Tangent to #apocalypseMoi and #30DaysOfDoom and Fury Road:
You wanna see some Mad Max driving in the real world?

I have videos of my #rats driving up at https://ratoperatedvehicle.com.

Much less budget, but just as much respect for road signs.

THE END IS NIGH!

The "Apocalypse Moi" Kickstarter ends in ten hours. It's less than $350 from the next stretch goal, so, we might actually make it? That would be cool. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mwlucas/apocalypse-moi

For the very final #30DaysOfDoom permit me to go back to the beginning and:

Mad Max. Fury Road.

Yes, we opened with Road Warrior--but FR isn't the same. It really isn't. RW has heavy themes of abuse and loss, but FR is about our humanity and how we lose it.

Plus, some of cinema's most badass car chase scenes.

And take a look at the #apocalypseMoi Kickstarter. I'd appreciate your support. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mwlucas/apocalypse-moi

Dang it, I miscounted!

The #apocalypseMoi Kickstarter ends tomorrow, not today.

Which means I must scramble to come up with another #30DaysOfDoom.

Apocalypse is about revelation. It's about heightened understanding of what's really happening, in a way that wrecks your world.

So I think I'll go with "my own incompetence." I'm well aware of it, yet it always surprises me.

Anyway, I'd appreciate your support. We incompetent people need all the help we can get.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mwlucas/apocalypse-moi

Two days left on the #apocalypseMoi Kickstarter (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mwlucas/apocalypse-moi)! We're almost done! I have almost escaped!!!

But that leaves us with the penultimate #30DaysOfDoom, and saving the world one last damn time.

Imagine an afrofuturist Buckaroo Banzai, with vampires and barbecues and moon aliens and the False Prophet Buford shilling salvation. Plus, a sexy octopus.

That's ZZ Claybourne's duology, "Brothers Jetstream: Leviathan" and "Afro Puffs are the Antennae of the Universe."

There are always those who want to wreck the world, those who stand on the sidelines, and those who stand in the way.

https://zzclaybourne.com/

Zigs is also a cool person. We get fried chicken, watch Star Trek, and figure out how to create despite everything. One of those ways is Kickstarters. Like the one for Apocalypse Moi. I'd be grateful for your help. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mwlucas/apocalypse-moi

Three days left on the #apocalypseMoi Kickstarter! Grab your signed book while you can, because after that you pretty much can't. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mwlucas/apocalypse-moi

#3 on the #30DaysOfDoom (yes it's #3, the doomsday clock always ticks backwards) is Mary Balogh's "Survivors Club."

Yep. Not only romance, but a Regency.

Everyone you meet is, by definition, a survivor. The question is, what have they survived? And how can the genre defined by Jane Austen be apocalyptic?

Take seven horrifically damaged survivors of the Napoleonic Wars, and put them in romances. These books are heartfelt, and warm, and stuffed not just with damage, but life and love and finding a path forward even though you will never be the same again.

Start at https://marybalogh.com/portfolio-posts/the-proposal/

And once you've binged, well, every damn thing Balogh wrote (how dare she be so good? HOW DARE SHE???) you could open your Kickstarter copy of #apocalypseMoi -- if you back it within three days. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mwlucas/apocalypse-moi

Four days until the #apocalypseMoi Kickstarter ends and I get to shut up. But that leaves us with four of the #30DaysOfDoom!

So let's have one of my very favorite apocalypse artists: Blue Öyster Cult!

Yes, there's Black Blade (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_p1yaNC1mNg), but I already did Elric so: no.

There's the whole of Imaginos (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaEe5qpb9b0&list=PLVPGzOHIIgz-kljsCDQU4PSeJi-t-su5z ) which is totally "a disease with a long incubation time." Doom-laden like mad.

But for REAL apocalypse? In its truest sense, revelation?

The guys are old. Their latest album is probably their last, and they're going out on a high note. Keep that in mind and listen to the final track on their final album: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PulRU64XEIM

No, shut up. Listen to it. And imagine closing out a life, a career of stardom, an existence many folks envy, feeling this way. LISTEN TO THAT CLOCK TICK.

Perhaps in another couple decades I'll be able to rip your heart out like that.

In the meantime, I have "Apocalypse Moi." I'd appreciate your help making this a book.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mwlucas/apocalypse-moi

Five days left. FIVE DAYS. Soon, the #apocalypseMoi Kickstarter will be gone forever. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mwlucas/apocalypse-moi

Today's #30DaysOfDoom asks the question: does it count as destroying the multiverse, if you put everything back the way you found it afterwards?

Roger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber sparked conventions, revolutionary TTRPGs, and a million mutant Tarot decks.
Yes, there's no rage like "this show ended the season on a cliffhanger and I don't know when the next season is coming," but Zelazny wrote ten damn books that ended on cliffhangers. And they were so good, we put up with it.

There's no question that Zelazny influenced my work, including the tech books. I grew up devouring his stuff, especially the one-off novels, but Ambuer is one of those tentpole series.

Also grab Lord of Light. It's not apocalyptic, it's merely amazing.

