Going Forward

You may have received an email from me recently. If you're on the mailing list, I've asked you for some opinions on the first book.

In short, I'm publishing a 'special edition' of the first novel. The Endless Wars is getting wide distribution, and I'm celebrating it by putting out a special edition. This will include deleted scenes, an essay from yours truly, the first chapter from the second book, and it MIGHT include the first-ever officially-approved artwork. That's being talked about right now, but we'll see.

One of the hot topics is the font. The first and second editions were put out with my favorite font, 'Courier New.' I'm so used to seeing it, and I may have been drinking quite a bit of rum out of celebration of the book's publishing, that it slipped by me that was the final font. I've heard your bitches, and unless someone else out there shares my love for the font, that I'll be putting it out in something more generic, like Helvetica. At the same time, I'm only going to use an open-source font, so bear with me.

Moving on, I'm still taking feedback for the special edition. I will be revising the text of the book, to bring it more in line with the modern take.

At the same time, I'm still debating whether or not to let fan reaction impact something like updating Taran's demeanor. Do I protect him, or give in to popular demand, and make him a bit more 'cheery?'

Regardless, he is not the same Taran in book two. He's even darker, and struggling with killing his friend, Raphael. On top of that, he's responsible for his people, which weighs on him.

I am not taking any literal story ideas, FYI. What do you think of Taran?

 - Blaine

Blaine & Taran, getting reacquainted

Posting here has been light, but for good reason. Book Two of the Endless Wars series is seriously underway.

My wife is a remarkable woman, and knows when I've been writing heavily. She knows that it's kind of like talking to your pitcher during a no-hitter, and she just goes on acting like everything's normal, but she'll wear a certain kind of grin after noticing that the OpenOffice/Word file has been open on a particular computer for a few days, and wait for me to approach her about it.

I'm truly blessed by the Maker to be married to another writer. She understands the soul-farming that goes on, and that while it's an exorcising process, it's also a very dark process for me. I don't write about the things that make me smile. Taran and I seize each other and plunge down a rabbit hole that is made more for Showtime than ABC Family.

She lets me stare him in the eye while he and I arm-wrestle for control of my soul. While we face each other down, I pour more and more of my accumulated poison into him. As he writhes in agony, I guide him and help him to deal with it.

This has been going on for over a decade now, and I'm starting to think that she secretly hates Taran. That's fine by me, because I'm his biggest fan, and I understood the dude better than anybody.

The most interesting about writing a sequel, though, is fan feedback. I've been shocked to find that readers generally found Nigel to be their favorite character. While that was really surprising, as I think the guy is sort of a lovable scumbag, it works since this book is very much his book, and his story.

Additionally, I was less surprised that some people found Taran to be a bit of a whiny fuck. Looking back, I agree, and now I'm torn between how much I let reader feedback impact his personal arc and what I've had planned for him for a while. I can tell you, without spoilers, that he's just not meant to be a terribly happy person in his present circumstances, and that things are gonna get even darker for him.

I had a funny moment with my wife tonight, as I mentioned off-handedly that Taran is MUCH darker in this book than the last, and she actually gasp-laughed. 'Are you kidding?' she asked, 'He was already uber-dark in the first novel!' I kinda shrugged. The reason that the other characters exist is to help Taran carry the load, but he's not programmed to share.

Anyway, I was banging keys on here to distract myself while I figured out what the hell to do in the next scene, and now I've got it. If you guys loved any of the characters from the first book, just wait 'til you get a load of the three new folks that are being unveiled in this book. Just like in the first book, they're all sharp personalities that integrate and show new sides of all characters.

That, and there just might be a Nicole appearance.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, please go here and buy a book (paperback/ebook) if you love big damn stories with big damn heroes.

-Blaine

Vacation is a great time to get reacquainted.

I've been a negligent bloggist. I confess this much.

Much of this is due to the fact that I've been pretty satisfied with my life. I've been working full-time for a great company, and my IT duties there have commanded much of my attention. When I haven't been there, I've been doing the husband/dad thing, as well as working quite a bit with my old bandmates on a new musical project.

I'm thinking that this project is going to get its own blog soon, but not for another month or two, when we have a) the time thing figured out, and b) the rights thing figured out. Trust me when I say that you're gonna be blown away by what we've been working on. At some point soon, we'll be revealing the full lineup, along with a song preview. If you remember some of the cats I worked with back in the 90s, you'll see some familiar faces.

It's an hour and a half past midnight now, so I am officially on vacation. It's been a while, so I'm rather pleased.

I plan to chronicle as much of this vacation as I can. I'll be chronicling my never-ending quest to be totally portable with all my requisite technology. One big thing this time out is that I now have a mobile wifi device, which I plan to keep running non-stop during our trip, so I'll be reviewing that device day by day, and at some point, I'm going to try and play a game online while in the car. More on this as it develops.

Also, I'll be exploring cities in which I've never been, so you'll be getting my review of such cities as Pittsburgh & Baltimore. My understanding is that Baltimore has 4G fucking everywhere, in which case it gets an automatic A+.

Ultimately, my clan and I will end up in Virginia Beach, VA for about a week, and you will be saddled with my beach & alcohol-riddled thoughts, should you so choose to check back here. I will be exploring the area, as well as beating the shit out of some games, as well as kicking it with some relatives, so there will be plenty of entertainment here, and the Untitled Gaming blog.

After that, I'll try to get back into a rhythm here. LOL.

Stay posted. Thanks for reading. Lemme know if I should check anything out in Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Washington D.C., or Virginia Beach.

