Archives: Deep Thoughts

Happy Thanksgiving

It’s thanksgiving, a time to reflect upon the last year and be reminded of what we have and are thankful to have.  I find that this year I have much and more to be thankful for.  I will be, as of Sunday, December 1st, a published author.  This wouldn’t have been possible for me a year ago, not just because of life circumstances, but simply by the virtue of the fact that I had not written a book at that time.  I wrote a novel.  I am coming to grips with that accomplishment for myself as I write these words.  I used to think of it as not such a big deal, but people in my life do not.  Having achieved this endeavor is no small feat, not everyone has the drive or gumption to actually finish a novel.  This makes me a little sad, because I know in my heart that everyone has a story inside them that needs and deserves to be free.

It is also a time  for stuffing one’s face full of plant and animal matter that has been arranged into delicious shapes by expert foodcrafters like my wife.  We have an amazing tradition in our house for both Thanksgiving and Christmas.  We drive up to Omaha before or after these holidays and spend a few days with my wife’s awesome family.  We then abscond back to St. Joseph with her brother and spend the next week simply hanging out together.  Sometimes we play games, sometimes we just watch movies, but we spend this time together enjoying each others’ company.  This is my favorite part of the holidays in my recent life.  I say my recent life, because this tradition is young, only a few years old, but I hope that it endures for many years.

I am deeply thankful for all that I have accomplished this year.  It would not be possible to have accomplished these things without the love and support of the people in my life, for whom I am even more thankful.  To all of my family near and far, to everyone who has supported the book and to everyone who has simply listened while I talked:  Thank you from the bottom of my heart.  I cannot possibly express my gratitude to you enough for being in my life and enriching it with your presence.

From my soul to yours, Happy Thanksgiving.

Holy crap I’m an author!

Ok well technically not QUITE yet, but in less than a week The White Wolf and The Darkness will be my first published work.  The first of many, I hope, frankly.  It’s been a sort of  crazy unexpected road my wife and I took when we endeavored on this whole project.  Then again, that’s been pretty much our lives since we met and it seems to be working out pretty damned well for us.  I want to say, first, that this simply would not have come to pass without the unyielding love and support of my Lizzy.  Not only would I have never published anything, but I doubt I would have ever had the confidence to write anything and ever think it was worth reading.  That point brings me to another good one…

If you are a writer, or if you want to be a writer I have three simple and easy pieces of advice.  This advice I will dispense…now.

1st Write.

Keep on writing.  Write some more.  I don’t mean spend every waking hour writing, but I do mean to listen to and give in to the muse when it descends.  If you are passionate about something, write about it.  If you have a story in your heart, get it out and onto paper, worry about fine-tuning it later.  Which brings me to….

2nd Share what you write.

Share it first with someone who loves you.  This person will encourage you and be thrilled to read something you’ve written.  Next, as my wife would say, give it to your grammar police friend.  This person will point out all of your spelling and grammatical errors and make you feel all butt-hurt, but will ultimately make your work better.  THEN, share it with others who write or create, or folks who love a good story.  These people will expand your mind and offer you places to go with your story that you didn’t think you could, or would.  I realize that I kind of hit the jackpot with this and got all of those people in one, but people tell me I ‘m lucky, what can I say.  And finally…

3rd Read what others write.

This kind of goes with number two, but bear with me.  When sharing your work with others who also write, encourage them to share their own work and when you do, be kind.  If you have ever put word to paper, you know that you are your own worst critic and that you are likely very self-conscious about your work.  So are just about ALL other writers worth their salt.  We’re all afraid that we don’t know what we’re doing, or don’t deserve to be heard, no matter how cavalier or confident we seem.  Remember this when reading the work of someone you know.  Be a safe place for them, as they are for you.  End of advice.