And to celebrate Halloween properly, one must read "A Night In The Lonesome October" every year. One chapter a day. They're dated. He poured a lifetime of skill into writing this book and, knowing he could never top it, promptly died.

Where was I? Oh, right. I'm supposed to be shilling my new book. I'm not sorry for getting distracted by Zelazny, but I would appreciate your support. Only five days left! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mwlucas/apocalypse-moi

Only six days left on the #apocalypseMoi Kickstarter ( https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mwlucas/apocalypse-moi ), so #30DaysOfDoom continues with my favorite Apocalypse Variety Pack:

the Nag Hammadi Codexes.

Ancient Christian texts, buried in sealed jars to protect them from other Christians. Dug up in the 1940s by a guano miner. The Gospel of Judas, The Hypostasis of the Archons, The Book of Thomas the Contender. A whole bunch of different apocalypses, most of which are much less harmful than the party line St John the Insane spewed.

For sheer poetry, let me point you at the "Thunder, Perfect Mind."

http://gnosis.org/naghamm/thunder.html

That text alone is sufficient reason for an early authoritarian Church to destroy these books.

I have a book idea that plays on these, but I need to be in a really bad place to write them. I'm holding it against a day I hope never comes.

For my personal collection of dooms, please check out the #apocalypseMoi Kickstarter https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mwlucas/apocalypse-moi - I'd appreciate your backing.

Exactly one week left on the #apocalypseMoi Kickstarter, so that means seven #30DaysOfDoom remain.

Today: Simon R Green's Nightside.

Take every pop culture reference and put it in a blender. Set them in a land where it's always three AM, the sun never rises, but a swollen Moon fills the sky. Give someone your heart, and they might trade it for a pack of cigarettes. You can see the demons riding people grow as they're fed.

When Heaven and Hell go to war, it happens here.

Any angels or demons in #apocalypseMoi are the sort we grow ourselves--though I do have an alien carrion eater trying to figure out how a predator species can become intelligent. Your support will help me bring this book into the world.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mwlucas/apocalypse-moi

The #apocalypseMoi Kickstarter is 8 days from finished, so you get another #30DaysOfDoom !

You poor bastards.

Anyway, today's doom is a childhood favorite: Elric of Melnibone. Stormbringer. One of epic fantasy's definitive works. Elric is the very definition is "his strength is his weakness," and it destroys the world.

Eventually.

After a whole bunch of angst, and epic fantasy mayhem, and monsters, and solidly defining Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion.

I have no soul-sucking swords in #apocalypseMoi, but I do have orcs. They're fantasy, right? Throw me a couple bucks and help this book become a Thing.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mwlucas/apocalypse-moi

The #apocalypseMoi Kickstarter is still on, with its brand new #ProhibitionOrcs, #immortalClay side story, career-ending enlightenment, and a guy who develops the guts to ask a girl out by being repeatedly shot at.

So today on #30DaysOfDoom I present:

Merzbow. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIDUFd2WBiaMaf1zK3cGt3pUgGrrd5mOj

No, no pithy explanation. I have none.

I would suggest that most of you, rather than clicking on that link, you go to https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mwlucas/apocalypse-moi and help me bring this book into the world.

If you clicked on the link anyway and didn't care for it, clearly you should have clicked on https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mwlucas/apocalypse-moi and backed the book instead. It's not too late!

If you clicked on the link and loved the whole thing: you're welcome.

Apparently I'm burying the lead on this Kickstarter, so:

#apocalypseMoi includes a previously unpublished #ProhibitionOrcs tale.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mwlucas/apocalypse-moi

But #30DaysOfDoom still continues, with one of my childhood's favorite End-of-the-World tales: the classic film "When Worlds Collide."

Two rogue planets enter our Solar System. One is going to enter a stable orbit in the goldilocks zone. The other is going to hit the Earth. The only hope for survival? Build a rocket and escape to the stable planet.

Magnificent cheese. Pure pulp. Rockets that trail sparks. A delight of destruction.

(Avoid the books: they're from the 1930s, and even more racist and sexist than "of their time" might suggest.)

I don't hit the Earth with another planet in Apocalypse Moi, although I do threaten to wreck the planet in a few other ways. I'd appreciate your support.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mwlucas/apocalypse-moi

There's 12 days left on the #apocalypseMoi Kickstarter, which means I'm throwing out another #30DaysOfDoom !

Today, it's not just music but a full-blown musical: Jeff Wayne's "War of the Worlds."

It's very 70s: catchy, singable, and generally fun. For "the world is invaded and crushed and only a sneeze saves us, although the world is flooded in alien vegetation so we're all fubar" value of fun.

Why would Martians want to invade, anyway? Whatever their biochemistry is based on, it's sure not oxygen. Our atmosphere is freaking corrosive. What kind of maniac designs their biome around oxygen?

Funnily enough, I ask--and answer--that question in #apocalypseMoi. Another $11 backer would put it at a nice round $1666, in honor of the Great Fire of London. Which seems fitting.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mwlucas/apocalypse-moi

Yeah, sex is great, but have you ever had a pet?

