Confidence

Holy cow, has it really been almost two months since my last post? What have I been doing all this time?

As you can see from the header, I made a faux e-book cover for Half, should I choose to go down that path. As of this moment I'm still not sure, as Death's Aria is currently being sent out to multiple people (to be followed shortly by Aeon), but it's looking pretty likely. It all depends, as always, on whether I get rejected or not. All in the cards. Again.

Something that's been bothering me this past year is my believed lack of productivity. Don't get me wrong: I've written a fair amount of the last year. Quarter was my last finished novel, in July of 2012. After that I started Empty Pages (which I didn't finish), Eighth (which I didn't finish), Morphiam (abandoned, retitled Night Terrors, and now being revitalized), and A War of Blood and Oil (which I didn't finish). Between all my abandoned projects is enough words for probably a book and a half, though if you mixed all three that would be a pretty weird book. The only project I completed was Aeon which, oddly enough, I abandoned and then returned to. Something's not right in the state of Denmark. And by Denmark I mean my writing ambitions.

I already made a whiny, bitchy post about how frustrated I was, but don't worry: this isn't that over again. This is me trying to bring back the spark. Am I frustrated? Yeah, a bit. You don't write twelve novels and almost two million words without feeling a little sting when you realize you're still no closer than you were before to getting traditionally published. It also's frustrating when you go from being able to write five to six thousand words in a sitting to barely pulling a thousand a day, which is still far from bad but the degradation of the level of output is pretty jarring. I'm fully aware I've improved as an author over the past half-decade, and I'm pleased with where I've gotten to. I'm just curious how many more half-decades it's gonna be.

On that regard, here is the current writing lineup for the next few months. I'm determined to keep up on this. Despite the incredible amount of popularity my game review blog has been having (it still gets over 1,000 unique hits daily), it's going to need to take a backseat for a little bit until I get this all straightened out.

The following is in order of my priority, though all must be done before the start of July or else I'll go crazy.

1. Finish submitting Death's Aria to everybody and their mom

Pretty straightforward. I've been sitting on this book for ages and it's driving me nuts that I haven't done anything with it. Mostly because I haven't gotten around to doing my massive "Version 2.0" edit yet. Oh hey, speaking of that...

2. Do the massive "Version 2.0" edit of Death's Aria

I did something for the first time in my life today. I made a huge editing timeline in Word. I broke the entire book down by chapter, stating what happens in the current chapter, and what I want to have happen in revised chapters. Then we're going to go, chapter by chapter, until we hit all 28. I'm hoping 3-4 chapters a day for easy one, but the entire third act is being rewritten here, so that last bit may take a while. This book needs it.

3. Submit Aeon to everybody and their mom

I think Aeon has the best chance out of anything so far to go somewhere. It's tight, it's emotional, and it's unique (not to toot my own horn too much here...). I honestly believe it's the best thing I've ever written, and after some very minor changes (and fixing spelling errors) I think it's already set to go.

4. Figure out of Aeon is a novel or a novella

Still can't figure this out. It's at 42k, which is 2k over novella but I feel it's too short (and cuts out too abruptly) to be a novel. Or maybe not; I don't know, I'm not the expert on selling books. In either case, if it is to become a novel, it'll need to be longer. If it's a Novella, it can stay or get shortened a bit.

5. Write every day regardless of how I feel. Finish Night Terrors

I used to be good at this. In 2012, I wrote every single day, not missing a day, for eight months straight. Even when I was submitting, review writing, or editing I still wrote at least 1,000 new words every single day. Maybe it was burnout or something, but it's been hard to do that again. I need to get back into the groove. It's been going well with Night Terrors as of late, though I'm afraid I still slack off from time to time.

6. Oh yeah, I'm going to Grad School in Irvine. I guess I didn't post that on here, huh? 

I'm getting a Masters in CS with an emphasis on Informatics, basically it's UC Irvine's version of an HCI program. I start in September, so I'd imagine that'll keep me busy. I still fully intend to write, so long as I don't have to think about how much money I'm spending on schooling. Regardless, we'll have to figure out a move as well as a whole new life in a different state (I've been in Utah since 2007) so that should be an adventure.
Oh, and yes...I got into UC Irvine. Feel pretty good about myself for that.


