New Adventures in Fantasy Fiction

Feel Free to Ignore This Post About Word Counts and Shit

2012-02-01T10:12:00.001Z

Another month has flown by and despite discovering the joy of twitter - @LeeReynoldson - I managed to write 15,645 words this month. About 500 a day on average. Which is not bad, but not brilliant. However, there's a lot of other stuff that needs to get done like editing and learning to format, make eCovers, etc. and none of that got done. Here's my 2012 goals . . .

Writing Goals 2012

One Short Story a Month.
1st Draft of 50k novella.
Finish Ashcan edition of Redwald.
Finish draft of one of my other WIP's.
Practise and Learn (the Craft)
Read More.

Non-writing Writing To Do List

Learn HTML.
Learn Kindle/mobi. formatting.
Learn to use Kindle Gen.
Learn to use GIMP
Learn to tie a hangman's knot.

Yay for dry technical manuals, tutorials, complex coding, and buggy software! Joy untold.

Non-Writing Writing To Do List That Isn't As Dire as the First but is Equally Poorly Named

Finish Grail Seeker notes and add to Scrivener.
Add Grail Seeker character bio's to Scrivener.
Block scenes for Grail Seeker.
Edit Dungeon Bastards issue 1 script.
Pulp Plot plan for Jan short story.
Next Tables for Fables/Lester Dent Pulp post.
Brainstorm for Redwald shorts and novels.
Brainstorm ideas for 25 para Fighting Fantasy fan adventure.
Brainstorm ideas for Tunnels & Trolls mini-solo.

Well lets see . . .

List 1: I failed to write short story in Jan, but at least made a start on one. Most of my 15k words was towards WIP number 4 and that's chugging away well enough. Got a bit more work on Redwald done, did a little practice of the craft, and didn't read that much. Not bad.

List 2: Nothing from this list. Must try harder.

List 3: Nothing from this one either.

Okay so for Feb I want to . . .

Write 20,000 and up my daily average to about 700
Finish a short story
Start on HTML
Edit Dungeon Bastards script
Notes for March short story
Push on with Grail seeker

The Perfect Template for a Hero

2012-01-24T14:30:00.000Z

I love this . . .

"In everything that can be called art there is a quality of redemption. It may be pure tragedy, if it is high tragedy, and it may be pity and irony, and it may be the raucous laughter of the strong man. But down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. The detective in this kind of story must be such a man. He is the hero, he is everything. He must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor -- by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it. He must be the best man in his world and a good enough man for any world. I do not care much about his private life; he is neither a eunuch nor a satyr; I think he might seduce a duchess and I am quite sure he would not spoil a virgin; if he is a man of honor in one thing, he is that in all things.
. "He is a relatively poor man, or he would not be a detective at all. He is a common man or he could not go among common people. He has a sense of character, or he would not know his job. He will take no man's money dishonestly and no man's insolence without a due and dispassionate revenge. He is a lonely man and his pride is that you will treat him as a proud man or be very sorry you ever saw him. He talks as the man of his age talks -- that is, with a rude wit, a lively sense of the grotesque, a disgust for sham, and a contempt for pettiness.
.The story is this man's adventure in search of a hidden truth, and it would be no adventure if it did not happen to a man fit for adventure. He has a range of awareness that startles you, but it belongs to him by right, because it belongs to the world he lives in. If there were enough like him, the world would be a very safe place to live in, without becoming too dull to be worth living in." - Raymond Chandler

Obviously Chandler is talking about a detective hero, but this would make for a great sword weilding (or wand weilding) hero in the type of Sword & Srocery yarns that I love.

Cap'n Jethro - Free Pirate Story - Sun 22nd of Jan & Mon 23 of Jan PST

2012-01-21T13:39:00.001Z

My short story This Being the Tale of Cap’n Jethro ‘Fair-cut’ Henderson, Mutinous Matthews, the Thief, the Whore, the French Fop and the Treasure of Freeport. - otherwise known as Cap'n Jethro - will be available as a free download from Amazon tomorrrow on Sunday the 22nd of January and Monday the 23rd of January.

This Being the Tale of Cap’n Jethro ‘Fair-cut’ Henderson, Mutinous Matthews, the Thief, the Whore, the French Fop and the Treasure of Freeport."

When his crew mutinied, in a bid to learn the secret of his Treasure, Cap’n Jethro escaped Freeport with little more than a vow on his lips. He would return to Freeport and claim his Treasure. But how can he when his former first mate, a shipless captain, the queen of Freeport’s whores, and a thieving street urchin are watching his every move, waiting to pounce and claim it for themselves?

A 7,555 word/30 page short story.

US Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003G2ZG6M
UK Link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003G2ZG6M

Great Writing Advice from Cory Doctrow

2012-01-19T23:17:00.000Z

The orginal blog post was here. As the title -Practical Writing Tips on Writing a Book by 23 Brilliant Authors, there's a lot of good advice, but Cory Doctrow's really struck a chord with me . . .

Cory Doctorow

Author of With a Little Help, For the Win, Makers, and Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom

Write every day. Anything you do every day gets easier. If you’re insanely busy, make the amount that you write every day small (100 words? 250 words?) but do it every day.
Write even when the mood isn’t right. You can’t tell if what you’re writing is good or bad while you’re writing it.
Write when the book sucks and it isn’t going anywhere. Just keep writing. It doesn’t suck. Your conscious is having a panic attack because it doesn’t believe your subconscious knows what it’s doing.
Stop in the middle of a sentence, leaving a rough edge for you to start from the next day — that way, you can write three or five words without being “creative” and before you know it, you’re writing.
Write even when the world is chaotic. You don’t need a cigarette, silence, music, a comfortable chair, or inner peace to write. You just need ten minutes and a writing implement.

Non-writing Writing To Do List

2012-01-16T11:02:00.001Z

Snappy title I'm sure you'll agree, but move along; nothing to see here. Just me using my blog as a virtual whiteboard so I can remember all the other stuff I have to do. Non-writing stuff that is about my writing, but isn't actual writing.

Non-writing Writing To Do List

Learn HTML.
Learn Kindle/mobi. formatting.
Learn to use Kindle Gen.
Learn to use GIMP
Learn to tie a hangman's knot.

Yay for dry technical manuals, tutorials, complex coding, and buggy software! Joy untold.

Non-Writing Writing To Do List That Isn't As Dire as the First but is Equally Poorly Named

Finish Grail Seeker notes and add to Scrivener.
Add Grail Seeker character bio's to Scrivener.
Block scenes for Grail Seeker.
Edit Dungeon Bastards issue 1 script.
Pulp Plot plan for Jan short story.
Next Tables for Fables/Lester Dent Pulp post.
Brainstorm for Redwald shorts and novels.
Brainstorm ideas for 25 para Fighting Fantasy fan adventure.
Brainstorm ideas for Tunnels & Trolls mini-solo.

Random Blog post about 5th Edition . . .

2012-01-10T13:53:00.002Z

. . . so 5^th edition Tunnels & Trolls has long been a favourite of mine.

Sorry couldn’t resist.

Right. 5^th Edition Dungeons & Dragons. I like what I’m hearing. Mind you I liked what I was hearing about 4^th edition before that was released, liked what I read when I got my PHB and DMG, loved it as I made a ton of characters, and goofed around doing test combats. Ran it. Didn’t like it. Never ran it again. Went back to Basic and had a ton of fun learning about 0e. Which I missed back in the day, what with me only being 4 years old when it was released. Never felt the need to tell folks that love 4e they were on the internet being wrong. After all, it’s the 3.5 and Pathfinder folks that are wrong . . .

. . . I kid.

Well kinda. I’m not keen on anything I’ve heard or seen about 3.5, but I still don’t feel the need to tell 3.5/Pathfinder fans to stop being on the internet being wrong about D&D.

As is expected there are more than a few folks who are cynical about the design team’s stated aim, to unite all D&D players, of all edition, under a happy-clappy-touchy-feely-hippy-dippy universal umbrella of D&D love. Perhaps they’re fearful it’ll be ‘one edition to rule them all, and in the darkness bind them’ evil D&D.

There are also of course a few 4e fans in a panic – ohh noes what will become of the DDI – Can’t say I blame them. Despite WotC statement that they’ll keep DDI and Companion and support 4e. It obviously won’t get as much support from here on in, and less when 5e launches.

If anyone should be worrying about 5e; it should be Paizo. I’m pretty sure top of WotC agenda for 5e has to be regain the players (or market share if you’re cynically inclined) they lost to Paizo and Pathfinder. Personally I think if there’s anything WotC need to learn from Paizo it’s: sell good modules, Adventure Path type campaigns, and settings. That and be nice. Whenever I hear good stuff about Pathfinder, it’s not the rules people are buzzing about; it’s how great Paizo are to deal with, and positives about the setting and adventures.

An edition of D&D that will please all fans is a big ask, a near impossible task perhaps, and the cynical gamers amongst have every right to say it’s nothing more than ‘empty marketing speak’ from Wizards, but I hope they pull it off. I’d love an edition that allowed you to play a stripped down 0e style game, an elegant Basic style game, add a ton of options to recreate the AD&D feel, add more to play 3.5, different options to get 4e, and random grab bag of ‘shit you think might be fun’ and play 5e style, and still be able to house rule and DIY it to Planescape and back.

A ‘Rosetta Clone’ that is also ‘The New Shiny’ would be cool. It would be great if everyone who liked D&D was playing D&D. Besides, my Modlvay Basic is looking a bit dog eared.

Fire in Fiction by Donald Maass – Review

2012-01-03T22:53:00.000Z

Considering it's a book about enthusing your novels with passion and ensuring readers don’t start skimming, I found it quiet lacklustre and started to skim through it by the end.

The Fire in Fiction: Passion, Purpose and Techniques to Make Your Novel Great is the full title of Donald Maass’ latest book on the craft of writing. Given that he runs a successful Literary Agency you’d expect him to have some worthwhile insights, and if you’ve read his first book: Writing the Breakout Novel, you’ll know he does.

I enjoyed How to Write the Breakout novel, got a lot out of it. Read it twice, will read it to write a review. So I was looking forward to Fire in Fiction, but found it very uninspiring in comparison. I’d go as far to say it felt lazy, a quickly thrown together earner.

The main problem is the novel excerpts. Using excerpts from a novels is a great way to elucidate on a point of craft, analyze what’s happening, give you something to think about, and work with. Great. Only you’re never more than a few paragraphs from the next excerpt. The insights Maass provides are okay. Nothing as good as his Writing the Breakout Novel, though.

Here’s how it goes: each chapter will have a general theme like: Chapter 4 – The World of the Novel, and is broken up into sub-themes such as . . . Linking Details and Emotion, Measuring Change Over Time, History is Personal, etc. Then each sub-theme starts with a few paragraphs by Maass, an excerpt from a novel, a few paragraphs by mass, next sub-theme heading, a few paragraphs by Maass, an excerpt, a few paragraphs, and on, and on. There’s a section of writing exercise based on the theme, at the end of each chapter. It’s very samey, and it felt like Maass has just padded the whole thing out with snippets from novels to up the page count.

By the end I admit I started skimming the prose examples and just read Maass bits that bookended them. Then I just started skimming it all. It all felt very half hearted, and I didn’t feel like I was learning much. Worse; I felt like I wasting valuable reading time. Considering it’s a book about enthusing your novels with passion and ensuring readers don’t start skimming, I found it quiet lacklustre and started to skim through it by the end.

All the excerpts are well chosen. All the discussion before and after them is well considered. It just felt like a relentless treadmill of random novel excerpts. I was disappointed. I expected good things after Maass’ first writing book.

Obviously this is my opinion, and judging by the horde of 5 star reviews it’s picked up on Amazon it’s a minority opinion, but I honestly felt, especially when compared to his first book on writing, that Maass was just phoning it for this one. Read it if you have time on your hands and can borrow a copy, but there are a better books out there.

The Writing Year . . . 2011

2011-12-23T14:39:00.001Z

Well I'm done for another year I'll start writing in earnest again on Monday January 2nd 2012. 2011 has been the the best of years and the worst of years. Best of years in terms of exposure. Amazon KDP and the Amazon Select programme have allowed me to get into a few of Amazons 'free' top 100 lists, and gain a lot more readers. On the other hand my actual writing has been destroyed by the need to renovate our house which started in march and finished in October, though we still have one more room to do before we're finished.

So a bad year for word count . . .

2011 Total Word Count: 73,630

2011 Daily Average: 201

2011 Monthly Average: 6,135

73K is well under my usual 100k which I wanted to improve on. Still that's the good thing about the New Year. We get to wipe the slate clean (excuse the stock phrase) and start over . . .

2012 Total Word Count: 0

2012 Daily Average: 0

2012 Monthly Average: 0

My 2011writing goal was to write a Trilogy. Ha. That went right out of the window. A tad ambitious considering I've never written anything other than short stories. Still it's good to try and push yourself. Okay, this year I'll try not to be so vague, or open, with my goals . . .

Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success. - Pablo Picasso

Writing Goals 2012

One Short Story a Month.
1st Draft of 50k novella.
Finish Ashcan edition of Redwald.
Finish draft of one of my other WIP's.
Practise and Learn (the Craft)
Read More.

Well, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and all that other bunk, or as I prefer to say Bah Humbug.

Free Kindle Book - Free Fiction - Free eBook - Free Short Story

2011-12-19T20:45:00.001Z

More of my short stories will be available free if anyone is interested.

Art & Soul a humorous fantasy tale about Toadtoes sorcerer extraordinaire and almost graduate of the Tara-Sey Guild of Mag Is available today and tomorrow (19th & 20th): US and UK.

Rip Roaring Pirate tale 'Cap'n Jethro' is available on 21st: US and UK.

Dark Sword & Sorcery saga 'Born of Evil' is availble on the 22nd and 23rd: US and UK.

Finally Dark Age Historical action in the form of 'A Hound Against Hawks and Wolves' will be free again over Christmas -24th, 25th, and 26th: US and UK.

KDP Select . . . Fun

2011-12-15T14:27:00.000Z

So my latest short was finished at the same time as Amazon's Kindle Desktop Publishing Select programme started. If you enrol a story in Select, you have to make your book exculsive to amazon for 90 days at a time. Your book is then available free to borrow to Amazon Prime members, in exchange you get a small fee for each unique lend. The programme also allows authors to go free 5 days out of the 90. So I put A Hound Against Hawks and Wolves free for a day and it was . . . fun.

My marketing is minimal, I usually just do blog and forum posts, and I don't think short stories, by unknowns, do that well on Amazon. All that said I was quite pleased with the results. Generally my best amazon ranks tend to be around #342,849 Paid in Kindle Store at the US site, and #194,246 Paid in Kindle Store on the UK site. During the day it was free A Hound Against Hawks and Wolves was around #1,600(ish) on the US site, and #500(ish) on the UK site. It was also my first time in a Top 100 list, the Top 100 Historical . . .

Number 14 was my highest position in the UK, 33 in the US. Both of which I was very pleased with.

Of course, now it's no longer free it has dropped back down the rankings, but is still way better than most of my shorts (#187,130 US, #19,349 UK). There were also far more free downloads, than my usual sales. Not that, that is hard to do. My downloads topped out at 113 in US, and 46 in the UK. Again, it was fun to see the downloads hit 100. Now that it's no longer free the downloads have more or less stopped. There was one UK sale after it stopped being free.

So, Select was fun, but did it do any good?

Hard to say. For a start a lot of authors have been doing the same as me; taking advantage of the ability to go free. So there's lots of free stuff at the moment. Very easy for an unknown short story writer's work to get lost ion the deluge. The other worry is will any of those 159 downloaders actually read my story? Because I know I grabbed quite a few freebies from the Fantasy top 100. I downloaded based on cover, and title alone. After all they were free so I didn't need to read blurb, or look inside. I'll just decide within a page or two whether any of these will get read, or get deleted. I'm assuming that'll also go for my story.

