The Useless Blog

Cereal Review: Rice Krispies Treats Cereal

2012-01-31T13:00:00.000-08:00

Yes.

The Short

Pros

- Tastes like actual Rice Krispies Treats...but a cereal

- Doesn't gross up your milk

- Is less than $3 a box

- They actually fill the box up. No dead air here!

- Still snaps, crackles, and also pops

- Is a good source of Vitamin D (says so on the box!)

Cons

- The only place you can buy it is Amazon.com

- Sometimes when they ship it to you the UPS guy gets jealous and bangs it up, breaking up your treats bits

- I can eat a whole box in one sitting. That isn't very cost effective.

- It's "Rice Krispies" not "Rice Krispy," meaning my mom lied to me and my entire childhood is a fabrication

- Makes all other cereals seem boring and stupid, even the amazing Waffle Crisp

The Long

I know what you are thinking. "Why the heck is he reviewing cereal on a writing blog?" Well, I don't actually have a legitimate answer for you. I just really like Rice Krispies Treats Cereal, and since I recently discovered you can buy it off Amazon.com (which is the only place I've found where you can still get it), I figured I'd review it. Plus I've burned through six boxes in like two weeks, so I'm on a perpetual sugar high.

Like this, only cereal.

Rice Krispies Treats Cereal is the best cereal. I could list off dozens of reasons, but the first and foremost is that it finally fulfills a promise made (and broken) by countless other cereals: it has the taste of *insert cereal title here* in every bite. Waffle Crisp? It tastes like syrup, but certainly doesn't have the taste of waffles in every bite, despite what the commercials say. Apple Jacks doesn't have the real taste of apple in every bite, it has the taste of chemicals in every bite. And Chex...what the heck is a "Chex" anyway?

Pictured: LIES.

Rice Krispies Treats Cereal literally tastes like Rice Krispies Treats in every single bite. Yeah, they aren't as super-sweet as my wife makes them (she admitted to like...doubling the butter count in her version, so that might be why), and when they are in milk it sort of fuses the flavors, but it actually tastes like the thing it is representing. If you eat the chunks raw, you are eating Rice Krispies Treats. Well, technically you are eating the cereal version, but it's like you are eating the real ones...you know what? I think you get it.

Another perk to Rice Krispies Treats: The Cereal (which it shall henceforth be called) is the fact that it's sugary but not gross. I have come to terms with the fact that I'm on the "wrong side of twenty," which in layman's terms means I'm old as balls. Sugary cereals just don't do it for me anymore, they make my tongue and mouth all covered in nastiness, they give me a weird buzz I don't like, and the marshmallows are totally not real.

How could you lie to me, Lucky? We red-heads are supposed to stick together!

Yes, I'm well on my way to chewing raw granola and wheat-bran (might as well just forego the milk and gnaw wheat stalks for breakfast in the next few years). But for now I've luckily found a cereal that fuses the cavity-inducing sugar of my childhood with the bland-boring flavor of old people cereal: Rice Krispies Treats: The Cereal! It has just enough sugar to be delicious, but tempered enough that I don't feel like puking after I eat it. I do, however, tend to eat like three bowls at a time, so I'm still probably juicing myself up on sugar far worse than I ever did when I was a child. Oh well, you only live once.

Another perk is the fact that, unlike most cereal, Rice Krispies Treats: The Cereal actually fills up the entire box slash bag with the cereal, instead of it being like 50% air. Yeah, that's value!

It's not all tulips and buttercups and sunshine when you take a ride on the Rice Krispies Treats: The Cereal train through marshmallow land (this is why I'm an author: I take you to magical fantasy realms. Of cereal). One big problem with the cereal is the fact that if you treat the box roughly (slam it down, pass it like a football, bench press it, etc.) you can dislodge and then shatter the delicious clumps of treaty goodness found inside, reverting them back to boring old Rice Krispies. Luckily they still retain their slight marshmallow glaze so it isn't a total loss, but I swear my UPS guy is a total butthole who intentionally throws my box on the porch in an attempt to ruin my fun. How do I know it's the UPS guy? Because my second package came from FedEx, and all the clumps were intact! FedEx: 1. UPS: 0.

They're probably just mad because I'm never home every second of their estimated delivery hours of 11 am to 8 pm

Also as you pass over the milk river in this magical land, you might note that it is a pristine white. That's because Rice Krispies Treats: The Cereal doesn't gross out your milk like many other cereals. It does leave little bits of...krispies? that can be hard to scoop up with your spoon, but I've decided that's just part of the fun. Now you have to outsmart your cereal, so it's like a video game mixed with food. INCREDIBLE!

So where can you purchase this wondrous beacon of bowl-joy? Well, it's currently only available on Amazon.com, and is actually the third highest rated product on the entire site. Yes, so if you didn't believe me (shame on you!) you have to believe the LEGION. It's only ~$12 for a four pack, and if you have Prime you can get it delivered to your house in two days or less! [Editor's Note: It seems to now be $21. Either I'm dyslexic, or I've bought so much they are running out of stock and upped the price. It looks like it's now being sold by a dealer, which is stupid. So wait for Amazon to restock, I guess. Sorry. I'll try to eat less from now on.] Every time I ordered it (even when stupid UPS shipped it) it has arrived a day early. So that's just a bonus!

Thanks guys.

Overall, Rice Krispies Treats: The Cereal is the best cereal mankind has ever developed. Perhaps someday in the future, when the technology allows we will manage to develop a better food that combines with milk in a bowl and is eaten with a spoon. But I'm not holding my breath.

If I gave a star review it would be five out of five. Now go to amazon and buy some.

Death's Aria is finished

2012-01-29T20:38:00.000-08:00

I am pleased to report that book #8, Death's Aria is FINISHED!

Yay! Party time!

Final word count: 95,756 words

As usual, here's the magic Wordle, which crashes most of my web browsers but I have outsmarted it (this time)!

Once again, I use the words "back," "just," and "like" more than I probably should

For a book about Death, his name is pretty small in there. I guess it's easy to see who the main characters are, I guess.

So...fun stats time I guess? Unfortunately, I only started tracking stats starting in January, so here are those (based on January):

Words written in January: 63,815
Average words a day: 2,200
Average words an hour: 2,148
Total Time in January: 29.7 hours
Daily time average: 1.024 hours (I should really bump this up)
Days passed total since start: 60 days
Days spent actually writing: 37 days (took most of December off)

And here is some random book stats nobody cares about

Amount of Terry Pratchett I ripped off: Hopefully not too much
Crappy, rushed romances: NONE! (I've been trying to work on this...)
Number of big nasty beasties: Four
Number of big infodumps I'll need to trim: Two
Chapters at the beginning I'll be editing right now: Four - Five
Characters in this book I sort of don't like in their current state: One
Paradise Seekers references: One (there's one in Steelgods as well, if you've read both you might have caught it, but this one is more blatant)
Amount of screentime Death actually gets: Not a lot (some at the beginning and some at the end)
Number of violin songs I had to look up on youtube as research: Ten
Number of times I had to ask my violinist brother for advice: Once

And lastly, this book (which I've been really quiet regarding the details about both on here and in my writing group, which is weird) is an urban/epic fantasy hybrid, with emphasis on the "urban" though one would argue it gets more epic at about the half-way point. This is my first attempt at YA urban fantasy, inspired by the Writing Excuses episode about not selling yourself short by sticking to just one genre.

Speaking of which, this was more of a pet project than something I planned a lot for, since I (I've told this story on my blog before) found a .docx file on my computer titled "Violin girl," that only had one sentence in it about Death's daughter playing the violin for him. From it spawned this whole story, so that's pretty cool I guess.

So now...current plans!

This week is going to be super busy. I work Monday-Saturday for six hours each day, with Thursday off but on Thursday I'm going to to Salt Lake for an internship all day. So basically this week is going to be the week from hell (good thing I finished the book today).

Since I still intend on writing at least 250 words a day, even between projects, I'm going to be editing the first bit of Death's Aria this week, then setting it aside (or giving it to insistant alpha readers). Following which I will begin working on Death And Doom Project 2012 (tm): Editing Effulgent Corruption. However, to be certain my word count still exists, I will be writing several short side stories starring specific characters from the novel, so that I both get words out and am still writing in the world I'll be editing in. The first is about Minerva, the only female Corrupter in Effulgent Corruption, and these will be totally discovery writing so it should be interesting/awful once it's finished.

That's it from me. Eight books down, who knows how many to go before I finally sell one. I have high hopes with this one (it's more "marketable" than my others), so we'll see how it all turns out. Thanks for reading!

Breaking viewpoint to make artificial suspense

2012-01-24T09:23:00.000-08:00

Pic Unrelated

My wife is an avid reader of just about everything (she reads lots more than I do), and lots of time I get to hear comments on the books she is reading. Last night after finishing a particular young adult fantasy novel (which I will not name here), she turned to me and said, "Don't ever, in your books, make it so a viewpoint character has an amazing plan to save the day and then somehow doesn't tell the reader."

The general idea is that at some point in the book, our viewpoint character concocts a brilliant scheme to solve the problem. However, since the author doesn't want to spoil the surprise of that scheme ahead of time, the viewpoint character somehow doesn't think about the details of the plan at all until it is taking place. Even when it is being executed, he or she doesn't bother thinking a single step ahead (at least, not where the reader can see) in order to keep the suspense up.

This is far more common than you'd think, which is stupid because I think it's crap.

I can understand sometimes breaking viewpoint for the sake of the story. It's jarring, and technically "bad" writing, but sometimes a scene demands it. But basically blocking the reader out of a certain area of a character's mind simply to build fake suspense? That's just absurd.

There are ways to pull it off. If a character says something like "I have a great plan!" and then you cut scene to when they are actually pulling off the plan, a reader might be willing to suspend their disbelief and admit the viewpoint character might have discussed it extensively off camera. However, the longer time has passed between the concocting of the plan and the actual execution, the thinner my disbelief is spread. It's cheap, and it happens quite a bit in YA books. So stop it.

#

On a completely unrelated note, Death's Aria is almost finished! Yay! I figured I have about six chapters left (we are going to say 6-8, giving my need to be wordy) before we can close the book on this one (hur hur hur). I'm excited to see it resolve, and have added a few twists that even my wife doesn't know about (mwahaha), so here's hoping it all fits together wonderfully.

And after re-reading the first chapters they aren't as bad as I remembered, but I might just have rose-tinted glasses. They still need some work, which will happen after I finish the book, but I'm going to try and get it out to alphas sometime next month.

And that was all he wrote.

The end comes

2012-01-22T19:05:00.000-08:00

The book is coming to a close. Which means I start killing.

So I just finished writing what is essentially the biggest climax in the novel (and it isn't the last one...fancy that) and arguably the most major hurdle before the end. And you know what? It feels good.

I haven't finished a book since August, which is actually pretty much par for the coarse with my writing. For some reason, from January - September I can usually write every single day, but when we hit the first half of the winter months my brain totally shuts off.

I'm pretty sure it's because the weather is crappy and makes it so I can't write outside. Thanks a lot, Utah.

Anyway, the point is that we are on the downward slope to finishing book numero ocho (that's "number eight" for the English folk). This one had a bit of a rough start, with me writing basically just a few chapters in December before dropping it due to the holidays, but I've been writing frequently and my daily word count has been steadily increasing, so I think we are on a good role here.

Which also means this is about the time I start figuring out what my next book is. Uh oh.

I secretly want to write a sequel to Death's Aria, but I know that's the lazy way out. Sequels are (for me anyway) much easier to write than first novels. Your characters are already established, you usually have some pre-defined conflicts so you can be light on the infodumping, and it's like going back to an old friend. It's fun, but not what I'm going to do. Death's Aria is very much a standalone novel with a hefty amount of sequel potential, but I will be holding off until it (or if it) sells.

I also have to decide if my next book will be YA or Adult. I have (as previously counted over Gchat by a friend) 21 options available, either follow-ups to previous books, rewrites, new ideas, or edits. Now I just get to pick one and hope it's the one I want. Naught But Glass is a good idea, but then wasn't the time for it (and I'm not sure if now is the time for it, either). Death's Aria ended up going much better, but we'll see if it's been long enough since Effulgent Corruption for another massive epic fantasy novel.

Expect a full report when I finish Death's Aria. I'm continuing to do daily reviews on my video game blog, as well as starting a Sunday "weekly roundup." Also, if you like video games and have a game you want me to review, feel free to post a request. I'd be more than happy to blather my opinions all over my blog for ya.

On resolution

2012-01-20T15:50:00.000-08:00

I'm technically nearing the end of Death's Aria. We've had our major battle, our character-defining conflict, and are in the process of resolving the aftermath of said conflict. That basically means we are at the middle of the Third Act, and should be tying everything off shortly.

I don't wanna.

I have a strange desire to make this book longer, to add one more conflict between the one that just ended and the final one. It's some weird idea I'm having that the book isn't "exciting" enough, when really the balance (if you just look at words dedicated to action vs not) is just fine. I don't really know why; the book is nearing 70k, and my estimate for the resolution will probably throw another 20k on there, which puts us at 90k (which is long for a YA novel). But something seems...missing, if I don't lengthen it. Maybe it's because I'm used to writing epic fantasy. Maybe it's because Gears of Anbar was stupid long for its genre. Who knows.

At any rate, we are reaching the end. My goal is to finish Death's Aria by the end of January. I have 11 days left, and if I push it I should be just fine. I'll be sure to keep you all posted.

Not much of an update; I've been continuing my two reviews a day on Nathan vs Video Games, as well as writing every day and doing life, so I've actually been quite busy. It's a good thing.

Here's an attempt at a not-spoiler segment.

“Simon,” Aria repeated, “remember what you said about the St. Matthew’sPassion? How you wanted to sing it? How did it go again? Maybe I can hum it foryou.”

Simon gave a whimper; whether it was in response to Aria or his situationshe didn’t know. Aria drew in a breath, her shoulders aching and chest burning,and started to hum the tune.

Content Fiend

2012-01-18T21:48:00.000-08:00

I couldn't think of a good header, so here's this thing from my "stupid crap" folder. Click it to see full size.

If you've been watching my word count thingy on the sidebar (which, honestly, I hardly update so it wouldn't be surprised if nobody cares) I've been churning out a decent number of words these past several days. I managed to do 4k yesterday (in addition to writing two game reviews) which, while hardly my best (13k on Effulgent Corruption in one day, if I remember correctly, followed by 11k on Where Gods and Mortals Dance) is a step up compared to my recent slew of averages. I've been doing around 1,500 each day which, while passable doesn't meet my universal standard minimum of 2,000. We'll see if I can get it bumped up.

The good news is I'm finally getting really into this book (now that it's almost over...). Death's Aria has been sort of a "I really want to write this" project in the back of my mind for a long time, so getting it off my chest will be a relief. After that we'll do a speed edit before setting it aside and working on another project, as is usual, and I'll need some alphas/writing group to take a gander at it before I start a submitting spree.

I've decided my project following isn't going to be Naught But Glass, at least not right away. I'm actually planning on editing Effulgent Corruption, the start of what will probably be months and months of massive edits. I have a particular alpha reader who gives excellent comments, and she has been very uplifting in helping me decide that I really do want to give this book a second chance. Of course, this will mean cutting at least 1/3 of the book so it'll even be worth sending off, but I'm really excited to return to that world after leaving it for so long, and I'm hoping after some serious cleaning up this will return to its spot as my "best book ever."

Steelgods submissions have so far been fruitless, though I did have many, many requests for partials and one for a full this time, so we'll mark that as improvement (though honestly I think it was the query letter). If anybody who I submitted to reads this blog (odds are low...): thanks for the time to consider it; it's a big morale boost, even if you decide it isn't for you. That also means you'd better watch your inboxes for Death's Aria soon. ;)

I've been writing every day, and I'm trying to bump my other blog's reviews to two a day, so we'll see. Keep an eye on it! If only to see the insane number of video games I've played over the years. :D

That's it from me. Keep on writing.

SOPA/PIPA

2012-01-18T19:20:00.000-08:00

Today is internet blackout day. I was going to make a long post about how the internet has changed my life (me being very much the generation that fully embraced it culturally), earned me dozens of friends, provided me with a positive outlet for much of my creativity (and lots of time wasting), taught me hundreds of things, helped me woo my wife, made it so I could keep in contact with people I cared about that otherwise I'd never see again, presented me with new ideas, and generally changed the whole world as we know it...

...but everybody else pretty much had it covered, so I will just leave you with three things.

1. The Wikipedia blackout page gave me very literal chills. Screen-shotted here for posterity:

2. If you don't understand SOPA, PLEASE watch this video. Then everything will make perfect sense.

3. Contact your representative and let them know how you feel. This is big business trying to pull the wool over your eyes and saying it won't hurt the internet. It will. We are still a nation "By the people" (or I'd like to think so). Make your voice be heard.

And whatever you do, don't read @mpaa on twitter. Their half-truths and false information is so disgusting I can hardly stand it.

Blog Resurrection

2012-01-15T17:58:00.001-08:00

So you may have remembered the ill-fated Backlog Blog that I started up a while back in some attempt to blog more about video games and beat all the tons I have.

Needless to say, since then I've gotten a billion more retro games and not made any progress on my backlog. Brilliant, I know.

But you'll be pleased to know I've revived the blog as Nathan vs Video Games, with a new link and a new layout that doesn't look like some ghetto thing from the early 2000s. For now I will be focusing almost entirely on video game reviews, with a goal of writing one review every day this year (in addition to actually writing fiction every day this year) until I run out of games. I will be primarily doing modern games (PS2 onward), but every Wednesday I will be doing a Retro game review.

If you have any requests for reviews, let me know. I'm going to try and burn through my entire Xbox 360 library of games I've beaten, which should give me a hefty amount of content, but I'm also willing to try new games. I also will review games as I beat them (like today's review of Rayman: Origins) so that the reviews will be fresh.

I will also admit the reviews might not be the most exciting things to start with, but I'm certain my annoying and snarky attitude will pull through on my reviews eventually. Just wait until I review games I hate; that should prove interesting.

On the writing front, I'm still churning out words every day. I found you can stream Series 9 of Q.I. over the internet (hooray!) so my wife and I have something to watch again. After that we are considering taking the plunge into Dr. Who, though I'm not so certain I'm ready for it.

So I can keep pretending this is a writing blog, here's a bit from Death's Aria.

“Eat.” He [Greder] told Aria. “Though you won’t feel hunger in our world, thatdoesn’t mean your body no longer requires sustenance to survive.”

“So I did get the better end ofthe deal,” Simon chuckled, “seeing as there’s no way I can die again.”

“No,” Greder leaned back in his chair, “for you, spirit, it will justhelp stave it off.”

“Stave what off? Hunger?”

“No.”

Simon blinked, opening his mouth to ask the obvious question and thenstopped. He finished his bread in silence.

Happy Birthday to my wife!

2012-01-13T14:16:00.000-08:00

My lovely wife's birthday is today! Yay! We are celebrating by eating greek food at our favorite greek place (which is also super cheap) and then visiting all the stores/restaurants that give you free stuff on your birthday and cleaning them out.

You can celebrate her birthday by visiting and following her blog! She updates every day and posts fun things to cook, play (either on your tv or on a table :P), and read. So go check it out.

I'll celebrate by posting a picture of ALL OUR PLUSHIES. THERE ARE LOTS.

If you can name what all of these are from, you are smart. Or you just read my wife's blog.

In writing news, I am steadily writing every single day, though only about 1,500 every day. I'm trying to push myself back up to the usual 2,000 but it has proven oddly difficult; we'll see if I can manage it tonight. It's just this dumb book keeps hitting good stopping points every 1,500 words...thanks a lot, book.

And look, here's a bit from it because I haven't done that in a while and I need to pad this blog post. So here goes.

“Hey,” Aria said, knowing she couldn’t let the conversation die, forSimon’s sake. “You said you sang, right? And you wanted us to play a duet?”

“Yeah.”

“What song was it?”

Simon looked away from her, but it wasn’t because he was searching forunseen foes. Aria saw his ears turning red, the massive loss of his composureabnormal for him.

“Just a duet for violin and bass. Bach.”

“Which one?”

Simon shrugged. “You probably don’t know it.”

“Oh really? Try me.”

Simon gave her a sideways smile. “Seriously, it isn’t that well known.”

“Seriously yourself; don’t forget who you are talking too. I’m the creepyviolin girl, remember?”

“Oh, right.” Simon rolled his shoulders, breathing in a sigh. “It waspart of the St. Matthew Passion.”

“Which part?”

“You can’t possibly know all the parts; there’s like seventy orsomething.”

“Come on, just tell me.”