Long post, not too interesting, point being I'm trying to make this count even if this summer is the "last hoorah" for this whole "writing" business. I think as a creative person one's greatest fear is not total, abrupt, jarring failure, but having something and losing it slowly. As Green Day put it, "I'm not growing up, I'm just burning out." Burning out is the worst thing that can happen creatively, and it's very easy to fall into the trap. Just don't be creative for long enough, and bam, it's over. Not good.

I'm not going to burn out, not yet. Though I dare say this might be my last chance at doing this. Though I intend to keep writing after leaving for school, there's a good chance I'll get my career out of this, and it isn't in writing. It hurts, because in truth being a published author was what I wanted more than anything, but I can once again quote another band in saying "you can't always get what you want." (Rolling Stones. Come on, don't be music philistines here)

Off we go!

Aeon - Postmortem

Aigis, from Persona 3

Aeon - Postmortem

Now that I've had a little bit of time to distance myself from Aeon (and prepare for my next projects), here's a brief blurb on how I designed, plotted, and was inspired to write the story, as well as some tidbits on its development. I will try to refrain from all spoilers.

Aeon was initially developed as a work of experimental fiction. I was playing Persona 4 Arena of all things, and one of the character's stories was from a robot's perspective. I liked the story reasonably well, but I felt it was lacking a good deal of information that would make her more interesting. So, I thought it might be cooler to write a story completely locked in a machine's perspective, just because it would be fun to try and "think" like a machine as I wrote.

The concepts that the story brings up regarding what makes a being sentient, the development of said sentience (are we born with it or do we learn it?), and the idea of a "ghost in a machine" and if you can kill said ghost are not necessarily new concepts, especially to sci-fi. However, I hadn't recalled someone telling the story strictly from a first-person's perpective of a robot. Most are in third-person, or deal with the concepts of robots wanting to "be human" or "feel love" or some such nonsense. I honestly never really thought this made sense as a robot "wanting" an emotion (such as Data having "desire" to have human emotions and tendencies in Star Trek: TNG basically means he already has emotions because he wants something) or the whole "what is love?" thing, because psychologists have defined love and broken it down and any robot would be able to just use that definition.

No, I want the story to be more on development, and how it would be different for a machine that was created to develop rather than a person. For those who know/don't know, I have a major in Psychology, but have always had a deep intrest in programming, robots, and computers (my original major was CS). Being able to combine both these things with my love of writing is where this story came from.

Back to inspirations, the Persona 4 thing also ties into Persona 3's Aigis (pictured above), who was starting point in terms of design for Seventy-Seven. Again; another game with a concept of a robot who has to learn things, but really is shoved aside and none of the deeper concepts examined. You could argue Data from TNG is also an inspiration, but I didn't start re-watching TNG until I was nearly done with the book, so I don't think it really applies.

Weirdly enough, the old anime Metropolis might have had the largest influence, despite me watching it nearly a decade ago. I re-watched it after finishing Aeon (and seriously, it's worth watching. It's still phenomenal) and many of the ideas regarding robotic development are there, even if they're a bit corny. It's also a visually striking picture, using a lot of contrasting art styles to paint a particular picture, and overall is just a great film if you like robots.

Initially, the story's point was extremely shallow, and it didn't have a plot arch. The story was designed to be simply the machine booting up, gaining sentience, and that was the end. I'll argue this is because it was "experimental," so I didn't want to dig to deep.

I added the concept of "Infusion" (no spoilers here) to the book after about the second chapter, which ties into the scientists' goals. I actually quit writing, however, about half-way through the third chapter. Partially because I sunk back into a writing rut, and also because I had no idea where this book was going.

