There are three things you need to know about me. OK, maybe you don't NEED to in order to keep breathing, but for today's topic, they're pretty important.

The first is that I'm a good writer. And I don't just mean in the area of writing novels. I also do email marketing, web pages, poetry, songs, and philosophical debates about the morality of fictional characters on Facebook.

Today, we're talking about songs. Which brings us to number two...

I'm not that great a singer.

OK, sometimes I am, but that's usually when a piece of recording equipment isn't lurking nearby to scare 70% of my vocal power back into my chest. Which, of course, means all my best singing moments go uncaptured, leaving me to silently fume at my own attempts to record my voice and wonder why the frell I can't sound as good on my computer as I do while sweeping dust and drywall out of a tenant's basement.

Of course, the fact that the aforementioned recording equipment is a tad subpar doesn't do me any favors. I FINALLY manage to get my voice to cooperate, only to discover that the recorded version covered in static. Like an unskilled baker finally making a perfect cake, only to have a cat pee on it.

At that point, I take a deep breath, and distract myself from the need to throw the headset into the wall.

Fortunately, that's when the third thing comes into play:

When I really want to do something, I'm not in the habit of allowing a lack of needed skills and equipment to stop me. Just because I can't get volume from my vocal cords doesn't mean I can't get it elsewhere.

So, is this me writing a blog post just to admit to you that I'm one of those singers who uses technology to make up for a lack of talent?

Yes. And no.

This is me writing a blog post to say that even though I'm only partly trained in one instrument, my singing voice isn't the strongest, and my headset sometimes tries to help by adding its own sounds to the mix, I didn't let that stop me.

I wanted to write a song for my favorite character from my favorite series, frell it, and what's more, I wanted it to have instrumentals and everything.

So I took some of the soundtrack from said series, remixed the crap out of it, sang the song six or seven times, and combined the best parts from all of those vocal samples. When I decided that I didn't like how I sang some parts, I redid them and added them in.

So what's the takeaway?

For one thing, I'm inspirational. :) I am proof that just because you aren't equipped to do something the traditional way, that doesn't mean you have to give up on doing it at all.

For another, watch this video. Seriously. I don't care if I just did the worst job of selling something that any marketing expert ever did. It's not like you're paying me anyway. :P So if you like Farscape, and especially if you like seeing an unusual take on a character, enjoy the fruits of my efforts.

Sometimes, it's fun to explore the viewpoint of characters who aren't featured much.

And sometimes, it's even more fun to take a funnier version of that viewpoint, and have those characters express it toward other characters who aren't normally the target of such motherly bossiness.

In my latest music video, the mothers of Farscape have decided that it's time for them to have their say. The protagonist and his pooka are too old to act the way they do. Two dangerous and high-ranking military officers are grounded until they're 36. Two pulse weapons say that there will be no more computer time tonight.

If you enjoy Farscape, or if you don't but you also don't care about spoilers, check out the hilarious video below.

Sometimes, it's fun to explore things that never actually happened in a book or show, or that you know will probably never happen.

Characters whose paths never crossed getting stuck in a room together... plot threads that were left dangling being tied up... deleted scenes being fleshed out... characters who would never drink getting absolutely plastered.

(That last one is especially fun; sometimes, my siblings and I pick a show or book, and just theorize our way through the entire cast.)

In my latest music video, I took a character who's probably the mentally strongest in the entire Farscape cast, and explored what would happen if his resilient mind finally snapped.

Scorpius tends to have his inner demons very much under control, but what would happen if he fully and permanently lost the battle to his pain, rage, and long-suppressed Scarran side, and plunged full-tilt into PTSD and psychosis?

Let's take a look:

I have to admit, I'm a sucker for morally grey antagonists.

Maybe it's because villains are expected to be evil, so when an antagonist shows an unexpected degree of courtesy, kindness or mercy, it immediately sparks my imagination.

Maybe it's because it's a sign of good storytelling when even the protagonists' enemies have redeeming qualities and good reasons for doing the things they do.

Maybe it's because I'm an INTJ, so logical, intelligent characters who put the big picture above their emotional impulses naturally resonate with me, and such characters tend to be cast as bad guys.

Whatever the reason, polite, elegant characters who come across as bad guys to a lot of the viewers and cast tend to become my favorites. This guy is a prime example.