Simon sighed, defeated. “Fine. It was the Gebt mir meinen Jesum wieder.”

Aria paused, processing the information. “The Gebt mir meinen Jesumwieder.”

“Your accent is pretty awful, but yes.”

Aria blinked. “The aria.”

Simon flushed even redder. “Ah…yes.”

“So you were going to have Aria play an aria while you sung.”

“That was the plan.”

Aira couldn’t help herself; she startedlaughing.

- Death's Aria, Chapter some number in the teens

Writing with music

2012-01-11T09:47:00.000-08:00

Pic unrelated, but funny.

(This is a link heavy blog post, full of links to youtube music. Just so you know; who knows, maybe you'll find some new stuff you like)

So I've always listened to music when writing. Heck, even right now I switched off my podcast to listen to music instead so I could churn this sucker out. For me, I can't write unless I have some sort of music playing in the background. Maybe it's an ADD thing, maybe it's an imagination boosting thing, maybe it's habit by this point; who knows. I do know several other authors who don't listen to any music when they write, and others that (like me) have to listen to music when they write, so it seems to be a mixed bag.

On the same vein of "mixed bag," what people listen to and whether or not it has to relate to what they are writing seems to vary as well. Brandon Sanderson listens to all sorts of stuff when writing his books (techno, video game music, etc.) that isn't necessarily related to what he's writing about. Jason, as mentioned above, tends to listen to whimsical stuff that relates to his writing, and it has to be related for him to successfully write.

Myself, I'm sort of a mixed bag. I do have a few "rules:" 90% of the time the song can't have singing or words, because then I get too invested in the lyrics rather than actually writing. I also try and pick soundtracks that relate to the subject matter at hand, and then pick particular tracks relevant to the scene, though that isn't necessary. For example, I'll pick a creepy song for a creepy scene, but it isn't necessary. I tend to mostly listen to video game soundtracks, as for some reason movie soundtracks draw me out of my writing.

I also avoid repeats across books. I make iTunes playlists for each book I write (and then never delete them because I find it entertaining to go back and remember what I listened to), and there is hardly ever any crossover. This is usually because if I listen to a song I used on a previous book, it triggers that Pavlovian response to write those characters and that setting, rather than the one I'm in. Music has to always draw me into writing in order for it to work for me, which essentially makes almost every song or soundtrack a one-time-use affair.

-----

For fun, here's a list of what I listened to when writing a handful of my novels, with links. It's interesting to see how my tastes have changed, as well as how the different sounds completely changed the style of the book.

Lacrymosa - I wrote most of this book on my LDS mission, which means most of the background noise was the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, predominantly this song because it's awesome. When I got home and finally finished it, it was mostly Rhapsody of Fire and Dragonforce. This is really the only book that broke the "no lyrics" rule, which is probably why the book is awful.

Harbinger - This book is some weird fantasy western vampire angel hybrid abomination, and it didn't really have a defined soundtrack in retrospect. I did listen to this little western number from Cowboy Bebop, if only because 1. It's from the best episode of any anime, ever and 2. It's the only western song I could think off the top of my head. Whatever else I listened to has been lost to the passing of time, which is probably for the best. Oh wait, I did listen to the opening song of Fight Club a lot for some reason. Man, that movie is awesome.

Where Gods and Mortals Dance - Ah, here is where things get interesting. This was almost 100% Epica's The Score, specifically Unholy Trinity. Now, I'm honestly not the biggest fan of Epica, but this album was a purely orchestral release of their previous songs, and it worked pretty well. I also hit up a decent chunk of Final Fantasy Tactics, which also sort of fits the mood of the book (heavy political fantasy). Overall, it was mostly mellow, fantasy-sounding tracks, which makes sense given how the book pans out.

Paradise Seekers - Haibane Renmei. Lots of Haibane Renmei because, damn is that some quality music. Also the book drew (very obvious) inspiration from the show, so I guess it fits. I also listened to Within Temptation's Utopia single about twenty billion times (all three versions), again breaking my "no words" rule. For some reason that song didn't bug me. Oh, and Nightwish's The Escapist, because it has the actual phrase "Paradise Seeker" in it that made me want to use it in some book. Please don't sue, Nightwish.

The Might of the Steelgods - This one was a total mixed bag, and I honestly don't remember most of it. I think it was mostly Super Meat Boy for some weird reason. I also had a mix of Lost Odyssey in there, as well as selections from most Final Fantasy games. Oh, and Shadow of the Colossus. Lots of that.

Effulgent Corruption - This book took like seven months, so I went through a lot of music. It was about this time I discovered the Game of Thrones TV show, which was fantastic, so I listened to lots of that soundtrac k (and remixes). Then I discovered Nier (which is another dark, depressing fantasy story so hey, it fit) and listened to boatloads and boatloads of that. I also hit up a little bit of the Gladiator soundtrack for a phase, though it was mostly Nier and Game of Thrones.

The Gears of Anbar - This one was supposed to be some weird steampunk fantasy hybrid, but mostly it was me listening to Within Temptation's Iron about a billion times. Which, again, broke the "no lyrics" rule but hey...that song is a lot like Gears of Anbar. About war and being tempered and...ok I have no idea what this song is actually about but it has a kicking beat. I also did loads of the Bastion soundtrack, which has a sort of western/steampunk vibe to it. Pretty good stuff.

Death's Aria - Still writing this, but it also has a rather extensive soundtrack. I revived Nier for whatever reason, probably because I love the music. In fitting with it's gothic theme I've done a lot of Bloodrayne: Betrayal (a game which I don't own because the game was awful but the soundtrack is pretty good). I've also put some Castlevania: Symphony of the Night on there since, you know, more gothicy stuff. Nightwish's newest album, Imaginarium, only has about two tracks on it I like but the orchestration-only tracks on the special edition make great writing music for this book. Which I can't link to because technically it isn't out in the US except on digital copies. Oh well. Lastly, for the tense scenes, we are Binding of Isaac all over this place, as it fits wonderfully.

-----

Thanks for bearing with me. Hopefully you found some new music to listen to while you write. What do you listen to when you write? Do you listen to anything? Do you even like music?

Stat Tracking is Awesome, so are Macbook Airs

2012-01-05T15:42:00.000-08:00

This is what a google search for "stats" brought up

So my buddy Jason is working on a totally awesome new web service for writing groups, and we (his current writing group) are sort of "pre-alpha" testers. Which basically means its currently only in GoogleDoc form on a spreadsheet, but it's still really neat.

The general gist is you set a word count and a time goal, and every day you put the numbers you accomplished in (words written and hours spent). It then generates a bunch of fun stats (overall word count, words per hour, words per week, how long your writing "streak" is), etc. The nifty part is that it does this for everybody in your writing group, then stacks the stats competitively. And, since everybody else can see your stats, your whole writing group knows when you skipped out on a day.

For those who don't like to think of writing as a competition, I'm pretty sure this software is awful. But for stats whores (like myself), being able to see a bunch of information I'd never think to track is pretty cool. I have a set goal to bump my words-per-hour up to 2,000, which is extremely difficult. I also want to have the most "words written in one day" stat, thanks to this thing generating healthy competition. Hey, as long as it doesn't discourage, it can't hurt, right?

Jason's idea would be to make it a web service, and then have famous authors (like Brandon Sanderson) track their daily stats through it (or market it to other writing groups). It would be pretty cool to see how many words Brandon Sanderson or Dan Wells write in an hour, or every day.

So yeah. Stat tracking for fun and profit. Because I have a very mathematical brain, and breaking stuff down into numbers makes a lot more sense to me.

The current object of my desire

On a completely unrelated note, I went to the Apple store yesterday (which is always a mistake) and found myself again really wishing I owned one of those 11-inch Macbook Airs. Yes, I already have four-year-old Macbook Pro, and I also have the Hackintoshed Netbook (which unfortunately doesn't get much use in the cold season, since I use it mostly to write outside), but recently I've been thinking that combining those things into a single, more manageable writing machine might not be a bad idea (especially since if I sold the both of them it would be just about enough to buy the Air).

As an added bonus, internet legend John Scalzi posted on the same day about how the Macbook Air was the best purchase he made as a write r, and how extremely useful it ended up being, even when compared to his other laptops. Thanks, dude. You aren't making this easier to resist.

So yeah. Not super exciting over here, but I am writing every day. I haven't botched my "Write Every Day in 2012" Goal yet (good thing, it's only the 5th), even if my word count is pretty slow. Hopefully I'll pick up the pace soon.

That's it from me. Keep on rockin.

Review: Kindle Fire

2012-01-03T15:38:00.000-08:00

Review Time, Sucka

So as stated earlier, both my wife and I got Kindle Fires for Christmas from our employer. Since then I've spent a good deal of time working with the device, messing with the Amazon App store, and even rooted the device and made it basically an Android tablet. Before I get to the meat of this review, I'll simply give you a "TL;DR" version in case you don't like my rambling. Which will consists of a Pros/Con list.

Pros

- Relatively inexpensive ($199) for a tablet.
- Small, looks nice, has fairly good battery life.
- Screen is high resolution. HD movies look great.
- Decent assortment of apps from the Amazon store.
- Uses the Amazon cloud for pretty much everything. Extremely easy to get to your purchased Kindle books, mp3s, and more.
- Can upload your own MP3s to the free Amazon Cloud and stream them to your Kindle so long as you have internet.
- Interface/Skin over Android does what it needs to while keeping it simple.
- Web browser is fast, runs flash, and supports tabbed browsing.
- Amazon Prime members get loads of streaming videos that are integrated right into the device.

Cons

- Touch screen isn't very good. Compared to an iPad or iPhone, it can be either too sensitive or not sensitive enough. I had to mash my finger on some buttons for it to take, while when I used the keyboard it kept adding letters if I just brushed past them.
- Underpowered, especially compared to other tablets and even phones. Has difficulty running high-profile apps.
- No physical buttons. Other android devices have a back, tab, and home button on the device. All these are touch integrated on the Kindle, which is a massive pain. The lack of a volume control other then going all the way to an options menu is extremely obnoxious.
- Speakers are very weak.
- Limited to the Amazon App store. Can't install the full Android app store without rooting the device.
- Amazon deletes your roots with its automated updates. Which it updates whenever it wants, without warning.
- Too small to be a proper tablet, too big to be very portable.
- Extremely fragile (much like the iPhone 4S). Drop it and it's done.
- Reflective/color screen is much harder on the eyes than eInk, or even a traditional LCD monitor. (author's note: I am sensitive to this and prone to headaches; many people aren't. This is just personal taste)
- All the best apps are on the Android Store. Amazon's is extremely gimped, and they keep removing Apps like GoLauncher that would make the device more accessible. They also don't have any dedicated social networking apps, which is one of the main reasons I would use a tablet.
- No 3G like all the eInk Kindles. And since it's heavy on the Cloud integration, you have to have a WiFi connection in order to get the full benefit.
- Only 8 GB of space. So if you aren't in a WiFi range, you are extremely limited.
- Doesn't come with a USB cord to connect to a computer, unlike every other Kindle they sell. Why is this?

Blurb Opinion: If you want an eReader, get an eInk Kindle and a nice case. If you want a Tablet, get an iPad (or if you absolutely hate iOS/Apple, an Android Tablet). The Kindle Fire fits somewhere inbetween these two products, and suffers for it. Yes, it's a super-cheap tablet, but it's subpar on too many levels to recommend.

Long Review

Let me get something out of the way first: I might not be the ideal market for this device. I already own an eInk Kindle, an iPhone 4S, and a decent laptop computer. Pretty much I've got all my needs set, and this was before I was given the Fire. For the record, I LOVE my eInk Kindle, love the Amazon Kindle store, and think everybody should own one of these things. That being said, even though my expectations for the Kindle Fire weren't very high, I was really disappointed by it.

To better illustrate this point, I have made a high quality graphic using MS Paint, google image search, and bad copy/paste. You're welcome.

Here's how I figure technology works. You have your desktop. This sucker can do everything. Browse the internet, play games, edit movies, etc. It's basically, to use a lack of a better term, a computer.
Next you have your laptop. This thing isn't as powerful as your desktop, but it can still do the internet, play games at the "medium" graphics quality (vs the "ultra" for your gaming desktop rig), edit movies, do your social networking stuff, etc. It's basically a slightly less good desktop computer.
I'd put netbooks here but the iPad basically killed that market, so RIP and all that.
So then we have iPads/Tablets. These devices really have taken off, probably because they provide the most wanted features of a Laptop computer in a more compact and convenient package. They do the internet really well, have all your social networking covered, and even have quite a few good games on it (though not nearly as good or powerful as a laptop or desktop).
Then you have Smartphones, which are a lot like the tablets only more compact. The internet browsing isn't as good, but it's convenient because it doubles as a phone. It has all your social stuff, and has a good bit of games too. They are considerably more portable than any of the above products, which is a big selling point.
Then we have eInk Readers, which are devices dedicated solely for reading. Which, as you might guess, means they do it really well. They do it better than your phones, your iPads (if you don't like screens), and certainly your computers. That's about all they do, but they do it well.

And then we have this thing.

So you can see how, if you go down the line, we have features slowly being stripped until we get to the bare necessities. The problem with the Kindle Fire is that it tries to sit squarely somewhere between dedicated eReaders and Tablets, without really doing each very well. As an eBook reader, the glass screen an glare makes it impossible to read in bright sunlight, and can cause some people eye strain (read: me). On the flip side, it isn't a very good tablet. It's underpowered, which means apps load just slow enough to be annoying. Since the screen is small it's in that sort of lukewarm area with regard to web browsing: it's better than on my phone, but not nearly as good as it would be on an iPad. Locking the Fire into the Amazon Android store rather than the full Android Market is a massive mistake; there are no social networking apps, and pulling them up on the browser is inconvenient. The interface is also pretty bad if you try to do stuff other than what they want you to: you have a sort of "cover flow" of all your apps, books, and movies, which sounds great in theory except the touch recognition on it is completely horrible. You can favorite apps so they are always there (much like putting stuff on the "dock" bottom portion on an iPad or a real Android tablet), but even that is cumbersome.

The lack of physical buttons is a big bummer. The home and back buttons are touch-only, and they have a knack of receding right when you need them. There is no easy way to quickly change your music tracks without going to the upper menu, and the same goes for volume (which is the biggest bummer; not being able to change the volume with physical buttons is a massive oversight). This is only exacerbated by the fact the touch screen is not very responsive: it's hard to know when it's picking up your touch commands, often times it just seems to ignore them, and since everything depends on the touch screen interface, just navigating the UI is a chore.

I don't hate everything about the device, however, because I'm still a huge gadget nerd and love playing with new tech. When it comes to Netflix, streaming videos, and doing something simple on the internet like reading webcomics, the thing works like a dream. I've found it to be very useful for watching movies on Netflix, Amazon Prime, or GiantBomb while I'm in bed (when a laptop would be inconvenient). It's too bad that the built-in speaker is really quiet; my wife and I were watching A Bit of Fry and Laurie on Amazon Prime streaming at full volume, and we could hardly hear it over the house's air conditioning (which wasn't really that loud).

I was really hoping the .docx reader would be better (or at least include the Dropbox App which has a good built-in reader) so I could open up my own works and do basic editing on it, but considering how poor the touch keyboard is I don't see that happening. Also, if you do manage to get some non-Amazon store apps on it (through some back door ways, but luckily it doesn't require a full root) you can do some pretty cool things. This thing is the perfect size for playing emulated SNES games, with the touch controls working really well (though not so great for platformers, it is fantastic for RPGs). And, since Android is more open than iOS, once you figure that out you have boatloads of apps you can just throw on there (emulators, ho!). I haven't yet tested the PS1 emulator on it (which would be my benchmark with regard to how powerful this thing actually is), but the thing is just the right size to conveniently hold it like a controller and play. A phone would have been too small, and an iPad/Tablet would have been much too large. So hey, if you want to play pirated games by using a back-door method to load your emulator apps on it, it's a great device for that.

(Editor's Note: I don't download ROMs of games that I don't own the actual, physical cartridge of. A glance at my retro game collection should put whatever fears you have of that to rest)

Check out that awesome glare. Imagine trying to read off that.

A few more minor niggles. When you are reading a book, it is very limited in it's options with regard to text backgrounds. You can either have black text on BLASTINGLY BRIGHT WHITE, black text on a too-dark tan, or white text on black. Since the brightness options on the device are extremely limited (it's too bright, all the time), reading in the dark is eye-strain city. Come on, Amazon, you have a device that's way more powerful than your eInk reader, and you want people to use this thing like an eReader. Give me more options with my books. Why can't I have a really pale tan or gray background, so that the contrast doesn't burn my retinas from my brain? I read about 4-5% of Reaper Man on the Kindle Fire, then switched back to my eInk Kindle, and I couldn't believe how much better it was. I was going to read a whole book on the Fire before giving this review, but I keep having to either put the Kindle Fire a distance away so as to minimize the glare/headaches, or only read in really short bursts. I eventually just gave up and went back to my eInk Kindle which, for those who are curious, I have read about 8 Pratchett books on, most in 4-5 hour bursts in the middle of the night.

Amazon seems to hate rooting, because every update so far disables it. Also, if your kindle is rooted, it completely locks you out of the Amazon Prime Streaming Video, meaning you aren't getting your money's worth. The updates are completely mandatory and happen the minute Amazon detects it on WiFi, forcing you to update regardless of what you are doing. I've complained about Windows' super-intrusive method of forcing updates, but this is a whole new level of awfulness.

Thanks a lot. I didn't want a choice with this or anything.

Speaking of WiFi, that brings me to another problem: the storage size. Amazon only put 8 GB of space on this (6 useable), which is ample if you were just putting books on it, but if you want to use it as a music player, to store videos, or load it up with apps it's extremely limiting. Amazon's way around this is their whole "cloud" thing: you can easily (and always) get your books, mp3s, and videos you've purchased (from Amazon) from their cloud. It's worth pointing out that while Apple does this same thing, it also allows a Kindle app (and hopefully soon a Google Music app) which lets you get ALL your stuff. Amazon is shutting everybody else out except themselves, probably because this thing is like a massive cash register for them. Anyway, this sounds totally awesome on paper. I mean, the cloud is awesome, right? Having access to everything, everywhere? That's rad!

Only 1.17 GB for Apps? Great. That's one copy of Infinity Blade, and that's it. Not like this thing could run it, anyway.

Yeah, except it isn't everywhere. Because it doesn't have 3g/4g. Only Wifi. Which means you'll probably only use it at home, or at free wifi spots, assuming you can get on (the wifi can be spotty). The second you are out of a wifi spot, you are done. 8 GB of space, sucker. Hope that's enough (hint: it really isn't. My phone has 16 GB and it's a constant fight for me to try to have everything I want on there). The lack of 3G really kills this thing, because hey...if I'm at home and I want to watch a movie/listen to music, wouldn't I just, you know, use my laptop (which has way better speakers)? Or my phone? Or...anything else that has a better UI with regard to music?

Lastly, put a password on your Kindle Fire. Because the second you buy it, it auto-registers to your amazon account. Conveniently, they pre-loaded the thing with an Amazon App store, which has one-click purchasing enabled. Which means if you lose it, someone steals it from the "KINDLE FIRE INSIDE" box in shipping, or your two-year-old gets his hands on it, you could find yourself buying stuff you don't want (or know about). There are currently no security options to disable this, no way to delete the Amazon store app, and the only protection you have is the usual screen-lock password. There are no parental controls of any kind, either to block material on Prime Video or purchases made on their app store. It's clear Amazon wants you to BUY BUY BUY on this thing, to the point of it being a security risk. Huge, huge oversight.

Turn this thing on.

So, after reading this massive post of me complaining (sorry about that), I'm pretty sure I don't need to say whether I recommend one of these, right? However, I do have one positive thing to say about this: It'll force more competitive prices from other (better) tablets. It sold like hotcakes over the holiday, quickly becoming the second best selling tablet of all time (iPad still being #1). Already other tablet makers like Sony (and soon Apple) have begun to consider slashing prices of their tablets by $100 (to $299ish) to compete. So hey, I'm all fine for getting a better tablet for a lot cheaper.

As it stands, however, hold off. I'm hoping that, like the massive jumps the eInk Kindle has made, the second generation of the Kindle Fires will be much better. For now, though, if you really want an eBook reader, get an eInk Kindle. If you have to have a tablet, try either an iPad or one of the many Android Tablets.

