I'm not that old yet!! Keep the archaologists away from me and my pen for a while. Also- 'Echeoes of Erebus' excerpt.

I contributed to an article about annoyances with loud TV ads, and in my submission, I referred to myself as a "Cranky old man in training". Because of this, I might sound like an old man. Hey, just an Old man In training! I have the cranky pretty much nailed down, but I'm only a third of a century old! I need to be about twice as old before I legally qualify as 'old'.

It's not a big deal, I guess. When I'm rich and famous, it will just be a bit of amusing trivia for the entertainment TV when they do stories on me, and my vast harem. Archaeologists will be confounded at the inconsistency, then move on to examining how the ink I used to sign books changed when my OFFICIAL SIGNING PEN runs out of ink.

This is a really darn good pen for a disposable mind you. It's been chugging for years. I only use it for signing though. Why have I declared such a pen? Just to give archaeologists something to talk about.

Time for another Echoes of Erebus excerpt- roll the tape! (for the record, the first editing pass is half done)

---

“:::Yeah, well... I still don't know that Doug has smartened up at all. A broken wrist doesn't grow more brain cells. In fact, screw the whole job thing. First, I want to leave Doug a message.”
“:::W- what kind of message?” Jon asked.
“:::Nothing harmful. Maybe a short note carved in his front door. I don't know, I'll think of something on the way.”

Sarah changed direction. She didn't dare use her transit pass. They probably had tracking data on them, and the stations had a ton of cameras. Her hair and clothes were different, but her face was still the same.

At least for now. That was something definitely worth thinking about.

Walking past a bank machine, she grabbed a deposit slip and chained pen, and began jotting down a note.
“:::Sarah, you realize the bank machine has a camera staring at you right now.”
“:::Aw, damn. I guess it's kind of inescapable. The rural option is starting to sound better and better. I'll leave Doug's note, then we're off to the hills, I guess.”


Dear Douglas Villa,

I do hope you're healing well. I just wanted to say hi, and that yes, I am watching over Dan, and all her friends. Please play nice. Repeated breakage of the same bones can have long term effects.


“:::Alright, how should I sign it?”
“:::How about FISH GIRL!”
“:::Yeah, no.”

She simply signed it 'Sarah', put the pen back in its little cubby, and continued on her way.
“:::No Fish Girl?” Jon asked.
“:::No Fish Girl.”
“:::How about 'The Defender of the Sea!'”
“:::No. It's done, moving on.”
“:::How about 'The Holy Mackerel?”
“:::Am I going to have to send you to your room?”
Jon rallied his whiniest remorseful voice. “:::I'll be good.”

Editing of Echoes of Erebus is underway....!

Writing the first draft of Echoes of Erebus was fun. READING IT (first editing pass) at a more "readerly" pace is a blast. I get to see the events unfold in 'real time'. It's a fun story. Y'all gonna love it.

Happily, I'm nicely on pace for release in time for this October's VCON (Vancouver sci fi convention)... DESPITE not rushing. If you count the 2d edition of Lifehack that came out 3 years ago, this October will mark a 'hat-trick' of releases at VCON.

My volunteer editing team has grown, from 4 on Watching Yute, to 7, one of which is the blessedly brutal Julie Anne Dawson. I didn't agree with all of the points she made about Watching Yute... some I did, some I didn't, some I sat some0hwere in the middle on after much deliberation.

Oh, also, one of the new editors, my cousin, Jacqueline 'Jackie' Shaben has kind of become a model for the cover. Her hand did, anyway. The outline of her hand. Glam? Youbetcha.

Any way, my plan is to finish the 2nd half of my first editing pass, tweak the start and the epilogue, do another editing pass, then hand if off to the editors while I finalize the cover. Simple, yes? Yes.

People have been asking for another excerpt, and as I've been doing this editing pass, I've been keeping my eyes out for an candidate. Soon. -ish.

Echoes of Erebus - light at the end. Of the first draft...

