Muddy Reflections

Sand and Bone 11, foreshadowing, third person limited, and big cities

2016-12-28T06:00:00Z

There is a minor spoiler in this post.

This is another chapter with little hints here and there. Some of them are for later books while others are foreshadowing of events later in this book.

The most obvious one ties into the limitations of third-person limited. I really like writing with limited point of view, if the character doesn't know it, then it doesn't show up in narrative. That is why Rutejìmo has a much different view of the coastal folk than Kanéko. It also means that it is hard to hint at certain foreshadowing without putting a big sign that says “this is a plot!”

For some reason, I get frustrated when I watch movies or TV and I see a cut or scene that is obviously foreshadowing for later. The main character picking up a weapon or retrieving their pack, Kubo looking at his musical instrument before he is tossed away, in Avatar when they look at skulls of flying creatures and “no one has ever ridden one before.”

One of them has haunted me from the very beginning of this series: Rutejìmo is a damage sponge. The amount of injuries he takes should have killed a lesser man. Actually, it would have killed a lesser man but he has a certain something going on for him and it is subtle. More importantly, he doesn't know it is happening (but I did).

Rutejìmo walked hand in hand with Mapábyo. The exhaustion from his purification ritual still plucked at his senses, but sleep and a full meal had helped recover his energies. Even his recent injuries, including the cut in his shoulder, had already started to scab over and no longer throbbed.

As I've mentioned before, there is very little magical healing in my world. When people get hurt, they stay hurt. But… there is healing and recovery magic. It just isn't always obvious. This isn't one of Shimusògo's powers which means his ability to take damage and recovery quickly comes from another source.

Now one that isn't addressed in this book is the talk about the formalized nature of kojinōmi in the eastern cities. I've had a number of readers mention they would like me to put more details into this one, but this is actually for a later book (related to this series though). There is a hint of that also in Flight of the Scions for one of the epigraphs.

“There are six of the Shimusògo in town, but only one… like me.” He couldn't bring himself to say kojinōmi even knowing it was acceptable. Too many years of not speaking about what he did stilled his voice.

She dug into the folds of her armored fabric before pulling out a notebook. With a brass pen, she wrote something before ripping it off and handing it to Rutejìmo. “You've been requested to present yourself to the other kojinōmi at this address in three nights.”

Rutejìmo took the paper, it was an address. “When?”

Dimóryo frowned. “For dinner, isn't that when you always do those things?”

Sand and Bone 11: Recovering

I remember one of the first times I went to Chicago as someone aware of the differences. It was a huge city and completely different than growing up in Naperville, Aurora, or even West Chicago. The joy of seeing it was a delightful contrast that I also had when I went to Los Angeles and New York. I wanted to put some of that into Sand and Bone with having the rural clan members see their first “big” city.

You may notice that both this series and Flight of the Scions are set in rural areas. That was intentional because it was easier to develop the world from the more sedate places before diving into the more populated cities such as Muddy Reflections or Clutch. I wanted to work out some of the interplay of resonance, magic, and the way people grow up before throwing thousands into the mix.

Read the chapter at https://fedran.com/sand-and-bone/chapter-11/. All of my books are free downloads at https://fedran.com/. If you like what you read, please consider becoming a patrons, reviewing, or even talking about my book on social networks. Any little bit helps me get the next book out.

Random musings

2009-08-20T05:00:00Z

Weight Loss (7.8 of 14.7 kg)

Commission (15,238 of 15,000 words)

Steps (18,297 of 500,000)

Enjoyed a pretty good day, despite being the first day back to work. The biggest thing was the start of the walking program. I didn't really push it in the first two days, but I managed to get 12,925 steps which is about 6 miles. I also lost 0.4 kg at GenCon. I could have sworn I gained weight since I was off my feet so much, but apparently I actually kept my eating under control.

On the way back from GenCon, I got a chance to talk about Ranger Tom. He is partially why I added furries in my steampunk world, but he also had some good ideas on social and geological constructs for my world. I decided on a super-continent for the main world, mainly because I like the idea and it would force most of civilization to the edges of the continent. That also makes the center regions mostly deserts and tundra, perfect for a former slave race. We got to talk about the idea of furries being treated as "less than intelligent" and the implications of them suddenly given a homeland they don't want but it is the only "home" they actually have.

Yeah, I like misery in characters and in settings. Besides, if you don't have conflict, then why will people have adventures. I also don't care for perfect worlds, unless they are being broken. Probably why I liked Villains by Necessity so much as a book.

I also realized my world is too structured. My first fantasy world was pretty much a clock, which fit my ideas at the time. 10 months, 10 day weeks, 10 "hour" days, etc. This one, I wanted a lot messier which doesn't fit well with my need to have that regularity. However, when thinking about the cosmology of the teenagers from Flight of the Scions and with Mudd Fourier's traits, I realized it was too rigid. I needed less structure. While the number of people who have read Muddy Reflections can be counted on one hand, it is still one of those initial novels that sets the scene for my world so I need to integrate that with Scions and the talents in that book. In a non-neat way.

These thoughts came from talking with fightertype about her fantasy world. I find it too restrictive with too many absolutes. "This can never happen." Sooner or later, you go from "this can never happen" to "okay, this once" like when White Wolf had their werewolf/vampire crossbreeds. Also, when I get annoyed with something, I usually look inside to see why. One of my philosophies is that you don't like what most resembles yourself. So, if you find yourself getting annoyed by other's absolutes, look for that same thing in you.

World Building!

2008-06-09T05:00:00Z

This weekend was somewhat productive, baring 92% of Saturday where I did nothing but chat for 12 hours. Just relaxed, though a lot of work since it was world creation of a different sort. I haven't done it for a while, but I managed to get one entire page of ideas out in the entire day.

I made up for it on Sunday by cleaning the apartment, making proper meals, watching a movie, wiring up some speakers, finishing my homework (though with complaints), doing an update to Running Bomb (got a good review of it this morning), installed a new Wiki software, and basically started writing out Wikipedia-inspired articles for my fantasy world.

There isn't that much there right now, mainly because I have all these ideas in my head or things I wrote for Muddy Reflections and Wind, Bear, and Moon. I'm rapidly heading toward renaming that to Flight of the Scions which is also helping me framework this new introduction very nicely. And is helping me work on making the characters more interesting. The conflict, it feeds my soul...

*cough* Well, I started working on a small part of the world, the Isle of Vo which is where Dyfan is from. It is easy because it is a relatively isolated place that uses its own view of magic, language, and history. It is also a parasitic island which makes it easier for me to wrap my mind around it and get used to writing up the articles. Though, it did change Dyfan around more than I originally planned.

You know how characters have a tendency to be similar? For example, I am a highly tolerant person with relatively view biases. So, my characters share the same. When writing up Vo, I realized that Dyfan could be so much more unique and still fit with the story. The language I wrote up, Volis gave me that idea. Instead of him being "Dyfan Selcribe", it fit better with "dyfan et gison" and built up his entire backstory at the same time. Even started learning IPA while working on Volis, mainly so I had something that could be pronounced and has a proper grammar. And a writing system.

Because I'm enjoying creating it.

I also started writing up the Crystal Compass which is the modern view of magic in that world. I developed it pretty heavily in Muddy Reflections and it ties into the sacrifice for power that is so integral to my stories. Just a first draft out there, but it also isn't the "one true rules" of the world. I know how magic works internally, but I'm planning on never writing it up exactly. Just people's imperfect understanding of the laws of magic. Ditto for science.

Last night, while watching a proper movie instead of writing, I also started on the map of Fedora again. I have like six of them, but I packed away most of them for this move, so just decided to redo it. This time, the ideas of plate tectonics and super continents managed to slither into my brain (damn you, Wikipedia!) so I'm building them up to hopefully look a bit more realistic. And, I always had the idea of Fedora being a Pangaea type of place, so I'm hoping it will improve things.

And, since I'm that far back, I decided to create a map of the continent, then do a rough 10,000 year history. Nothing major, just taking the map, then showing the various countries and nations as they move and conquer and disappear in 1,000 year increments (probably down to 100 year in the last millennium and 10 year increments for the last century). That way, I could start mapping out the influences of the various nations and also where there would be ruins (cities are frequently built on older cities). It would also give me a neat way of having languages change over time, which would let me start with a base language (like Latin), then split it apart over the centuries into different ones (French, Spanish). Hopefully, that will give me similar languages but different enough that it feels more like a living world.

Its a fair amount of work, but it feels right. I like having foundations for my writing and I want a world that doesn't feel like I just threw together a bunch of names for areas, then just created worlds. Well, I did that, but it feels hollow to me. I'm not planning on putting said languages into FS (or WBM) but the fact they are there helps name the countries and characters and puts a bit of history into it. Well, maybe a bit of Volis, because its pretty and it would be a homage to Tolkien putting Tengwar into his books.

Now, you'll probably notice that I actually put up my world up on a public website. Yeah, I did that on purpose. It is Creative Commons by-nc-sa licensed and, frankly, I think public development is in many ways just as enjoyable as the world itself. Plus, judging from years of past experience, maybe 1 in a 1,000 people will read it and, if I'm lucky, I'll get three comments on it. So, it will stay public and hopefully someone will enjoy reading about what happens behind the scenes of my (unpublished) novels and ("published") stories.

Long-Winded Question for WBM

2008-02-04T06:00:00Z

Been thinking about my world Fedora, which is where Wind, Bear, and Moon and Muddy Reflections are both set in. I haven't given up on either story and occasionally I ask for someone to read it. In one of the many requests to read in my search to make it a great story, someone asked me the strangest question.

"Would you consider finding a new name?"

...

Wow, I never thought about that. I pressed for details and he mentioned that the title didn't really excite him. Actually, it was rather bland. Okay, fair enough and probably a valid point. It also got me thinking about the nature of my setting and everything else. It is obvious that WBM isn't really jumping out for the editors and agents, so obviously I need to change something.

