Monthly Archives: August 2013

I haven’t disappeared — at least, not yet. I’ve been getting ready for GenCon, which has meant helping to make sure the pantry was stocked, the laundry was done, I was packed and prepped, horse fence repairs continued, etc. Add in the start of the school year for both my kids and, well, it’s been busy.

As a result, I’ve been absent from both this blog and my writing desk for the last few days. I have this crazy idea I’ll be able to report in about GenCon each day, but conventions are pretty busy, so it will all depend. When it comes down to it, I’d rather be meeting new people than hiding in my hotel room typing, so a report may have to wait until I return.

I start my drive in just a few hours. As I mentioned before, my schedule is here. I’ll be sharing a room with the Amazing Lou Anders and the Astonishing Scott Lynch. Who knows what adventures are in story for the three of us!

Hope I see you at the con.

Howard in the Heat

I ended up getting a reminder yesterday that I’m not as young as I used to be. Really there are regular reminders, but getting a mild case of heat stroke after working in the sun most of the day Thursday was a lesson I didn’t really need. It wasn’t really that hot, but by three o’clock my body was done, and by five o’clock, still feeling flushed, I wasn’t good for much else other than lying on the couch cooling off and drinking plenty of fluids. Whoops! Should have paid more attention to what my body was feeling and stopped sooner.

I was out in the pasture fixing horse fence and trimming weeds. Seems like with a large yard that kind of work just never gets done, because after six hours of hard work there are STILL repairs to be made. Today I’ll be back writing, although I’ve got to do a little prep work for my GenCon trip next week. I’ll be moderating a panel and reading from one of my works, so I need to research my topic and rehearse the story I’m going to read a time or two. I have this crazy idea that I’ll be able to report in each day while I’m at GenCon, but I’m usually so busy at conventions that never happens.

Outlining

I learned a while ago that no one method always seems to work for me when it comes to story drafting. I do have some tried and true tactics, but as I’ve told writing students, though the point is to scale the mountain and you’re likely to use the same tools each time, every mountain is a little different. You might use some of the tools less often, or not at all, or lean on some other device that you don’t usually employ.

These days I’ve been experimenting with super-detailed outlines. I found, though, in the writing of both The Bones of the Old Ones and Stalking the Beast that a super-detailed outline didn’t save me completely from having to rework things, hair loss, and general grumpiness. I’ve since hit on a second phase that really seems to be working for my new Hearthstones series. I don’t know if it will always work or if I will use it for every book going forward, but it’s working now, so I thought I’d share it.

Insomnia!

I’m coming off of two bad nights of sleep in a row, and for no particular reason. Every once in a while insomnia sneaks up from behind and clobbers me for a night or two. Bam!

Apart from the lack of sleep it was a wonderful weekend. We had a great time at the family reunion and ate all sorts of delicious food in between various games. Sunday I got to take a long bike ride with my sweetie, and our garden is producing all sorts of great veggies (although we over planted zucchini).

I’ve been flipping through various role-playing-game manuals because I’ve been feeling the itch to start running something again, so long as it’s streamlined. I’m tried of having to feel like I’m studying for a test to run a game. I’m really, really tempted by Barbarians of Lemuria, but I have so much great support material already on hand for various flavors of D&D that I’ll probably go that route. At this point I’m contemplating a mash-up of Crypts & Things, Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea, and Castles & Crusades. There are things I love about each of them, and they’re closely enough related I think I can make it all work together.

With summer winding down my kids have only about a week of freedom left, and today I must drive into town with my son to pick up his books for the semester. I’m also revisiting one of the Paizo Pathfinder short stories I’ve written as a kind of “sneak peek” of the second novel, because I’ve decided the third act is too slow.

If I get some good sleep tonight I’ll try to put my thoughts about outlining into some kind of coherent order…

Words Good. Hulk Not Smash.

I’ve been deep in the trenches writing up a storm. The Hearthstones project is really picking up steam, and if people have as much fun reading it as I’m having writing it I think my audience will be quite satisfied. At this point I’m closing on 50 thousand words, but I’m not sure how long the whole thing will be. (The Bones of the Old Ones is about 115 k.)

It’s my intention to write a longer book, longer books being the vogue in today’s market. Shorter ones seem to be met with some sort of confusion and even disdain, by some. I hope to have a longer book that maintains a high pace, with plenty of mystery and intrigue in amongst the fantasy action and adventure. So far I think I’m doing it.

Part of the reason that I’m not sure of the eventual length is that, despite my detailed outline, the size of the chapters varies once I convert from outline to text. After writing four novels that were right around 90 to 110 thousand words I have a feel for how to do one of those. I sense this will be longer, but I won’t know how long until I hit the halfway point. 150 k? 175k? Hulk not know!

The rest of the day will be devoted to readying for a family reunion, so I’ll sign off. Monday I hope to talk a little about some outlining techniques I’ve been experimenting with. For now, here’s a link to a review by James Reasoner of a book from the Fargo series. As I’ve mentioned before, the allure of western novels always escaped me until I discovered the writing of Ben Haas. Now I’m a fan for life — at least of westerns by Haas. I’ve yet to explore to much further into the genre from him.

Links to Astound and Amaze PLUS Captain Pike!

Last night I had a running dream that I had been an extra on Firefly. Apparently I’d been  a crewman named Ryre who mostly stayed in the background, but had a few sentences in one episode. Of course there WERE no crew  extras on Firefly, and I suppose I knew that at some level, even while dreaming, because I had to get out the e-mails between me and Joss Whedon’s production assistant to show my suspicious friends to prove I had been on the show. Sigh. Turns out it was all a dream. That ending always sucks, doesn’t it?

I’ve got some interesting observations on the craft of writing, but I also have some good links today, so I’ll talk about writing later. Now, some neat places to visit.