Category: Updates

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September Update – Yet More Refining

Howdy!

Summer is almost over, which means my brain can, in theory, stop going on strike any day now. Or, well, it could if not for the fact that I’ve got a month full of deferred dental and medical maintenance to deal with. It all needed to get done, but I’m also very ready for a few weeks of that just… not happening. Still, I keep plugging away at various projects. They’ll get done when they get done and I’m determined not to rush them.

The Refinery

Gil Girau Chronicles – Quality control pass on book 1 is more or less done, we’re in the final polishing and branding stage and I’ve found myself in need of more art than I expected. The general wisdom is don’t draw your own book covers but you know that’s exactly what I’m going to do. I’m at very least going to draw my own maps. Book 2 is in progress off and on, but I’ve come up against a worldbuilding-shaped wall, so I’ve mostly been working on filling in the gaps in my own knowledge. There might be appendices in the works — at very least explanations of The Creatures that appear as well as various words in various languages. The silver lining is that I’ll be a lot more prepared to tackle my next series without it taking four or five years to get a book out. I hope.

Salt 2 – Still in the quench bucket. I’m resisting mightily the urge to make a resource map for the continent because that’s the kind of nerd I am.

Raw Materials – I mentioned “Project: Strongholds” and “Project: Contact” last time, but the bin where I keep my free-floating ideas just keeps getting more cluttered. This is a good thing! I’ve taken the Sanderson approach to idea wrangling – write everything down, organize it vaguely, come back to it later and see what fits together.

Back to work with me! Or rather, balancing work and rest while my face (and also nervous system) heals. Stay hydrated, take care of your teeth, and keep on keeping on, y’all.

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July Update – Books Keep Booking

Howdy!

I missed a couple of months in there but in my own defense, we had a great deal of Stuff Happening around the house as well as personally that made it difficult to work on writing, which meant there wasn’t a whole lot to update. Am I writing this now to procrastinate doing more writing because it’s supposed to be unconscionably hot today and my brain tends to go on strike in the summer? Perhaps. But it has also been since March since I said anything.

A Peek Into The Refinery

Because I like visual metaphors and writing books is sometimes like working with clay. Or metal. This is an experiment, but the contents are more or less the same as they have been.

Gil Girau Chronicles – Book One is, in theory, fully drafted at a rough total of 115k words, awaiting a quality control pass and final polishing/branding. This is by far the longest I’ve spent on a book and I suspect it’ll show. Book Two is on the workbench as we speak – I’ve reorganized the plot somewhat and am currently making sure my outline and notes are folded together properly before I stick this thing back in the fire and get going with the second draft. Book Three is in the smelter, so to speak. It currently exists as a bullet list and an explosion of digital sticky notes that I will hopefully be able to organize better once I shape up Book Two.

Salt 2: As You Do – Sitting in the quench bucket while I hammer out the dragon story. It’s also stuck in line behind a cat for the moment.

Raw Materials – I have two projects for which I’m slowly gathering ideas while I work on other things. They’re currently labeled “Project: Strongholds” and “Project: Contact.” One of them has most of a cast and part of a plan, the other has maybe a protagonist and many vague ideas. Both are fantasy, both are set on Uthir, though the world will likely have a different name in each of them. Different time periods, different cultures, all that jazz. Mainly, I’m listing these for my own records – “yes, I have been planning this story for [many] years.”

Now, back to work with me. These words ain’t gonna write (or, in some cases, build) themselves. Stay hydrated and keep on keeping on, y’all.

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March Update – Ides and Whatnot

Howdy!

It’s been a minute, as things usually go around these parts. Slow progress is still progress. Sometime back in January I decided that this was going to be the year I wrangle all my brain weasels and I seem to be making slow and steady progress on that as well as on my books. We keep going!

What Am I Working On?

