would both draw our favorite superheroes during our spare time in class. We even cut them out and played with them like action figures.

I think that was the key to my “education” on race relations. In the comics, especially for the superheroes, race was not an issue. Captain America teamed up with the Falcon. The X-Men has heroes that were black, blue, Native American, etc. The best example from the 70’s was the Legion of Superheroes. The covered every race, religion, creed, and color imaginable and always fought for the greater good.

That’s what’s great about comics. They have always represented the best and worst of us, and always showed how good triumphs over evil. Comics teach us that it’s okay to be different, and that we should work together for the benefit of the planet.

Unfortunately, things haven’t changed since Dr. King’s “I have a dream” speech. We are still divided, not united, by race. People still use labels for self-identity, persecution, hate speech,and even violence. We are not being “judged by the content of our character, not the color of our skin.”

I’m not going to get political here, pointing fingers at the left or the right. There are people guilty on all sides that are using race to perpetuate an idea or political power, and that’s wrong. We have to get beyond the name calling and find that middle ground. We can’t move forward if we’re not working toward a common goal.

Dr. King said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” As writers, we have the responsibility to bring out the light and drive out the darkness through our stories. Stories emulate what’s going on in the world around them, i.e. The Jungle, To Kill a Mockingbird, Grapes of Wrath, etc. This trend has to continue, even more so today.

Legolas_and_Gimli_arrive_in_Valinor

Even in fantasy stories, there are issues of race. The animosity between Dwarves and Elves is a great example. Although you really can’t compare that to the real world, it’s speaks to the heart and soul of the issue. J.R.R. Tolkien, was keen on representing animosity and friendship throughout the Lord of the Rings books.

Gimli Glóin’s son is renowned, for he was one of the Nine Walkers that set out with the Ring; and he remained in the company of King Elessar throughout the War. He was named Elf-friend because of the great love that grew between him and Legolas, son of King Thranduil, and because of his reverence for the Lady Galadriel […] But when King Elessar gave up his life Legolas followed at last the desire of his heart and sailed over Sea […] We have heard tell that Legolas took Gimli Glóin’s son with him because of their great friendship, greater than any that has been between Elf and Dwarf. If this is true, then it is strange indeed: that a Dwarf should be willing to leave Middle-earth for any love, or that the Eldar should receive him, or that the Lords of the West should permit it. But it is said that Gimli went also out of desire to see again the beauty of Galadriel; and it may be that she, being mighty among the Eldar, obtained this grace for him.

— The Return of the King, Appendix A: Annals of the Kings and Rulers

I’m not trying to compare race relations in a fantasy story to the real-world issues today. What I’m trying to say is before you let that hate and frustration fill your heart, before your type that profanity-laced rant on Twitter or Facebook, remember this … Be a part of the solution, not a part of the problem.

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51nd6H6sATL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_SKU-000941753Mark Piggott is the author of the Forever Avalon book series. Forever Avalon is available for purchase as a book/ebook at Amazon. The Dark Tides is available for purchase as a book/ebook at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and iUniverse publishing. The Outlander War, Book Three of the Forever Avalon series is coming soon.

Great villains make it easy to be bad

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“Evil is relative – and what I mean by that is that our villains are as complex, as deep and as compelling as any of our heroes. Every antagonist in the DC Universe has a unique darkness, desire and drive.” 

— Geoff Johns

extEvery story has to have an interesting protagonist, but it also must have an equally villainous antagonist. Most people think being bad is easy, but its not. We’re taught at a very young age that being evil is stupid. I remember the days of Snidely Whiplash, Boris and Natasha, and Dick Dastardly. Their plans always failed because of their mistakes.

But recently, evil has evolved. Villains are more complex, complete sociopaths that work their way to beating the good guy through intricate plans. Characters like Hannibal Lecter, the Joker, and Cersei Lannister are shown as calculating, devious beings with the utmost evil intent. Even Disney villains are becoming darker than ever. Their hearts are as black as a starless night, and yet, we are curious as to what make them tick. That is why they interest us.

Every crime drama from Criminals Minds to Law and Order: Special Victims Unit brings us a daily dose of evil to dissect their mind and their motives. We watch every day people responsible for horrors so awful we can’t stomach it, and yet we can’t turn away. It’s intriguing to some, to others, perhaps its an escape. Have you ever imagined doing something horrible to another person? Sure you have, we all have. It’s acting out on the those evil impulses that separates us from being complete sociopaths. Some have even come to be anti-heroes, those doing bad in the name of good. It’s all so confusing.