Vita saved this book. The character and friend of Seventy-seven added an arch, character motivation, and lots of fun scenarios that made the book enjoyable to write again. It wasn't until I finalized that she should be in the story that everything came together, and the story essentially "wrote itself." It's worth noting I usually think of novels in terms of key scenes, usually an ending twist and one or two middle ones. All other scenes I often plan just the day before, when I go on walks and brainstorm the next chapters. I have a start and an end, but what happens in the middle is up to the magic of discovery writing.

But back to the point: Aeon ended up being much longer than I anticipated because it just ended up needing so much stuff to cram in. This was especially when the scientists started growing personalities and backstories that were necessary for the plot and actually proving relevant to the overarching story. Initially, they were all going to be bland and singular, a sort of contract to the extreme dynamic between the machines. While this might have been an interesting "moral message," in the end I tried fleshing them out a bit more (though early Alphas indicate it still might not be enough) and actually making them somewhat unique. Humanizing them made what they had to do all the more interesting, whereas if they'd simply been faceless beings their goals would have appeared shallow.

Overall, I enjoyed writing Aeon, more than most books I can think of in recent memory. It certainly had its moments where I got stuck or annoyed, but as a whole it was a very fun project to simply sit down and just churn stuff out. I got quite attached to all the characters, so much so that certain scenes were hard to write, and actually ending the novella was a bit sad because I knew I'd never revisit them. Either way, it was a fun experiment, and I'm glad I did it.

Moral: I should write more sci-fi.

Aeon Finished

My novel...or novella...or short novel...or whatever a 43,000 word thing is, Aeon, is now finished!

Hooray!

I guess I should do a stats thing.

AEON

Total Words: 43,160
Number of Chapters / Boot Cycles: 14 (counting the 0th)
Robots?: Yes 
Techno Babble: A whole lot yo

I realized I can't think of anything else that wouldn't be a spoiler, so that's all you get.

This isn't a very exciting post. I might do a post-mortem post soon (I want to start doing these with all my novels so I can remember what I was thinking when writing them).

I am uncertain what is next on my docket, but I'll be sure to let ya'll know. I should probably edit Death's Aria for reals this time.

I'm writing again.

Rather than extrapolate in great deal as to what I've been doing, I'm going to make this a "Quick Hits" so you can read it fast and get on with your day.

- I went to two days of LTUE (I had to work the other two). It was awesome. I met a lot of cool people at the signing and hung out with people I already knew on Saturday. I'm kind of over going to panels unless they REALLY interest me, and I'm thankful that I now know a lot of people (authors, agents, etc.) from across the spectrum so I can just ask them questions directly about things. If you spent time talking to me: thanks. I had a good time.

- Bec (mein wife) and I will be at Conduit, as DEALERS. Yes, we are peddling our perler wares this  May at SLC. We already have a booth bought. We will be there Friday and Saturday and will have tons of stuff up for sale. If you want to buy some perlers from us (as seen on the other blog), then please show up! We will be setting up an online shop as well if you don't like going outside.

- I have a new job that requires me to work graveyards. That's on a more personal note, but I figured somebody would be curious.

- I have been writing what started as a short story, called Aeon. I originally planned it to be a short story, but based on current length and planned projections it's certainly somewhere between novella and novel. Feedback so far has been overwhelming positive. It's my first venture into sci-fi, with the story being about a robot going from initial boot to sentience, from its first person perspective. It started as a writing experiment and kind of got out of control. If you'd like a copy after I finish, give me a hollar. I foresee good things with this.

- The next project is editing Death's Aria for reals though. I had an editor at LTUE tell me to send her stuff, and have had people I queried with Half asking me for something that wasn't vampire related. Since Death's Aria is probably the best thing I've written so far (obvious mistakes aside), I feel it is the next best shot.

- I'm seriously considering ePublishing a few of the backlog of novels. Not the truly awful ones, mind, but Half and Steelgods could probably do reasonably well finding a home on the Kindle store. We'll see how that develops.

That about covers it from me. I'm very excited about Aeon, and I'm glad to be writing again. Let's kickstart this into space.

Darkbound Review

Note: This is a review of an ARC provided by the author
Buy the novel here.

