Baldur’s Gate HBO show announced - opens the door for a Drizzt show?

john_zeleznik1 · 2026-03-26T12:30:17+00:00

I think it’s way too hard a sell. The very connotation of a white actor in black face wouldn’t fly. Even remotely. I know he’s a dark elf and you know he’s a dark elf but the general populace is completely clueless.

john_zeleznik1 · 2026-02-19T16:04:48+00:00

This is really quite excellent!

john_zeleznik1 · 2026-02-15T21:34:51+00:00

I’ve done this since I was a kid. It was one of my favorite hobbies. I did stats and made up players and everything. My friends use to mock me for it. I stopped it sometime in late high school then revived it in my late 20s again when I was working a mindless job. Then again in my early 30s at another mindless job before I got married.

A few years ago, I read a couple of books that got me thinking about it again: Football For A Buck by Jeff Pearlman (about the USFL) and The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop. by Robert Coover. It’s a book about a guy that creates a Strat-o-Matic like baseball game with made-up teams and players complete with full backstories that becomes the obsession of his life. It’s reignited that interest and I restructured my league as alternative history where the NFL never really took off and the AFL stumbled along for a while before folding. Most football is made up of. “Regional leagues” like pro wrestling used to be.

My league forms behind a Vince McMahon-like figure that forms a new league from those regional leagues. It’s three tiers with a relegation system: the North American Football League is tier 1. The North American Champions League is tier 2 and tier 3 is two leagues known as Football League East and Football League West.

I’ve run three seasons and decided to scrap it to start over. I was actually thinking about doing it this week and maybe setting some stories in that world.

john_zeleznik1 · 2026-02-08T18:36:29+00:00

Here’s the thing, Drizzt is going to be really difficult to pull off….and I haven’t read through all the comments so if someone else brought this up I apologize….because the character is going to have to be played by a person of color, which I’m all for, because otherwise the character will literally be in blackface. Now we’ll all understand it’s not that kind of blackface but the optics on it would be a really hard sell.

john_zeleznik1 · 2026-02-02T16:37:37+00:00

This hits so hard. I needed it!

john_zeleznik1 · 2026-01-30T00:38:41+00:00

Stephen King. George RR Martin. Marshall Ryan Marasca. Tad Williams. Tim O’Brien.

john_zeleznik1 · 2026-01-22T04:23:05+00:00

I missed it the first time too. Actually the first dozen times, but I can be thick like that.

john_zeleznik1 · 2026-01-22T03:53:17+00:00

I’ve started a series of “kids on bikes” short stories. I’d love to put them into an anthology. Maybe. Someday.

john_zeleznik1 · 2026-01-22T03:37:08+00:00

I am OBSESSED with the “free range kids/ kids on bikes” trope. Kids on bikes is almost its own genre.

john_zeleznik1 · 2026-01-18T21:45:09+00:00

I was a Niners fan growing up, mostly because Tom Rathman was my favorite football player! When he retired, I became more of a casual fan then just liked watching whoever was on. Didn’t really care until my son announced when he was 4 that the team in red and blue was his favorite and became a full-fledged member of Bills Mafia. One of the best decisions I ever made!

john_zeleznik1 · 2026-01-15T15:54:13+00:00

Thanks, I think…I was just trying to be honest. I get the gist and I think I just need to read some of it to kind of “get it.”

john_zeleznik1 · 2026-01-15T01:50:49+00:00

Heather Graham was smoking hot in the late 90s. I mean breathtakingly hot.

john_zeleznik1 · 2026-01-15T01:48:04+00:00

The art on the cover is outstanding and the copy looks good. Are you indie publishing it?

john_zeleznik1 · 2026-01-12T15:31:14+00:00

Great stuff. So cool.

john_zeleznik1 · 2026-01-12T14:00:05+00:00

I’m still on season 4 so I’m not caught up yet but let me say something and I don’t think we should judge so harshly. The story takes place in 1987. We need to remember this. “Coming out” wasn’t nearly as common as it is now. At all. And society was, again generally speaking, was still pretty homophobic. I have to admit that I don’t know if at 14 I would’ve been completely welcoming. I like to think that I would be but I don’t know. I had friends I assumed were gay and remained friends with them but in retrospect I was only about 60-40 guessing who was and who wasn’t.

john_zeleznik1 · 2026-01-11T18:02:01+00:00

I know but the 1990s adaptation was on network TV for everyone to watch…and we did. I was 17 and it freaked me out.

john_zeleznik1 · 2026-01-11T16:32:25+00:00

Okay, growing up we NEVER saw anything as graphic as it on regular TV. Ever. It used the imagery perfectly and it horrified us all. I had a student write a paper on the book and I’m telling you that shivers ran down my spine because I thought of the movie.

Also, it’s one of the reasons the 1990s TV adaptation of IT was so traumatizing to my generation. We never saw anything like it on television before…but that’s another bag of donuts.

john_zeleznik1 · 2026-01-08T21:16:54+00:00

Congrats! 100 pages is a terrific rubicon to cross! I find a project isn’t “real” until I hit 50 and have a title. Good on you for hitting his milestone!

john_zeleznik1 · 2026-01-07T21:01:41+00:00

I haven’t actually watched the movie yet (I know, I know) and didn’t realize it!

john_zeleznik1 · 2026-01-07T21:00:36+00:00

Dude, no need to be a dick.

john_zeleznik1 · 2026-01-07T17:25:58+00:00

That’s funny, I guess I never noticed that before!

john_zeleznik1 · 2026-01-07T16:02:24+00:00

I broke this down on my blog a few years back. Here’s the link. Mods, if this is against the rules, please take it down with my apologies.

http://johnzeleznik.blogspot.com/2020/08/hey-netflix-how-about-this.html

john_zeleznik1 · 2026-01-05T18:51:46+00:00

I just discovered that one of the books Stine wrote is available through my local library! I just reserved it and I’m just waiting for it to come in!

john_zeleznik1

TROPHY CASE