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![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) rowyn | |
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Because all the cool kids are doing it.
Yes, I'm a spell-spinner. You know how to spin spells, don't you? No? Okay, then, I'll tell you. First, you'll need some harvested magic. You can buy pre-packaged magic at most any Craft store, but I like to harvest my own. Some people say it doesn't make a difference, but most of the best spell-weavers say you get better results if you can do all the steps yourself. You should at least know how to harvest. To harvest, you start by combing all the old unabsorbed wild magic out of your aura. You might be able to use some of that to spin, but usually if it's been tangled up in your aura for a while it'll be too friable to work with. So, look at your aura. See those little things floating around in it, like bits of glittery fur drifting below the surface of a lake? Yes, those. Comb them all out. You can use an aura comb or your fingers -- I always use an aura comb for this part. Once you've gotten all of the bits out, throw them away, unless you want to try salvaging them to spin. Next, get dressed up in your shiniest clothing. Yes, really. Why do you think the stereotype of a wizard has him wearing a robe covered in stars? Magic is attracted to glitter and shine, so you want to wear something with a lot of gleam to it. You don't need to go totally overboard here -- sequins head to toe are overkill. It won't hurt, mind you, but a vinyl outfit with some polished studs or an evening dress with a nice pattern of rhinestones is just as good. Expensive jewelry is fine, but so is cheap junk as long as it shines. So you want glossy gold and silver tones, for instance, not buff ones. Magic doesn't have particularly good taste. Now, clench your aura down tight. Pull it in as close to your body as you can. No, tighter than that. As if you were trying to stop someone else from using a spell on you. Didn't you ever get into spell fights when you were a kid? You don't want your aura loose and soft and open like translucent smoke drifting around you, but tight, hard, closed, like a layer of polished glass covering your skin. Yes, that's better. Practice at it, it's a good skill to have even if you're not harvesting magic. And now you're ready to gather magic! Go out for a walk. Anywhere, it doesn't matter. Okay, it does kind of matter. You'll get different flavors of wild magic depending on where you walk around. The flavor at a goth night club (which may be where you think you belong, dressed like that) isn't the same as the flavor on a city street, and it's nothing like the flavor on a farm, which is totally unlike that of a rainforest or a nature preserve. Every place's magic is different. But it's all still magic, and for most spells it's not going to make much difference. Also, don't worry about looking for a place where no one else is harvesting. Magic is like air: it'll flow to whereever the magic-pressure is low. You're not going to run out of magic to harvest by because you're surrounded by harvesters any more than you'll run out of air to breathe because you're in a crowd full of people breathing. It's not a scarce resource. Anyway, as you're walking around, you'll notice bits of glittery wild magic start to accumulate on the outside of your aura. Gradually, they'll build up from dust motes to clumps, and if you keep at it long enough your aura will end up covered in raw magic and to second sight you'll look like a wookie that went to war with a glitter factory and lost. But unless you're really really good, you'll get tired of keeping your aura clenched in before the covering gets anywhere near that thick. When you're starting to get tired of keeping your aura closed, pull the wild magic off of it. You can use an aura comb for this, too, but I never do. Fresh wild magic comes off easily in your fingers, and unless you have a very expensive professional-quality comb, aura combs will change the flavor of the magic in a subtle and usually not particularly good way. The clumps of magic should come off easily in your hands: just curl your fingers and rake them over all the clusters and loose bits. You need to keep your aura closed while you do this, too, otherwise the magic will start to dissolve in your aura. So don't wait until you're too tired to clench your aura any more! Don't worry if you get tired quickly in the beginning, it gets a lot easier with practice. Once you've gathered all the wild magic into a big bundle, you can store it by wrapping it up in something shiny. Tinfoil works fine: be sure to wrap it with the reflective side facing in. Or you can buy the bright cellophane bags that packaged magic comes in -- any good Craft store will sell the bags by themselves in boxes of a hundred. Or tie it up with spells you're