our schoolteacher friend

oh, things are starting to really heat up for our schoolteacher friend.

if you haven't been following thus far, Luke is the schoolteacher protagonist from my short story, tentatively titled "magehunter", due to him hunting down a mage. i'm nearing the climax of the story, just taking a quick break to see how my daughter is feeling (she is playing on the xbox and talking to herself, so it seems she is feeling somewhat better), and update this blog here.
the story is moving right along, the words finding their place on the page with ever more regularity. as soon as it's done i'll let everyone know, and then we'll see where we go from there. i want to submit it as a short story to various places, but i want to keep the rights so i can put it in my own book when the rest of those stories are done... i've been a casual writer for most of my life, always taking a lot of joy from creating my own worlds, characters and situations. now, with position in life being what it is, i feel i have an opportunity to do something more than just enjoy or obsess over what i've created, i have the chance to let others enjoy it as well.

until something changes, i remain grim.

220, 221, whatever it takes...

so i've not been able to get as much done as i expected, due to unforseen circumstances.
recently, my daughter has a nice fever going, so i've been home from work for two days keeping watch over her. my wife's second store is getting ready to open, and she makes a lot more money than me anyhow, so i get to stay home.
this must be what micheal keaton's character in mr. mom felt like. laundry, dishes (so many fucking dishes. our dishwasher is broken...), making beds, tidying up. it is amazing how a house can get so dirty when no one is even home all day.

all right, i know. enough bitching.

the magehunter story has reached the halfway point. something big is happening as we speak, and it sets in motion the events that make our hero Luke decide that he's got to hunt down and kill Novak.
again, i hope to have it finished by the end of the month, but hey, this month is short! i should get a few extra days (not sure who i'm pleading to, really, it's not like i have an agent or anything...).

i hope everyone is well, thanks for keeping up with me. a special congratulations to my good friends josh and kristin on the birth of their baby girl last week, Ronin Samus.

until something changes, i remain grim.

well there's that then

so i may have been a little quick to post my story. but hey, that's the way it goes. there were some cocktails involved. i made a snap decision. i stand by it. what was posted is, in fact, the beginning of one of the stories in the anthology. in its rough draft phase, mind you. i was so excited to see a comment on the post, then i read it and realized that it was mine...

so we're moving forward. another page written tonight, which i will not show you. not just yet. hopefully, in a few more pages, it will be done and i can start the next one. or continue the third one, which i started a month ago.

i see a lot of my friends on various social networking sites, facebook, twitter, etc. myspace seems a bit juvenile for me, also i'm not in a band, so i don't really see the reason for a page there. i have a few friends/coworkers who curse facebook on a regular basis, but i think they do it mostly to go against the grain. if you don't want people to know what you think, feel, etc., then don't post it on the web. its not an invasion of privacy if you were the one who put it on line in the first place. i use my facebook account to see what my friends are up to. drop a line to people i haven't seen in a while. and of course, check up on the girls who i thought were super hot in high school (some of them are not as hot as they used to be. all women who follow my blog are still hot).

it is almost eight here in colorado. i've got to write one more page. may have to wait until the kids are in bed. i wish everyone well.

one more thing. a special hello and congratulations to my dear friends jason and jessica, proud parents of a baby girl this morning. i wish you the best.

until something changes, i remain grim.

half is as half does

so it is half done. by it, i mean the first story in the anthology. will it be the first to appear in the book? not sure. the rest aren't done, so i don't know what order they will go in.

tonight i played spy in my wife's restaurant. she is the area director for a new chain of sports bars, and i happen to be the lucky one who is so anonymous that my face is completely unrememberable.

according to my spell-checker, that (unrememberable) is not a word. i just added it to my dictionary, so from now on it is a word.

so like i was saying above, the first story is half done. it concerns a schoolteacher. his wife. a mage.

that word (mage) is also unrecognized. i just added it, now it is.

where was i? oh right. schoolteacher. his wife. a mage. that mage's son. something bad happens (what kind of story would we have if nothing untoward happened?). i want to give my friends a little something, a piece of the story to hook you, to keep you paying attention. i won't do this often, and i welcome any comments or criticisms.

For a temple, Luke thought, as he crossed the threshold into the cave, there’s not much going on.

At least it was dry though, a welcome change after walking in the rain for half of a day. He ran his fingers through his greasy black hair in an attempt to free the gallon of rainwater that had taken up residence, stomped his feet to try and remove some of the mud that had caked itself to his boots. He pulled off his cloak, vigorously shook it in the air, and then drew it back across his back.

Good as new, he told himself, not believing it for a second. He was exhausted, every muscle aching, on the verge of passing out. A little less water on his body didn’t do anything to refresh him, but it might keep him from getting the shivers and dying before getting home again.

He had made the three-day journey from Heriam, town of his birth, to Firehead Mountain, which housed the oldest volcano in Theretis. Oldestevar, Heriam’s resident wise old man, had told Luke about the place. At the base of Firehead was a stone staircase. The staircase trailed halfway up and around the mountain, ending at the entrance to a tunnel. At the other end of the tunnel was a door. On the other side of the door was the temple.