My current plan is actually to change the world a bit more. I was aiming for the early Industrial age, with magic, which is pretty much dead set in the steampunk genre. In specific, it isn't too far off from Fullmetal Alchemist in flavor, so I'm pretty happy with the general thing. However, I'm still tied rather tightly in the fantasy setting, so I think this next rewrite is going to change a bit more. In specific, get a train in there. I love trains. And probably change the clay monkey around. And it would work perfectly with the setting. Also, a bit more of a class different between Welf and Sonia's position.

I create interesting characters. In my short stories, I feel that people really like my characters in a short period of time. However, it doesn't feel like I'm doing that with my novel characters. They don't really jump up as interesting and this bothers me. Some of it is my writing style has changed slightly, partially because of some beliefs, and I think I need to stop changing them. I love descriptions, lovely descriptions and settings. I stopped doing them, for example in Case of the Morning Zombies, because it felt like I was going too much. But, I realize I don't like it. So, I need to set the groundwork and make those characters interesting again.

I'm going to come up with a non-numerical calendar for the world and probably get rid of the "bells" for taking count of time. Probably call it hours, but I only want to have 20 hour days (slightly longer hours though), so not sure what to call them.

And, I think the final one, which wasn't the point when I first wrote WBM: death. People die in that book and I'm not sure if that is a Young Adult theme or no. Something to consider and look over.

Obviously, I'm getting into writing again. I really want WBM to succeed, mainly because I think it is a great set of stories.

But, that finally leads into the question brought up: what would be a good name for WBM if I change it? Originally, I intend for this to be a short series of books (which I list the working titles below), but if it needs to change, what would be a good name?

Wind, Bear, and Moon
Factor of Wind
The Baron's Son
I, Fjarnit
Storm, Dragon, and Stars

The ones I've thought about:

Off the Track: The crux of the adventure happens when they end up leaving the train (in the rewrite)
Best of Intentions
A Question of Intentions
Center of Attentions
Steam Trials

Just a bit of food for my thoughts.

Boiling Pots

2008-02-03T06:00:00Z

Woke up yesterday thinking about Itrifore, Fedora, both of my unpublished novels, and everything else in the world. Stress is a really crappy thing, you know?

I need to work on some resumes, mainly to create variants that won't scare the hell out of people seeing exactly how many different things I've done in my life. It's a lot, I've been a very busy beaver these last twenty years. Tomorrow, I should have a pair of development resumes (C# and web in general). And then to poke the recruiters.

This is coupled with work itself. My boss is demanding I work overtime to get something done. This is not something I'm looking forward to. One, because I'm afraid I'll burn out with 2-3 weeks of 60-80 hour work weeks to get something done. And it is the project that I feel is a complete waste of money for the last three years and killing everyone to get it done in three weeks won't change that fact. It's important to her, and from my impression, it is more important than anything else in the world right now, including paying her employees on time.

As she announced to the company:

"If you want to get paid on time, you are in the wrong company."

But, I have college to work on and I won't have the energy or time to write my papers if I'm working every damn moment of the night.

I'm getting a hankering to write again. Ponies Among Us isn't going to make it. If I'm looking and 2-3 more weeks of overtime, which means I have no creativity left to write or program, I lost any and all chance to actually complete the game on time.

This. Royally. Sucks.

Yeah, I might have no made it, but I would be willing to do overtime to try getting it at least minimally working. This is what happened last year, maybe I'm not ready to make a game yet. Well, I've been thinking about CuteGod as well. I'm going to try really hard not to get any new projects and just work on things for a while. Give up on 4E6, I mean really give up the hope and just work on little things to get them done.

I'm not going to drop Ponies though. I love the idea too much. I'll just let it get in the boiling pot of ideas and interests. That is related to Itrifore. I like the HERO system and the more I use it, the more comfortable I'm with it. And I really want to write up Fightertype world in the system; if only to make her play the game again.

This is a year of transition for me. I'm planning on it. I'm planning on quitting my job and finding a new one in efforts to be happier with my bankroll and myself. I don't want to be upset at my boss, I don't want to be this personally involved with the company and be so utterly helpless at the same time.

Looking Back and Forward from 2007 to 2008

2007-12-29T06:00:00Z

Hard to believe I've been blogging for two years now. I started this journal about a month after my other, in-character one. Originally, it was just there to comment on friends, but I started posting one or two things on occasion. Now, as my brother said, "I'm a pretty good blogger." Or at least I do it fairly consistently and I've gotten a few compliments on letting everyone in on the trials and joys of my life.

This year is probably the year I started to really blogging on two of my major themes of life: writing and programming. I will, of course, blame the the other Dylan for getting me into writing about writing. After meeting with him at GenCon 2006, it really pushed me to finally take that step toward trying to be a "real" writer again instead of just hanging my hat on my one relatively minor success. I've been a lot of really cool writers in this last year and I'm pretty thankful for making that step. Now, I just have to follow their footsteps and get published again. On the programming/gaming side, I haven't really done much with networking, but I blog about it almost as much as my writing. Even if I occasionally give "too technical" details as more than one said. Oh well, just who I am.

The end of the year is the time when I look at my major projects for the year. I plan them ahead of time, sometimes even figure out when I'll work on it, but mainly it is a framework for my personal projects throughout the year. I also like to remember what I have succeeded at.

Probably the largest accomplishment this year is that I wrote a game. After my father taught me to program at the age of six, I've been trying to finish a computer game since. At the age of thirty-two, I actually got close to succeeding at that goal with CuteGod. Yeah, someone else came up with the design document and the graphics, but I actually sat down and started to write it. And I got it to a playable state. For something I've been struggling with for over twenty-six years, I think that is a major thing.

Following up, I'd have to say My Father's Bike and Case of the Morning Zombies. I manages to get a first draft on two novels this year, one that has had major significance in my life already even though it never got published and the other because I wrote it for NaNoWriMo.

Everything else was kind of minor compared to those: friends, games, and novels. In this next year, I have quite a few plans and it is going to be a very rough and packed year:

The Master Plan: This is the year where Fluffy and I finally get into the end of the plan. In the following year, I'm going to try finding a job in Iowa, move to Iowa, and start to have a family. This is the part that has terrified me for the last five years and it is finally time for it to happen.
College: I start college for my Masters in five days. Eight classes and eight 30+ page essays before I get it. Then the joys of deciding if I want to keep on going to finish up a doctorate, which I'm also considering.
Ponies Among Us: This game is due by April 2 and I'm hitting the struggle point. Only three more full months of working on it and I'm nowhere near the completion point or even the midway point for that project. Related to that is Kitteh Braik which is a proof-of-concept game that I'm suppose to have done by the end of January or thereabouts.
My Father's Bike: At this point, I think my dad knows that this book exists, but I don't think he knows what's really in it. I don't keep secrets in general, but I want to give it to him for his birthday in January 2009. So, I have to find a new way of organizing it and finally finish it and get it bound for him.
Case of the Morning Zombies: I want this story to succeed, so I need to edit it and clean it up. That way, I can start the submission grinder on it and hope that this one will also succeed.
Muddy Reflections and Wind, Bear, and Moon: I got some really good feedback on both of these novels, but I've been sitting on them. So, in the next couple of months, I need to polish them off and get them back out.
Somewhere in the middle of all this writing, I plan on writing another novel of course. It's initials are QoF, and the first draft is already done, but I want to polish it up and get it out. This is for my other byline.
Stories: I want to write 24 short stories this year. Half for each byline. This is including commissions, but I want to write six to publish directly on http://brokentypewriterpress.com/ and the other six for submissions. It was a really nice feeling to get Thomas the Baker published and I want to do it again.

And that is my goals this year. Some of them are huge, like the Master Plan, while others are relatively minor, but its going to be a very busy year for me. And it doesn't even talk about my Debian work or the games I run. It also doesn't talk about my web comic. I'm not sure how I'm going to juggle all of this, but at least I have a goal.

Obviously, I'm not planning on putting a progress bar for each one on my postings. That would be silly and they wouldn't change nearly enough, but I want to figure out something to poke me every time I post that I need to keep moving forward.

Character Builder (91%)
World Builder (2%)
Kitteh Braik (7%)
Case of the Morning Zombies (Edit #1, 0 of 37 chapters)

NaNoWriMo observations

2007-11-12T06:00:00Z

No writing today, but I figured I'd mention some of the struggles and observations I have made with NaNoWriMo. The first is pretty obvious, speed writing 25k words doesn't mean quality. I'm struggling over the contents of the story, despite getting the broad brush strokes of the story. There isn't the little refinements I normally add in. It is to be expected, but it becomes painfully obvious when I browse through the older stuff to put in a reference I need in a later chapter.

I have doubts about Case of the Morning Zombies. Doubts about the story working out and how I'm framing it. My novels start slow, one of those things I think cause trouble with my reader. I'm also not sure about the main character. Do I hide the fact he's the zombie for the first third of the book? Not sure about lying to the reader, if you know what I mean. The 25k word point is the beginning of the meat part of the story. Zombies are shown, people get their brains eaten, and a mystery is afoot. Somehow, I got a mystery into this story and I wasn't originally planning on that. Telepathy with the eaten brains was also not planned, but it made a slightly better story so far.

Fluffy read it and... didn't have really positive comments about it. Too many holes, but I needed a bit of a pick-me-up (which I didn't exactly get). Doesn't mean I'll stop, but it makes it harder to keep up a good rate when it isn't one of those amazing, wonderful, cannot-put-down books.

Speaking of slightly depressing reviews, I got my feedback from scienceprincess. Again, it wasn't really a positive review. I mean, she had good things to say about it, but "if I bought it, I wouldn't feel that I wasted my time or money" isn't exactly the type of review I hoped for. But, it is honest and frankly, I want honesty. I've been trying to get Wind, Bear, and Moon published for almost two years now (January). Do I give it more time, or do I self-published and work on another novel? Or do I keep trying and write another novel (one a year) and hope that it pans out? In some ways, self-publishing is an end of life (EOL) thing for me. Once I self publish, I can't get it really published by another publisher.