It’s the same in writing. You want to create a villain, an antagonist, that interests the reader but not one that takes the story away from the hero, or protagonist. I believe that, in order to take the morale high ground, good must always triumph over evil. Sure, evil has their victories, but in the end, they lose.

Villains are very difficult characters to create, unlike the old days where villains were obvious to all. Villains today are given a myriad of excuses and diagnosis to justify their actions. Bette Davis once said, “There are new words now that excuse everybody. Give me the good old days of heroes and villains, the people you can bravo or hiss. There was a truth to them that all the slick credulity of today cannot touch.”

In my own stories, I try to stick to the basics, relying on classic villains:  Morgana le Fay and Mordred. These characters have been a part of fantasy literature. Their ideology has been both good and evil, and somewhere in between. I find it easy to use these classic characters and add my own addition of supporting villains, as it were, to blend in my own style to the story.

You don’t need the obvious villain with bad teeth and the curled mustache that is twisted and curled around his fingers. Today’s villains are smooth charmers, one that will pour out their love to you while they stab you in the back with a knife. A great example of that is Amy Dunne in Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. That woman is pure evil, and you wouldn’t realize how evil until the very end of the book.

I find it challenging to decide between greedy and corrupt or calculating sociopaths. One may give way to the other, or vice versa. Although villains make being bad look easy, writing them into a story is a challenge for any author. The key is finding that balance between Captain Bligh and Adolf Hitler. It’s not easy, but essential.

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51nd6H6sATL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_SKU-000941753Mark Piggott is the author of the Forever Avalon book series. Forever Avalon is available for purchase as a book/ebook at Amazon. The Dark Tides is available for purchase as a book/ebook at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and iUniverse publishing. The Outlander War, Book Three of the Forever Avalon series is coming soon.

Is there any reason not to love anime? I don’t think so!

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Happy New Year everyone! As we kick off 2018, I need to talk about a subject that’s near and dear to my heart … Anime! Now, I know I’ve mentioned this before, but I really need to talk about this again. It’s becoming quite the obsession with me. I watch a different show nightly on my iPad. I’ve watch so many different genres its exhilarating. It’s so easy with services like Crunchyroll, Funimation, even YouTube.

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I love watching anime, and its not for the reasons you might think. I know some people watch it for “fan service”, waiting for those gratuitous cleavage and butt shots of scantily clad women. It’s ridiculous how disproportioned women are in anime. They either have ridiculously large breasts or look like little girls. It’s weird and really, not my thing.

First off, and I know this is unusual, but I love the music. Anime’s have the best theme music of anything out there. These opening songs are catchy and memorable, even though I don’t understand the words. The songs resonate and rattle around my head like a catchy TV jingle. For example, I first heard the themes to Speed Racer and Space Battleship Yamato more than 40 years ago, yet I can still recite them verbatim.

Then there’s the comedy. The anime writers love to put geeky, ordinary guys in awkward situations that make you laugh. It usually involves them walking into a bathhouse or room where the female protagonist is dressing or, more than likely, naked. There are also common occurrences of flirting that makes one, or both, quite uncomfortable. These moments bring needed levity to sometimes serious stories.

clockwork-planet-theme-bw19Speaking of the stories, that’s one of the things I truly love in anime. The plots made be similar across different genres, but the stories are incredible versatile and diverse. They combine fantasy, sci-fi, horror, and action/adventure in so many different ways. I also love the “underdog to hero” story in many of them. It’s the heart of most of these stories; specifically, good versus evil. That’s the basis for a lot of them and its the best story there is. Now matter how bad it can get, good wins in the end. They take the morale high ground, even if the main protagonist is a pervert (i.e., High School DxD) or a nobody (i.e., Is it Wrong to pick up Girls in a Dungeon).

The next thing is the art. Anime is art on whole other level from other animation. The beauty of it is undeniable. It’s quite graphic and real, which makes it even more inspiring to watch. Between the elaborate costumes, weapons, spaceships and backgrounds, the art is so detailed and, quite frankly, utterly spectacular. I mean, take Chain Chronicle: The Light of Haecceitas. This series has such a wide variety of characters, races, and locations. Each one is more beautiful than the next.

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I can’t begin to describe the inspiration I get from watching all these anime. Each one provides me inspiration for my own stories in more ways than one. I know I probably need to go to an AA meeting (Anime Anonymous) but for now, I’ll watching.

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51nd6H6sATL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_SKU-000941753Mark Piggott is the author of the Forever Avalon book series. Forever Avalon is available for purchase as a book/ebook at Amazon. The Dark Tides is available for purchase as a book/ebook at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and iUniverse publishing. The Outlander War, Book Three of the Forever Avalon series is coming soon.