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Steve’s Book Roundup 3/7/2023

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I write a lot and have quite a few books.  So now and then I post a roundup of them for interested parties! However, I think as I’m taking 2023 easy and doing a few less blog posts, I’ll make this quarterly or whenever I add a new book.

The Way With Worlds Series

This is what I do a lot of – writing on worldbuilding!.  You can find all of my books at www.WayWithWorlds.com! 

The core books of the series will help you get going:

  • Way With Worlds Book 1 – Discusses my philosophy of worldbuilding and world creation essentials.
  • Way With Worlds Book 2 – Looks at common subjects of worldbuilding like conflicts in your setting, skills for being a good worldbuilder, and more!

When you need to focus on specifics of worldbuilding, I have an ever-growing series of deep dive minibooks.  Each provides fifty questions with additional exercises and ideas to help you focus on one subject important to you!

The current subjects are:

Fiction

Take a typical fantasy world – and then let it evolve into the information age.  Welcome to the solar system of Avenoth, where gods use email, demons were banished to a distant planet, and science and sorcery fling people across worlds . . .

  • A Bridge To The Quiet Planet – Two future teachers of Techno-Magical safety find trying to earn their credentials hunting odd artifacts backfires when they’re hired to put some back . . . on a planet where gods go to die!
  • A School of Many Futures – The crew is back, and finding having secrets and keeping them isn’t the same thing! Unfortunately they also find “very normal” is a cover for “anything but” . . .

Creativity

I’m the kind of person that studies how creativity works, and I’ve distilled my findings and advice into some helpful books!

  • The Power Of Creative Paths – Explores my theories of the Five Types of Creativity, how you can find yours, and how to expand your creative skills to use more Types of Creativity.
  • Agile Creativity – I take the Agile Manifesto, a guide to adaptable project development, and show how it can help creatives improve their work – and stay organized without being overwhelmed.
  • The Art of The Brainstorm Book – A quick guide to using a simple notebook to improve brainstorming, reduce the stress around having new ideas, and prioritize your latest inspirations.
  • Chance’s Muse – I take everything I learned at Seventh Sanctum and my love of random tables and charts and detail how randomness can produce inspiration!

Careers

Being a “Professional Geek” is what I do – I turned my interests into a career and have been doing my best to turn that into advice.  The following books are my ways of helping out!

  • Fan To Pro – My “flagship” book on using hobbies and interests in your career – and not always in ways you’d think!
  • Skill Portability – A quick guide to how to move skills from one job to another, or even from hobbies into your job.  Try out my “DARE” system and asses your abilities!
  • Resume Plus – A guide to jazzing up a resume, sometimes to extreme measures.
  • Epic Resume Go! – Make a resume a creative act so it’s both better and more enjoyable to make!
  • Quest For Employment – Where I distill down my job search experiences and ways to take the search further.
  • Cosplay, Costuming, and Careers – An interview-driven book about ways to leverage cosplay interests to help your career!
  • Fanart, Fanartists, and Careers – My second interview-driven book about ways to leverage fanart to help your career!
  • Convention Career Connection – A system for coming up with good career panels for conventions!

Culture

  • Her Eternal Moonlight – My co-author Bonnie and I analyze the impact Sailor Moon had on women’s lives when it first came to North America.  Based on a series of interviews, there’s a lot to analyze here, and surprisingly consistent themes . . .

My Sites

Neurotransmitters And Cash – The Addicts We Follow

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, Steve’s Tumblr, and Pillowfort.  Find out more at my newsletter, and all my social media at my linktr.ee)

Anyone politically involved has one or more of those stories about how they became politically aware of something and it changed them.  I’d like to share my most recent as it’s relevant to life and to you, my readers.  It all involves New Age charlatans and the realization some of the worst people we know trying to lead us are also addicts.

If you’re any follower of religious/spiritual happenings, you’re aware what we call New Age has had it’s grifters and criminals.  As I’ve followed the community for the last few years – especially in light of alternate health claims and radicalization – I’ve found the grifters to be awful people. Watching them spew out a book of hack spirituality, overcharge people, and blatantly lie is amazing and terrible.

These grifters also keep reinventing themselves and keep coming back – sometimes a re-invention is where they become a spiritual grifter.  Your failed documentary career can become an “expose” on how aliens are using vaccines to enslave us via 5G.  You can spend one decade fighting Satan and the next channeling Starseeds.  Sometimes I have to check to make sure two separate spiritual conpeople aren’t the same person a few years apart.