One surprising outcome of going free on Select was that I got two sales after announcing it was going free. Both from people who stated they like to see an artist get paid for work. That was a really nice surprise. As was their feedback, which was very good. So Select got me two sales before the story even went free. Since the promotion finished I've only had one sale. Even if that's the sum total of sales generated by going free on select I'd be happy with that.Will I get more out of Select than 3 sales? Hard to tell at the moment, but then again 3 sales on one story is a bumper month for me! :D

So joining Select and going free has made a modest difference to my modest sales. More than anything though it has been . . . fun.

EDIT: While I was writing this post I went to check some stats for the post, and found I'd picked up a great review on the UK site . . .

So, puddleduck is now my favourite person on Amazon. :D

Free Kindle Book - Free Fiction - Free eBook - Free Short Story

2011-12-12T12:00:00.000Z

Want some free fiction? A free ebook? How about a free short story? My latest; available from Amazon's US and UK and various European Kindle Stores. . .

Conway is oathsworn to place young Govan on the throne of Dyfed. But with the kingdom swarming with Saxon sellswords, if the oath is to be anything more than mere words, then Conway's wits will have to work as hard as his sword arm.
An action packed, blood and thunder, Historical short story set in the hills and valleys of post Roman Wales. 8,500 words/34 pages.

. . . Is free to borrow if you have a kindle and are an Amazon Prime member. If you're a kindle owner, but not a Prime member it is available as a free download all day tomorrow Tuesday the 13th of December 20111 (Pacific Standard Time), and for those of you getting, or giving new eReaders for Christmas it will also be available as a free download Christmas eve, Christmas day, and Boxing day.

If you don't own a kindle, Amazon has a free software version of their eReader: Kindle for Mac, PC, Android, etc. If you want to read it in another format, or on a different type of eReader Calibre is a free eBook manager that can convert between the various formats and is simple to use.

Hello Old Friend

2011-12-05T18:39:00.000Z

My (considerably) better half, bless her, has treated me to this poster to hang in the office where I do my writing.

When I was a kid this poster used to hang over the fireplace in our living room. This would be in '76 or '77 and a few years before I read the Hobbit, let alone LotRs. I was fascinated by it especially the smaller background details and the Mordor Orcs that are crawling around the edges. For me this is what Orcs always look like. Not the barbaric green hulks of World of Warcraft, or the Pig Faced Orcs of AD&D, but these slightly shabby, very human looking, slightly comical, but still somehow nasty and intimidating fellows. Same with Gandalf and the Hobbits.

The artist who drew this is Jimmy Cauty, and he was 17 when he painted this. Which blows my mind when I think about it. That's a lot of talent to have at that age.

Anyway, I look forward to writing with this hanging on the wall of my office and look forward to as much inspiration as it provided when I was kid.

Tables for Fables: Pt 1

2011-11-27T11:36:00.000Z

Speaking of Random . . .

A while back I mention the idea of using random tables to come up with story elements for use in a fantasy version of a Lester Dent Pulp Plot Plan. I was going to use the tables from Vincent Baker's Cheap & Cheesy Fantasy Game as they're nice and flavourful, but as I intend to flog my Pulps (like any self-respecting pulpist should) I thought I better come up with my own 'inspired by' version. I'm not entirely happy with it and it will need a tweak or two, but . . .

Tables for Fables: Pt1 - Character Elements

Companions

1. The spirit of a former lover trapped in the body of a dog.

2. A small flying lizard that can teleport you both a short distance once a day.

3. A body guard who hates you, but is oathsworn to protect you with their life.

4. A faithful, but somewhat overprotective eunuch who would happily strangle anyone who so much as threatens you.

5. The spirit of an infamous ancestor follows you around offering bad advice and worse jests.

6. A servant who is really your master.

Destiny

1. Destined to kill your one true love.

2. You will live forever, it is known, it is written.

3. Destined to die young, but your legend will live forever.

4. The god of Fate hates you.

5. The god of Death loves you.

6. Destined to kill kings, slays gods, and destroy empires and see all your hopes and dreams come to nothing.

Traits

1. Dishevelled appearance, sharp mind.

2. Full of nervous energy.

3. Slow and thoughtful.

4. Dogged determination.

5. Smart mouth.

6. Dour.

Magical Gift

1. At Dawn and Dusk you can speak to the dead.

2. When people sing you see their secrets.

3. Can breathe underwater for an hour a day except on holy days.

4. No matter how you move your footfalls make no sound nor leave no trail.

5. You see as clearly in the dark as you do in the light of day.

6. When you touch stone you can feel the memories of the surrounding area.

Ancestry

1. Child of a Gladiator: you know how to perform a Coup de Grace.

2. Child of a famous general: soldiers take an instant liking to you.

3. A Necromancers child: the dead fear you.

4. Child of a country priest: you’ve yet to meet a peasant that doesn’t want to feed you up or marry you off.

5. Child of an Emperor: Nobility curry favour.

6. Offspring of otherworldly parents: unnatural creatures take to you.

Possessions

1. A lamp that can turn light to darkness.

2. An arrow that always strikes true.

3. An Earring that burns cold when you hear a lie.

4. A bracelet in the shape of a serpent that bites your wrist when someone wishes you ill.

5. A hood that when raised makes you look like everybody and nobody.

6. A sword that always wounds, but never kills.

So, let's see what my protag is like . . .

Companion: The spirit of a former lover trapped in the body of a dog.
Destiny: Destined to die young, but her legend will live forever.
Traits: Slow and thoughtful.
Magical Gift: When she touches stone she can feel the memories of the surrounding area.
Ancestry: She is the offspring of supernatural parents and unnatural creatures take to her.
Possessions: An Arrow that always strikes true.

Okay, I can work with those. Should be fun.

My Other Blog is . . .

2011-11-23T23:06:00.002Z

. . . Random

The Weight of Literature: Part 2

2011-11-15T22:15:00.000Z

Quoting from The Week Issue 843 12 November via the New York Times. . .

E-readers enable people to carry around their libraries - but adding extra books makes devices heavier. They are, however, unlikely to get too heavy: filling a 4GB Kindle to its full capacity, a scientist has calculated, would increase its weight by about a billionth of a billionth of a gram. Storing new data involves holding electrons in a fixed place in the device's memory, and keeping them still rather than letting them float around takes up extra energy, Professor John Kubiatowicz of the University of California, Berkley told the New York Times. Using Einstein's E=MC2 formula, which implies that energy and mass are related, he calculated that each additional weighs about the same as a molecule of DNA.

The Weight of Literature

2011-10-10T18:57:00.000+01:00

Professors, students, writers, critics, and readers of literature will all have you believe that it is the true heavyweight when it comes to fiction, but I'm here to tell you they’re all wrong. Literature is lightweight. Decidedly so.

I discovered this earlier today during the latter phase of what I call Operation Destroy My 2011 Word Count, which my (significantly) Better-Half refers to simply as decorating. I have to say I don’t recommend anyone attempts to decorate their entire house in one go. I mean ours is by no means a massive manse, just a small Victorian Terrace, but there was a lot of work to do, floors to repair, woodchip to strip, walls to make good, old carpets to rip out, etc. before actual decorating can commence. Destroy My Word Count 20011 is no joke. This sort of stuff is no good for your writing . . .

. . . where was I? Oh yeah, insulting Literary Fiction. Right.

So today, I started the first stage of decorating our office. That basically means boxing everything up, and getting everything out of the room so I can strip the walls, and rip up the carpets. The office has three bookcases and emptying them is where I started. The first bookcase was full of coffee table hardbacks, history tomes, and biography. Let me tell you those things have some heft to them. History Professors earn their crust when they publish. Never mind reading about the Hundred Years War, you could have fought in it armed and armoured with these weighty tomes. History is heavy, man.

The second bookcase was full of RPG rule books, doorstop fantasy, and brick sized historical fiction. Humping these big boys down the stairs, armload by armload was no easy job. Not quite as heavy as the History non-fic, and the coffee table hardbacks, but heavy enough. By the way, if we put all our ‘so called’ coffee table books on the coffee table it would destroy it quicker than decorating has destroyed my 2011 word count; which has been a destruction of the long drawn out kind . . .

. . . I’m guessing you can see where I’m going with this . . .

. . . so finally I move on to the last bookcase, the one filled with all our Literary Fiction. By now I’ve got a bit of a sweat on from bouncing up and down the stairs, and my arms are feeling the burn from the armloads of heavy books I was lugging while doing it, so I sigh and reach for an armload of Literary Fiction and it flies off the shelf, feels light as air in my tired arms. Now I’m not saying great writers are lazy, but there’s a hell of a lot of slim tomes amongst our literature. Slight, light, and easy to lug. I soon had those down the stairs and stacked on the floor with the rest of our books. Literature it’s lightweight . . .

. . . yeah, yeah I know hardly a paradigm shattering epiphany, but what do you expect for free.

It’s a strange thing to see all, well most - we have a couple more bookcases in other rooms- of your books laid out on the floor in stacks, rather than on the bookshelves where your used to seeing them. Seeing them every day, like good friends, family, and loved ones. Strange.

I love, love, love my Kindle and wouldn’t be without it. I’ve read a ton more since I got the kindle and love the convenience, but I don’t think I’ll ever be able to go totally digital and lose the bookshelves, and the books that fill, and often overflow, them. Then again it was damn easy to take the 600 plus books on my Kindle downstairs so maybe . . .

. . . and because I’m feeling vaguely mischievous and more than a little whimsical . . . when I finished stacking the literary fiction I put Isherwood on top of Hemingway. An arrangement I’m sure neither of them would be entirely happy with.

Listing

2011-09-10T18:41:00.002+01:00

Did you know the word List is derived from the Old English 'hylsten' meaning hear, or hearken? Isn't hearken a great word? Anyway, no need to listen or hearken to me blather on about my to do lists, but I do love 'em.

The last one . . .

To Do List

In Progess: Keep pluging away at . . .

1) April A-Z Challenge at Redwald Blog
2) Editing Ice Wastes Monster story.
3) Writing WIP 2 - Lembek of the Towers
4) Writing WIP 4 - Dungeon Bastards

Needs doing . . .

1) Groundwork for WIP 1 - Peredur strory
2) Rethink last Ellen Chapter for WIP 3 - Beware the Sorcery of the Bookseller
3) Organise list of jobs needed to finish Redwald 1st draft.
4) Look over outline for Arman story
5) Convert Magus from Scriptgold to First Draft format.
6) Work up some random tables for Lester Dent Pulp project.
7) Think about Cutter's Lurk story. Where is it going?
8) Format Art & Soul and Cap'n Jethro for XinXii.Com
9) Expand Smashwords info for Art & Soul and Cap'n Jethro
10) Reread and write review for How to Write a Damn Good Novel

. . . how did I do?

Well did well on all four of the 'In Progess: Keep pluging away at' list. Did the A-Z Blog challenge. The Ice Wastes story was edited, and is now out as Born of Evil.

Still working on 'Lembek of the Towers', and 'Dungeon Bastard's, but lost a chunk of 'Lemebek of the Towers' in a tech fiasco. Pretty upbeat about that though, as I was toying with deleting the chapters that got lost.

On the 'needs doing' list let's see . . .

. . . by the way I also like the meaning of the word 'listing' that has sea going origins. As in: "Cap'n, she be listing to starboard!" . . .

. . . lets see . . .,

#1 Still doing that. Working up notes, scenes,characters, relationships, plot do-dads. In other words outlining.
#2 Done that. I know where I'm going with that story now.
#3 Done that. Written the list of jobs needed to finish 1st draft of Redwald RPG. Just haven't done any of the jobs.
#4 Yup, done that. Now I just need to turn a 30k outline into a 50k novella.
#5 No. Still need to do that.
#6 No.
#7 Yup, did that. Now I have to do it again.
#8 Still need to do this.
#9 Kinda, half done it. Not really I guess.
#10 No.

Right, new list . . .

9/10/2011 To Do List

1) Write 5 days a week min.
2) Up word count from 500 words a session to 700.
3) Finish Dungeon Bastards 1st draft.
4) 1 Bestiary Entry a day for Redwald RPG until Bestiary is done.
5) Finish outline for Peredur.
6) Update Keywords and Blurb for KDP and Smashwords, and think of an Author's Bio that won't make me want to vomit everytime I see it.
7) Press on with 'Cutter's Lurk' 1st draft
8) Edit the 'Trouble with Magic' 2nd draft.
9) Convert Magus from Scriptgold to First Draft format.
10) Reread and write review for How to Write a Damn Good Novel, and possibly a Review for Kindle 3.
11) Start an experimental rewrite on unfinished draft of 'Beware the Sorcery'
12) Read and dissect for structure some of the work of my fave Fantasy and Historical Authors.

Born of Evil: New Sword & Sorcery Story

2011-08-26T14:02:00.000+01:00

Born of Evil an 11,277 word/45 page Fantasy Novelette.

UK Kindle
US Kindle
DE Kindle
Smashwords

A Dark Fantasy tale in the traditional Swords & Sorcery style.

Once Finnon was a lord, a lord with warriors, a wife, a son, but Jarl Karstak took everything he loved. Now all he has left is the love of the Only God, an iron will, and a fearful talent for slaughter. One sword against Karstak and his thousand riders, Finnon’s only hope of vengeance is to lead his foes deep into the ice wastes and let cold and attrition do the work his single sword cannot.

When he himself is overcome by the cold only the intervention of mysterious Ísascynn, the Ice People, saves him. But the Ísascynn are plagued by an enemy of their own, and enemy far more fearful than Karstak and his thousand riders, a monstrous creature created for destruction and born of evil. A creature the Ísascynn claim Finnon is destined to slay.

New Covers

2011-08-24T12:36:00.000+01:00

Knocked up some new covers for my short stories . . .

UK Kindle
US Kindle
Smashwords

Mayday! Mayday!

2011-05-30T17:13:00.010+01:00

If I had one I'd have sent up a flare, turned a flag upside down, sent out an S.O.S. May has been crappy writingwise, less than 5k words. Mostly due to laziness and decorating. Ho-hum. Looking forward to June. In other (non)news I turned 41, and this blog turned 3 on Sunday.

Streaking Ahead

2011-05-08T15:49:00.025+01:00

Dean Wesley Smith's blog is excellent, and I've been following it for awhile now. One of the things he's keen on is work rate. Unsurprisingly a good work rate leads to success for writers. One of the techniques he mentions is putting together a streak: seeing how many consecutive days you can write on. I thought I'd give it ago. I started on March the 5th and finished 50 days later on April 23rd knowing I wouldn't be able to write on Easter Sunday due to family commitments. It worked well for me, upped my work rate, and 50 days isn't bad for a 1st attempt. Of course, now I'll have to try again, just to beat that first 50 day streak. Since then I've been goofing off , not done much of anything so back to work tomorrow.

April

1^st:745

2^nd:593
3^rd:876
4^th:374
5^th:583
6^th:800
7^th:714
8^th:667
9^th: 587
10^th:502
11^th:541
12^th:634
13^th:614
14^th:621
15^th:644
16^th:608
17^th:636
18^th:556
19^th:586
20^th:621
21^st:130
22^nd:286
23^rd:323
24^th:0
25^th:660
26^th:619
27^th:537
28^th:0
29^th:0
30^th:0

April Total: 15,483

April Average: 516
Current Streak: 0
Streak Record: 50

Much Ado

2011-04-05T22:14:00.004+01:00

Okay, I doubt anyone is interested in my word counts or 'to do lists', but I use this blog as a kind a virtual desk and they're good motivational fodder for me.

To Do List

In Progess: Keep pluging away at . . .

1) April A-Z Challenge at Redwald Blog
2) Editing Ice Wastes Monster story.
3) Writing WIP 2 - Lembek of the Towers
4) Writing WIP 4 - Dungeon Bastards

Needs doing . . .

