Ok, so, I've got Spires of Infinity done and mailed off to my agent. He hasn't finished marking up Exile for cuts yet, and that leaves me with two choices for what to write next. The Path, which is the continuation of Spires of Infinity, or Splitplane Saga, which i've gotten a small start on, but still needs a lot of work in planning for the latter end of the story.
The Path is already all planned out and outlined, and I could start writing it today and probably finish it relatively quickly like I did the first one, barring horrible work hours and writer's block. It's a fun little story about pirates, seeking adventure in space and time, and rebellion against a godlike king that takes a very dark turn near the end, bringing the story closer to the ultimate goal of the end of time. The problem with starting work on this story is that at the moment the most important thing to me is getting my figurative foot in the figurative door, and if my agent can't sell Spires of Infinity, any time I spend on a sequel to it is basically lost time.
The War of Echos, Splitplane Saga book 1 is incredibly original in my agent's words, and it is a very complex story that is also very long. Plus I'm having a little trouble getting the ending outlined. It's missing something and I've yet to figure out what. If I start writing it now, i run the risk of needing massive rewrites once I do figure the ending out. Also, it is the first book of a series and the first book is unmistakably the first in a long epic, unlike previous books I've written where I try to make them stand alone so I can sell them to a publisher easier. A publisher would have to have a whole lot of faith in me if I were to take this book to them and say, I dunno how long the series is gonna be, but, yeah, more than 5 books, but less than 10, and I'm completely unknown, so my name on the cover isn't going to have much recognition value for readers.
I want to write both of these stories, and I'm not sure if I want to write one more than the other. The problem is that neither of them is really suited to getting me published if Spires of Infinity goes bust. I don't really have anything else that I've planned out as of yet to work on, and I need SOMETHING to work on, becuase I really don't know what to do with my free time when i don't have something to write. I'll just have to pick one of the stories I have ready to write and cross my fingers that Spires is recieved well by publishers.
I've got a couple other ideas that I could start working on, but I haven't really done much in the way of planning or outlining on any of them yet. I suppose I could finish the story I started a couple weeks ago called I Am Nobody, but I was basically making that up as I went along and I really hate to do that, and at the moment I'm not really in the mood to do more planning and outlining on another story.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Sunday, April 24, 2011
My Top Ten Video Games of All Time
This is a list of my top ten favorite video games of all time
10.) Tales of Vesperia – In 1995 Tales of Phantasia began one of the best RPG video game series, the “Tales” series. There have been many different titles in the series on several different systems, including Tales of Symphonia for gamecube, probably the best known of the series, and if this was a top 11 instead of a top 10 that game would have made the cut. Tales of Vesperia, however, was a much deeper and more entertaining game that had epic graphics, yet didn’t rely on them in the stead of good, old-fashioned storytelling to make a great game. This game had everything, story, music, graphics, great characters, a good difficulty level, and it was just plain fun to play. Who couldn’t like a game with a main character who is a former royal guard turned Han Solo-esque mercenary, his trusty dog that fights with a knife and smokes a pipe, a princess who actually contributes more to the story than “ohnoes we have to save that worthless princess AGAIN!!!” and a preteen wizard who hates everyone, is mildly insane, and is prone to blowing up anything and anyone that annoys her. In an era where storytelling and character developement are often put on the back burner in favor of flashic graphics, effects, and new and often horrible innovations in gameplay, Tales of Vesperia shows that people haven't completely forgotten how to make a great, well rounded RPG.
9.)Super Metroid – In 1994, Nintendo had just released the SNES game console and was in the process of putting out games for all of their popular series for it. After the success of Metroid, and Metroid II: Return of Samus, this series was a prime candidate for a new installment and it definitely didn’t disappoint. This game added story elements to the series for the first time ever, and combined with vast areas to explore, puzzles to solve, and nasty aliens to blow the crap out of Super Metroid is probably the best game in the series to date.
8.) Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest – This game is considered the redheaded stepchild of the castlevania series. It is universally hated by all… except for me. Simon’s quest was one of the first NES games that I owned, and I loved it. It had great music for an NES game, a large world to explore, secrets to uncover, puzzles to solve, and bad guys to exterminate. It was one of the first adventure games that I ever played and I will always think fondly on it, if no one else will.