I really wanted to like the Kindle Fire. I got it for free, after all, and I love free stuff. I'm not looking a gift horse in the mouth here, I'm just giving my honest opinion. I really, really wish I could find stuff to do with this thing. So far I mostly use it to read Order of the Stick, and watch GiantBomb play Chrono Trigger. I still use my iPhone for all my music and portable gaming/social networking needs, and I use my eInk reader to read all of my books. Amazon took a risk trying to put a product in a spot that nobody knew they wanted (sort of like how Apple did the same thing with the iPad), and their sales I guess prove they weren't wrong. It just really isn't a quality device, and I cannot recommend it while there are better options on the market.

Moral of the story: Buy this instead.

2012 Writing Goals

2012-01-02T22:55:00.000-08:00

First things first: I don't do New Years Resolutions. They are trendy, encouraging, and everybody forgets they exist by the time February rolls around. In my never-ending quest to Be Awesome, should I find a particular character flaw in myself, I immediately set about trying to fix it. I don't need some arbitrary measurement of time for me to start bettering myself.

And now that I've sufficiently made myself look like a pretentious ass, I'm going to give you my writing goals for 2012. Because it's the cool thing to do.

This year is going to be the year I either acquire and agent, sell a book, or both. It's gonna happen. I'm not going to let 2013 show up until it does. But seeing as that's not entirely in my control, my best bet is to work my butt off in every aspect that I do have control over, which means I'm going to be doing a lot of writing this year.

Goal #1: Write every single day in 2012

I've been taking Sundays off. I'm not doing that anymore. 2012 is the year that I write something new every single day. My ultimate minimum is 250, but that is only excusable when I'm doing something else writing related on the side (planning, submitting, editing). I will put 250 words of new fiction into a Word document every single day of 2012. They might be great, they might be crap, who knows. All I know is I'm not going to stop for nothin. My "real" word count goal is back to 2,000 (I bumped it up to 2,500, but recently I've only been doing 1,500), in case anybody was wondering.

Goal #2: Submit 2+ books to agents and editors in 2012

This requires that I actually have two books that I'm confident enough to send out. This has actually been a big problem for me, mostly because I never feel like a work (especially after leaving it for a while) is good enough for anyone to want to pick it up. Currently Steelgods 1 is out, and Death's Aria will probably go out in 2012 as well. That leaves one other book (either an edited Effulgent Corruption or Where Gods and Mortals Dance or something new) to be sent out into the rejection ether. I've been really reluctant to send stuff out, and it's time to get over that. I produce new material so fast that I'm wasting potential sales because I jump to the next project too quickly. So NO MORE. Going to submit like mad this year, whether anybody wants my stuff or not.

Goal #3: Love writing like I used to

I still love to write. If I didn't, I would have stopped and just played Xbox or Super Nintendo instead of forcing myself to write. But recently it's become more of a chore, like work rather than a fun hobby. This shouldn't be the case. I started writing way back when I was a kid because I thought I had fun stories to tell. I picked it back up in 2006 because I thought those stories would be interesting enough that other people would want to read them, and I would go crazy if I kept them in my brain. I'm going to bring that back. The only books I end up writing are the ones I care a lot about. So, I'm going to write those books. If I end up writing a year of just crappy urban vampire fantasy, so be it (though the odds are low). If I end up writing some dark, emo, melodramatic crap about dead teenagers, then so be it. It's what I want to write, so I'm writing it. I'm pretty sure that if I write every day, I'm going to eventually get so burnt out that I'm going to write an awful book (or short story) that I'll never want to show anybody. But I don't care. As long as I'm having a good time, that's what matters.

Goal #4: Try writing some short stories

I don't even know how to plan short stories, so this is going to actually be pretty tough. That being said, it's something I've always wanted to try, so I'm going to give it a go. I might churn a few out in-between novels as a sort of "warmdown."

Goal #5: Write a middle-grade book

Years ago when I was a middle-grade aged person, I wrote a book called Welcome to Riverville. It was a collection of short stories about a normal kid named James and his best friend Billy, who thought he was a cowboy. Such adventures included blasting a burglar with super-soaker guns, getting out of babysitting using porcupines and some ingenuity, and rescuing a dog that had fallen off a cliff by super-gluing Billy's collection of toy rattlesnakes together to make a rope (since all the rope in the city had been used by Ms. Timpernickle in the "worlds longest ball of stuff" competition. She was off competing in the nationals when the dog incident happened).
The point is that we actually printed this thing out and bound it, and apparently my mother (who is part of a supervising group of teachers who overlook the homeschooling of disabled kids) uses the book all the time when helping her kids learn to read or reading aloud to them. Apparently it's a huge hit.
The point of this story (besides tooting my own horn) is that my mother is constantly telling me I should rewrite it and try and sell that instead of all my fantasy crap. So...why shouldn't I try writing middle-grade? I've had some ideas bouncing around for a while, and maybe I could produce something entertaining. Let's give it a shot.

Goal #6: Be Awesome

Self-explanatory.

2011 - A Writing Recap

2012-01-01T00:32:00.000-08:00

Happy 2012 and all that. New year, new times, new goals, though it always just feels like the last one. Time for a recap of everything that went down in 2011, and maybe I'll do another post with my writing goals.

Writing Stuff

- From January to July I wrote Effulgent Corruption, my longest and most complex book yet. I averaged over 2000 words a day consistently over this entire time.

- In May I epublished Paradise Seekers, after a hefty edit, my first entry into the eBook world. It sold decently, though not as much as I would have hoped. The jury is still out with regard to my personal future with Kindle and eBook publication. Despite this all, it was a fantastic learning experience, both on how to edit and polish a book as well as all the work that goes into getting everything off the ground.

- In August I wrote The Gears of Anbar. It was 112,000 words in under a month, so put that in your pipe and smoke it (whatever that means). It is currently my personal favorite.

- In September and October I edited The Might of the Steelgods, though it was more of a total rewrite. It still has some cleaning up to do, but it's the biggest edit I've ever done on a work.

- For the first part of November I started Naught But Glass, but I wasn't feeling it so the project got put on hold.

- In December I started Death's Aria, though I eventually got distracted by the whole holidays thing. Work on Death's Aria resumes full force today (1/1/2012).

Convention Stuff

- In February I attended Life, the Universe, and Everything on BYU campus. It was a decent experience. Honestly I go to LTUE these days mostly to just see the local authors I like and buy their new books to support them. Luckily, there are loads of awesome local authors.

- In May I attended one day of Conduit. I was able to meet Michaelbrent Collings, whom I had been stalking on Facebook for a good while, so that was a major awesome perk. The panels were...decent. Again, another meet-n-great for local authors.

- In August I attended WorldCON, which was quite the blast. I met lots of my favorite authors, lots of editors and agents, and overall had a good time. Honestly, I feel that was a big breaking point in my convention-going career; I finally was able to speak with lots of people about both what they were working on and my current stuff.

- In October I went to World Fantasy in San Diego. This was also a fantastic experience. I was able to speak with even more agents that I'd been trying to contact for a long while, as well as the usual bunch of authors and editors. Plus, it was a lot of fun.

Career Stuff

- I finished receiving my hearty batch of Paradise Seekers rejections shortly after deciding to ePublish it. So that book is basically closed at this point.

- Paradise Seekers was published to the Kindle store and others. It saw little success, but I do not regret the experience in the slightest. As mentioned above I learned a lot, and I plan on applying this to my future.

- The Might of the Steelgods rewrite was submitted and saw more success than any of my works in the past. Several partials, one full request, and more. Honestly, I think it was a combination of actually meeting most of these people at World Fantasy and the fact that my query letter was boss hog. I decided to screw convention and just write one I thought would be interesting to read, and so far it has paid off reasonably well. We'll see what happens with that from here, as it is still out with a handful of people.

Stats?

- I wrote 500,000 new words this year (almost exactly). This is not counting any of the Paradise Seekers or Steelgods edits. If I were to count the Steelgods edit, we'd be looking at almost 600,000 words. That averages to about 50,000 words a month, and I didn't write at all in November minus maybe two days.

- My goal I made at the end of 2010 was to write five books this year. I didn't make it; I got about two and a half with some change. I'm actually a bit disappointed in this, if only because in 2010 I wrote three books. Granted, I wrote about 350,000 words in 2010, so technically I crushed my previous word count, but the point still stands. I want three books a year as a minimum from here until the day I die, so I'm going to have to bump up my efforts (or write more YA books).

Stuff I Learned / Random Ramblings

- I like writing YA better than Epic Fantasy. YA is faster, the books are shorter, and they aren't (usually) as complicated as adult fantasy fiction. Writing YA is less stressful for me than writing adult, and honestly my writing style has leaned towards YA since the moment I started. I'm considering in 2012 going for broke and just writing tons of YA novels to see how I feel about it all. This is still up in the air.

- I do best when I write consistently, when I write outside, and when I have a writing group. Currently, I do not have an active writing group. Life has been too busy for me to actively participate in several new ones I scoped out, and the current group has been too busy to for any reading to happen. This has been a major burden on my writing and motivation. Add the fact it's winter and too cold for me to go on walks or write outside, and there's a reason I've been sluggish (this also seems to happen every year).

- Kindles are fragile. I broke my eInk one 10 days out of warranty. Amazon was nice enough to replace it for free (though all my famous people signatures are gone with it), and now I'm extra careful. I love reading on Kindles, though, more than books by a substantial amount. I will probably never go back (except for comic books and their ilk).

- I've hit a point where my intended career is frustrating me. Before I took it all seriously it was more of me just writing for my own pleasure and not caring how things turned out. Then I began to become more dedicated, determined to be the very best I could in every regard and learn everything possible from conventions, classes, etc. Now, I honestly think I've gotten most everything I need to know covered (I understand how to write, how the business works, how to motivate myself, and what I need to produce in order to succeed), and all that remains is the breakthrough. Since I am no longer seeing constant, substantial progression, things have become stressful. I'm looking at other career options as backups more seriously, and though I'm continuing to bang my head against the door of publication/success, it's no longer a passive thing. I'm ready for this to happen. I'm ready to make the changes necessary to write for a living. I'm ready for awful edits, months and months of them, if it means seeing a book in print at the end. I'm ready, but it hasn't started yet. And so I keep banging my head in frustration, waiting.

- That being said, I've also started to regain the whole "who the hell cares, I'm just writing for my own pleasure" bit that started this whole fiasco. Death's Aria is both a fun experiment and me just writing something because I thought it would provide me entertainment. Whatever book I write after will be written because I'm completely sold on it, and I'm super excited about it. Which means it might be Steelgods 3. I love those books and the characters and their plots (and future plots), and even if nobody ends up buying them I'll still love 'em and am going to finish that freaking series because I think they are awesome. So take that and stick it in your pipe alongside whatever I told you to stick in your pipe previously and smoke it too. :P

That's it for my massive new years post. Despite me sounding like a jaded, grumpy grandpa, it's been a fantastic year for me. Total blast through-and-through, and I'm excited to make 2012 even better.

Keep on writing, keep it real.

Steelgods, eBooks, more

2011-12-28T15:54:00.000-08:00

As much as I think J. A. Konrath is kind of a massive jerk, there is no denying the man has made a crapton of money off his eBooks. As one of the early adapter of the Kindle market, he worked hard, got his name out there, wrote quality thrillers (and wrote consistently) and is now reaping massive amounts of rewards from it. Like I've said, I certainly respect him and it's totally awesome that he's pioneering this new way to write books, and the numbers can't be ignored (I'm just saying he has a tendency to be...blunt about his opinions).

My only beef with the whole "eBook Revolution" is the successful people still have a tendency to ignore the thousands of eBook writers (good writers, mind) that still sell next to no copies. It's easy to say "I'm successful, and look, here are two more people that are successful! So clearly this is the best option for everybody!" but what about all the other people who were taking it totally seriously, working on getting their name out there, and still didn't see more than a hint of success? It's easy to dismiss them as "oh, they didn't try hard enough" but the fact of the matter is that luck is still part of the equation. Just as it is with traditional publishing, luck on being accepted and selling a novel (and it doing well) is still prevalent in the eBook world. The only difference (and one of the appeals of eBooks, if you are the kind of person who likes this) is that your failures are completely your own in the eBook sense. With traditional publishing, you first have to gain approval of an agent, then approval of an editor, then (often times) that editor's boss, and then once it's out there you have to gain approval of the readers. The eBook scheme skips directly to the readers, but also puts all the work squarely on the author's shoulders. Also, not having a physical product can decrease the amount of exposure (a book will be on a bookstore shelf, even if it is hidden away in the back). You can't really schedule signings for an eBook (unless everybody brings their Kindles).

Granted, I know lots of the responsibility of representation still falls on the author when he/she is published by a publishing house, but at least you have a hint of a leg up.

Anyway, the point of this is how I personally will apply this to my business model. I've already put Paradise Seekers out and squarely fallen in the 98% of Kindle publishers: I didn't even make enough to pay off my cover artist. Steelgods is currently seeing the most success with agents and editors of all my work so far (I'd like to think it's a better book, but honestly I'm thinking its the query that's improved), but the looming stormcloud of impending rejection still hovers overhead. Also, unlike Paradise Seekers, Steelgods actually has a second book finished (and a third, fourth, fifth, and sixth plotted), so if Steelgods falls off the bus, it's taking the rest of the series with it (unless it gets a total re-structure and re-submission in the future).

The fact of the matter is that I write really fast (don't use this last month as an example; it has been on/off with regard to word count). Both Steelgods were single-month projects, and I intend to keep it that way with the rest of the series. Death's Aria, which was unfortunately positioned on the same month as Christmas and New Years, will be finished in two months at the very most. Paradise Seekers was also a one-month project, though I will admit it was more of an experiment than a "greatest hit" of what I've written.

If all the Kindle market needed to be successful was a blitz of book-flooding, I could probably pull that off. I've decided to design my own covers from here on out (I know Photoshop and Illustrator as well as the next person, and there are plenty of free public images just waiting to have a boatload of effects filters thrown over them) should I take the Kindle route, to cut back on costs. I'm still not sold on that being my main source of publishing (or if I'm even going to go back to Kindle publishing), but it's interesting considering it.

That's it for now. Merry Christmas and all that, and have a good 2012. Maybe I'll make a New Years Resolution post. Maybe not.

Merry (belated) Christmas!

2011-12-26T23:27:00.001-08:00

Why I own a Mac: Adventures in Windows

2011-12-20T17:46:00.000-08:00

Disclaimer: While I do prefer Macs, I (usually) have nothing against other OSes. I don't consider myself a Mac elitist, I just prefer them. I have duel-booted Windows and OSX (and sometimes Linux) on all my Mac computers, because I like being able to play games. I do own an iPhone, but I also own an Android tablet (Kindle Fire) and am perfectly satisfied with it as well. Really, it's an operating system, I don't understand how people get so upset about what other people like to use on their computers.

However, this anecdote was far too entertaining to not share, so here we go.

You wanna know why I own a Mac, even if it means taking crapfrom everybody? Well, here you go.

Bec bought Office 2010 from work, because she's been usingOffice 2003 since...well, 2003. A few years ago we upgraded her from dumpy32-bit Vista to better 64-Bit Windows 7. We had to do a clean install, so shewas able to install her 32-bit version of Office 2003 just fine.

Skip ahead to now.

Bec buys the software. She tries to install it after alengthy 2 GB download. It gets to about 75% when it throws up an unknown errorand crashes.

We re-download it and try again. Same error. I manage tonavigate MS's KB articles and find out this random error is actually becausethey gave us the 32-bit version, and instead of checking compatibility beforeinstalling it just installs and crashes with a random error. Remember: this isfirst party software from a first party distributor. All this is Microsoftowned.

I check back on the site. After logging in and confirming apurchase we manage to find a faq. In the middle of the faq, under a tiny bulletpoint, it says they only sell the 32-bit version. Note that you can only get tothis AFTER purchasing the product; I tried on my computer without signing inand it was inaccessible. Oh, and as a bonus? No refunds.

So now I have to PIRATE a version of MS Office 2010 so thatwe can use what we paid for. Fair enough, I pirate a 64-bit version of astraight disc rip. I have to install Alcohol 52% and mount the ISO like a fakedisc, wasting more of my time, but at least I have it.

I go to install it and…bam, throws up an error before evengetting to the setup screen. It seems that in order to install the software Ihave to DELETE the installer left behind by the OLD 32-BIT VERSION that was puton in secret. Ok, whatever, I delete it. Of course it forces a restart. Afterit reloads I try to install again. ANOTHER error. This time, it says since Bechas a 32-bit version of Office 2003, in order to install the 2010 version thatis 64-bit (and the only version that’ll run on her OS), I have to delete that. Ok, fine.

I go to install it using control panel. Again, first partysoftware installed on a first party OS. I load it up. It “prepares touninstall” for about a minute. It then “gathers resources to uninstall Office2003.” The box goes away.

Nothing happens.

I try it again. Same thing. Crashes. First party softwarewith a broken uninstall.

No biggie, Norton does this all the time and they haveinstallers. I google “Office 2003 Installer” and find MS’s Official way touninstall it. Look that over a minute, if you find it. See how it has like tensteps? Great. So it links me to a site to download the uninstaller. I get tothat page and, guess what? There’s about a billion language updates, but nouninstaller. Fantastic. Again, this is the official Microsoft site. For firstparty software. On a first party OS.

So I finally find a link on their site and click it and…ittakes me to the Microsoft Office site where it tries to sell me Office 2010 buthas no uninstaller. Yes, really. I google the software name: same link, samething. Either the file is too old or their links are bad, because there is noway I’m getting this damn thing off.

So I have a last thought. I go into our closet, drag ourmassive tote of technology stuff out, dig to the bottom and finally find theOffice 2003 32-bit disc. I shove that puppy in and hit “run setup.” It opensthe file in explorer instead of launching the executable. So I open theSetup.exe. It takes about two minutes before getting me to a menu, where I FINALLYcan Uninstall Office 2003. To my incredible surprise, five minutes later afterit’s gone it doesn’t require arestart.

So I go to install it again. Another error. Apparently, Becinstalled an add-on to Office 2003 that allowed it to read Office 2007 files(ex. .docx vs .doc). Instead of just deleting this when we uninstalled, say,the ENTIRE OFFICE SUITE, it decided this should hang out and Office wouldn’tlet me install until it was gone. I go into control panel (because this doesn’thave a disc if control panel breaks the uninstall) and…it deletes. But itrequires a restart. Even though the software it was tied to is gone. Awesome.

So FINALLY, afterdownloading Office twice legally, pirating it, installing a third party programto run it, uninstalling three separate programs, and digging out an old disc,the software finally installs.

And Windows forces an update restart in the middle of theinstallation process.

Let’s compare this to when I updated Pages to the latestversion, which is the Mac’s version of Word. And, to keep things fair, myoriginal Pages install was on Leopard, and I’m currently running a 64-bitversion of Lion, two OS levels up. Here is what I did.

- Openedthe App Store

- Boughtthe update.

- Hit“update.”

- Waitedabout five minutes. I played VVVVVV while I did this.

- Itwas done. No restart, no nothing, no deleting the old version. Ran perfectly onlaunch.

Say what you want, but THIS, dear reader, is why I own aMac.

When Infodumps Go Right

2011-12-20T14:48:00.000-08:00

This was the second image I found when I Googled "infodump." In retrospect, I'm very grateful SafeSearch was on.

Infodumps. We all know what they are (but here's an infodump about infodumps anyway). Basically, it's when somebody in the story (either the narrator, another character, or the main character him/herself) buckles down and blabs about everything the reader needs to know. I put emphasis on reader here because a common stigma (and problem) with infodumps is they dump stuff the characters already know. Essentially, it's a paragraph, chapter, or section that focuses on explaining things that will need to be known in order for the rest of the book to progress. Usually this entails a bit of foreshadowing, a lot of expository dialogue, and loads of text while people don't do things.

A classic example is the chapter The Council of Elrond from The Lord of the Rings. Basically, Tolkien needed his readers to be up to speed on the world's events, the significance of the ring, and the exact details regarding the quest. Unlike the movies, The Fellowship of the Ring didn't start with the backstory regarding Sauron getting his finger cut off and the importance of the ring of power. While Gandalf does provide a bit of information to Frodo back in Hobbiton, it's more of a mini-infodump to tide him over until he's in Rivendell and can get the whole thing.

Growing up I hated this chapter, especially on re-reads. I already knew everything Elrond was saying, and the chapter is really really long. There is very little in terms of actual story progression: basically we are getting a history lesson that is capped off by finally saying what everybody should do. You'll note that in the movie (as mentioned above) they essentially broke this scene into two pieces: gave the history as a prologue, explained what needed to be done during the actual scene. This helped the movie flow faster.

