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Archive for August, 2010
Thursday, August 12th, 2010
And just like that, it’s over! The fourth and final installment of my serial story Blood Crimes is up over at Paizo’s Pathfinder Tales Web fiction site. I’m pretty happy with the story and have had a lot of fun leaving my mark on the world of Golarion. It’s a great setting for a bit of two-fisted pulpy adventure, and Blood Crimes really let me play with some of the noir and pulp tropes in a high fantasy setting. They’ll have the story up in perpetuity, but for easy picking you’ll be able to find links to each chapter over in my Bibliography.
In other news – don’t forget that this weekend kicks off the big “Out of this World” Blog Tour. I’ll be hosting Pauline Baird Jones (Girl Gone Nova), and will be making the rounds as well. It promises to be a great round of essays, discussing the awesomeness of Science Fiction Romance, and all its permutations. Check it out.
Tags: Blog Tour, Fantasy, Media Tie-Ins, Pathfinder, SF Romance
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Wednesday, August 11th, 2010
In the wake of a long month, for those who couldn’t tell when they didn’t see me there, I could not make it to GenCon. The Post RWA crud combined with a few other factors and knocked it out of the realm of the possible for me this year. This makes me sad, as I always look forward to reconnecting with my nerd roots and GenCon provides a great opportunity to do so. On the other hand, I was able to knuckle down and make serious progress on my WiP, so I suppose I can’t complain too much.
A reasonable assumption would be that, having missed the ‘Best Four Days in Gaming’, I would be unable to review the events there. Fortunately, thanks to the magic of the Internet and my willingness to pass judgment on things I haven’t seen (ask me about Jonah Hex) I can still sum up the events even though I was completely divorced from them in real life. Without further ado, my Gen Con wrap-up:
- Wizards of the Coast revealed the new D&D setting for 2011. Sadly, it’s Ravenloft. Mind you, I don’t hate Ravenloft as a concept, but it is effectively impossible to convey a horror setting when one of your players can hurl lightning bolts. The standard D&D solution is to make the monsters tougher, which only has the effect of dragging out combat, and forcing a GM interested in Storytelling to manipulate an encounter (since in my experience, players effectively never run from an enemy).
- Green Ronin unveiled DC Adventures – the newest incarnation of the DC Comics universe as a game setting. This time around it’s using an updated version of the award-winning Mutants and Masterminds rules, and frankly, I couldn’t be more excited. I’m a terrible whore for DC – I’ll take the JSA over the X-Men, any day of the week, and don’t get me started on the awesomeness of Hellblazer. I’ll happily dive back into a new game that lets me mine the years my brain has dedicated to keeping those stories straight. Disclaimer – I pre-ordered this, and am reading through the PDF currently. I expect a review will pop up here sometime.
- Fantasy Flight unveiled the latest iteration of their Warhammer 40k rpg – at long last fulfilling the desire of players everywhere to run cybernetic killing machines for their characters with the Space Marine-centric “Deathwatch”. I played more than my fair share of 40k as a miniatures game, and I can see the appeal of this on one hand, on the other given how hard it is to shoot something in their ruleset, I expect they had to do some work to effectively replicate the Astartes’ ability to mow through opponents with bolter fire.
That’s my big three – I know that tons of other stuff happened in / around GenCon, but I figured I ‘d hit the ones I had genuine opinions about. In related news, this is the last week for my Pathfinder Web fiction out at Paizo’s website. The story will stay out there in perpetuity, and there are links in my bibliography, so feel free to check it out.
Tags: Fantasy, gaming, nerdPride, Pathfinder, What I didn't Do This Summer
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Monday, August 9th, 2010
“Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you who you are.” – Brillat-Savarin
I will be the first to admit that I have odd hobbies, but chief among them is my love for culinary history. Fortunately, this also provides a near-limitless opportunity to get into the heads of my characters and really begin to understand how they think and (as Brillat-Savarin states) who they are. And why shouldn’t it? Taste and smell and some of the most powerful triggers of memory – who doesn’t sigh at the whiff of baking cookies or have a particular comfort food they turn to in times of stress.