Not really sure. Parts of me worry that I'm putting too much effort into WBM and parts of me tell me I have a chance, just as I do with Muddy Reflections.

Thoughts to think about, I guess.

Case of the Morning Zombies (NaNoWriMo, 25,160 of 75,000 words)

Editing Code and Editing Novels

2007-10-19T05:00:00Z

I got to thinking about editing, mainly because of some conversations. Lately, I haven't been writing much, mainly because I have a packed schedule for the next three months and writing isn't for another two weeks. Mostly, I've been obsessing about CuteGod and getting it done before November 1st. Writing problems is like writing novels. The difference is that it is, in a way, more compact but more complicated. In a story or novel, you know how it ends, in a program, you have to plan for all the possibilities. You have to test data and, in most cases, let people do their own thing. In a way, running RPG games is the mid-point of writing and programming, at least for me. :)

A good example is CuteGod. I've been working on it for a few months, call it two, but if you look at the lines of code (LOC), it doesn't look like much. Yeah, a LOC is like a sentence in a story, but the language is richer in many ways.

MfGames.Sprite3: 8,515 LOC
MfGames Libraries: 13,868 LOC
BooGame: 5,529 LOC
Total: 27,912 LOC

Can you guess which library I've been working on for a few years? Put together, this pretty much comes up to the same amount of work as a novel. Now, I don't use everything for CuteGod, but a lot of the same things with editing are there. When I start, the code is clean and organized, I have everything thrown into its perfectly little bit, encapsulated like a proper object-oriented (OO) code should be. As I get further though, I start to throw in patches and fixes. Like adding descriptions or plot lines that weren't planned from the beginning, the patches start to wind their way into the program and soon I have layers on layers of code that is rather fragile. One change to the underlying system and it can bring things crumbling down. For example, in Sprite3, I have a small library to handle the blocks being dropped. They work for almost everything, except the bugs I wanted to add to CuteGod. Vibrating blocks simply didn't work with the pseudo-physics layer. I know how to fix it, but to do so would require me to rip out the entire library and rebuild the block management.

Mr. Birtolo came back with his opinions of Muddy Reflections a week or so ago and I've been mulling over them. Some of them are pretty simple, clean up the language, maybe rebuild the calendar to be less regular and a bit more... fantasy. Others are a bit more complicated. I write in layers, pretty much have for the last five years. At the bottom level, there are the nice clean plots of everyone involved. Everyone has their story, motivations, and personalities. Held alone, like a brand new source file, they are fairly simple. Its when they interact and start to mix that you get these little layers of plot. They are patches, fixes, in the individual plot lines as everyone tries to go back to their goals in life, but those patches are what creates the story. They weave into the tale creating the interaction and conflict that stories need. At the top, it ends up being a complicated mess because of those interactions. However, changing a character's motivation or purpose creates this ripple where you have to fix everything they impact and sometimes you have to rip out large hunks to make it work. I have three of those from Dylan's review. They are three important ones, ones that help fuel the story, but if I want to succeed I have to fix it.

In the case of CuteGod, I just took out the bugs. They were important to the story of the game and I can always fix it later. For Muddy Reflections, I decided to keep all three points in, but it means I have to debug my code and review almost everything to make sure they fit a bit smoother into the story. To me, there isn't much difference in writing programs or writing stories. There also isn't much difference in the ways you have to edit it, how you figure out what to cut and what to change. Sometimes you hate how it looks or sounds and go back and rewrite an entire chapter. I do the same with code, when I realize I did something really badly and it doesn't fit. Last night, I worked on rewriting the prayer complete, chest bonuses, and new stage screens because they really needed to be cleaned up. Too many patches.

Oh, since it is polite, the LOC program I use requests that I mention that it was generated using David A. Wheeler's 'SLOCCount'.

Summer Biking: (370.2 of 400.0 km)

Randomly Cool Things

2007-09-22T05:00:00Z

On occasion, I find randomly cool things on the internet and in life. One of them was just a thank you from Fightertype's mother. I helped her move furniture, a friend asked therefore I did. As a thank you, she gave me a book on medical gynecology. Now, before you say "WTF?" or its spelled out version, I love learning things and it is amazing what you can learn from a book that covers everything from exams to directions on how to perform surgeries. Muddy Reflections, and the short story that started it, Murder on Piscrest, were written when a coworker gave me three books on death scene investigation. No, I don't have any plans of writing about a gynecologist who moonlights as a detective, but it is still neat reading about the various procedures, clinical descriptions, and well, things I didn't know.

The other neat thing I saw was an oil-cooled computer. I haven't gotten into the casemoding or overclocking computers. While I'd be pretty reasonable at the casemod thing, it still hasn't really appealed to me (just like I think I'd be kick-ass at Second Life, but won't touch it). But, I saw this image of a fishtank filled with mineral oil and thought, "damn, that's cool."

Other than that, struggling to finish the first draft of this commission and getting ready to run a Changeling-inspired game but ran in the Hero System. Most of the players don't care about the system, as long as they have fun. I want to have fun, plus I like having tons of options. Lot of work, running two games, but I'm still looking forward to it.

Woke up dreaming about computer games. Well, writing computers game, partially for the 4E6 contest and other reasons. I really should finish CuteGod before I do this, but my time is rapidly running out with the ton of other projects I have on my boat. I really need to finish some projects. At least one of them just got off the fire, I have to wait about 2.5 months until the next step continues.

I really need to send out Muddy Reflections and Wind, Bear, and Moon out again.

Summer Biking: (260.7 of 400.0 km)
Change of Honor (1 of 3 rounds)
Another Werewolf's Tail (2 of 3 rounds)
Commissioned Work (2,105 of 5,000 words)

Um...

2007-08-31T05:00:00Z

I was kind of waiting for this, and yet dreading it at the same time. I checked my mailbox today and found a nice big envelope from Open Book Press. Since they already rejected Muddy Reflections, I was wondering if they rejected my second query letter and not the submission. The envelope was my submission, all 19 pages of Courier-goodness with the same rejection letter as before.

For some reason, my heart said that the first letter wasn't for the submission itself. And this is the case where they actually looked at it and rejected it. They also sent back the SASE untouched, do you not send a SASE when they ask for a sample part?

I eagerly paged through the submission themselves. Maybe I'd get some feedback on the first three chapters, being that I was told to make it double spaced and bind it in a format to make it easy to check.

Nope.

The only thing inside was a single post-it note that said "good". This confuses me. I mean, I know its a rejection and two for the price of one submission, but the "good" leaves me with just a shard of hope that maybe they didn't mean to reject me. Yeah, a dream, but it is still there.

Regardless, someone there thought Muddy was good. So, that gives me hope that I still have a chance to publish it. I should send out another series of query letters, but maybe next week; I'm hoping to get some feedback from someone on the novel in the next couple of weeks and see what changes I need to make.

Until then, just keep writing!

Black Holes of Writing

2007-08-24T05:00:00Z

CuteGod Development: (44 / 172 requirements)
Wind, Bear, and Moon Proposal
Summer Biking: (203.5 / 400.0 km)

You ever get the impression that what you do or what you write basically is falling into the Pit of Oblivion instead of being read, appreciated, and inspiring someone to say "damn, that's cool" or "I see a problem..."?

I know that that is the nature of the Internet, but I keep getting this feeling that I'm doing something wrong. A good example, I did Glorious Saber #004 two weeks ago. On the The Freedom Stone forum, I posted it. After two weeks and sixty views, no comments. The last two stories I wrote were the same way, 80 views, no comments. On the other hand, others get comments every 20 or so views, which is what I consider a popular post. So, there is something different about my stuff and theirs. There is skill and talent, of course, but I don't get a "you did this wrong" type of stuff. That's happened to me a lot. I get comments that I'm a great writer (and apparently have a reputation in some non-marketable fields) but then the comments just... stop. No more comments, no more complaints. There is something about my writing that just inspires people not to respond. And this is in comparison to hundreds of other postings in the same forum.

A good example is the Freedom Stone forum. I've posted about ten stories there. I've gotten comments about chat that I'm in the top ten writers on the forum, yet no comments. People say they love my writing, it is truly wonderful, but then no one actually tells me in a public manner, just private messages and chat. The absolutely same thing happens for the last five forums I've moved to. Lots of stories get posted that get comments up the wazoo, but I get only feedback in private never public.

So, I have to try figuring it out why the hard way. Kind of like my novels. Both Wind, Bear, and Moon and Muddy Reflections have gotten negative pointers (i.e. things that I did wrong and the best type of feedback for me at this point) from scienceprinces and eyezofwolf respectively. Beyond that, neither story has ever gotten constructive criticism. In years. My rejections are, "lovely story, not our (thing|genre|market|style)" but never anything specific. Mr. Helfers (a publisher I met at GenCon), when asked, basically said WBM was a good story but they don't do Young Adult. Ditto with Muddy Reflections. Fair enough, but doesn't point out what I need to improve it. I've send them out to dozens of friends, family, and complete strangers. None of them came back with anything other than love and affection.

So, what scienceprincess said made a lot of sense. And she is absolutely right about what she mentioned. Kind of frustrating since I feel that I should have figured it out before, or that I haven't adjusted for when I went through those same experiences (rejection of parents, the emotional states, struggling with boyfriend/girlfriend) was much earlier than what her students went through. I wrote based on my life.

I also never realized that the sentence structure had something to do with it. But, what she mentioned before made a lot of sense. I have a very formal style of writing and occasionally use archaic constructs (like myrid of.. just to annoy fightertype). When I got my first novel edited (we don't talk about this one), the editor said I had a "fascinating voice that was unusual." I suspect that comment, though vague, is probably related to what scienceprincess said, just she stated it in terms that I understand. The fact she couldn't get into the first forty pages of WBM also points out that I need to change something.