The Short
Pros
- Excellent starting setup
- Briskly paced and thrilling
- Some extremely intense suspense, particularly the first 1/2 of the novel
- I would argue this is one of Collings' best paced novels
- Ending twist is one you won't predict, but still is fantastic
- Short length makes for a quick, memorable read

Cons
- Way too much gore
- Seriously, it's almost gleeful it its grotesque violence, like the author was reveling in it
- Pacing and reveals near the end come a little too quickly and without enough foreshadowing
- Fantastic premise seems cheated out its full potential in leu of cheap thrills
- Epilogue is so predictable I knew what it was going to say before even reading it

The Long

There's no hiding that I'm a fan of Michaelbrent Collings' work. He's made a name for himself by consistently producing well edited, well paced thrillers that dip more than a toe into horror. Whenever I get one of his novels I know I need to stake out some time, because I'm not going to put it down until I finish it. So I was quite excited when this next novel, Darkbound, jumped onto the scene. Another horror novel in true Michalbrent Collings fashion? Yes, please.

So did Darkbound deliver? Well...sort of.

The premise is simple: six relative strangers get on a subway car together. Within moments, however, they realize something is wrong. The lights go out, only darkness can be seen out the windows, and they are seemingly trapped like fish in a barrel. Seeing as they range from kindly (an old latino grandmother) and downright hostile (a gang leader), tensions quickly escalate to levels near-murderous.

And that's before the supernatural killings begin.

The first part of Darkbound is excellent. It's incredibly suspenseful, with the personalities of these downright intimidating characters playing off each other in such a way you feel like you're sitting on a powder keg. These interactions remain the most entertaining parts of the novel, with the despicable and hostile characters constantly feeling like even a greater danger than the supernatural monstrosities hunting them.

It's unfortunate, then, that the novel seems to lose focus after the first killing.

I won't spoil anything here, but I will say this: Darkbound is gory. As in, stomach-churning, paragraph after paragraph of violent, horrific torture. Fingers being torn from sockets, dismemberment, pieces being painfully bent in unpleasant ways; you get the picture. And as someone who has been reading Michaelbrent's work for a while (as well as a child of the violent video game generation and a massive fan of horror films), this isn't unexpected. It's just...too much. Even for me.

Call me a wimp, but I like my gore to accent a story. Apparition, another of Michaelbrent's novels, has some downright nasty stuff in it, but it's tolerable because it's 1. Brief and 2. There as part of the story. The violence in Darkbound just feels mean-spirited. Did I really need three Kindle pages of this person being brutally tortured and executed? And while you could argue that (after reading the ending) this blood-filled horror was the point of the novel, it's still sickening. It's almost like it's reveling in itself as it goes on and on, so much so that I started just skimming the later deaths as I knew they wouldn't be adding much to the overarching story.

So how is the overarching story? Well, it's actually fairly clever. One part "Purgatory" and another "Saw," there's some genuinely disturbing and clever moments with what happens to these six unfortunate blighters (Olik's in particular was very suiting, if it perhaps could have been presented more tastefully). Call me demented, but I began to look forward to see what each person's demise would be. Unfortunately the cleverness in the kills was hampered by the copious flesh-rending.

The ending packs a twist I will openly admit I didn't see coming, and I actually thought was pretty cool. Though it could have done without the whole "recap," basically explaining the entire rest of the novel for those of us too dumb to pick up on subtlety. While I'll argue the final two scenes could have used a bit more foreshadowing, I still bought the massive twist. So if you're looking for a novel that'll catch you by surprise, this one's got you covered.

It's hard for me to come to a consensus on Darkbound. One part of me admits that I did read the whole novel in one sitting, unable to put it down until I found out how it ended. The other part remembers how my favorite (and most memorable) horror novels don't rely on being gory splatterfests to evoke "shock," instead building on the tension presented in the scenes. Darkbound has the latter in spades when the trapped victims "interact," but the second somebody died I sort of sighed and was left resigned. It wasn't scary, it was just cheap.

All that aside, Darkbound is deliciously paced, and still provides enough tension and shock (as well as that great twist) to be worth a read. I'm just hoping this "gore-horror" trend doesn't continue into future novels, as they tarnish otherwise excellent reads.

