It's been a while, hasn't it? With the semester over, I finally have the time to update this monster. Lately, I've been reviewing my past work and, as a consequence, I've started the process of re-writing most of them. Flight of Eagles, my very first novel-length work, is now entitled "A Dark Apotheosis." For those of you who don't know the word, Apotheosis is an ascention to god-hood. I thought this especially appropriate since the novel centers around one woman's stand against tyranny and how, during this process, she slowly begins being worshipped as a living god. No pressure, eh? For the most part, the re-write seems to be going without a hitch. I'm already 150 pages in and I'm not feeling at all tired or pressured.
On a non-book related subject, I'm losing weight! I've cut my portions in half, started drinking lots of water, and I'm starting my weight lifting regimine again. So far, I've lost ten pounds and my entire body feels like It's been beaten half to death. In other words - I'm sore as hell. All of this, I suppose, is in response to Amber's finally leaving for Texas. That's right, my life's love is gone and won't ever be coming back to West Virginia. Hopefully, after I graduate in about a year or so, I can go and join her. The way I figure it, we waited three years to be together and we can wait one more year to actually live together. Well, that's it for now. Hopefully it won't be so long before the next update.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Sunday, December 20, 2009
In the beginning...
All right, so lets start to talk about what I originally made this blog for, my literary works. First, I'll begin with a little history. It all began on a night much like - as I look out my window and see snow everywhere - much like this. About six years ago, give or take, I began the ground work that, after several evolutions, would eventually become the world in which I write. Originally known as"Neo Earth," and not "New Earth," the world has gone through over five different incarnations before I actually began writing anything. As Neo Earth, the world began as a post apocalyptic and destopian future wherein humanity, because of some unknowable and horrible event, struggled to survive in a world that has reverted to medieval technology and feudal society. This, I soon found, didn't really work the way I wanted it to. During this incarnation, the world had the same map as we see today, only with the topography and geo-political boundaries drastically changed. The characters would come across cars or old machines and somehow, as if by some genetic memory, know how to use them but, despite all their apparent knowledge, they didn't know how to actually construct said machines.
Next came the same idea done with a little more fantasy element thrown in. I imagined a world, with the same map and the same history, but with the entire world population twisted into animal forms of their selves. I even made it so that certain races would be represented by animals - stupid, I know. That's why it lasted for all of about two weeks. In this version, many of the things that are still there in my modern works would be developed. Characters, that would become other characters or simply be renamed would come into being. One of these sinister characters is Adiemus D'Arnase. Contrary to popular belief, I did not rip this name from the band "Adiemus." The Latin word "Adiemus" means 'Someone who comes amongst you.' Which, in the story, is literally what he does and in quite a bad way. Furthermore Shashka, who was originally represented in her animal form as a fox, came into being. She was originally not a main character, taking a sideline roll in favor of a character named Emoine who has since been trashed and who may or may not show up in later works.
Thirdly, there was a drastic change. The world suddenly got its own distinctive map (see above) which, for once, was not based off of our very own Earth. Furthermore, the world itself underwent a name change. It was now simply "New Earth." Not only that, but I managed to come up with a detailed mythology as to how the world was settled by humans and the histories of all the different races. The Forgotten (The Elves) make their first appearance and so to the Dwere (Dwarves). The Kobolos (Goblins), who apparently used to be a civilized race, were reduced to savagery for a reason that becomes clear later on in the books. Furthermore, readers will quickly realize that all humans have a common ancestral home despite their different skin colors, nationalities and races. Also, they will realize that humans aren't native to New Earth but rather from somewhere else entirely. Shashka becomes a main character and several other characters, Tycondrius, Gertrude, Wotecorix, Bowhen and several others become new characters.
The final incarnation which I can define into real progress came about three years ago. Before then, I had written four full length novels and several short stories that were, in my opinion and the opinion of several others, so bad they will likely never see the sun. In fact, the only location I believe these stories exist is in my girl friend's e-mail account. Three years ago I had an epiphany of sorts. I wrote my first short story of note that was based in the final incarnation of New Earth entitled "One Black Rose." In the story, I introduced a character who is called "The Dark Man." This villain will be a long standing nightmare in the lives of everyone from Shashka to Tycondrius and beyond. In this final incarnation, all of the staple names and places and institutions began to fall into place; The Arcane Order, the Empire, the Tygian Confederacy and, of course, the Greencloaks.