But, given that people can't tell me what I've done wrong, it really points out that I have to figure it out. I have to tear apart my writing and try to figure out what is not interesting, while looking from the inside of the bubble. One of the hardest things in the world to do, in my opinion, since the worse judge of a person is themselves.

I think that is why I offered reviews for the authors at GenCon (and did them for Kaywall and eyezofwolf). I am giving them something that I struggle for myself. Yeah, it isn't perfect, but I want that honesty, I want to know what I'm doing wrong since I can't see it by myself. Baring getting it myself, I feel that I should offer it to others since I'm giving what I want myself.

In other news, I lost all the food in the refrigerator but didn't lose the refrigerator itself. It recovered after eight hours of thawing. The entire back end was a solid block of ice instead of healthy hoarfrost. I also finished Glorious Saber #005 last night.

Back from GenCon

2007-08-20T05:00:00Z

CuteGod Development: (44 / 172 requirements)
Wind, Bear, and Moon Proposal
Summer Biking: (203.5 / 400.0 km)

Apparently, unlike some of you, I don't use my computer during my vacations or during GenCon. :) So, after six days of enjoying myself, I'm finally back from another wonderful trip. I left on Wednesday morning and came back a few hours ago, here on Monday. This was the first time I've ever run a game at GenCon (Exalted of course) and I had some really cool news from the end of it.

Actually, the first one was wandering over to the White Wolf booth and talking to a random person who ended up being one of the Exalted developers. I did the first thing that came to mind and thanked him for creating a great game. We got to chatting and apparently he knew of my comic (whee), my online map (squee), and actually heard of me (bouncebouncybounce). I kept running into him the next three times I went to the booth, mainly to pick up Monte Cook's World of Darkness, Sidereals, Changeling, and something else. If anything else, the ego boost along floated me along through the trip.

Fluffy had a great time, though she encountered something new at GenCon: the Impossibly Cute Twenty-Something Gamer Boy (ICTSGB). In packs, hordes. One of them was playing her husband in a LARP and she got flustered. And she kept talking about them, but I can't disagree. There were a lot of good-looking twenty-somethings in there, including a set that wanted to join my game but it was in the last hour. I'm including the ICTSGG also, though I appreciate both sets.

Speaking of looking good, I got a chance to chat with The Original Dylan. He wasn't classified in the ICTSGB group (sorry), but he was placed in the Improbably Cute group by a few members of my group. :) Good thing I don't seem to be capable of being jealous, otherwise I could have been. Looking forward to seeing his next novel, plus he liked my idea for Case of the Morning Zombies (more squee). Dylan also told me some things about Muddy Reflections that I need to work on, and I'm really anxiously waiting for his and scienceprincess' reviews of my novels so I can try improving my writing and finally get published properly.

I also got to chat with Charles Embrey Jr. who wrote the Lost Keep of Kaywall. Given the fact I didn't write what I felt was the most positive review, apparently he was really appreciative that I did and apparently was telling people about my review of his book. I was completely and utterly surprised about that, mainly because it was an honest review (as I want others to give me) and I would have loved it, I was surprised he did. He told me about the sequel, which actually sounded like a good story (and I'll be picking it up as soon as I can). So, it was really nice to find out that he didn't hate me and actually appreciated what I did.

I did end up doing the rest of the Author's Alley. I'm apparently a very chatty person and everyone seemed to enjoy talking to me. I asked them if they minded if I read the book and did a review like I did for Dylan's and Charles' book and everyone thought it was a grand idea. I mean, I'm going to read them anyways. So, I've added the following to my reading stack:

Sails and Sorcery edited by W. H. Horner
Elfhunter by C. S. Marks
Sharamitaro by Jonathan M. Rudder
Bash Down the Door and Slice Open the Bad Guy edited by W. H. Horner
Shadow Over Shandahar by T. R. Chowdhury and T. M. Crim
A Prisoner's Welcome by Shane Moore
Into the Reach by Alana Abbott

So, I'm going to be reading for a while. Which is okay. With the Wizard call for submissions September 1-Jan something, I'm going to write Morning Zombies for NaNoWriMo and submit that. So, I got a 1.5 months to working on polishing up my Exalted stuff, cleaning up some rules, finishing CuteGod and charm cards before going at Zombies. So, my next three months are nicely planned.

Speaking of updating rules, I talked to someone at WizKids about my house rules for using their Pirates minatures with Exalted and they loved it. They even gave me their business card to send them an email about it.

I appear to have lost the card.

I tore apart the hotel room three times trying to find it. So, this is a very important lesson. When an industry insider gives you a card, treat it as treasure? k? Like platinum, not copper.

In the lessons arena, I learned a bunch about how to run a con game. And how to run Exalted in a con. First one: CHARM CARDS! I must get my charm cards cleaned up because I lost an hour of my four hour game just getting everyone up to speed. Also, 1-2 battles is pretty much the max for mass combat and never, ever give the players too many options. On the other hand, it was a 3 hour planning session that everyone liked. The second one was must better planned, but only one person showed up. Another lesson: don't run a game during a massive party at a con, no one shows up.

Overall, I had a wonderful time. Got a lot of stuff to work on in the next, lots of reading and saving up money (blew a bit more than I wanted to), and basically relaxing for a few months.

Moving Forward

2007-07-19T05:00:00Z

CuteGod Development: (44 / 172 requirements)
Wind, Bear, and Moon Proposal
Summer Biking: (194.4 / 400.0 km)

When going back to the beginning,
After almost reaching to the end,
One must remember to look back
And remember exactly how far they got
Instead of focusing on
What they almost made
Or what they nearly reached.

Interestingly, this last rejection really didn't bother me that much. I mean, yes I wasn't the happiest in the world, but for a form letter (Dear Creator:) it just "was." Though, when I got home, I really didn't have the energy to do much, so I just worked on cleaning up my Debian packages and finished a short story that has been hanging over me for a while. I'll be submitting it today (email submissions). I'll also be looking for a new publisher for Muddy Reflections, I think I have two more on my short list then I'll have to start doing the Writers Market thing again. Tonight, I'll either write or start outlining Peg and Sue are Lost in Space (title changes daily) and/or Case of the Morning Zombies.

Oh, last night, I made the entire trip from work without getting off, including the evil hill. This makes only the second time I've actually made it and I really need to get my bike into the shop since it is really hard without being able to use the hill-climbing gear.

Rejection for Muddy Reflections

2007-07-18T05:00:00Z

CuteGod Development: (44 / 172 requirements)
Wind, Bear, and Moon Proposal
Summer Biking: (183.8 / 400.0 km)

Got a rejection letter for Muddy Reflections today. Nice paragraph of encouragements, but ultimately, it is still a rejection.

Courier

2007-06-28T05:00:00Z

My Father's Bike: (28,567 / 40,000 words)
Wind, Bear, and Moon Proposal: (0 / 26 weeks)
Muddy Reflections Reading: (0 / 26 weeks)
Summer Biking: (91.2 / 400 km)

There is something about holding a stack of paper and seeing Courier font across the entire page. Twelve point font and one inch margins. In a way, it makes me smile because it is the picture of doing something. More than anything else when it comes to writing is the typewriter-style font filling the page. Clean, white, and rather bland, but it represents everything I see in myself when it comes to writing. I normally write with the font, though I occasionally go for the proportional serifs, like Garamond, or more exotic fonts, but Courier, Courier is the font that I am a writer in.

Today, I got my package ready for Open Book Press and sent it out. Since Muddy Reflections is over 50,000 words, I sent them only three chapters, which came out to a depressing nineteen pages. I'd love to have sent out 50,000 words worth of chapters, that's nearly half the book, but when it comes to directions, I obey them usually to the letter. A quick visit to the post office and $1.38 later, it is out on its way. Now, the wait. The horrid wait of "months" until I get a response. On one side, I truly hope that they will love it and I will get another contract, like I did for my first book. In the other hand, I'm worried it will just end up another rejection. Once again, my writing is under the spotlight and I worry about coming up wanting. I also know that most of this worry is self-inflicted and entirely my fault. :) Remember, boys and girls, knowing about a problem doesn't mean you are immune to it.

In other sides of my world, I worked on Sprite3 last night. I got 250 bouncing sprites without killing my CPU and it is beginning to look like a real library now. I'm hoping to get mouse rollovers, clicking, and drag-and-drop done tonight. That will leave me 1-2 days to write the Planet Cute layout engine with just enough time to work on the CuteGod game itself next week.

I'm also trying a new progress bar.

Open Book Press and Bad Timing

2007-06-22T05:00:00Z

Â» My Father's Bike: 0.570 (22,814 / 40,000 words)
Â» Wind, Bear, and Moon Query: 0.000 (0 / 26 weeks)
Â» Summer Biking: 0.184 (73.4 / 400 km)

I have the timing of a finely tuned curse and the damned luck that wins a game, but you end up leaving the field with a broken leg. Okay, not quite that serious, but pretty close to it. Yesterday, I sent out my proposal submission to Mirrorstone and a letter to Open Book Press to say that I miscalculated postage and sent them a new SASE with the proper postage. It was embarassing, but I figured what could be worse?

I should have learned, never, ever make that question.

So, this afternoon, when I stopped by my mailbox, I had only two letters. One of them was a SASE where someone added the $0.02 stamp to make it get through postage. Inside was a letter with the predictable header: Open Book Press.

Okay, I found something more embarassing. I mailed that apology a day before I got an answer.

I also got another different type of answer: if they are really nice and apparently when they want to read a few chapters of your novel, they'll put $0.02 stamp on it. Heh, it took me three times before I realized what they were asking. It was also a very nice and very precise request for submissions. Most of it is pretty easy, cover page between 65# and 110# solid color index stock. A title page. The only thing that threw me is a #5 brass brad with rounded head. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a #5 brass brad in this city? I went to four office places and found #1, #2, and two sets of #3. That is including Walmart and Office Max. Staples didn't have it either. So, I decided to be literal and order a set of them ($4 a box, with S/H $8 a box!) so I can follow all the directions.