Gil Girau Chronicles – Book One is still technically in revision but only because the farther I get into Book Two, the more I find that I need to foreshadow. There will soon come a point at which I just have to say “good enough” and get some beta readers’ eyeballs on this thing, as well as an editor. If I can get my art chops back for more than a few hours at a time, I’ll also start working on cover art and maps. (I do love me a good map.) As for Book Two, I’m caught up to and now beyond the point that I managed to reach in November, evaluating plots, and slowly building out more of the world as I go. I like to think that I’m more of a planner than a discovery writer, but sometimes I do get halfway through a plan only to discover that it’s wrong for the story. Current word counts for books one and two are 105k and 62k respectively. (Which is part of why they’re taking so long – ya boi ain’t used to writing 100k word novels. 😀 This is a good thing.)

Salt 2: Electric Boogaloo – Still on standby, but I’ve heard the cat is moving. (If you know, you know.) It’s been a slow and weird couple of years for both of us and this perpetually-delayed book is proof of that.

Secret Project – I have this bad habit of naming things in blog posts that never end up going anywhere or end up on the back burner cooking for months/years. But rest assured. There is another. There are actually a couple others, but I tend to rotate the back burner between them. They both involve worldbuilding and dinosaurs. Absolute shocker, I know.

The march goes on! Somewhat haphazardly, because I was never cut out to be a drum major, but at least I can keep a beat. Have a good Salad Day and keep on keeping on, y’all.

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December Update – Rolling Right Along

Howdy!

In theory my last update was in August, but for some reason unknown to me it doesn’t actually show up on the main page. The update before that was in June, so either way it’s been a minute. I’m still poking plots with sticks, as one does. My gratitude is endless for the fact that 2023 has been by and large a quiet year, after having three (four or five, really, in my personal case) years in a row of complete and utter chaos. Do I feel like it’s the calm before a very large storm? Maybe I do. Am I wrong? We won’t know until we get there. Is this just me having a hefty helping of paranoia? Most definitely.

What Am I Working On?

Gil Girau Chronicles – Book One (Urien of Escathir) is complete, currently in revision to add in things I’ve come up with in the course of further building up the world around the characters. Book Two (Shadows of Salrohis) was my NaNo project, and I got about 60k words into it before a good friend pointed out that a main villain needs work and the scenes are all out of order. So I’m rewriting parts of that one already, but it’s in progress. Yes, I am working on two books at once, sort of, with Book Three (Dragon of Gil Girau) in the noodliest stages of planning. The NaNoWriMo burnout is a little bit strong with this one, so rewrites, retcons, and revisions have been my focus over the course of December. I hope to have Urien of Escathir out sometime next year. Hopefully. Finally. I’ve only been working on it for two whole years. (Technically three, but I’m not going to count the proto-draft.)

Salt 2: Electric Boogaloo – Yet again on standby. This is in part because I’m waiting for my father to get the cat off his desk (if you know you know) and in part because I’ve been so focused on my own work. I haven’t looked at my draft of this in a while and having learned a lot about writing from spending two years mucking with Gil Girau, I’m a little bit afraid to.

2024 is just around the corner. I don’t know how this happened, and I’m reticent to say anything about how I expect it to go. We won’t know until we get there and the last ten or so years have shaped me into a person that very much doesn’t want to make plans and promises that could very easily be snapped away by circumstances beyond anyone’s control. My personal mantra is slowly becoming “we’ll see.”

And so we will. Take care of yourselves, y’all, I’ll be around. Lurking quietly and poking plots with sticks.

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August Update – Summer Slump

Howdy!

The Summer Slump has me firmly in its clutches, but at least this year I’m aware of it. I was doing alright while it was June and rainy, but now that it’s just sunny and hot for most of the day… it is now Tired Hours. Luckily I found a partial solution this year: closing the curtains earlier in the day. A simple thing, but apparently the light is what gets to me.

This doesn’t mean I’ve stopped working though, just that things have been moving a bit slower and that I’ve been more distracted. I did a smart this year – rather than trying to put more things on my plate, I’ve been focusing on what I’m already working on. A lesson one would think I’d have learned by now, but I don’t call myself a late-bloomer for no reason.

What Am I Working On?