It’s no wonder New Age stuff has merged into conspiracy lore and extreme politics.  It’s the exact same thing you’ll see play out again and again in political personalities. The politician leaping from the latest media-made panic to next is no different than internet coemmenter going from libertarian techbro to religious right fundamentalist.  There’s no difference between the newly minded anti-vaxx New Ager and the failed entertainer who pivots to coded racism to get on podcasts.

Grifter of one kind or another, grift is grift.

Now some of these people – perhaps all of them – are awful people.  But there’s something of an addict’s desperation and shamelessness about them.  It’s obvious that some of them can’t stop as otherwise the gravy train ends, but watching pathetic-if-effective-displays of piety or spirituality it feels different.  It feels like there’s a compulsion that reminds me of drug addiction.

First of all, we’ve all looked at a hack writer, posing preacher, or craven politician and known in our heart of hearts we could probably do that con too.  Let me extend that to ask what happens to those that do this and get rewarded for it?  When the cash starts coming in, imagine the rush you get from seeing “I can make money at this.”

It’s probably very easy for even relatively moral people to see a sudden cash infusion and get some kind of high from it.  Remember that great new job you got, and how that higher paycheck felt for the first time?  Imagine that, but with more money and all you had to do was claim aliens are turning our kids gay via video games.

But beyond the high of money, let’s not discount emotional high these grifter-criminals get.

People will agree with the stupidest thing you say.  People will praise your heroism for fighting woke vaccine with effusive internet praise.  You’ll be told you’re a hero for taking Superpac money while making people’s lives worse.  You’ll be courted on podcast and even television.

All other benefits aside, your brain is awash in dopamine and serotonin all because you’re a lying asshole. Want to keep that high? Just keep lying.

Some of the worst people we know, from arrogant hack authors to spiritual quacks to politicians are addicts.  I mean they’re also terrible people, yes there is the desire for power, etc.  But the craven behavior, the rage, the willingness to say anything, the need reminds me of a junkie.

Which even more means that you’ve got to work hard to stop them.  They can’t be shamed, they know they hurt others, and they’re getting a buzz off of it.  Even if you think you can help them, you have to stop them before they hurt others.  They don’t just want the money and power, they want the rush.

Shun them, sue them, vote them out, etc.  Even if they somehow know what they’re doing is wrong, it won’t stop them as they’re addicts and we can’t hope they get better. We have to stop damage then we can see about healing.

Steven Savage

Let’s Get Irresponsible!

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, Steve’s Tumblr, and Pillowfort.  Find out more at my newsletter, and all my social media at my linktr.ee)

I belong to a writer’s group where people can become “accountability buddies.”  The  idea is you and your buddy check in with each other on progress and encourage/support each other.  It’s a great idea, but one I rarely do as my own planning/overplanning does the job and then some.  If anything I need someone to help me to slow down.

I joked to some friends that I needed an Irresponsibility Buddy.  Shortly after making that joke I realized it’s probably a great idea.  

Here’s how I see it working.

Pair up people in whatever creative group or groups you’re in as Irresponsibility Buddies.  Your goal is not to encourage productivity – far from it.  Instead your weekly checkins would ask such things as:

  • What did you do to relax?
  • Are you having fun?
  • How’s your stress level?
  • And so on as long as it has nothing to do with “hey, how much did you get done?”

Again, I am serious.  I certainly could have used this, except too many of my creative friends are as driven and anal-retentive as I am.  It would be nice to have someone check in on you without risking taking a friendly check-in as more pressure to perform.

Other creative groups – writers, cosplayers, etc. – could also build Irresponsibility into their meetups and checkins.  What did you do not related to your project?  What is a fun thing we can do together that is totally a waste of time?  Is everyone slacking off appropriately?

When I look at these ideas – which I would have laughed at ten years ago – I think they’re more needed now than ever.  This is because creative hobbies and efforts have changed in the age of the internet and late-stage capitalism.

We’re under more pressure to monetize things all the time – and have the tools to do it.  We’re in a social media microscope and feel accountable, pressured to perform, and in competition with everyone.  Everything is moving fast and we’re just trying to keep up (without asking if we should).

As many of you know around the middle of the year I slow down, doing less “scheduled” projects, taking time to experiment, etc.   In short I’m going to have fun and get in touch with my creative urges that are all-too-often yoked to a schedule.  Of course as I find Project Management fun, I cause my own problems a lot, but I recognize it.

Let me challenge you – how can you get irresponsible and unproductive?

Steven Savage