Yes, that is one of the most formidable antagonists in Farscape, smiling warmly at a flower and looking a bit like he's holding back tears.

Scorpius is probably the most complex and interesting antagonist I've ever seen, so it was only a matter of time before he caught my writing fancy. I wanted to explore the motives, fears, hopes and pain of this fascinating character, so finally, I gave myself permission to take a brief break from writing Catgirl Roommate to create a character study for him.

If you're a fan of Farscape, and especially if you're a fellow Scorpius fan, I think you'll enjoy this fanfiction. In Means to an End, Scorpius pauses in the wake of one of his most villainous acts, and reflects on the mission that drove him to do it, and the effect that that mission has had on his personality, his relationships, and his life.

Once you're done reading it, I'd love to know what you thought! I look forward to reading your comments.

Have you ever noticed that adding an element of innocence can make an already creepy thing that much creepier?

Imagine a ghost story that featured the deceased spirit of a homicidal madman. A tall, crazed apparition, wielding a jagged, bloodstained knife, which it uses to carve out the souls of its victims. No one knows where the blood comes from; the knife enters the body and tears out the spirit without breaking the flesh... and yet, the blade is always tainted red.

Now, instead of the ghost being a raving adult, imagine it was a giggling child. Same capabilities, same method of attack, but in the shape of a cute little girl, with a knife in one hand and a broken doll in the other.

How much creepier would that be?

Sure, the adult ghost would be larger and more viscerally intimidating, but there's something about innocence that heightens the effect of anything that contrasts it.

Violence is worse when it's inflicted on a child. Same for sexual harassment and assault. And when a child is DOING these things instead of having them done to her, it adds a whole new level of wrongness to an already horrific situation.

The contrast between childlike innocence and unchildlike malevolence creates a disturbing dissonance, and it probably plays into a lot of peoples' fears about their children being harmed, turning out badly, or both. Childhood is supposed to be a time of cuteness and happiness and fun, not broken dolls and soul-stealing knives.

This dynamic is a big factor in my latest music video. In it, Scorpius from Farscape hunts the increasingly scared protagonist in reality and in his own mind... and in the background, a young girl sings cheerfully about her playful search for her terrified prey.

Click the player below to watch the video, and once you're done, please take a moment to let me know if you enjoyed it.

Blessing a fellow fan with something she loves is an awesome feeling.

A few months ago, my younger sister got hooked on Attack on Titan. I haven't seen it yet myself, but she adores it, and the song The Reluctant Heroes frequently graced my family's kitchen while she did her chores.

As a person who knows what it's like to love a story, you can just imagine my glee when I realized that one of her favorite songs would make a great Farscape music video. It's like finding a special edition of someone's favorite book on sale, but with a more personal touch.

The video turned out to be an ambitious project. If you're a subscriber on my YouTube channel, you'll know that it took me over a month to complete it, and if you've heard The Reluctant Heroes from other sources before you watched my video, you'll probably notice that I extended it so that there would be enough room to tell the amazing story that is Farscape.

44 extra seconds of music. 310 items in the final Movie Maker file (which is to say, WAY more clips than the software was ever intended to process in just over 5 minutes). A month in the making, and my first venture in featuring almost the entire cast in just one video.

And my little sister loved it.

For an artist, there are few feelings better than watching another person gaping and grinning with happiness while enjoying your art. Especially if that art was made as a gift for them.

Sadly, I won't get to see you smile if you watch the video, but all the same, I hope you enjoy it. If you do, please take a moment to let me know. I worked long and hard on this MV, and I shamelessly wish to bask in the happiness that it brings to my fellow fans.

I had an interesting experience while I was making my latest music video. "Leaving Tonight" is a creepy song, from a Halloween-themed album by a band named "The Birthday Massacre".

(For my more sensitive readers, don't worry - the songs are generally much gentler than the band name implies.)

And yet, when I actually started making the video, it turned out to be more like a love story. I didn't see that coming.

It's interesting how a small tweak in the portrayal of something can completely change the way it comes across. I've seen villains who did very little damage be portrayed as major threats, evil or stupid actions painted as heroic, and improbable plotlines played with conviction... and in skilled enough hands, it often felt truly convincing.

In this case, all I had to do was portray a person, rather than a place, as the thing to which the video's protagonist wanted to come home, and it instantly turned into a love story.