So how do we "fix" infodumps? Well, there's several ways. The first is to just forego them completely. A clever enough writer can explain everything the reader needs to know about their world, characters, and magic through scenes and dialogue. This way the action keeps flowing without heavy explanation. The Way of Kings, despite being an incredibly wordy book, does this fantastically. The Name of the Wind, despite having several scenes set in schools and with instructors, never falls into the trap of straight infodumping: something is always happening that caused the infodump. It's that other trope scene we all love: where Luke is being trained by Obi-Wan or Yoda, and they are actually teaching the audience lots about the Force rather than just Luke.

It's worth noting, however, that doing this wrong can make your book extremely difficult to read. Many readers like having it told to them straight; it gives them the big picture and makes everything fall into place. Having to extrapolate everything from scenes and dialogue can be difficult, especially if you are trying to cater to a younger audience, so you might have to throw in some little, more concrete infodumps as a foundation for your explanations set through dialogue and scene.

The obvious trap to avoid (as I've said already) is to just spout information about your world for a chapter without anything interesting happening. Sometimes it's necessary, and if your world is interesting enough it's easier to forgive. If you are doing it as a long dialogue, having characters interject or ask questions can also keep the pacing and make it less of "storytime for the sake of the reader." This seems to be a common problem with new authors. You have this awesome world, awesome magic, and you are just dying to let that cat out of the bag. You've waited five chapters, dropping hints and subtle references, but now you can't hold out any longer. You explain everything in great detail, your awesome ideas and fantastic world down to the minute detail, and your audience all puts your book down and goes back to playing Skyrim.

Last point: determining what goes into an infodump. Eventually, no matter how good you are, you'll probably have to give in and explain some stuff eventually. Tolkien did it, so that means it's totally legit. What isn't legit is over-explaining, or giving too much information. As stated above: fantasy writers often are planners, with grandiose visions of worlds and magics and races and all sorts of things. It's hard to restrain yourself from just explaining everything at once (after all, you are doing an infodump anyway, what could it hurt? Right?). Don't. It's a universal rule to only tell characters (and the reader) exactly what they need to know right then, and then trickle down the rest of the details throughout. Provide the foundation for the house, and maybe a few walls, but don't furnish the whole thing in one go. Give only what is needed, and the rest will come throughout the rest of the story.

-----

The only reason I brought this up is I'm in the middle of an infodump chapter in Death's Aria. I usually hate writing these. I'm bored by infodumps, and so writing them is doubly painful. However, I'm really enjoying it this time around. Questions I've had about the world are being answered (this might be the fault of discovery writing, to be honest), a stage is being set for the rest of the novel, and after the infodump is dropped the second act kicks in full swing. It's an exciting time (especially since the characters dumping all this info are interesting), and it's (finally) getting me pumped to write this novel.

The first chapters are still awful, in case you were wondering, but we'll get back to those later.

Write on, write on.

2011-12-15T10:55:00.000-08:00

I apologize for my blogging absence this past little while. Life, it seems, is insistent on keeping me busy. There are a few interesting things that have happened recently, however.

First off, I had a birthday! So I'm old now (or older). It was a pretty low key affair, with both my wife and I taking work off to basically hang out. I got the oil changed on the car (woo), had a good time just maxing and relaxing, and had a great homemade sweet n' sour chicken dinner.

As for presents, I got a copy of Gears of War 3, a buttload of Nutella, but the best present was this:

Aw yeah

My wife was researching older TVs because a while back I mentioned our retro games would probably play/look better on an older television than on our LCD. She looked it up and found Sony Trinitrons are unanimously the most popular older televisions for retro gamers. She was going to buy one online but their prices were a bit high ($50+), so we ended up going out and looking at thrift stores on my birthday just for fun. Lo and behold, in the first store we looked in we found the exact one my wife wanted, and for extremely cheap too. We snatched it upand brought it hope and you can see it there, attached to the NES, SNES, and N64. We borrowed some furniture that wasn't being used by our upstairs neighbors and set the whole thing up. And there it is! Now the writing room has an added bonus of being packed full of retro video games to further distract me from writing.

-----

Speaking of writing, Death's Aria is going decently. I've taken a few days off writing due to general stress and it being my birthday, but I'm getting back into the groove now. Not much to report other than that; it's going pretty quick and I'm shooting for a usual 2.5k/day goal.

That's it from me for now. Expect a review of the Kindle Fire shortly. I jailbroke/rooted mine and put a bunch of emulators on it (as you can see, I already own the retro games, so I don't feel guilt about this :P) so I'm liking it a bit better now.

Kindle Fire, Yo!

2011-12-07T12:18:00.001-08:00

For those who know (or don't know), I work a part-time day job doing phone tech support at NuSkin (where my wife also works). Anyway, it's a pretty decent job if you don't mind doing call center stuff, but what makes working here AWESOME is when Christmas rolls around and they throw presents your way. NuSkin had a record year this year, so as a reward (in addition to a few bundles of cash) everybody got a Kindle Fire!

Yep, this thing.

Now both my wife and I got original flavor Kindles last year for Christmas (and I promised a review but never gave one, but here is my new review: THEY ARE AWESOME YOU SHOULD GET ONE THEY ARE ONLY $80 NOW DUDE), so I'm left wondering what the crap I'm going to use this thing for. So how about I compare it to the original Kindle and write a review?

...later?

See, I just got this thing yesterday. For those not "in the know" about Kindles, most of them use eink technology, which basically means it reads exactly like ink on paper. It's fantastic, and as somebody who stares at screens all day at work (then at screens all night when either writing or playing video games or whatever), it's a HUGE load off of eyestrain. It really is just like reading a book, which is why I think the original Kindles are fantastic and any book lover should grab one.

This thing, on the other hand, is essentially a stripped-down Android tablet with a full color screen and glass on the outside and all that. Basically a cheaper iPad, complete with apps, movie watching, etc. This means no eink, despite this still being heavily marketed as an ereader. So...does it work?

Well, I'm going to read through a few books on it before giving my final review. Out of the box? I don't like reading on it, frankly. Movie watching is great (I'm a Prime member so I have both Netflix and Prime's video library to pull from) and apps are...there (I have enough of them on the iPhone and the iPhone is more portable so...). Internet browsing is pretty good but I hate their keyboard (it doesn't register taps as correctly as the iphone/ipad does, despite it being bigger than my iphone). It runs pretty smooth but I have had a few missed taps already, especially with trying to hit the tiny gear "settings" button in the corner.

So yeah, that's my new Christmas toy. Expect a review when I get around to it. Currently I'm preferring the original Kindle, but hey...who knows. Let's finish Reaper Man on the Fire and see how that turns out.

Killing Darlings: First Chapters

2011-12-06T13:24:00.001-08:00

You gonna die.

As any follower of my blog is probably aware, my biggest difficulty with editing is my attachment to the original manuscript. Often times I'm fully aware a manuscript has problems, but my sort of fervent devotion to what is obviously crap makes editing more obnoxious than it should be.

This blog post doesn't really have much to do with that. It has to do with awful first chapters.

Brandon Sanderson on Writing Excuses has frequently pointed out that the first chapters are what tend to go through the most rewrites. As a discovery writer, I can echo this sentiment whole-heartedly. First chapters are often considered the most important part of book with regard to hooking readers. After all, if you can't get 'em in the first 10 odd pages, a reader will probably set a book down for something more interesting. So as authors we sort of get attached to our first chapters, wanting to be certain they are the best ever, and so when we produce something that seems to fit the bill we latch on.

When, in truth, we should kill it.

I can honestly say that every book I've ever written has an awful first chapter, and some of those extend to first scenes or entire first parts. For me, I swear this issue seems compounded with the discovery writer issue: when I'm starting a new novel, I usually don't have either the flow of the book or the flow of the main character down when I start. That's something I have to figure out by writing it. How will this character's voice play out? How will he/she react? While I have the general sense of a character's motives, personality, etc. it hasn't really been tested.

Which means my first chapters usually end up like this:

1. The main character (and whatever side characters are around him/her) is completely two-dimensional, acting off my basic idea of how he/she should act. This makes everything they say completely predictable and utterly boring.

2. People act completely off the wall randomly because I've realized #1 and am trying my damndest to not let it happen again HOW IS THIS HAPPENING IN ANOTHER BOOK I'M GOING TO HAVE TO SCRAP ALL THESE CHAPTERS ARGH.

3. Usually the actual plot is fine and interesting, because I need my "hook," but the writing style, pacing, and characters are completely wrong.

4. They all slowly get refined down until a chapter or so (or more, if the book is particularly bad) in, until we finally hit the final product and everything is great for the rest of the book.

So...what does this mean for me? Well, it means I have some editing to do.

I have Gears with an alpha reader currently, and she is very good at pointing out the inconsistencies with Cevan (and everybody else's) character during the first portion of the book. This is also the only part of the book Writing Group 2.3 got through (pity, since I swear it gets better) and the reaction was similar: I had no idea what I was doing. There's plot there, it's interesting, but what the heck is going on with the characters? Who knows.

I'm also suffering this problem with Death's Aria, so much so that, even only five chapters in, I know that I'm going to have to change a good portion of the beginning. While I still refuse to go back and edit until a book is finished, it's like a looming dread over the rest of the book. The first part of a novel is so important and also really exciting. You meet these characters, who will be taken on crazy journeys only a few chapters later. You are introduced to clever subtleties of the world and get really excited to see where things are going. These really have to be good, or else your novel will suffer.

Like mine do. So watch out Gears, Death's Aria, and the rest of you. You may be safe for now, but we are going to "cut a bit off the top" at my next available opportunity. It might take one rewrite or it might take ten, but you are going to behave and you will like it!

Here I go again

2011-12-02T12:48:00.001-08:00

Death's Aria is officially back on track. I finished the chapter I left hanging last month, and am thinking of fun idea. I'm going to be slamming through this book as fast as possible, hopefully with enough time left before the next semester to take a break before tackling Naught but Glass again. I'm guessing that's going to mean I need about 60-70k in three weeks...ish. Easy. Assuming I don't start a new character in Skyrim.

Speaking of Skyrim, here's the main theme! It's awesome!

Listen to that when writing about fantasy and stuff! It'll make it more awesome!

Not much more from me. I'm excited to get writing again, and to get this book finished and sent out. I'm still waiting back on Steelgods (got another rejection yesterday), but the best way to keep my mind off it is just to write more, so there you go.

In completely unrelated news, a new Nightwish album (as mentioned before) came out and...uh...it's ok. I'm actually sort of let down that it isn't really what I expected after waiting almost five years from Dark Passion Play, but it's Nightwish and it has a cool song with bagpipes and METAL, so I guess I can't complain.

Oh hey, here's the theme played by Lara, my favorite youtube person. The Skyrim theme, not Nightwish.

Rejection, hoops, more writing

2011-11-29T13:50:00.001-08:00

So I'm in that stage of manuscript submissions where people have requested partials/fulls, and they start rejecting those. Which, honestly, is somewhat more painful then when people just reject queries. When they reject a query at least I can blame the stupid query. When they reject an actual manuscript, that means they read it and didn't like it, which also means the blame falls on the writing itself. That can be a little rough.

There are still a handful out (some with partials, some with just queries) and I've honestly seen more success with Steelgods than any other batch of submissions, but it doesn't make the entire experience of jumping through hoops any less stressful. It also is a stronger revelation on why so many prospective authors turn to eBooks: it's aggravating to have (what you think is) a quality product only to have it halted at the various stages of approval. I can certainly see why this is beneifical: the more people that see it and are allowed to make changes, the (potentially) better the manuscript will become. But the whole notion of having to jump through all these hoops just to get through the door is aggravating, and makes the whole thing seem more of an impossible task than it probably actually is.

Not that I would know. I haven't sold anything yet; as far as my personal experience goes, it IS impossible. But that isn't going to stop me from keeping on trying.

On a more pleasant topic, my NaNoWriMo inspired vacation is going to be officially over on the 1st, and then it's business as usually. And by that I mean a blitz of writing Death's Aria in one month (or less!). I've spent a good half of November not thinking about writing at all (mostly just Skyrim), cleaning the pallet more or less. Now I'm chomping at the bit to get started again. Book number eight will be finished before the year is up, to be sure. I also consider it to be the most "marketable," to be honest, which means I might push up it's editing schedule to get it back out.

Back to a less pleasant topic: the future of Steelgods. There isn't much I've decided on yet (as I said, it's still out with a lot of people, I'm just thinking way ahead) but if nobody picks it up it makes writing the rest of the books in the series pretty much useless from a financial standpoint (unless I decide to epublish them). Because I like the story so much I honestly think I'd still go through and finish out the series, but it is a thing to consider.

That's it from me. Back to killing dragons and sniping mammoths from the top of a mountain.

Slacking off

2011-11-21T12:22:00.001-08:00

When I said that when I got Skyrim I wasn't going to be doing much, I wasn't kidding.

My evenings have basically consisted of two things: Watching QI (Quite Interesting) while playing Skyrim. QI is a fantastic British television show that I highly recommend. Skyrim is a video game that will ruin your life.

I've taken this brief respite to send off more query letters, do some minor editing, and catch up on my reading. My Goodreads currently has like six books in my "currently reading," which I need to finish up. My main read is Steve Jobs' biography, which is absolutely fascinating if a bit long-winded. If you have any interest in how Apple became what it was or how personal computers basically began, you should seriously consider looking into this book.

To be honest, it's good to finally take a break. I've written around 500,000 new words this year so far, not to mentioned essentially rewrote all of Steelgods (so tack another 100k onto that number), so a breather was in order. I also went to four cons this year, two of them out of state, formatted and published a Kindle book, and went to Brandon Sanderson's class. It's been a wild year, and I think this is a breath I need.

That being said, I'm only taking November off. Once December rolls around I'm blitzing Death's Aria, if only so I can have written three books this year. I can't have 2010 have three books written and not 2011 (even if Effulgent Corruption is longer than all the books I wrote in 2010 combined).

So that's generally it from me. Skyrim is incredible. Keep on writing. And here is some awesome music (I listen to this soundtrack a lot with Death's Aria, if only because it gets me in the weird mood)

Variant, Death's Aria, Gears, and Young Adult

2011-11-12T14:20:00.001-08:00

Go buy this book.

First off, thanks to all of you who participated in Larry Corria's Book Bomb of Robison Wells' Variant. Everything went CRAZY on Tuesday. Basically Robinson got laid off from his job because he has panic attacks, which left him unemployed. The spark Larry started exploded into a huge Twitter thing, bumping the book from ~#6000 on the amazon listing to freaking #55. Yeah, it beat out the freaking Hunger Games boxed set. The only thing above it in both Sci-Fi and Fantasy YA was the individual Hunger Games books and the new/last Eragon book. They sold so many copies they bought all of Amazon's stock for all versions (except Kindle, obviously). It was awesome.

I actually picked up the Kindle version, and so far it's a really good book! It reminds me a lot of The Maze Runner meets...something else. There's lots of paintball in the book. But it's a fun YA read that I'd recommend to anybody, especially considering it's only $10 (and your money goes to a good cause).

Anyway, reading Variant made me think a lot about the young adult genre, especially since I'm switching gears (pun intended?) and writing another one instead of an epic fantasy. There were a few things about writing young adult I really enjoy, which is probably why I keep finding myself coming back to it.

- The books tend to move a lot quicker, with less descriptions and more dialogue.
- As a whole, the majority of the characters tend to be in the same age group (adolescents; 12-25), which sort of makes them easier to write. They also tend to play off each other a lot more...excitably? than other genres.
- Young Adult books get right to the point, which is usually one major key theme that drives the whole book. In The Hunger Games it was...the Hunger Games themselves (which is why I think the third book was so weak). In Harry Potter it was the wizard idea and then Hogwarts (again, why the last book didn't seem as strong to me). The Maze Runner was about the maze, I Am Not a Serial Killer is about hunting demonic serial killers. They tend to pick an exciting topic and stick with it, which both keeps the focus and makes it easy to follow.
- Romance and crazy emotions. Teenagers honestly aren't a volatile as most people make them out to be (it's a stereotype that they'll never break; adults actually have nearly as many mood swings as teenagers do, we just aren't as loud about it), but it is a time of life where you have tons of options, you are getting control of your life, and you don't like having that sense of independence taken away. It makes for very proactive characters, which helps drive the story. We adults like to sit around and have meetings.
- Secretly, lots of people still wish they were teenagers, though they'll never admit it. It's subconscious, and honestly I think it's why many adults read YA novels. We miss the constant excitement, the romance and the wildness. We miss having open futures; after a certain point things get set in stone and put into routine. It's a form of rose-tinted wish-fulfillment: we don't remember the awful parts of high school, but we'll certain idealize that time of life. Which makes for both an enjoyable read and write.
- My first book was very much actually Young Adult, even though it wasn't intended to be. Honestly, the vast majority of what I write is probably closer to YA than adult. I have adult ADD, and I started writing books because I felt a lot of books were too slow, so I set out to write something I'd enjoy reading. That principle has still applied, which means most of what I churn out is at least paced like a YA novel. In retrospect, maybe I should just write thrillers or something (hey, Jim Butcher made it work with the Dresden Files).

The point is that I'm really enjoying writing Death's Aria, and even though I'm only a small bit into it I'm enjoying reading it too. I'm actually doing a quick re-read of The Gears of Anbar just because I'm in a YA mood right now, and I'm surprised how much I enjoy it. Not in a "tooting my own horn" way, but in a "why don't I read more YA?" way. There's a reason this is a big market right now.

Granted, I'm also fully aware of the pitfall of writing something adult and branding it as YA when, in truth, it's probably an adult novel. While I'll completely agree the third John Cleaver book (I Don't Want to Kill You) sits squarely in YA with following the basic conventions, the second book (Mr. Monster) really...doesn't. I don't want to force genre tropes onto anybody, but YA books have a sort of flow and reoccurring themes that adult novels miss (perhaps the biggest being the fact there is nearly always a love interest, and their relationships usually pan out in the same structure: gradual, but not gradual enough for an adult book).

Rambling. I think the point of this is I like writing YA, and I'm debating how much that will be my main focus. I'm also writing Death's Aria because of the recent Writing Excuses on expanding your genre. Death's Aria is well set in urban fantasy (though not the whole "chicks kicking butt" thing, which I honestly can't stand), which is a genre I haven't tackled. It's still YA, so it isn't like I'm branching out into supernatural romance or anything way out there, but it's still something different. And I'm enjoying it.

Anyway, this is a long blog post because I'm at work on a Saturday instead of writing or playing Skyrim. So thanks for humoring me if you read this whole thing. If you just skimmed it to the end: SHAME ON YOU! But if you skimmed it to go back to playing Skyrim, I suppose that's totally fair.

Wallpapers, Nightwish

2011-11-09T15:11:00.000-08:00

Here's a little bonus.

If you liked that wallpaper, you can grab all of my favorites in one 40 mb zip here.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5730125/Best%20Wallpapers.zip

And guess what? Nightwish is FINALLY coming out with a new CD (the last one came out in like freaking 2007). The newest single is pretty good, even if I HATE the music video. Take a gander.

A change of pace; my life is over on Friday

2011-11-09T14:05:00.000-08:00

So a few things: this is me officially saying Naught But Glass is on vacation until further notice. I'm considering leaving it for Brandon's class this year (which would start in January) and instead just focus on my current project.

Oh yeah, my current project! I'm switching some serious gears and going back to writing some YA. It's a sort of urban fantasy, but not...really? It's more like something I've been wanting to write for a while.

For example, in my "Misc Writing Ideas" folder (where I go to mine for crap sometimes when I have nothing to do), there is a .docx titled "Violin Death Girl" which only has one sentence: "Tiasa wove across the strings of her violin while Death looked on, enjoying the melody."

Despite that being kind of a crappy sentence, that's all that's in that file. It's actually inspired from some wallpaper picture that magically appeared in my wallpaper folder one day. Still don't know where this came from.

But it's COOL, so I kept it

Anyway, after a couple hours yesterday of me walking around in the cold and brainstorming (and generally clearing my head), I actually came up with a setting, plot, and a handful of characters. It's sort of an urban fantasy idea, for certain YA, and completely awesome.

I also wrote a 3k first chapter just to test the waters, and I'm really enjoying it. It's goofy and a bit dark (and I'm doing my damndest to not rip off Tarry Pratchett) and I think it'll be a fun warmdown write. I figure if I'm going to finish another book before this year ends it's going to need something I enjoy and can write quickly, and this fits the criteria.

We'll see what happens.

Though I'll REALLY just be doing THIS all weekend/forever:

SUCK IT, DRAGONS

Yep. Skyrim. My life is over.