7.) The Legend of Zelda – in the beginning there was Mario, and he was good, because we didn’t know any better. And then came Zelda in 1986, one of the most epic NES games ever. This was the first game that I ever played that gave you a sword, pointed you at the world and said, go save the fricken princess! There are mazes to traverse, puzzles to solve, a princess to rescue, and a bad guy to punish, all in the name of saving Hyrule, and there was also the iconic theme song that if you hum a few bars of, most everyone in the entire USA will know where it came from.
6.) Super Mario Brothers 3 – Super Mario Brothers was my first experience with video gaming, and it brought me many hours of wasted time and enjoyment. Super Mario Brothers 2 got a little weird and wasn’t quite as enjoyable. Then in 1989 a movie called The Wizard came out, for the sole purpose of unveiling Super Mario Brothers 3. It was bigger, better, harder, and more expansive, creating many new things that have become a staple of video games since.
5.) The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past – With the SNES console out, it was time for Link to pick up his sword again and embark on the longest, and most memorable journey of his life. The overhead view format, missing from the second game, was brought back, as well as the iconic theme song, which was rearranged with the SNES’ new sound capabilities. This game brought a history, and a story along with the sword and shield, and felt like a bigger and better remake of the original game that we all knew and loved.
4.) Xenosaga Trilogy – The Xenosaga trilogy is three games, however, they are all parts of the same story, therefore I’m putting all 3 of them on the #4 slot. Using cinematic cutscenes to tell a story of civil war in space with the looming threat of annihilation by alien invaders, the Xenosaga trilogy was loved by many because of it, and hated by many more. I, or one, play video games for the story, and thus had little problem with the long stretches of no gameplay between story sequences. These games told a grand sci-fi epic, the likes of which can’t often be found anywhere, much less in a video game.
3.) Xenogears – Riding on the success of Final Fantasy VII Squaresoft began work on their next title, Xenogears, which was released the next year in 1998. After spending so much of their resources on Final Fantasy VII Xenogears, basically got the leftovers. The game’s creator Tetsuya Takahashi wanted to create a cinematic gaming experience, and he succeeded marvelously in the parts of the game that he was allowed to complete. Unfortunately Xenogears ran way over budget, and its release date had to be postponed several times due to the fact that creating those cinematic sequences took up quite a bit of time and effort, and Takahashi was given one month to finish the game or lose his job. The unfinished ending was tacked onto the completed portions of the game with text sequences between to catch the player up on the parts of the story that were skipped over. Despite this gigantic flaw, it is in my top three greatest games of all time.
2.) Final Fantasy VII – In 1997 the last truly good Final Fantasy game was released. It had everything: killer graphics for the time, a great and memorable soundtrack, characters that seemed more like real people than video game sprites, a story of love, honor, trust, betrayal, and self discovery. It marked the beginning of a whole new era of RPG video games with 3d graphics and full motion video cinematic cutscenes to help the story progress. Final Fantasy VII took our years to complete, costing more money to make than most movies, and used the talents of more CG programmers than a star wars prequel. It was the most ambitious video game of its time, has sold more copies than any other video game in history, and remains a fan favorite even after a decade and a half since its release.
1.) Final Fantasy VI (IIIUS) – in 1994 Squaresoft released the greatest video game of all time. Though its graphics are laughable by today’s standards, and it suffers from an extremely bad translation, it is still the greatest video game ever made. This game has a huge cast of characters, and most of them have real problems and motivations driving them, making them seem far more like real people than characters in a video game. This game has some of the most beautiful and memorable music in video game history, and a story the likes of which most video gamers never dreamed possible in a game. To me, this wasn’t just a game; it was a part of my life. The characters and the world in this game helped shape me into the person I am today, and I only hope that someday I might be able to tell a story as epic and memorable as this one.
10.) Tales of Vesperia – In 1995 Tales of Phantasia began one of the best RPG video game series, the “Tales” series. There have been many different titles in the series on several different systems, including Tales of Symphonia for gamecube, probably the best known of the series, and if this was a top 11 instead of a top 10 that game would have made the cut. Tales of Vesperia, however, was a much deeper and more entertaining game that had epic graphics, yet didn’t rely on them in the stead of good, old-fashioned storytelling to make a great game. This game had everything, story, music, graphics, great characters, a good difficulty level, and it was just plain fun to play. Who couldn’t like a game with a main character who is a former royal guard turned Han Solo-esque mercenary, his trusty dog that fights with a knife and smokes a pipe, a princess who actually contributes more to the story than “ohnoes we have to save that worthless princess AGAIN!!!” and a preteen wizard who hates everyone, is mildly insane, and is prone to blowing up anything and anyone that annoys her. In an era where storytelling and character developement are often put on the back burner in favor of flashic graphics, effects, and new and often horrible innovations in gameplay, Tales of Vesperia shows that people haven't completely forgotten how to make a great, well rounded RPG.