not using for anything else. Or you can start spinning it right away. Just remember to wrap up any leftover magic so it doesn't dissipate. Before you start spinning, set aside a good-sized clump of harvested magic, maybe twice the size of your head. If you've tied it up with spells, undo enough of them that you can pull it out easily. Or unwrap one side if it's wrapped or bagged. Now, you'll need to make a vortex with your aura. There are lots of ways to do this, so I'm only going to explain one. And for pity's sake, don't use one of those mechanical-based vortex-generators, if you're going to use those you might as well just buy bulk spells, why bother making your own? Start by relaxing your aura all the way. Loosen it up. Breathe. Chill. Meditate on your navel. Contemplate the universe. Embrace your surroundings. Whatever works for you. Once your aura is spread out around you, swirl your hand through the aura before your chest, over and over again, in the same direction. Yes, it's just like making a whirlpool in a bathtub. Yes, you can do it widdershins if that makes you happy, but the direction doesn’t matter. Make sure you swirl so that you can reach both the top and the tip of the vortex easily: the top is going to be a little above your wrist/elbow, depending how much of your arm you manage to swirl, and the tip will be below your fingers: bigger swirls make the tip lower down. If you pinwheel your whole arm, which I'm not recommending for beginners, you'll end up with the tip by your shoulder and the top past your hand. This is annoying to work with, though it's easy to make a vortex like that. For thick, sturdy spells, a wide slow vortex is best: for quick nimble ones, you want a narrow fast one. Once you've got a nice vortex going, feed some of your harvested magic into the top with one hand -- if you're right handed, you’ll probably want to use your left for this. Don’t be too slow about getting it from your hand to the vortex, because if the harvested magic spends too long in contact with your open aura it’ll start to absorb. Once you get the magic to the top of the vortex, it’ll along towards the vortex tip. Put your right hand by the tip and be prepared to catch it between your thumb and forefinger. The vortex will taper it most of the way, but you need to use your fingers to smooth the thread of the spell and make sure it’s of uniform thickness. You can twist it a little extra to keep it nice and tight and make sure it coheres well. Keep feeding in magic until the vortex starts to slow noticeably. Then you’ll want to nip off the spell you’ve been spinning so you can restart the vortex. Or take a break, as you prefer. And that’s all there is to it! The theory’s pretty easy, the tricky parts aren’t so much doing it as doing it well. Hmm? What do you do with the spun spell? Well, that’s up to you, isn’t it?
This is a meme of sorts, started by haikujaguar. It's a way to make exercise more interesting by imagining it as a metaphor for something extraordinary. haikujaguar uses a metaphor of "minutes exercised: alien bugs killed". minor_architect uses "minutes exercised: people rescued". dulcinbradbury does yoga and her metaphor is "ambassador to an alien race". Mine is "minutes: spells spun". It took me ages to finish this after deciding on the metaphor, so I don't know that I'll be doing as much with it as the other people I know who are doing the meme. :) Tags: exercise metaphor, writing
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sandratayler | |
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It has been at least a year since I first became aware of Lolcats. When I first encountered the pictures of cats with misspelled captions I didn't think they were at all funny. But over repeat exposures I learned the dialect of the humor and now I appreciate them. By "dialect of the humor" I don't just mean that I gained the ability to decipher the misspellings, but I also learned how the misspellings and the pictures and general knowledge of cats work together to make an individual Lolcat funny (or not funny. Many of them are still meh.) One particular lolcat meme has been very useful to me as a means of expressing my own experiences. It is the "I haz a" meme. The final word may be sad, or happy, or warm. The usual way to express that idea would be to say "I am sad, happy, warm." Except the phrase "I am sad" implies that at this point in time sadness is my defining characteristic, which may not be true. If I am not completely sad, I have to say "I am a little bit sad" or "part of me is sad." These statements are longer to say than "I haz a sad." Taking out the grammar and spelling errors, "I have a sad" implies that I own this small sadness which is separate from myself, but which affects me. This is a very useful way for me to picture emotions which are a piece of my current experience, but which do not dominate it.
