Yearly Archives: 2014

Three Cool Things

Here’s a trio of nifty things.

First, I just learned that the audio sample from Kaiju Rising: Age of Monsters is from my Dabir and Asim story collected in that anthology (“The Serpent’s Heart”), so if you want to hear a sample of what my favorite characters have been up to lately follow the link and listen to the snippet. And if you haven’t purchased the book yet, now’s your chance! There’s scads more stories in the anthology, some of them by friends whose work I know and love. (Here’s the part where I shamefacedly admit I haven’t yet read the other stories, for I don’t own a Kindle or Nook and am waiting for my hardcopy.)

New Interview

The talented Suzanne Church asked me some insightful questions about writing the other day, and I did my best to provide insightful answers. You can find the interview, along with a whole bunch of other cool stuff (including links to other writing tips) right here.

I finally remembered to set up a new Welcome page, available on my main menu, or by clicking here.

Lastly, I’ll be updating my convention appearances soon. GenCon is just around the corner, and I’ll be on many panels again this year. PLUS I’ll be in Chicago this fall as part of a  reading festival.

Other than that, I’ll be writing, or fixing horse fencing.

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A Few Outlining Thoughts

Summer sure has been busy here at Jones central, but it’s been pleasant. My second Paizo Pathfinder novel (second of the summer, I mean, because it’s fourth overall) is rolling along very smoothly (knock on wood), and I’m getting lots of time to spend with my kids.

In the evening when I often draft my blog updates we’ve been re-watching the original Avatar: The Last Airbender series, which is part of the reason there haven’t been as many posts. I’ll share some thoughts on the series soon. I remembered it was good, but I should have remembered it is downright excellent most of the time. (Azula, pictured here, is one of the finest villains in animated history. Honestly, she’s one of the finest villains in ANY adventure story, in any medium.)

The other reason is that I’ve just been plain busy. I’m either writing or doing house stuff. But I’m not going to give you a summer update today. I’m going to share some thoughts I’ve been mulling over about outlining.

Link Man Returns Again

Over the last few weeks I’ve turned up a score of interesting links, and I thought it high time to share. So, Link Man returns to provide safe, interesting and unbroken links.

Exhausted by boring links and in need of a savior? Have no fear– Link Man is here!

First, I’m not usually amused by these, but I thought the photoshopping this time was pretty good, especially up near the top of the document. Enjoy.

Second, a lot of these odd products are just plain cool. I think I might want some of them. I’m not sure I need them, but I want them.

Third, I must have this. A bit pricey for a tee-shirt, but it IS my birthday month.

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!