So yeah, this whole Published Author thing is something I am still trying to wrap my head completely around.  I have a book signing in January.  Me — Kevin Gubernatis — has a book signing at the local Hastings here in St. Joseph.  What?!?  I will be the guy that sits there and talks pleasantly with you about his book while sipping coffee.  Me.  I am an author.  I have written a novel.  It’s one of those things that you think anyone can do, and anyone CAN do it, but few people do.  It is an accomplishment; I have accomplished something with my life.  It is not the thing I THOUGHT I would accomplish, as I am not Batman, but I’m quite happy with it none the less.

I’d like to take a minute to thank everyone who helped this to come to fruition.  ALL my beta readers, everyone who supported the book on facebook or word of mouth and everyone who pre ordered, thank you so much.  I am going to again, and not for the last time, thank my beautiful and spectacular wife, who is my reason for living.  Thank you Lizzy, from the bottom of my heart.

Holy crap I’m an author and you can too!

Any questions or comments about being a self published author, or just writing/editing/publishing in general?  Leave them in the comments and Liz or I will answer as best we can.  Thank you all for reading and as always, have a wonderful day.

Oh by the way I was totally kidding before.

I’m Batman.

Dream of The White Wolf

Herein is as much as I remember about the dream that gave The White Wolf and The Darkness its title.  It’s kind of bizarre, being a dream and such.  I will never forget this dream as long as I live.  It is the most intense and vivid I have ever had.

A few months before my wife and I moved out here to St. Joseph, I had a dream —  and it was one of those that, if you’re lucky, you remember forever.  I am lucky.  It started out in some kind of teen bar or club.  A bunch of hormonal teenagers in eighties rock clothes acting cool.  It reminded me of the first live action Ninja Turtles movie…good times.  Anyway, a big fight broke out and a bunch of them were dog-piling onto each other and it was just a really stupid bar fight.  I wanted out of there so I asked a particularly sneery looking street tough with a mohawk to let me out.  He nodded and turned around where there was a big vault-like door.  He opened it and gestured for me to go through asking if I knew where it led.  I replied, and I quote, “It is to here that all places lead and from here that all places go” and stepped through.  This is the point where the dream changed, in that way that makes you feel like you aren’t dreaming anymore.

Before me lay what I can only describe as the lower levels of a great and vast castle in a frozen and snowy region.  Everything had a slightly blue tinge to it, which was calming.  I explored the place and realized that I was underground, but I could still see outside through windows high up in the walls.  All that I could see through these windows was a cold grey sky, which again was calming.  As I moved through the – dungeon?- I got the distinct impression that there was something very bad within these walls that I now moved through.  I became apprehensive, then.  I was unarmed and had little to no idea what I might be facing.   I thought it best to leave and return with some of my friends and make a good and proper party adventure out of it.  It was then that I saw a steel ladder leading up embedded into one of the walls.  This part always reminds me of the sewers beneath the Imperial City in Elder Scrolls: Oblivion.

I climbed out of the sewer/dungeon/castle and found myself within the ruins of what appeared to be some old castle.  As I explored these surroundings I realized that I was in my home town of Arbutus MD, and that the ruins were on top of what was once the playground behind the house I grew up in.  As I came out of the ruins, I saw familiar landmarks:  my elementary school, which was right next to my house, the basketball court, the field….and something else most curious.  There were a group of kids, young boys about 10-14 and they were dressed as knights and beating the crap out of each other, with wooden swords and lances.  I tried to help them by offering pointers, but the moment I thought of this, the dream changed again.  To this day, I have no idea of the significance of those young knights.

Suddenly it was night, and the parking lot of my old school was littered with refuse and steel trashcans with fire coming out of them.  There were also some kind of shanty lean-tos built next to the basketball court for some reason.  It seemed like a scene from a post apocalyptic movie.  It was colder than it had been before, even colder than it had been in the castle and I suddenly realized that I was stark naked, which was nice because as I’ve stated in the past, I like the cold.  Then I saw it, The White Wolf.  I immediately went into survival mode and ran around the side of one of the lean-tos and climbed up on top of it.  The wolf gave chase, but didn’t growl or bark or anything.  It just followed me and looked up at me when I reached the top.  I kept thinking that I needed to kill it or it was going to eat me and out of nowhere I was filled with a great strength and fury.  I somehow reached down and grabbed the wolf by its throat, lifting it into the air.