1) Groundwork for WIP 1 - Peredur strory
2) Rethink last Ellen Chapter for WIP 3 - Beware the Sorcery of the Bookseller
3) Organise list of jobs needed to finish Redwald 1st draft.
4) Look over outline for Arman story
5) Convert Magus from Scriptgold to First Draft format.
6) Work up some random tables for Lester Dent Pulp project.
7) Think about Cutter's Lurk story. Where is it going?
8) Format Art & Soul and Cap'n Jethro for XinXii.Com
9) Expand Smashwords info for Art & Soul and Cap'n Jethro
10) Reread and write review for How to Write a Damn Good Novel

I Marched On

2011-04-01T14:53:00.000+01:00

Jan and Feb weren't that good in terms of word count, and getting work done. But March has been good. Plenty of writing (could still do more) and lots of editing too. Right, time to start on April.

March

1^st: 826
2^nd:0
3^rd: 0
4^th: 0
5^th: 501
6^th: 553
7^th: 63
8^th: 542
9^th: 657
10^th: 364
11^th: 317
12^th: 668
13^th: 528
14^th: 514
15^th: 504
16^th: 1,156
17^th: 604
18^th: 600
19^th: 651
20^th: 729
21^st: 619
22^nd: 655
23^rd: 812
24^th: 1,159
25^th: 816
26^th: 545
27^th: 540
28^th: 28
29^th: 45
30^th: 517
31^st:508

March Total: 16,041

March Average: 517
Current Streak: 28 Days

Writing Article: Lester Dent's Pulp Plot

2011-02-26T15:13:00.002Z

Here's a fun little article, although it's more of a formula for short pulp fiction than an article. If anyone knew how to write it should be Lester Dent writer of most of the Doc Savage pulps. Here it is . . .

Lester Dent Pulp Plot Plan

I think I might give this a try with a fantasy. To make it an even more lowbrow, pulp-like piece of hack work (in a good way) I’ll use a bunch of random tables to generate characters, settings, and other stuff. In fact I will do just that. Fun!

Spoke Too Soon . . .

2011-02-19T08:24:00.000Z

. . . When I said my WIP had died on its arse. I added another few thousand words taking it to 57,634 in total. I decided I’d plug on even though a) it's not the genre I want to write in and b) the way I’m writing it, it is going to need a big rewrite. Both these reasons apply to my first novel attempt which died after just 36,000 words. I’m also going to give that another try.

Why?

Because I believe that not finishing a project is a bad habit for a writer to get into. I’m going to finish both. I doubt I’ll ever publish them, but I’m going to finish first drafts, and at least one rewrite. This is not just stubbornness on my part. I hope to learn and improve by doing this. These unfinished works won’t be my main priority, I’m planning a 50K novella that is a) in the genre I want to write in, and b) written in a way that works better for me. But I will chip away at them until they’re finished. However long that takes.

Disappointing January

2011-02-01T10:49:00.000Z

Ach. January was dissapointing: only 10k words, too many 0 days, two stories finished but in need of rewrites and edits, and my WIP died on its arse at 56,000 words. Still, that's a slight improvment on my first attempt at a novel which died at 38,000 words. Third time lucky?

Jan

1st: 952
2nd: 0
3rd: 0
4th: 536
5th: 1,346
6th: 546
7th: 1,519
8th: 0
9th: 0
10th: 896
11th: 1,165
12th: 447
13th: 0
14th: 304
15th: 760
16th: 0
17th: 0
18th: 607
19th: 0
20th: 0
21st: 0
22nd: 0
23rd: 0
24th: 0
25th: 671
27th: 0
28th: 0
29th: 0
30th: 0
31st:0

Jan Total: 10,813
Jan average: 348

Writing Article: The Talent of the Room by Michael Ventura

2011-01-28T11:38:00.000Z

Another Writing article and a meaty one at that. Plenty to get to grips with here in The Talent of the Room by Michael Ventura.

Videos On Writing

2011-01-19T12:19:00.000Z

Last week I watched Brandon Sanderson's JordanCon 2010 lecture on plotting. Interesting stuff. Here is the link. It is in seven parts but worth watching, and taking notes, if you're looking for a few pointers on plotting . . .

Brandon Sanderson on Plotting.

Writing Tube

2011-01-10T10:11:00.000Z

I've been watching a few writing seminars on You Tube. Here's one peeps might like. Authors John Brown and Larry Correia explain How to Write a Story that Rocks.

Writing Article: In Lieu of "Preference" by Alex Keegan

2011-01-05T19:54:00.000Z

I said I was going to add more useful content this year particularly writing articles, posts, vids, etc. that I've tracked down on that thar interweb thingy.

Here is the first article by teacher and short story writer Alex Keegan. Alex is an excellent teacher and his articles are great. I'll prolly post links to quite a few of them over the year.

This first article is called In Lieu of "Preference".

Let me know what you think.

Kindle: First Impressions

2011-01-02T14:20:00.002Z

There’s no doubting what it is when it arrives.

Amazon correctly anticipate the Nerdcitement and helpfully provide Frustration Free ™ packaging!

Cue choir of angels and shaft of light.

Won’t be needing or reading that.

The USB cable handily arranges itself into a loose Atomic symbol and doubles as plug-in charger.

Seems straightforward enough.

‘Tis a thing of beauty, and yes I am afraid of Virginia Wolf!

When the Kindle is in sleep mode it has a number of literary screen savers that are rather neat.

What shall we read first? Well perhaps I’m a tad biased, but how about . . .

I knew it was small, thin, and light, but until you handle it you don’t realise how thin and light, the Kindle feels. I have a huge hardback single volume version of The Lord of the Rings, that I love dearly, but is an unwieldy tome. Next time I reread LotR it’ll be on the Kindle and it’ll be considerably easier. Feels good in the hand, but I’m a bit wary of gripping it too hard, or too lightly and dropping. Also worried about storage, that screen looks easy to damage. I’ll be glad when protective cover I ordered arrives.

The eInk works well, clear good contrast. It has a retro feel, partly because black and greyscale which are reminiscent of early LCD screens. Especially being used to modern colour LCD screens, but reading on a Laptop is a chore, reading on the Kindle is a joy.

Everything else is easy enough (once you remember your network password). So far I’ve bought kindle books from the Amazon store, emailed eBooks I already own to my kindle by means of my ‘name’@free.kindle.co.uk email account, connected by the USB cable to drag and drop eBooks straight from my Laptop to the kindle, and used Calibre to convert books in various formats to mobi format then used that to send books to my kindle. Notice how I stopped calling it the kindle and started calling it my kindle about halfway through this post?

On the downside, although it reads pdfs it's not ideal. Although, you can email them to your free.kindle email addy and Amazon will convert them to mobi format. Which works okay for pdfs that are pure text, but not so well for other stuff such as manuals, or textbooks with tables, diagrams, and illustrations. Obviously full colour books and magazine are going to lose a little in translation, but in truth the Kindle isn’t designed to handle these, it's designed to handle plain text and that it does, and does well.

The only other slight worry are the buttons, especially the next page buttons. They don’t feel that sturdy and will face much use.

First impression then are good. I'll get back with a full review after a few months of use. Meanwhile I’m off to hug my Kindle.

Til Kindle Come

2010-12-29T23:42:00.001Z

Well I thought if I'm going to part of the Kindle writing revolution I might as well be part of the Kindle reading revolution. So my Kindle is winging its way to me me now as we speak (or blog).
I really wanted an ipad, but I have a laptop and a desktop PC so a tablet pc was a bit an extravagance
considering the price. Besides eink. Plus amazon. I love amazon.co.uk, and am rather fond of amazon.com. The nookbook, and the Sony reader are worth a look, I love all the .LIT books and pdf's I have, but yeah. Kindle. Nice.

I have a ton of ebooks in a variety of formats I've bought over the years. Mainly .Lit and pdf so calibre is handy as that converts everything to mobi (kindle) format.

Anyway, yeah. Getting a kindle soon. Writing for kindle today. Hoping kindle will do good things for authors tomorrow.

In the meantime waiting patiently til Kindle come.

2011

2010-12-21T10:00:00.001Z

I need to add some more useful and interesting content to this blog. So next year I'll be writing a series of reviews for books on the craft of writing starting with How to Write a Damn Good Novel. I also have a variety of 'writers' software that I never use. I might review some of those too. I'll also scour the web for good writing articles to link to, and try to find some good Podcasts, You Tube vids, etc. on writing too. Talking of which, there's an hour long interview with screen writing guru Robert McKee that can be found here.

Art & Soul

2010-12-19T23:04:00.000Z

My story Art & Soul is up at Smashwords and available in a number of eFormats . . .

Toadtoes, sorcerer extraordinaire and almost graduate of the Tara-Sey Guild of Magi, is desperate for cash. His landlord at the Dead Dragon Inn keeps using words like 'pay' and 'die' in the same sentence so Toadtoes gets involved in a magical get rich quick scheme that sees him cross Charnok, the city's arch-mage, in a battle for his very soul. An enjoyable light-hearted Pratchettesque romp.

Bah Humbug, Scrooge Out!

2010-12-18T00:44:00.000Z

Well, I'm done for the year . . .

2010 Word Count

January Total: 11,246

February Total: 7,306
March Total: 4,501
April Total: 3,654
May Total: 1,509
June Total: 7,148
July Total: 7,521
August Total: 9,234
September Total: 3,092
October Total: 4,343
November Total: 38, 618
December Total: 7,843

2010 Total Word Count: 106,015
2010 Daily Average: 290
2010 Monthly Average: 8,835

Enjoy the festive season if you like that sort of thing. I'll be starting on next years word count and planning my next decade of writing.

Writng Goals 2011

2010-12-15T18:06:00.000Z

Last year my writing goals were . . .

. . . Generally, I want to improve on last year's 88K words and single fiction publication. Specific goals are . . .

1) Write a 1st draft of Lembek of the Tower (80-100K).
2) Complete 1st draft of Magus script.
3) Write, edit, playtest, and publish my RPG setting Redwald.
4) Write RPG articles for TrollsZine!
5) Write more short stories.

So, how did 2010 go . . .

Well I improved on the 88k and have written over a 100,000 words this year. It's a slight improvement, but I still feel I should be writing more than that.

1) Still writing the first draft of Lembek of the Towers 45k into it and I doubt it'll be 80-100k more like 150,000 words.

2) No not finished the script. In fact I've hardly touched it. Added a couple of scenes. I don't mind as scriptwriting isn't really a focus these days.

3) Redwald RPG is going quite well. It's more or less written, editing nearly finished, and there are a few people interested in a playtest. So that's going well.

Anyone who's interested in RPGs can find more info at the Redwald RPG Blog.

4) This went well I've had an article in each issue of TrollsZine! I've also had an article published in issue 10 of Fight On! Magazine. Which was nice.

5) Write more short stories. Not so good only written two.

So that was last year's goals didn't really achieve them all, but that's alright, still had a decent enough year.

Okay . . .

Writing Goals for 2011

1) Write a Trilogy.

That's it. Doesn't look like much, but it should be around 300,000+ words. I'll also finish Lembek and if I have time write the odd short story. Whether or not I write another RPG project next year depends on what happens with Redwald.

Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success. - Pablo Picasso

Scene Avoidance?

2010-12-09T14:03:00.000Z

During yesterday morning's writing session I suffered from a bout of Big Scene Avoidanceitis. I was about to write a major scene. Not one of the biggies, one that catapult's the plot forward, but an important enough scene. A wedding actually. A marriage of alliance between tow of the major powers in the setting. The heros' wedding.

However instead I ended writing up a 1,000 word scene covering just one more fencing lesson for the hero. It seemed reasonable enough, as his wedding ceremony will be a brief ritual after which he must fight in a deadly initiation ceremony. They have the wedding first so the alliance will stand even if the groom doesn't survive his coming of age ordeal.

About half way through the final training scene I realised that I was just writing it to avoid having to write the more important wedding scene. I finished anyway. Perhaps it's because I'm more used to writing short stories that it stuck out as an unneeded scene. My first instinct was to cut it out, but perhaps I'll leave it and look at in context when the whole thing is done. After all the avoidance scene still fulfills the objects of any scene: reveal character, move the plot forward, etc.

Anyone else find themselves writing extra scenes as a way of avoiding writing one of the big, or more difficult scenes?

Today

2010-12-08T10:28:00.000Z

PodLit

2010-12-02T12:18:00.000Z

The Liars' League have just updated their site and there's a podcast of my story Haiku Short, Parakeet Prawns, Konichiwa Peter read by voice actor Silas Hawkins.

Good Month

2010-12-01T00:28:00.000Z

Didn't 'win' NaNo, but a damn good month of writing and a good start on a novel. Final total word count for the month was 38,618 much better than my previous best which was 27,000 words. I even managed to do some editing today as well as write. Looking forward to the next month's writing and the next year's writing even more.

1st: 644

2nd: 1,366
3rd: 2,245
4th: 1,812
5th:2,287
6th: 1,684
7th: 1,724
8th: 2,269
9th: 986
10th: 1,831
11th: 757
12th: 2,409
13th: 2,043
14th: 2,043
15th: 1,901
16th: 1,572
17th: 1,571
18th: 1,571
19th: 537
20th: 500
21st: 459
22nd: 1,916
23rd: 1,414
24th: 450
25th: 1,009
27th: 1,118
28th: 0
29th: 0
30th: 500

November Total: 38, 618

Nov average: 1,287

Iceberg Dead Ahead!

2010-11-25T14:14:00.003Z

My unsinkable NaNoTanic has hit an iceberg and is sinking! 36,213 words in and I'm behind. Part of the problem is I found myself writing a scene that I knew I was going to cut, that had serious pacing priblems, and needed a rethink, but because this was NaNo I couldn't really take the time to do anything about it other than write through it. Which made it all a bit of a drag and by the time I'd finished this overlong scene (about 6,000 words) I was about 4,000 words behind schedule.

The thing is I'm not that bothered about finishing NaNo on time and though I've got behind, I have found that I can easily write 2,000 words a day and that writing that much everyday is an easy habit to foster and a lot better than struggle to squeeze out 500 words every so often. I can in theory catch up and finish NaNo on time, but don't mind if I don't as Long as I keep on writing 1,000-2,000 words a day with just the odd day off to recharge the batteries or fix a scene that just isn't working.

1st: 644
2nd: 1,366
3rd: 2,245
4th: 1,812
5th:2,287
6th: 1,684
7th: 1,724
8th: 2,269
9th: 986
10th: 1,831
11th: 757
12th: 2,409
13th: 2,043
14th: 2,043
15th: 1,901
16th: 1,572
17th: 1,571
18th: 1,571
19th: 537
20th: 500
21st: 459
22nd: 1,916
23rd: 1,414
24th: 450
25th: 1,009

November Total: 37,000
Oct average: 1,480

Halfway There (Not Livin' on a Prayer)

2010-11-16T13:49:00.002Z

Yesterday A.M I passed the NaNo halfway mark when I hit 25,000 words. Which was nice.

I've Seen a few anti-NaNo post lately posted by 'real' writers. Although they were 'real' writers they were a bit weak on research. One thought that NaNoers only wrote one month out of twelve, were sastisfied with whatever they wrote, didn't edit, or rewrite and sent their NaNo draft off to the publishers on Dec 1st. Another couldn't understand how anyone could write a good 50,000 novel in a month and thought the idea of limiting a novel to 50,000 words length was stupid anyway. If he took the minute or so it would take to check the NaNo FAQs he'd see that despite being called a Novel writing month you only have to write 50,000 words of a novel to finish, not a 50,000 novel. Ho Hum. Writing, especially writing to a publishable standard is hard work, but that doesn't mean some people can't do it for fun.

Anyway, I serious about my writing, and the craft but I'm still enjoying NaNo. It's been a real spur to my creativity. Juts the kick I needed at the latter part of the writing year.