Three out of five stars.

Beginning Anew

With that downer of a note gracing my main page for the past bit of time, I figured I should put something less negative on here (as well as probably start blogging more reliably. Maybe? Maybe).

Here are a few things I've been doing:

- Working on a short sci-fi story called Aeon, which is currently in limbo because I am uncertain if I am currently skilled enough to finish it
- Re-reading Death's Aria in preparation for edits before submission
- Re-reading Half and Quarter, as I plan on e-publishing them a little while down the road (haven't decided when yet, but it is going to happen)
- Working on my newest novel, Morphean. By that I mean I just now made a .doc for it and will be starting it soon while editing Death's Aria

I realized that last year I abandoned a lot of projects. Naught But Glass (which was technically 2011 but I tried reviving it in 2012) made it three chapters before falling flat. A Straight Cut got all the way to the last 1/4 of the novel (the biggest reveal happened, everything went crazy, and I stopped. Not sure why) before it got put in the backburner. I believe that one was actually victim of "realizing that in order to make it work I would have to rewrite the first 1/4 of the novel" syndrome (aka "attack of the internal editor") and I lost drive to finish it. Lastly, Empty Pages, which I was very excited for also flubbed out after about five or six chapters. This one was mostly because I had an idea for an ending but one of the pieces I just couldn't latch together. Until I figured that out (which would make the twist make sense), I couldn't proceed as I had foreshadowing to do. So it kind of just died.

I also started Eighth (which I actually will finish, I assure you) but I decided it would be best to write something I could actually pitch, seeing as Eighth's grandaddy Half already got the reject stamp (it's what I get for trying to sell a vampire book in this day and age). So that one is down but not out.

I've found it very motivating to visit local bookstores, be they small one or chains. With this day of eBooks I usually can just buy anything I want to read off Amazon, but last night I had some free time and was in the area so I wandered around Barnes and Noble a bit. Walking through both the fantasy and especially YA sections I realized that I really wanted to have something on those shelves, and also I could totally write something that would work (or have already written something and haven't submitted it. Lookin' at you, Death's Aria). It was very motivating for writing and also uncorked that little well of writing ideas that's sort of been running dry these last few months.

I spent the rest of the evening plotting and devising the world for Morphean, a tentative title for a tentative series called "Dreamkiller Chronicles." Essentially our conscious thoughts and emotions create a sort of residual haze over everything (where do all those emotions/thought go after we dissipate them? To Morphean) kind of like a Wifi network I guess; a world we are always connected to but not aware of. When we dream we actually set foot in that world, but a few people can actually control how they react in their dreams and eventually break out, getting to the heart of Morphean. Of course, some people are scumbags and can bust into other people's dreams and corrupt them, essentially destroying their subconscious and killing the person. Can't let that happen.  

So it's Nightmare on Elm Street meets...I dunno, something else. Young adult. The funnest part is this story directly links to Death's Aria's world, but not so much that you'd have to have read the previous book to get it, just enough for some cameos. There's obviously more to the system than just that, but that's the basic gist. It's one part fantasy, one part the teen-empowerment stories that all YA novels are, and a big part mystery. Should be interesting. Maybe. Hopefully not a carbon-copy of Death's Aria.

Anyway I'm trying to start up writing again. I have been writing regularly for ARPGamer.com, as well as a bit on my video game blog, so those are available as well. That's it from me! I'll post less "here is Nathan's life" posts in the future.

The flame struggles to remain relevant

It's been two and a half months since I've posted anything on this blog, so I wouldn't be surprised if all my followers have disappeared. Can't say that I blame you.

So what happened? What's going on with writing? Is Nathan finally published? Did his years of overworking himself, writing 2,000+ words a day and churning out eleven novels in four years finally pay off?

Well, if you are referring to actually getting published then...no. They didn't. While I could argue that I'm further along than I was before, in terms of seeing actual results there is little to show, save a million and a half words, a good portion of which is unusable as it has been rejected by agents/editors over the past two years.