All of that is just an introduction so that I can say "I have a scared." Yesterday we received 5000 books. So far only about 500 of them are sold. I'm getting ready to ship 1000 of them to a major convention. The sales at that convention will be the difference between an extremely tight budget with a stressed scramble to create the next book, or a more relaxed budget and steady work on the next book. I have been scrambling for months just to keep up with my life. I really want option two, the one with relaxing in it. I want like I want air. But it is all out of my hands. I can spend the time/effort/money to get the books to the convention, what happens after that I can not control. All the logic and calculations say that we will be fine, but I have to acknowledge the fear, stare it in the face, own it, then set it in the back of my brain where it will not interfere with the things I must do.
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klingonguy | |
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Yet to be added will be my hours for the Strolling with the Stars, and time at the SFWA table.
Friday9:00am - 10:00am : (518: P-516AB) The Trudge Now that fantasy series are as often five volumes or seven (or more) as three, is the dreaded "middle volume", now the middle three (or five, or more...)? Eric T. Reynolds, Jessica Langer (M), Lawrence M. Schoen, Lillian Stewart Carl12:00pm - 12:30pm : (1480: "Other") Signing Come by, I promise there won't be a line! Lawrence M. Schoen2:00pm - 5:00pm : (721: P-512DH) First Contact for Writers--A Workshop on Creating Alien Languages Open to anyone, but of special interest to writers, this workshop simulates a First Contact situation. Lawrence M. Schoen, Stanley Schmidt
Saturday10:00am - 11:00am : (912: P-512CG) How to Bluff SFnal Linguistics How to make the language sound plausible, and the reasoning behind it. : Gay Haldeman (M), Lawrence M. Schoen, Leah Bobet, Tony Pi3:30pm - 5:00pm : (698: P-522B) Poetry Iron Chef: On the Spot Poetry in Meter Written with a Secret Ingredient Reprising their roles as judges, Turzillo and Chewdyk judge the spontaneous effort of the panel to create a metered poem using a secret word. Audience participation encouraged. Joe Haldeman, Lawrence M. Schoen, Mary Turzillo (M), Richard Chwedyk, Sonya Taaffe
Sunday10:00am - 11:00am : (767: P-522B) The Anti-Workshop Panel; You don't have to Go to Clarion/Odyssey to have a Career in Genre Does going to one or more of the writing workshops help your career? Some writers have a very successful career without attending one. Camille Alexa, Jay Lake, Lawrence M. Schoen (M), Felix Gilman1:00pm - 3:00pm : (690: D-Royer) Writing Workshop F Critique session for previously submitted manuscripts Elissa Malcohn, Lawrence M. Schoen3:30pm - 5:00pm : (68: P-512DH) Introduction to Klingon Learn to bark out insults, spit commands, and growl the grammar of the world’s most popular alien language. By the end, you'll be writing your own love poetry and singing truly glorious opera. Lawrence M. SchoenTags: conventions
I feel:  quixotic
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seawasp | |
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HR 2965 passed the House, apparently with the floor closed so that anyone with an actual point to make couldn't even speak. This is the SBIR reauthorization bill which will essentially kill off the program; while it CLAIMS to be "reauthorization", it includes two huge poison-pill changes.
1) It opens up the entire program to VC-funded firms. In effect, this means that (A) any firm that can attract VC to begin with will have a tremendous advantage in the SBIR program over those who really NEED the SBIR program (i.e., those who can't attract VC, or prefer not to because they want to maintain control), and (B) that any concept or idea which can't attract VC support will have a drastically lower chance of being supported. This runs DIRECTLY COUNTER to the basic goal of the original SBIR program, which was to provide support for innovative and potentially useful ideas that might NOT be able to obtain funding from other sources, quite possibly because they're the sort of useful ideas that will have a fairly limited market, though more than enough to maintain a small company, and to support the R&D of ideas which may be useful to the Government but not, directly, easily converted to a civilian use.