NaNo Nov word count

1st: 644
2nd: 1,366
3rd: 2,245
4th: 1,812
5th:2,287
6th: 1,684
7th: 1,724
8th: 2,269
9th: 986
10th: 1,831
11th: 757
12th: 2,409
13th: 2,043
14th: 2,043
15th: 1,901
16th: 1,572
17th: 1,571
18th: 1,571

November Total: 30,715
Oct average: 1,706

Ahead of the Game, Just

2010-11-07T22:24:00.000Z

Finally caught up and recovered from my first day NaNo nightmare on Friday and today I got ever so slightly ahead by about a 100 words. So now that I'm caught up and I've getting into the swing of things hopefully this coming week I'll get ahead of myself. I have to say I'm enjoying myself and the story I'm telling. Hitting the 50,000 words and winning wouldn't be that important to, just getting a bit of momentum going has been good. I'd be happy if I came away from NaNO with a little more discipline and writing fitness and settle for developing the habit of writing a thousand words a day. However, I actually think I shouldn't settle and can do more. Plus there's 50% off Scrivener for NaNo winners and damned if I don't want that discount!

Day 1: 644

Day 2: 1,366
Day 3: 2,245
Day 4: 1,812
Day 5:2,287
Day 6: 1,684
Day 7: 1,724

Week 1 Total: 11,762

Writing Fitness

2010-11-03T18:30:00.000Z

I knew I was going to struggle with NaNoWriMo. It's half my normal year's output in one month. I think previously 27,000 words is the most I've managed in one month, but that isn't the norm. 500 words a day is the norm, that's when I do write, but normally there are far too many days when I don't write. That's one of the reasons I wanted to try NaNo, to build up my writing muscles and improve my writing stamina, and build on the discipline of writing every day and get writing fit. That and to break past 500 words a day which I've become far too ready to accept as a 'day's writing' when in reality 500 words is at best an hours writing. In fitness terms that's like getting out of bed, doing two press-ups, then saying sod it and going back to bed.

So day one of NaNo was, as I mentioned, a disaster from a NaNo point of veiw as my 664 didn't even pass the 667 part of the 1,667 words a day I need to write to hit the 50,000 word NaNo target. Still, it was, from my point of view, a relatively good writing day as I actually wrote, and wrote more than my normal 500 words, even if only slightly more.

Day two although another NaNo failure with only 1,346 words, missing the daily target again and leaving me with two days worth of catching up to do, was still a good day's writing for me.

Day three then has seen a near instant improvement in my 'writing fitness' surpassing the NaNo target of 1,667 and clawing back some of the deficit from days one and two as I manged a respectable 2,245 words.

Hopefully I'll be able to catch up soon and then stay ahead. I wonder how many words I can actually write in one day, exactly how 'writing fit' can I get in one month?. Maybe I'll find out at the weekend when there are less demands on my time. Then again maybe I'll hit the writing wall!

Day 1: 664

Day 2: 1,346
Day 3: 2,245

NaNoNiMare!

2010-11-01T23:02:00.000Z

First day of NaNoWriMo and everything that could go wrong did go wrong. First I realised things wouldn't work as they are with my story so I spent the morning rejigging the plot and rewriting notes, working on structure and blocking out scenes. Over 1,500 words of notes, but not a single word of prose. But it had to be done and there was still plenty of time. Well there was until I checked my emails and found that one of my accounts had been hacked by a Chinese spammer. So goodbye another time of chunk while I sorted that out. Then a parcel arrived, product no good, company in question claiming we had to pay a 30% restocking fee on returns, in other wordscthey expected us to pay a lot of money for no product. Sent a long time fuming and researching consumer rights. Swore a lot. A lot. Learnt my rights. Won't be paying any % of restocking fee that you very much. Swore some more.

In the end I only managed 664 words. Mood I was in I daren't add the other 2 words to that. Who knows what would have happened. So day one and I'm already behind, not a good start, but at least I have made a start for awhile it looked like I wouldn't.

Day 1: 664

Rædwald Blog

2010-10-31T15:32:00.000Z

Just a quick note to say that I've started a dedicated Rædwald Blog. New Adventures in Fantasy Fiction will now focus on writing and everything Rædwald related will be on the new blog. At some stage I might even start a third blog for more general RPG posts, or perhaps an Old School Review blog.

NaNoWriMo

2010-10-30T23:42:00.001+01:00

This year I'm taking my first shot at NaNoWriMo. That means I have to write 50,000 words in one month. That's 1,667 words a day. This should be interesting as normally IO only manage a 100,000 words a year, and 500 words a day is my usual. Not that I always manage to write everyday.

I'm going to be writing Lembek of the Towers the WIP I was planning, but dropped but it wasn't quite the type of fantasy I wanted to write. However, when I decided to try NaNo I hadn't come up with anything else yet, and didn't have time. I'd already done so much prep work on Lembek of the Towers it seemed a shame to waste it, plus it did keep nagging away at me as an idea so perhaps I was too hasty in abandoning it. I'm looking tio make it a short (by fantasy standards) novel at around the 80,000 word mark. So if NaNo goes well I'll be well past the half way mark at almost at the climax of the novel by this time in November.

There's just the small issue of finishing off the outline, and blocking out the opening scenes which I have a whole day to do, before I start on Monday.

EDIT: This is my 100th post. A good NaNoWriMo omen.

Scrivener Public Beta for Windows

2010-10-28T16:08:00.000+01:00

Scrivener, the well loved Mac software-app for writers, is on its way to Windows at last.

You know you don't really need anything beyond a decent text editor, but there are a few software apps for writers, that help with the pre-writing planning side of things, and post-writing editing stuff. None of them actually help you write your novel, screenplay, script or whatever it is you are writing, but some writers, me included, do find them helpful with the structuring of projects.

Out of all of these software apps the one that has always looked the most useful to me is Scrivener. But as a windows user I've only been able to look on enviously as Mac users tap away at their projects with it. Now, it's on its way to Windows and there's a free Scrivener Public Beta which will run until Dec 12, and the full product will be available in early 2011. There's also 50% discount for anyone who finishes their 50,000 words during NaNoWriMo. Which is a good incentive for me to finish NaNo which I'm attempting for the first time. More on that later.

The Fifteen Names of my Fifteen Games

2010-10-26T12:37:00.001+01:00

This is a meme that's been doing the rounds on the RPG blogs of late. I could easily do three lists of fifteen games, one for RPGs, one for Computer, Video, and Console games, and one for all the other games, but I'll stick to just the one. Although, it pains me to leave so many of my favourite games off the list.

1: Tunnels & Trolls - The first RPG I ever played, and one that I still love and still play. Simple and fun.

2: Basic Dungeons & Dragons - Unlike most I came to D&D second, rather than as my first RPG experience. Of all the versions I've played, and still play, this is my favourite D&D.

3: Runequest - Loved this game. It was different back then, and really exiting at the time as it introduced rules that were skill based rather than class and level based.

4: Space invaders - Mum, mum can I have 10p!

5: Gorf - Each level was different, and it talked to you, and it had a trigger type joystick and in the early 80's it owned my holiday money.

6: Game of Life - This was the first boardgame that was mine, as opposed to the family games like Cluedo and Monopoly. It also got me making my own little boardgames.

7: Unhappy Families - This was a Christmas present very seventies, very pollitcally incorrect, and very funny. Unfortunately no picturexs.

8: Valley of the Four Winds - A very simple chit and hex fantasy wargame based on a serial story that appeared in early editions of White Dwarf. The artwork sold me on this.

9: Pass the Pigs - Pigs instead of dice and the chance to throw a 'Double Leaning Jowler' what's not to like.

10: Jetpac - One of my first and favourite games on the ZX Spectrum. Back then the lush colour and detailed graphics were cutting edge. Damn I feel old.

11: Age of Empires - Although I got my first home computer, the ZX Spectrum, in 1982 it was long time before I got one of the iconic big beige boxes of the true computer age and when I did Age of Empires was the game I wanted, and played to death.

12: Shogun: Total War - I remember reading about this game, just paragraph in PC Zone well before the game was released, and I remember thinking I'd love that and I did, and still love the Total War Franchise.

13: Unreal Championship - I loved Unreal and Unreal Tournament on the PC, so when I managed to get on the Xbox before the full UK release Unreal Championship combined with Xbox Live was one of the all time great gaming experiences of my life.

14: Suikoden - Final Fantasy VII was a great JCRPG, so was Vandal Hearts, but Suikoden just pips them both as my all time favourite JCRPG on the Playstation. Lots of fun, very charming, based on the Water Margin, and you get your own castle.

15: X-Com: Enemy Unknown - The Playstation controller wasn't exactly a good fit for turn based strategy games, but that didn't stop me playing this game to death.

Well, that's my fifteen games and really that doesn't even scratch the surface. I've prolly spent far too much time playing games. Far too much. Still, everything is research.

Write, Edit, Balance

2010-10-22T12:23:00.000+01:00

I’m in that weird space between projects at the moment; trying to find the balance between writing and editing. I write fast, don’t edit as I write, don’t even tidy. It's the way that writing works best for me, but it does make editing a bit of a laborious process; as most of what I get down in the 1st draft reads like English is my second, possibly third, language.

I’ve finished what will be the playtest PDF of Redwald, and now need to edit it. I also have two 10k short stories that have been waiting for me to edit them for few months now and I need to get on and do that too. In November I intend to attempt NaNoWriMo for the first time, so that will be 1,667 fresh words a day, for thirty days. But between now and Nov 1st I have lots of editing I can be doing, but no writing. I don’t really want to sink my teeth in to another project before I try and write 50k of a novel in a month, but I also don’t want to spend a week just editing. I always feel I should be producing new work, even if it’s at a paltry 250 words a day, even if editing is piling up. I always feel this urge, this drive to get new words down.

I could, I should do some writing exercises, but every time I try I always think, always feel I could spend my valuable writing time writing fiction instead of exercises. Even though there is a good argument for ‘directed learning’, and trying new techniques, other styles, etc.

The ideal would be to spend part of my writing time writing fresh words, and part of it editing. To do that, and do it consistently, so that every day I write, edit, write, edit, write, edit. Given limited time if I have to choose, one it’s always write now, edit later. After all if you don’t write there’ll be nothing new to edit. Of course, with drafts as rough as mine, if I don’t edit there’ll be no new publications. Sometimes I think my drive for new words is a way of putting off editing as I find it tiresome, but if anything is to come of my adventures in fantasy fiction, I have to strike a balance.

Anyone else struggle with the write, edit balance?

Dragons of Redwald VII

2010-10-18T17:29:00.000+01:00

The last dragon . . .

Wælgeuga

Wælgeuga, the deadly walker, is the most bestial of the Dracan. The size of a burial mound, it has no tail, or wings, but a barrel shaped body that is low to the ground and a broad head with powerful jaws full of dagger sized teeth. Its hide is grass green and the scales covered in horns and bumps and impervious to most weapons.

It lacks the guile and cunning of its brothers and sisters and in fact seems to lack any intelligence other than the basest animal wit. It has no particular hatred of humanity and is intent on nothing more than satisfying it voracious hunger. It feeds once every 10 years, but feeds in a frenzy devouring anything and everything it can: whole herds of sheep and cattle, crops, the villagers, even their homes and possessions, sometimes even hedgerows and trees. Once it has fed, Wælgeuga burrows far beneath the earth and creates a huge lair where it sleeps for another 10 years until it awakes, emerging from its lair twice its previous size and twice as hungry as before. Those that have survived Wælgeuga terrors and seen it return decade after decade larger and hungrier each time, are convinced that if it isn’t stopped one day it will devour the world. Unfortunately most people who see it don’t survive, and most that haven’t seen it don’t believe the tales, dismissing it like all the other myths and stories of dragons, monsters and other such childish foolishness.

Wælgeuga: AC: 0[19]; HD: 10; HP: 42; Attacks: Barge, Stamp, Bite (1d6, 1d6, 1d6); Special: All is edible, Stone hide, Magic resistance 45%; Saving Throw: 12; Move: 14; HDE/XP: 14/1400

Wælgeuga is lumbering and predictable in combat concentrating bullishly on one target until it has killed and devoured it. It ignores everything else unless someone wounds it then its rage will focus on them.

Once a target is selected it barges into them if the barge attack fails then the attack is over for that round. If it is successful not only does it damage the target it knocks them prone, making its next attack at a +2 bonus. After the barge it stamps on its victims legs causing not only damage, but reducing their movement rate by half and negating any Dex bonus to AC. Once it has its victim prone and crippled it starts to eat them. It can bite through anything so any protection from armour is ignored, making its targets AC: 9[10] for its bite attack unless they have any other method of protection. It will continue to keep biting its chosen victim until they’re dead then spend the next turn eating them before attacking someone else. Wælgeuga’s hide is tough and thick making it impossible for arrows, spears, and axes to penetrate and do any real damage. Only a sword can pierce deep enough to wound Wælgeuga.

Dragons of Redwald VI

2010-10-15T18:46:00.000+01:00

Úhtfloga

Úhtfloga, the twilight flier, lives entirely on the wing. From tail to nose she is as long as two mead halls, but is svelte and graceful her body being only a little broader than the cattle she feeds on. Her scales are coloured in a blackish-blue that makes her hard to spot in the night sky.

In the day she spends her time high above the clouds gliding and sleeping, but when the sun sets she descends to hunt. She glides down to ground level under the cover of darkness, silent but for the faint whoosh of air. She approaches her prey from behind and strikes with her talons at the base of their skull, stuns it, then flies off with, gaining height as swiftly as possible so her victim will think twice about breaking free of her grip, that’s if they even recover from being stunned before she devours them. If faced with any resistance Úhtfloga can breathe a cloud of paralyzing fumes. She only needs one cow (or man) sized meal a week and is a good hunter so if faced with fierce resistance is more likely to fly on, rather than fight for her hard for her kill.

Úhtfloga: AC: 3[16]; HD: 6; HP: 29; Attacks: Talons (1d6+3); Special: stunning strike, paralyzing breath, magic resistance 45%; Saving Throw: 10; Move: 30; HDE/XP: 9/900

Swooping silently down behind her victims in the cover of darkness, Úhtfloga has a 3 in 6 chance on a d6 of surprising her victim. Her stunning strike is +3 to hit and does the normal damage for her Talons, but the victim must also roll under their Con, minus the damage caused by the talons, on a d20. If they succeed they are only stunned for 1 round. If they fail they are stunned for 1d3 plus the amount they missed the roll by in rounds. Either way, unless their companions act quickly when they come to they’ll find themselves hundreds of feet in the air, held in the grasp of a hungry dragon. If she does face resistance Úhtfloga will use her paralyzing breath which can affect 2d6 targets at once, who if they fail their saving will be paralyzed for 1d3 turns.

Dragons of Redwald IV & V

2010-10-14T19:33:00.002+01:00

Lígdraca

Lígdraca, the fiery dragon is a formless creature of pure fire. He often takes the shape of a fierce winged dragon composed of flickering orange-yellow flame, with eyes of white hot fire. He preys on human settlements, attacking at dusk screaming down from the sky. He flies from building to building until the whole settlement is aflame and then rises to watch it burn. He takes no interest in people, other than destroying their settlements, and ignores them unless they are foolish enough to try and stop him. He also burns the settlements cattle and crops. After his burning he often watches the aftermath of the devastation he has caused spending days, hovering high in the sky. Many believe he derives a grim satisfaction from watching the survivors as they shuffle around in shock wondering how they’ll manage without food or shelter.

Lígdraca: AC: 4[15]; HD: 5; HP: 22; Attack: fiery grasp (1d6+3); Special: Immunities, firestarter; Saving Throw: 12; Move: 18; HDE/XP: 7/700

Lígdraca can only be harmed by magical means or enchanted weapons and anything he lands on (including people) has a 4 in 6 chance of bursting into flame causing 1d3 damage for 1d6 rounds to anyone affected.

