First story of the year almost completed

I went through one of my short story called Send In today and changed a bit of the prose. I wrote it originally in Google Docs, but moved it over to yWriter. Once there I ran some of the ‘problem words’ searches and found I had a lot of works that ended with ‘ly’. I wasn’t sure what this meant so I asked Matt Selznick on gTalk about it and he said I was probably taking shortcuts of descriptions. To clarify I asked if ‘The car quickly sped up’ versus ‘The engine revved as the car sped up’ is what he meant. That was exactly what he meant so I went through and changed most of the ‘ly’ instances to have more detail.

I did a few other changes, the program suggested and aside from just better description, one part of the story near the end has a much stronger narrative now, plus a hilarious joke.

All that is left is correcting typos and making sure I stayed in the proper tense, then I think it will be good to go. It will be over 3300 words.

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A Weekend of Steampunk Things (11-14-09)

As I am writing some steampunk stories, and as I enjoy steampunk things, I thought I’d write about a few steampunky things I’ve found out about this week.

While listening to the Clockwork Cabaret I heard about the Phono Vault. They sell the kinds of music steampunk music you might hear on the Clockwork Cabaret (even some on vinyl!). If you sign up for their newsletter, you get a free song a week. This week I got The World Turned Upside Down by Charlie Kahn. It’s quite an enjoyable listen.

While perusing the wares of a dusty bookshop I discovered a curious thing. On a pane of glass flickered the words Steampunk Magazine! I ran my fingers over the glowing glass and perused the magazine. Inside I saw many wonders on lifestyle, mad science, theory, and fiction. The layout and style of the magazine have the feel of the Victorian era. I browsed the latest issue, #6, and found stories about Lizard towns and madness engines, an interview with a steampunk rock band from London, an article on alchemy, and much more. All the issues are available for free online. There is also available A Steampunk’s Guide to the Apocalypse, which will be very useful in a catastrophic event.

I took a stroll in the Steampunk Workshop and took a gander at a fine looking Wimhurst Machine.

A telegram arrived and I learned that at the Oxford Museum of the History of Science, an Art of Steampunk exhibit had opened.

As I walked down a country road, a house passed me by and they invited me in for a cup of tea. I was able to rest while still moving in my intended direction!

That’s about all I had this week, come back again to see more of the wonders I discover!

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About That Hint Fiction …

I wrote three hint fiction stories for an anthology, but none were accepted. So, I’ll be posting them here throughout the week!

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Burst of creativity

I took my wife and daughter to the park today and they hung out with some friends. I then took my wife’s laptop to the library and wrote. I didn’t know what to write so I opened up my Moleskin and paged through it until I found an idea that seemed like something I’d like to write at the moment. I found one and in about an hour I pounded out 1198 words. I had no internet active, typed in wordpad, and just wrote. With little distraction aside from the faint smell of body odor when a dude sat near me and nothing to do but just write, I got a lot done. I didn’t finish the story, but I have a good idea where I’m going. I based it all on the single sentence I wrote down who knows how long ago.

This would be an awesome thing to do more often. Wife gets to go out with friends, daughter gets to run around and get tired out, and I get to write a lot all at once.

Of course with NaNoWriMo coming up, this can’t be done every day, so I’ll have to work in the normal home environment for the most part. It’s good to know that sometimes the words can just flow out though. Been a while since I managed that.

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New Project Began: The Emperor

I’ve started working on a new writing project for the Emperor’s Flame podcast. I’m writing the comical adventures of The Emperor and his Knights as they seek an obligatory item of great power. Standard quest fare. It is also Christian themed. I hope to keep the comedy fun and the morals of the stories true, but not overbearing.

I find myself spreading out my writing over the web. Hopefully this means when I start my own podcast for free, and my planned story subscription service (something like Jeremy C Shipp does), I’ll have ready audience with open ears.

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Open Mic a Smashing Success.

The first official Open Mic Night at Turtle Beach was a total success. Two people from the writing came out and sang and told some jokes. We also had some horror stories and some beautiful guitar playing.

Ge3x telling some jokes

Ge3x telling some jokes.

Pam Sargent Singing 1

Pam singing

Will Reading

Will Reading

Malfunctioning Lowbeams playing guitar

Malfuctioning Lowbeams playing guitar.

I had to actual leave before it was over because we had to get dinner. I didn’t expect it to last as long as it did.

Speaking of dinner, had another blessing, got two Burrito’s from Moe’s for less than $4 with some coupons. It’s nice to have a decent meal that cheap.

I heard back from P.G. Holyfield on my Stories of the Children submission today. He asked for a rewrite! This is very good.

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Stan Prolongo Season 2 launches

Episode one of Stan Prolongo Season 2 is live! Catch up on season 1 if you haven’t, then start in on season 2. Dave Avila wrote season 1. I wrote season 2. Dave reads them both.

Listen and subscribe here.

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Back to JL Script

It’s Labour Day. I stayed up late last night trying plugins on the site and came across the one I already mentioned. Slept a good 8 hours though, and have gotten some work done on the script for Jump Leads. It’s been slow going, but I’m going to get it finished someday. I like the way it is going.

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Cursed Pirates RPG project begun

I started working on a set of adventures for a pirate themed RPG using the BRP system. I don’t know if I’ll see if I can get permission to sell it myself, or just try selling it to Chaosium.

I hit the halfway mark on my EA Active 30-day challenge today.

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Dying for a Cause completed

I just wrote the final story for Dying for a Cause, a 100 word story anthology created to raise money for Relay for Life. I auctioned off 10 spots in a Second Life auction at Third Life Books. The winners got to die in their own 100 word story, written by me. Only 7 slots were sold (at 4500Lindens each), but I still wanted ten stories, so I asked a few other people who have been a big part in Relay for Life, or some other cause, such as Podcasting for Water.

The winners are

Jordyss Paine

Delaney Button

Kat Klaybourne

Mike Stackpole

Tully McLeod

Chuck Heintzelman (as Wildebeast Ferengi)

Daphne Abernathy

John Wilkerson

Dave Avilia

JT Indie

I’ll want to go over the stories one more time, and have another set of eyes look at them for errors, then I’ll turn them into a PDF and a THiNK book (A Second Life format), and everyone can read 10 horrifying deaths, all for a good cause. I plan to have a release party in Second Life, and for as many as possible, I’ll have the winners read their stories aloud as they read them for the very first time.

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