To backtrack a bit though, New Earth was not my first successful world. That honor belongs to Kha'Zah'Ree, the home world of the villainous but strangely understandable Zendalii, a cat-like race of warriors, mystics and political backstabbers. Without going into too much detail - detail that would ruin a lot of the plot - I'll just say that Kha'Zah'Ree is, I believe scientifically possible but not all together probable. Three moons, each smaller than the other, orbit a light-less world in the midst of a luminescent nebula. It orbits no sun and has no other worlds in its system. No light means no plants. Instead, giant crystalline formations grow. All of their heat is geothermal and most of the weather is bad. The landscape is craggy and mountainous, most of the animals akin to the bizarre and frightening fish found at the unfathomable depths of the trenches. In short, completely alien.
Next came the same idea done with a little more fantasy element thrown in. I imagined a world, with the same map and the same history, but with the entire world population twisted into animal forms of their selves. I even made it so that certain races would be represented by animals - stupid, I know. That's why it lasted for all of about two weeks. In this version, many of the things that are still there in my modern works would be developed. Characters, that would become other characters or simply be renamed would come into being. One of these sinister characters is Adiemus D'Arnase. Contrary to popular belief, I did not rip this name from the band "Adiemus." The Latin word "Adiemus" means 'Someone who comes amongst you.' Which, in the story, is literally what he does and in quite a bad way. Furthermore Shashka, who was originally represented in her animal form as a fox, came into being. She was originally not a main character, taking a sideline roll in favor of a character named Emoine who has since been trashed and who may or may not show up in later works.
Thirdly, there was a drastic change. The world suddenly got its own distinctive map (see above) which, for once, was not based off of our very own Earth. Furthermore, the world itself underwent a name change. It was now simply "New Earth." Not only that, but I managed to come up with a detailed mythology as to how the world was settled by humans and the histories of all the different races. The Forgotten (The Elves) make their first appearance and so to the Dwere (Dwarves). The Kobolos (Goblins), who apparently used to be a civilized race, were reduced to savagery for a reason that becomes clear later on in the books. Furthermore, readers will quickly realize that all humans have a common ancestral home despite their different skin colors, nationalities and races. Also, they will realize that humans aren't native to New Earth but rather from somewhere else entirely. Shashka becomes a main character and several other characters, Tycondrius, Gertrude, Wotecorix, Bowhen and several others become new characters.
The final incarnation which I can define into real progress came about three years ago. Before then, I had written four full length novels and several short stories that were, in my opinion and the opinion of several others, so bad they will likely never see the sun. In fact, the only location I believe these stories exist is in my girl friend's e-mail account. Three years ago I had an epiphany of sorts. I wrote my first short story of note that was based in the final incarnation of New Earth entitled "One Black Rose." In the story, I introduced a character who is called "The Dark Man." This villain will be a long standing nightmare in the lives of everyone from Shashka to Tycondrius and beyond. In this final incarnation, all of the staple names and places and institutions began to fall into place; The Arcane Order, the Empire, the Tygian Confederacy and, of course, the Greencloaks.
To backtrack a bit though, New Earth was not my first successful world. That honor belongs to Kha'Zah'Ree, the home world of the villainous but strangely understandable Zendalii, a cat-like race of warriors, mystics and political backstabbers. Without going into too much detail - detail that would ruin a lot of the plot - I'll just say that Kha'Zah'Ree is, I believe scientifically possible but not all together probable. Three moons, each smaller than the other, orbit a light-less world in the midst of a luminescent nebula. It orbits no sun and has no other worlds in its system. No light means no plants. Instead, giant crystalline formations grow. All of their heat is geothermal and most of the weather is bad. The landscape is craggy and mountainous, most of the animals akin to the bizarre and frightening fish found at the unfathomable depths of the trenches. In short, completely alien.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Dodecolicious
For those of you who are unschooled in the ways of polyhedron dice - or those poor souls who have never even heard of Dungeons and Dragons - Dodecolicious is a term that, so far as I know, was made famous by "Futurama" in the movie "Bender's Game." I begin my entry with this lovely word for one reason only - I'm about to start writing a new Dungeons and Dragons Campaign. This will be my fourth...fifth? I figure that with my fiance going home for the Christmas break, I'll have a lot of time on my hands. For those who are actually follow this blog, all one of you, you're about to be tortured by a detailed explanation of just what this game is all about. Turn away if you don't wish your ears violated.