Níþdraca

Níþdraca, the dragon of malice looks like a muscular draconic wolf that is twice the size of a bull. It is jet black and hunts at night, but even in daylight is hard to follow as it can move in a blur of speed and can wrap itself in a shroud of shadow.

Níþdraca, is the youngest, and smallest of Eorðdraca’s progeny, but is also one of the most hateful of the Dracan. Typically it stalks humans and follows them back to their settlement. It then spends a few days watching the settlement until it has a sense of the people and their relationships. It is then that Níþdraca strikes. Stealing into one of the homes it takes member of the community making sure its attack is witnessed; so that someone sees it flee with the victim then it disappears into the night. Instead of devouring its chosen victim immediately it keeps them alive, and near to their home then torments them so that their friends and loved ones can hear their pitiful cries for help.

If any of the villagers are brave enough to attempt a rescue it uses its powers to spirit itself and its victim to another location. Once the rescue party has given up it begins its torment again, to mock the rescue attempt and torture the villagers with more cries from their loved one. It does this for a week or so or until it tires of toying with the settlement. Its last act of malice is to devour the victim’s body, sneak back into the settlement, and leave the head at the door of the victim’s family for them to find when they awake.

Níþdraca: AC: 1[18]; HD: 7; HP: 30; Attacks: Claw, Claw, Bite (1d6,1d6, 1d6+4); Special: blur of speed, shroud of shadow, magic resistance 50%; Saving Throw: 8; Move: 24; HDE/XP: 10/1000

Already twice as fast as men, once a day Níþdraca can move in a blur of speed so fast that nothing can see it move let alone catch it. If tracked in daylight and unable to use its speed to escape Níþdraca can envelop itself and the surrounding area in a shroud of shadow that no one can see into or see out of (making it -4 to hit Níþdraca ). People might know that Níþdraca is in the cloud of darkness, but not where. They would also know their loved one was also in the darkness.

Dragons of Redwald III

2010-10-13T12:58:00.000+01:00

Eorðdraca

Eorðdraca, the earth dragon is the oldest living being in Redwald. It is told in legend that she slumbered under the earth for a thousand years when nothing lived and all the world was ice. It was only when she awoke, that her heat and warmth brought life to the world.

She is worshipped as a deity by the Dweorgas, but it is a strange kind of worship that includes holding her prisoner in magical bonds, using her fiery breath to power their forges, and farming her eggs to create their fire powder, their weapons, armour, and the intricate metalcraft they are famed for.

It is because of Eorðdraca that the Dweorgas live beneath the mountains. Their ancestors, exploring the caves beneath the mountains, found Eorðdraca and because they were brave, and forward, and because they were the first creatures to speak to her, Eorðdraca allowed them to live, and to worship her. They brought her prisoners to feed on and in return she gave them the knowledge of runes, and taught them the secrets of crafting metal making them the first race of men to understand the secrets of metallurgy.

When Eorðdraca laid her next egg and the Dracan, Níþdraca was hatched the Dweorgas discovered that powerful weapons could be formed using what was left of the eggshell and their lust for power and riches overtook them.

Through cunning and treachery the Dweorgas captured their god and bound her with golden chain, forged in the heat of her own fire, and enchanted with the very runes she taught them. Since that time, although they worship her as a god, Eorðdraca is their prisoner and all her eggs are harvested by the Dweorgas before they hatch.

The shell they grind down to make fire-powder, the scales and bones of the unhatched dragonlings they grind down and add to the ore that makes their weapons, armour, and trinkets. The flesh and blood is consumed by the Dweorgas elite in dark rituals. To force her to breathe flames, to power their furnaces and heat their underground city, the Dweorgas use a gold-plated bone goad enchanted with runes which they force through her left eye and directly into her brain.

The Dweorgas still worship her, and feed her on slaves and prisoners taken in war or traded with the mountain men, or the king of Westlund Seaxe. Eorðdraca’s existence is one of misery and torture. If she ever gains her freedom she will take great pleasure in the slow and deliberate destruction of the Dweorgas people and will not rest until they are no more.

She is huge the size of a large hill, the sort men build hill forts on. Her scales are a dull earth-brown hue with golden tints. Her long neck is serpentine and her head alone is the size of a longhouse, the powerful jaws able to swallow up groups of men. The backdraft of her powerful wings can flatten buildings, her rear and fore claws sharp and deadly and even in her current weakened form she is a fearful foe and a threat to all mankind.

Eorðdraca: AC: -2 [21]; HD: 20; HP: 160; Attacks: Bite (3d6) Tail bash (2d6) Claws (1d6 each); Special: Magic Resistance 80%, Devouring Maw, The Dragon’s Breath, Earthmover; Saving Throw: 6; Move: 16 on land 24 in the air; HDE/XP: 25/25,000

As well as her regular attacks targeted at individuals her devouring maw can swallow 3d6 1HD enemies per round and she can breathe fire doing 1d6 damage to 1d100 massed troops or 10d6 damage to a single target. Being of the earth herself once free of her magical bonds she is able to create huge rifts in the earth, rifts powerful enough to submerge a village or hill fort.

Fight On! Issue #10

2010-10-12T15:11:00.001+01:00

Once again, Fight On! returns to unscroll the Runes of Chaos and conjure the mighty titans of yesteryear! Dedicated to Tom Moldvay, this BIG issue contains three BIG undercities and lost worlds by Gabor Lux, James Mishler, and Chris Robert, right alongside the rules supplements, mini-adventures and modules, villages, one-page dungeons, spells, monsters, NPCs, tricks, traps, geomorphs, reviews, and tables you've come to know, love, and expect from our fantastic fanzine. Illustriously illustrated by Patrick Farley, Jennifer Weigel, Lester, Kelvin Green, Jason Sholtis, Peter Mullen, Mark Allen, Anthony Stiller, Steve Robertson, and more; puissantly penned by Jeff Rients, Calithena, Jerry Stratton, Tim Snider, Geoff McKinney, Patrice Crespy, Peter Schmidt Jensen, Paul Stormberg, Geoffrey O. Dale, Tim Kask, and a whole gang of garrulous grognards trying to take it (their PC, that is) to the next level. We hope you'll roll the bones on this issue and check it out - but either way, keep Fighting On!

You can check out the print version here.

Or the eBook version here.

Here’s the TOC to whet your appetite:

Table of Contents

Fast Company (Alex Schroeder)…………………………...3
Wear and Tear (Mátyás “Urban” Hartyándi)....…………….5
Catwomen and Lion-Men (Calithena)…………...….….…..5
The Time-Displaced (Tim “Sniderman” Snider)…....…..….7
Cult Leader (Lee Reynoldson)……………………………..9
The Familiar Spirit (James A. Smith)……...……………...11
Knights & Knaves (Duncan Jones & Sean Still)…..…...…14
Khosura, Part II (Gabor Lux)………………...………….15
Killing Monsters You Can’t Kill (Jeff Rients)……...……..39
Creepies & Crawlies (various)…………….………...……40
The Godzillas Will Breath On You (Geoff McKinney)…..43
Futa-kuchi-onna (Ian & Andrew Baggley)…...….…….….47
Urgent Care Cleric (Jonathan Linneman & Kelvin Green).48
Education of a Magic-User (Douglas Cox)……………….49
Trolls will be Trolls (Heron Prior)……………………..…50
Time For Tea (Clarabelle Chong)…….…………...…...…51
Heart of Darkness (Lord Kilgore)…………………...…...52
Laboratory of the Asmodean Techno-Mage (P. Mullen)....53
Special Properties of Gemstones (Wayne Rossi)……...….54
The Coinage of Ilthar (Calithena)………………...………55
Artifacts, Adjuncts, & Oddments (various)……….……...56
Lost Dragonia (James Mishler)…………………….......…57
Tables for Fables (Age of Fable)………………………....79
Weird Treasure Containers (Telecanter)……………...…..81
Moldvay-esque Adventure Generator (Michael David, Jr.).81
Dungeon Modules (Geoffrey O. Dale)……..……….……82
Hobgoblin Halls (Joshua Mackay)………………………..83
The Shrine that Glittered (Patrice Crespy)………………..86
Moulin Rouge 1955 (Jerry Stratton)……………………....94
Random’s Assortment (Thinker, Random, and Jensen)…..98
The Darkness Beneath (Chris Robert)……………….….100
Merlyn’s Mystical Mirror (Hargrove/Hewlett/Pookie)….121
Everyone is Here to Have Fun (Paul Stormberg)…….…129
One-Off Con Adventures (Tim Kask)……………….....133
Dougal Must Die! (Steve Robertson)………...……..…...135
Dungeon Geomorphs (Tim Ballew)……………...……..137

Dragons of Redwald II

2010-10-11T16:01:00.000+01:00

Fýrdraca

Fýrdraca, the Fire-Spewer, is a voracious predator and a bane to mankind. Cattle, sheep, goats, farmers, villagers he isn’t fussy which he takes, but feeds once a week on three or four at a time. He is a flightless quadruped about the length and height of a small longhouse, and is a mass of muscle and mottled grey and green scales whose colour matches the forest and rocks of the mountain highlands he haunts.

Despite his size his colouring offers a certain amount of camouflage as he stalks his prey, but once he has spotted his kill there’s no attempt at ambush or stealth. Instead he roars a challenge that shakes the hills and leaves his prey frozen in fear. It’s then that he charges out of cover, sprays them with a spew of liquid fire, and devours the charred remains. His hunting grounds range across the kingdoms of Geatlund, Westland Jute mainly in the north on the borders with the Wildling Highlands. Between hunts he spends most of his time sleeping in his mountain, digesting his kill, and building up his energy reserves for the next hunt.

Fýrdraca: AC: 1[19]; HD: 12+4; HP: 55; Attacks: Bite (1d6) Claws (1d6); Special: Roar of Dominance, Fire-Spewer; Saving Throw: 12; Move: 14; HDE/XP: 14/14000

Anyone who hears Fýrdraca’s roar of dominance must make a ST. If they fail they are paralyzed with fear and can do nothing until after Fýrdraca’s next attack.

Fýrdraca’s deadliest weapon is the liquid fire he spews forth. This attack uses a lot of his energy and can only be used twice before Fýrdraca either has to feed and sleep for a week, or, if his hunt is unsuccessful, sleep for two weeks.

The Fire-Spewer attack is hits automatically. To determine how many are affected and what damage they take roll 1d6. The number rolled is the number of targets affected; the number on the opposite face of the die is the number of d6 in damage they must each take.

For example: if you roll a 1, then one target must take 6d6 damage if you roll a 6, then six targets take 1d6 damage each. The first roll also indicates how many rounds the liquid fire will burn for after the initial round during which anyone affected takes 1d3 dice of damage unless the flames are put out by spending a round rolling in the dirt, covering them with a blanket, via magic, or some other means.

The Dragons of Redwald

2010-10-07T19:39:00.001+01:00

Dracan (Dragons)

The Dracan of Readwald, sometimes called Wyrms, are not a race or species, but a collective name for a variety of monsterours reptiles that roam the land. Each Draca is a singular creature which bears little or no relation to the others. Little is known of these solitary hunters, even by the Dweorgas who worship a Draca as a god. There are only seven Dracan and when they have been slain they will be no more than folk tales to frighten children.

Áttorsceaða

Áttorsceaða is a poisonous destroyer, but her poison is not the venom that flows through fangs, but the lies and desires she uses to poison the hearts of men. One of the oldest, most cunning, and malicious of her kind Áttorsceaða remembers the days long past when her kind ruled the world.

Áttorsceaða is the most Wyrm like of the Dracan and resembles a huge serpent large enough to coil herself around a hill. Her scales are corpse white, her eyes amber yellow, she has diminutive malformed wings, but cannot fly. She can use her tail as a club, or bite foes with her fangs, but considers such bestial behaviour below her and has yet to meet either beast or man that she couldn’t bend to her will. She does not need to feed on flesh as the despair and woe of mortal men is the only sustenance she requires.

Áttorsceaða: AC: 5[14]; HD: 8; HP: 38; Attacks: Tail Bash (1d6) Bite (1d6+4); Special: Poisoner of hearts and minds, Shape-shifter, Saving Throw: 4; Move: 10 (12 in human form); HDE/XP: 12/12000

Depending on the gender and preferences of her intended victim she changes form to resemble a man or woman of great magnetism and raw sexual attraction. It is only in the moments before their death or doom that her victims see or realise what she truly is.

One of Áttorsceaða’s greatest powers is to be able to read the hearts and minds of mortals with a mere glance. Her victims are allowed a ST, but with a -2 penalty.

Once she has read their darkest desires, hopes, and secrets she uses this knowledge to manipulate people to cause misery and mayhem for those around them. For example, she often convinces two people that each bars the way to that which the other desires most in all the world, then sits back and enjoys the fallout.

Another of her favourite schemes is to take the form of someone her victim knows: a friend, family member, lord, or rival and use the familiarity of the relationship to manipulate, hurt or mislead her victims and cause more misery.

She dwells in the kingdom of the Wulfingas where she has many opportunities to cause mischief and feed amongst the chaos of the kingdom’s six-way civil war. A war in fact she herself started.

TrollsZine! 3

2010-10-04T09:26:00.001+01:00

Just sent off my TrollsZine! 4 submission and remembered I'd forgot to mention TrollsZine! 3 . . .

You can get it from RPGnow: TrollsZine 3

Do It Like Heinlein

2010-09-03T14:33:00.000+01:00

~~Good~~ Great advice on editing over at Dean Wesley Smith's Blog.

Third Time’s the Charm?

2010-08-31T09:45:00.000+01:00

Okay, so I dumped my first attempt at a novel. It was a WIP about a woman obsessed with fantasy novels who is transported to a fantasy world. A neat enough premise. It was written seat of the pants style and I got about 40,000 words in and realised it wasn’t working, and I didn’t know where it was going.

WIP number 2, Lembek of the Towers, I decided to plot-plan in advance before I wrote anything. I have detailed notes on characters, setting, premise, back cover copy, and the entire opening of the novel, but no desire whatsoever to actually write it. So here I go again. Lembek of the Towers is getting put on hold. Lembek was also a neat enough premise: The son of the city’s greatest sorcerer is framed for murder and banished to the city’s slums. With every assassin in the city, and every thug in the slums, out to kill him can he survive long enough to find the real killer, prove his innocence and reclaim his rightful place in society.

The problem with both of those is that they aren’t really what I want to write and love to read. I prefer dark fantasy, low magic gritty stories of sword and sorcery, which neither of the above was. The first WIP was satire, comedic fantasy which I like well enough and do read, but don’t love. The second, Lembek, was a kind of fantasy murder mystery in a steampunk post-apocalyptic faux-Georgian setting. Again, I’d read something like that, but I don’t love that style of fantasy.

So it’s back to the drawing board for a long hard look at the type fantasy I really love and some brainstorming and this time, no matter what I’m going to start and finish my third WIP, and my first novel length work.

299 Review Time?

2010-08-25T17:59:00.000+01:00

My short story Cap'n Jethro previously published in Flashing Swords (a now sadly deceased S&S ezine) and currently available at . . .

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.com

Barnes & Noble

Diesel eBooks

. . . has hit 299 downloads, but has no reviews on any of the sites. A short review would be great.

The Zen Work Ethic

2010-08-23T22:25:00.000+01:00

This picture is a metaphor for my current Zen like art of writing without writing. The In-tray is full, but there's not a lot of work getting done . . .

Redwald PBP Playtest

2010-07-16T14:39:00.002+01:00

I'm starting a Play-by-post 'alpha' playtest of Redwald, my Swords & Wizardry/OD&D alt rules, over at RPGnet. Here are the previous Redwald posts . . .

Redwald

Redwald Classes

Classes 2: Skirmishers

Now With Pictures!

2010-06-19T12:24:00.000+01:00

This isn't about Writing, Fantasy, or RPG's, but my long suffering Significant Other, more commonly known as the missus, has got herself a new digital camera so I took a few test pics in the garden . . .