Which was indeed empty.

No one praying at the feet of any of the statues that lined the walls. No patrons sitting on any of the pews that ran in rows from the main entrance to the foot of the altar, crammed tightly together to squeeze as many as possible into the room. No high priest extolling the virtues of worshipping Stegereoth (Lord of Stone, whose war hammer was forged on the anvil in the middle of Firehead), or priestess doing the same for Caustine (Goddess of Flame, whose loyal followers, the Scintilla, would brand themselves with hot irons to show their devotion), who had taken over when it became unpopular to follow Stegereoth any longer.

The temple had been abandoned for almost a century, when the mage Rost Them’al had sent his golems to kill all of Caustine’s followers who had been worshipping there. He had wanted them to cast aside their devotion to Caustine, follow him instead, and turn the temple into a shrine for worshipping him. They said no, so he summoned fire golems to kill them all.

so that's how it starts, the anthology. we have the rest of this one, plus nine more to go. stay with me, i'll keep you posted, and i'll put up the beginning of each one as it comes about.

until something changes, i remain grim.

a first faq

so i've had a few requests to explain what exactly the anthology is.

"the anthology", as i call it, is only named "the anthology" because i haven't officially given it a name yet. the anthology is a book of stories, hopefully ten or twelve (or a baker's dozen, even), that are my first attempt at "world building". as in creating a world.
i had, at one point, a great idea for a game, but that game has nothing to fall back on, no history, no characters. so i put the game on hold to build the fiction first. i like the idea of creating a world from the ground up, but it is so much more work than i possibly could have imagined. for every story, there are two more stories that spring off of it. for every character, there are multiple characters that need their own story. then i have to decide which ones are worthy for everyone to see. i can't just open up my one-note for everyone to examine, can i?
so what we have so far is a fantasy setting. i know, fantasy has been done so many times. lord of the rings. d&d. shadowrun (mostly fantasy), and recently WOW. and a million others. the first idea for the anthology happened to be a fantasy idea, and it quickly spread from there.

who is to say that the next idea won't be cyberpunk? or horror? or cyberpunk horror? or whatever i want?

the anthology started with the idea of a man, out to avenge the death of a loved one, murdered by a fledgling mage in the service of one of the most powerful sorcerers in all the land. from this, the next two stories came. and it just sort of spirals from there.

i told my wife that i hoped to have the first story done by the end of the month. i tell you, my friends, the same.

until something changes, i remain grim.

bioshocked!

damn it! not a lot of work getting done this week due to my video game addiction. my wonderful wife bought me the deluxe edition of bioshock 2, so that, along with mass effect 2, magic and vandal hearts ensures that i am not lacking in anything to play.
fear not, my four faithful followers, the work has not stopped, it has only slowed momentarily while i step into the shoes of Big Daddy Delta to take down Big sister and whatever Splicers i can find.

in anthology news, i do have the basic outlines done for four of the purported ten stories that will make up the anthology. granted, this is not exactly what i'm supposed to be working on, but i won't tell brett if you don't. and i don't think brett follows my blog, so the only way he's going to know is if you tell him...

until something changes, i remain grim.

hello, my friends. it is in fact thursday night, about 11pm. my wife is asleep, the kids that are here are asleep, and my faithful companion, my cat jeph, is hovering. so i guess it is time to write some things down.

first off, welcome to my newest follower, Abey. We went to high school together, didn't know each other too well. LARP'd together in college (wouldn't admit that to too many people). keep up randomly. nice to see you.

the new anthology is coming along nicely. my wife says she likes the shorts better than the manuscript. perhaps i should listen, make that my priority. i am, of course, quite wary to post any real details on the innertubes, for fear of any individuals or organizations requisitioning them for their own. but as soon as i feel safe, i promise to give my friendly followers the first taste of... wait for it... Hard Earth. that's the working title. because it is earth, in some alternate time. and it is hard. hard to live there, i mean.

someone asked me today (and maybe she'll read this) how to get into a career in video games. the only real advice i could give was to master the english language (not that i am the best example, not really using any sort of proper capitalization, punctuation, or grammar techniques). half of my job is telling developers how to spell and punctuate. the other half is figuring out how to prank my boss (i know you're reading this...).

i hope everyone is well. we're supposed to be going on the wagon tomorrow. mostly so i can get some sleep, maybe lose a few pounds. it is the soda that's killing me, i know it, but i think i may have permanently fucked up my lungs after smoking for twelve years. so maybe that will kill me before any sugar will. not before the first book is published though.

so i guess i'm going to settle down for the evening, since the creative juices aren't flowing. maybe put in a film. i'm either going to watch the hurt locker or dante 01. hurt locker is by kathryn bigelow, up for a bunch of academy awards (sorry james cameron, your ex-wife's movie is going to kick the shit out of avatar at the academy awards, i hope). dante 01 is french, which means it is a bit snotty, but directed by the same guy who made delicatessen and city of lost children, so it already is better than half of the american movies i've seen this year.

good night to all of my friends, and i promise in my next post to drop a little reveal about the anthology... beware "rost them'al".

until something changes, i remain grim.