D'Argo and Chiana. One of those strange ships that worked to a certain degree, but never quite sat right with me.

Have you ever seen a relationship like that, where the characters were clearly happy with it, but it just seemed strange?

When Farscape first started hinting that D'Argo and Chiana were starting to get together, it seemed odd to me. Sure, Chiana is one of those characters who could generate chemistry with just about anyone if she wanted to - it's a skill she's very deliberately honed.

But she struck me as being too much of a bratty, free-spirited wild child for D'Argo. She's fun and sexy, but she's also flighty and promiscuous... not the stuff that long-term relationships are made of.

Despite my feelings about their relationship, I've wanted to make a music video of them for a while. It was just a matter of finding the right song. And a little over a week ago, I finally found the perfect one.

So, here it is: a portrait of D'Argo and Chiana, in all their turmoil, mixed feelings, affection, condescension, betrayal and lingering tenderness.

Enjoy.

Have you ever watched or read a story where the protagonist was a villain? Or, if not a villain, at least morally ambiguous?

I've seen a few of them, and I always admire it when the writers can make me sympathize with both sides, understanding where both parties are coming from even if I prefer one or the other.

Some villains you love to hate. Others, you find yourself just staring at, either wondering if they're actually on the right track, or disagreeing with their methods while agreeing with their goals, or realizing with a start that if you were in their position, you might actually do the same thing.

I've actually been watching two series recently that inspired some of those reactions.

ne of them is Death Note, a really brilliant anime in which a high-school genius acquires a supernatural ability to kill, and uses it to try to rid the world of crime. In the course of his mental war against an eccentric and highly intelligent detective, he inspired a wide debate among fans regarding whether his goals, his motives, or both were evil, good, or somewhere in between.

The other is Farscape, in which an astronaut from Earth is flung through a wormhole and gets caught up in a jailbreak, ultimately ending up fleeing from the law on a ship full of escaped prisoners.

​To his friends, John Crichton one of the most reliable people you could hope to meet. To his enemies, he becomes increasingly dangerous and treacherous, and from some perspectives he could even be classified as a terrorist.

And I love both series for the fact that there are good and bad motives, and sincerely likeable characters, on both sides of the confrontation, and plenty of room for discussion as to which side is better or worse.

I actually ended up exploring that in my latest music video. In some ways, Farscape's John and his archnemesis Scorpius are surprisingly similar, in ways that you don't necessarily notice on the first watch-through.

In this video, I paint a picture of their unexpected similarities, their different backgrounds and shared quest, and the ways in which each of them could be seen as a villain in the other's eyes.

Have you ever seen a really good villain protagonist, or a story that made you wonder who the villain was?

Which story was your favorite, and what reaction did it get from you?

Some characters are hilarious. They're crazy, they're goofy, they make jokes all the time...

And then there are the ones to whom this blog post is dedicated. The ones who are serious enough that just putting them into a comedic situation automatically makes it funnier.

Something about their stony stare only heightens the absurdity of a situation that contrasts their stern demeanor, and if they're genuinely dangerous, so much the better.

In some cases, their intense seriousness can make even mundane and normal situations strangely hilarious.

Just imagine Batman in a maid outfit. Or Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer being surrounded by a food fight. Or the scariest and most serious villain you can think of going shopping for socks.

And now you know what I mean.

It's a dynamic I like to play with sometimes, and I used it a lot in Heroic Lies. Zorei is calm, suave and intelligent... and I stuck him in a room with Alexandra, who's an ongoing comedy act full of brash humor and playful sarcasm.

The resulting banter still makes me grin sometimes when I read it. If you haven't ordered your copy yet, you can do so by clicking the button below.

In the meantime, I've also been playing with this trope in my free materials, like my latest music video. In it, the protagonist of Farscape squares off against his formidable archnemesis... in a 3-minute musical pissing match set to "Anything You Can Do".

It's one of a very few among my music videos that doesn't need a knowledge of the series to enjoy, so if you've watched Farscape, or if you haven't but you don't mind spoilers, take a few minutes to enjoy the comedy of a serious sci-fi antagonist trying to establish his dominance through a goofy song.

Do you have a favorite example of a 'comically serious' character? If so, who is (s)he, and which story is the character from?