It's a Cannon Powershot A495 a decent budget camera. The pictures are okay, considering I'm no photographer (for proof of that see the new profile picture). Okay, back to the world cup for me.

World Cup: Everything Cancelled!

2010-06-04T14:20:00.000+01:00

If I don't post anything over the next few weeks it'll be becasue I'm watching the World Cup!

WIP: A Cast of Quite a Few!

2010-05-22T11:52:00.005+01:00

Not quite a cast of thousands, but plenty of characters. The main character's names are bolded.

People of the Towers
Lembek: Protagonist – Young, naïve, soft, fastidious about his clothes and appearance, something of a Dandy. Desperate to be part of Tower society and please his father. Everyone thinks he has no talent for sorcery, and he is as suprised as the rest of his family when he finds out he has the gift. Not that it helps him, in fact it's the reason he ends up in trouble in the first place.

Drago Effingdon the Fifth Earl of Elmstower: Lembek's Father, lord of Elmstower (aka the great tower). The most powerful sorcerer in the City of Towers. Stiff, unforgiving, formal, fierce. Traditionalist. Cold.

Cal-Drago: Lembek's oldest brother, and heir to the great tower - almost as powerful a sorcerer as his father. Brash, confident, mocking, feigns indifference but is extremely ambitious.

Neve: Cal-Drago's wife – A dark beauty, deadly and even more ambitious than her husband.

Talen: The villian - Drago's second son and Lembek's favourite brother - He has no talent for sorcery and very little ambition beyond that which duty demands. Friendly, relaxed, slightly overweight, arch sense of humour, but driven by jeolousy and bitterness. He had just about come to terms with being second fiddle to Cal-Drago his older brother, but when he finds out Lembek has the gift of sorcery and that now he is also behind his younger brother in the pecking order he breaks.

Elise: Talen's wife – Young, shy, mouse like in appearance, but vicious.

Archivist Senca: The Finder Fixer of the great tower.

Jaglert: Former servant of Earl Drago, but newly assigned to Lembek and unhappy about it. Sly, bitter, untrustworthy, lazy.

Fegg the Dead: Earl Drago's fearsome sorcerous bodyguard.

Sergeant Cooper Henshaw: Lembek's master or arms.

Stint Henshaw: Drago's new servant, previously Lembek's servant and boyhood friend, son of Lembek's master of arms.

Sword Servants: Drago's hand picked warriors.

Della: A young maid, in love with Lembek, a beauty from the Lows.

Bethnay: Lembek's wife to be – grasping, ambitious, sociopathic.

Count Effingdon of the Green Tower: Bethnay's father desperate to form an alliance with the great tower. Obsequious toady.

Artgwyer: Bethnay's younger brother, fey, shy, weak-willed, enamoured of Lembek and his fashionable taste.

People of the Mids
Captain Tal-Ben Radjapur of the True Blades: Dashing Mercenary Captain.

The True Blades: The City's most famous and flamboyant mercenary company.

Lakshmi Radjapur: The Captain's wife, famed as the most beautiful woman in the city of Towers.

Salgado: A spy – drab, ordinary looking, forgettable, no one can remember what he looks like or his name . . . unless he wants them to.

Master Hamscore Sanderson: Head of the Traders and Crafters.

The Traders and Crafters: The people who use the recycled refuse of the Lows and the old world to make new items saleable to the Mids and the Towers.

People of the Lows
Skulk: Antagonist – Young, jaded, lonely, deformed. Had a harsh childhood as a lone orphan scavenger in the Lows. Refused to beg and is hated by the beggar king, constantly pursued and harried by him and his beggars. Desperate to join the Croakers and please Old MacKay the King of the Croakers.

Gort: Champion prize fighter of the Lows, huge brute of a man with a face that looks like it has been used to smash down brick walls then whipped with razors, then set on fire. Della's brother.

Venk: Gort's 'molly-boy' - outrageous and camp, but as ruthless and dangerous as any Croaker.

Old MacKay: The king of the Croakers a raucous old dog of a man, when he's not taking care of Croaker business he's wallowing in gin and whores and laughing at his own jests (none of which are funny).

Letch & Farnsworth: Old MacKay's best Croakers, they always work together.

Letch: A rancid little weasel of a man.

Farnsworth: Prim & proper.

The Croakers: The city's assassins they'll croak anyone for a purse of clink.

Malduj: The Beggar King - a very powerful man in the Lows. Obsessed with making Skulk a beggar believes her deformity is so hideous she would be his best earner.

The Beggars: Deformed and disabled children and youths, who beg (and steal)in the Mids.

Bharat: The Finder King – another powerful figure of the Lows he controls the rubbish tips. Very much a man of the people loved and respected by his Finders as he does the best he can for them.

The Finders: The poor and unwashed who live and work amongst the mountainous piles of refuse discarded by the people of the Mids and the Towers. They sort it and prepare it for recycling by the traders and crafters. There are also bands of brave finders who explore the dangerous ruins of the old world looking for 'treasures' that are highly sought after by the people of the Towers. Their existence is one of poverty and day by day survival, dreaming of finding that one treasure that will allow them to buy a life in the Mids.

Gaverly: Huge breasted and foul mouthed madam of the 'Low Spirits' the most famous brothel, and drinking den in the Lows.

Gaverly's Girls: Assorted pox-ridden whores.

Bowley the Breaker: The Low Spirits' bouncer and a friend of Gort. Small but a skilled breaker of arms.

Dead Danner: Cantankerous old drunkard who lives in the 'Low Spirits' and is famed for his sharp tongue. It's rumoured he once lived in the Towers and should have died of old age two centuries ago, but is so stubborn he just refuses to die.

Stubfoot & Gubbit Independent Traders: Two eccentric traders who prefer to go it alone in the Lows, rather than as part of the Traders & Crafters in the Mids market. Much to the chagrin of the Traders & Crafters they seem to have a knack for finding, crafting and selling unique items and treasures that intrigue the rich and powerful folk of the towers.

Mr Stubfoot: A grubby little man, who always seems to have a pie in hand and grease running down his grey whiskered chin, doesn't say much, usually just nods and grunts.

Mr Gubbit: Tall lanky man, cheerful and garrulous to the point of distraction.

WIP: Story in One Paragraph

2010-05-16T10:33:00.000+01:00

I've never attempted this sort of thing before, I prefer to just write, but you have to keep trying new stuff, keep learning so here goes . . .

Story in One Paragraph

1 paragraph, 5 sentences, 3 disasters and an ending . . .

First Version . . .

In the magical city of a thousand towers, the son of its greatest lord is about to be wed. But when he is framed for the murder of a maid and the mutilation of his brother-in-law to be he must flee for his life. In desperation he seeks refuge in the lows, the city's dangerous slums. Even as he struggles to come to terms with his new surroundings, he knows he must find out who framed him, but when the city's assassins are unleashed the only way to stop them is to become one himself and eliminate whoever is responsible for his troubles. So he goes on the offensive only to find out it is his own brother behind the plot to destroy him.

Second Version . . .

Lembek, the youngest son of the City's greatest Sorcerer, is on the cusp of adulthood but before he joins 'society' he must face the death-test and, perhaps even more worrying, marriage. On the eve of his wedding party he is framed for the murder of a beautiful young maid, and must escape. He escapes to the lows, the city's deadly slums, but soon finds himself hunted by the fearsome Gort, brother of the murdered maid. He only just convinces Gort of his innocence, and makes an ally of him, when Croakers, the infamous assassins of the lows, start to hunt him through the slums. Lembek and Gort turn the tables on the Croakers and start hunting them, determined to find out who is behind their attacks. When he finally tracks down the King of the Croakers Lembek is devastated to learn that it is his own family that wants him dead. He and Gort set out to do what no one has ever done before: fight their way from the lows and up into the Great Tower, where Lembek will confront his family and prove his innocence or die trying.

Third Version . . .

When the novel's finished I think.

TrollsZine! Issue 2

2010-05-15T10:26:00.001+01:00

I should have posted this last week when issue 2 First went live. Anyway, better late and all that. Here's TrollsZine! Issue 2. Like issue 1 it's packed full of Tunnels & Trolls goodness including another article by yours truly.

EDIT: Helps if I link! You can get TrollsZine! 2 from Lulu Trollsbridge Store or RPGnow and Drive ThruRPG best of all it's free!

I Keep Hitting it with My Axe

2010-05-13T10:46:00.001+01:00

Another webisode of I Hit it with My Axe (a phrase that gets used quite a lot with this bloodthirsty group) . . .

This is getting better each episode, I particularly like the 'post match' interviews, breaking down what happened and to who. I also like the upside down, back to front goblin kingdom. On paper it's a simple enough idea, but it adds a ton of fun in play.

FRPG FRIDAY: I hit it with my axe until Kimberly Kane's Elf turns blue!

2010-05-07T16:28:00.000+01:00

As mentioned previously I wrote the Mad Mushrooms for The Fungus Forest and they ended up being featured in I hit it With My Axe, the web tv series based on Zak's excellent Playing D&D with Pornstars blog. Which to me is kinda surreal, I mean I'm noodling around writing nerdy RPG stuff for fun, in unglamorous Leicestershire not for one minute thinking an internationally renowned LA artist and alt-pornstar would pay me to use them in a web show! Which is neat, cos I like a big portion of surreal in my D&D that's what the Mad Mushrooms were for in the first place.

Here's the episode where they feature . . .

Gotta love: 'I hack off his foot!' That's just total D&D.

WIP: The Story Question - Ten Variations on a Theme

2010-04-23T17:49:00.002+01:00

In preperation for my next WIP, I've been playing around and brainstroming versions of the novel's story question. The novel, working title of 'Lembek of the Towers', is set in a kind of Georgian-era society with magic, but in a post apocalyptic world.

Story Question?

1:When he is framed for the murder of a maid, and the mutilation of his brother-in-law, a young Noble hunts for the truth and searches out the real killer, but he is banished from noble society and struggles to survive in the cutthroat gutters of the city slums, while every blade is determined to stop him.

2: Framed for murder and banished to the lows, young noble Lembek must fight to survive and clear his name, whilst at the same time coming to terms with his newfound magical powers, but can he succeed when the king of the Croakers and every assassin in the city is out to stop him.

3: When he is framed for murder and banished young noble and neophyte sorcerer Lembek sets out to find the truth, but will he succeed when the king of the Croakers and every assassin in the city is out to stop him.

4: In the magic rich city of a thousand towers, the noble son of one of the city’s sorcerer elites is framed for murder and banished to the lows: the cutthroat slums beneath the towers.

5: The son of a sorcerer-lord is framed for murder and banished to the slums; where he must fight for his life, prove his innocence in order to win back his place in society.

6: A noble-sorcerer’s son is framed for murder and banished to the city’s dangerous slums.

7: The son of one of the City of Towers sorcerer-elite is framed for murder and banished to the slums.

8: In the City of a Thousand Towers the son of the city’s most powerful Sorcerer-Lord is framed for murder and banished from the Great Tower to the sprawling and deadly slums below.

9: Framed for murder the son of a powerful sorcerer is banished to the city’s slums.

10: Framed for murder, banished to the city slums, the son of a powerful sorcerer must first fight for survival before he can prove his innocence.

Wednesday Worldbuilding: The Shore People

2010-04-21T14:11:00.000+01:00

The Shore People

All along the southern shores of the spine live interrelated tribes of humans who call themselves collectively: the shore people.

Each tribe differs in its customs, social mores, values, etc. but they all share a common mythology and they all excel at fishing, most are excellent swimmers and canoeists, and some are skilled surfers. For many though, some by choice, others by necessity, warfare has become their primary skill-set and way of life.

Amongst the shore people, beyond the necessities of everyday life, pearls, certain shells, and some types of coral are highly sought after and act as status symbols. Because of this skilled Pearl divers are valuable to any tribe, and the subject of much intertribal rivalry; a rivalry that sometimes includes taking of divers by force in raids or more formal challenges between two tribes.

After generations of raids and challenges a warrior caste has started to develop in many of the tribes. At first warriors were chosen based on physical prowess and innate skill, but now the warrior caste has become hereditary with fathers, or mothers for there are many female warriors, pass down the jealously guarded secrets of their combat skills to their children and raise them as warriors from birth. This makes it very difficult for anyone not born to the warrior caste to force their way into the hierarchy.

Each family has it’s own speciality, its own preferred weapons but most tribes use a clubs carved from wood, stone or whalebone, clubs studded with shark’s teeth, carved wooden spears, fishing spears, blow darts, bows, and bolas.

To become a warrior a youth must pass an initiation ceremony, after which their face is tattooed to mark them out as a warrior. After that further tattoos are earned for bravery and success in war, and thus each warrior’s face displays his worth and status within the tribe.

As well as fighting amongst themselves and defending their tribes against the Aze-Toh and the many other threats they face warriors from many tribes have formed an alliance to fight a holy war against the lizardmen of the outer islands who they believe to be demons. This has caused division between the tribes and within individual tribes as many feel it is unwise for their warriors to leave the shore to fight on foreign lands.

Wednesday Worldbuilding: The Aze-Toh Headhunters

2010-04-14T13:11:00.000+01:00

Previous Wednesday Worldbuilding posts . . .

1: Thou shalt not Tolkienize!

2: How the Hell Do You Build a World Anyway?

3: The Shape of Things to come

4: Of Men and Monsters

5: It's A Kind of Magic

6: The Village of the Hahn

The Aze-Toh

The human tribes of the Spine tell stories of the Aze-Toh; a fierce tribe of head hunters who have no home of their own, instead spending eternity roaming the spine and taking fear and death wherever they go.

The truth is the Aze-Toh are not a tribe they are slave-citizens of Zinth, the ziggurat city of the sorcerer kings.

Every ten years the acolytes, the human servitors of the sorcerer kings, select from the slave-citizen populace boys and girls who they deem likely candidates for the Aze-Toh. Those young people then spend the remainder of their lives in being trained in all aspects of combat, raiding tactics, jungle survival, tracking, and other more esoteric practices. It is rumoured some are even taught the secrets of sorcery. After ten years of training they are armed and equipped with the best the city has and then sent from the city to raid.

Ranging in number from thirty to fifty warriors Aze-Toh raiding parties roam back and forth across the spine, searching its coasts, going deep into the jungles. They seek only to raid their fellow humans and avoid conflict, where possible, with all the other races of the Spine. Their orders are clear they are to harvest the heads of all the adult humans they can find.

Each year collectors are sent out to meet the Aze-Toh and bring back that year’s crop of heads. Those heads the acolytes deem worthy are taken for the sorcerer kings to examine. The sorcerer kings are powerful, secretive, and jealous rulers; therefore the collectors, acolytes, and even the Aze-Toh themselves do not know why, or for what the heads are taken.

The life of the members of an Aze-Toh raiding band is brutal and short and within ten years attrition usually reduces their numbers to ten or less. No longer effective as raiders they return to the City of Zinth where they help train another generation of Aze-Toh before being sacrificed at the great ziggurat as an offering to the success of the newest raiders.

Cap'n Jethro and the iPad Spike

2010-04-06T09:39:00.000+01:00

As I previously mentioned when the rights returned to me I'd republished my pirate story Cap'n Jethro at smashwords.com . Since it was published it had steadily clocked up 50 odd sample downloads, but never more than four on any one day. On April 3rd, launch day of the iPad it spiked at eight downloads in one day and has since risen to 70 in total. That's me an, as yet, unknown writer with just one minor publication under his belt, and available for download. Be interesting to see how the sales of well-known writers spiked on launch day!

Oh and by the way Cap'n Jethro is available for free download and if, like me, you don't have an iPad, don't worry thanks to the excellent service provided by smashwords.com it's pretty much available in every eFormat known to man.

Anyone else experience an iPad spike?

FRPG FRIDAY: Meet the Guys - When Roleplaying and Scriptwriting Collide.