Quttin time. I reached my target for today of 5 pages. (being a lower target than yesterday's 10 due to other things that needed to be done)

I'm solid into the mop-up/epilogue section now. I'm at 225 pages right now, and expect another 10 to reach the end, I guess. When page breaks and other formatting are put in, I'll probably be around the size of Watching Yute, which finalized at 256.

Man, 3 am gets pretty hot with a laptop on your chest and a cuddly cat around your ankles. I could write a little more, but I think I'll chill a bit, pass out and wake up fresh to attack tomorrow's target. I'd be happy with 7, but I'm hoping for ten. Or the end of the story, whichever comes first.

I worked in another cameo...! A logical one too, right near the end.. not some "LOL HI! I'M FROM A PREVIOUS BOOK, HI HI HI, OK THX BAI!"

Ok. Thx. Gnite.

Echoes of Erebus first draft nearing completion

I'm roughly forty pages away, and with no toddler around in the next week or so, I have a lot of opportunity to do it. I'm not saying it WILL be done in the next week, but it's very possible.

I have recently threatened to drop Sarah 17 stories, and chop her roughly in half. I'm not sure how she'd deal with those situations, and neither is she. Thankfully she managed to think her way out of both threats in fun ways. Right now I have her deep underground. She just dealt with a boobytrap and some Erebus-grade opponents,all while struggling with visibility issues. Light amplification won't help much when there's no light to amplify.

An 'Erebus-grade' creation comes in two varieties depending on the mood of the creator at the time. Effective, or 'unique'. Those two categorizations sometimes overlap, but an effective design will be re-used, making the creature much less unique. Case in point being the common zombie. Sure, you can do artistic things WITH zombies, but this often reduces their effectiveness.

The cover I posted last time has been changed... at least there's another draft in the mix now. Same general idea, but somewhat darker blues.

In other news, I ran into a review of Lifehack that I wasn't aware of before. It was pretty darn complimentary, and illustrates how I need to stop chasing after reviewers who I know to be tough as nails, and let some gentler readers have a crack at it now and then.

I've also been interviewed for another website, thought I'm not sure when it will be posted. You can bet I'll pop the link up when it happens!

I've gotten 'clearance' to do a signing event in a local coffee shop. I just need to pick my saturday, do a little promo work, and it'll be done. The manager was quite open to the idea... it makes me think I should try some other coffee shops, and do these kinds of things until I need to reorder for my personal stock.



In other other news, I just had a sneezing fit so violent, I now smell blood.
In other other other news, my cat is going bat-poopie insane, and just clobbered herself by running into a doorframe at mach 47.

Echoes of Erebus civer draft (and misc news)

Here it is, bask and enjoy. Breakdown after the images....

That's our lass Sarah. She doesn't actually have cable plugs, or visible circuitry on her arm, but hey. Metaphor. Cheap flashy metaphor. The one cable with the loose plug does loop around her arm and end with a bleeding fishing hook. For those that haven't been paying attention, or haven't skipped to the 2nd image, yes, Sarah is made out of fish. She does not do any fishing herself, nor draw much in the way of blood. In the lower left we see a bit of my 'mascot nanite'. We'll talk about him in a bit.

The full wrap for the cover. Here we see more of mascot nanite.. he is positioned so that the 3 books, when set together, will make him in whole on your bookshelf. Whee! I'm witty! No, but moving on....

New author photo.. might replace it again. Mildly modified author blurb, and up top, well.. click the pic if you have trouble reading that. I left a lot of 'white space'... hm. We'll see.


As for the writing itself, I'm on quite a binge. This week has been compromised by a lot of random stuff going on, but I had been getting 2o pages a week on the first draft for 3? weeks in a row. This week might be more like 15.. which I hope doesn't mess up my general momentum. (or count). Yeah, 20 pages a week might seem like a lot to anyone who's tried it, and... it is. What I end up with will need a lot of work, but this phase is the most stressful, I think.
Current pagecount, (with no chapter breaks and such put in) 158. I'm hoping the final will be close to Watching Yute's 256, but we'll see.