2) It drastically increases the size of awards available, from 100k Phase I and 750k Phase II to $250k Phase I and $2 million Phase II. Now, at first glance, you might say "What the heck's your problem? You win and get more money? How's that a problem for you?" The joker in the pack is that there is no provision or intention to multiply the FUNDING OF THE SBIR PROGRAM by a factor of 2.5, but the amount available for the AWARDS is being increased by about 2.5 (or a hair more for Phase IIs). As virtually NO small business (VC funded or not) is going to deliberately apply for significantly LESS money than they can, this will in effect mean that the number of AWARDS will drop by a factor of almost 3. Right now, the average loss/win ratio for SBIR proposals is about 10:1; after this, it will have to become about 30:1 unless for some reason less people submit. My personal loss/win ratio is about 7:1, maybe 5:1; with this, all other things being equal, it'll be 15 to 20 to 1. To get the same number of awards, I'll have to write THREE TIMES as many proposals per year. And THAT is assuming that point (1) above doesn't come round and bite me on the ass.
Now, the SENATE has a much more reasonable SBIR bill. The problem is of course that the two bills are diametrically opposed and the House just shut out the idea of compromise, which indicates a long, very bitter fight ahead... and the program is almost expired as things stand. Neither the House or Senate wants to do another CR (Continuing Resolution) to extend the program for another 6 months, so this puts a LOT of pressure on them to settle things fast. Or, possibly, the entire program crashes under the weight of the argument and is dropped for a year or three.
Those are all really sucky possibilities and could seriously endanger my job, and those of the other people here.
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![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/syndicated.gif) blogunderschlok | |
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http://www.schlockmercenary.com/blog/index.php/2009/07/08/star-pirates-anthology-builder/ The folks at Star Pirates have been itching to get me to design ads for them for over a year now. Unfortunately for them I’ve been too busy to pay much attention to advertising — which is kind of strange, because you’d expect a good mercenary like me to be taking to that particular revenue stream like a fish takes to water, but I digress — so they had to go stand in line for slots via Project Wonderful.
By way of thanks to them for their persistence (and apology to them for not being able to follow through) here is linkage: Go play Star Pirates! There’s a “Tagon Toughs” fleet out there for you to join, even. Their imagined future is a bit darker than mine, but the game is still a thematic fit with Schlock Mercenary. That’s why I’m letting them use some of my stuff in their ads.
While we’re on the subject of me not being able to follow through… Sandra’s sister Nancy has invented the salvation of short speculative fiction. I promised her some artwork, but have yet to deliver.
So what is this miracle project? It is Anthology Builder, and it lets you assemble a print collection of short fiction, selecting stories from among hundreds of reprints from popular magazines. Then you pick cover art, drop coin, and your customized anthology is printed on-demand and sent to you in the mail.
How will this save short fiction? Let’s describe the problem, first: Most short fiction is published in magazines with a very limited circulation and shelf-life. Once published, those stories rarely see reprints in anthologies because the market is a too small to support more than a few runs of mass-market paperbacks. The result is that authors have little incentive to write short stories, so they don’t. The art form stagnates.
Enter Anthology Builder: Print-on-demand (POD) technology makes it possible for extremely small print runs to turn a profit, in turn making it possible for these short stories to be marketed to the niche that loves them. This means that authors get residual royalties for work that is technically out-of-print, and that incents them to create similar work. The art form again blooms.
(On an only-slightly nepotistic note: Anthology Builder now has three Sandra Tayler stories in it.)
Anyway, Nancy asked me if I’d like to contribute cover art for Anthology Builder, and even though this is something I’d get paid for I still haven’t managed to submit something. Too busy making comics, I guess.
