sunday night, pre-ME2

hello again and welcome to another installment of redlefthand. this one should be relatively quick, seeing as how i just posted something yesterday, and i've actually got some work to do...
so i guess i should tell you about brett, Ix's cowriter. when i talk about the book, it is already assumed that you the reader know that i have a collaborator. on other projects, not so much, but this one was our idea together.

i met brett at my game job a few years back. he no longer works there, he is a roustabout. no, not a carnie (well, sometimes). he's in a group called The Roustabouts that performs a vaudeville show at various burlesque clubs in and around denver. they've got a facebook page here. this is what brett looks like when he's performing with them:

nice makeup i know.




so he was over today, we went over the new material, talked about edits, and about this week's work. then i showed him the beginning of the new short story anthology, which he thought was off to a good start. i also think its off to a good start. and that is what matters.

on a side note, i got an email the other day from the old artist from the old book. another friend of mine, who lives in california, had called me a while back. he was itching to do a comic book, and he knew that i was an aspiring writer. i was very excited to hear this, having seen his work in the past. to say the guy is good is an understatement. i was blown away.
so we start plotting it out. he's busy in california, working a full-time job. i'm in denver, also working a full-time job. we chat through email and call once a week. but the busier he gets, the less i hear from him, until about two months ago, when contact stopped all together. i don't fault him, it costs a lot to live in california. guy's got to make a living. this is him, probably from a few years back...




(can you tell i post pics because i just learned how?)







anyway, long story less long, he sends me a message the other day asking if i'm still interested. of course i am, i tell him back, but i don't really have the time to commit, what with the other two projects that have been put in motion. the idea i had for our book was original and exciting, if i do say so myself, so i am not willing to give it up forever, but it has to go on the back burner for now.
was it wrong of me to put him off? i don't think so. did he subscribe to my blog? i hope so. eric is a good guy and i want to keep in touch. i told him about the short story anthology, and i hope he accepts my offer to paint some pictures for it. Dark Tower style.

finally, redlefthand has its third follower! let's all welcome octavious to the fold. thanks for listening. now, hunter burned her thumb on the curling iron, so i have some pampering to do before i get back to work...

until something changes, i remain grim.

anatomies and birthdays (with pics)

not anatomy pics, perverts.

good evening everyone. welcome to another exciting edition of redlefthand. now with pictures.

so tomorrow i meet with brett to discuss the next few pages of the book. haven't written too much this week, what with various birthday things to take care of. our youngest has turned six, and there was much rejoicing. i made a cake. That's it just there to the side (if it's not to the side there, forgive me. this is my first attempt to add pics to a post... in fact, please forgive any and all pics that may be misplaced in this post). i know, it looks like a big onion, but my daughter said she loved it anyway. it had many layers, thanks to the cake saw my wife bought me for christmas:






(look at all those layers!)







my daughter was quite pleased with her presents, which i am most happy about, since i picked them out myself. does it hold negative connotations that i was able to successfully choose the perfect presents for a six-year-old's birthday?





(well, almost perfect...)








so onto book news. i've made it to page nine. yes, nine. i know, not a very big number. but hey, it's the largest single-digit number, right? so there's something. hopefully by tomorrow night we'll be on page twelve, in which we decribe in gruesome detail how exactly a man's leg is destroyed. good thing i've got my anatomy book handy:






(i was looking for the BIG book, but this one will have to do...)






that's pretty much where we stand right now. the book is coming along slowly, but my partner in this endeavor, who we shall call brett, because that is his name, is very pleased with the little amount of progress so far. i had initially proposed that, after we had finished our outline, i would
be the one to write it out, and then brett would read through it with any comments, criticisms and suggestions. this seems to be working out well so far. a few minor changes/improvements that i can easily live with, and am generally pleased with. he said he likes my writing style, which took a load off my mind. hard to work with someone when the two of you can't agree on an integral piece of the project.

that about wraps it up. not sure how much actual work will get done tonight. seeing as how my wife had to go into the restaurant and teach the managers how to close properly, after i put my daughter to bed i may have to sit in front of the xbox for a bit. Mass Effect 2 came out, and i feel that it is my duty to save the universe again. humanity is not going to save itself.

until something changes, i remain grim.

new, fresh, exciting.

so i've got this new idea. forgive me if i don't say too much, but i don't want to give too much away.

i say it is a new idea, but really it is an old idea that has been kicking around for some time, finally realized on paper/monitor.

i've had a few martinis at this point, so fo4rgive any pauses or misspellings that may occur.

had a long chat with an old friend, andy to those of you who know him, and he is on board. i will be contacting others in the next few days for more input, ideas, hopefully leading to more collaboration.

the book/manuscript is steady and on track. the game is on hold indefinitely, but this new idea hinges around that, so it is technically still active...