So, apparently my query writing skills aren't as bad as I thought. As they said in the letter:

What it does mean is your query was professional and captured our interest.

I am happy. Very, very happy. And worth the $8 box of fasteners to follow directions. Plus, they prefer my favorite font: Courier.

The Last 24 Hours

2007-06-19T05:00:00Z

Â» My Father's Bike: 0.570 (22,814 / 40,000 words)
Â» Wind, Bear, and Moon Edited: 1.000 (4 / 4 weeks until 2007-06-15)
Â» Muddy Reflections Query: 0.333 (4 / 12 weeks until 2007-08-10)
Â» Summer Biking: 0.184 (73.4 / 400 km)

Another day without actual writing. Taking care of the tribble today since Fluffy is downtown babysitting. Hard work, since I usually lose myself during the day, but with Inigo, I have to pay attention every hour to let him out. Not that he actually wants to be let out, apparently. I was just told to let him out.

Since I decided I wanted to write a game to distract me from My Father's Bike, I had all these ideas. Then I found the CuteGod Prototyping Challenge which is actually a cute idea. This guy creates game art and gives it away for free (damn impressive). He also gave a prototype idea for using his tiles with a little minicontest. It actually looks like a reasonable thing to do in a couple of days (weeks in reality) and would be a nice little "I did this." I had a bit of trouble sleeping working on ideas for the game. I think I'll do it since 4E6 hasn't started yet. After gaming, of course. That will take precedence this weekend.

I'm getting back Wind, Bear, and Moon today. I'm also going to be creating the outlines for the next four books as part of my "series package" I'm going to be sending out as part of the proposal. I think I have a solid round of plots, well within my writing ability. The editor gave me a nice comment:

You did a super job.

I just hope it translates into publishers thinking the same thing. :) But, I think that submission is going out by Sunday and then I'll be chewing on Inigo's nails until I get a response. I'm also going to send out a letter to the Muddy Reflections query basically saying its a repeat query, but with proper postage. Since I figured I only have a small percentage change of getting published there (*pout*), it shouldn't affect it significantly. Or, at least I really hope they love it, sent me a response, and then I look like an idiot for asking for another response.

I also worked on the XSD for Exalted over on patternspider.net. It seems like I'm actually getting some good progress and I can only hope that what I'm producing is actually helpful.

Found an interesting, for-sale knitting pattern: Viking Hats for Babies. I know there are a couple knitters who read my blog, so I figured I'd mention it.

Postage SASE's

2007-06-14T05:00:00Z

Â» My Father's Bike: 0.570 (22,814 / 40,000 words)
Â» Wind, Bear, and Moon Edited: 0.750 (3 / 4 weeks until 2007-06-15)
Â» Muddy Reflections Query: 0.250 (9 / 12 weeks until 2007-08-10)
Â» Summer Biking: 0.184 (73.4 / 400 km)

As I was going home yesterday, I realized one stupid little thing. I only put a $0.39 cent stamp on my SASE for my last novel when I should have planned for the postage increase. Fluffy mentioned that I might never get it back. This has not made me really that happy since I think I need to send out a letter that says "sorry, I forgot the postage rate went up."

Forty-five steps forward, fifteen steps back

2007-05-09T05:00:00Z

Since I'm not feeling on top of things, it ended up being a head start night for Fluffy to go to sleep. That means I ended up still writing at 23:00 before heading to bed. It also means I am exhausted this morning, which wasn't helped by either the headache or the fact my boss is being somewhat of a bitch today because we go into production tomorrow.

But, in good news, I finished the rewrite of Wind, Bear, and Moon. Chapter 36 got split into two parts, so with the renumber I'm up to 45 chapters and 86k words. I don't remember the novel being that short, but according to the word count, its a short novel. Self-editing is one of those skills that I'm not the greatest at, but I also really hate. There is always that point where you realize you aren't giving the chapter the same effort as the first. For me, it was chapter 30. By amazing lucky, I don't think I'm happy with chapters 30-45. My test readers (all friends of course) say its fine, but I'm not not exactly happy with the flow of that section.

I also encountered a problem when I got rid of elves as part of the conversion of the old world to Fedora. Fedora doesn't have elves and apparently I used "elf" and "elven" to describe Dyfan a lot. I also had a good number of orcs, which also don't exist in Fedora. So, I had a lot of jumping around. Right now, a good number of the elf references went to Vo or Voman, since Dyfan's parents were from Vo. Well, his mother was. I'm not happy with the descriptions. I suspect that I won't write another novel where there are two male teenagers in the same chapter for three-quarters of the novel. Too hard to refer to them in interesting methods without getting repetitive. Plus, "tiny teenager" seems wrong though Dyfan is only a meter in height.

So, my plans for WBM. I'm going to probably ignore the novel until next week. It is my seventh wedding anniversary this weekend (May 13), so I suspect I won't be near a computer. That whole "quality time" thing which I enjoy. Next week, I'll do a brief edit run on chapters 30-45 again, maybe smooth out the rough parts and make sure the climax works out properly. Then, the week after, I'll ask fightertype's mother to edit it. She's an English professor and wants a side job of editing. And I have something to edit and a bit of money to pay her for it. As soon as I get it out, I'll send it to Mirrorstone and hold my breath or something.

» Wind, Bear, and Moon Rewrite: 1.0000 (45 / 45 chapters)
» Summer Biking: 0.104 (41.6 / 400 km)

Visiting the Past

2007-05-07T05:00:00Z

It's been a strange weekend. I talked to my grandmother for the first time in ten years. While there is going to be some rough points, it would be nice to see her again. This morning, I woke up thinking about my old high school, Prospect High School, which apparently also has a Wikipedia article.

High school was not a good time for me, that much could be say. If I was there in today's market, I would probably be sharing some of the spotlight as being a loner, prone to writing about violence, and generally speaking one of the children that Illinois seems to be watching with fear, more so after Virginia Tech. I wrote horror as a hobby, wore black, and really didn't socialize at all. Another way of saying it is that I really only had three peers as friends coming out of high school: Jenny, Kim, and Janice. For the 10 year reunion, I didn't know a single bloody person and really only went because Jenny might have been there. I've drifted away from all my friends in high school at this point.

On the other hand, I had more "friends" among the teaching staff. I was fairly well known in the Writing Works and I was really proud that they were one of the major influences that led me to write. I always hoped that I could get a novel finished, then come in and donate a couple copies to them, mainly because they were so influential in my writing. Looking at the staff, I don't remember most of the names except for two of them.

My hopes of making them proud seems to have faded away in the fourteen years that past. If I ever do get Wind, Bear, and Moon or Muddy Reflections written, I'll probably send a few copies, but my original hopes of wandering on in, saying "thank you for being a great teacher" has long since past with everyone going their separate ways.

I don't know, I might do it anyways.

I just woke up thinking about it. It seems like I'm in a period of reflection lately.

Fluffy and I also talked about the Master Plan. With everything going on, we are probably going to push back the land in Iowa and just save up to move there next year. Just a minor change, but still a scary prospect. I love Iowa, I like the people, but the change it represents scare me.

Other than that, I just finished ten chapters and played on fightertype's new PS3. So... pretty...

» Wind, Bear, and Moon Rewrite: 0.4318 (19 / 44 chapters)
» Summer Biking: 0.104 (41.6 / 400 km)

World Making

2007-05-02T05:00:00Z

Ah, one of the more enjoyable things and yet, is still just a small aspect of creating a fantasy world. I love world building, mainly because I love creating stories of countries, finding the rules of a world, and even seeing how everything interacts together. My efforts on the world building program (WME) have been related to that, mainly to make it easier to create a fantasy world and to show the relationships between the aspects of the world.

The basic program is pretty simple. This is Fedora, the world of Muddy Reflections and soon to be Wind, Bear, and Moon. It will also be the location of The Pirate's Engineer and Moonstalker's Freedom, another set of novels on my list of things to write but nowhere near actually writing. But, I plan long before I actually write, can't help it.

The first image is the basic elevation of the world. Brighter grays are higher, darker colors are deeper. In most cases, everything beyond 50% gray is water. I decided to go with a single large continent for most of the world, mainly because I happen to enjoy them and also because the water on the other side is going to be the Mist Islands, basically the no-man's ocean.

These two are the basic terrain. I wrote the WME to handle multiple levels of zoom, pretty much in line with Google maps API which goes from 0 (what you see on the left), so 2 (the right), clear down to 17 which would let me do a street-level map of a world. I'll be clear right now, I have no intent on doing a street level map at this point, but the program can handle it and I set it up so I could do the street level of say Sougan (Muddy Reflections) and let the computer fake the rest of the world until I get to it.

This is the part I couldn't figure out how to do. I used Gimp in this case to basically show you what I want the program to do but at the moment, I don't quite have it. In my program, it shows up as mountains of lego bricks instead. Basically, it takes the two sets of images above and creates a psuedo-3d map with shadows and the a nice appearance.

And, of course, I will eventually be able to adds a really nice and fancy vector map of the world. To create this, I used Inkscape from my terrain map, but you can see how it has a fair amount potential.

I love creating things. Tonight, I'm working setting up the countries and reconstructing my lost notes from MR, WBM, and also the other short stories I've written in this world.

3x8 rejection

2007-04-30T05:00:00Z

Got the SASE I was so anxiously waiting for in the mail today. It was, to say the least, probably the worse rejection letter I've ever had in my life. Bar none. A 3" by 8.5" strip of paper in a form letter. Basically, "I hate form letters but your query was so boring, that you get it." Okay, it was politer than that, but I've never had a rejection letter than wasn't signed before, or a full piece of paper. I'll move on to the next one, but frankly, this was rather depressing and frustrating, yet not entirely unpredicted. I know its a matter of time, time to find the proper agent or publisher who will give me a chance, but with hundreds of thousands of people out there, how can I get noticed? Besides keep trying; which is what I'm going to do anyways.