Gil Girau Chronicles – We’re in the home stretch of the rewrite! Couple more chapters to go. Still no release date on it but I’m hoping to have it at least done, if not scrubbed down, sanded, and polished before mid-October, when I’ll be ironing out the plot of the second book to write for NaNo. I know the broad strokes but there’s a lot of discovery writing happening with these characters, too. Tending the garden as I go, with this series.

Salt 2: Electric Boogaloo – Still on standby, but I’m expecting to send in my clunky little half-draft for review soon. Happy Salt-iversary, y’all! Sukhetai and Tanan have been chilling out for about two years now due to Life Happening, but we’ll get there eventually.

Grifters – Skyrim is the gift that keeps on giving, and I keep on playing! Figured I’d slap this one in the update because the series recently passed episode 50 and we’re about three episodes away from the end of Act 1. Which means I have some screenplays to write. It’s going to be another long series, but hopefully not quite as long as Dawnbreakers. (Who knows, maybe ES6 will be out by the time I’m done.)

Other than some off-and-on worldbuilding and creature design to help flesh out the Gil Girau Chronicles as needed, that’s all from me! I’ll see you in… probably two-ish months, if the pattern holds.

Keep on keeping on, y’all!

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June Update – Happy Pride! And Monsoon Season.

Howdy!

Happy Pride Month AND Jurassic June! I had no idea the latter was a thing but honestly, I’m loving it. (Most of it, anyway.) Prehistory and queerness can coexist and that’s half of Uthir’s design bible in a nutshell. Prehistory, queerness, and dragons.

It’s not technically Colorado’s monsoon season but it sure does feel like it. It’s been raining (and hailing, mostly hailing, actually) since mid-May and honestly, if not for flooding concerns, I’d be here for it. At least where I am, anyway – I’ve seen the hail and flood damage in some places just to the south and it is No Joke.

You know it’s been a boring few months when all I talk about is the weather. (In fairness, I find weather interesting.) The most excitement I’ve had in the last couple of months was Reed Timmer driving the Dominator up through the Front Range and Prehistoric Planet dropping a season 2. (Deserts and Badlands are my favorite episodes. Nobody mucks with Dreadnoughtus.)

After the last few years, I’ll take boring! Boring good.

What Am I Working On?

The Gil Girau Chronicles – The series formerly known as the Surveyors’ Guild Chronicles. Renamed partially because the Surveyors’ Guild doesn’t play quite as big a role in the second and third books (this will be a trilogy, as one does) and partially so that I can use that series title if I do a “so here’s how this guild was founded” story. I’m currently rewriting GGC Book One. Not all of it, but I realized I needed a few new scenes and was rushing a couple of developments. It also felt slightly aimless after a certain chapter, so I’ve adjusted some reasons for doing things. It’s going slowly – I’m writing little chunks at a time rather than trying to NaNo it, but it is, slowly, coming together.

Salt 2: Electric Boogaloo – Still on standby. I happen to know that a certain cat is in progress so it shouldn’t be too long, now. I may have to speedrun Urien’s book so that I’m ready to do rewrites after I slide this half-draft-half-outline to my dad.

And that’s about it. I’ve always got other ideas brewing but I’m doing my best to focus on just Gil Girau right at the moment. (That and Skyrim, but that’s ongoing.) Nagoa is patient, though his feathered, sickle-clawed sidekick might not be. I’m trying not to think too far ahead of myself here. See you in a few months, probably! (Ha-HAH past-me, I did make an update before July.)

Keep on keeping on, y’all.

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April Update – Duck Herding

Howdy!

How’d it get to be April already? Last time I checked it was November. And then I blinked. I’m going to assume I’ve just been in autopilot and decompression mode since then.

NaNo update – I completed NaNo! My final total was 67,805 words. The only problem is that I did not actually finish the book. I got pretty close to where I assume the end of it is, but I’m to this day still poking at the first draft. More on that later.

Decompressing – The last few months, I’ve been watching my dad get his strength back, if not his taste buds. He’s back to writing and walking and baking bread. (It is really good bread.) I couldn’t be more proud of him. It’s been a weird year. I hope I’ve learned something from it.

What Am I Working On?