9.)Super Metroid – In 1994, Nintendo had just released the SNES game console and was in the process of putting out games for all of their popular series for it. After the success of Metroid, and Metroid II: Return of Samus, this series was a prime candidate for a new installment and it definitely didn’t disappoint. This game added story elements to the series for the first time ever, and combined with vast areas to explore, puzzles to solve, and nasty aliens to blow the crap out of Super Metroid is probably the best game in the series to date.
8.) Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest – This game is considered the redheaded stepchild of the castlevania series. It is universally hated by all… except for me. Simon’s quest was one of the first NES games that I owned, and I loved it. It had great music for an NES game, a large world to explore, secrets to uncover, puzzles to solve, and bad guys to exterminate. It was one of the first adventure games that I ever played and I will always think fondly on it, if no one else will.
7.) The Legend of Zelda – in the beginning there was Mario, and he was good, because we didn’t know any better. And then came Zelda in 1986, one of the most epic NES games ever. This was the first game that I ever played that gave you a sword, pointed you at the world and said, go save the fricken princess! There are mazes to traverse, puzzles to solve, a princess to rescue, and a bad guy to punish, all in the name of saving Hyrule, and there was also the iconic theme song that if you hum a few bars of, most everyone in the entire USA will know where it came from.
6.) Super Mario Brothers 3 – Super Mario Brothers was my first experience with video gaming, and it brought me many hours of wasted time and enjoyment. Super Mario Brothers 2 got a little weird and wasn’t quite as enjoyable. Then in 1989 a movie called The Wizard came out, for the sole purpose of unveiling Super Mario Brothers 3. It was bigger, better, harder, and more expansive, creating many new things that have become a staple of video games since.
5.) The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past – With the SNES console out, it was time for Link to pick up his sword again and embark on the longest, and most memorable journey of his life. The overhead view format, missing from the second game, was brought back, as well as the iconic theme song, which was rearranged with the SNES’ new sound capabilities. This game brought a history, and a story along with the sword and shield, and felt like a bigger and better remake of the original game that we all knew and loved.
4.) Xenosaga Trilogy – The Xenosaga trilogy is three games, however, they are all parts of the same story, therefore I’m putting all 3 of them on the #4 slot. Using cinematic cutscenes to tell a story of civil war in space with the looming threat of annihilation by alien invaders, the Xenosaga trilogy was loved by many because of it, and hated by many more. I, or one, play video games for the story, and thus had little problem with the long stretches of no gameplay between story sequences. These games told a grand sci-fi epic, the likes of which can’t often be found anywhere, much less in a video game.
3.) Xenogears – Riding on the success of Final Fantasy VII Squaresoft began work on their next title, Xenogears, which was released the next year in 1998. After spending so much of their resources on Final Fantasy VII Xenogears, basically got the leftovers. The game’s creator Tetsuya Takahashi wanted to create a cinematic gaming experience, and he succeeded marvelously in the parts of the game that he was allowed to complete. Unfortunately Xenogears ran way over budget, and its release date had to be postponed several times due to the fact that creating those cinematic sequences took up quite a bit of time and effort, and Takahashi was given one month to finish the game or lose his job. The unfinished ending was tacked onto the completed portions of the game with text sequences between to catch the player up on the parts of the story that were skipped over. Despite this gigantic flaw, it is in my top three greatest games of all time.
2.) Final Fantasy VII – In 1997 the last truly good Final Fantasy game was released. It had everything: killer graphics for the time, a great and memorable soundtrack, characters that seemed more like real people than video game sprites, a story of love, honor, trust, betrayal, and self discovery. It marked the beginning of a whole new era of RPG video games with 3d graphics and full motion video cinematic cutscenes to help the story progress. Final Fantasy VII took our years to complete, costing more money to make than most movies, and used the talents of more CG programmers than a star wars prequel. It was the most ambitious video game of its time, has sold more copies than any other video game in history, and remains a fan favorite even after a decade and a half since its release.