Bedknobs and Mountain Ranges

2007-04-29T05:00:00Z

Feel a bit better after the last post. Fluffy reminded me that the person who hated my novel wasn't exactly the best person in the world to get feedback. Still hurt, but its amazing how negative comments like that, even when you consider the source, still hurt. Other than that, I have chores to do today, some writing, and being annoyed with not figuring out relief rendering.

I'm on the tail end of being sick, which is wonderful. However, it means I still have those horrible nights of not being able to get comfortable or when your mind starts spinning. Yesterday, I woke up thinking about Fedora. And realizing that I'm spinning up to speed to finish Wind, Bear, and Moon. That means that my efforts to get a world map editor working properly needed to get finished and I needed to put a lot more information about the world on the wiki site so I had a better reference.

My first attempt to describe the Island Nation of Vo, which is referred to in both novels, didn't go so well. Wikipedia-style article writing is a much different beast than creative writing, but it used to be something I was good at. In this case, I need the reference since I want the world to be consistent from the get-go and the fact WBM has people from four different countries in it. And apparently I lost my notes with the map, notes, and countries. *sigh*)

The world editor is pretty good though. My attempts at relief generation... not so good, but it now handles arbitrary levels of zoom, and the ability to edit 1x1 and 3x3 sections of the map at a time on multiple levels. That way, I can do political maps, terrain maps, and everything else needed for a "basic" world editor program. And the output will smoothly go into a Google online map so things seem pretty useful right now.

This week is writing and world building. I got the first draft of my commission finished, need to look over it later today, but otherwise, I'm going to write a short story and try to get at least 5-6 articles into my Fedora wiki site. Last night, in my inability to sleep (I finally got to sleep at 06:18), I figured out all 10 Gates (a "mage" is someone who has activated at least one gate) and just need to write up those.

I like the idea of the gate, despite the fact it is a "neat" system. Basically, there are 10 major paths of power for a mage. While anyone can cast magic, like a trick they memorize, a mage is someone who has accesses to far more power, control, and ability. The gates are specific methods or way of doing it. The first gate (Gate of Awareness or Gate of Resonance) is the most common. Without it, you can't sense magic. Kind of like doing math problems when you only know if you got it right or not, not how they actually work together. Opening the gate effectively doubles your power and gives you the ability to see magic, but it inflicts resonance on you. That is what causes mages to be unable to work together easily, because they cause feedback in each other. So, a mage has to decide (in meta-story) if he will cast magic blindly and have no resonance, or suffer resonance for the ability more effectively weave energy. This is how you get talents (WBM) verses most mages (Mudd).

The other gates are sacrifice (a ban or oath), creativity (must cast magic through works of creativity), ritual (you must apply magic through science or set of rules), creation (without it, you can't truly create anything, but once you activate it, things constantly are created around you), destruction (everything always breaks down around you), harmony (you will be dragged to places where you must be), control (you gain obsessive levels of observation and are incapable of seeing the forest for the trees, but nearly ultimate control of power), force (everything is magnified with incredible power, but you lost the ability to fine-tune it), and faith (you will be forced to do things based on something else, Welf will eventually get this).

It isn't going to be an exhaustive list and there are lots of holes for "interesting" gates, but I figured it fit with a certain style of magic and looked like a good rough starting point for mages. More powerful mages have more gates activated (which is more of an epiphany than "I turn it on!") and once on, it is almost impossible to turn off. And having all 10 open at once basically will create a madman. Also, each "gate" has a level to it. There is a difference between a light resonance that barely irritates people and one that nauseates everyone nearby. Likewise, there are different "levels" of sacrifice, the more you surrender, the more power you gain.

In that idea, Mudd (from Muddy Reflections) has Resonance and Sacrifice and maybe Ritual. He would be heading toward Control of course. Sonja (WBM) would eventually have Creativity (her singing) while Dyfan has shown signs of Harmony and Sacrifice.

Still playing with the idea, but so far, I think it works for Fedora. If you can't tell, I like worlds with rules and laws of magic long before I get into the writing stages of things. Just like I like a good quality map before I get too far, mainly because I pull people from all directions.

Well, time to do some chores, then back to writing. This is going to be a good week.

Mud and critical feedback

2007-04-27T05:00:00Z

This ended up being longer than I planned. It was suppose to be about the troubles of finding a good critique on a novel and pulling posts out of the ground using naught but my strength (and physics). But, the first bit got a tad long so I'm throwing this behind a lj-cut.

Even though I was feeling less than springy today, I had to get a small segment of a fence removed from my front yard. Not too impressive, it was only four posts and a couple crossbars, but the city gave me a violation in February and told me I had until Monday to fix it. The "correct" way to fix it was to repair and repaint it, but Fluffy and I didn't want the fence anyways, so our correct was the pull it out. This lead to me pulling a two meter post out straight up. Ignoring the mud, water, and the hole I made, it still felt pretty good, like I was stronger than I remember myself being.

That isn't entirely true. I know I can easily pick up around one-fifty without too much trouble, life Smokey (or Dante) one-handed and they were seventy pounds each. But, I remember still being a 99 pound senior in High School who only succeeded in gym because they thought I was female for three and a half years. Strength training as never been one of my strengths, so its nice to realize I can pull posts out of the ground with nothing but my own strength (and an appropriate application of fulcrums, science, and common senses).

I'll take the little things where I can get them.

I had another surprise today also. This one... was not as nice. I finished Wind, Bear, and Moon in 2005. It was for the Five Star Books, like Muddy Reflections and was their first rejection (we don't do Young Adult) for me. When I did finish but before I sent it, I asked a bunch of friends to edit it and read through it and give me opinions. Some of them have editing services as part of their job where we all work. I got a couple edits for the first five chapters but nothing beyond. (Have you ever noticed that the amount of corrections drops sharply after the first hundred pages? Even for professionals?) Of the six people who read it, I pretty much got a "it's pretty good" or "I like it." Basically, ego-boosting responses but utterly useless for dealing with improving the story or my craft. I got one slightly negative one, "I didn't like the main character." That wasn't as great, but I tried to soften it up.

I did get a couple points of confusion from Fluffy which I corrected and DD hated the ending. Which was perfectly fine, I despise neat endings in my stories. I like them to be left with a point that leaves people wondering what happens next. But, for WBM, the ending was too short and DD requested I rework it. So, I did.

That was it, for almost a year and a half.

Today, I mentioned that I was changing the novel over to fit the same world as Muddy Reflections. The lady who said she didn't like a character looked at me and said with a perfectly straight face.

I would hope so, it needs it.

The way she said it, gave me the impression she thought it was a horrible story. Then, she told me it was a horrible story. Why she didn't say that over a year ago, I'm not really sure why. I bit back this feeling of depression and asked more questions.

It came down to she didn't like one of the three main characters, Welf. Actually, from her point of view, there is only one main character and that was Welf since I introduced him first. Because she felt he had no positive or redeeming virtues, the entire story was a complete waste of time. Apparently, I was suppose to know that from "I didn't like the main character" I should have heard "this novel was a waste of time and a horrible story."

Again, why didn't she tell me this when she read it the first time?

Sadly, it does point out that using friends to read things isn't really the best thing in the world. They don't feedback, or they don't give it when you need to. Instead, they try to be nice and not hurt your feelings. Or, in the case of my mother, they make changes for the sake of making changes, just to make the pages drip with red ink instead of actually improving or finding the story.

In books about writing, they tell you to get a thick skin. To get ready to have your heart and soul torn out by anyone who reads it critically.

I think I am sad that it doesn't really happen to me. Friends never tell me they hate it... well, except for that one "I hated it" a year and a half later. Fluffy won't but I know why, she's married to me. For others, the closest I got was the word "interesting" which is a terrible way of reviewing any story, poem, or novel. Interesting is a word when you don't like something. It is a word that is to soften the blow, like wrapping a sword in silk before striking with all your strength. I hate that word more than any other word in the English language.

For a while, I was in a writer's group. A couple actually. But, everyone was more obsessed with getting their own stuff read and reviewed that they... basically ignored my stuff for months at a time. After eight months of that, it felt like I was just there to help them instead of following the spirit of the co-op that it was.

I don't get it even from the professionals. I used a editing service for Wind, Bear, and Moon and other works. Except for a minor comment that my characters sigh too much (heh, before that it was moaning too much and before that everyone blinked a lot), it was a great story according to them. And that was for someone I paid over a thousand dollars to properly edit my novel. From publishers, I got "great writing, but we don't publish this genre" for everyone who actually read my stuff. Or, "not our market." For Muddy Reflections, I got the closest I could to something critical from fightertype's mother (an English professor and teacher):

Rough around the edges, but with great potential.

I really want to be a great writer. Actually, I want to be more than a great writer, but when you aim for a goal, aim for the fish's eye not for the fish (how's that for obscure?). But, even in high school, getting critical feedback from the teachers was like pulling teeth. With a pair of pliers. Not that I'm complaining, I like being a writer. Actually, I love being a writer.

I'll take the feedback for what it is, even with the time it took years for someone to tell me. I'm planning on redoing parts of WBM anyways to put it in the world of Fedora. I'll try to make Welf a bit more interesting, which I wanted to do anyways. But, it hurts that someone won't tell me what's wrong until I basically have to pry it out of them. Why couldn't they tell me then, when I was trying seriously to get it published, instead of now when I've already failed? It hurts, in a way, it hurts knowing that I might have had a better chance if they just told me something that was obvious to them but not to me.