What happened next will forever be etched into my mind and soul and almost always makes me cry when I think about it.  As I stood there, naked and wild and free, I knew that this wolf was my teacher.  I knew that it meant me no harm and most importantly I knew that its life was in my hands.  I was more powerful than the wolf and the wolf knew this.  Still it did not flinch or struggle as I held it in the air, it just kept gasping for air.  I never before, or since, felt as powerful as I did then.  I looked at the wolf and knew I could destroy it and I knew too, that if I did, I would regret it forever.  I released the White Wolf and woke from my dream next to my wife.  I remember feeling as though the wolf had embraced me at the end.  Not literally, you understand, but in an emotional and spiritual way.  It was from this dream that I got the title of my book and the dramatis persona of its main character.

Do you ever have any memorable dreams?

I wanna hear about ’em!  Leave it in the comments if you please.  Thanks for listening and as always, have a wonderful day.

What scares me…

Since it’s Halloween, one of my favorite holidays by the way, I’d like to talk about what frightens me.  Fear is one of those things that, for some people at least, is somewhat difficult to discuss.  It’s kind of a big thing to admit that you’re frightened at all, let alone what might have frightened you.  To some it’s about not appearing weak, for others it’s about not wanting to think about what scares them, for fear of….well, being afraid.  Still others refuse to speak of their fears because they feel dwelling on one’s fear for too long diminishes their experience of life and living it; that it gets in the way of the more enjoyable things in life. For myself, I embrace fear, for it is only in accepting and examining our fears that we overcome them.  The path to courage is through fear, you might say.

I’m afraid of a lot of things, actually, and my fears have evolved and changed as I have grown older.  For example, I used to be afraid to go into certain parts of my house, because that shit was haunted.  I’m still afraid of haunted places, but for very different reasons than I had been before.  I no longer think of what could come out of the darkness to”get” me, but what might follow me home and become interested in my life in a way I don’t want it to.  I’ve also found great comfort in my own courage about that sort of thing.  I used to be afraid of getting jumped and getting the shit kicked out of me after school, but these same kids who would beat on me would also never enter a haunted house alone, and I would.  I took my beatings and my humiliation (by far the more terrifying aspect of an ass-whooping for me) but they would not and could not take the….spooking?  BLOODY COWARDS!!!

It’s funny how we have different kinds of fears, too. There’s the palpable, serious fears of adulthood, like worrying about losing a loved one, or a job.  Then there’s the more ethereal fears like a fear of the dark, or the fear of the unknown, which I think everyone experiences at some points in their lives.  The more elusive fears are the far more serious ones, I think.  They’re the ones that creep up on us when we aren’t paying attention and suddenly make us feel completely out of control.  There is also the irrational psychological fears, like spiders, needles or sock puppets.  Mine is wasps and hornets.  I turn into a crazy person when it concerns those flying, stinging assholes.  **Disclaimer:  This does not include most honeybees!  Honeybees make honey and are directly responsible for the creation of mead.  They are a global treasure and must be preserved.  That is all!**

I think what I fear most is that I will somehow be the instrument of my own misery, that somehow my whole life will fall apart in front of me and I will lose everything that I care about and everyone that I love, and that it will be my own fault.  Again, this is a variation of a fear I held when I was a teenager: that I would completely lose control of my anger and explode, hurting everyone around me.  I overcame this fear as an adult, as I realized that for all of my own seething anger at the world, I am far more in control of my temper and my temperament than most people think I am and, more importantly than most people are.  One of my favorite lines from The Avengers is,  “That’s my secret, Captain…I’m always angry.”