-Blaine

Summer in St. Louis

St. Louis summers are brutal, apparently, to outsiders. Perhaps since my sister and I came here at such a young age, we're accustomed to it, but it's always interesting to see my wife cast off her outdoorswoman persona in favor of air conditioning. Yeah, the 90+ degree heat can be tough, and yeah, the humidity makes you feel like you're walking through a thick cloud of moist hotness all the time (that's not an exaggeration, either), but the intensity of the heat always makes me feel like home has come to me. Nothing reminds me more of being home than St. Louis in the summer time.

I keep expecting the sentimental part of me to fall off, wither, and die, and I kind of wish it would hurry up and happen. At first, it's hard thinking that your days of 'joy w/ no responsibility' are behind you, but then as you age and harden, and it becomes a certainty that you're never going to feel that way again, it gets downright traumatic. I know it's wrong and childish to feel that way, so I work at curbing it and making myself know it's wrong to feel that way, but ... it is there.

Feeling like you've returned home can be a double-edged sword. On one hand, yes, it's a relief to wrap myself in summer's oppressively hot and damp blanket, but on the other, it's hard to contemplate that your most joyful days are behind you.

I'm still trying to find that balance, though. Having a great family, great friends, and great job is helping, I think.

Dexter

Watching Dexter is the best therapy I've ever had. I feel normal when I watch it.

What's most interesting to me is how they deal with the fact that being a childhood trauma survivor isolates the shit out of you as an adult. While Dexter doesn't necessarily deal with it in the best way possible all the time, I relate to him more than I do any other protagonist I think I've ever seen or read. At first, that really bothered me, since ya know, he's a 'crazy serial killer' and all. He's not, though. Calling someone 'crazy' is just an excuse to not take the time to reason out why they are the way they are. If you watch the show, you're probably very comfortable with how he chooses his 'victims.'

In any case, it's a great show, and expertly written.

What About the Next Endless Wars Book?

There are 2-3 chapters in place, and the whole thing is on hold while I work on a record with a couple guys I used to play with back when I was at least semi-relevant in the local scene. It's amazingly refreshing to be working in music again, and I'm amazed that I still have so much to offer. It uses an entirely different part of the brain than writing does, which is very cool.

Depending on the potential permanence of the band, I may work on the two simultaneously, but we'll see. I've not been able to do that before, but I've also historically been an incompetment fuckwit, which is not true anymore.

Cool. Thanks for reading.

What are your summer plans?

-Blaine

Being an Adult Slacker With ADD

First post in a while, I know. Being an adult with ADD can be a real bitch in a lot of ways. For me, the hardest part is prioritizing my time. This is one of the reasons that I'm an overweight, 31-year old slacker who has floated from one totally unrelated field to another.

El Calendario
 
I'm now using Google Calendar to try to change all that.

What I've done is actually budgeted most of my days to follow a rather rigorous schedule. From my sleeping time to my commute times to my 'at work' time, I've scheduled all the obvious things, but I've also gone a step further and budgeted time for blogging, set a stringent homework schedule, and also made damn sure to set aside time for writing.

As it stands right now, I've filled up nearly all my daytime hours during the week, left the evenings somewhat flexible, and tried not to schedule anything on the weekends.

I've also regulated my eating in this new approach, in an effort to drop 120 pounds as soon as is healthy, and in that effort, I've budgeted exercise time each weekday morning.

The main problems I'm trying to address are: a) I want to be a sharper student in my final (haha) year of study and not push things until the zero hour, b) I need to drop 120 pounds, for all the usual reasons, c) I hardly sleep, and I think a lot of my problems go back to that, or maybe it's circular; whatever, d) I need to write a lot more, and e) I want to do so much more in my life than I am, and that requires that I stop fucking around all the time.

I'll try and keep all two or three of you updated on my progress in this regard.

In Other News

 - I'm pretty sure Endless Wars is going to end up on the iBook store pretty soon. The publisher sent me an email about it, but as stated before, I'm a slacker, and have not followed up on it yet. One thing I'll be looking at closely is the money. I'm annoyed that the major publishers are so greedy that they can justify charging even HALF what of what a hard cover book costs (and PLEASE stop buying hard cover books, my friend. You're only feeding a horribly broken system. Cheap ebooks = everyone is happy.)

 - On that note, it occurs to me that I forgot to make sure my book ended up on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. I'm thinking that'll get remedied in June, if I'm reading my calendar correctly.

 - I came across a stack of EW books that I still haven't sent out, because I forgot. I'll ship them next week. The recipients know who they are.

 - EW2 is under way, though it's been halting steps, due to my utter lack of self control. That is being changed this afternoon.

  - I am super-pumped for the return of EGM. Check out their really cool approach to the digital mag. I would be very interested in doing a comic this way, if any artists are interested in collaborating.

 - I'm thinking more and more about being a writer in 'the digital age;' I think I may post more on the ideas I've been having.

 - Speaking of which, aside from the pretty-good tutorials on the MSDN site, does anyone out there have any recommendations for good sources from to self-teach Visual C#?

- the one thing that makes me want an iPad is that it could eventually become a) the device that unifies my Kindle, Nook, Sony Reader, & .pdf libraries (via apps), and b) becomes the premier e-comic & e-mag device. I don't like the price point, I don't like the dearth of storage it offers, I don't like the lack of Flash support, and I don't like the lack of video codec support. I want a 1TB model that can (GASP) handle Flash and (GASP) play back .mkv & .avi. I know that's madness to think a computing device could do that, but one can always dream.

What about you? How stringently do you schedule yourself? What do you think of the transition to digital media that is happening in the book/mag/comic world? What do you think if the iPad?

-Blaine

...

BOO!