The Surveyors’ Guild Chronicles – That’ll be Urien of Escathir and the rest of the trilogy. (Tentative titles: Shades of Salrohis and The Dragon of Gil Girau.) Titles are very much a WIP, much like the rest of it. I think I’m a few hundred words away from the end of the first book, as of writing this. It’s had a few setbacks. For example: a character that I thought was going to be a POV character ended up… not? Which means I need to rethink my outline for the rest of the series. I may not need to change much, but after a certain point this draft feels… a little bit meh. I’m looking for ways to diagnose the problem and tighten up the plots as we speak. (And watching a certain writer’s BYU lectures on YouTube, which has been very enlightening.) I’m learning a lot.

Barbarians 2: Electric Boogaloo – I’ve still got my half-a-draft sitting in my documents folder idling. Dad’s on a roll with his new stuff and I’m waiting for him to get the cat settled before I chuck this in his direction for Tan and Wazor’s half. My hope is that I’ll have Urien’s first book out before then and will be able to apply what I’ve learned to what I’ve got going on in Iron. (Title WIP.) Sukhetai is my problem child. I will find a way to make him Better.

Nagoa – I’m definitely not already planning Strongholds of the Sun or whatever Nagoa’s series ends up being called. I’ve done test writes of him with a friend and… Oh Boy. He’s fun. I’m excited to see what kind of story I can tell with him and his crew. All I have right now is a cast and a setting. I could discovery-write a first draft, just chuck ’em all into the jungle and see what happens, but I am very much an outliner. His “noodling” document currently consists of a bunch of names and ideas for what might be cool. Same world as Urien’s story, which means I can use the same magic system, but this takes place about a thousand years prior and on a different continent. With dinosaurs. As you do.

Other Noodling – I’ve started a folder full of ideas. Physically. It turns out my brain works better if I can see stuff in front of my face, which I learned when I put up a white board of sorts next to my desk so I could take temporary notes. I now have an actual folder with loose-leaf paper in it where I’ve started collecting story ideas. I’m excited. Stories will Happen. (Assuming I can get Urien’s hammered into shape.)

That’s all from me! Tune in in July when I remember again that updates are a thing I’m supposed to be doing. 😀 Which is mostly a joke… but we’ll see. Keep on keeping on.

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September Update – All of the Things

Howdy, folks! It’s uh… it’s been a while.

I did kind of expect to get lost in pre-production for a few things last year at this time, but I didn’t expect to fall off the face of the planet quite as thoroughly as I did. So you may be wondering…

What Happened?

So, September of last year we accidentally adopted a cat. His name is Cannoli, he’s (now) a little sweetheart with very sharp toes and a big voice, but when my brother brought him home a year ago it was because nobody expected him to last the night and he wanted to give the little bean a chance. That little cat said, “stomach surgery WHOMST?!” and proceeded to become… my problem. 😀 He’s a good problem to have. A lot of the last year has been taken up caring for the wee lad and trying to introduce him to the other – far more senior – felids of the house. With… mixed results, so far. It’s an ongoing project.

In November, I wrote my half of Iron (title WIP) – the next book in the Barbarians series. It will be a series, don’t worry, it’s just that Life Happened in the meantime. I think my dad was writing – or trying to write – the Wizard’s Cat at the same time? I don’t really remember.

In December, I finally got to the conclusion of the Dawnbreakers’ Saga, took about a month off to recover from that, and then started on my new Skyrim series – Grifters. It has a slightly different tone, and is a lot more simple to produce, this time. Which turned out to be a very good thing because…

Just after I started Grifters, Life Happened. Those of you who are more familiar with my dad’s works/blogs than I am already know that he was diagnosed with cancer. Since then, I’ve been focusing on the YouTube uploads while also doing my best to step up and do some of the things that dad usually does/did around the house. (Right at the moment his biggest priority is recovering – a priority I fully support.) I haven’t really had the brain space available to sit down and write something (that wasn’t scripts for Grifters, anyway) for a while, but I’ve been noodling away on things anyway. Trying to find stories to write.