1.) Final Fantasy VI (IIIUS) – in 1994 Squaresoft released the greatest video game of all time. Though its graphics are laughable by today’s standards, and it suffers from an extremely bad translation, it is still the greatest video game ever made. This game has a huge cast of characters, and most of them have real problems and motivations driving them, making them seem far more like real people than characters in a video game. This game has some of the most beautiful and memorable music in video game history, and a story the likes of which most video gamers never dreamed possible in a game. To me, this wasn’t just a game; it was a part of my life. The characters and the world in this game helped shape me into the person I am today, and I only hope that someday I might be able to tell a story as epic and memorable as this one.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Sunuva...
Do you want to know what hell is like? I've been there. I can tell you. Hell is sitting for 7 hours in front of a computer screen running a spell check on 240 single spaced pages with a crapton of words, names, and abriviations that aren't actually words but are how people actually talk, that you invented for it. It is amazing to me the things that are NOT in the microsoft dictionary. For instance, "Flething". The word "Fletch" or "Fletching" or any other variation of the root word, is not in the microsoft word dictionary and therefore comes up as a mispelled word on spellcheck. (FYI a fletching is the feathers on an arrow)
Microsoft word doesn't know how to use a semi-colon. It wouldn't know proper grammar if it came up and bit it on the naughty bits. And it's not too great with commas either. Which meant that every time it saw punctuation that was perfectly gramatically sound that it didn't recognize as being so, it popped up and I had to read the sentance and make sure it was correct before clicking skip. FU microsoft word!!!
...At least it's not wordperfect. I've used that in the past and it's even worse. It sucks that word is the lesser of two evils, but whatever.
Microsoft word doesn't know how to use a semi-colon. It wouldn't know proper grammar if it came up and bit it on the naughty bits. And it's not too great with commas either. Which meant that every time it saw punctuation that was perfectly gramatically sound that it didn't recognize as being so, it popped up and I had to read the sentance and make sure it was correct before clicking skip. FU microsoft word!!!
...At least it's not wordperfect. I've used that in the past and it's even worse. It sucks that word is the lesser of two evils, but whatever.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Whoohoo!!!
Spires of Infinity is done. I love the feeling of accomplishment that I get when I finish writing a book. It's beyond awesome. Now, let's hope that this one is good enough to catch the eye of a publisher. I think it just might be.
What happens now is that I send it off to my agent. He will read through it and see if he can find anything that needs to be changed. If he does he'll have me make quick changes and then start pimping it out to the publishing companies that he has contacts with. He had very high hopes for being able to sell this one, as "it's generally well written and thought out, with entertaining and sympathetic characters, and is a very original idea for a story."
Anyway
The first draft finished at 166,888 words.
The second draft finished at 134,835 words.
The final draft finished at 136,134 words.
Very few changes were made in the final draft. Basically the 1300 added words were just small clarifications, and rewording of things were were worded awkwardly in my efort to cut the word count down. There were some very small continuity issues addressed, and a whole host of grammatical and punctuational errors were fixed.
The first draft took 3 months and two weeks to write.
The second draft took five weeks to write.
The final draft took one week to write.
All in all it only took me five months of actively working on this story to complete it, which, for me, is pretty amazing. I usually take a very long time to develop and write out my ideas, with at least 3 or 4 more drafts than this to get everything worked out. This story came to me very quickly, and needed very little changing from it's first incarnation to be completed, it must have been meant to be.
Anyway, I'm busy doing other things today, so I'll post the final draft maybe tomorrow on my website.
What happens now is that I send it off to my agent. He will read through it and see if he can find anything that needs to be changed. If he does he'll have me make quick changes and then start pimping it out to the publishing companies that he has contacts with. He had very high hopes for being able to sell this one, as "it's generally well written and thought out, with entertaining and sympathetic characters, and is a very original idea for a story."
Anyway
The first draft finished at 166,888 words.
The second draft finished at 134,835 words.
The final draft finished at 136,134 words.
Very few changes were made in the final draft. Basically the 1300 added words were just small clarifications, and rewording of things were were worded awkwardly in my efort to cut the word count down. There were some very small continuity issues addressed, and a whole host of grammatical and punctuational errors were fixed.