I've been burning the midnight oil a lot in this past month, staying up til 1 am, (or later.. once or twice to 3 am) which makes for a lonnnnnng next day when Caitlin gets me up at around 7.

I gots a seekrit:

New Echoes of Erebus excerpt - a bit long for an excerpt, but read it, dangit!

Here's a freshly written, and not yet edited chunk of Echoes of Erebus. This excerpt happens to cross the 100 page mark, and is a step further into the ugly gritty half of the story.

For the record, earning it's place onto the unofficial soundtrack was Marilyn Manon's 'Beautiful People' which I was listening to when I wrote most of this scene. Manson's not so much my thing, generally, but the MP3 popped up randomly, and the sound seemed to fit the mood of the scene.. not the lyrics mind you.

-----------
He stood in a dimly lit concrete stairwell. The small space he stood in now connected to an extruded metal staircase. After the polished posh gym areas, it felt like he had stepped into an alternate reality. Only the muted sound of those weights hitting down rhythmically reminded him otherwise.
Bam. Bam. Bam.

In front of him a staircase of dark extruded metal reached downwards. This was the kind of thing he was looking for. He slumped to the floor, to sit and steady his nerves.

Breathe. Think of something relaxing. Like Brianna, and her magnificent qualities. On a beach. A nude beach. Doing yoga. Breathe. Greene took out his little work terminal, and made sure he still had a signal out. It reassured him again that he was not in another world. The sound of the weights were becoming less and less reassuring, sounding more and more like the heartbeat of something massive and inhuman.

Push that bit of imagination aside. Call back Brianna's yoga. Everything's fine. Everything's fine. You've just entered a dungeon looking for huge monsters tearing each other apart, that's all.
Thoughts of the nanite-enhanced pit fights forced their way into his head. His breathing became tight. He needed some water, and had none.

Get up. Get up and dust the tux off. Greene took a deep breath and took his first step down those stairs. That wasn't so hard. They made more noise than he wanted. Blame the hard leather soles. Step softly. No rush.
Tap, tap, tap down the stairs. When the sound of the weights in the gym stopped, he was grateful. At first. He was left with only his own sounds and their cold little echoes. He strained to hear the music form the gym, but not a note could reach him.

He considered playing some music softly from his terminal, but stealth was more important. Maybe if he had earphones. No, hearing things around him was equally as important.
That thought struck an extra chord of paranoia. He stopped, listening for anything.
Anything.
Please?

Even a growl would at least give him an excuse to run screaming out of the hotel and face the chastising of Mr. Book. How did Greene get himself into this? Why didn't he bring a gun, or a platoon?
Careful with each step, not to slip nor make a sound, he was soon at the door of basement two. Curiosity would not get the better of him. Opening that door could only serve to ruin his stealth. Onward. Down. Again staring down a set of extruded dark metal stairs.

The concrete walls were damper and colder as he went down, moisture seeping upwards from the ground. At the last step, he stood on a glistening concrete floor. Greene looked up though the stairwells, up towards the door that led to the shiny world of the buxom Brianna. Knowing such beauty up there in the light, she attained the title of 'angel' in Greene's mind. As he stood at the door to the third layer of this concrete purgatory, he jokingly whispered a little prayer to Brianna.

Brianna, O, goddess of the pool, bounty be thine chest. Guard me as I trespass, as I forgive those who sent me here.

Alright, stop stalling.
He turned the knob as quietly as he could, and opened the door enough to peek. Inside was about as hospitable as the stairwell, continuing the theme of damp concrete, but now with masses of pipes streaming along the ceiling.
Two directions led from the door. One to the left, which he couldn't see much of due to the door, and one straight ahead. Roughly fifty meters, on the left side of the passage, stood a man in front of a door. He stood facing away from the door, staring at the wall across the passage. His arms were crossed across his large physique, and he did not move.

He was not wearing a tuxedo. Nor gym wear. This was notably urban apparel. High end stuff, but not in great shape. It looked like he had been sleeping in them, and they were not clean. Given what he was here to find, it was likely smears of blood. His jacket was zipped up high, to right under his nose. His eyes were hidden under broad, dark sunglasses.

