The Magnificent World of Writing

A slew of writing updates, for those who follow such things.

The Secret World Chronicle is humming along smoothly. I’ll be editing and uploading the audio for part two of my story, The Luck of the Devil, today — sometime. Most of the artwork is done. We’re awaiting a few new pieces from our friend Douglas Shuler. Julie Park, aka Madame Octopus, has offered a few of her tentacles to help with the promotion of the site. We made a big switch to FeedBurner for our RSS feeds, and I’m still wrapping my head around all the options. I chose to generate these feeds by hand, which has been instructive, to say the least. Not convenient though.

So now I’m procrastinating on a piece tentatively entitled “Fading Echoes,” about the Nazi siege of the Echo compound. The attack has just begun — 5500 words into the story! Egads. As long as that sounds (37 minutes of audio on average), it’s all just build up! As I wrote the story, introducing characters like Mercury, Detective Ramona Ferrari, The Four Winds and Alex Tesla, I realized that this story was the foundation for the book. It provides a glimpse into the life of a modern metahuman in the world’s largest metahuman organization. Imagine combining the Justice League with the FBI and Microsoft. That’s Echo in a nutshell.

A recent chat conversation with Misty: “Hey Misty…whaddya think? How many metas on the Echo campus.” A pause. “A couple hundred.” Me: “Wow!” I had been thinking 52 for some reason… probably trepidation about how I would write a story that consisted of flat out warfare between huge Nazis in powered armor and an army of superheroes. Superheroes are MUCH easier to write with a small cast.

Other book news: The Bloodbaths has, by now, arrived at the first publisher on my list for consideration. I realize these matters take time, so I am not waiting with bated breath. Still, at any moment, an email or phone call or letter could arrive to tell me my fate. Printing it out for submission was one of the hardest aspects of the process. I had to stop picking at it, like a scab — “Kharrina needs more camera time to endear herself” or “More sewage!” or “More landscape description!” At some point I knew I had to declare it done and kick it out of the house. Lucky for me, Misty read it and told me to do just that, which galvanized me to hit Print and feed 454 sheets into the laser printer (ah, sweet laser printer!).

The Quartz Odalisque, on the other hand, has taken a backseat to the Secret World. I think I just needed a break from the fantasy for a few months. I’m warming back up to it, now that my job has settled down a bit and I have time and energy to write.

Flash: Jeff Wilson is restarting Evil Dog after ten years! As the founder of the magazine, he asked me to submit a short piece. I haven’t written short fiction in ages that wasn’t part of an overall story arc. Tarnation! as Commie Cowgirl would say. Oksana may get her own novel some day — I’m overly fond of the character. Her delusional fish out of water schtick makes me happy. Same goes for Tharvia, aka Asteroid Girl, an unrepentent Bad Girl expected to do the Right Thing. Perhaps down the road of SWC, when it has been fully established, I can write a longer piece about the gals.

Anyhow, if you’re interested in submitting a short short piece (500 - 1000 words) to Evil Dog, email me for Jeff’s contact info.

Shhh! I’ll tell you a secret. I’m mulling over a scifi book or series about space stations forced to become self-sufficient after the Earth’s population vanishes. Recently found a timeline for “what happens to the world if humans disappeared?” How serendipitous is that?

I bought www.aquapuratrilogy.com the other day. Heh.

Enough! I must stop procrastinating.