Food features in almost every story I’ve ever written, whether it’s the lichen infused vodka of Hearts and Minds or the eponymous banquet in Feast of Fools. Knowing the flavors and tastes that are common to a character’s palate helps to understand them, and in terms of world-building, provides a great opportunity to express information about the world or the character without resorting to ‘telling’.
For example, if your character has only ever been accustomed to polished white rice, what would she think if presented with unpolished rice mixed with millet (a far more common meal than she would be used to)? Would she be offended? Would she be curious about the new taste? Would she pity the people who only have such rough fare to eat? Each choice tells us something different both about the character and the world around her.
Thanks to the internet, and the growing popularity of culinary history, it’s possible to find recipes from all through Earth’s timeline. If you write fantasy, consider picking up a copy of “The Medieval Kitchen.” For Edwardian writers, “Last Dinner on the Titanic” offers recipes from all three dining rooms on the night of the disaster. It’s worth looking through for the differences in meals between First and Third Class alone. Are you a Science Fiction writer? Well, there it gets a little trickier, but think about the influences on your future society and extrapolate from there. For me, Pan-pacific fusion is the cuisine of cyberpunk novels, but it could just as easily be based on Parisian haute cuisine or Taco Bell (I’m looking at you, Demolition Man).
Regardless of what you write, nearly all characters eat. Food, thus, becomes an important part of the research in world- and character-development for any story. More than ever before it’s possible to cook some of the food your characters have a particular fondness for, and even if you don’t include it in your story, it can help you get inside the skin of your characters. Even if it’s only a moment, the experience is worth it.
Besides, you might find a new favorite dish.
Tags: character building, culinary history, Fantasy, Hearts and Minds, my methods, tasty tasty research, world building, writing
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Friday, August 6th, 2010
I’ve got an odd assortment of links this week – even more so than usual, since I can already hear the protests and people paging back to previous installments. I blame my post-RWA illness. My brain is possessed by awesome.
- How I maintained my (obsessive) love for Power / Symphonic Metal this long without hearing of the band Van Canto, I have no idea. They’re an A Cappella power metal group out of Germany – 5 singers, 1 drummer – and I found them for their covers of other songs. There’s something oddly awesome about hearing a guy replicate a shredding guitar solo with Strong Bad-esque ‘weedlie-deedlie’ sounds. Have a listen:
- Van Canto covers Iron Maiden’s Fear of the Dark: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyHcIHssdHA
- Van Canto covers Nightwish’s Wishmaster: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCGQiGEYl4Y
- I can’t decide if this is funny or makes me cry. The Morning News has collected a cream-of-the-crop set of 1-star Amazon Reviews for books that appear on the Time’s Top 100 list of novels. Laugh or cry, it certainly puts the occasional bad review in perspective: http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/reviews/lone_star_statements.php
- I make very little secret of the fact that I think The Venture Brothers is one of the best shows on television. It’s constant mockery of the ‘boy adventurer archetype’ never fails to make me smile. In September, we’re finally getting the second half of season 4 (or whatever they’re calling it), and in the wake of SDCC, we finally have a trailer. An io9 link, simply because they’ve got the best quality I’ve been able to find: http://io9.com/5604340/the-venture-bros-the-trailer-for-the-new-blissfully-insane-season
- While talking about trailers, I would e remiss if I didn’t mention the new interactive trailer for Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. I’m insanely chuffed for this film, and it seems like I’m not alone in it. If this is a sign of how much detail will be included in any sort of extra features we might see: http://io9.com/5605181/scott-pilgrims-interactive-trailer-is-better-than-most-dvd-bonus-features
- And now the promise of the premise, with rock stars for everyone. I love cool papercraft, especially people who work up designs from scratch. To that end, here’s the coolest version of Freddie Mercury and the gang – scroll down through the construction images to see Queen in action. http://www.behance.net/gallery/We-Are-the-Champions/494706
Tags: Movie Views, nerdPride, Potpourri, Queen of Papercraft, Venture Brothers
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Wednesday, August 4th, 2010
This past weekend, Debbie Macomber received the Nora Roberts lifetime achievement award for her contributions to the Romance genre. In addition to her wonderful stories, Ms. Macomber also has a number of knit-along books where the patterns from her Blossom Street stories come to life in exciting new dimensions. I have always loved the idea of people inspired to craft by their connection to a story, whether it’s dedicated propmakers replicating Dr. Jones’ Grail Diary or items from the ill-fated Dyer expedition to Antarctica to the wide assortment of musicians and makers that flocked to Catherynne Valente’s Palimpsest and added their own touches to its wonder and magic.
