WRITING ACTION SCENES: Violence, Trauma and Altered Consciousness
By D.G. Valdron, an online Presentation, Tuesday, September 22, 2026, for Nicole Whisler’s Facebook group
“Finish My Fantasy Novel: Write My Best Book”
All too often, violence is sugar coated, from Finn giving a football whoop as he blows up his former friends in The Force Awakens, to Legolas and Gimli’s friendly rivalry keeping score on their murders in Lord of the Rings. Fantasy action is armies and battles either abstracted or cheerful all too often.
But in the real world action is violence. It’s traumatic and terrifying, your body goes through changes, your mind doesn’t work the same way. Instead of heroism there’s desperation and terror, a cavalcade of emotions. Your heartrate shoots, adrenalin floods, your attention narrows. And afterwards? Collapse, elation, depression, ptsd.
I’m really looking forward to this. With a personal history of violence and trauma, and having encountered it professionally, I think that I can offer a lot of insight into the inner dynamic, the emotions, the sensations, the alterations to consciousness that a lot of writers are missing when attempting action or fight scenes.
A Review – Amazing Stories Online
CLUBHOUSE: Review: “Murder-Chickens on Mars” by D.G. Valdron – Amazing Stories
Review by R. Graeme Cameron, Amazing Stories Online.
He covers both Murder Chickens on Mars, and B-Movie Monsters in Love, I am impressed. I would have thought these books would have been impossible to review, they’re so off the wall.
They’re basically a series of specula-fictions. So an examination of the Godzilla Cinematic Universe (the first one), or an evolutionary history of the Gill-Men, tales of Murder Chickens, Martian Civilizations, and strange examinations of cultural artificats.
For example, one of the pieces looks at Harryhausen’s goat legged cyclops, and goes on a tour through Paleantology, Folklore, Biology and Evolution to figure out where and how an 18 foot tall, goat-legged humanoid fits in.
In an ‘Unnatural History of Slurpasaurs’ I look at all those lizards that posed as dinosaurs in B-movies of the old days, treat them as real animals and discuss habitat, development and ecology.
So tall order, but Graeme managed.
WINNIPEG HORROR CON, September 12, 2026
Ladies and Gentlemen, Genders of all tastes, I present… Winnipeg Horror Con, September 12, 2026. I’m D.G. Valdron, and I’ll be one of the dealers – offering my personal bookstore of weird tales of every kind. Starting with…
A dark excursion into cosmic horror, existential dread, over the top gore, featuring 90s slasher movie killers assembled, vampire infestations, river gods, wendigo, human farms, giant centipedes, alien dimensions, and stuff too weird and scary to describe. The trigger warnings alone for this went on for three pages.
And more…
A FIELD GUIDE TO SELF PUBLISHING – September 5, 2026
Exactly what it says on the box. Got the craving to write? Eager to see you work in the world? Want to do it your way?
Welcome to the Crash Course in Self Publishing, by yours truly, hosted by the Manitoba Writers Guild. We’ll guide you through ISBN registrations, the National Library of Canada, Copyright, book formatting, cover design, all the ins and outs of signing up to IngramSpark, Amazon and other spaces and getting your books out. Ebooks, Hardcovers, Print-Books and Audio, the opportunities and challenges of each. Print on Demand, Small Presses, Small Printers, Friesen Press, Vanity and Hybrid publishers, cover designers and artists, editors. You name it. Spaces are limited, they’re going fast. So sign up today!
All proceeds are donated back to the Manitoba Writers Guild.
Sign Up Here…
WHEN WORDS COLLIDE – MY SCHEDULE
Ladies and Gentlemen, Genders of your Choice, Children of all Ages, Assorted Sentients and Sophonts,
Here’s my schedule for When Words Collide 2026. This is the stuff I’ll be actually doing. Basically, three low impact items, meet and greet, autographs and stuff. And three big items – Panels on AI, Presentations on Copyright and Contracts. You’ll find my notes on the big items on this website. Feel free to stop by and sit in. I’m very entertaining. If you’re very entertaining too, so much the better!
