Michael G. Munz

The official website of Seattle sci-fi/fantasy author and geek Michael G. Munz

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Guest Geeks: K.M. Alexander

June 10, 2015 By Michael G. Munz Leave a Comment

Guest GeeksWelcome back! (Look at me, typing as if I’m welcoming you back from a commercial break or something. I’ve been watching too much Conan.) Given the big ol’ “Guest Geeks” up there at the top of the page, the more attentive among you have likely already picked up on the fact that it’s time for another guest to the blog who will help me fill it up with something geeky. This time we’ve got Lovecraft fan and fellow writer K.M. Alexander, who I met for the first time at Norwescon in April after learning of his writing from the Seattle Geekly podcast folk. Here’s here to talk about everyone’s favorite Lovecraftian insanity-entity, Cthulhu… So let’s give a big “Ai! Ai! Alexander fhtagn!” and read on, because he makes a very good point about…

[Read more…]

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Filed Under: Featured, Guest Geeks Tagged With: Cthulhu, Fantasy, Geek Interest, horror, K.M. Alexander, Lovecraft, The Stars Were Right

Michael Reads Percy Jackson: The Titan’s Curse – Ch 2

April 4, 2015 By Michael G. Munz 5 Comments

We all need a missile launcher, from time to time.

We all need a missile launcher, from time to time.

One of these days I should go through all of the Percy Jackson chapter titles so far and pick my top 5 favorite, because I’m pretty sure this one would be among them. That’s right, it’s time for the second chapter of Michael Reads Percy Jackson: The Titan’s Curse…

The Vice Principal Gets a Missile Launcher

[Read more…]

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Filed Under: Michael Reads, TTC Tagged With: Artemis, Chapter 2, Cthulhu, Fantasy, Let's Read, Mythology, Percy Jackson, Reading, Rick Riordan, The Titan's Curse

Mythology: An Endless Source of Inspiration

February 1, 2015 By Michael G. Munz Leave a Comment

Last summer, when Zeus Is Dead was first published, my publisher set up a blog tour to help get the word out. It was three weeks of interviews, reviews, and guest posts. I thought I’d share one of those guest posts, a brief essay about the value of mythology in storytelling. (And, of course, I worked in mention of ZID. It was a book tour, after all!) It was originally posted on Mythical Books on July 21st, 2014.

PrometheusBefore there was YouTube, before there was Facebook…
In the days long before movies, television, and magazines…
Before books themselves—heck, even before Amazon.com…

…there were still stories.

People needed to entertain themselves somehow, after all. Stories were created around ancient fires to explain, to train, and to entertain. (Often, they were even told for reasons that DON’T end in –ain! Wild, I know.) There was either no time or no means to write such tales down. They existed only in memory, to be told and retold as time went on. They developed, and they grew richer. In a sense, it was like a world of nightly focus groups around a fire as storytellers workshopped their tales and modified them based on reactions.

And, eventually, the stories solidified. Time and cultural awareness elevated them to the status of legends and myths. They travel to us now out of the past, having weathered the centuries. Fascinating in their own right, the myths we know today also provide modern storytellers with a ready-made palette of plots, attitudes, and characters.
Now it’s our turn to do the retelling.

Now we can take those mythological elements and put them in our modern context. Whether that’s literally—such as in my own Zeus Is Dead: A Monstrously Inconvenient Adventure, which takes a humorous look at how the Greek gods would behave if they returned to the public eye—or placing such elements into an original fantasy world written with modern sensibilities, we have myriad choices.

How might Apollo rule a new world where he was the only god? What if Anubis and Hades went to war? What if Loki and Hermes met at a poker game? How would King Arthur and Merlin deal with Cthulhu?

And those are just possibilities from combining specific characters. Want to give it a satirical twist? Deconstruct it? Use mythology as a representation of our past to show how much (or how little) we’ve developed? Go for it! You can even roll like dice the thematic concepts, archetypes, and tropes of mythology across the modern table to see what inspiration turns up. It’s akin to using a computer to create an image: it’s done in a modern way, but the colors used are still the same colors that we’ve always known. (Okay, so that’s an imperfect analogy, but hopefully you get my point.)

I’ll close with another mention of Zeus Is Dead, if you’ll indulge me. I’ve been fascinated with mythology since I was a kid, and a college professor later remarked that the Olympian gods were really just humans with supersized powers, skills, and egos. It struck me that here was a rich world of characters waiting to be thrown together again in new and interesting ways. (Plus, hey, public domain!) I vowed that one day I’d write a modern myth to explore those characters in a new light. It was a while before I’d developed my own craft enough to where I felt I could do them justice—and along the way I realized how hilarious it might be to show how they might deal with the modern world—but, eventually, Zeus Is Dead: A Monstrously Inconvenient Adventure was born.

And I do hope you’ll all give it a read, and let it inspire you, too.

Mythical Books

With thanks to Mythical Books for granting me the opportunity to guest post!

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Filed Under: Writing, Zeus Is Dead Tagged With: Cthulhu, Fantasy, MondayBlogs, Mythical Books, Mythology

Michael Reads Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief (Ch 12)

November 16, 2014 By Michael G. Munz 7 Comments

Did you know you can click on these title images to see the entire blog series?Did you know slugs are aliens from Tau Ceti VI?

Did you know you can click on these title images to see the entire blog series?
Did you know slugs are aliens from Tau Ceti VI?

So apparently Pan is missing, and dogs can read! Makes sense to me. I learn all this and more preparing for the twelfth chapter installment of Michael Reads Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief…

We Get Advice from a Poodle

This chapter felt pretty short, though I didn’t go back and count pages. That may be due to the fact that, aside from Percy’s dream, there’s no action or overt conflict. (Or maybe it really just is a short chapter.) [Read more…]

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Filed Under: Michael Reads, TLT Tagged With: Cthulhu, Fantasy, Let's Read, Mythology, Percy Jackson, Reading, Rick Riordan, The Lightning Thief

Top 5 List: Enigmatic Beings

July 6, 2014 By Michael G. Munz Leave a Comment

Ooh, isn't that all fancy? Well? Isn't it?

It’s time for another in my admittedly intermittent series of geek-related Top 5 lists! Yes, I know it’s been a while. I’ve had this particular Top 5 topic in mind since I posted the previous list, but given the nature of the topic itself, it’s taken me longer than usual to get a handle on it. What’s that topic, you say? (Go ahead. Say it…) I’m glad you asked!

Top Five Enigmatic Beings

And here’s the usual disclaimer: I’m bad at ranking things in specific order, I’m indecisive, etc. Or am I simply…enigmatic? (Oooh! Way to be on-topic, me!) Naah, I’m just unable to commit. So, in no particular order… [Read more…]

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Filed Under: Featured, Top 5 Tagged With: Babylon 5, Bombadil, Cthulhu, Fantasy, Geek Interest, Half-Life, MondayBlogs, Planescape, Science Fiction

“And with strange aeons even espresso may die…”

June 6, 2014 By Michael G. Munz Leave a Comment

Just something geeky I wanted to share…

(Ϊa, Ϊa, Cthulhu ftaghn, and so forth.)

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Filed Under: Miscellaneous Tagged With: coffee, Cthulhu, Geek Interest, Humor

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