Today's #30DaysOfDoom is the notorious "A Boy And His Dog." I'm not recommending this movie, but I most concede that it is a great example of "committing to the art." If your art is "the most schlock of 70s schlock SF B movies." The trailer is everything you'd expect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eM7MCPF36xM

Really, there's nothing redeeming here. But no catalog of apocalypse would be complete without it. That's a very special value of success.

On the other paw, many of the dooms in #apocalypseMoi have redemptions. I'd appreciate your support.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mwlucas/apocalypse-moi

Today's #30DaysOfDoom is quiet and bloody and perhaps even realistic:

Dean Koontz. "Mr. Murder."

A happy family, attacked by the father's mysterious evil twin who appears out of nowhere. Koontz usually goes for the happy ending, but this time? The family gets a happy ending. The rest of the world, not so much.

Koontz is a brilliant writer, by the way. Not all his books work for me, but when they do, they can't be beat.

I try to go for the happy ending too, but my new collection is about apocalypse. I'd appreciate your help making it happen.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mwlucas/apocalypse-moi

#30DaysOfDoom continues with:

"Earth exploded. Hijinks ensued."

I'm talking about, of course, "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." The definitive work of science fiction ridiculousness. A clinically depressed android! Sauntering about in a bathrobe! MICE! Fifty-seven different versions between radio and TV and film and books, proving the many-worlds theory!

I probably should have posted this on a Thursday, but this is where it fell on the list and I can't be bothered to shift it. Just like Douglas Adams and deadlines.

I can't say #apocalypseMoi will be as well known as H2G2, but it does include a mole recipe of doom.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mwlucas/apocalypse-moi

The #apocalypseMoi Kickstarter is still rolling, so #30DaysOfDoom rolls with it.

Today, one of the best apocalypses of the modern age: Good Omens.

A literal, Biblical apocalypse.

A friend gave me Terry Pratchett's "The Light Fantastic" when I was 19, saying "You need this book." I did. I really did. The only way to get Pratchett in the US was through the Science Fiction Book Club, purveyors of the cheapest possible hardcovers, or to cross the border into Canada and smuggle them home.

Another dear friend had been trying to get me into comics since I was maybe 7. About the same time he loaned me the issue of Swamp Thing that introduced John Constantine and before I even opened it said, "My life's work is complete. I have you now. I HAVE YOU."

He did. I devoured Hellblazer and, later, Sandman.

In early 1990, I was reading the Nag Hammadi and thinking that they'd left all the good stuff out of the Bible. But then I heard the gossip that Pratchett and Gaiman were writing a book together. I went to the bookstore to demand the release date. (This was a year before the Web existed.)

Release day came. I took the day off work to buy and read Good Omens. And immediately read it a second time.

Anyway. Yay, Apocalypse!

These are all influences in "Apocalypse Moi." The Kickstarter is half over, and it'd be nice to hit the next stretch goal.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mwlucas/apocalypse-moi

My #30DaysOfDoom continues as long as the #apocalypseMoi Kickstarter goes, so let's hit another set of shattering revelations:

Rob Cornell's Lockman Chronicles.

For something that's supposed to be "James Patterson with vampires," this hits like a brass-knuckle punch to the jaw. Twists and chills and the loss of everything. But somehow, he gives it an uplifting ending. The apocalypse was worthwhile.

https://www.amazon.com/The-Lockman-Chronicles/dp/B074C7RTJ6/

And do check out the #apocalypseMoi Kickstarter. About halfway through. If it raises a little more I'll do better than if I had sold it to a medium-sized press, which would be nice. Not that medium presses buy short story collections any more.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mwlucas/apocalypse-moi

Today in #30DaysOfDoom

Samuel R Delaney. Dhalgren.

A ruined city full of ruined thoughts. Science fiction, psychological suspense, or surrealism? All of them, and none.

Theodore Sturgeon called it "the very best science fiction." Darrel Schweitzer said "There are three places man was not meant to go: before the beginning of time, beyond the end of the universe, and past page 60 of Dhalgren."

Any time my thoughts starts to petrify, I reread this book and Gravity's Rainbow.

The apocalypses in #apocalypseMoi aren't this magnificent, but my book's only about a quarter its length and they're short stories.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mwlucas/apocalypse-moi

PS: I was lucky enough to study with Delaney at Clarion, way back in 1995. Wonderful teacher. I wasn't mature enough to make the best of his wisdom, but fortunately I wrote a bunch of it down. He liked one of my stories, which wound up in "Vicious Redemption."

It broke one stretch goal, so #apocalypseMoi is only $960 from the next one. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mwlucas/apocalypse-moi

So let's go on with #30DaysOfDoom and the next apocalypse: Gary Numan. Specifically "Savage: Songs for a Broken World" and "Splinter: Songs From a Broken Mind." Brilliant albums, about a broken world that is ours, and a broken mind that is everyone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46kXvXV42Qk

Everything bleeds.

Especially us.

So, grab your #apocalypseMoi while you can. Help me keep the rats in kibble. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mwlucas/apocalypse-moi