It’s been a while.

Another massive gap in Yee Olde Blogge updates.

I’ve done more RPG freelance work, most notably on the recent Torg Eternity RPG. Since I was a huge fan of classic Torg back in the day, it was a total treat. I think the best thing about rpg work is seeing the art. Whether it’s a super villain design brought to life or a mood-setting picture of the action, it’s always a total kick to see the art.

The novel (or novels) come and go. I completed NaNoWriMo 2017.  Weird Sisters is the tale of three modern-day superheroines fighting against a very old super villain. I’ve taken a few swings at a second draft, trying to fix the structural problems I discovered in the middle of NaNo but since you can’t go back and edit, I plugged along with what I had. I haven’t given up on the story. Largely thanks to a piece of art I commissioned. There’s nothing better for my “oh, but this book would be shinier” complex than having the protagonists of the current project looking at you every time you open your phone or iPad.

So, here they are. Samantha “Sam” Seahawk, The Advocate and Pollychrome.

Blowing off the Dust

It's been a long time since I've updated this blog. I'm heading off to WorldCon in a couple of days and since I have business cards that point to this page, I thought I'd put something more recent than March up here.

What have I been up to? 

If you look at the Buy My Stuff link on the right side of the page, you'll see that I've updated it include all of my published work - specifically some super villains I created for Vigilance Press' Rogues, Rivals and Renegades collection. More villains are coming. 

I've also been turning around drafts for an upcoming RPG book for Onyx Path. RPG system design is hard work for me. I'd rather take the toybox and start smashing action figures together, but you can't do that until the toybox gets built. It's in the editing process and I probably will have another pass at my sections to go. 

Fiction-wise, I've had a few stops and starts. A super-hero novel went through numerous false starts and outlines that got trashed and then shelved. A sci-fi novel is outlined but shelved. And I took a long look at the urban fantasy book that I'd made a few thousands words of progress on before I got distracted by the shiny ideas listed above. 

But then my wonderful family got me a new iPad a week before Scrivener came out for iOS. I don't believe in signs but if I did, I'd call this one.  After a hiccup or two getting the project imported, I got back to work on the Urban Fantasy Project. Step one was a serious re-write of everything I've done so far. It's an ensemble piece, and I chopped out one of the main characters and promoted a more interesting supporting character to the main cast. I re-wrote two of the main characters. Most importantly, I've been writing almost every day since I restarted the project. It's about twice as long as it had been, even after chopping out a chapter. 

And soon I will be off to WorldCon. If you're coming here because I managed to overcome being an introvert and I gave you my card, welcome. 

Back on the Horse

So I'm back on the daily writing track. Ten days so far. The novel is progressing. It's a different novel than the one I was working on for NaNoWriMo. Part of my problem as an aspiring writer is that, when I don't have an external editor and deadline, I get easily distracted. I've got about five novels outlined and a couple of chapters of each of them. And then a shiny new idea comes along and I have to write it down and then there's another outline and set of notes in Scrivener for me to poke occasionally.

I'm trying so new tricks to keep myself on track. So often, I will read a book or watch a TV show or go to a movie and my Writer Brain will jump up and down saying "Yes! That's it! That's what you need to write about. Write something like THAT." And the old projects look boring and lame and the New Idea will be all shiny."

So while I am still reading new things and watching new things and experiencing new things that will probably get my Writer Brain all excited, I'm also making a concerted effort to keep ingesting things that are similar to the current project to help me stay on track.

NaNoCrash

I was making good progress on the NaNoNovel and then this happened. He's a stray and there was no mother or siblings in sight. He's now approximately 5 weeks old and is named Perseus. I'm poking at writing some more, but this guy is something of a distraction. Like all good writers' cats, he thinks that laptops (or ipads running CloudOn editors) alternate between being very fascinating and thus requiring inspection or they are a competition for attention and thus require a full assault on my toes.

NaNoWriMo Day 2

Total Wordcount: 6610 out of 52,908

NaNoWriMo Day One: Red Wind

So I'm doing NaNoWriMo again. I've done it twice before, one time completing the novel and one time I was on track until a bout of stomach flu knocked me out and I didn't pick it back up again.

This year, I'm taking another swing at it with a science fiction detective story set on a post-singularity Mars. (I know, I know, the market is just flooded with those.)  Expect daily updates and check the progress bar on the right.

I will also confess that I started this story already, which is technically against the rules. However, I've just added my current word count to the goal, so I'll still be shooting for the requisite 50,000 words in 31 days.

Starting Wordcount: 2908
Daily Goal: 4575
Daily Wordcount to Complete On Schedule 1666

Demon: Interface

So my first professional short story “The Principal” appears in the collection “Demon: Interface”, which is set in the world of White Wolf/Onyx Path’s Role-Playing Game “Demon: The Descent.”  I hope you all go out and buy a copy here. But for folks who aren’t familiar with The World of Darkness games, I thought I’d give a little context. 

First off, the titular demons mentioned in the book aren’t what you'd call "traditional" demons.  They’re not connected to any real-world religious beliefs.  In the World of Darkness, there’s a powerful extra-dimensional entity called “the God-Machine.”  The God-Machine is what you’d get if you crossed Cthulhu with Skynet.  Like the Great Old Ones, humans can’t even understand what it wants, but whatever that may be; it’s not going to end well for humanity.

The God-Machine can’t directly affect the world, but it can create “angels” that can enter the world and interact with people. These “angels” are sort of like the Agents in the Matrix, creatures edited into reality that look human, but aren’t. Sometimes, these angels develop free will and decide that they don’t want to serve the God-Machine anymore.  These renegade angels are called (you guessed it) demons.