I have to say, without arrogance, that one thing I’ve never feared is death, and I mean that.  I’ve never been afraid to die, not even when I was a little kid.  When I was in Ireland with my mother for a summer trip,  we were on the second level of a double decker bus and a couple of… let’s call them hooligans…. were giving my mom and I shit because we were American.  They came up and sat right behind us and one of them pulled out a gun and put it to the back of my seat.  He looked at my mom and menacingly sneered at her, which caused her to almost throw up and start blabbering about how she was born in the country and how very Irish she was.  A nine year old Kevin promptly mocked the shit bird for his “little” gun (I think it was a .22) and how it didn’t look at all real.  The guy looked at me with what I can only describe as a combination of frustration, amusement and respect, assuring me that it was real.  I assured him that if his gun was real, it was so small it didn’t look like it would have hurt me much.  He laughed at me loudly and after a short conversation with us, got off at the very next stop, telling us both to have a good day.  I realized many years later while looking at some pictures of firearms that his gun was likely very real.  Dodged that bullet I guess, HA!

Now having said that, I can tell you that had these two Irishmen wanted to beat me up, I’d have been terrified.  Again I think that I was far more afraid of the humiliation of getting beat up than any actual physical danger.  How that makes sense, I do not understand, but hey – that’s fear.  It usually doesn’t make sense.

What are you afraid of?

Care to share your inner most terrors with the rest of us?  Leave your fears in the comments below!  Thank you for reading and have a fucking amazing Halloween!

P.S.  Don’t forget to get your treat on Halloween and pre-order your copy of The White Wolf and The Darkness!

5 Horror Movies You Should Watch Right Now

Halloween is almost here and I thought I’d give you guys my top five list for scariest movies.  These are movies that scare the shit out of me and leave me feeling apprehensive and nervous for days after I watch them.  Some are classics, some are not as well known, but all are perfect for your scare fest for the season.  I’ll first say that almost all of them are supernatural horrors.  I don’t get scared at slasher movies because I FEAR NO MAN and torture porn just makes me sick to my stomach and makes me worry for the world as they seem to be so very popular.  No, all of the movies on my list are about shit being completely out of the average Joe’s understanding, let alone control.

5.  The Exorcist

I know what you’re thinking.  “The Exorcist?  Wtf?!?  This should be like number one on the list!”  Yeah, I agree that as far as supernatural horrors go, this is kind of the creme of the crop.  The problem is that I saw this one when I was 5 and then many,-MANY times thereafter, so some of the shock and creep is taken out of it for me at this point in my life.  As with most of the horror movies from this era, the scariest thing about them (for me at least) is the sound.  Not the sound track, but the actual SOUNDS.  The voice of the demon is terrifying to me.  The crab walk, not so much.

4. Session 9

Session 9 is a movie I found all on my own one day when I was around 17 years old.  This was again one of those films where the voices or sounds of the movie scared me more then what was actually happening.  The voice on the tape terrifies me and we still aren’t sure what it is.  The relatively mundane tone of the film at its beginning coupled with the idea that this could have easily been me (I used to do a lot of contract/painting and the like in my youth), made for an atmosphere that was all too frighteningly familiar.  Session 9 also leaves the watcher feeling not just scared, but really sort of depressed and worried about their state of mind.  Plus, it was before David Caruso wore cool sunglasses, so there wasn’t even any comic relief.

3. Phantasm

Ah, this one is easily my favorite.  I saw Phantasm before I could form words, I think.  This movie has solidly the most memorable main title theme in a horror movie ever.  Just hearing the theme can make my hairs stand on end.  I’m listening to it now and…eep, there they go.  The Tall Man, the Dwarves, the portal to fucking Mars it seems, the silver death balls, THE FUCKING BEE MONSTER AT THE END!!  All of these things come together to craft a solid B horror title that never ceases to terrify me.  Fun fact:  I met Angus Scrimm when I was 8 at a convention with my dad and sister.  He was VERY nice and took a pic with us all.  He even called me BOY!  Another fun fact:  My Dad kind of looks/looked like Angus Scrimm and was also fond of calling me BOY!  I had an exciting childhood.