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sandratayler | |
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Our shipment of XDM X-Treme Dungeon Mastery books arrives today. I had to go rent a second storage unit to house them because the first unit is already full of inventory. I need to do some research on the cost of warehouse space. I'm pretty sure that the storage units are still cheaper per month, but I need to know where the tipping point is. We're getting another shipment of books next week. This will be historic since it is our first 2nd printing. We've almost sold out of Under New Management which is the first book we ever printed. The first printing was 5000 copies No word on distribution deals. More waiting there. My short story "Stories that Bind" is now available in print. A Time To... Volume 3: The Best of The Lorelei Signal 2008 is now on sale. I now have three stories available at Anthology Builder, which makes me very happy. In the near future I'll be putting together a custom anthology full of cool stories. I've found fancy clothes to wear on Hugo Night at Worldcon. Now I just need jewelry to match and I need to drag Howard out to rent a tuxedo for the event. We're both in a strange mental place where neither of us really believes he'll win, but a tiny voice whispers "what if." It doesn't really matter, just getting nominated is amazing and we intend to dress up to celebrate. I have been spending far more time as a publisher than as a writer lately. Hopefully life will slow down after the big August conventions. Gleek is enjoying her trip away from home, but we'll all be glad to have her back. Summer is half gone and still chaotic. I'm already looking forward to the return of the school schedule, although I'll miss staying up late and sleeping in.
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mistborn | |
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Okay, let's get this rolling. First off, remember that I'll be doing #tweettheauthor here in about 40 min. (Starting at 12:00 Mountain.) It's going to be interesting. Can Brandon answer questions in 140 characters? We shall see. Feel free to start shooting me questions right about that time. Just post them and include #tweettheauthor at the end. I'll start sending out replies on my Twitter account, and they'll be targeted @ the person who asked the question. So if my answer is confusing, you can click on their name to find the original question. And, in conjunction with this, let me ask you this: How clever are you? My readers have a long history of posting fake reviews of THE WAY OF KINGS on Amazon. (Since they have an entry for the book, and have had one for a good five years now, even though the book wasn't scheduled to come out until recently.) To commemorate finishing the novel--and because I think it would be fun--I'm putting out a call for fake Twitter-length reviews of the book. Post them today on Twitter, any time, and use the tag #FakeKings. I will collect the best of them and post them on my blog, like I did with the Scaliz thing last week. If you use Twitter and want a little more attention for your account, this would be a great way. If you don't have a Twitter account, and have no real interest in getting one, you can still follow along by doing a search on Twitter's site for one of the tags above. You can watch my Twitter feed here. If you want to post a fake Kings review Tweet, you can drop it onto my LJ, which allows anonymous posting. I'll look there when I'm collecting my favorites. (Just keep the posts short.) So...why all of this Twitter stuff? Is it just a fad? I don't know. It's fun for the moment, and if it all dies down eventually, I'll feel I've gotten what I want out of it. I like how micr-blogging allows me to give a few updates each day for my readers. I don't feel as much pressure to create blog posts, so when I do blog, the content is usually is a little more substantial. Twitter works for me, as I have a feed going on my desktop and can watch what other authors and my friends are up to. (Though, to be honest, I like the micro-blogging via facebook better, as people tend to post replies there and it feels more interactive. With Twitter, you just send a tweet out there, and never know what people are thinking when they see it.)