imagine a world where magic never really died but science progressed. imagine those two different schools met, and the practitioners didn't favor each other. imagine they met on the battlefield, and the fate of the world hinged on the outcome.

that is the new idea.

until something changes. i remain grim.

so we painted

so we painted. my daughter's little figure was excellent. mine not so much. maybe i'm not cut out for that, but in the words of my friend bryan, give it twenty years. it'll come.

so we'll put that on the back burner for now. it's sunday night, the kids are all here. my wife is on the phone with the owner of the business she now works for, so of course all of the kids have turned their volume knobs up to eleven. i do my best to tell them to keep it down, but i usually just end up yelling as loud as them, which doesn't solve anything. so i just whisper menacingly.

once they are in bed, i'll attempt to get back to the manuscript. i hope everyone enjoys what's left of the weekend.

until something changes, i remain grim.

i want to paint now.

not me. my daughter. she will be six next week. she wants to paint now.

in preparation for my foray into creating a multifaceted RPG game, i thought i should do some research by getting into some more games. i asked a good friend what he would recommend for a beginner like me. he recommended Halifaux, Necromunda and Mega-City One. After looking at all three, i chose Necromunda. the rules don't seem too intimidating, and there aren't too many pieces needed to get started.
so we go to the one game store within a twenty-mile radius of where i live. on sundays, they open at noon, i guess due to the all-night d&d adventure fest from the night before. so we got there at eleven-thirty, and my daughter was immediately scared to approach the door.

there was a pack of teenagers out front, maybe half-dozen. weird streaks in their hair, fingerless gloves, scuffed up combat boots and long trenchcoats. various spikes protruding from clothes and chains hanging off belts and a general air of, hrm, what to call it, "unshowered-ness".
like i said, my daughter was less than eager to approach the door. she hid behind a pillar as we waited the last few minutes for the door to open, stealing glances and making faces. whenever one of them would speak, it was in a language i didn't really understand, so i can only assume she had no idea what they were talking about either, except for the quiet cusswords and myriad ways they managed to take the lord's name in vain...
then the store opens. the open sign comes on, the gang of kids goes in. we follow. the kids all go to the far side of the store, where there are rows of tables set up for dungeons and dragons or magic or warhammer or whatever they're getting into. as we follow behind them i am hit with the unique, horrid smell of clove cigarettes and B.O.
i find the paint starter set. i find the brushes. i even find a few figurines in the discount bin to practice on. my daughter finds a vampire girl that she has to paint, so i am forced to give in and buy it for her.
i do not see any Necromunda in the store. i had half-expected this already, Necromunda being a "Specialist" game. the man behind the counter informed me that it was not worth it to the store to special order it for me, due to the dealer discount being too low. so i shall have to order from the website... oh well, this will give me time to learn how to paint these little bastards.

so now we're home, i'm doing some laundry and typing this out. my daughter has informed me, like i said earlier, that she is ready to paint now. i have told her that i still have some work to do on the book (which i am obviously not doing, since i am writing this right now...), and after i fold a load of laundry, i will be ready.
not that the figures need to be painted to play the game, but the painting is a big part of the miniature-games subculture, and if i want to make a game that caters to this crowd, i should be able to talk the talk as well as walk the walk.

in other news, i have made a few edits on the manuscript-in-progress, Ix, and should have the rest finished up later today. the goal for this week is to get five more pages done by friday, which may not seem like very many, but i work in small increments of time due to the amount of activity that is going on in my house most of the time.

i want to say thank you to my new followers and friends for checking in on me, and of course your comments and criticisms are welcome. keep watching to see where i go from here.

until something changes, i remain grim.

01.14.10

good evening everyone! welcome to red left hand, my first blog. exciting, i know. let me tell you a few things before we get started.
if you read the about me blurb, you know i am a professional gamer. i work for a company that tells other people what's wrong with their games. hopefully, they take what i (and my team) tell them and use that information to make their game better so that we all will want to play it forever.
also in the blurb, something about me wanting to be a writer. well, i guess i am a writer, because i do actively write on a regular basis. published writer? not yet. paid writer? certainly not. my very first book is in it's very first pages of creation, so i promise to keep you posted. chances are, if you're following this blog, it has something to do with the book that you've already heard me talking about.
also, from blurb, i have a family. one wife, four children, and three cats. two of the cats are inconsequential at this point, and the other, consequential one, is jeph. my cat jeph is one of my best friends. more on him later, i'm sure.
so this is how it starts. hopefully every few days, i'll give my faithful readers a little glimpse into what makes me tick, where the ideas come from, what i'm into, and what i am not into. if you think that's too much about me, well, then why the hell are you reading this, anyway?
i'm off to put the kids to bed, and wait for wife to get home from work.

until something changes, i remain grim.