Greene didn't feel much feel like talking to the man. The left path would do for now. He stepped out of the doorway, keeping an eye on the large man all the while. Still no movement. Green headed down the left passage. Whatever the goon was guarding was now to Green's right, though the wall. He got some distance from the corner and pulled out his little terminal.

It still had a signal, barely. He took readings for any radio frequencies in the area. Anything. Yes, yes, there it was. This must be the signal type that the pit-fighters were run on.
It was deeply encoded, and was doubtlessly just commands that would mean nothing to Greene, but the pattern was unmistakably the same as those that Jonathan Coll and Erebus had used in Autar and Meston. Was the government aware of this? They must be, after all those pit fight raids.

Greene had to report this. He attached his readings to a message, and typed in a short note to Mr. Book, and transmitted.

Oops.

That scream, that war cry. It was like the 'demon of Densfarn' he had seen taken into custody. In the cement underground, the sound reverberated and rebounded towards him, and hit him so hard he nearly dropped to the floor. He had to get out of there, now.

Running to the door, he could hear footsteps coming from the other passage. He had to race to get to the door first. A quick glance revealed that is was the guard. With an open jacket, he was just like the demon. Lower jaw split down the middle, body ripped open and hollow, with ribs sticking out like horns. The sunglasses were gone now as well, showing its raging yet lifeless eyes.

Greene slammed the door behind him, and headed up the stairs, eyes upwards to the land of his angel. He heard the door open forcefully behind him,

The hard leather sole of his shoe slipped on the third metal step, sending his face against another step. It hit with an ugly crack, shaking loose tears, blood, and his upper jaw.

Before the pain caught up with him, bloodied hands wrapped around his torso. With a firm embrace, Greene saw the demon's ribs burst out between his own, before the three-sided jaw wrapped around his head from behind. The two sides of the demon's lower jaw ripped at the sides of Greene's face.

The pain found him. It was blinding. Almost a welcome distraction to the monster ripping him apart. There was nothing but the pain. More screams of demons came from behind him.

Greene had no scream. There was no ability to scream with shredded lungs. The split moment seemed to gave him an hour or pain. It was incredible. Almost fascinating.

There was nothing but pain.

And the pain began to fade. Fading. Greene knew, and welcomed it. The pain was gone, the world was dark, and Greene was gone from it.

"Soundtracks" to my books' "movies".

Ok, pure silliness here, but before I did the first signing for Lifehack, I collected a list of music that drove me during the writing, and fit the mood for several scenes. Lifehack had a lot of 80s and early 90s. Mostly rock, some pop. I played them in the background at the signing.

Watching Yute drew a lot more from 60s/70s rock. One scene in particular was 'written' in a dream where it played out over and over in slow motion to the tune of the Doors' "House of the Rising Sun". It turned out to be a huge turning point in the story. Frig, I'm listening to it right now, and it still chokes me up.. mainly because of the link in my head to that scene.
The ending of the movie has to quietly begin Rammstein's "Ohne Dich", as the camera pans out over the desert before fading to black and the credits.

This has me wondering what the soundtrack of Echoes of Erebus will be... I've been listening to stuff all over the spectrum, from more Rammstein, to Feist.

And as long as I'm being silly, what about casting actors? I'll have to ponder that one...

Ah, also, Echoes of Erebus is getting very close to the 100 page mark. I hope to end around the same range as Yute, which was 256. That 100 I have right now probably translates to a bit higher if I added page breaks for new chapters and whatnot. It'd be nice to have it ready for the next VCON (Vancouver sci-fi convention) but like Watching Yute, I will NOT rush it.

If anyone who's read Lifehack and/or Watching Yute has any casting/soundtrack ideas, let me know...! If you want some visual clues as to how I see them, there's always my anime art gallery... though I don't imagine the books in an anime style... that's just the gear my drawing was stuck in at the time. Someday after Echoes of Erebus is done, I'll have to attack my realism.