A CRASH COURSE IN CONTRACTS FOR WRITERS
WHEN YOU’RE A WRITER, YOU’RE NOT JUST AN ARTIST. YOU’RE ALSO A VICTIM.
A SAP, A SUCKER, A DOOFUS, A STUMBLEBUM, A BLINDFOLDED TRAVELER TRYING TO CROSS THE ROAD AT RUSH HOUR, YOU’RE THE ROADKILL ON THE PUBLISHING HIGHWAY.
But do you have to be?
WRITING IS NOT JUST ART, IT’S A BUSINESS, PUBLISHING IS A BUSINESS. YOUR PUBLISHER IS NOT YOUR FRIEND, YOUR EDITOR IS NOT YOUR FRIEND, YOUR AGENT IS NOT YOUR FRIEND.
Or rather, everyone is friends right up until they’re not friends
IT’S ALL BUSINESS, AND YOU NEED TO KNOW THE CONCEPTS YOURSELF, TO UNDERSTAND THE ISSUES, AND HAVE SOME CONTROL OVER YOUR CAREER.
THERE ARE WAY TOO MANY STORIES ABOUT HOW THE WRITER GOT SCREWED. OFTEN, IT COMES DOWN TO ‘SHIT HAPPENED’ BUT ACTING LIKE A PROFESSIONAL MAY SAVE YOU SOME HEADACHES. HERE ARE THE FUNDAMENTALS OF PUBLISHING CONTRACTS, AND SOME OF THE TOOLS TO AT LEAST KNOW WHAT’S GOING ON.
A CRASH COURSE IN COPYRIGHT FOR WRITERS
COPYRIGHTS – In the modern era, literally every artist and writer lives and dies on their copyrights.
But what exactly is copyright? Where does it come from? Who created it and how? What does it mean? What exactly do you own when you have a copyright? What are your rights to your own work? How do you prove or register your rights? Do you even need to? How long does it last? How do you market it, what are you selling? Where is the line between your copyrights and someone else’s? When is copyright infringed? What about reviews?
A basic understanding of copyright is a fundamental, critical need for any writer or artist to navigate through life. This presentation is intended to provide the tools to appreciate and explore rights.
Enclosed are my presentation notes for When Words Collide, 2026.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE – THE AI ARGUMENT
Friday, August 14, 2026; 12:00 pm – 1:15 pm
THE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ARGUMENT
Artificial Intelligence is changing the world as we watch. And it’s changing writing.
Somewhere between 1/2 and 2/3rds of the books on Amazon is AI. AI slop is overwhelming online nonfiction sites like Medium, Quora and Substack, it’s dominating clickbait articles. As much as 60% of social media traffic may now be bots. The future is here and it’s ugly as hell.
We are literally at ground zero of the potentially transformative explosion. There’s so much discussion of AI and so much of it is bad, so much is emotional. Literally every aspect of AI is just… insane! It’s a huge amount of ground.
Does what we do even have a future? Is there a future for the novel, for books. Is there a place in the market for real writing and real writers? Can we use AI? If so, what can or should we use it for? What’s ethical? Is there such a thing as ethical use?
People feel strongly about this topic, and rightly so. This is not business as usual.
These are my Moderators notes for the panel… follow along, enjoy, have your own discussions.
BANNER
BANNER – Commissioned from VistaPrint. Designed myself modifying the templates – so no snark please.
The image is from a photograph of mine from my home town. Fossil Cove is just on the edge of town, Dalhousie, a cove just off the Inch Arran beach (it’s a terrible beach, a field of rocks, but go figure, it’s the tourist site). This is one of the ‘flowerpot’ rocks, exotic shapes carved by ferocious tides. This rock is so big you can literally walk right underneath it.