The first draft took 3 months and two weeks to write.
The second draft took five weeks to write.
The final draft took one week to write.
All in all it only took me five months of actively working on this story to complete it, which, for me, is pretty amazing. I usually take a very long time to develop and write out my ideas, with at least 3 or 4 more drafts than this to get everything worked out. This story came to me very quickly, and needed very little changing from it's first incarnation to be completed, it must have been meant to be.
Anyway, I'm busy doing other things today, so I'll post the final draft maybe tomorrow on my website.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Mini Pizzas
So, my parents, being in their fifties and no longer as active as they used to be are getting a little chubby, and so they decided taht they're going to cut out all of the eating out, and all of the instant food from their diets. They got a whole bunch of these little cook books called "This intead of That" which gives easy to prepare, cheap, and relatively good for you recipes. Last night my dad made mini pizzas for dinner and they were awesome, i definitely recomend trying them out.
Ingredients:
2 English Muffins
The book suggests whole grain or wheat muffins as they're better for you
3 boneless skinless Chicken tenderloins
1/2 red bell pepper
aparently the red ones are better for you than the green *shrug*
Spagetti sauce
grated cheese
1 tablesppon butter
2 teaspoons honey
salt/pepper/etc
it's easy to double/tripple/etc for more people.
So, first of all you chop up your chicken into the smallest pieces that you can, and chop up your pepper into short strips, the thinner you cut them the less time it will take to cook.
Melt your butter in a skillit, mix in the honey, and sautee the chicken and red peppers until all of the butter/honey mix boils off, add as much or as little salt/pepper/whatever other seasonings as you want. My dad added a dash of radioactive hot sauce he picked up in the bahamas and it was awesome.
Separate your english muffins into halves, spread a large spoonful of spagetti sauce onto each, cram as much peppers and chicken onto them as you can, and sprinkle the grated cheese on top.
Bake in the oven on 350 for 10 mins or until the cheese is melted.
the book claims that 2 of these mini pizzas are only 495 calories, and of course, to finish the meal add something like salad and/or some sort of fruit or vegetable. Takes about 20 mins total to prepare.
Ingredients:
2 English Muffins
The book suggests whole grain or wheat muffins as they're better for you
3 boneless skinless Chicken tenderloins
1/2 red bell pepper
aparently the red ones are better for you than the green *shrug*
Spagetti sauce
grated cheese
1 tablesppon butter
2 teaspoons honey
salt/pepper/etc
it's easy to double/tripple/etc for more people.
So, first of all you chop up your chicken into the smallest pieces that you can, and chop up your pepper into short strips, the thinner you cut them the less time it will take to cook.
Melt your butter in a skillit, mix in the honey, and sautee the chicken and red peppers until all of the butter/honey mix boils off, add as much or as little salt/pepper/whatever other seasonings as you want. My dad added a dash of radioactive hot sauce he picked up in the bahamas and it was awesome.
Separate your english muffins into halves, spread a large spoonful of spagetti sauce onto each, cram as much peppers and chicken onto them as you can, and sprinkle the grated cheese on top.
Bake in the oven on 350 for 10 mins or until the cheese is melted.
the book claims that 2 of these mini pizzas are only 495 calories, and of course, to finish the meal add something like salad and/or some sort of fruit or vegetable. Takes about 20 mins total to prepare.
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Quote of the Day.
Just watched Dennis Leary's Douchebags and Doughnuts comedy hour with this lovely gem sitting inside it:
"If you're over fifty and have a big gold hoop earring... You BETTER be a pirate!"
"If you're over fifty and have a big gold hoop earring... You BETTER be a pirate!"
Friday, April 15, 2011
Spires of Infinity Draft 3
So, I started the third and final draft of Spires of Infinity on monday, and as I finish for the day on friday (I'd do more today but I'm having trouble concentrating on what I'm doing) I've completed 35 out of 47 chapters. In those 35 chapters I've added just under 900 words to the manuscript. Most of these words were added to fix grammatical errors, or awkward wordind that I used in order to cut the word count down in the previous draft but didn't like the sound of this time around. I have also added a few little things here and there to flesh out the story just a bit with some finishing touches.
I expect that I will be done with the final draft on either monday or tuesday.
I expect that I will be done with the final draft on either monday or tuesday.
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