1. Drift is still on schedule to come out next year. I've been getting to see the cover concepts; it's very exciting! Also, reading/writing my bio is still weird.
2. You may have noticed a recent dearth of board game reviews/match-ups. After moving, I'm mostly playing games I already know with friends who live nearby, instead of lots of new games at a board game shop. So I hope to have more of these, but I expect them to be slow in coming.
3. But, I have been working on formatting a free, print-and-play board game that's played in Drift. It's abstract -- think Checkers or Go -- but I think this will be fun for readers who also play board games. I'm planning on putting this up when the release date for the book is closer. Maybe on release day to celebrate. :)
4. You've probably also noticed a slowing of blog posts here. It's been a busy few months, moving out-of-state and settling into a new apartment while keeping up on writing, edits, and everything else. "Everything else" includes getting ready for a new baby in our lives, who is finally due this month! So, I expect blog posts to be slow through the holidays, too. Next year, it looks like I'll be part of a new blogging project...but I'll give more details when everything's in place.
5. The Kickstarter for Not A Villain: Book 2 ends in five days. The project has already funded (hurrah!). The artist/writer, Aneeka, is someone I know in real life, and she tells an amazing web comic story. If you're not familiar with it and want to check it out, the comic is here.
6. Gem State Writers, where I contributed until leaving the fabulous state of Idaho, has just closed its doors. If you've enjoyed it, and want to say good-bye, click here for the final post.
November 4, 2013
October 15, 2013
Word Choice in Secondary World Fantasy
I've been obsessively editing a new project. One of the annoying and wonderful things about this is finding words that don't fit in the novel's setting. English is full of idiomatic expressions I take for granted.
I can't have a character barrel past someone in a culture that uses large, earthenware pots for food storage.
The phrase "keeping someone at bay" sounds silly in a land-locked society.
Having anything ingot-shaped is problematic when there's no metallurgy.
Sometimes this is infuriating. I'd described one character as having "silvery hair." It's not a particularly unique phrase, but "silvery" came with connotation of wealth and status that matched the character. But with no silver in the book, it had to go.
"Gray" just wasn't the same.Gray is the color of over-boiled cabbage and old clothes. I'd keep the nod to her age but lose all the connotations I liked. Wikipedia's list of colors gave no easy solutions.
So I started thinking about what was available in the setting instead. Plants, animals, food. Eventually I settled on "slate-gray hair." Slate felt hard, unforgiving, perhaps even reminiscent of an angry 1800's school teacher -- another important aspect of this character.
I probably could have chopped the adjective. Her dialogue is already hard-nosed, her dress opulent. But that tiny word clued in her age, reinforced the viewpoint character's fear, and now backed up the setting. Obsessing over one word probably wouldn't make the novel better, but after dozens of changes, I feel like the novel is a bit richer and a bit more itself than it was before.
I can't have a character barrel past someone in a culture that uses large, earthenware pots for food storage.
The phrase "keeping someone at bay" sounds silly in a land-locked society.
Having anything ingot-shaped is problematic when there's no metallurgy.
Sometimes this is infuriating. I'd described one character as having "silvery hair." It's not a particularly unique phrase, but "silvery" came with connotation of wealth and status that matched the character. But with no silver in the book, it had to go.
"Gray" just wasn't the same.Gray is the color of over-boiled cabbage and old clothes. I'd keep the nod to her age but lose all the connotations I liked. Wikipedia's list of colors gave no easy solutions.
So I started thinking about what was available in the setting instead. Plants, animals, food. Eventually I settled on "slate-gray hair." Slate felt hard, unforgiving, perhaps even reminiscent of an angry 1800's school teacher -- another important aspect of this character.
I probably could have chopped the adjective. Her dialogue is already hard-nosed, her dress opulent. But that tiny word clued in her age, reinforced the viewpoint character's fear, and now backed up the setting. Obsessing over one word probably wouldn't make the novel better, but after dozens of changes, I feel like the novel is a bit richer and a bit more itself than it was before.
September 3, 2013
Favorite Daily Science Fiction Stories
I've been
subscribing to Daily Science Fiction
for two years now. Weird. It doesn't feel like that long.
If you're not familiar with the magazine, Daily Science Fiction e-mails a SF/F story every weekday to its sucribers (subscribing is free). Monday through Thursday is flash fiction, generally under 1,000 words and sometimes much shorter, while Friday stories run longer.
I've kept a folder in my e-mail just to keep track of my favorite DSF stories; I've pulled this handful of recommendations from there. Some of these are humorous, most of the rest tragic. Fiction this short seems to lend itself very well to ending with a laugh or a gut wrench. In any case, if you're looking for something (short) to read, here's some suggestions:
If you're not familiar with the magazine, Daily Science Fiction e-mails a SF/F story every weekday to its sucribers (subscribing is free). Monday through Thursday is flash fiction, generally under 1,000 words and sometimes much shorter, while Friday stories run longer.
I've kept a folder in my e-mail just to keep track of my favorite DSF stories; I've pulled this handful of recommendations from there. Some of these are humorous, most of the rest tragic. Fiction this short seems to lend itself very well to ending with a laugh or a gut wrench. In any case, if you're looking for something (short) to read, here's some suggestions:
August 23, 2013
Co-op Train Game: A Free PnP
Of course, no one played the game until after I returned home. Sigh. But since then, it's become one of our favorites. And one of the few kids' co-ops that I know.
The essence of the game is to move about the board, pick up goods from the green spaces, and then deliver them to the appropriate yellow locations. Everyone works as a team trying to make the deliveries before the sun marker reaches the end of the day.
August 16, 2013
There and Back Again
So, the new blog layout didn't seem to load correctly half the time. Alas. I've returned to the simpler template, but hopefully made the blog easier on the eyes in the process.
My posts have been sparse of late for two reasons: moving out-of-state, and moving out-of-state while completing edits on Drift. The book cover is currently being designed, the text is getting close to its final form. This is all feeling very real; it's exciting watching all the pieces come together.
My posts have been sparse of late for two reasons: moving out-of-state, and moving out-of-state while completing edits on Drift. The book cover is currently being designed, the text is getting close to its final form. This is all feeling very real; it's exciting watching all the pieces come together.
July 28, 2013
Blog Changes!
So, Twitter pointed me to the Dynamic Views format for Blogger. I like how easy it is to navigate. I'm still working on reformatting the blog, especially figuring out how to get my banner pic back, but I'm hoping in the next short while, I'll have all that smoothed out. The preview function doesn't work very well, so if you see anything truly odd-looking on the blog, I'm probably checking some formatting issue.
If this isn't easier to read, let me know!
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