2010-04-02T10:35:00.000+01:00

Hmmm, no update since last week, and that was another RPG post seems like they're out numbering the writing posts these days. So here's a bit of both. A 1st Draft excerpt from my Comedy Drama script Magus. It's about Danny, a typical urban youth who just happens to be able to summon and control creatures from other dimensions. It's a calling card script in a similar vain to shows like, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Being Human, or Demons.

In this excerpt our hero, Danny, who is yet to discover his powers, has been kicked out of his mum's house because he's such a slob and has gone to stay with his dad. To Danny's dismay when he arrives his dad is playing D&D with his friends who are, I think you'll agree, a pretty typical bunch of players.

The Script Formatting doesn't really work in blogger but here we go anyway . . .

SCENE 14. INT. RON'S HOUSE. DAY 1.[09:30]

DANNY'S DAD RON (LANKY, LONG HAIRED, BEARDY-WEIRDY IN HIS LATE FORTIES) MEETS HIM AT THE DOOR.

THEY EXCHANGE AN AWKWARD MAN HUG AND HEAD INTO THE KITCHEN, WHERE RON AND HIS FRIENDS ARE PLAYING D&D.

SFX: DODGY PROG ROCK CIRCA 1977.

THE ROOM IS DENSE WITH JOSTICK SMOKE, THE TABLE COVERED WITH SNACKS, DRINKS, DICE, BOOKS, MINIS, AND A DUNGEON MASTER'S SCREEN.
RON: You remember the guys?

DANNY: Err, kinda . . .

RON: That's Thark Turlock; the party's Dwarven Warbastard . . .

RON POINTS TO AN ANDROGYNOUS YOUTH, WITH LONG BLOND HAIR, WHO BLUSHES WHEN DANNY LOOKS AT HIM.

RON (CONT): . . . El'malare The Fair; our Elfin Charmdancer . . .

HE POINTS TO A SHORT, FAT, BEARDED BLOKE, WITH MEAN PIGGY EYES WHO GLARES ANGRILY AT DANNY.

RON (CONT): . . . Berek Lightbringer; the party's Human Holyhealer . . .

A HUGE THUG OF A BLOKE, WITH A SKINHEAD AND 'CUT HERE' TATTOOED ACROSS HIS THROAT GRUNTS AT DANNY FROM BEHIND HIS COPY OF 'TITS AND GUNS' MAGAZINE.

RON (CONT): . . . Dargon Darkheart; our Demon Deathstalker . . .

A NIGERIAN CATHOLIC PRIEST SMILES WARMLY AT DANNY OVER THE BIBLE HE IS READING.

RON (CONT): . . . oh, and err . . . yeah . . . that's Ninja Bob.

A VERY FAT MAN IN A BLACK NINJA SUIT NARROWS HIS EYES AT DANNY THROUGH THE SLITS OF HIS NINJA MASK.

EL'MALARE THE FAIR ELFIN CHARMDANCER: He can't play unless he knows the houserules!

HE DELVES UNDER THE TABLE AND PLONKS A HUGE FOLDER FULL OF HAND-WRITTEN HOUSERULES ON THE TABLE, THEN ANOTHER, AND ANOTHER, AND REACHES FOR ANOTHER.

DANNY: I'll pass, gotta unpack ya know.

EL'MALARE GIVES DANNY A PARTICULARLY HOSTILE GLARE.

Saving Throw Saturday: My Top Five RPG Boxed Sets

2010-03-27T16:33:00.000Z

This top five is not in order of preference or any other order. Please note, this is "my" top five rpg boxed sets rather than what I think are the top five definitive boxed sets. It's also not my top five rpg's, many of my favourite RPG's such as Savage Worlds don't come in boxed sets and others such as T&T do come in boxed sets but I never owned the boxed sets. So this is just the five best out of the ones I owned. There were plenty of other boxed sets back when I started in the hobby that'd I loved to have owned, but didn't because either . . .

a) One of the other guys in our group had it and it was preferable to spread our gaming pounds around as many games as we could. For example I never got the Call of Cthullu Boxed set or the Moldvay Basic D&D boxed set, because my friends already had those.

b) My local game store Reider’s Axe didn't stock. Not everything released in the states made it to the UK, especially not the provinces.

c) Back then I couldn't afford to buy every game I wanted.

. . . so it's the best of what I did own.

Runequest II

I loved this purple box, with it's evocative Bronze Age mythic artwork and I loved the Runequest rules too. It was wildly different to the other games I'd played before and was packed full of real atmosphere and great mechanics. The boxed set came with The Rulebook, the adventure Apple Lane, Fangs a booklet of monsters stats, and the Basic Role Playing booklet. A 16 page stripped down semi-generic version of the rules that would become the basis for Chaosium's house system for games such as Call of Cthullu, Elfquest, etc.

Golden Heroes

Back in the mists of Time, when Red Dwarf was a great RPG magazine Games Workshop used to make RPG's. This is still my favourite Supers RPG (although to be fair I haven't tried that many others). It had some really neat rules: such as combat turns represented by the number of frames (Comic panels) you had as action, the excellent Campaign experience system, but most of all the random character/power generation. Rather than design your character with a set number of points to buy powers you had to roll randomly for you powers and then write a origin story describing how your Hero got his powers. Which I thought was really neat. The boxed contained, a Players book, Supervisors book, and the Legacy of Eagles scenario, plus maps.

Bushido

Fantasy Games Unlimited made some great boxed sets and Bushido was one of the best. These days, as far as rule sets go, it's a bit on the crunchy side for my tastes, but given the chance I'd jump at the chance to run it again, faster than an 80's ninja flips head over heels for no apparent reason. The box contained A players book (The Heroes of Nippon) a referee's book (The Land of Nippon) and an adventure/mini-setting The Valley of Mists, plus a gatefold hex map of Japan, and GM screen full of useful charts.

Traveller

In many respect Traveller was a disappointment when I first got it. I was a Star Wars kid, I wanted droids, Stormtroopers, light sabres and a cantina full of weird aliens from my sci-fi games, in short I wanted space opera, but Traveller was based on the Hard Science Fiction, and military Sci-fi of the 70's. It was a totally different beast. However, that didn't stop us using it play star wars type games. Not ideal, but we didn't care. There is a lot to like about Traveller especially the life path character generation which I still think is great, plus it just looked great and I loved the digest size. The box contained Book 1 - Characters and Combat, Book 2 - Starships, and Book 3 - Worlds and Adventures and a star chart.

Swords & Wizardry: WhiteBox

It's been 26 years since I had a new boxed set (Golden Heroes) so it was great to get this awesome little digest sized box of gaming goodness through the post. Swords & Wizardry, for those that don't know, is a Retro-clone of the original Dungeons & Dragons game that was published in 1974 and came in a whitebox, hence Swords & Wizardry: WhiteBox. This box contains 4 digest sized rule books a short primer for Old School playa, a digest sized pad of graph paper, a pencil and a set of dice. Nice.

FRPG FRIDAY: I Hit it With My Axe

2010-03-19T10:38:00.000Z

As I mentioned before Zak from the excellent Playing D&D with Pornstars blog has a reality webseries airing at Escapist Magazine. It's called I Hit it With my Axe and it follows a group of D&D newbs getting to grips with the game.

Here's the first epsiode . . .

Epidsode 1 is more or less just a 'meet the gang kind of affair, not much adventuring, but I had to laugh when Zak recapped where they had got to from last session . . .

"Okay, so last time you'd started a drunken brawl and set fire to the bar."

Yup, sounds like pretty much every tavern visit, by every party I ever GM'ed for.

Pressure Building . . .

2010-03-16T17:23:00.000Z

. . . the pressure to write, that is. Perhaps the urge to write is a better way of putting it. In particular the urge to start on my novel. Of course, it's purely internal, not external, pressure. No one, other than the writer himself, cares if an unpublished writer writes his novel.

I mean I am writing: scenes for a script, a few non-fiction projects, but the urge to start on the novel, the pressure to write, is growing. I'm not going to start yet, because I don't think I'm ready. I've tried a novel without an outline, and that didn't work for me. I wasn't really surprised, as even though that's how I started writing short fiction, in the end I found I was getting better results with an outline or plan or some sort of structure to work from even for short stories. Stil,l I thought I'd at least try a novel with no outline, just to see.

I see the fact that I'm feeling this nagging urge to start my next WIP as a good sign, it means I'm keen, it means the story idea is a good one, one I can live with for a year.

I'm going to hold on to that feeling, that nagging urge to write, and nurture it while I keep scribbling notes, jotting scenes ideas on index cards, and thinking about who my characters really, are. I wan't to sprint off and get into it, but I have to keep telling myself that a novel is more like a marathon than a sprint, and I wouldn't want to run a marathon with out the right preparation.

The Art and Craft of Fiction

2010-03-14T15:34:00.001Z

I love books on the craft of writing fiction, what some people call How to Books. I mean I'm a writer, right, so I love reading. That's why I'm a writer in the first place, because I love reading. So books about writing, what's not to love?

Quite a lot apparently.

There are a number of negative reactions from people when the subject of books on the craft of writing are raised . . .

Who? Never heard of 'em. They obviously can't teach me anything.

This one's great. Unpublished wannabe writer X on forum Y hasn't heard of the author of a book about writing, therefore there's nothing they, and in their opinion anybody, can learn from that writer. Really? Really? This one is close to . . .

What have they ever published?

There's almost a logic to this one, obviously when a writer as prolific and successful as King takes on the subject with his excellent On Writing, you should take notice, but that doesn't mean someone with less or even no publications, who after all might be an agent, a publisher, or writing under a pen name, can't teach you anything. Which is closely related to the old chestnut . . .

Those That Can't Do Teach

Except that most of the people who run courses or write books on the craft of writing are people who are making their living in the publishing industry whether that's as writers, publishers, or agents. It's almost as if people think if you're not outselling Rowling, King, Myers, and Brown, you have nothing to say worth listening to.

Just Read Nabakov

This is my favourite. On a forum a new writer asked for recommendations on books about plotting only to be told, "just read Nabakov." That's about as useful as telling someone who wants to learn to play the piano, "don't take any lessons just listen to Rachmaninoff and figure it out for yourself."

Of course we should all read the greats, but to paraphrase Joseph Heller: "They (students) have only been taught masterpieces, and they're apt to get the wrong impression and get the idea that only masterpieces are published, when in fact masterpieces are the exception in publishing."

These negative reactions to books on the craft of writing often stem from the idea that writing is art and art can't be taught. Writing is an art, but without a solid foundation of craft there can be no art . . .

Art begins with craft, and there is no art until craft has been mastered. - Anthony Burgess.

FRPG Friday: More Redwald Magic

2010-03-05T12:54:00.001Z

I'm making good progress on the Redwald playtest PDF, in the meantime for those that haven't already seen it here is Redwald's human magic . . .

The Forbidden Path of the Scinnlæca

The necromancy of the Scinnlæca is the most reviled, feared, and taboo sorcery in Redwald. Even the patronage of a powerful lord might not be enough to ensure the safety of a Scinnlæca. If NPC’s learn that a character is a Scinnlæca his player must roll under the character’s Charisma, on a D20, to avoid an overly negative reaction.

There are three distinct realms of power used in the necromancy of the Scinnlæca, or the Shinning Ones as they are known. All three powers require a Scinnlæca to call a ghostly undead apparition known as a phantom, trap it in his body, then use the phantom’s powers. This is done with a Calling the Dead roll. To make a Calling the Dead roll the player must roll under his characters Wisdom+level on a D20. If he succeeds he summons a malign phantom from the otherworld and may control it for a time. There is however, a cost paid in fatigue and the taint of necromancy. If a Scinnlæca fails his roll, he looses the battle of wills with the phantom and it escapes back to the otherworld without serving him. Unfortunately a failure still incurs taint and fatigue.

Necromantic Taint
Every time a Scinnlæca attempts to summon a phantom, successful or not, he accrues 1 Taint Point (TP). If his Calling the Dead roll was under his current TP score he has gained a permanent taint and must roll on the taint table. At this point his TP resets to 0. If his TP ever reaches 20 he takes two rolls on the table before it resets to 0.

Taint Table
Roll 1D12 . . .

1 Spectral Sinews -1 Str
2 Corpse Twitch -1 Dex
3 Wights Wound -1 Dex
4 Cold Black Heart -1 Chr
5 Grave Stench -1 Chr
6 Dead Man’s Eyes -1 Chr
7 The Dead do Howl - 1 Int
8 Ghostly Visions -1 Int
9 Think only of the Grave -1 Int
10 Death Kissed -1 Con
11 Spectral Chill -1 Con
12 Death’s Embrace -1 Con

All taints are cumulative. The path of the Scinnlæca is an unforgiving one.

Deathly Fatigue
The use of his powers causes deathly fatigue to the Scinnlæca based on either; the duration of the summoning, or the power of the phantom. Each point of fatigue counts as a 1 point of damage (deducted from the character’s Hit Points). In most respects this deathly fatigue is the same as normal damage. For example if a Scinnlæca with 8 HPs loses 4HPs using necromancy, then takes 5 points of damage from a sword blow, they are reduced to 0HP and may die. Unlike normal wounds, HPs lost by way of necromancy return at the rate of 1 per turn, as long as the Scinnlæca is doing nothing more strenuous than walking. Because of this the player or referee should keep a separate tally of HPs lost from wounds and necromancy.

The Three Powers

1: The Call of Fear

When using the call of fear the Scinnlæca summons a hideous phantom, takes on its ghastly form, and appears to his enemies as a half-rotted spectre that shines with a dazzling eldritch light. If he succeeds in his Call the Dead roll each round everyone who witnesses this must make a ST (modified by the Scinnlæca’s level) or run screaming in fear. Those that make the save stand firm, but are shaken fighting at -2 to hit and damage. He can protect his allies from the fear by gifting them amulets made from the finger bones of a virgin.

This power can be used instantly as long as the Scinnlæca has his coin, stained with the blood of a traitor, in one hand and his Rowan wand in the other. It costs 1 taint and causes 1 fatigue to use this power, and an additional point of fatigue for each round it is maintained. It may be maintained for 1 round per level + Wisdom bonus.

2: Call of Kinship

The Scinnlæca appears as the shade of a dead friend or family member of his intended victim. The phantom is not actually the victim’s friend or relative, but a malign phantom that enjoys being party to such manipulation.

The victim, upon seeing the Scinnlæca in the form of his dead relative, makes a ST modified by adding the Scinnlæca’s level and Wisdom bonus to the roll. If they make the ST the victim is merely terrified and will flee in fear and the Scinnlæca will be unable to make another attempt for at least a week. If the victim fails their ST they except the shade as ‘friendly’ and the Scinnlæca may manipulate the NPC by issuing advice, ideas, even commands. For each such manipulation the victim may make another ST (again modified by the Scinnlæca’s level and Wisdom bonus). If they make the ST they are not convinced and do not act on the advice, if they fail they act as directed. For every ST they fail, they gain +1 to additional rolls, for every success -1.

This power requires a certain amount of preparation. The skull of a murderer must be hidden somewhere where it can ‘see’ the victim for a day before the power is used. This is so the malign phantoms of the underworld can see who it is in order to take the form of their dead relatives.

Each use of this power costs 1 taint and an initial 1 point of fatigue, plus 1 point of fatigue for each round the Scinnlæca holds the form of the shade.

Exactly how the NPC victim reacts, and how the player has his character manipulate them, is up to the player and referee to decide during roleplay. If the victim fails his ST the referee should have him do what the player wants him to, but players should bear in mind there are certain things people won’t, or can’t do, even for a dead relative!

3: Call of the Underworld

This is the most potent of the three powers. The Scinnlæca calls an evil and destructive phantom from the underworld and takes on its form enabling him to use its powers to smite his enemies. Using his knife, that has pierced the heart of an adulterous woman, the Scinnlæca cuts himself and drips blood onto his Rowan wand. This action takes one combat round. On the next round the Scinnlæca makes his Call the Dead roll if he succeeds he takes the form of the phantom. If he fails nothing happens, but he suffers 1 fatigue and 1 taint.