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rowyn | |
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terrycloth and I talked jurann into re-activating his CoH account to play with us. While fooling around with a team of three not-very-well-suited-to-grouping-togethe r characters, we talked about making new ones. The other day, I'd made a comment to Terry about a "rouge" in an Architect (ie, player-created) mission. "It makes me want to make a group where that's intentional. With Rouge and Foundation and Lipstick and stuff for names." So after I suggested "escaped research super-animals", Terry suggested we go with cosmetics-test animals. "They can be named for the cosmetics that were tested on them." Which all of us liked, so we went with that. After the requisite fiddling with the costume generator, Terry turned up as the Rouge Rat, a rat stalker in eye-searing red paisley ("Where did you get that outfit?" "I made it out of discarded test swabs for makeup"), I came on as Maskara (name stolen from Jurann), a little black bat corrupter using the sonic and pain sets (a rare instance where my character's powers sort of matched her theme), and Jurann as Eye Shadow, a polar bear brute. Then we rampaged around Mercy Island, killing snakes for Burke. It was fun! Somehow I always like playing better when it's with a set of thematically-matched characters. I should've tried to get Lut to join us, even if he is pretty burned out on CoH. >:) We made the new characters on Victory ... I don't know if there's an existing LJ SuperGroup they could join, but I'm tempted to create our own to keep the theme going. I'm not sure what to name it, though. Rouge Isles Experimentals? Rouge Isles Lab Animals? Refugees of the Rouge Isles? I dunno. Maybe Jurann and Terry have some ideas. :) Tags: city of heroes, gaming
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zoyx | |
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Loud twitter is broke, so no auto updates for this blog for some time. Using Twitter Backup until the Loud twitter dude gets his server back up and running. Also, zoyx.com now points toward this blog. 2009-07-07 20:43:53 - My song of the moment - http://bit.ly/IQyAl2009-07-07 09:07:41 - Day 4 of this annoying sore throat. 2009-07-06 16:06:06 - Train blown off tracks... http://bit.ly/10y44s2009-07-06 14:34:19 - Commodore 64 Laptop http://ff.im/-4RKM12009-07-06 01:30:15 - Battlefield 1943 coming out on the 8th on XBL. Going to be Multiplayer only, unfortunately. Also hit detection rumored to be as bad as BF42. 2009-07-06 01:00:43 - Jogged in a sun shower... 0.06 inches of sun shower. The steam rising from the blacktop added to the neat atmosphere. 2009-07-05 17:44:33 - Curious to know what commercials would of played if Federer had lost. 2009-07-05 11:51:08 - Some insomnia... up early. Not minding it. Really gorgeous outside. 2009-07-05 02:31:42 - Home now. Golf this morning at Bristol Creek, then a couple games of Dominion with my sister's family. 2009-07-04 12:29:46 - Off to Golf. 2009-07-04 03:08:08 - The 4th at my sisters. I'm in charge of waffles. No, we aren't Amish. 2009-07-04 01:36:08 - Sarah Palin is resigning. Idea: With her community service experience, she should join ACORN. 2009-07-04 01:30:07 - @spartalacrosse I'm sure you fit in quite well. ;-) 2009-07-04 00:34:59 - Never been good at being a complete idiot. Partial idiot is about all I can muster. 2009-07-04 00:05:48 - I wonder if the makers of dot-matrix printers thought they would still be used today. This Okidata and Microline could use a defenestration. 2009-07-03 23:39:24 - My Qwest DSL has been disconnected. I am now entirely Comcast's bitch. 2009-07-03 16:25:32 - RT @larrykcolumn:There's no truth to rumors that CNN is in trouble, gang. Unrelated: I'll be hosting the RI Megabucks Lotto starting July 6. 2009-07-03 15:13:05 - After many months, following @commandertim advice, now using CCCP 4 my video needs. I like the Zoom player included. http://bit.ly/1bbwUB2009-07-02 23:15:13 - Damn hiccups... errr... hic-coughs. 2009-07-02 17:01:00 - Xbox 360 up and running. Xbox live ID is "WLS Zoyx". 2009-07-02 15:47:35 - Asteroids – The Movie? http://ff.im/-4IukP2009-07-02 04:47:24 - I have been dethroned! - http://bit.ly/yqajf2009-07-02 04:45:27 - My used Xbox 360 arrived. Works, but the CD tray has issues. Only opens when it is in the mood. I know, you're shocked. 2009-07-02 00:43:16 - @weathertom Damn... was afraid of that. Have fun! 2009-07-01 23:44:55 - RT @nwsmkx El Nino conditions expected through winter 2009-2010. http://bit.ly/8cmO42009-07-01 03:45:42 - Installed Boxee for Windows. Yep, I can see why people cancel cable TV after installing Boxee. 