Alloy of Law, Beard Slap, The Future

2011-11-08T11:04:00.000-08:00

I attended the midnight release of Brandon Sanderson's latest novel, The Alloy of Law, which is a sort of wild-west/steampunk rendition of his Mistborn world. They actually sold out of copies, but I was ok with that because I was getting it on Kindle anyway. I still stood in line for three hours to see him and have him sign my Arc of The Way of Kings as well as all my Alcatraz books for my nieces and nephews, who are getting this for Christmas (hopefully they don't read this blog and spoil it). Brandon is fun as always, as is Isaac Stewart (who does the art and is currently out selling his middle-grade clockwork spider book that sounds awesome). So good times were had by all.

Regardless, I'm excited for this one. Mistborn is my favorite book by Brandon, and mixing that with steampunk can't possibly go bad. So we'll see how this one works out.

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And now, BEARD SLAP.

Not really relevant to anything, except that I have a beard that kind of looks like that one. Or will in a few more months. It's gettin' bushy.

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On a less positive note, Naught But Glass is going "not" anywhere. I haven't written in it for the past couple of days, mostly because I've been entertained by Batman: Arkham City and QI (Quite Interesting), a British talkshow/gameshow hosted by Stephen Fry. I've also just been generally disgruntled with this novel, which is making me think I might give it a guilt-free break for a day or so while I write up a Steelgods synopsis and figure everything out for all the billions of people I'm going to be sending it too.

That's it from my front. The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim comes out on Friday, which will officially be the death of my productivity. I'm considering taking this month off; I have some sort of NaNoWriMo stigma that makes it so I can't write in November anyway. We'll see.

Naught But Glass - "Not" feeling it yet

2011-11-04T13:31:00.000-07:00

~tu5

I'm working on Naught But Glass, but currently I've been struggling with the story. Granted, it's only been three days and I've got a prologue and two chapters, but I still seem to be taking issue with it.

Perhaps it is that the story/book is daunting. Unlike the majority of my books, this one has very little "action" in it. It's a battle that is more inward, focusing more on the politics of a nation and the psychology of a group of former "heroes." While I'm fascinated by this, I'm worried that I'll be able to pull off the delicate details that keep this book both authentic and interesting. Plus, while politics and psychology certainly play an important role in just about any fantasy novel, they rarely are the main point (exception: A Game of Thrones). Often they accent these with battles or fights or other such action using swords and magic to keep the reader interested. Which is why this is going to be difficult.

In truth, I feel like I did when I started Effulgent Corruption last July (and then abandoned it). It was as if it was something that was far too ambitious for me at the time, so I wrote Steelgods and plotted/edited a considerable amount before coming back to it.

I don't want to do this with Naught But Glass, mostly because I need to have finished a third book this year. So I will press onward, even if it proves difficult.

Aside from that, discovery writing has given me a hand: I thought of several good character quirks that fit well with both the characters themselves, the overarching plot, and the magic system. I almost never plan character specific oddities beforehand (I have a general idea of how they react to situations and what their personalities are, but eccentricities are saved for discovery writing) so when things like this come together it's both exciting and delightful. I also like to think it makes appear smarter than I am, but that's up for debate.

And, as expected, I tend to throw my first 2-3 chapters out anyway, for the very reason mentioned above (I don't understand the characters enough yet). So I really just need to brute force my way through this until I "find" my characters, and then things will be just peachy.

This isn't a very exciting blog post, but that's life. My Twitter is constantly being assaulted by NaNoWriMi stuff. Yay?

Keep writing!

NaNoWriMo, Naught but Glass

2011-11-01T11:09:00.000-07:00

So it's NaNoWriMo again, and we all know how I feel about that. My opinion regarding it hasn't changed, but yet again I feel oddly compelled to participate.

So I'm doin' it. Hopefully better than last year, where I did it for like a day and fell off the planet.

But as a specification: I'm not actually doing NaNoWriMo, I'm just using it as an excuse to start my book today. I'm going to keep writing until I finish it regardless of what month I'm in, and hopefully I'll finish it before the world ends in 2012 so I'll have accomplished my goal of three books in one year.

In other news, I've been preparing my queries and also am working on both a synopsis and polishing the first chunk of Steelgods 1 to perfection. I'm hoping to start sending those out by next week.

And now...my favorite episode of "Hey Ashe, Whatcha Playing?" Also, I now say "I'm doin' it" in the same way Ash does in this show because...it's fun. Hush.

Get More: GameTrailers.com, HAWP - Fallout: New Vegas HD, PC Games, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

BONUS: We'll throw the minecraft episode on for fun.

Get More: GameTrailers.com, HAWP - Minecraft HD, PC Games, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

World Fantasy 2011

2011-10-31T12:38:00.000-07:00

So I went to World Fantasy 2011, and got back late Saturday night. The convention actually went until Sunday afternoon/evening, but due to both cost and time we had to cut it a little short. Despite all this, I still got most everything done that I intended. Rather than burn you out on an obnoxious essay, I'll instead present highlights.

- I was able to meet with Sara Megibow, Jessie Cammack, Eddie Schneider (who we always seem to find at every convention) and Joshua Bilmes. We also spoke a little with Liz Gorinsky, Tom Doherty (who we also seem to find at every convention...imagine that) and a handful of other editors from other publishers. Overall, it was a great experience.

- We also got a decent chunk of time with some of my favorite authors (local or otherwise) including Jessica Day George, Patrick Rothfuss, Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, Eric James Stone, and Cinda Williams (which is especially cool since I spent a lot of time talking to her last year, and since then she's had two books on the NYT bestseller list! Congrats!). We also (randomly) ran into Larry Correia on the way back to our hotel from Jack in the Box, which was awesome.

- As part of this I got my Kindle signed like mad. I posted most of them to Google + and Facebook, but if you don't follow me I'll try and put them up here as well.

- I had a tweet re-tweated by Neil Gaiman. Yeah, I know that's a stupid thing to be excited about, but it's cool. Neil Gaiman is also quite a cool person, who bothered to talk to us a little bit despite being super busy the entire time.

- Most of the agents/editors we spoke with said they would like us to send them stuff. I never actually pitched to anybody, but in truth I kind of...don't really try. I'd much rather try and talk to people and enjoy their company then try and sell them something. Maybe I'm missing the point of this "cutthroat" business, but everybody I talked to was both very much human and fun to converse with.

- I actually used Twitter to make some contacts. Oh, and I got an iPhone last week, and it's already been worth it if just for that. :D

So...what about the panels? Well...to be honest, most were extremely underwhelming. We actually spoke with Dan Wells about it (since they scheduled him on the first panel of the Con and he ended up missing it) and he made a comment about being burned out of panels and I'm inclined to agree. There were a few notable ones (a panel on feminism and woman's bias in fantasy/young adult, as well as a panel on the foundations of steampunk by...the founders of steampunk [from the 70s/80s before it became this big fad]), but overall I was generally unimpressed.

However, Connie Willis interviewing Neil Gaiman was completely fantastic and a lot of fun. Neil told a story about how he was in a hotel writing American Gods, and the Bible in his room was messed up, so he called downstairs saying his "Bible was defective." Also, when asked about advice for aspiring authors, his main comment was to just keep writing new things. Essentially: "Write something, do a minor edit, and send it to everyone you know while you write your next one. It's an editor's job to help you fix it; don't do it all yourself. Just keep writing and sending and eventually you'll sell."

I thought this was great advice, especially considering how reluctant I can bee regarding sending stuff out before I think it's "fixed" or "finished." While I do think some agents/editors can be extremely picky (they have to be; they sift through tons of stuff) they are all just normal people who like to read and can understand the potential of a work even if it isn't there yet. It helped me gain confidence in my writings, and motivate me to submit it to everybody.

So, even though we were only there for a few days, I had a great time. I also got like $400 worth of free books that I somehow managed to haul home (thank goodness we flew Southwest, which allows two free bags, unlike every other airlines that charges for the first check-in bag), which is one of the reasons I love World Fantasy.

Overall, lots of fun. Next year it's in Canada so I'm still indecisive, but I'm fairly sold on going to ChicagoCon/WorldCon this year. Also, these cons are a lot more fun when you actually know people, and I think it's finally getting to that point.

If you have any questions, throw 'em in the comments. Oh, and I started Naught But Glass but only wrote the prologue. I will be "officially" starting it tomorrow for NaNoWriMo, but more on that later.

World Fantasy and Pitching

2011-10-25T13:43:00.000-07:00

So I've been weirdly quiet about this for...I don't know why, but I am indeed going to the World Fantasy convention in San Diego this year with Jason, and we are leaving tomorrow morning. I'm very excited to make contact again with a lot of the people I met at WorldCON, as well as hopefully meet a few new faces. Last year was a good bit of fun, even though we only talked to a few people, and I'm certain this year will be even better.

I even bought a silver sharpie so I can have freaking Neil Gaiman sign my Kindle. So that means I'm serious about this, guys.

I'm certain most people who read this blog know what World Fantasy is, but if you don't the general gist is it's a convention of authors, agents, and editors that meet together to find new talent, enjoy each other's company, and shoot the breeze. You won't find people in costume (last year's it went over Halloween and even then I only saw one or two costumes) like at WorldCON, and it is a much smaller convention, but it's still a lot of fun.

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So in preparation for World Fantasy I've been working on pitches. There's a great Writing Excuses episode on pitches that just recently came out, and I've been using that for reference. To put it basically, you have three pitches you need:

- An elevator pitch (a sentence, quick blurb)

- A slightly longer pitch (two or three paragraphs, just a quick summery or "movie trailer")

- A long pitch that goes into the most detail

Now, I never really thought much about pitching. I always figured that, should the need arise, I'd be able to just spurt something out. However, when I was talking with my wife on the car ride home and failing completely and utterly at even a sentence pitch, I decided I should probably actually work on this.

And I found some good and bad things.

The good thing is that the sentence/elevator pitch was actually pretty easy. It took about ten minutes at most, and I never really did any substantial changes to it minus a few word choices.

The bad thing is the two paragraph one is killing me.

For some reason, this is really tough. Trying to find a focus with slightly more space, while still making something that is both compelling and easy to say is...difficult. It already has gone through more revisions than the actual book has, and I'm still not satisfied.

I'm not even going to touch the long pitch. I'm going to assume (hopefully not incorrectly, like before) that I'm able to talk about my book for a decent amount of time without failing to hard.

So now I just need some agents and editors to test this on. Hmmm....

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A quick Naught but Glass update: I have yet to start the novel, though I've gotten a good bit of planning done. I also don't have any names yet, which is probably a bad thing (my design document has "the Hero," "the Sidekick," and "the King" in lieu of actual names). I'm hoping to start it tomorrow night before World Fantasy, however.

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Lastly, I'm finally getting to read some of the indie novels I picked up on Kindle (after I finish Hogfather by Terry Pratchett). So expect reviews of The Wars of Gods and Men by Brondt Kamffer and The Black God's War by Moses Siregar III once I finish them. As always, you can track my progress on Goodreads. So far: both books are excellent, and most certainly worth the asking price (Wars of Gods and Men is only $1, and The Black God's War is on sale this week for $2)

That's it from me. Expect a World Fantasy report one of these years (about the time my WorldCON post comes up. Yeah, that turned out real good).

Hollywood Formula, Titles, Next Novel

2011-10-20T19:42:00.000-07:00

First off, I'd like to drop a plug (again) for Writing Excuses. If you are an author, you should be listening to every episode of this when they come out on Sunday. All the panelists are extremely knowledgable regarding the publishing industry, writing, and nearly every combination of those two you could imagine. They also do well in getting excellent guests that provide even more insight into writing and how to best approach, write, and sell your story. Plus, they've been nominated for a Hugo several times, which means it's quality.

I wanted to make this plug because an episode three weeks ago, The Hollywood Formula, is probably one of the most interesting Writing Excuses episodes yet. Basically Lou Anders from Pyr books does an excellent job in breaking down the basic formula used by Hollywood to pack their stories with an emotional punch. Basically, it's a system that has been found to best resonate with viewers in terms of characters, plots, and pacing. Most movies in Hollywood follow this formula to a degree, but it's main focus is that every story has a protagonist, an antagonist, and a relationship character. These three play off each other throughout the various acts in a certain formula in nearly every Hollywood film.

Point being: it was extremely interesting, but it also made me take a look back on my books to try to figure out who was who (or if the books even had these characters or followed the formula). The general idea is that the protagonist has a goal, and the antagonist (who is not necessarily the "bad guy") plays against these goals.

-----

Humoring my own work for a second, I took a look at Steelgods 1, mostly because it was fresh on my mind. The protagonist was easy: Cevan, our viewpoint. But who was the antagonist?

(note: possible Steelgods 1 spoilers)

Well, Cevan's ultimate goal in Steelgods (and the entire series) can be summed up that he wants to live a normal life. The whole "Destroyer of the World" thing, having to always run away, the troubles with his family; he just wants it all gone and back to how it was before this all exploded. So who is the one ruining this goal?

Well, the book starts with the Peacemakers (the jerks saying Cevan is the Destroyer and hunting him down) kidnapping Devent and Rosemary, Cevan's step-siblings, and holding them ransom for Cevan's life. Cevan ends up training in a secluded town with a smithgirl named April, leaving her and getting into all sorts of trouble before confronting the Peacemaker in an attempt to save his family. Then a bunch of other stuff happens which I won't say because I don't want to go that deep into spoilers.

The thing is, when I tore this book apart, I began to realize something: the Peacemaker might not actually be the antagonist. It's true he is hindering Cevan's goal, but if you really boiled it down, the real ones who are keeping Cevan from having a normal life are Devent and Rosemary. They refuse to let him settle down, even when all three of them are given the offer at the end of the book. Because they are insistant on carting him around they end up getting captured, which also messes up the good thing he had going with April. While they are trying to keep him alive, they are basically thwarting his direct goals. Devent and Rosemary could be the antagonists in Steelgods 1.

This is further accented by the fact they are most assuredly the antagonists in Steelgods 2, but that's a different story altogether (literally).

So who is the relationship character? This is the one that is with the hero the whole time, who helps slowly persuade him/her towards a sort of final conclusion.

My first guess was April, even though Cevan leaves her, because she stays on his mind. But as I thought about it, I realized it could perhaps also be the Peacemaker (either the individual or the group as a whole). They force him to realize who he is, which is something he fights against the entire series. And at the end of the book, Cevan comes to that realization (at least to a better extent than he had at the very beginning). Maybe April and the Peacemaker are some sort of joint relationship character, tag-teaming. Who knows.

Enough self indulgence, but I found that interesting.

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With that in mind, I actually structured the general ideas regarding my characters for my next dark fantasy project (which finally has a title) on this three character formula. And, when I did this, I came to a realization: the person I thought was the protagonist was actually very much the relationship character, and the relationship character is the protagonist! It was actually pretty shocking for me, but it fits regarding the plot I had considered. This formula also helped me iron out a good number of details I still had in limbo regarding this plot, which is good.

Oh, and I also got a title for it (woo woo), finally. Book #8 will be...

Naught but Glass

Cool title, right? Yes? No? Well, I like it. It fits what happens, and so we'll take it.

I also realized this book is extremely political. It's a good deal different than any of my previous books (though it might be more in like with Where Gods and Mortals Dance; both have very little magic and focus primarily on political conflicts), especially considering this is my first book ever where the deities don't directly have any influence on the story. Yes, I'm finally going to actually attempt writing a book where some god doesn't play a major role in everything. Granted, I thought Effulgent Corruption was going to be that way (I even killed the stupid gods so they wouldn't show up) and the jerks somehow managed to creep their way back into the story.

I'm also going to try my damnedest to make sure this book stays short; I'm shooting for between 100-150k at the most. The good part about this it it means I might actually finish it before the year ends. The bad news is...I'm going to have to try really hard to keep it short.

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Aside from that, I'm currently plotting the basics, re-reading Steelgods 1 and hopefully submitting it soon, getting ready to attend World Fantasy in San Diego, and working. So here's hoping everything turns out for the best.

That's all from me.

Contest

2011-10-20T12:34:00.000-07:00

If you want to try and get the first 20 pages of your (finished) manuscript edited for free, check out http://deareditor.com/.
Also they have a new book, "Writing YA for Dummies," which I will probably be reading shortly. :P

Editing: When a Character Changes

2011-10-19T13:28:00.000-07:00

I finished my overall edits for Steelgods yesterday, after about a month and a half. I'm going to go back through it again just to be certain I didn't totally ruin anything, but first I'm going to blab about something that came to mind during my editing process.

For those who already know, I can find editing difficult at times. Not editing sentences or even scenes, to be honest; those are easy. The edits that are the hardest for me, I've found, are character edits. You know, where that one guy you really liked when you were writing the first draft just isn't working, so you have to either completely change or cut him. Or that guy you still like, but everybody in your alpha reader group said you'd better change him or they'll burn your manuscript. Those edits.

And what is surprising is that, for me, this is really hard.

Before?

This is probably more of a personal issue than anything, but I tend to get particularly attached to my characters. Plot? A little, but not enough to know when it needs to be changed. Scenes? Those are easily malleable. Setting? If the story dictates it be tweaked, I will willingly oblige. But when it comes down to my characters, I get stuck in a quagmire. What is it that makes changing a character's personality so difficult? Even if I know full well it is for the better?

Take for example, Cevan, our viewpoint character in Steelgods. In the first book, my idea of Cevan was he was a spoiled little twit with lots of potential. His viewpoint was meant to be endearing in a way a puppy is: always trying his hardest, but he's a puppy so he can't exactly save the world. Cevan made a lot of really, really stupid mistakes in the first draft, but I felt that was a part of his character. It was who he was, and in a series about massive character growth, Cevan had to start pretty low in order to become the "Destroyer of the World."

The problem is, while this works good in theory, in execution it can be aggravating. With the exception of George R. R. Martin fans, readers tend to get really pissed off when their favorite characters (especially a viewpoint character in a first-person viewpoint) makes really, really awful decisions. While Cevan isn't a total moron, he came close at times, making decisions any rational person wouldn't make. His incompetence, while helping to show how much he improved by the end of the book, was more of a literary crutch than an actual character trait.

AFTER?!

So now we have new Cevan. He still makes stupid decisions. He still makes rather glaring errors. However, he isn't convinced he's stupid. He still manages to react to situations rather than being a passive observer. His improvement is still obvious, but he now has things he's good at to counterbalance his fallacies. He may be awful at swordfighting and generally being brave, but at least he's extremely determined and can...sing?

The other problem with Cevan in the first draft was he was an empty shell, much like Sam in Paradise Seekers. I'll make no excuses for that: our viewpoint in Paradise Seekers is not very well developed. He fell into "Cevan-syndrome," which basically means he was there to advance the plot, and not to actually be a well developed character in the book. This was something I hoped to remedy after a billion drafts, but it never reached the point I'd hoped. He's halfway there, but doesn't quite reach a point where you care about him.

This has also been changed in the new Steelgods to fix Cevan. As I changed his reactions, that also means it changed how he thought about the situations he was put into. Cevan is (this is not really a spoiler) thought to be the Destroyer of the World but a malevolent group of magicians/lunatics called the Peacemakers. As an added bonus, the Peacemaker's counterpart, The Gears of Anbar, also want Cevan for some reason. So he basically is going to run his whole life, safe nowhere, until he gets captured and killed. Great life, huh?

Well, first draft Cevan never really addressed the stresses that would come with that kind of thing. Well, he does, but it's near the end of the novel. He just never reacted appropriately to situations, which made him both unbelievable, an unreliable narrator (even though the book is technically first-person omniscient), and unsympathetic.

All of these issues were (mostly) resolved in The Gears of Anbar, which is how I knew how messed up Cevan in Steelgods was. The juxtaposition of these two characters was in such contract I couldn't help but see all the problems.

What was the point of all this? Um...what was I talking about before? Oh, right, why it's hard.

So all these edits sound like worthwhile things to Cevan's character, right? I also had to make substantial changes to his stepsiblings, Devent and Rosemary, to make it so they actually had motives and personalities and the reader actually cared about them. The problem was, I've read Steelgods 1 probably 5-6 times since I wrote it. I re-read my novels frequently, picking them apart without actually using a red pen (I read them on my Kindle), digging through them in attempts to identify flaws to address when I begin later projects. This is a good technique, and I stand by it, but it has one fatal flaw: I get really connected to my rough drafts. Even with all their problems, this is the way I now see my characters. So when I go in to change them, I feel like I'm killing somebody I know.

This is a problem.

I swear this had a point, but I totally forgot it. So we'll go with whatever I think up first, which is: changing characters is hard, probably the most difficult part of editing for me. It's amplified by the fact I discovery write the majority of my characters, so they really need to be fixed since usually every character's personality in the first 3-4 chapters is completely off from who they are in the rest of the novel. Still, reaching that distance required from a story is something I need to work on, at least for characters.

