Sitting down to record episode 2 of Battlehymn, I’m thinking about my audio recording fidelity. My main concern is that I want this to sound as good as possible, but the available locations for recording are severely limited.
Option 1: The Mac. My Mac Mini and the mixing board and microphone are all set up, unfortunately, about three feet from the intake for the house’s HVAC system. So it often sounds like I’m in the middle of a wind tunnel. The best vocal quality, I think, but unavoidable background noise.
So, tonight I am recording the first episode of my “first” book – Battlehymn.
It’s a story about two young people trying to find their place in the world. Of course, one is a wanna-be rock star. And the other is a princess. And the world includes civil war, mecha, crazy psychic powers, space habitats, intrigue, betrayal, and cats. Well, one cat.
My main goal with this is to a) show that I can produce a longer novel, and b) have fun with it as I go. I’ll be releasing episodes in both text and audio at the website – exiles.madpoetfiles.com. Sign up there to join the mailing list and get notifications as new episodes and side-stories become available.
Wow. Time flies when you’re… uh…
If you’ve been watching Flying Island Press, you know that we’re moving FlagShip from every other month and six stories to monthly and more like three stories. It’s definitely taking up a lot of my available mind-space. I’ve also been fighting a bit of depression, lack of a regular day job, and struggling through a Body for Life challenge (I’ve lost about fifteen pounds over the last two and a half months or so. Three more weeks in the challenge, I think.)
New story time!
This one’s been kicking around for some time. Last year, Scott Roche and I co-wrote a novellette we called “The Battle of Wildspitze“. I’ve been trying to decide how to explain that world to people, and I think I have a concise way of summing it up.
- Harry Potter.
- But everyone knows about magic.
- And it’s 1910.
And that’s basically it in a nutshell. One of us had come up with an idea for a short story regarding dragon-riding pirates raiding airships, and we started writing. I had originally thought that this would be a parallel world, no really recognizable people in it, until Scott introduced Baron Richtoffen as one of the pirates. That single character nailed the setting, the attitude, and the timeline for me.
This is a preview of
MPF 2.07 – Norris Tilney and the Docks of Dover
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Read the full post (196 words, estimated 47 secs reading time)
Back in the writing saddle, that is.
Hearing Matt Forbeck’s goal of writing 12 books in 12 months is both scary and inspiring. Basically, Matt is shooting to do a NaNoWriMo-length novel of 50,000 words every month in 2012. It’s made me sit down and start calculating what it would take to hit a million words in 2012. The number is surprisingly small – 1000000 – four NaNoWriMo projects (200,000), minus the shorts I’ve already written for MPF (just north of another 52,000) = about 750,000. Divide by the number of writing days I’ll have in 2012 (313) and I come up with 2,400 words a day. Wolfram Alpha puts it at 2396.16. But what’s 3.84 words among friends?
This morning, I started counting up the universes that I’ve got planned out and am currently writing in, or that I have stories that I plan on coming back to – recurring universes, as it were. So far, here they are:
- The Sinner – my two weird west stories- High Moon and The Devil’s Due.
- Sparks and Spells (that’s a tentative name) – the alt history fantasy/manapunk pre-WWI universe – Battle of Wildspitze and Finding the Fire. (This is the universe that Scott Roche and I are sharing / writing in.) New stories coming from both of us soon.
So, it’s December 1st, and another 30 days of crazy writing is behind us.
What now?
That’s a fantastic question. I have a couple of suggestions, and a couple of announcements. The short answer is this: keep your eyes on this web site. Because GSG is coming back. And because by the end of December, you’ll start seeing longer fiction here. And because there will also be regular short stories now that the craziness of NaNoWriMo is behind us.
If you need help getting your text to Amazon / BN / Smashwords / etc: Flying Island Press
The climax is over… now it’s time for cuddling the denouement.
Denouements are hard if you don’t know what they’re for. Show the characters reacting to your awesome stupendous world-shattering climax conflict resolution. And end. This is the “We’ve got Top Men working on it… Top Men.” This is the “R2! He’ll be all right, won’t he?… Award Ceremony… Everyone gets a medal but Chewie”. Grace note.
GO FINISH IT!
Download GSG NaNo Gaiden #30
Permanent link to this post (99 words, 1 image, estimated 24 secs reading time)
So, you’re not sure how to end your book.
No Problem! You’re over 50,000 words, right? h/t to Holly Lisle for the tip. If you’re interested in more great tips from her, sign up for her courses – and do it fast, because I don’t know if she’s taking new students. If you’re there too late, she has promised to have all of her courses made available for Kindle and Nook and whatnot, so watch for her instructional books at amazon.com. www.hollylisle.com.
Enjoy!
Download GSGNaNoGaiden Ep #29
Permanent link to this post (111 words, 1 image, estimated 27 secs reading time)
This is the grand finale! The last battle! Your hero is kicking butt! Or is Having His Butt Totally Kicked!
Either way, this is it! FINISH IT!
Download GSGNaNoGaiden Ep #28
Permanent link to this post (57 words, 1 image, estimated 14 secs reading time)
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