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.

Option 2: The PC. My Windows 7 PC is set up in a room with another PC. On the opposite side of the wall is the family TV. This TV is ALWAYS ON. And is often loud, as Reeta’s grandparents are getting on quite a bit. SO MUCH LIFETIME MOVIE CHANNEL. Also, there’s really no place to put the recording equipment. The desk is already occupied.

Option 3: The Shed. I can take my iPhone and headset out to the shed. No more worry about background noise out there, by gum, but the vocal quality is questionable at best. But then I can take the audio, import it to the Mac and play around with it in Garageband.

Sigh. First world problems, I know.

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.

I truly hope you enjoy it.

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.)

Needless to say, it’s been a busy few months. Plus, I am looking at a novel manuscript I wanted to have completely edited by the end of the month which probably isn’t going to happen (dagnabit) because I don’t know if I can actually pull off what I want to and there’s been family health issues and -

And yes, I know. If you want to find an excuse not to write, you can definitely do that. And you eventually have to just decide that you’re going to push forward and do something if you really want it. It’s easy to turn away if you don’t feel like you’re seeing immediate results – and if you’ve got what looks like a massive project staring you in the face. (Hello, book manuscript. How are you today? Me? Oh, I’ll be over here brainstorming. Which is another way of saying I’m going to try doing something that looks productive without necessarily putting new words down on a page. Cool with you? Cool.)

I’ve heard it said (and I’m wanting to attribute this to David Farland, but it could easily have been Tracy Hickman and I couldn’t tell you where I saw it) that creativity is easy, but disciplined action was a rare and beautiful thing.

Here’s to reaching for rare and beautiful. Which means that I’ll be posting a new story here in the next couple days – just have to check where it is in the submissions process (I don’t remember if I’ve submitted this to Asimov’s, which has a six-week average response time or something like that – if I have, I’ll have to write something new for the site.) And here’s to getting a book draft DONE by Balticon.

Which, unfortunately, I will be unable to attend this year. See my lack of regular day job, cited above. And that means I won’t be there for DS Breakfast (which I totally look forward to every year). DS Balticon Fans, Consider This Your Fair Warning.

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.

I’m still working on a cover, and some people are sending me ideas for graphics, but the story itself is up and available for free right now on the current Free Story page. I hope you enjoy it. It’ll be there until I get the next story written and posted, and then it’ll be up at Amazon, BN.com, and anyplace else I can throw it.

Enjoy!

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?

It’s not that much. I can hit that in two hours or less a day. The real concern isn’t whether I CAN. It’s whether or not I WILL. And it’s that way for everyone. Of course that’s 313 days of writing. No time off. No breaks. No vacations. Every day, when I get up, I need to put about 2400 new words down someplace.

I’m working on a second draft of the next MPF story, tentatively named Norris Tilney and the Docks of Dover. It’s set in the same “Spells and Sparks” universe that Scott Roche and I came up with for The Battle of Wildspitze and that I explored a little more in Finding the Fire.

I’ve got to give most of the credit for this universe to Scott. I came up with mages and airships as an opening, but it was his placing of Baron von Richtoffen in the initial story that really cemented it in time and space for me. A pre-WWI fantasy world, with various factions maneuvering to potentially start or stave off the Great War. It’s a really fantastic idea, and I hope I’m up to delivering a fantastic story in that world.

I’m posting a short excerpt from the story here – it should be done within the next couple of days.

“… No, no. They’ll try to lay this squarely on your broad shoulders, my good man. Or on Dorothy’s – we are not without our own enemies. Of course, they’ll have to come up with some explanation as to how you came to be alive after the disaster. They’ll probably charge you with desertion, and the official story will claim that you were never aboard the Columbia in the first place. Possibly you’ll be hung, just to be sure that no nasty rumors start circulating.”

Tilney’s heart sunk, and he stared at his hands. “So… that’s it?”

“Is it? The tribunal hasn’t ruled yet, have they? I suppose that we have approximately three days before they’ll have all their pieces in order. In the meantime, you’ll most likely remain in confinement. That is, if you’re still here.”

Tilney looked up to see Lucius Bennett’s wolfish grin. “So I’ll ask you again, Mr. Tilney. How would you like to accompany me to Dover? There’s no guarantee of any clemency, and you may be running into a worse fate than a hangman’s noose. You know I claim to be a member of the Croix du Sangre, but other than a stickpin and my presence here in the Tower of London, there’s little corroborating evidence of that. I could be merely speculating about your chances, but…” Mr. Bennett’s eyes crinkled, and Norris was again aware of the feeling that he was being seen straight through. “… you were at the tribunal. You saw those men. What do you think your chances here? What are you willing to risk for your freedom?”

Norris Tilney stood again, returning the little man’s piercing gaze. “I lost good mates on the Columbia, Mr. Bennett. And there were women, and children aboard. If what you say is true? If there’s anything I can do to see that what happened to them doesn’t happen to someone else? Then it’s my duty to do so.” He looked around the cell. “And it’s a duty I can’t fulfill from inside here.”

Mr. Bennett smiled. “Very good, cadet. Very good indeed.” He reached back and rapped at the door twice. “Now to effect a daring escape.”

1. The Sinner – my two weird west stories- High Moon and The Devil’s Due.
2. 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.
3. Prodigals – The Assignment, Blood Red Sand and the NaNoWriMo project I did in 2009. My first Space Opera universe.
4. Exiles – You haven’t seen this one yet, but it’s this year’s NaNo project, and you’ll be getting stories as well as the longer work soon – Space Opera. Heavy anime influences.
5. Scions – You haven’t seen this one yet either. Last year’s Nano project. This started out being a story of people who formed telepathic bonds with wolves, sort of like the Gandalara cycle did with giant cats. Then the wolves became ghosts – spirits. Then one of them became a bear. And things sort of went crazy / off the rails at that point. This was a fun one to come up with, but it needs some work before it’s ready for anyone to see it.

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

And if you wanted to donate to GSG:

Enjoy!

Download GSGNaNoGaiden Ep #31

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

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

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