Anybody else have this problem? Are character edits harder for you, or other forms of edits? Or are you editing fiends and everything is really easy?

Terry Pratchett is pretty awesome

2011-10-13T14:22:00.000-07:00

This cover doesn't really fit the book, but whatever.

I don't know how I managed to dodge Terry Pratchett's books for the past who knows how many years, but now that I'm finally sitting down and reading them I'm really enjoying myself.
So far I've read Going Postal and Small Gods, and am almost done with Mort (which is my favorite so far). Mort was an earlier book than the other two and I can sort of tell: Small Gods was a very biting satire of religion (and I'd think Catholicism, though I'm not going to make any assumption) but isn't very high on the "jokes per page" quota. Mort, on the other hand, a story of Mort who becomes the apprentice to Death, is consistently goofy and is throwing jokes out left and right. If I had to prefer a style, I'd say I like Mort better, though Small Gods made me THINK more than Mort did.

Going Postal was straight up weird. I don't know what else to say about it.

This isn't the first time I've tried Pratchett, to be completely honest. I got about 50% of the way through Good Omens, which is him and Neil Gaiman doing their thing. I honestly thought it read more like a Neil Gaiman book than a Pratchett book, though maybe they switched off chapters/characters because stuff frequently goes from weird to somber to weirdly somber as we bounce around viewpoints. I enjoyed the book a lot, but when it started focusing on characters I didn't care about at all (the witch-hunter) I sort of lost interest. I should pick it back up.

Granted I had the same problem with American Gods, so maybe it's Gaiman's fault. Though I can't fault the man for being extremely clever, which he most certainly is. He and Pratchett seem like a really odd mix, though.

Point being: check these books out. They are very entertaining. The best part is they are fast and light (unlike A Song of Ice and Fire, which I am stuck on the fourth books of) and I can finish them in a few days if I'm quick.

This is where I'm supposed to put notable quotes, but I can't think of any offhand. Needless to say, any book where Death quits his job and finds more job satisfaction in being a chef in a backwater restaurant is 10/10 in my book.

In personal writing news, Steelgods 1 is finally near finished after nearly a month and a half of pain and whining. Once it's finished I'll start submitting, while I write my next book.

And as a special bonus for all those who bought Paradise Seekers on the Kindle and liked the Steelgods snippit: since the odds of me posting it on Kindle are substantially lower than when I first put Paradise Seekers up (though I'm still keeping my options open), if you'd like a free, maybe-badly-formatted Kindle copy of the third draft of Steelgods just shoot me an email or a comment (or a Facebook harassment). I figured I'd reward you for being nice and buying my book. :) Though if I do sell it YOU'D BETTER BUY THE HARDCOVER. :P

I'm getting excited to write again - anything at this point, I'm going crazy - so expect some more exciting posts hopefully soon. In the meantime, go read some Pratchett.

And now: Music Videos

2011-10-11T11:47:00.000-07:00

Ben Godby (a fellow writer and sort of mutual acquaintance) did a blog post a little while back about music videos. He made the argument that music videos should focus more on the band rocking out than actually telling some sort of a story. He argued the experience was to slip into the music, not to try and understand what the heck the music video was talking about when the song was something on the other side of the spectrum.

I disagree, though not entirely.

I really like music videos that tell stories. This is usually because I hardly ever discover music by seeing a music video first; usually I hear it several times and then go hunt down the music video. Most music videos are either just a band rocking (which is what I imagined so...that's good? I guess?), some make no sense at all (which sort of takes away from the song), but others go completely the other way and tell some sort of a story tied to the music video.

When the last option above is done well, I love it. It makes for both a good watch and a good listen, and I feel it adds to the song. The issue, of course, is that it is rarely done well.

Within Temptation's music videos (minus their most recent ones) are a good example of a band that "gets it." They add stories that accent their songs, but I don't feel it takes away from the music. I think an important point is I still retain how I feel the song spoke to me the first time, and just add what they interpreted as an option. Which is why I'll never discover music on youtube by hitting a music video; I'll "watch" the video that's just the music first, then move on to see if I like the video.

This whole blog post was actually an excuse for me to post a boatload of music videos for bands I like, so get ready.

Also, I'll "age warning" the ones I feel have inappropriate lyrics.

First, and probably the best example of a video taking away from a song, we have one of my favorite songs ever, Fallen Leaves by Billy Talent. And since Billy Talent is apparently a bunch of butts, I can't embed the video, so here's a link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPg63uxYwN0&ob=av2e

The song is fairly obvious about drug addiction. I have no idea what is going on in that music video except it is really, really weird.

Here's the other end. This video has very little to do with the song, but it is so clever and entertaining I can't help but love it. It doesn't really tell a "story," per say, but the whole faux wild west fits with the song (Seether is a Numetal band writing a "Country Song," and the fact that the video depicts a fake western is sort of analogous). Plus the video is really funny, and surprisingly clever, considering most of Seether's videos are them rocking out and showing off all their piercings.

Now we have a video I like better than the actual song. Rise Against is an ok band, but I think this video is great, even if it is very politically fueled. In this instance I actually didn't think much of the song until I saw the video, then I started liking it by association.

So we have some that sort of add but don't really tell a story, more like pushing a point. What about people just rocking? Nine Inch Nails' March of the Pigs is pretty much just Trent Renzor flipping out. Honestly, even though this is basically just the music, it's really boring to watch. I'd rather just listen to the song.
LANGUAGE WARNING. Also this song is really weird.

While on the subject of NIN, however, there is an interesting story about that. They wrote a song called Hurt that was on their Downward Spiral album. The original is a dark song about hating oneself and isn't really that great. However, Johnny Cash (yes, the Johnny Cash) covered it right before he died, and completely changed the song with both the way he approached it and (more impact fully) the music video.

He took a song about self-hate and turned it into a song about self-improvement through Jesus. The lyrics are exactly the same (except he replaces the use of "crown of s***" with the radio edit, "crown of thorns") but the song is completely different, and I'm fairly certain it's because of how the music video played out.

So hey, how about a video that very clearly tells a story, not just hinting at an agenda or something? Well, you are in luck, because here is one of my favorites.

I have no idea what the original song is about. Finding utopia or something, dunno. But the video (which makes me want to write a book about it) is really clever. In fact, most of Within Temptation's music videos compliment their songs very well, and are interesting to boot.

And here's a last one, from Nightwish.

But then you have people like Rhapsody of Fire, whose music videos are so ludicrous it's hard to even take them seriously (it's already hard to take a band rocking about dragons seriously, but dude...what.)

Is there a point to this? I have no idea. Ok, yes, I'll make a point: I like most music videos. I think that, if done well, they provide an interesting visual stimuli to accommodate the music I usually already know and like. If I just wanted to watch bands rock out, I'd go watch them live. But I don't: I want to see something interesting, and give me a different perspective on what the band thinks their song is about (or what acid trip they were on when they planned the video). So...I'm fine with them, and I think they are great creative outlets.

On that vein, actually, that's probably why I like music videos that tell stories. They are essentially short stories in video form, tied with music. Take the two Within Temptation songs and the Nightwish song. The stories told in the videos probably have really cool backgrounds behind them, and that gets my imagination stimulated. The Rise Against and Seether music videos are clever, but they don't provide anything past the video besides being interesting. The NiN video is just what I expected: dudes playing instruments. We got that. Music videos are as much a medium to present interesting video as they are the music. So long live music videos with stories! (as long as they don't ruin the song. You suck, Billy Talent, especially since you won't let me embed it).

Expect and actual writing post sometime, really. Or not. Who knows.

I'll end with a super goofy music video (though I don't know if anything can top Rhapsody of Fire's stuff). I love Sonata Arctica's music, but man their music videos are so stupid.

I think Going Postal just won the phrase of the year.

2011-10-07T13:33:00.000-07:00

"It was garbage, but it had been cooked by an expert. Oh yes. You had to admire the way perfectly innocent words were mugged, ravished, stripped of all true meaning and decency, and then sent to walk the gutter for Reacher Glit, although 'synergistically' had probably been a whore from the start."

- Going Postal, Terry Pratchett

Steve Jobs passed away today

2011-10-05T22:47:00.000-07:00

“Sometimes life hits you on the head with a brick. Don’tlose faith…I’m convinced the only thing that kept me going was that I lovedwhat I did. You’ve got to find what you love. Your work is going to fill alarge part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do whatyou believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love whatyou do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with allmatters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any greatrelationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keeplooking. Don’t settle.”

- 2005Stanford Commencement Address

- SteveJobs, 1955-2011

October: Things Fall Apart

2011-10-04T13:44:00.000-07:00

What's going on in Nathan land, you ask? Wait, do I know you? How can you ask me such personal questions?!

Ahem.

Well, let's get life updates. I bought an 02 Toyota Camry. It isn't in the best condition, and it ended up needing new brakes, rotors, a passenger-side axle, and to be realigned. However, even after all those repairs it was STILL cheaper than the lowest price we could find from any dealership anywhere by a good $2000. So, while still over our budget, it was still UNDER the normal price, so I guess I'm going to just roll with it.

Point being: we have a car that can go places now. Vs our Saturn, which can go for about 20 minutes before one of the cylinders starts misfiring and I start to worry if I can actually get home. I think the fuel injector is doing something wonky (am going to clean it with gas cleaner), but we needed a new car so...now we have one. Yay.

Driving a Camry vs a tiny Saturn is like driving a boat. It's hardly a large car (I guess it still files under "compact?") but it is still bigger than a small car, and so trucking it around feels weird. The plus side is it drives really nice (especially now since the alignment isn't totally off) and everything seems to be in good working order. Plus it's a Toyota, those last forever, right? Knock on wood.

The downside to all this is that we hadn't decided on whether we were keeping it after we bought it. Despite being atrociously cheap, I didn't want to have to deal with repairs (even though our mechanic said we should because it was a good car, it just needed a little love) on a car I just bought. So we tried to resell it, and learned that everybody who wants to buy a car is a total jerk. They'd make promises and break them, try to lowball an already extremely low price, lie, harass me over texts and phone, and generally be despicable people. I can't count the number of times I was promised people would get back to me, demanding I put the car as "sale pending" so nobody else would look at it, and then never bother contacting me again. How is this socially acceptable? I'm a person too, you know. Stop wasting my time.

Also, since I'm a neurotic wreck, I constantly think something is going to be wrong with the new car, despite my mechanic insisting there isn't. So that unnecessary stress (it's genetic; thanks mom :P) has been killer to my productivity as well.

NOW ON TO THE GOOD STUFF: WRITING.

So I'm editing Steelgods still because all this stress ruined my productivity. I'm doing a minimum of a chapter a day, though I'm hitting the point in the book where I'm basically going to have to actually rewrite entire chapters. That might actually end up being easier than trying to edit, but we'll see. The last chapter I rewrote I had to rewrite again shortly after because the new version was awful. Hopefully this isn't the case here (the chapter I'm on I knew I'd have to rewrite when I wrote it, but I'm glad I waited because now that Gears of Anbar is finished I have a tighter grasp on the world, meaning things will piece together better).

I'd estimate I'm about 60% through the book, near the end of Act 2. I'm not setting any goals, but I'm hoping to have it done soon so I can start the next book. Also this would be when I'd start submitting it to people, hopefully people I will also run into at World Fantasy. :)

Now, Untitled Fantasy Project. It was actually getting hung up because I hadn't figured out any magic for it. After looking a the light color wheel (what happens when you mix different colors of light together) I actually figured something pretty basic out. I wanted the magic in this book to be very light but still there, enough to impact society but not enough to completely dominate how the entire world is run. What my wife and I figured out seems to work pretty good: it's simple, the benefits are small but enough to be "magical," and it also is (I hope) interesting enough to be a sort of a hook.

I actually printed off a light color wheel and modified it for the book, so hopefully that'll help. There are still a few parts of the book I need to figure out (it takes place after a hero goes and saves the world, so I need to know the details of that story before I can start this one) but aside from that it's basically waiting on Steelgods at this point.

This will be standalone, and I am going to do my very best to keep it shorter than 150k. Mostly because I don't want another Effulgent Corruption, and also because I don't have the time to write something longer. Plus, that's still in a range that pitching it would be feasible. Considering I thought of the idea for this book while I was reading A Game of Thrones and listening to The Way of Kings, it should prove...weird.

In other news, my wife and I have been playing Eternal Sonata (review on the Backlog Blog), and I recently discovered The Binding of Isaac, which is a really messed up zelda+roguelike+duel stick shooter. It's pretty addicting, and has a wonderfully creepy soundtrack. I'll have to play it while I'm writing something that's supposed to be scary.

It's October, Steelgods isn't edited

2011-10-01T13:42:00.000-07:00

It's been a rough couple of weeks, but I'm almost finally done with personal problems which means I'll have more time for editing.
The downside is I'm probably only 50% done with editing Steelgods, a project that was supposed to take two weeks now passing a month.
It's frustrating. I have no idea why this is so much harder than just writing. I can usually average 5k words a day easily in about two to three hours. With editing, I spend an hour editing and get maybe 2k if I'm lucky, and then I'm so burned out I just quit.
This is probably something I should figure out how to fix.
On the plus side, the book is improving dramatically in my humble opinion. Most changes are minor, but I've helped both smooth out the worldbuilding, make Cevan less incompetent, and tone down stuff that's over-the-top. Overall, I really like how it's turning out.
On the negative side, the fact I haven't written anything new in about a month is driving me crazy. This is the longest I've gone this year without actually writing (the previous being two weeks after I finished Effulgent Corruption). I need to start a new project.
Untitled Dark Fantasy project is sort of planned, except I'm trying to figure out the magic system I want to use. I can't really start the book until I know the magic, because it plays a key role in the main character. I really want to write something, especially since it's a great cure for depression (which I've been dealing with on and off over the past few weeks). So it's time to get on that.
This Fantasy project is more of a thing I figured would be fun rather than something I'd sell (but Steelgods stared that way, so who knows). Basically I take a traditional fantasy story (young hero with a rebel group overthrows evil empire warlord) and jump ahead thirty years to see the aftermath. Hint: it isn't pretty. Rebels make good leaders of small, extremely loyal groups, but rulers of nations? Maybe not. Plus, what would killing tons of people do to the psychological stability of the "hero?"
See, stupid things I think would be fun to mess around with. I just need some magic.
That's about it from me. I'm trapped at work on a Saturday, which is great at melting my brain. Here's hoping I get Steelgods finished soon.

Steelgods September - Self Imposed Improvements

2011-09-25T23:44:00.000-07:00

So my car issue might finally have reached it's resolution...or rather we made a decision but still have to finish it up. Which means I (hopefully) can finally put a full week of frustrations and general stress behind me and just accept whatever happens. While I'm still having difficulties transferring back from being stressed every second of every day to actually relaxing again, I'm glad this has finally reached some sort of resolution (even if it wasn't the one I was necessarily rooting for).

What does this have to do with writing? Nothing at all. I just felt like mentioning it.

Steelgods 1 has suffered immensely from my almost mental breakdown, but I'm still hoping to get most of the edits done ASAP. That will require three-ish chapters a day if I want it finished by the end of September, which actually might not be possible, but either way I'm going to try. I want to start my next book at the beginning of October (which currently has a basic premise and a few ideas but no title, actual plot, or magic system yet) and I'll need at least a couple of brainstorming days before I leap headlong into it.

I've been re-reading lots of comments on my previous books as well as current feedback for Effulgent Corruption and The Gears of Anbar. From all this I've been pinpointing things I can work on in my upcoming books. I've actually been doing this the entire time, but I felt it might be beneficial for me to actually write them down this time so that I remember. Some of these things are also things I've been working on for a while and apparently failing at, so they'll still get a mention.

- Decreased Melodrama - This is a big one for me. In attempts to make scenes more "powerful" and "emotional" I draw it out too far and instead beat the reader over the head with how I want them to feel. It's a big problem, the root of which probably has something to do with me distrusting my reader, but the point is that subtlety is both hard to accomplish but a masterful thing when you actually pull it off. This is going to be a major focus in my next dark fantasy novel.

- A Focus on Voice - Voice is another big difficulty for me, at least based on most feedback I receive. I have an "author" voice, and I have a "Nathan" voice. One of these is good, one of these is funner to write than the other. I need to eliminate the "Nathan" voice (I have the Steelgods books to go all hog-wild with that) and instead try and refine it down to be a consistant tone.

- Tactful Adult Themes - Another one I've been working on. This includes all types - violence, sex, language, etc. - but the one in particular I have issue with is violence. There's a time when violence can be used to evoke certain emotions, usually shock or horror or disgust. But when violence is overdrawn and overused it makes the reader desensitized and comes off as tasteless. This is actually another big one for me, as I enjoy writing detailed battle/fight scenes but really should be cutting down the content.

- Restraining My Overactive Imagination - This one isn't exactly what you think it is. I'm not saying I shouldn't brainstorm crazy things or invent interesting ideas; far from it. What this means is that, as Pat Rothfuss says frequently, "Everything must be in service to the story." Too often I find myself adding things because I think they'll be "cool," or "interesting." This is a darling that must be killed. It doesn't matter if my specific character as this great quirk; if it doesn't provide any service to the overarching narrative it is just a dead end. It doesn't matter if I think this section of dialogue is funny and entertaining, if it isn't adding to the plot it is just wasted words. I discovery write, which usually results in me adding tons of crap that should ever make it to a second draft. If I can find a way to identify the crap before actually committing to it in the rough, then I'll save myself a lot of time editing (as well as grief in the future when I look back and wonder what the heck I was thinking when I wrote it, and regretting showing people my rough drafts).

- Consistant and Proactive Characters - I've been doing better at both of these, I hope. And honesty, sometimes your main characters just aren't very proactive. Someone doesn't always have to take charge all the time; that doesn't happen in real life. But that doesn't mean I should let my characters slouch about, making half-assed attempts at being proactive before other characters take care of business (unless the plot directs it, which the Steelgods books do in certain instances). Characters need to press on and be interesting and compelling, not slothful. They also need to stay consistant, which is an issue that seems to plague my side characters more than main ones. This one is a bit harder, since I never think my characters are inconsistant, but when readers get a hold of it they are quick to tell me otherwise. So it's going to be tricky, but it's something I'll keep in mind. As was brought up in writing group today: what's the difference between a character you think is acting against their nature, and a character who is developing? How do you know this action is just a change in character rather than an inconsistency? I suppose that's the $10,000 question.

There are other things I've worked on in the past (eliminating modern dialogue and references, creating better act 2's of my books, keeping a pace consistant) but these are my current big issues. We'll see how well I can accomplish them with the next untitled novel.

Stress: The Death of Productivity

2011-09-21T16:52:00.000-07:00

Without going into too much detail: we've been trying to buy a new car. Our current car is unable to pass inspections next April without $1000+ worth of work on it, and after paying double what I originally paid for the car in repairs in just the last three years, I'm going to say I'm willing to let it die.

So we've been car shopping. And we ended up in a bit of a mess, one I'm currently trying to remedy. It isn't a huge mess by any means (in fact my parents think I'm silly for being so worried about it), but it's enough to be a nagging itch on my mind.

Which makes it almost impossible to focus, which means Steelgods editing has entered the backburner. The fact I'm sick with a rough cold probably isn't helping this.

If I were to estimate, I'd say I'm 25% through Steelgods. I can get 2-3 chapters a day, which means I only have maybe a couple weeks left for it, but this whole situation and brought it to a grinding halt. I'm hoping against hope that the issue will be resolved tomorrow, so that tonight I can trick myself into being not stressed and actually write the "bonus" chapter I've been needing to add. We'll see how that works out.

In other (more positive) news, I'm now on Goodreads. After much foot-dragging by myself I've finally jumped on, and promptly added reviews for the boatloads of books I've read. My list is pathetic in comparison with my wife's, but that's just the way it goes.

In other reading news, I have now read A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, and A Storm of Swords. All of them are fantastic and probably one of my favorite fantasy series ever. Seriously, they are great.

As a break before A Feast for Crows, I'm reading A Night of Blacker Darkness by Dan Wells. The odd hilariousness of this book is also helping with my stress, so we'll keep on it for now. I don't think George R. R. Martin is the best thing to read when you are trying to not feel down.

So, apologies for disappearing for a few weeks, but hopefully I'll have more updates very soon. I'm also doing game reviews on the Backlog Blog which also has been neglected (I have boatloads of them lined up: I play a lot of video games), but I'm hoping to start putting a review up every other day as a minimum.

