Monthly Archives: June 2014

A New Day Dawns…

…or at least a new book. Today I start work on my new Paizo Pathfinder novel. Assuming the editorial team likes the title for the one I turned in last week (Beyond the Pool of Stars) I want to sort of do a related theme and title this one Through the Gate in the Sea.

I’ve got a detailed outline in hand and am really looking forward to starting work. Unlike every other sequel book I’ve written, I’m starting this one just a few days after I finished its predecessor. The characters are still fresh in my head, and the events pick up only a month or two after the conclusion of the last.

I’ve written enough books now to recognize the honeymoon phase, but I don’t care. I’m full of hope that the outline will keep me on course and that it will have all the vibrancy I imagine AND that there won’t be weird problems that leave me scratching my head for weeks at  a time (did I REALLY need them to go here OR now that I look at it more closely, that character’s motivation doesn’t make sense…).

Catching Up

It felt very, very nice to turn over the draft of my new Paizo novel Sunday afternoon. I’ve titled it Beyond the Pool of Stars, but I don’t know if that title will survive or not. For all I know, there’s another book in the Pathfinder pipeline with Stars or Pool in it already, which will mean I’ll have to go searching for another.

I CAN tell you that the entire novel’s set in and around the tropical nation of Sargava. It has a completely different feel and completely different characters… and I’m quite pleased with it. I think it far and away my best Pathfinder novel yet.

This week I’ve been catching up on some house husbandly duties. Namely clearing out the basement. After my father’s death and my mom’s move into a retirement home I ended up with stacks of stuff. When that was added to stacks of other stuff I already had down there, it became quite a mess. So, I’m getting rid of most of it.

Kane and Trek

The thing I’m MOST looking forward to this evening is a viewing of the new Star Trek: Continues episode titled “Fairest of Them All,” set as a direct sequel to the original Star Trek fan favorite episode, “Mirror, Mirror.” The only reason I’m holding off watching it is because I want to see it with the wife and family. If you don’t have to wait, go check it out now! The last two have been wonderful, as I’ve gushed about elsewhere.

Second, for Father’s Day what I most wanted to do was some gaming with the family, so we kicked back and I ran three solo episodes of monster hunters in the 1600s (sort of like Supernatural, but with characters wearing pilgrim era garb) and then ran an episode that got everyone together.

Getting Near the End

So I finally wrote The End on the bottom of my rough draft of my next book last night. I’ll spend the next week putting a polish on it. Since about two-thirds to three-quarters of it is already polished (some of it highly so) I’m not anticipating any more trouble… except with a good title, which so far eludes me. I’m hoping a good phrase will stick out for me as I’m working through the text.

In other news, I watched the final episode of the new Cosmos series last night. It was glorious, it was gorgeous…

On Solomon Kane and Savage Worlds

Anyone who’s read The Desert of Souls and knows their way around Robert E. Howard’s stories probably could tell I was a fan of Solomon Kane, owing to the brief appearance of a certain cat-headed staff near the novel’s conclusion

Given that I’m a huge REH fan and a gamer, it seemed only natural that I finally lay hands on the Savage Worlds game line dedicated to Solomon Kane himself.

In my rare moments of down time over the last weeks I’ve been learning the Savage Worlds system in preparation for running some “investigating the unknown in the time of the 1600s” adventures for the family.

The Savage Worlds of Solomon Kane books are gorgeous, well presented with lavish illustrations, and crammed with information about the time period, the setting, and adventures — lots and lots of adventures.

How Did I Miss This?

I think I live in a fog too much, or else that there’s too much white noise out there.

For instance, why didn’t I ever hear about this WizKids pirate game, which was alive from 2004 up until about 2012? What great naval miniatures, even if you don’t even use the game mechanics! I love ’em!

Racing for the End

I used to think that being a writer was glamorous, but now I realize it mostly consists of me staring at a computer screen and typing. Or pacing back and forth. Now I realize that holding a book that you wrote is awsome, and getting to create stuff for your living is way cool, but that the PROCESS isn’t remotely glamorous.

Anyway, as I get closer and closer to wrapping up my next Paizo book, I’m afraid the web site is looking a little fallow.

Here’s what I’ve been thinking about while not writing.

First, I’ve been watching a little Firefly with my wife and son (my daughter has given up, saying she doesn’t like cowboys in space. Yeah, I know… oddly enough, though, she doesn’t mind the original Star Trek, despite its age, which is just fine with me.) There isn’t much Firefly, of course, but we’ve been stretching it out. One every other night or so. 

Dresden Rewatch

My wife and I are big fans of the Harry Dresden books — although I’m two books behind at this point — and are noodling around with the idea of playing the Dresden game with the kids.

We’re a little concerned that some of the book content might be a bit much for our 13 yo, so we got the series off Netflix.

I recall seeing an episode or two of the series when it was airing and kind of enjoying it, but we’d never seen most of these, and I had no idea how good the writing and acting was. Sure, some of the differences are jarring — especially Bob — but by the middle point of the very short one-and-only season I was pretty impressed.