2.  The Shining

I don’t think any list of good horror films could be complete without at least mentioning The Shining.  Jack Nicholson has arguably never been scarier in anything else.  Jack’s slow decent into total madness and Danny’s creepiness (yes, Danny was a creepy little kid, I said it) made the atmosphere oppressive to say the least.  The thing that always got to me, though, you know, aside from the evil twins, bear costume weirdness and psycho with an axe, was how sweet Shelly Duvall was in this movie.  More than many a damsel in distress, I really felt for her in this movie.  She was just always so sweet, which made the idea of harm coming to her more terrifying.  These days, you can’t wait for someone to die in a horror movie, because everyone is always so mean or asinine.  More than anything though, room 237 lives in my memory and my nightmares.

1.  The Haunting

The Haunting is hands down the most terrifying movie I’ve ever watched.  Once again one I saw, or rather, was forced to watch it when I was very young.  With relatively few true special effects, The Haunting scares the viewer with strange cinematography, a dark and oppressive setting and one damned creepy actress.  This movie scared me more with a close-up of a small section of wallpaper and some weird sounds in the background than most movies can with all the bloody make-up they can muster.  Anytime I’m thinking of scary movies, I think of the Haunting.  There are so many solid scenes that could be considered the scariest in the movie, I can’t really choose one.  If you are a horror movie fan and haven’t seen this one, you OWE it to yourself to watch it alone in the dark.

What horror movies should I watch Right Now?

What horror movies do you watch? What do you love about them? Is there one I should drop everything to watch right now? Let me know in the comments and have a nice, spooky day.

Paranormal Experiences

Hey everyone, I hope you enjoyed The Inspection. Things will be getting back to normal this week with a regular post today and a lore post on Thursday.

Today I’d like to talk about the paranormal.  Specifically paranormal experiences that I’ve had, some that folks I know have had, and some that folks I’ve never even met have had. I grew up in a very active house, as far as the paranormal is concerned.  I have five siblings older than me who grew up in that house before me and most of them have had some kind of experience or another.  As for me, when I was very young, I used to see shadow forms a lot.  Some looked like small animals, some looked like standing humans and some looked like hooded figures.

Once, when I was about six or seven, my sister and I were home alone.  She was babysitting me and the rest of the family was out for the evening.  It was quite late and I was in my sister’s room laying on a daybed near a window, trying to fall asleep.  I could not even remotely sleep; my mind was  racing.  Suddenly, I saw a silhouette on the shade of the window from the outside.  At first I thought it was a bird or something, but I realized almost  immediately, and to my horror, that it was in the shape of a human skeleton wearing a Parson’s hat.  I started to cry and woke my sister who was sleeping nearby.  She turned on the light and, of course, the silhouette disappeared.    My sister was skeptical, but went and looked out the window, finding nothing.  This wasn’t surprising, as it was a (roughly) twenty foot shear drop to the concrete ground out the back of the house.  She let me sleep in her bed for the night and I never saw the figure again….while I was awake.  Chronically after this event, I had a recurring nightmare.  Not about a skeleton with a hat, but featuring a wicked old man with a hat, dressed all in black, including a huge black cape.  As I grew older I stopped having the nightmare and dismissed the event as the overactive imagination of a very imaginative child.  I later discovered a phenomenon called the Hatman, which brought back all of those memories and had me wondering just what was outside that window that night.

I’ve heard a ton of stories over the years and I admit I seek them out.  If you know me, I will likely ask you about any experiences you’ve had as candidly as I might ask about any movies you might have seen.  By far the strangest story I have ever heard was from a coworker of mine from when I worked as a janitor at a university which will remain nameless for the time being.  She told me she had been working in a building on campus which at one time had been a morgue.  It was not her regular posting, but she was a thorough cleaner so she looked for something to do.  She found a bathroom on the sub-basement level and cleaned the entire thing.  Pulled the trash, disinfected, cleaned the toilet and wiped everything down.  She later informed her coworkers that she had done the work, so they did not need to worry about it.  They were very confused, insisting that there was no bathroom in the area that she’d indicated, to the point at which they insisted she show them the room.  When she brought them down to the area, the hall in question was not there.  The hall simply dead ended after a turn.  Needless to say, she was very worried and confused.  She even went so far as to seek therapy, concerned she may need assistance with her own metal health and faculties, but there wasn’t anything wrong with her that any doctor or therapist could find.  She was later relating the experience to another coworker, who informed her that there had at one time been a bathroom there, back when the building had been a morgue.  When she told me this story I was completely floored.  I knew I would never forget it, just because it was so damned strange.

