Well. That didn't take long. My latest Farscape music video, set to "Re: Your Brains" by Jonathan Coulton, is live on YouTube.

This epic saga stars Scorpius as Bob the Polite Zombie, whose one ambition is to eat the brain of his poor coworker Tom, played by John Crichton. This music video really has it all: courteous office dialogue, selfless advice from beyond the grave, and guest appearances by the ever-talented Scarran Mindfrell Music Band.

You can watch the video directly in this post, or see it on YouTube here.

Enjoy!

I think my favourite part of the video is the scene where Bob comments that "I'm glad to see you take constructive criticism well"... while Tom throws a screaming temper tantrum.

What's your favourite part?

Well. This is certainly the strangest character/song combination I've ever done. At first, I wasn't even sure it would work. I mean, Scorpius is Farscape's scary, badass antagonist , so how does one cast him as the star in a music video set to the song "Poisoned With Love"?

And, what's more, how does one do it without taking him out of character or making him look inappropriately sappy?

As it turns out, it was easier than I thought.

As the music video started coming together, I realized that the song was a surprisingly perfect fit. Because for all that he spends several seasons terrorizing our protagonists, Scorpius himself goes through an incredible amount of abuse, and mostly on behalf of people who hate him or look down on him, or who he will never meet.

"I wear these tears and pretend they're not there..."

"So I keep walking on broken glass for you..."

If you want to see just how strangely well the song and the character fit together, you can click here to see it on YouTube, or simply watch it directly in this post.

So, what do you think? Were the song and the character a good match? Feel free to comment - I'd love to hear your opinion!

I'm starting to notice a pattern in some of my books.

In My Fugitive and Voice of a Silent Fugitive, a strong young woman frees a prisoner of war who's been brutally abused, and struggles to keep the two of them alive in a town occupied by his enemies.

If you haven't already read them, you can get either or both of the books here:

And in the novel I'm currently working on, the playful, sarcastic young reporter may not be constantly sustaining her costar's life the way her fellow protagonist is, but when she discovers that one of the other characters is being horribly mistreated, she becomes a major factor in determining his fate.

True, she does get repeatedly kidnapped during the course of the book, but even then, she is certainly not the one who's in distress. Most of the time.

I didn't actually mean to create this pattern. Sure, it's great to have a kickass female protagonist who doesn't fall into the 'helpless accessory' category, but it wasn't a priority while conceiving the books. (Besides, people who brag that they have a strong female character seem not to notice that that bandwagon's already so full that it's no longer anything special to brag about.)

But while I didn't plan for the 'girl rescuing the dude in distress' to become a running theme, it does seem to be playing out that way.

I do have a few books mapped out where that isn't the case; maybe I'll have to work on one of them next, just to do something different. Or perhaps this ongoing theme is a distinguishing aspect of my writing style, once that will make my books more consistently appealing to people who like reverse damsels in distress.

What do you think?

It's finally finished: my Farscape Harvey mini-episode is ready to watch on YouTube.

Set during the events of Daedalus Demands and Icarus Abides, this video fanfiction dives deep into Harvey's troubled, isolated mind, exploring his fear, anger, loneliness and regret as he waits for John and Jack's attack to begin, and his resignation as his attempts to defend himself fail.

If you've always thought it was a pity that Farscape never had an episode devoted to Harvey, and that it never really explored his unique point of view or his tragic predicament, you're going to love this. Once you're done watching, please leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Go ahead, tell me you can't relate to the picture above. I dare you.

There's just something special about fiction. Maybe it's the way anything and everything is possible if you just suspend your disbelief a bit, even if it DOES have to make more sense than reality tends to.

Maybe it's the fact that characters in fiction tend to display their unique and interesting personalities in a way real people are too often afraid to.

Or maybe it's the fact that sometimes, feeling for fiction is so much easier than feeling in real life. Because let's face it, real life comes with responsibilities and risks.

Have you ever had one of those times when you started to feel strongly about something, only to pull back because you only have so much time/money/whatever was required to give, and it felt wrong to feel so deeply about it and do nothing?

​Or maybe it was simply a matter that knowing that something terrible was happening to people, somewhere out there where you couldn't immediately stop it, was too painful, so you just stopped feeling it.

Or maybe it was a person, but you weren't sure whether they were going to like you back or hurt you, so you restricted your feelings out of fear. I know I've been guilty of all of the above.

Maybe the reason why people - often including me - get so attached to fictional characters is because you don't have to worry about that. There's nothing you can or should do about it, so you're free to feel as much as you want, without having to prioritize who you take care of or shut down your feelings to deal with a crisis rationally. And if a character does something you don't like, you can always just ignore it.

Taken too far, it can be a crutch, but sometimes it's nice to just feel as much as you want for a character, knowing you'll never be responsible for their situation. (Unless you're the one writing them, in which case, it's all your fault.)

Speaking of characters whose situations are all my fault, if you're looking for a dark Wartime Psychological Suspense novel to read this weekend, with characters so compelling that even their creator cried multiple times while writing them, you can click the button below to get your copy of My Fugitive or Voice of a Silent Fugitive.

I've got a scene I've been looking forward to writing for quite some time now. It's a deep, touching moment between two characters who have struggled with love, deception and bitterness for a long time, and who finally pull the veils aside to offer each other the truth.

And when I got to that part of the book, I put off writing it for several days. The mood wasn't right, or I didn't have enough time that day, or I didn't want to do it at a time when I could be interrupted and the moment could be spoiled.

As I usually do, I made myself get over it. The scene is partly written now, though the best part of the conversation is still to come, so I've still got something to look forward to. And even though I wasn't able to finish it in one uninterrupted writing session, it's turning out really well.

Have you ever had a scene like that? Something you were really looking forward to writing, but hesitated to write because you wanted it to be perfect?

I'd love it if you'd tell me a bit about it, if you can do so without giving me spoilers!