2009-07-01 02:42:55 - Join me in my Placebo rat hole, two older songs - http://bit.ly/e5KS0 | http://bit.ly/XpqpL2009-07-01 02:27:38 - @wilw Fucking elf... especially since the wizard needs food badly 2009-07-01 02:23:27 - Good song from Placebo - video kinda scary - http://bit.ly/YVfFa2009-07-01 01:13:47 - New battery, and the riding lawn mower started up after over a year of non-use. Oil change needed, must be 5 years since the last change. 2009-06-30 19:15:20 - Unless Pawlenty reneges, Franken is in. Hope Coleman is satisfied. Mn has its 2nd Senator, 5 months late. Fix the system! 2009-06-30 12:26:10 - Rick Astley is still alive - in case you hear news to the contrary. Still checking on Burt Reynolds. 2009-06-30 02:50:29 - @Zenkitty714 ... or get them adjusted... usually done for free. 2009-06-30 01:54:22 - @Zenkitty714 Nice to hear the cats are getting along. 2009-06-30 01:27:17 - What is a better mode of transportation... quad (roller) skates or inline skates? Discuss... 2009-06-29 19:25:43 - Going blue on the Twitter avatar for Billy!! 2009-06-29 19:10:07 - @Zenkitty714 Mercenaries!! http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20050622.html2009-06-29 16:51:04 - Mon canard est en feu! 2009-06-29 09:18:40 - Cool... the Decemberists doing a Heart cover - http://bit.ly/6kfH7
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mistborn | |
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Housekeeping first. Remember that I'll be doing on-line appearances tomorrow, where I'll be answering questions. The one on Twitter will probably be way busy, so that should be interesting. I'm getting to the odd state in my career where there will probably be far more questions than I have time to answer, but I'll do my best. Also, have you not seen Howard and Tracy Hickman's Extreme DM book? If not, you're missing out. It's awesome. Some sample pages are here. Now, the big news. At about 6:00 am this morning, I finished THE WAY OF KINGS rewrite. It ended up at 380k words, which is almost double the length of Mistborn. (It's almost as long as THE SHADOW RISING, by Robert Jordan.) Now, before you get TOO excited about that size, know that I tend to write too much on a first draft intentionally, and now plan to trim it down by at least 10%. The final book should be between 300k and 350k. Either way, though, it's going to be a meaty book. (Not long for long's sake, mind you. That's just what it took to tell the story the right way.) How did it turn out? Well, to be honest, it's FANTASTIC. This is a monstrous, beastly, awesome epic of a book. And so I'm going to give Tor the official thumbs up so they can put it on the schedule for release next year. The series title, if you haven't heard, is going to be called THE STORMLIGHT ARCHIVE. The book does everything I wanted it to, and then some. It was a lot more work to revise it than I'd anticipated. I essentially ended up writing the thing all over again, not keeping any of what had been written before. But knowing the characters already helped a great deal. (And if you guys ever see my wife at a convention, make sure to give her a thanks and a hug for deal with a husband who has been essentially working two full time jobs for much of this year--one on KINGS, one on THE WHEEL OF TIME.) Like any time I finish a book, there's still that itching, authorial paranoia that nobody is going to like what I've done. I have chosen a career path where, instead of releasing all of my books in one series, I jump around. I've done this partially because I want the freedom to reinvent myself. Some of my favorite authors growing up seemed unable to give new life to a series when they started it, and ended up repeating the very same story and tone over and over. I wanted to train myself to be doing new things, and wanted the freedom to write different books in different ways. I know I'm not as wildly different in my variation as some other authors, but at the same time, there's a different feel to each book/series I've done. Hopefully, all will have great characters, a fun setting, and a compelling plot. But there will always be those who prefer Elantris's thoughtful contemplativeness to Mistborn's action or Warbreaker's reversals and humor. Each time I've released a new book, I've worried. Will my audience follow me in this (slightly) new direction? What will they think of what I've done? KINGS is no different. In fact, it's got me even more worried. My goal for this book was to give it SCOPE. The setting is the most distinctive I've written, with the largest world and the largest number of cultures and peoples. The book (though mostly linear) involves flashbacks to character pasts, and sometimes firsthand looks at the deep past of the world. At the same time, because