Dungeons and Dragons was created by a man, gods rest his soul, named Gary Gygax who died just recently. It began as a miniature war game similar to that of Warhammer or many others and slowly, over several decades, transformed into a role-playing game where players take on the mantle of made-up characters and decide the actions and career paths of said characters. All of this is done on a fictional backdrop of a fictional world wherein one person (usually) makes it all up. This person is known as the Dungeon Master. Now, I know what you're thinking...what the hell is with that name? It sounds something like a title for a bad bondage porn flick, I know. I wasn't even born when the term was made up so who am I to judge?
Now...all of my D&D games are based off of my writings. This can get kinda hairy when someone says: "Hey, can I use one of your campaigns for my own players." While I'd love to give them the campaign for their use, I have no idea what will eventually happen to it. It could end up on the internet and thus, entirely out of my hands. I'm still worried about the incident that happened last month, after all. Suffice it to say, I take the writing of these campaigns, as they are known, quite seriously as they reflect on my novels. Anyone looking for more information on Dungeons and Dragons, although if you know me you probably know all about it, you would do well to go to www.wizards.com. For those paying attention, Wizards also manufactures the Magic the Gathering collectible card game.
Now that finals are over, I'll be able to get to some serious stuff and start telling you about my novels. I'm sure you can't wait. Over the next few posts, I'll go into the history of my world, what led my to write and profiles on just a few of my main protagonists and antagonists. The best of the best, the worst of the worst and all those gray-shrouded bastards in between. Stay tuned.
Dungeons and Dragons was created by a man, gods rest his soul, named Gary Gygax who died just recently. It began as a miniature war game similar to that of Warhammer or many others and slowly, over several decades, transformed into a role-playing game where players take on the mantle of made-up characters and decide the actions and career paths of said characters. All of this is done on a fictional backdrop of a fictional world wherein one person (usually) makes it all up. This person is known as the Dungeon Master. Now, I know what you're thinking...what the hell is with that name? It sounds something like a title for a bad bondage porn flick, I know. I wasn't even born when the term was made up so who am I to judge?
Now...all of my D&D games are based off of my writings. This can get kinda hairy when someone says: "Hey, can I use one of your campaigns for my own players." While I'd love to give them the campaign for their use, I have no idea what will eventually happen to it. It could end up on the internet and thus, entirely out of my hands. I'm still worried about the incident that happened last month, after all. Suffice it to say, I take the writing of these campaigns, as they are known, quite seriously as they reflect on my novels. Anyone looking for more information on Dungeons and Dragons, although if you know me you probably know all about it, you would do well to go to www.wizards.com. For those paying attention, Wizards also manufactures the Magic the Gathering collectible card game.
Now that finals are over, I'll be able to get to some serious stuff and start telling you about my novels. I'm sure you can't wait. Over the next few posts, I'll go into the history of my world, what led my to write and profiles on just a few of my main protagonists and antagonists. The best of the best, the worst of the worst and all those gray-shrouded bastards in between. Stay tuned.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Getting Better
Well, I see I got my first follower on this blog; hooray for me! Things are looking up for the most part; I haven't had anyone turn up trying to ransom my own stories to me and nor have I seen any new novels floating around the internet with the words 'New' and 'Earth' in the title so all seems to be well, at least for now. Pretty soon, as soon as finals are over, I'll be able to devote actual time to this blog instead of half-assing it most of the time. I'm starting to think that in the time being, I need to devote some time for school work as the semester comes to a bloody and screaming end.
As it turns out, though, finals are just as ugly as they've always been. They are and always will be the academic equivalent of a horrible crawling Lovecraftian abomination, a monstrosity that cannot be stopped and nor can it be placated by human sacrifice. In the end, it will always explode your mind and give you one hell of a headache. Even something so seemingly simple as biology 101 seems like a chore at this part in the semester due to burn out and general disinterest on my part toward an extremely lower lever class.
On top of all that, I find once again that signing up for next semester's classes is more difficult than it should be. Once again - I don't know how I fucking keep doing this - I lost my pin number I need for online registration and now, because they are slowly phasing out paper, the school requires us to sign up electronically. Isn't that special? So now I have to face the scornful looks of my advisory professor just so I can get my pin number back. Eh, all things considered its par for the course.
As it turns out, though, finals are just as ugly as they've always been. They are and always will be the academic equivalent of a horrible crawling Lovecraftian abomination, a monstrosity that cannot be stopped and nor can it be placated by human sacrifice. In the end, it will always explode your mind and give you one hell of a headache. Even something so seemingly simple as biology 101 seems like a chore at this part in the semester due to burn out and general disinterest on my part toward an extremely lower lever class.