Despite the melancholic tone of the previous paragraph, I'm not upset about this...not really. It's what happens to writers. They write and write and write and eventually, someday, somebody signs them up.

Or that's the dream, anyway.

For others, it's that first book that sells. For others still, they never sell. They write for years and never see their words on a bookshelf. It's heartbreaking, to be certain, but it happens.

This doesn't really have a lot to do with me; I'm just rambling here.

I haven't written anything since the very beginning of November, where I tried to get on the NaNoWriMo train, despite hating NaNoWriMo. Needless to say, nothing happened. Most of my creative juices were used either making videos, applying to grad schools, or suffering tirelessly from massive amounts of induced stress caused my by current place of employment.

Essentially, I burned out. Or rather, I stopped caring. Or I suppose you could argue that it ended up not being worth it to me anymore, at least at that point.

Not to preach to the choir here, but it's maddening to work obscenely hard at something only to see it go nowhere. With something like writing, it's even further exacerbated by the fact that my success isn't completely governed by my own zealousness or work ethic; it's gated by someone who will decide if my work is worth going to bat for according to their own standards.

While you could argue this is the same for any creative medium, in most I have a means to make headway. I got over 100 followers on my YouTube channel in only a month making videos for the first time in my entire life, simply via brute force. My video game blog still maintains 2000+ unique pageviews/hits a day despite me never updating it. When I am passionate about something, I work obscenely hard at it until it succeeds.

Unfortunately, after bashing one's head into a wall enough times, the headache begins to overrule further bludgeoning.

I still intend to keep writing, with new goals set for 2013 (and whenever I finally sever myself with this current location of employment, though that time still remains undetermined). I would still absolutely love for this to work. But realty has to kick in at some point, and I think it might finally have this year. I put a truckload of effort forward for this in 2012, perhaps the most I ever had. I feel like I am extremely close, but I've felt like that in the past. Am I giving up just on the cusp? No, I won't be that person. But am I actually at the cusp? That, I think, is the most important question.

2013 will probably be the last chance. I fully intend to go to grad school at the end of 2013, getting a masters in Human Computer Interaction and seeking out a career in that field. Would I love to be pleasantly surprised with a writing career instead, even if it probably wouldn't earn as much money? Absolutely. If it doesn't happen, is it worth pushing further? I honestly don't know.

I don't think I'll ever quit writing, not permanently. But I may be giving up on that dream to turn "writer" to "author" in my title.

I suppose that, truth be told, that option isn't really in my hands anyway.

Expect more updates soon. I will start writing again in 2013, perhaps earlier if I'm feeling ambitious. But by the tone of this blog post you can probably gauge exactly how ambitious I currently feel.

Slow going

I know, I know, I suck at updating this blog. If it makes you feel better, I've been neglecting my review blog as well. So it's a widespread neglect, not just specific to writing.

Though in a way it sort of is. I haven't intently worked on a novel (revising or writing) since June/July when I wrote Quarter. I didn't even get through the initial revision process of that novel even though I had people lining up to alpha it. Probably because Half was sent out and didn't go anywhere; took the wind out of my sails.

I had lots of writing ideas but decided to write Empty Pages because I was feeling down on my writing and decided I would just spontaneously make something and see what happened. Which worked great for about a week until I realized I wasn't feeling it. Not that I wasn't feeling the story, I love this story. I wasn't feeling writing in general.

It's the same mopey party all wannabe authors get: they have a boatload of books under their belts (in my case, well over a million words in the last couple years), they've been submitting and getting rejected, and then they start to wonder if they'll ever make it. I've made significant progress in the "breaking in" scene over the last couple of years, and to be honest I believe I'm very close.

I'm just having difficulty caring.

I love writing. It's fun, destresses me, and I have so many stories to tell I find it hard to not write. But the business of writing is the complete opposite. It's stressful, frustrating, and I really do not enjoy it whatsoever. I love going to cons and meeting people, and it's fun when these people remember when when I query or submit to them. Many of them are really awesome people that I think would be fun to hang out with even if I wasn't trying to shove my book down their throats. But since that's an underlying factor in all of our interactions that I'm still doing it to sell them something then sometimes the relationship feels forced, when that isn't what I want.