of the enormity of what I'm trying, I found that the book couldn't telegraph as easily what it was about. What does this mean? Well, Mistborn and Elantris both did excellent jobs of telegraphing to the reader--right off--what the story was going to be about. After the first few chapters of Mistborn, you pretty much knew that it would be a book about Kelsier's attempt to overthrow the Lord Ruler, mixed with Vin's training as a Mistborn. Elantris was about Raoden trying to restore Elantris, Sarene investigating his disappearance, and Hrathen's attempts to convert the people. Because of the scope of these books, I was able to get across very easily what they would be about and what the central conflict would be. KINGS...well, I have trouble describing what the heck KINGS is about. While there are a number of plots bouncing around in those 380k words--and many of them do get resolved--the larger storylines are only just beginning. The book isn't about one or two things, like Mistborn was. It's about dozens. And yet, the main character's plotline is simple: survival. He's in a terrible, brutal situation, and he just wants to live. Anyway, the book needs a lot more revision, but it's in a state where I think we'll make it. So send a little good will my way as I dig into it over the next eight months. Maybe I'll be able to come up with a way to describe this beast.
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http://www.kukuburi.com/v2/2009/07/07/onehundrednineteen/ http://www.kukuburi.com/?p=746 
well this page took FAR to long to get done. my schedule, and life, has been all over the place for the last little bit - hence the extreme delay.
this week sees me finishing up a couple of contracts that have been commanding my time.
you see i have a terrible habit. i think it stems from my initial years of trying to survive as a freelance artist. the offending habit is the difficulty of saying “no” to a job and by default overbooking myself. but recently things have clicked in my brain as i have reached burn out far too often this year - and after too many years of keeping this kind of pace - things are finally sinking in.
i have decided on a course of action to move my career towards a balance where i can eventually live off my own ideas rather than those of others. it’s gonna be scary, but i can do it.
but first i have to wrap up my obligations.
with that said, this weeks update will only be one page, and next week’s update will happen though it might be a bit later in the week, but it will be a full update. i’ll keep people posted via twitter and the facebook group (links up on the left if you’re unaware…)
AND NOW…
i’d like to invite you all to join myself and all of the TX creators in the new Transmission-X Community Forums.
we hope to build a small little community with the great people surrounding our comics. pay a visit when you can, read what’s up, make a new post, ask a question… skies the limit.
there is one question there i am asking a little input on. i am looking at creating kukuburi vinyl figures and am trying to figure out who to start with. lend me your thoughts :)
…beyond that, see you all next week (or sooner if we chat in the forums!) when things essssplode!
cheers.
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I doubt anyone from the GTA will ever see this, but it's rant-worthy nonetheless. Martin Streek, long-time DJ at 102.1 The Edge in Toronto, was found dead in his home. It was apparently a suicide, with his Facebook status having been updated to an ominous farewell message hours before he was found. This comes 5-6 weeks after he was fired from the station, although people say recently he was in good spirits and looking forward to the future. Martin was awesome, and his Spirit of the Edge show on Sunday nights was one of the reasons to tune into the station (it was particularly entertaining when driving back into the GTA on a Sunday night after a trip). It just floored me to hear the news of his passing, and I was kinda surprised by how hard this is to swallow. I cared enough about him as a radio DJ to be this affected by his death. An a somewhat separate note, it seems that Barry Taylor has also been canned by the station. He was another of my favourite personalities at The Edge. Apparently his nightly time slot is being taken over by the idiotic Bookie (who giggles at his own awesomeness so constantly that I'm convinced he fills the studio with nitrous oxide). At least that gets Bookie out of the afternoon show, should I want to listen to bland indie crap and Linkin Park movie soundtrack singles on the drive home. This stinks. :-( Tags: journal
Current Location: Mississauga, ON
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