Obviously, I need to find a better source of critiques out there. I think, it might be time to focus on just finding someone who will be honest with me, will point out the flaws. Quite some time ago, the other Dylan had an entry in his journal talking about a friend who read one of his novels and felt that a character was completely out of character in one scene (somewhere on the order of "You see a stranger at the bottom of the cursed mountain." "I see your party has no mage." "Well, join us!"). I think, for that moment, I felt a pang of jealousy that he had someone who would tell him that wouldn't work. Or, more importantly, someone who was honest enough to tell him.

I suspect, I'm not looking hard enough either. Is it I only find people I know will shower me with compliments or am I just bad at finding people?

Query Letter #2 and Reflections

2007-04-07T05:00:00Z

Just sent out a query letter to JABberwocky Literary Agency. I'll know in one to four weeks what they think. As I was browsing their news, I noticed they had Elizabeth Moon listed. That is one of those interesting things in life that has no impact on my acceptance or even decision to pick there.

If I had to pick a favorite book, it would be Elizabeth Moon's Paksenarrion. I end up reading all 1,024 pages of the trilogy every three to four months. I even named one of my cats Paksenarrion. Of course, Fluffy just calls her Paks because no one wants to use the full name. And, it is the only story that doesn't follow my hundred rule. That is, I have to read a hundred books after a book before I can pick it up again, because I remember all the scenes in order and already know what is happening next. I mean, I remember what's going to happen, but I just don't care. I just love that story that much. She is also my inspiration for how the gods finds their champions, their paladins. Or how the gods work in the world. It's colored some of my writing and my storytelling, but that's okay, because I really do love the book.

*sigh* Well, in several weeks, I'll be surprised by a letter in my post mailbox and tear it open in hopes to seeing good things. Until then, I'm working on a short story set in the same world as Muddy Reflections, called (uninterestingly) The New Girl at the moment. Just an exploration of steampunk and magic, and of a teenager finding out about the first stirrings of love. I might submit it to the Steampunk Magazine, but I don't know how they'll handle the magic aspect of my world. I'm also pretty anxious for my Machine of Death submission, but I won't get that response for another month or two.

Good Weekend

2007-04-02T05:00:00Z

It was a good weekend, to say the least. Gaming, as normal, was a joy but I really found that I had a lot of fun. It completely deviated from anything I remotely had planned somewhere around hour four and I basically made it up for the next six hours. Didn't kill anyone, but I really did my damnest. And, it was one of those cases where the party "lost" but in a way that wasn't really that devastating. Overall, good game.

I did notice one of those little silly things. zenbodhi pushes thumbtacks all the way in, but I don't. It got me thinking, just because it is one of those silly things. Fluffy pushes things all the way in also. Have you ever thought about your thumbtack habits or the quirk of tacks? Does it change with the flat metal top verses the little plastic ones? In my case, it does.

Other than that, I just spent about ten hours playing Shining Force Neo. A lovely popcorn game filled with constant improvement, a light plot, and generally mindless violence. Fluffy and I watched five episodes of B5, which is nice since she hates it, and she is already waiting for me to get a hold of season three. I gave up trying to find my keys and started building up a new ring; already got 3 of the 5 keys replaced.

I'm planning on writing this week. Probably more on Scroll of the Land (still no more feedback), maybe a short story, and doing the next query letter. I'm also writing up a short script for a one (maybe more) shot flash-based comic on Exalted. Zenbodhi expressed an interesting Muddy Reflections, so I'll probably be sending a copy for peer review/their opinions.

Interesting Weekend

2007-03-12T05:00:00Z

I did a fair amount this weekend, given the fact that I wasn't feeling on the top of the world. I sent out a query letter for Muddy Reflections. I'm not comfortable with sending out batches yet, so I'll probably just send out one at a time, or overlap them by a few weeks. This one was to Writers House. I was glad I could say I was on White Wolf's quarterly too. I also did a synopsis and a chapter outline. I also finished a story for the Machine of Death anthology and submitted it.

At the dawn of the Industrial Age, the world of Fedora lies at the brink between two worlds. In the past, the world of individual magic, with mages rising and falling in their own power, unable to work with each other. Their resonance of conflicts with each otherâ€™s devices, creating feedback and explosions from the very items they craft. In the new age, factories and mechanical devices ensconce magic away from the ravages of resonance, bringing industry to the common man.

With the dawn of this new age, the crimes of the old still remain. New methods are found to solve them, such as Mudd Fourierâ€™s attempt to bring forensic investigations to the city of Sougan. His efforts are hampered by centuries of politics and a discomfort of anything new. Despite the hostility, he makes allies in his attempt to solve one murder after the other. His rapid streak of success is halted by a murder of a guard chiefâ€™s wife, a murder that quickly expands into a decade-long plot of betrayal, politics, and a secret hidden behind a mirror.

I finally posted my Online Map of Creation on patternspider.net along with creating and posting PDF charm cards for pretty much the entire lore5 database (also from patternspider). That took a bit but I was pretty proud of the results and it lets people create cards for their charms for almost everything 2E, though lore5 is missing what I consider is important data. They disagree, but there isn't anything wrong with that. Opinions are what makes this world go by.

I also sorted another sixty or so DVD's. Only 8 more columns to go. Overall, I thought it was a pretty good weekend for feeling under the weather. Oh, and seeing the Dukes of Hazard: The Beginning and sleeping in.

Well, I have the rest of the week off, I plan on getting things done and just relaxing for a bit.

Muddy Reflections rejected

2007-02-26T06:00:00Z

Well, it was right in the 8-10 weeks range, but I think this pretty much says it all.

I hope this finds you well. Thanks for submitting your manuscript Muddy Reflections for consideration in the Five Star SF/Fantasy line. While we enjoyed what we had read, unfortunately, ours is a very narrow market, and I'm afraid that your novel just doesn't quite suit our needs at this time. Thanks again for the opportunity to review it, and good luck with your writing.

Sad and disappointing, to say the least. I had such high hopes of Muddy Reflections getting through, since it sounded like something right in their focal area. But, in this case, it just wasn't and that's the nature of the beast.

He remembered!

2007-01-16T06:00:00Z

Something to be said about hope. Mr. Helfers actually sent me a really nice email back, telling me it will be 8-10 weeks (instead of the 12 I was expecting). The other part that was really nice is that he remembered me. Actually, he remembered me from last year's GenCon, despite the fact he probably sees a couple hundred people every convention, each one desperate to sell their own book to him. And it wasn't the fake "I remember you" that I've gotten in a few places. He actually remembered details of Wind, Bear, and Moon which he read eight months before and that was one of the things that I was really impressed with. I'm not used to people remembering me.

I'm not that good with remembering people, but I remember details. I remember some of the names, like Dylan Birtolo because he happens to have the same name as mine, which is the reason I went into the Author's Lane at GenCon, but also because the fight scene near the end of the book and the one in the garage. I can barely remember Mr. Helfers except that he sat next to the lady who didn't like the pool love scene from Undead and Unwed, one of my favorite romances. She, I probably could remember on sight, she wore a dark suit the first day I saw her. Couldn't for the life of me, tell you who she was or what she wrote. I could tell you what position she sat in the last two GenCon's on the table though.

Yeah, its the little things, but I still have to admire that he remembered my novel from what was basically his slush pile from half a year before. Well, not quite. The first workshop at my first GenCon (2005), I went to his panel on writing. It was much like the various panels I've been on (just not the writing industry), but it was really interesting in how networking, which was a later session, worked in the writing industry. He told us when to send a manuscript, what format, who to send it, and also what to put in the subject.

If you can't tell, I'm already getting a bit excited about getting a response.

April 1, 2007

2007-01-15T06:00:00Z

Twelve weeks. Twelve weeks of waiting for feedback from Mr. Helfers. Naturally, I'll have the doubts if he got it, if he could read it, or even if it makes sense. I also worry about sending the wrong version, maybe somehow he got the one that looked like it was written by a child with a crayon instead of the more polished one. Twelve weeks of self-doubt. But, at least I sent Muddy Reflections out. By April 1, I should have my answer.

Here's hoping.

Map of Creation Work

2007-01-12T06:00:00Z

Last night, I worked on the Map of Creation. I finished putting in the celestial gates and the shadowlands, set up a couple more categories (Geomancy and Constructions) for grouping, and started the long and tedious process of entering all the cities. Eventually, I'm going to use different colors for manses and demenses, but at the moment, everything is marked in red. Once I figure out what is a city and what isn't a city, I want to start using different keys for small, medium, and large cities just like other maps.

I think I have a reasonable chance of finishing the map this weekend, depending on other factors of course. Well, finishing at least the stephenls stuff, once I do that, I'm going to go through the books and see if there are any other cities and items in those maps that I missed. After that, I'm going to have to figure out how to expand on areas for the tiny little details.

And, of course, I'm submitting Muddy Reflections on Sunday. *bounces excitedly*

Almost There...

2007-01-09T06:00:00Z

Yesterday, I got round five of Bouncy's mother's edit of Muddy Reflections. Its beginning to look pretty good and I decided that I'm going to submit it on Sunday to Mr. Helfers. Its going to be a tad shy of 100k words but it should go through two rounds of my editing and six rounds of hers. She said she'll redo chapter one and try to make it as perfect as possible. I'm getting kind of anxious, mainly because I put so much into it and its twelve weeks of finding out if he liked it or not.

I like Mr. Helfers. Actually, what I really like is when I talked to him last year at GenCon, he actually told me what he didn't like about the story. The main bit is that WBM is a Young Adult (YA) novel and his company doesn't do YA. A nice, reasonable and honest reason for not accepting WBM. Of course, it hasn't been accepted since, but oh well.

Speaking of WBM, Bouncy's mother said that she would be greatly interested in reading it. I told her if she was willing, I would love it if she would edit it after I do the Fedora revamp. Oh yeah, Fedora. I decided that is the working name of my world, which is more steam punk than high fantasy. It really worked out well for MR and it shouldn't take too much to change WBM over. The main difference is the whole dragon thing, the reasons and purposes change significantly in the story and I need to make sure it still flows well. Even though I'm not planning on writing a novel this year, I might work on that later.