It taught me why I continue to knit whenever I get the chance – as I’ve said, it keeps me calm in difficult situations (like surrounding an introvert with 2500 new people). Even better, it provides an instant connection with other people who knit or do other crafts. No matter where we may be with our projects, there we suddenly had a common ground as Makers of Things discussing our passions.
These thoughts spawned an unusual thought in my head – for too long, my knitting has been the unwinding act that I use to step back from my job or my writing and immerse myself in something else for a while. Instead, I wonder if I should use it to draw myself deeper into my craft. I’ve new ideas in the wake of RWA, and plenty of things that make me more excited about my craft (and my crafting) than I’ve been in ages.
Tags: Knitter Pride, knitting, my methods, RWA
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Monday, August 2nd, 2010
And by that, I mean the Out of this World Blog Tour, which is scheduled to start later this month. I’ll be contributing over on Pauline Baird Jones’ website on the 16th. Meanwhile, she’ll be contributing over here. In all, it’s a pretty awesome collection of folks who’ve gotten involved. For the curious, here’s the full schedule:
Tags: Announcements, Blog Tour, Keeping up with Appearances, News, writing
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Monday, August 2nd, 2010
I’m back from an amazing, overwhelming, wonderful experience at the 30th Romance Writers of America National Conference. In four too-short days (and even shorter nights) I met wonderful people, made new friends, and learned more than I thought possible. I squee’d embarrassingly in front of the amazing Ann Aguirre (one of my favorite authors) and showed little more decorum in front of Carrie Lofty (whose What a Scoundrel Wants is still the book I recommend to people who say they don’t read romance.)
If I could pick a theme for the conference (aside from its given logline) I would have to make it “Not for Wimps.” It seemed echoed in keynote Nora Roberts’ opening speech, with its recurring theme of ‘No Whinging,’ and showed itself all around me as steely nerved writers spent their days breaking their backs at workshops and their nights cutting loose all around the hotel. I came away inspired. I came away motivated. Most importantly, I came away with the sorts of experiences and joys that stick with you forever. Some of the high points for me:
- Watching my new friend Kylie win the Golden Heart for paranormal romance. Knowing she travelled 20+ hours from the wilds of Australia to receive her award only made her winning it even sweeter.
- Hearing the amazing Donald Maas explain, in his enlightening way, the things that make truly engaging fiction spring to life on the written page.
- Heading to the FF&P Chapter party, and being wowed by the steampunk costuming of my fellow writers (and having a wonderful meal that wasn’t chicken!)
- Perhaps the most important – being welcomed and accepted into such an amazing and talented group of writers who believe firmly in their craft and feel just as passionate about storytelling and writing as our characters do about each other.
- Meeting some of the members of my local chapter, who admonished me for my absence, and all but demanded that I show up at the next chapter meeting. To them I can only say ‘Aye-aye.’
- Having people recognize me days later, after a rendition of Copacabana at the local karaoke bar that could only be described as ‘lounged to the gills’.
I can’t wait until next year, and know that I have plenty of brilliance to look forward to – reading, writing, and promoting. Look out New York; we’re coming, and if you think you’re the city that never sleeps, then you’ve clearly never seen the RWA in high gear.
Tags: Conferences, Not for Wimps, RWA, SF Romance, writing
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