It’s a weird thing, life happening. A lot has changed in a year and I’m not sure what kinds of stories I want to write, anymore. I know where I want to write them, but not what the stories are or should be. I’ve basically put Omnia and its stories in the, “It was a good first try,” box, but I’m ready to move on to another world. More on that below.

What Am I Working On?

Grifters – Obviously. I need to update my Music page and a bunch of this website in general to make it easier to find the new things, but that’s a project all on its own. I’m actually quite proud of the music I made for Grifters – it’s definitely some of my best yet, and I think Atlug’s character theme might appeal to Solar Clipper folks even if the rest of her doesn’t. 😀 Yes, she does sing sea shanties. She’s fun. They’re all fun.

Uthir – Uthir has become… far more than Urien, who may or may not end up getting renamed at some point. It’s become a full-on worldbuilding project, which has kept me more or less sane between all of the things. Uthir is now a planet in a solar system with a couple hundred million years of evolutionary history, a few thousand of cultural history, seven language groups sprouting out of the ether, and a bone-colored moon. It’s all still kind of nebulous at the moment, but there is magic, there are dragons, and I’m hoping I find good stories to tell in the course of building the bare bones of this world. Uthir is becoming my love letter to geology and paleontology, which is something I’ve never really tried to explore in a fantasy setting before in spite of it being something that Really Interests Me, and has for as long as I’ve been alive, as far as I can tell. The roots of the world go deep, and they are fascinating.

Iron – I have half a draft sitting around waiting to be looked at again. At some point, I’ll come back and see how I left Sukhetai and company. It may not be until next year at the rate I’m going. Maybe until November. We’ll see.

And with that… I return to my anvil. I have a lot of words to build so that I can name things and people properly. Keep on keeping on, folks.

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September Check-In – I Forgot August!

Howdy, folks!

See, I made the last check-in early so I wouldn’t forget at the end of July, but apparently I forgot about August instead. So I’ll make this one now and possibly switch my updates to the beginning of the month so it’s easier to remember. Squirrel Brain got me good!

What am I working on?

The Dawnbreakers’ Saga – I took a few days to outline the whole rest of this story, and it looks like it’s going to be another year before we see the end of this thing. I am, admittedly, getting a little tired of this story, but I’m determined to finish it. The end of August was the story’s three year anniversary, so I did basically a week full of recaps so that people don’t have to go back through three years’ worth of videos to catch up. Since I took kind of a personal hiatus in July and August, I don’t have nearly as much of a buffer as I should, so finishing card art and building that back up again should be my top priority right now. (Note to self.)

Secret Lizard Things – Also known as Beyond Skyrim: Black Marsh. I’m on the 2D art team for this mod project! I was going to post about this in August when the Dev Diary came out but alas – I am squirrel.

Urien: The Dragon of Norwood – WIP title for the project formerly known as The Dragon King’s Council. I’ve learned a lot about comics, time, and scripting in the last month or so, and decided to get a lot more organized and condensed. I actually plotted the darn thing out so I don’t waste time getting lost in the weeds, took out some unnecessary side roads, and then actually sat down and calculated how much time it’ll take, how many pages it’s likely to be. The answer is roughly 600 pages, which is a lot but not as bad as I was expecting for the amount of subplots. The original was probably going to be closer to 5,000 if I kept noodling the way I was. 600, I can deal with. I’m on my second pass of the script and managed to condense everything down such that we’re actually getting places and I’m not even 200 pages in yet. 😀 I’m mostly working on this to give my hands a break between art, though I have made a rough design sheet for the main protagonist. (And several Pinterest boards because I am squirrel.) I’ve still got a lot of work to do; I plan to have design sheets for all of the main characters, some of the supporting cast, and a few locations done before I even think about getting into the main phase of production. I would feel more like I’m procrastinating starting the thing except I’m 90% sure I’ll want reference sheets down the line to keep myself sane and the style consistent. This is, I guess… pre-production? What are industry terms? I don’t know – I’m indie.