Good Tidings

2007-01-06T06:00:00Z

Today is going to be a good day. If all goes well, I'm going to get Muddy Reflections back from Bouncy's mother, who is an English teacher. From what Bouncy has passed on, she is enjoying my story and actually thinks that I have some talent at writing, along with a couple rough edges that can easily be fixed. That made me feel pretty good.

Plus, I'm running Exalted today. Day two of the dungeon crawl, filled with artifacts, golems, and a raging river of death. I haven't done much with the Scroll of the Lands in last couple of days. Thursday was spent cleaning up for the new furniture and hoping Ack! would show up (he didn't). Friday... trying to remember what I did last night. Oh yeah, putzed. No energy to write or anything. I went to the dentist yesterday and I got the fairly typical "beautiful teeth" comment, I have good chemistry in my mouth. :) After that it was just creating SVG maps of the dungeon, doing some minor writeups, and basically just doing nothing really productive until I headed to bed at 21:30.

And I got paid yesterday (only seven behind again!) so that means more money in my entertainment budget.

I think today is going to be a very good day indeed.

Muddy Reflections - Round Two Done!

2006-12-18T06:00:00Z

Just finished the second round of editing Muddy Reflections! I ended up adding three more chapters just to make it run more smoothly, four if you include the appendix. I also modified the chapters so each one starts with a time, date, and location, just to help give some consistency and to handle the fact the story is spread out over six years.

Overall, I'm very, very happy.

On the other hand, I'm beginning to not like Adobe CS2 products. They are slick and smooth, but I hate product activation features and programs that call home. I know its to prevent stealing of software, but after the troubles we had with iTunes, do I really need to go through this again when Fluffy's iMac decides to self-destruct and I have to reinstall everything again, then have to explain to Adobe why we installed a program three times?

Bittersweet Days

2006-12-12T06:00:00Z

Last night, after staying up way too late, I managed to finish the first round of writing for Muddy Reflections. It is right around the 100k word mark (98k) and I think the story is pretty solid. I'm planning on going back and just verifying some fact-checking and maybe review the linking of the three parts to blend them more together, but at least I feel that relief of actually finishing it.

On the other hand, Dante made it really hard to leave work today. When I woke up, he followed me around the house. Every time I stopped, he would just lean against me and look up at me. No whimpering, no whining, just... looking. It was probably the hardest thing in the world to leave today, even with the crunch for TCC.

I'm not sure what to do.

Dante, Dentists, and Descriptions

2006-12-12T06:00:00Z

Today is much better than yesterday. Dante is doing better, but he still is moving rather slowly and lethargically. Fluffy is still having some trouble, we canceled movie night so I could make sure I was home in case she needed me.

Her day got much worse when she found out she had an abscesses in her mouth and will need a root canal. But, the earliest the doctor can do anything is somewhere in January. So, one month of watching our dog dying and having almost constant pain in her mouth.

Its going to be a good month.

On the work side of things, we are in "crunch time" with the Complete Clothier project. It is due on Friday so we are frantically trying to get everything polished and pretty before it goes out. I'm almost looking forward to it, except for the 80+ hours I'm probably going to be doing this week.

One thing I forgot to mention is that I finally finished the second arc of Muddy Reflections. I wasn't really up to writing in the last couple of days (imagine that) but today, I'm planning on writing and getting into the third arc, which I'm praying will go much more smoothly.

Another Chapter Down

2006-12-06T06:00:00Z

Worked on another chapter for Muddy Reflections. Lots of fun writing Mudd's encounter with Chief Lakewater, he's always been one of the more interesting characters in Sougan. I think I'm probably 2-3 chapters from the end of the second arc. Though, I still feel that the story is... stilted? something isn't quite right yet with the flow or tone of it. Just wish I knew what it was.

Planning on seeing my financial advisor today, to get some long-term savings going on, but then I'm going to go back to writing and resist Fluffy's attempt to drag me to watch TV.

Muddy Reflections: Back to new stuff...

2006-11-29T06:00:00Z

Working on Muddy Reflections, actually got a short chapter out last night. For a novel I'm suppose to have done on Sunday, I'm not doing that hot. However, I should be at least done with the second arc by Sunday. If all goes well, I'll get sizable progress into the third one, which I'm not redoing as much.

I'm also resisting playing Oblivion (which I spent WAY too many hours downloading mods for) or FF XII (which is still pretty) until I finish at least a few more chapters.

Distractions

2006-11-27T06:00:00Z

Honestly, I really meant to work on my novel this week. I mean, I had six days of nearly no distractions and I could have finished it. Except for working Sepia Throne (two days of planning and cleanup, one day of running), getting my new computer working (22" worth of widescreen joy), getting my old files transferred and also making sure Oblivion worked (5 hours of copying over a 100 MB/s connection) plus I got distracted with Final Fantasy XII (so... pretty...).

So, I didn't get a single bloody thing done for the entire vacation when it comes to my novel. This means I get the joys of being obsessed this entire week, while Fluffy obsesses about her art show on Saturday (which I have to help with).

Shared Worlds and Maps

2006-11-21T06:00:00Z

While working on Muddy Reflections this weekend, I realized a couple of things. First is that I really, really should have made a map of the city. I get getting confused on relations of everything. Well, that part is easily fixed. I'll just steal a couple cities, put them together and go back and fix everything.

The other was a bit more complicated. The world I wrote in, both for Muddy Reflections and Wind, Bear, and Moon, is based on world that I helped create with someone else. I decided that I really need to separate the two. It isn't really a big deal, I'm fairly good at world creation, but it means I'll be set back a day or two as I just iron out the differences.

Sharing worlds is fun, you have more than one person creating in the same world, which makes it a much richer experience. However, the line of our writings and stuff is going in two different dirctions and... well, easier to say it is time for this.

On the other hand, it will help fix some of the problems I'm having with Muddy Reflections.

Learning how to write

2006-11-13T06:00:00Z

It may sound strange, but every time I stop writing for any length of time, it feels like I have to relearn how to write when I get started. This is really obvious when I'm writting Muddy Reflections. The story is slowly moving forward. As a rough progress indicator, I'm using word count of 100k words. As of yesterday, it was at 71k words. Now, I know that pure words isn't a measure of a story, but it is one of the goals I'm aiming for.

In more generic terms, I'm working on story arc 2 of 3. It is remarkably hard to ties these stories together, but it is slowly getting there. I felt the first couple chapters are flat so I kept on rewriting them until I felt better about it. This is really going to be one of those stories that I need to get an editor, mainly to catch the little things that I know I miss.

But, at least I'm getting more excited about this. Or, at least more into it.

Working on Muddy Reflections

2006-10-24T05:00:00Z

I spent most of the weekend being sick. However, I also spent some of Thursday and Friday working on Muddy Reflections. It was hard at first, I'm not used to writing in the character of Mudd. I mean, he is strict, passionate but not really expressive, and he is detail-oriented. With this write, some of his other personality traits are coming to fore. He doesn't really like dealing with politics, but he also associates better with the other mages. I think that kind of builds up why other guards don't like him and why they don't always call the foresics mage to the scene, which give it an interesting contrast. It will also make the stuff with Constable Silsdoth more interesting, because he doesn't associate with other guards.

It's interesting writing this story, not only because it is dredging up memories, but also because it is so different from my normal writings that it really makes me think. Though, people grin and sigh too much. :)

On the other hand, I have come to the pure and simple conclusion that writing magazines (which I have bought a total of four now) are like beauty magazines. They really give you the impression that if you try, you might be able to get published. But, there is this sense of desperation in those words, something I don't really like. It almost gives me the idea that "you aren't good enough and look at everyone else who is."

On the other hand, the chapters are beginning to flow again, which makes me happy.

Started on Muddy Reflections

2006-10-11T05:00:00Z

Last night I started the process on Muddy Reflections, at least to consolidate the three short stories (only one is on the main site http://brokentypewriterpress.com/). Even if you read Murder on Piscrest, I'm going to be changing it significantly enough that you probably won't know who did it or how it fits in with the novel. I'm not worried about that.

The story came out to 54k words. My goal is about 100k, so I need to add a small block. If it came out to just writing, I can do 10k words in a day, but that never happens. :) Too much editing involved.

I figured it will take about month to get the story ironed out and cleaned up, the short stories broken into their components and expanded on. I also want to add a link to the original story idea, the prostitute murder, which I am not planning on resolving in the novel, but since Mudd obsesses about it for every single story, I figured it was something important to expand on slightly.

Killing Turf Wars

2006-10-09T05:00:00Z

I can't do Turf Wars. I think the ideas is great, the images and I'm more than capable of doing it, I just don't seem to be making the time to do it. For the last two weekends, Fluffy has been out of town, so I thought to myself, what a perfect time to work on Turf Wars! Eight days of no distractions, plenty of time to figure out some bugs and mayb make it start to resemble a game.

What I did instead of write stories, play Exalted, and relaxed. In itself, I wouldn't have been bothered by it, but that is the same thing I've been doing for two months on the project. I basically haven't touched it since before GenCon.

Also, at GenCon, I got Mr. Helfers interested in my Mudd Fournier novel (working title is "Muddy Reflections"). I already have the major parts written, I just need to merge the two short stories and novella together, change how they all end, and basically package it. Doing that, I know I can do. Writing isn't a struggle for more, not like writing games is.So, while I'm going to stop on Turf Wars, I am going to work on a project I know I can do and want to do. It is due at the end of the year (Helfers looks at novels only in January, as I mentioned in the WBM entries).

It will also give me a chance to play with Triumph for fightertype. I know she would like to see Itrifore's world done up properly at some point, so I'll aim for that also. Both of those are things I'm much more comfortable with and maybe I won't find myself doing "everything but."