Sorry, tangent.

I haven't exactly been slacking off. I've been applying to grad schools (another frustration in and of itself, and most schools require me pay them, so that's awesome), working on videos, and trying to survive work. Actually, I can blame most of this on how frustrating work has been. I won't go into it, let's just say it's awful and I've been applying everywhere (and rejected everywhere...which isn't helping).

I'm not a huge depressed mess if that's what this post makes me out to be. I'm just under-motivated, especially in writing.

I have written three and three-quarter books this year and edited one, so it's hardly as if I've been lazy. But I'm also not up to my usual work. By now Empty Pages should be done and I'll be on the next one. Instead it's dawdling at around 15k and just sort of hanging out. It happens.

I am enjoying making movies, a lot more than I expected. They are a truckload of work and stress (especially because you can put 20-30 minutes of work into editing a joke and then realize the joke sucks) but give me a feeling of productivity which I like. They'll be posted publicly soon, no worries.

Anyway, just the usual blather of an artist who can't find an audience. Or can't jump through the hoops to get to the audience. Or something of that nature.

Time to buckle down and finish this book, regardless, but I figured I'd explain the continued lack of updates. Explained, post over.

The Cheat is not Dead!

Yeah, a really old Homestar Runner reference for the title. I'm up with the times, yo.

So what have I been doing, you ask? Well, mostly making movies! I've made two movies in the past month, which is a pretty good clip if I do say so myself, with more on the way. They'll be going public sometime in October or November, so keep an eye out!

What about writing, you ask? Well...I'm actually writing a new novel! It's called Empty Pages and it's me doing the same approach I had with Half (only less breakneck): Write something that's fun, silly, and I don't worry too much about. Except this one is YA fantasy vs YA vampires, so there's that.

Not surprisingly, I ended up plotting a bit of it in my head, and the story got a bit dark. However, I'm still trying to keep it silly and fun, and I think it'll be a pretty good read. Plus it's getting me out of my writing slump, which is necessary.

So that's pretty much it from me here. Writing a new novel while scripting, recording, and editing videos (which is a lot of work). I'm also picking up reading again (finally) and doing the whole work thing (though I'm trying to find a full-time job). Fun times?

Anyway, expect some more info on Empty Pages as it comes. But for now I'll just dump some words:

Talking book
Librimancers
The Scribe
Nobleman-turned-thief
Burritos (not in the novel)

So that's it from me. Keep it real!

Still nottin'

So I haven't started writing again yet, mostly because nothing interests me. Though I did think of something I might try, which worked in May.

I wrote Half because I wanted to write an urban fantasy book where I just did whatever I wanted. It was hardly the deepest novel but it was fun and I really got into the voice presented. Quarter was that with more refinement, and again written in a short time span (three weeks vs two).

I also wrote Half because I was mad at A Straight Cut (and I'm still mad at it...that book's premise is cool but the story I wrote doesn't live up to it, at least not in its current state) and needed to just creatively explode all my pent up frustrations on something. Sort of a revival, of sorts.

I'm considering doing this again, but this time in a more traditional fantasy setting. Still YA (I'm probably pigeonholing myself into YA, but whatever...I like writing them more) but with more sillyness (like Half) then brooding depression darkness death (like every other YA novel I wrote). It'll be another book I don't care about if it's bad or good, just me throwing a character on a silly adventure.

If anything, it'll force me to start writing again, which is what I really need.

It isn't as if I've been unproductive. I'm currently alpha reading two novels, still writing game reviews on a nearly-daily basis on my video game blog, working on movies/videos for said video game blog, making perler bead sprites, working, and applying to grad schools. So yeah, been a bit busy. I also am trying to play the piano more, so add it to the list.

Regardless, I need to start writing again, because I'm frustrated that I'm not. That pretty much sums it up.

So expect some awesome writing soon. Also, editing Death's Aria and submitting it to everybody I just harassed with Half. What could possibly go wrong? :D