Which brings me to the experiences of folks I’ve never met — you!

Please share any strange experiences you’re comfortable with in the comments.  I look forward to reading and, of course, retelling your stories.  Thanks for reading and have a wonderful day.

Not-So-Rainy Day Movie

I’ve been asked recently what my favorite “Rainy Day” movie is. The funny thing is that I don’t really have “Rainy Day” movies, or any other specific activities associated with it being cold and wet outdoors. I’m a rare, strange breed that not only isn’t affected by what a lot of people refer to as Bad Weather, I am bolstered and strengthened by it. For me, there is nothing better than walking in the rain in October, wearing shorts. I admit I’m abnormal, but so are most good things in life.

For me, Bad Weather is when it’s any temperature over 75 degrees and there is not a cloud in the sky. I hate the sun and the heat of summer and always have since I was little. So I don’t have a “Rainy Day” movie. I have an “It’s too fucking hot outside and I am not going out in it, except to get a Diet Dr. Pepper, damn it – Day” movie. Or, as I like to call it, June through mid-September movie. So it is during these summer months that I watch movies that make me feel cold, or at least cool.

My favorite “ It’s too fucking hot outside and I am not going out in it, except to get a Diet Dr. Pepper, damn it – Day” movie is Blade Runner. The dark, moody atmosphere of the Ridley Scott classic never fails to chill and temper my burning heart. I love the wide shots that just show the rainy city and the people getting along in it. I lived in Baltimore for most of my life and I used to love strolling through the city when it rained at night, my trench coat resting lightly on my shoulders. It was at these times that I felt most alive and in touch with the city.

(SUN PHOTO: Light Street looking north during Connie-related flooding. Albert Cochran, Aug. 13, 1955)

There is something very calming about light in the rain. Some of the shots where the sun is just barely peaking through the clouds just makes me feel….calm, at peace, for lack of a better expression. There are so many beautiful shots in that movie. The entire scene where Deckard is interviewing Rachael has some of the coolest atmospheric lighting ever.

I also have a sordid love affair with the gun from Blade Runner. One of the most exciting moments for me in the game Fallout: New Vegas is when you find “That Gun” randomly in a store. I used almost no other weapons for the rest of the game.

Deckard’s Gun and “That Gun” from Fallout: New Vegas… true love.

The movie has one of the most relaxing and mood setting soundtracks ever. It is both calming and engaging and makes me want to live in that world of light stick umbrellas and strange hats.

Sometimes, when it rains, I’ll go outside and stand in it and let myself get drenched. It’s an immediate antidepressant for me and I almost always come away from the experience feeling better. In fact, the only problem I tend to have in the rain is coming in out of it. Sometimes I think about Roy Batty as the water courses over me, lowering my body temperature and clearing my thoughts and I wonder if my own moments will be lost in time, like tears in the rain.

How about your movie loves?

What’s your favorite “It’s too fucking hot outside”/”Rainy Day” movie? Leave comment about it below and share your awesomeness with all of us! Thanks for the memories and have a wonderful day!

My Favorite Villain

I have been asked on occasion who my favorite villain is, and with such a vast menagerie of evil to choose from in both reality and fiction, this makes for a difficult question to answer. I tend to enjoy really evil villains who have few to no redeeming qualities — individuals who you feel no commonality or sameness with. Villains who, in point of fact, express only what we dislike or even outright hate about ourselves and each other. A villain that the audience hates is a villain who is doing his or her job.

This is a difficult task for the villain, though, especially when I am in the audience. I tend to believe that no one is beyond redemption and that anyone can atone for wrongs they’ve done, even if it takes the rest of their lives… or longer. I also tend to think that most people have their reasons for turning to a life of ill-repute. That’s why I like truly evil villains. To get them right you don’t just create a bad guy, you create a monster within and without. Make no mistake these people exist — they are not simply conjurings of the imagination. Most well-conceived villains are based on actual people. Buffalo Bill, Leatherface and Norman Bates are all based upon the same actual person, a serial killer named Ed Gein.