On top of all that, I find once again that signing up for next semester's classes is more difficult than it should be. Once again - I don't know how I fucking keep doing this - I lost my pin number I need for online registration and now, because they are slowly phasing out paper, the school requires us to sign up electronically. Isn't that special? So now I have to face the scornful looks of my advisory professor just so I can get my pin number back. Eh, all things considered its par for the course.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Not off to a good start...
Well, as it turns out my first post isn't going to be a happy one. Two days ago (November 6th), my fiance and I went to go see the TSO (Trans-Siberian Orchestra) show that visits Charleston annually. In the hours before the show, we must have went to about a dozen places. We walked across a transit mall, through an art store, into a sushi place and all throughout a mall. The show was awesome and it was, and I don't say this lightly, the hardest rocking I've ever seen. After the show, I even went out to eat at my favorite restaurant with my best friend and his wife.
Now, has anyone ever had one of those days wherein you just know you're having way too good a time? You think to yourself: 'Wow, something has to go wrong here.' Well, something did. My brand new bluejeans that I had bought the day before from wal-mart (death to the smiley face), apparently had a hole in the left pocket - a brand new pair had a hole! Well through that hole, I lost my jump drive which contained my treasure-trove of literary works, all of them in fact. Thankfully, I have copies of all of it on another jump drive, but that's not really the point.
I don't know if you can really understand this without being a writer, but just the thought of someone else - a complete stranger - reading through my works and holding just about everything I've ever written in the palm of their hand is...unsettling. I'm a little afraid that someone might be unscrupulous enough to claim my works as their own, simply replacing my name with their own on the title page. Now, I do have multiple forms of proof (one of which is this blog) that the titles of those works and the content are mine and mine along. I have rejection letters, documents and dozens of people who will vouch for me if it came down to some kind of legal battle, but still.
It is because of this, my most recent of blunders, that I feel compelled to list all the names of my literary works on this blog so that, if it happens and my stuff gets stolen, I'll have dated proof that the titles are mine and that I actually wrote about losing them. Feel free to ignore this next part if you haven't already.
Now, has anyone ever had one of those days wherein you just know you're having way too good a time? You think to yourself: 'Wow, something has to go wrong here.' Well, something did. My brand new bluejeans that I had bought the day before from wal-mart (death to the smiley face), apparently had a hole in the left pocket - a brand new pair had a hole! Well through that hole, I lost my jump drive which contained my treasure-trove of literary works, all of them in fact. Thankfully, I have copies of all of it on another jump drive, but that's not really the point.
I don't know if you can really understand this without being a writer, but just the thought of someone else - a complete stranger - reading through my works and holding just about everything I've ever written in the palm of their hand is...unsettling. I'm a little afraid that someone might be unscrupulous enough to claim my works as their own, simply replacing my name with their own on the title page. Now, I do have multiple forms of proof (one of which is this blog) that the titles of those works and the content are mine and mine along. I have rejection letters, documents and dozens of people who will vouch for me if it came down to some kind of legal battle, but still.
It is because of this, my most recent of blunders, that I feel compelled to list all the names of my literary works on this blog so that, if it happens and my stuff gets stolen, I'll have dated proof that the titles are mine and that I actually wrote about losing them. Feel free to ignore this next part if you haven't already.
Novels: "Flight of Eagles," "A Three Edged Sword," "The Last Deep Breath," "Come, Full Circle."
Short Story Collectors: "One Black Rose and Other Tales."
Short Stories: "A Courtly for Tycondrius," "Macbeth (Short Story Version," "Purple Man," "So Burns the Wicker Man," "The Door in the Mountain," "The Endless Corridor," "The Lonely Man," "The Thing in the Blackbole," "Within These Walls."
Poems: "Antimatter Dark," "Azure Blue," "Battle Song," "Destroyer of Worlds," "Overthrone," "So Much Like Morrigan," "Sum of all Endings."
Dungeons and Dragons Campaigns: "A Line in the Sand," "The Tygian Conflict," "Murder of Crows," "Shadows on the Frontier."There, that just about covers it, I think. The Dungeons and Dragons campaigns are actually based on my literary works so I thought it was prudent to compile them here as well. Next time, gods willing, I'll have something interesting to talk about aside from my near loss of my entire life's work...bloody hell.
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