Salt(?) – The artist formerly known as Hostage has been with beta readers for a little while now and we’ve gotten some feedback. Mostly it’s stuff on my end, which I did expect. Sukhetai was a difficult character for me to write and it took a while for me to figure him out, so the beginning of the story is a little… meh? I’ve got some rewriting to do on that and then I’ve got to finish up the cover, however working on Urien has taught me a lot about story that I didn’t know I didn’t know (which is, appropriately, a theme in this book) so I’m happy to have a chance to apply that here.

That’s all from me this month! I’ll see ya’ll around – with any luck I’ll post another one of these either at the end of September or the beginning of October. Stay safe out there.

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July Check-In – Before I Forget

Howdy folks!

Still alive, still kicking. It’s been kind of a rough month as far as having time to do things goes so this check-in is probably going to look similar to last month’s update. I have been doing a bit of writing, but it’s mostly background work and worldbuilding (yes I know – I’m trying to avoid worldbuilder’s disease but there are some things I need to get a handle on sooner rather than later) which I will link to in the appropriate locations.

What Am I Working On?

Hostage – Manuscript is still with the other Lowell and I’ve gotten an okay on the cover, but because of aforementioned roughness I had to take a detour for my own sanity. So! Instead of the cover I’ve been working on a topographic map of Sudenlan, the continent upon which Hostage takes place. (It’s south of Korlay for those familiar with the other Lowell’s Tanyth Fairport trilogy – which, yes, is one of my favorites and the other reason Esper’s last name is Ravenwood – I truly didn’t expect to be sitting at the same table as my own father at writing cons, let alone doing a collaboration!)

Music – I added a new tab to the Table of Contents, which I don’t think I mentioned in my last update, and will be adding to it as I make compilations. I’ve been working on an OST for a campaign run by my friend David, and he’s given me permission to put the suite on YouTube, so that should be up soon!

The Dawnbreakers’ Saga – I’ve been picking away at what needs to happen next since I’m officially in terra nova as far as planning goes. I know the next Big Thing and what that will entail but I’ve got kind of a chill and possibly boring period between then and now and there may be more cinematic episodes in my future. Before I start doing the next phase though, I also have a recap to compile and new card art to finish. There’s a lot of work that needs to get done before the end of August.

The Dragon King’s Council – This is in the worldbuilding and initial noodling phase. It’s got a little over 200 pages of comic/graphic novel script which is really intimidating and I probably shouldn’t have gone whole hog with this thing, but I want to give it a shot anyway. I’ve also been considering ways to change the beginning and write it for novel so that less comic-inclined people can also enjoy the story. This is the story that I’ve been incessantly worldbuilding, and am in the process of compiling a World Anvil codex for it, so if you want to see what kind of weirdness is brewing, go check that out. I’m staying pretty far away from any story-related information, so it’s very spoiler-free thus far. My immediate next step will be working out the differences between cultural groups so that I know what it actually means to say, “Cason MacRaed is a second-generation Iznili immigrant to Wynecrag.” I’m very excited about this project, but at the same time trying not to burn myself out on it. It’s very much being written by the seat of my pants along a meandering trail where I know the major events that need to happen and where it’s going roughly, but the between bits are a mystery until they land on the page.

Other – Charge and anything Five Realms related have officially been shelved, and I’m considering taking the series number off the cover of Oisinson. I do want to look back at Charge and see if there’s anything in it I could use in the next Asgard book, which I think I know a good premise for, but it still needs noodles and the state of the world is not helping me think about writing modern fantasy. Things I do know: there will be more Loki, there might be more Rig, we may actually interact with Thor a bit more, potentially see some interaction with folks from other pantheons entirely, and I’m considering Vanaheim. We’ll see. I definitely want to go to Vanaheim sometime in the future but I don’t know when. The Asgard series has the potential to be nicely episodic, but I’m aware of the risk of going a bit too formulaic with each book, especially since I tend to think in patterns. I may have to re-read All’s Well and see if there are any threads I left hanging in the breeze.

That’s all from me this month. My brain feels like it’s gone through a blender but we’re still trucking along. I think I’m also going to be a little less rigid about when I post updates going forward, as long as I post them once a month. With that said, hopefully I’ll see you next month! Stay safe out there.