The Joker by Jossi Lara

Speaking of serial killers, let’s talk about the joker. A sadistic sociopath with little to no regard for the suffering he causes his victims, except, perhaps, if it happens to be funny. He delights in hurting people, in damaging people mentally, physically and if he can, spiritually. He can’t be intimidated, bought, bribed or coerced. He would kill a kid in front of its mother if he thought he’d get a laugh out of it. Compared to this, Galactus, Devourer of Worlds seems like just some hungry dude, looking for a snack and makes Lucifer, the original villain for some, look positively cuddly.

The Clown Price of Crime is just the first selection, though, there are a ton of villains that emulate those evil qualities but are lacking in the dramatic (or rather comedic) department. Let’s deviate from comics for a minute and look at a villain from a very popular show right now. Joffrey Barathean from Game of Thrones. Now I’ve read all the books twice and let me tell you, he is one evil son of a bitch….literally. He is singularly the most hated figure in fiction currently. Everyone just wants to watch him die. This is because he is hated, but not feared, or at least hated SO much, that it out ways whatever fear one might have. There is a calming manatee that hates this person.

So who is my favorite villain, though? Digging deep, I have to go to one of my favorite series, Star Trek The Next Generation. Of all of the interstellar malefactors to plague the star ship Enterprise, none is more memorable than the omnipotent and arrogant god like being known simply as Q. I love Q, not for his mastery of time and space, or his witty repartee with Jean-Luc Picard. I love Q as a villain, because he is, in fact, not a villain. An obstacle? Of course. An adversary? To be sure. But for all of his schemes, for all of his antics, he leaves the crew of the Enterprise, and in particular its captain, in no worse shape when he leaves than when he arrived. In fact, he leaves Picard far wiser than before the encounter, every single time.

He exposes humanity to the Borg….so that we will be able to confront them and not be wiped out. He kidnaps Picard’s lady friend and takes her to a different dimension….to show Picard that she is not what he thinks. For every malady he throws at humanity, he reveals the truth to us that he IS “merely trying to assist a pitiful species.” Q is Loki (The real one). He is Anansi. The trickster who shows us how foolish we are really being, so that we can help ourselves. He is a teacher, albeit an unwanted one…..though as I type that I realize that those teachers are the ones that teach us the most, even if we don’t want to learn the lesson they are teaching.

Who’s your favorite villain?

I really want to know! Leave a comment below telling me who and why, and as always, have a wonderful day!

Hello!

My name is Kevin Gubernatis and welcome to the Soul Star Galaxy! I’m thrilled to introduce you to my upcoming novel, The White Wolf and the Darkness, which will be released December 1, 2013. I want to first thank you for your interest —  I hope you are as excited to read The White Wolf and the Darkness as I am to bring it to you. Let me tell you a little about the story itself and the universe in which it takes place, to give you some background.

The White Wolf and The Darkness takes place roughly a thousand years in the future. In this future, humanity has spread out into the stars and magic was the fuel for that expansion. Magic runs everything from the large starships that ferry people through the void of space, to the smallest of hand-held lights.

The Covenant Of Earth Nations, Earth’s governing body, has lost contact with a deep space research station known as the Dark Star and sent a team of specialist commandos to the station to discover the reason for this communications black out. As its name suggests, Dark Star Station orbits a black hole.

Along with these specialists they sent a magician — Asala —  a practitioner of ritualism fresh out of her studies at the School of Magic and Spiritual Comprehension. She and her commandos are prepared for any situation involving entities both supernatural and mundane. At least they think they are. Little do the COEN Corps commandos and their magician know that what awaits them aboard the Dark Star is far beyond anything humanity has ever experienced.

A presence waits in the shadows, hungry and curious. Can Asala confront this terror and keep her team alive, or will she and all those in her charge fall victim to….The Darkness?