Keep it real, I'll try to keep from pulling my hair out.

Steelgod September: Slow Going

2011-09-13T12:18:00.000-07:00

Due to life, I've been struggling getting through the Steelgods edits. The "rewrite" idea works but it is also time consuming; I spent most of yesterday rewriting a fight scene (which I actually rewrote last week, so that dumb fight is now officially in draft 3) and then doing the next chapter. I think that puts me on Chapter 4, which is where the plot really starts kicking in. I'm hoping to do one or two chapters a day from here on out, assuming my mood (and schedule) allows.

So that fight I was referring to is actually the first one in the book (which happens right away in the second chapter). My first write of it was decent but there are things inconstant with the rest of the series. The second was more in line but the fight itself was just awful. I finally gave up and actually outlined my first fight (first time doing that...actually it was just half the fight, but whatever) which was what made it work. Finally.

I'm read A Song of Fire and Ice and am on book three (A Storm of Swords). I don't know how I managed to ignore this series up until this point; it's fantastic. Expect reviews of them soon.

Other than that, I'm not doing anything particularly exciting. I'm considering doing a switch off: edit one day, write something the next. I have an idea for a (probably awful) urban fantasy called Half that would be worth a shot. It has no plot and only a basic premise. Nothing could possibly go wrong.

Steelgod September - Let the Edits Begin

2011-09-06T11:11:00.000-07:00

This isn't going to be a very exciting post, but this isn't a very exciting blog, so you get what you paid for.

Basically I'm going through the edit of Might of the Steelgods (which is actually The Destroyer of the World, but I haven't got used to calling it that yet). This is a big, major, serious edit, which also means it's going to take a large chunk of time. This is basically the edit I'll be pitching and (should push come to shove) the edit I'd ePublish should pitching completely fail me. Still undecided about that latter part, but we'll burn that bridge when we get to it.

So hey, I have a system. I've actually never done an edit this extensive before (Paradise Seekers had a pretty intense edit, but even it wasn't as in-depth as this one will be) so I've been trying to wrap my brain around how I'd do it.

Here's the points I rested on:

- I am confident when actually writing from scratch. I'm able to get into the story and the writing comes easier.
- On the flip side, when I just go in and edit pieces/parts it can be difficult. Sentence edits are easy, as are dialogue edits, but when I'm changing a small part of a larger scene, the lack of flow can throw me off.

So here's what I'm gonna do. I already re-read Steelgods once over the weekend, and now I'm going through it again at work. I'm breaking it apart by chapters, and then writing snippets of what I want changed at work. So that's fine and good.

Next, in the evening I'm going to pull of the original document on the Macbook, and then do a transcribe edit to my desktop (the Mini). That way I'm still writing, I still have the scenes, and if there are particular words/pacing bits that I liked I can keep them, but I'm intending to mostly write it as if I was re-writing it.

I'm going to try and do 2-3 chapters a day (I can type about 90-100 wpm if I'm blitzing, and so I'm assuming this'll go pretty quick). If I did around that amount I'd be done in ~2 weeks, which would be ideal. I'm allowing a buffer for when I don't get my chapter notes down at work, but those are going pretty quick so I'm not too worried.

Also, this means I'm going to be actually writing, which I need. All weekend I kept thinking I was forgetting to do something important, that nagging in the back of my brain, when the itch that needed scratching was me writing. I'd go crazy if I didn't actually write this month, but instead of trying to write a whole new project and edit Steelgods, we are going for the best of both worlds here.

After that I may spend another month writing (October) and then hit the edits. I also plan on spending that month submitting Steelgods to every place in the whole world. So hopefully it doesn't suck by that point.

That's it from me. Oh, and I'll also be doing minor Gears edits since it's going through writing group. And I'm playing Adam's Pathfinder game. So I'm going to be busy, big surprise.

Here's some Freddy in memory of him. If you don't know how Freddy Mercury is, you are a bad person.

Steelgod September - The Gears of Anbar is Finished

2011-09-02T20:32:00.000-07:00

After around a month (more or less), The Gears of Anbar - The Might of the Steelgods Book Two is...FINISHED!

Wee!

In celebration I'm posting this post on the new blogger format! It is awesome! We can now tell for sure that it is owned by google, because everything is so white!

At any rate, here are some stats.

Wordcount Stats

Total Words: 112,446
Total Days Covered: 33
Total Days Actually Writing: 28 (Sundays and driving to/from WorldCON)
Words per Day Average: 4,019 (holy crap)
Total actual time spent (in hours) writing: ~40 hours (That's a full time job for one week)
Words per Hour: 2,811 (holy crap again)
Most written in one day: 11,100 words (yesterday, Sep. 1nd)
Least written in one day: 1,040 words (Tuesday, August 30th)

Plot Stats

Number of Chapters: 26 (not counting the prologue and epilogue)
Incorrectly numbered chapters: I have two chapters "2"s for some reason, messing up all future chapter listings.
Characters carried over from Steelgods 1 (physical presence required): 4
New named main characters introduced: 5
Main characters killed: *spoiler*
Times Cevan got the crap kicked out of him: 3
Most used joke: "Like the number" (in reference to when Cevan would introduce himself)
Adherence to original outline written last year: ~40%

Compared to Steelgods 1 (faq)

(note: I'm too lazy to stat check, so this is mostly personal opinion)

Is Gears a better book? Yes
Are there more or less Peacemakers in it? Less
Are there more or less Gears of Anbar in it? ...are you seriously asking this question?
Is there more or less action? Less (aaaand there go my Alpha readers)
Is there more or less lovin with the ladies? Loads more (aaaand here they come back)
Are there more on-screen deaths? No
Are there more impactful on-screen deaths? Absolutely
Are there...politics? Sort of, yes.
Is it funner? I think so.
Better structured? Absolutely. Writing this made me realize how much work Steelgods 1 needs.
STEAM SPIDERS ? VERY YES.
Wait, that wasn't a joke? No, there are actual Steam Spiders.
...how does that work? Just read it and find out.
Is Cevan less of a moron? He still has poor self-esteem, but I think he's doing a good job "growing up" over the course of the series.
What about turning points? The "turning point" moment in this book is (in my opinion) much more dramatic than in Steelgods 1. I'll have a larger impact over the rest of the series.
So you are still planning on writing six of these things, huh? Yep.
Favorite Gears exclusive character: Pitronus
Favorite series character: Either Roc or Devent
Wait, Devent? Isn't he like a huge jerk? Yes, but he's a complex character, and that's why I like him. Rook was my favorite character from Effulgent Corruption, remember? And he's like a mass-murderer psychopath.
Maybe you need therapy. I've got a BS in Psychology, so I can therapize myself!

...since this has gotten far off the rails, here's the magical WORDLE!

Yeah, I'm surprised Devent and Rosemary are more prominent than Stewart and Pitronus. I guess they are his step-siblings.

I apparently also use the words "like", "just", and "back" a lot. "Back" is a carry-over from Effulgent Corruption if I remember correctly. I should probably keep that in mind when I start the next book.

Next project? Editing Steelgods 1. Then the daunting task of editing Effulgent Corruption. In the mean time I'm debating writing something else, but we'll see.

The first step is outlining the edits for Steelgods 1, because I have a lot of changes that need to be made and don't really have it organized. So I'm going to re-read it, write down those edits, pull up my two Alpha readers' line edits, and go from there.

Anyway, Gears is done! Now to drown myself in video games.

Steelgod September: Finish Him!

2011-09-02T13:24:00.000-07:00

I wrote 11.1k yesterday, not counting 1.7k for Adam's upcoming Pathfinder game I'm taking part in. I think having an agnostic gnome cleric in a world where gods are very much real and a reality should prove for a fun run.

But the real story is I wrote three chapters yesterday, leaving one and an epilogue to go. Meaning this book is pretty much done.

Awesome!

I'll blog tonight when I finish it, but it's still an accomplishment. I'll also have stats and what have you during that time, as it'll probably be interesting. Or not. I don't know.

I'm also going to speed-edit it tonight or tomorrow, then take a three-day weekend before starting work on Steelgods 1 (I guess I should get used to calling it Destroyer). After that it's submitting and all that fun stuff.

Overall, as I've said before I feel this book is much tighter than the first one, and I'm going to take what I learned on both it an Effulgent Corruption during my edits of the first book. Hopefully we can cut off the loose threads and make everything fit together better and lose some of the parts that are contrived. We shall see.

I also killed a main character last night, and did things with others that'll make you wish they were dead. So, you know, fun for the whole family.

I'll update tonight with the Wordle, updates, and all that good stuff!

I didn’t sleep that night, not a single minute. I spent what was left of that evening toiling over Devent’s letter, re-reading every word until I could perhaps recite the entire thing from memory. Each time my mind was not made up, my decision concerning the matter foggy and muddled. I didn’t know what to do.

Anbar August - Passing Steelgods, and a new month

2011-09-01T13:50:00.000-07:00

On the last day of August (yesterday), The Gears of Anbar passed the length of The Might of the Steelgods (soon to be renamed The Destroyer of the World) by 1000 words. Unfortunately, those weren't the last 1000 words of Gears, so I didn't finish the book in one month. Too bad.

My new goal is the end of the week, which is still going to take a considerable amount of work. I have four chapters and an epilogue left, basically the climax of the story, which is probably going to be another 20k. This book is also going to need a touch of trimming to drop it down to "YA" length, though one could argue it's between a young adult and adult fantasy novel.

So that means Anbar August is over and we are back into Steelgods September, which means it's been a year since I started the first book. It also means this is the month I'm doing my hardcore edits of Steelgods 1, since I decided it's actually worth trying to sell after mulling it over for a year.

In other news, aside from editing Steelgods and Effulgent Corruption, I have no idea what my next writing project will be. It isn't for lack of options (James and I went over all my potential ideas and sequels and figured I have 13+ books I could work on), it's more a matter of indecision. After writing a YA I'm in the YA mood, but I also could use another fantasy novel. I probably shouldn't get involved in such a massive task again (we saw what happened with Effulgent Corruption), but I don't know how many more options I have.

Maybe I'll finally write that stupid Canyon story I wrote for a writing prompt over a year ago. That thing was supposed to be third person YA, I think. Except it has no plot.

Well, hopefully the next blog post (or the one after) will be me announcing the completion of my seventh book. It's going through writing group starting next week, and I'm actually excited about it. It's a much tighter novel than Steelgods (Destroyer) was, which is probably Effulgent Corruption's fault. Not complaining.

That's about it from me. We are inching into ending spoiler territory with Gears, but here's a safe quote follows by an awesome Within Temptation song. I don't usually do the whole "this song is my book!" but the first time I heard this song I thought of Cevan for whatever reason, so here you go.

Plus it's a badass song.

“Let’s see,” he considered. “Steelgods’ Day is in a moon’s time, so you’ll be needing to come back here at least an hour every day if you plan on finishing it before then. And there’s also the issue of payment…”

I nodded, reaching into my pocket and pulling out my bag. Anbar looked at me close, then gave a wide smile.

“Eh, two-hundred should cover it. Two-fifty and I’ll watch you the hour you are here and help you to not ruin it. Money well spent, I’d say.”

I blinked. “Two-fifty? That seems…a bit low, to be honest. For silver, I mean.”

Anbar laughed, slapping me on the back again. “Blood an iron, boy, don’t go into business. You can’t barter for piss!”

I made a mental note, adding that to the ever-growing list of careers that I wasn’t suited for.

Anbar August - The End is Actually in Sight, EC blurb

2011-08-28T00:18:00.000-07:00

I have a sort of "tradition" (meaning I do it every time without planning it) of when I come to the end of a book (or, in case of longer ones, end of a part/section) I have a tendency to write down very brief chapter outlines. I then use these as a basic guide for my writing.

Why do I do this?

Well, I'm a very hardcore discovery writer. I still make outlines and plans, but I keep the framework in my head. I've never benefitted from writing down an plan, because when I write I'm wired into the story. Switching from what I'm writing and glancing over at an outline or guide draws me out. I like to think it helps make the flow of the story more natural (especially in dialogue) but that's up for the readers to decide not me. In any case, it makes it easier for me to write, so it's a plus.

However, since I discovery write, that means I have to take care with the endings. Dan Wells from Writing Excuses (and other things) has often commented the ends are killer for discovery writers, and I'd agree (though I sort of have a way around it, as I will explain). In many instances, I plan the ends of my books first to prevent myself from messing up. If I have a goal, a final twist, or a supposed resolution, then that's enough to keep my characters, who are sort of doing their own then and I'm just watching, someone in line as they reach for that final goal. It keeps stuff on track, which means at least the whole thing had a point when I started it.

The issue arises when we actually get near the ending, and I realize I've added a bunch of extra crap that also needs to tie off, and it needs to do so semi-coherently. So that's when I start outlining.

In truth, I usually only glance over a chapter, sit down and write it, and never look at the outline again or during the process. However, writing it helps organize everything and give a definite timeframe. It also means I can estimate how much longer until the book is over, which is also a boon.

Paradise Seekers was extensively plotted, mostly because I was terrified of somehow messing it up (since the idea had stemmed completely from the twist). Effulgent Corruption, surprisingly, was not. I made detailed notes for the ends of parts 1 and 2, but the rest just sort of happened. I refused to write notes for the final couple of chapters, mostly because I wanted them to be completely natural and I felt outlining might ruin that (I probably ran the final scenes through my head a hundred times, each one a little different than the previous ones).

The point is this: Gears is on chapter 19 (as of tonight, since I wrote a full chapter today). The book will have 24 chapters and an epilogue. Which means I'm around 75% done, all things considered. But more importantly, I can count down. Six chapters and an epilogue left.

And four days to do it in.

Crap.

Well, it'll probably actually be done in a week from today, which is close enough. I went to a freaking convention in Reno during this chunk of time, so I suppose I can cut myself a little slack.

Oh, there is one more thing. It may make me look like an arrogant prick, but I don't care because I want to say it.

So I have a friend (Eric, I suppose he doesn't mind if I name names. He co-plotted Lacrymosa the video game which eventually devolved into Lacrymosa the novelization of the video game) who is actually going through Effulgent Corruption TWICE because he is both insane and insanely dedicated. Anyway I sent him an email asking a question about something that's been bothering me about the novel and he responded with something I didn't expect.

Something fantastic.

I don't know how to describe it except as a very detailed look at the juxtaposition of the viewpoint characters, their roles in the novel (considering both the plot and the world they are in), and themes shown in the book. Needless to say, it was an incredible read to say the very least, seeing an outside perspective go into so much depth about something I created.

And here I didn't even think of half the crap he dug up while writing it. At least not... consciously. Maybe it was subconscious, I don't know, because it all makes sense when he says it.

Anyway, I'd love to post a bit of it but it's basically a spoiler explosion, so you'll just have to survive. It was just a cool thing that happened (he apparently also has a massive document of critique/review that he'll be sending me one of these days, which I am awaiting with more than baited breath at this point).

BEST ALPHA READER EVER.

Though that isn't to downplay all the others who have read or are currently sifting through it. I greatly appreciate it, and will appreciate it even more when I decide to start tackling these edits in October or November. Everything is taken into consideration, even if I seem resistant towards it, because I feel every opinion is valid. Whether or not it gets applied directly or in the way you anticipated is up to me since I'm the boss. Yep.

Anyway, that's it from me tonight. I'm tired and have a lot of writing to do to meet my goal.

Here's a quote that makes no sense out of context! Ha!

I gave a snort. “I dunno, after seeing that Steam Spider, I don’t know why those things [the Demigod Apparatuses] get such an impressive title.”

Again, Stewart was so offended he couldn’t talk. Pitronus moved to voice an answer, but Ashe cut him off with a wave of her hand.

“Hold on. If we do everything for him, he’ll never learn.”

I paused, blinking. “What? Never learn? What are you talking about?”

Ashe gave me a mischievous smile.

Anbar August - STEAM SPIDERS

2011-08-26T12:30:00.000-07:00

So I'm finally getting into the whole "Steampunk" aspect of the Might of the Steelgods books. It's always been a sort of hybrid between traditional fantasy and Steampunk elements, where the Steampunk parts are mostly of my own design (that is, we haven't gotten into the whole "Victorian era" part of it...at least not extensively).

I've always loved Steampunk, even though I know...well, not a lot about it. Perhaps the biggest Steampunk thing I enjoyed was Final Fantasy VI, which was big on the technology part and not on the other aspects (clothing, period society, etc.)

Pictured: STEAMPUNK IN 16 BITS

Which is sort of where my enjoyment of the whole Steampunk thing comes from. I love the idea of goofy, impossible machines powered by steam and clockwork, but get bogged down in the rest of it. However, I'm cut a bit of slack in Gears: It takes place in London, which is the main city of the Gears of Anbar (the steampunk guys) in Tempered (the land that is mostly traditional fantasy). So they have aspects of both society, which basically means: Nathan can cheat and cut out all the parts of steampunk he doesn't like. Suckers!

Unfortunately, when they actually get to the Steel-Imbued Domain in a later book (the entire country that is a massive Gears city) then I'll have to actually....you know, follow the "rules" of steampunk. But we'll worry about that when I get to it.

But my total ruination of Steampunk for my own fiendish devices means I can do CRAZY THINGS. LIKE ADD STEAM SPIDERS. NOBODY HAS EVER...

Oh wait.

CRAP.

Well...mine is different. Also there's dirigibles, a staple of steampunkness, as well as some other crap. Basically I'm enjoying myself since I haven't been able to put guns in a story for forever, so it's good to have them all back.

At any rate, I'd say we are about in act 3 of Gears, which is good considering there are only five days left in August. If I'm going to finish this thing before "Anbar August" ends, then I'm going to have to pick up the pace. The plan after that is, while I still have Cevan's story fresh on my mind, I'll go back and edit the first Steelgods book. I'm also considering changing the title to The Destroyer of the World, and thinking of something else for the last book. The Destroyer of the World is just so much more attention-grabbing, you know?

Also all that rambling about that job last time and I probably didn't get it. Oh well.

Here's a bit. IS IT ABOUT STEAM SPIDERS? YOU BET IT IS!

“That isn’t even the best of it,” Pitronus elbowed me. “I heard from a little bird that they have Steam Spiders here.”

I blinked, uncertain what to say. Steam mixed with spiders didn’t sound like a good combination, no matter how many options my vivid imagination threw up. Ashe, on the other hand, nearly exploded in excitement.

“Really? Are you serious? They gave Boreous Spiders? As in, more than one? Steelgods, that’s amazing! Where are they?”

“Judging by the sound,” Pitronus grinned at her, clearly enjoying the attention. “I’d say they are next up in our little performance.”

Ashe’s gaze glued on the corner. I don’t think if I’d stripped naked and danced next to her I could have gotten her attention at that moment. So I watched along with her, hair bristling with anticipation on what a “Steam Spider” might be.

When the monstrous machine at last rounded the corner, I saw that – like the Walking Artillery – the Gears were not ones for subtlety when naming their creations.

Anbar August - Still not a WorldCON post

2011-08-25T14:05:00.000-07:00

Yeah I know I should be blogging about WorldCON. But I'm at work and my brain is fried, but I still feel obligated to blog about something, so here goes?

I'm applying for a graveyard shift full time call-center job. This has both pros and cons. Pros include being able to write since probably nobody will call in, a $5 an hour pay raise (substantial!), doing in-house support rather than distributor support, and full time benefits. The cons are that I won't ever see my wife, I'll have to sleep during the day (ruining any daytime activities before 4 or 5), and I'll become a hermit.

So we'll see how that works out.

Gears is going well. The Steelgods series is also doing quite good. I've been struggling how exactly Cevan, his purpose, and all that fits into the story. I've also been basically stalling the ending of the series, since we all know what happens thanks to the prologue/epilogues, but how it resolves was still...well let's just say I had a good dozen ideas, and the majority of them were terrible.

Luckily, I managed to squash all these stupid problems (or most anyway) so I can sleep easy. Also it means I can do proper foreshadowing in these books for how everything will end, assuming I ever get around to writing four more books past this one.

I also have a tentative fourth book title: "The Wanderer of Shattered Blades." Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, but I'll figure something out if it needs changing.

Well, my brain is breaking. I've been writing a fair amount; we'll see if that continues tonight. I've been playing Age of Empires Online, the sort of awful online "free to play" version of Age of Empires that is way overpriced if you decided to pay to play it.

In any case, that's it from me. Here is some Gears.

“Hmm.” Ashe nodded, though I thought I saw a splash of disappointment cross her face as she returned to her tidying. “So you slept through the big news.”

“Big news?” I asked, sitting down on the bed. Ashe finally finished and then plopped down next to me, hands on her knees.

“Last Washington is sending troops to aid Spoke Boreous. Steam-machines, weapons of war. They’ll be marching through London tomorrow in some sort of parade. They cancelled morning classes so we can attend.”

My eyes widened. “Spoke Boreous…you mean Divine? He’s getting weapons from Last Washington? So there is going to be a war?”

Anbar August - Not the WorldCON post

2011-08-23T00:00:00.000-07:00

You are probably expecting an extended WorldCON post.

This ain't it.

This is me saying that I wrote every day of WorldCON that I wasn't travelling, and wrote a hefty amount. I also met a lot of people and had a very good time. I certainly had a better time than at World Fantasy (we'll count that as the "warmup."). I also met a lot of very cool people and had some great conversations with agents, editors, and other authors (published and non-published alike).

But this is about Gears and what I've been doing.

Here are a few notable things:

- We listed to The Way of Kings audiobook coming up and going down to Reno. We are about 1/3 of the way through the book. It's...pretty good, but not blowing my mind. It's more "Robert Jordan" than "Mistborn," which is too bad. I usually like my fantasy fast-paced, which few authors really excel at anymore. The visual imagery in Way of Kings is fantastic, though. I still recommend it, thus far.

- I read A Game of Thrones. As in, the whole book during the Con. Let me say: this book is a freaking masterpiece. One of the best fantasy novels I've ever read. I am beyond pumped to read the rest of the series. Why did I put this off for so long? It has "me" written all over it. Great characters, very dark, very gritty, and very realistic. Exactly how I like my fantasy. Bring on A Clash of Kings.

- Gears crossed the 60k mark tonight. I suddenly realized the pacing for this book might be crappy. Or maybe it might be great, I have no idea. It depends on how much book is left. I really wish I knew I have the ending 1/4ish planned but getting there is going to be a pain in my butt. Something I do like about these books, however, is that they aren't broad. EC has to deal with a world in conflict. The world of Steelgods is in conflict, but since it's first person I don't ever pull the camera back. I'm enjoying this, because it makes the book more personal. Anyway, my warm-down reading is fun. And I think Gears is entertaining, which is all that matters.

- My next book is probably going to be a stand-alone dark fantasy novel. Yes, I just read Game of Thrones, shut up, but I actually got the idea listening to A Way of Kings. It's going to be short (120k is my goal, no more Effulgent Corruption's) and...that's about all I'm going to say about it right now.

- Effulgent Corruption has been running over and over in my mind. I haven't gotten to it yet for editing (I'm waiting until November), but I've already figured out a ton of scenes to cut, including entire chapters. People say you have to "kill your babies" or "kill your darlings." It's going to be hard to try and cut 90k from this book, but if I ever want to sell it than it's pretty much necessary. Also condensing the book will fix a lot of issues I have with it, so it's win-win.

- I have, since I started writing on a computer instead of spiral bound notebooks, given myself a writing goal of 2k a day pretty much since the dawn of time. That's always been my fallback goal regardless of book, chapter, or any outside influences that might hinder writing. I'm now updating that after about three/four years of writing to 2.5k. The reason is I found I average about 2.8k a day. The 2k is the minimum (for example, I wrote 4k today), basically the basic requirement for me to keep living. However, I'm thinking I'm now bumping it up to 2.5k. This seems doable in every regard, though I also plan on going over. I write six days a week currently (I take Sundays off), which means I'm churning out a minimum of 15k a week. My "tier 2" goal is 5k (and there is a story behind that which I'll share at some later date...if I haven't shared it already) but I don't meet that as often; usually twice a week. Anyway, goal has been bumped, now to solidify it in my mind.

Anbar August has a little over a week left. I need to finish this book in that time to prove I'm as cool as I was last September. This...isn't going to be easy. But I'm going to try.

That's about it from me. Expect a WorldCON post sometime when I get around to it. Just know it was very fun (and I got Game of Thrones pins! AWESOME.)

I can't think of a great Gears part, so here is the end of what I just wrote. Why not.

The letter was folded on all four sides, opening like a flower. Inside the note was sparingly short, and I could tell from the messy script Devent had penned it in a hurry. I had expected an update on his career, or at least a friendly note. Instead the message caused a chill to pass through me, and I could hardly believe what it said.

Cevan,

You are not safe.

They know you are at Factory. Spies are everywhere.

Trust no one.

Do nothing save wait for further instructions.

Devent

WorldCON - For those wondering

2011-08-19T19:20:00.000-07:00

For those wondering: Yes, I'm at WorldCON.

For those wondering: Yes, I've met a truckload of editors. No agents yet (at least not ones I haven't met before) but I still have two days. Most of the editors have been from Tor, but Ace's panel is tomorrow so we'll to grab 'em then.

For those wondering: Yes, I got my kindle signed by a truckload of people, including George R. R. Martin and Patrick Rothfuss.

For those wondering: Yes, Patrick Rothfuss is hilarious on every panel he is on. His reading was amazing as well.

For those wondering: Yes, I have a newfound zeal to submit things to people now. I just have to do loads of editing before it'll be ready.

For those wondering: I haven't been updating my blog because I've been spending my evening either at the con or writing Gears instead. Yes, I think this is a better use of my time. I'll post a big update once it is all over.

For those wondering: There are a truckload of Utah people here. Not surprising, but I swear I keep running into the same ones constantly. Seriously, I'm not seeking them out, but it's weird that this keeps happening.

For those wondering: Most professionals at these cons are very nice and polite. I suppose that is their job, but I figured I'd let it be known that their courtesy and tolerance is appreciated from this social troglodyte.

For those wondering: I've drunk a Rockstar every morning this week, and I feel awesome.

For those wondering: Yes, I'm stopping blogging to write Gears. The month is over half finished and the book isn't. This is a problem.

WorldCON Time

2011-08-16T13:11:00.000-07:00

I have:

- Gotten an awful haircut
- Trimmed my beard so it looks reasonable
- Washed my clothes and packed them
- Made sure my Netbook is up to date
- Charged my Ipod and put the audiobook of Way of Kings on it.
- Bought SEVEN ROCKSTARS because I NEED caffeine to function in social settings
- Printed the WorldCON grid schedule and gone, author by author, over what I want to go to
- Written that down, found major conflicts (everything I want to go to is always at 11:00am AT THE SAME TIME)
- Put WorldCON and the Hotels in the GPS
- Got a sharpie and my Kindle for MAD SIGNANGE YO.
- Wished I weren't so nervous about this

I'm off to WorldCON tonight, fools! I'm going to try and not have it cut into my writing, but that will depend on how much free time I have at night. Here's hoping I meet a lot of people, go to a lot of panels, and generally have a kickin time.

I'll also try and update from the Con, assuming our hotel has internet. Ta ta!

Anbar August - WorldCON, sequels, monster-averse

2011-08-15T11:50:00.000-07:00

Wrote a large amount last week, which makes me happy. Unfortunately, Jason wrote like freaking 8k on Saturday which mean on our stat sheet he now holds the record for most words in a day.

UNACCEPTABLE.

In other news, WorldCON is this weekend, and we are leaving tomorrow night. I still have to do literally everything to prepare, including getting a haircut (boo!), deciding my schedule, and figuring out where the crap we are staying Tuesday night. I'm also going to do most of the driving, which means I'm putting Way of Kings audiobook on the iPod.

So that will be fun and hopefully I'll make some good contacts. If not, every awesome author in the history of the world will be there, and I'm going to make them sign my Kindle. ALL OF THEM.

In Gears news, I've already decided on the title for the third Steelgods book: A War of Blood and Oil. In a not-so-massive spoiler, Gears ends with the inevitable war between the Gears and the Peacemakers starting up, which encompasses the rest of the series. So that should prove interesting. I actually also have titles for the last two books as well (The Tips of Creation and The Destroyer of the World). So Book 4 remains the only one current untitled. I'll get to these when I get to them; we'll see.

I also stumbled upon another revelation about my writing. I tend to avoid a rather large fantasy staple: mystical creatures. With the exception of Lacrymosa (which has a big flying nasty thing called a Zentapox), none of my books have any sorts of weird animals or creatures in them. Corrupters in Effulgent Corruption are close, but they are still technically people, just coated in Gangrene. None of my other books have any sort of weird animal life, and I only rarely have a different fantasy race (Lacrymosa has Ala and El, Harbinger has the Seraphim, and WGMD has...the gods?). It's almost as if I weened it out of my novels intentionally. I don't even plan stuff that has weird monsters (though The Tips of Creation will have weird monsters because that's one where they actually go to the Blight that borders the world. But...eh).

Anyway, I just thought that was interesting. Now I really want to write something that has fantasy monsters, but they always have seemed so contrived and trite. Honestly, my least favorite part about Mistborn was the shape-shifting monsters and the Koloss (though the Koloss...well, it's a spoiler, but if you've read it you know why I might be more forgiving of those). It just seemed really out of place in a book about humans. I dunno, maybe I'm just super biased. I also tend to prefer my sci-fi without aliens, and that's pretty much the same thing. Huh.

Anyway, there you go. that's what has been on my mind. Now, a bit from Gears.

“Yeah, about that,” I muttered, raising the sword. That only resulted in me wincing and crumpling down slightly; I took a long, stabbing breath and forced myself back to my feet. “I kind of met him yesterday. And got punched by him. And…retaliated.”

“Wait, really?” Ashe looked at me in surprise, and then glanced over to make sure Tartonus wasn’t watching us. “What on earth did you do?”

“I kicked him in a…sensitive area. Sensitive to males. If you catch my drift.”

I was trying to be tactful, but I suppose I shouldn’t have bothered considering who I was talking with.

“You rammed your foot into Gregor’s nuts?” I didn’t know Ashe’s eyes could get that big. “Gregor Halbicus? The son of – “

“Yeah, Stewart and Pitronus already told me about how I pretty much signed my death wish, thank you.” I grunted. I was starting to feel a little better; I could stand straight, at least.

- The Gears of Anbar, Chapter 11 - Assessment

And here is some AWESOME CHIPTUNES from an equally awesome game. It was for sale with the recent Humble Bundle (pay your own price) so if you didn't buy it YOU ARE A FOOL.

Anbar August - Stat Tracking

2011-08-11T14:25:00.000-07:00

My friend Jason has constructed a rather interesting excel document. Basically, its a pretty version of a stat-tracker that lets you set writing goals, put in your amounts (time/word count), and provides useful facts like daily averages, totals so far, etc. It's a neat thing.

Probably the coolest part is he's put all of writing group on it, which is inspiring "friendly" competition. Plus, since we are all trying to get a wordcount in every day, if you fail hard we all know it. Solid motivator that (considering all I want to do is play Fallout 3 on my computer all day long).

I'm getting about 3k average, which isn't awful but should be much higher. Gears is easy to write dialogue for, but descriptions slow me down. I've noticed that about my pacing: when people are talking, writing is easy. When people aren't...I tend to trudge along. Which is probably why Effulgent Corruption took so long.

So anyway I don't have much more to say. Here's a quote and more Bastion music. Yeah, exciting blog day.

The larger boy laughed, though it was more of a series of snorts and huffs. “Cevan? Why are you named after a number anyway? Were your parents some sort of idiots?”

Well, so much for this being a friendly confrontation, I frowned. I wasn’t sure what to say, so I said nothing, just letting my expression harden.

The big boy apparently hadn’t expected this, because he gave my shoulder a shove. “Oh, come off it, don’t go pouting like a big baby. We know you are a rich boy, must be if the head Spoke of all of Tempered is sponsoring you. The question is, why is he wasting money on an idiot? You know less about chemistry than my baby sister, and you shoot about as good too. What’s your story?”

Oh, you have no idea. I grit my teeth.

“Sorry, I’m not partial to sharing it with assholes. Just one of my tenets.” I quipped, actually feeling pretty clever at using 'tenets’ in a sentence.

- Gears of Anbar, Chapter 8 - Ashe

Anbar August - You do not know a man until he has lost all that once defined him

2011-08-09T13:39:00.001-07:00

Wrote a lot yesterday, so I'm going to say Gears is going well. I figured out the crucial tie in between "past" Cevan (aka the main story) and "future/epilogue" Cevan (aka after the world is destroyed) and I like it. I also figured out basically the last 2/3rds of the book.

The problem being I don't know what happens in the part directly following this one, but I suppose we'll get to it when it comes. This is discovery writing, after all (and warm-down writing from Effulgent Corruption).

My wife is rather adamant that I try and get this sold, and if not get it up on Kindle. While she's certainly a biased source, I'm glad she is enjoying it. I have a bad habit of ragging on my own work when it doesn't go exactly as planned, so any more motivation is helpful.

Speaking of my wife, it's our three year anniversary today! Yay! We survived three years of marriage! Only a bajillion more to go! :P

I've also been thinking of how Effulgent Corruption has changed my writing style. I'd assume it is fair to say any good author gets better after each book he/she writes, learning from that novel and applying these new tidbits to future books. It made me wonder what I'd learned from my own previous novels, and so now I'm going to discovery write what I think I learned. Again, this is for my own personal amusement, so bear with me.

Lacrymosa - The first big one is obviously that I could finish a book, even if it takes four years. The second was that I wasn't nearly as good as I thought I was (Brandon Sanderson did a good job cutting me down to size in his class :P). I hadn't yet decided if this was what I wanted to do professionally, but it made it seem possible.

Harbinger - While Lacrymosa was the first book, Harbinger was the one that changed everything. I wrote every day for three months, recording my progress on LJ to make sure I stayed honest. I wrote an entire book over the summer. It was actually coherent, and completely discovery written. While Lacrymosa was extensively planned, Harbinger was not. It suffered from it, but it taught me I enjoy writing characters and dialogue spur of the moment rather than meticulously plotted in advance. It was also the weirdest book in terms of setting (wild west fantasy with angel-vampires that lived on a floating land mass above a western town that uses water for currency which RANGO TOTALLY RIPPED ME OFF)

Where Gods and Mortals Dance - A lot of my writing is me trying new things rather than doing the same thing over and over again. WGMD was the book where I tried to write a novel focusing more on politics and religion rather than a war or people killing each other. It was also the longest book I wrote, and the most interwoven at the time. Unfortunately, I didn't really have the skill to pull of the politics part, and because of it a lot of the novels seems disjointed and contrived. I still really like the story and the characters (this is the book the Useless God is in, which has become my email address and username) but it was still a mess. I think this book taught me about my limits, as well as how to do viewpoint right (thanks, writing group :P). It also was about the time I decided I could do this professionally, realized (after the fact) that I was doing a lot of dialogue wrong (modern slang, etc.), and really started feeling confident. If Harbinger was the turning point for my writing personally, WGMD was the turning point for me considering it a career.

Paradise Seekers - My first attempt at first-person since I was like...8. Also my first attempt at YA, with a book that was surprisingly not fantasy. This is the black sheep book out of them all, as everything else I've written was straight fantasy. It was also the most well-received (and well-read) out of all the books I've written. The biggest feat with this one was I wrote the entire novel in under a month. Like Harbinger proving I could write something quickly, Paradise Seekers only amplified that. I could write a YA novel in a month, and it could actually turn out pretty decently.

Might of the Steelgods - This book was me combining what I'd learned with Paradise Seekers with a more traditional fantasy setting (with lots of steampunk slipped in). It was also my first attempt to write a series, because I realized if I could write one book a month I could technically write a six book series in half a year. Steelgods currently suffers from having too steep a learning curve for YA (the world is complicated and not explained early on enough), but it also hasn't gone through a major edit yet, so it'll get addressed. I actually greatly prefer this book to Paradise Seekers, and I had a lot more fun with the characters. This was another "monther," and also my attempt to have a completely incompetent protagonist and still make him sympathetic. It was "fantasy lite" compared to previous books, and I really enjoyed writing it.

Effulgent Corruption - If Steelgods was fantasy lite, this was fantasy hardcore. It was the longest I ever spent on a book, especially considering I wrote nearly every day for seven months straight. I think I've spoken enough about this novel, but if I were to take just one thing it would be that I learned how to balance extensive planning with discovery writing. The book is certainly the most complex I've ever written, but figuring it all out was extremely helpful. There was no way I could have written this book sooner (I started it after writing Paradise Seekers, and abandoned it for Steelgods because I didn't feel ready), but I'm glad it is finally written.

So there is what goes on in my head. Of course other factors have had massive influence on me during this time as well, first and foremost being writing groups, working with professional authors, going to cons and panels, and increasing my reading habits. I just started re-reading Lacrymosa for fun and profit and found I couldn't. Yeah, it's pretty bad. I guess that means I've come a long way. Hopefully.

Anyway, here is some Gears for ya. I'm enjoying this warm-down writing. Now I have to figure out what I'm doing after that.

“So,” Figtront walked close to the flame, still holding the gunpowder in his fingers. “Alandra, our resident genius: what happens when I toss this into the fire?”

I felt a bit of spirit in me, just itching to get out. “What do you think happens?” I snapped. “It explodes.”

If Figtront was surprised by my sudden flash of zealousness he didn’t show it. Instead he pinched his fingers, dropped the gunpowder into the flame. It exploded with a boom that caused several of the girls (and even a few boys) to give out high pitched squeals. Figtront wiped his fingers on his raggedy suit and glowered over me.

“Of course it explodes, you ignoramus. What is that process called?”

“Uh…” I wasn’t sure. “Explode…ering?”

The laughter was less for ridicule this time, but it was clear the class knew the answer and was enjoying watching me fail. Figtront wiped a hand across his brow as if unable to believe what he was hearing.

“Steelgods on Earth, we should send you to a primary school,” he grumbled.

And here is some AWESOME MUSIC from Bastion. Great for writing stuff like this. :D

Anbar August - Classes and vidja gamez

2011-08-07T00:46:00.000-07:00

I wrote only 1.5k friday, far under mark. Mostly because I was working on a new side project (see later on!) and I was in a completely foul mood. But I still wrote, and that is something, and I wrote 3k to make up for it, and might write even more before going to sleep because I hate sleep apparently.

Gears is going...slowly. I have to keep reminding myself that after this setup I have a lot of words available for all the things I've been planning while Cevan is at university (spoiler?), but it is taking them forever to get there. I blame Effulgent Corruption, even though I'm still trying my hardest to keep things moving extremely fast. I guess it'll get decided once it gets to writing group.

I'm strongly reconsidering epublishing Steelgods. I also did something I should have done a long whiles ago: signed up for the Kindle Boards (well, I was already on and lurking, but I'm making an active move to post now). Things there have been very helpful and interesting, which is fun. Most of my forum-going has been lurking these past few years, so about time I got back on that whole forum thing.

So here is what I've been doing. I have a buttload of video games, and even more so I haven't beaten. I've decided that I'm going to try and beat as many of them as I can, since I have entire series of games I haven't even beaten one game in, which is bad. So I've decided to start a blog where I play though my backlog of games, forcing myself to play them until I beat them, and making snarky comments all along the way.

Yep. Pretty much what it would be like if you lived with me. My poor wife.

Anyway, it's up but I'm not advertising it on any of the gaming sites I'm active in just yet, not until I have at least two games under my belt and decide I'm going to keep doing it. I do my best to put lots of images and keep things entertaining, sort of combined "review" and "I'm going to beat this dumb game" thing going on. The current game is Metroid Prime 2, a game I technically started in 2005 and never beat. Yeah, fail.

So check it out, follow it, etc. If you like my brand of humor, it might be up your alley (or if you like video games). If you think I'm an annoying twit, you should probably avoid it.

The Backlog Blog.

And now, a piece from today, when Divine is telling Cevan the classes he signed the latter up for.

“What’s this one for?” I asked, the blank cover mysterious.

“Oh yes,” Devent smiled. “A personal touch of my own: ballroom dancing.”

I froze. Devent and Rosemary stared at him with open eyes, and then looked back at me. Then, as if a dam had broken, they burst into uproarious laughter. I felt my cheeks go crimson as I just held the book in silence, my stepsiblings howling so loudly it echoed in the large room.

“Dancing?” I finally managed to sputter. “You signed me up for a dancing class?”

“I fail to see why this is so humorous,” Divine folded his arms like an angry parent. “Dancing has long been a sign of the civilized and refined. You couldn’t hope to visit a Spoke’s ball without at least a rudimentary knowledge of how to dance. It is an important life skill.”

This just made Rosemary and Devent laugh harder, the latter pounding the table with the butt of his silverware. I growled as menacingly as I could, but they didn’t stop.

“Bloody hell,” I muttered. “Well, is it a fun class at least? Something that won’t make me look like a total idiot?”

“I…actually didn’t take it myself,” Divine confessed, turning a bit red. “But I always wanted to. I figured you would enjoy it.”