Each phantom summoned to fight will have a number of HD, and powers determined by the Scinnlæca’s level and Wisdom bonus and a base Armour Class of 7 [12]. Whilst in the form of the phantom the Scinnlæca fights with its powers, HD, and HPs, and AC, rather than his own. This lasts until he either banishes the phantom voluntarily, its HPs are reduced to 0 in combat, or the duration of the possession is exceeded.

The taint incurred by such possessions is equal to the number of powers the phantom possesses. The fatigue is equal to its HD.

Each phantoms powers are randomly determined by rolling 1D8 per power . . .

1 Boneshard Shredder
2 Eldritch Lightning
3 Ghostly Glide
4 Funeral Pyre
5 Skeletal Skin
6 Grave Bound
7 Shinning Shade
8 Death’s Touch

Boneshard Shredder
The phantom bestows the gift of deadly bone claws that do 2d6 (keep highest) +1 to hit and damage. For each additional time this power is rolled increase the bonus to hit and damage by +1.

Eldritch Lightning
The phantom can cast green bolts of eldritch lightning for 1d3 damage (no to hit roll needed) at a range of up to 25 feet. For each additional time this power is rolled you may either increase the damage by an additional 1d3, increase the number of targets affected by 1, or the range by another 25 feet.

Ghostly Glide
This phantom can fly, allowing the Scinnlæca to glide through the air at walking speed, and at heights up to 10 feet above the ground. For each additional time this power is rolled you may increase the height by another 10 foot.

Funeral Pyre
Anything the Scinnlæca touches has a 2 in 6 chance of bursting into flames, even usually non-flammable things. To ignite a living thing the Scinnlæca must first roll to hit. The ethereal flame burns for 1d6 damage per round and can’t be put out, but stops when the Scinnlæca’s possession of the phantom ends. For each additional time this power is rolled you may increase either the chance of ignition by +1 or the damage by 1d6.

Skeletal Skin
The phantom encases the Scinnlæca in bone giving him an Armour Class of 5 [14]. For each additional time this power is rolled you may increase the AC by -1[+1].

Grave Bound
The earth itself drags the victim into the ground up to the waist and holds them firm. They may defend themselves (at -2 to hit and +2 [-2] to their AC), but may not move until released or the phantom has gone. For each additional time this power is rolled you may hold one more enemy.

Shinning Shade
The Scinnlæca becomes a shade so bright that his enemies, and anyone not wearing an amulet made from a virgin’s finger bone, are dazzled by the light and attack at -1 to hit. For each additional time this power is rolled increase the penalty by another -1.

Death’s Touch
The phantom allows the Scinnlæca to drain his victim’s life force with a touch (roll to hit+1). Each touch drains 2 points from their victim’s Constitution and restores, or adds 1 HP to the Phantom’s total. The loss of Con is permanent and if it is reduced by more than 6 points in one combat the victim must make a ST or slump into unconsciousness. If reduced to zero they die. For each additional time this power is rolled either the number of Con points drained, or HPs gained, may be increased by 1 point.

Wednesday Worldbuilding: Village of the Hahn

2010-03-03T16:23:00.001Z

Previous Wednesday Worldbuilding posts . . .

1: Thou shalt not Tolkienize!

2: How the Hell Do You Build a World Anyway?

3: The Shape of Things to come

4: Of Men and Monsters

5: It's A Kind of Magic

The Hahn

The Hahn people are a tribe of forest dwelling hunters and gatherers, who worship and are protected by their namesake Hahn the monkey god. Their village is isolated. It lies deep within the rainforest, nestled in the foothills of the Spine Mountains, and is as far away from the sea as anywhere on the Spine can be.

The tribe consists of about a 150 people, who live in extended family groups in thirty or so longhouses. They live side by side with a troop of blue monkeys, who are revered as ancestors and roam freely about the village.

The relationship between the Hahn and the monkey’s is beneficial to both as the monkey’s not only know where the best fruit in the rainforest is, and when it is ripe, they also serve as lookouts, spotting predators and enemies from their vantage point in the higher reaches of the rainforests canopies. It’s also not unusual for the mothers to leave their toddlers in uncannily attentive care of the monkeys as they tend their daily chores.

The men of the tribe are not warriors and do not have a warrior culture although, they are superb hunters. They hunt using bows, spears with spear throwers, and blowpipes. They utilize a poison extract from parasitic fungi that grows on a number of different trees. The poison is not deadly, but a strong enough does can paralyse creatures a large as a panther or even a man. They hunt and eat anything and everything, except the blue monkeys.

There is no tribal chief, but each year a hunt leader is chosen by his peers based on his wisdom, luck and prowess. The hunt leader only has influence on the hunt. Day to day governance, such as it is, is overseen by a council of elders made up of the tribe’s oldest men and women. There are also two lesser councils the men’s, and the women’s council. Both consist of five members, chosen by the whole tribe. These lesser council make decisions matters specific to the men and women, such as deciding which women are ready for marriage and which youths are ready to become hunters.

Matters spiritual resided over by the Hahn-Bo and his assistants. The Hahn-Bo resides over important events such as special feast days, births, marriages, and funerals. He also talks to the spirits of the ancestors and the spirits of the blue monkeys’ ancestors, and uses this spirit-magic to aid the tribe’s hunts, help heal them, and guide them in times of trouble. He can call an ancestor or monkey spirit from the otherworld and have it posses one of his assistants, each one a Hahn-Bo in training. In time of dire need the Hahn-Bo calls on the monkey god Hahn himself, and begs him to take possession of his body to intercede and save the tribe. The cost is the life of the Hahn-Bo. No mortal can be possessed by a god and survive.

The Hahn people, like the blue monkeys, are peaceful friendly people, with a playful and sometimes mischievous streak, but fierce when defending their territory. Their only human enemies are the Aze-Toh a tribe of head-hunters. They know little about the Aze-Toh other than that they have no village or territory of their own and seem to appear every now and then, normally once every two years or so, attack with no purpose other than taking heads, and then disappear again.

The only other enemy are the Hidden Apes. Huge carnivorous apes that are ambush predators with the chameleon like ability to blend into their surroundings. The elders say that a generation ago the Hidden Apes where solitary hunters who only hunted the blue monkeys, but in recent years they have started attacking hunters and have been seen hunting in pairs. One hunter even claims he saw one wielding a club. More worryingly, one of the tribe’s women says she saw a Hidden Ape watching the village, watching it the way a hunter might watch a herd of forest deer.

TrollsZine Issue 1!

2010-03-02T13:53:00.000Z

TrollsZine Issue 1, a free Tunnels & Trolls eZine, is available from RPGnow and DriveThruRPG.

Here's the table of contents . . .

Trolls Talk - by Dan Prentice
Trolls Regenerate - by Ken St Andre
The Trollgod Rants 1 - by M. E. Volmar
Selling Used Equipment - by Gary McCammon
Funny Shaped Dice and Massive Monsters - by Dan Prentice
Aeulungs Tale: Chapter 1 - by Tom Grimshaw
The Trollchefs Cookbook - by Salvatore Macri and Dan Prentice
Grumlahk - by Jeff Freels
The Trollgod Rants 2 - by M. E. Volmar
Roadhouse - by Greg Backus
TrollsZine Competition
The Blood War at Saxon - by Tom Grimshaw
Item! Item! - by Greg Backus and Dan Prentice
Dare to Daro - by Dan Prentice
Delverton: The Smithy - by Lee Reynoldson
The Game of the Sphinx - by Mike Tremaine
Going Solo - by Dan Prentice
The Restless Mausoleum - by Salvatore Macri

There is also artwork by Jeff Freels, ME Volmar, Chad Thorson, Kevin Bracey, Alex Cook and Mike Hill.

An Old English Poem

2010-02-22T00:21:00.005Z

One of things I'm enjoying most about writing the Redwald RPG, my alt-rules for OD&D/Swords & Wizardry: Whitebox is the research. Especially when I find things like this; an Old English Poem . . .

I really love the sound of Old English. I'd read this poem in modern English, but it's nice to hear it in Old English.

The Plan, Man.

2010-02-20T18:36:00.003Z

Well I can now see my followers again, which is nice. I have no idea why it went unviewable for me, I'm sure I didn't, and haven't changed any browser option. Anyway, nice to see you all again. :D

Only succesfull with three of my goals from last week: A page a day min, continue Redwald (although these ended up being the same goal as I was writing a page of Redwald a day) and edit Cap'n Jethro for smashwords. Must work harder. Even though I really want to crack on with Redwald and get that finished I'd still like to make progress with other stuff.

Goals for 21st-27th of Feb 2010

1) Start Redwald playtest version.
2) Edit Ice Wastes story.
3) Continue notes for Lembek.
4) Write another scene for Magus script.
5) Edit Savage Wolrd's One Page.
6) Brainstorm ideas for 'King of the Croakers' short story.

FRPG Friday: Fungus Forest Finally Finished

2010-02-19T12:14:00.002Z

My contribution to James Maliszewski's megadungeon.net, the Fungus Forest is now up in full and more or less finished. I'll be helping out at megadungeon.net by typing up weekly updates, so look out for more dungeon related posts.

Also on the subject of the Fungus Forest, it is indeed a small world and the internet makes it smaller. Yesterday I had an email from Zak Smith who has a blog called Playing D&D with Pornstars. He'd used a version of the Mad Mushroom table, from the Fungus Forest, and it was going to feature in a Web TV reality show about his blog. The show will be called 'I Hit It With My Axe' and will be hosted over at The escapist.

It wasn't just to let me know what was happening I'm gonna get paid, which is cool now I can buy some art for the cover of Cap'n Jethro because the one I knocked up is crap.

I'll post a link to the first episode of 'I Hit it With My Axe' when it airs because, obviously, people will want to see my Mad Mushroom table in action won't they, I mean why else would anyone watch a reality TV show full of pornstars playing D&D?

. . . and be Damned!

2010-02-18T06:35:00.003Z

Previously I've not been at all interested in self-publishing in any form. My feeling was that if an editor wouldn't pay for one my stories, it isn't good enough for a readership. However, a number of posts at Michael a stackpole's blog and Joe Konrath's blog, coupled with the vibe I've been getting from tech tv shows and the web about the future of eReaders such as the Kindle, Sony eReader, the forthcoming iPad, and iPhone Books has made me reconsider and dip my toe into the world of digital publishing . . .

My pirate story, Cap'n Jethro , the riproaring pirate adventure otherwises known as . . .

This Being the Tale of Cap’n Jethro ‘Fair-cut’ Henderson, Mutinous Matthews, the Thief, the Whore, the French Fop and the Treasure of Freeport.

. . . and previously published in the Flashing Blades Summer Spectacular 2008 is now available in all manner of new-fangled formats at the swashbuckling price of just $0.99!

You can find it here at Samshwords.com where you can also read a sample of the story.

Own Goals

2010-02-14T20:34:00.001Z

Only managed one of last week's five goals (Continue Redwald). So let's give it another go this week . . .

Writing Goal for the Week 15th Feb to 20th Feb 2010

1) A page a day min.
2) Continue notes for Lembek
3) Write another scene for Magus script.
4) Continue edit of Ice Wastes story.
5) Continue Redwald.
6) Edit Savage Wolrd's One Page.
7)Edit Cap'n Jethro for Smashwords.Com

Saving Throw Saturday: More (Redwald) Magic

2010-02-13T01:15:00.000Z

Had people over on Friday so no time for FRPG Friday, so here's Saving Throw Saturday and some more Redwald magic it's the first draft of the Elf magic. . .

Ælfcynn Spell Singing

The Gealdor Sangere, or spell singer, chants and sings to both gain and use his magic. Each song takes one combat turn (or a few minutes if out of combat) to sing and the magic takes effect in the next round. Obviously the Spell Singer needs to be able to sing to work his magic. If anything impedes his ability to sing, he is effectively powerless. For a spell singer to have their tongue cut out is tantamount to a death sentence. At their disposal Spell Singers have three forms of magic: Shapeshifting, Songs of the Forest, and the power of the Glamour.

Shapeshifting

To learn the secrets of Shapeshifting Spell Singers use their songs to coax an animal to come to them and teach them its secrets. Once they have done this they may take the animals shape. Whilst in this animal form the Spell Singer has all the attributes of the animal he shifted to, but retains his own intellect, memories, etc. Real animals can sense the unnatural nature of a Shapeshifter and react in fear to them. So, although a Spell Singer in the form of a field mouse need not fear cats, the cat’s fear of him may betray his true nature.

At each level a Spell Singer can select one animal form he can Shapeshift to, plus one additional animal form per level for any Charisma bonuses. It takes one turn of singing for a Spell Singer to Shapeshift into animal form, other than that there is no cost or other requirements.

At Level 1 they may Shapeshift into either a field mouse, hare, or sparrow for one hour. However many animal forms they know they may only shift once per day.

At Level 2 they may select another animal form from level 1 or choose from either an otter, fox, or raven and hold their shape for 2 hours. However many animal forms they know they may only shift twice per day.

At Level 3 a day they may select either another animal form from level 1 and 2 or choose from either a wolf, stag, or eagle and can hold their animal form for three hours. However many animal forms they know they may only shift three times per day.

Songs of the Forest

Spell Singers learn the songs of the forest in a similar manner to the way they learn different animal forms, by singing to the forest and coaxing its secrets from it. In game terms these powers work best in a forest or wood, but at the GM’s discretion some of them may work if there is a nearby tree, or even other vegetation. At each level the Spell Singer learns one Forest Song, plus one for each point of Charisma bonus. Each song can be sung only once per day. The forest is fickle and the Spell Singer has no choice over the song it teaches him. Instead, the GM rolls 1d10 to find out what spell he learns. If the GM rolls the same spell twice then the Spell Singer may sing that Forest song twice per day instead of once.

1) Song of Memories: The Spell Singer whispers a message to the trees which they will remember then whisper it back to whoever the Spell Singer asked them to.

2) Whisper of the Woods:Listening to the rustle of the trees the forest tells the Spell Singer all that has happened within the forest over the last few days.

3) Forest of Fear: Anyone who fails their ST must flee from the forest. The fear only abates when they are clear of the forest.

4) Wall of the Wood: The forest forms an impenetrable wall of branches, impassable unless fire, axe, or magic are used, even then it will take one hour per level of the Spell Singer to clear, and risks angering any spirits of the wood.

5) Walk the Woods: The trees part to make previously impassable forest clear.

6) The Hanging Tree: Vines or branches of a nearby tree snake down and fasten around the neck of one enemy per level of the Spell Singer and yank them up into the tree. If they aren’t released within 3 rounds and they fail their ST they die. If they make their ST they merely black out and the tree lets them drop.

7) Wood Whip: The Spell Singer calls on the trees and their branches grow into whips he controls with his mind to attack his enemies doing 1d6-1 at 1st level, 1d6 at 2nd and 1d6+1 at third.

8) Cloak of Leaves: The forest hides the Spell Singer and one other person per level, making them virtually invisible.

9) Forest Guard: At the bidding of the Spell Singer the tree grabs, and holds, one of his enemies until he bids the tree release the prisoner.

10) Trial of the Tree: The Spell Singer subjects his enemy to a trial of the forest. If the victim fails a ST the roots of the tree drag the victim underground and hold him there for as many years as he missed the ST by. The forest keeps them alive until they are released. Their Con is also permanently reduced by the number of years they were held for. If this reduces their Con to zero they die upon release.

Glamour

An Elven Spell Singer uses the power of Glamour to manipulate people. In this case rather than singing, to use a Glamour, the Elf whispers a rhythmic chant that their victim finds strangely compelling. To successfully Glamour someone the Spell Singer’s player must roll under their character’s Charisma + level on D20+/- targets Wisdom bonus.

A successful Glamour can make the victim believe, see, or remember something that isn’t true, not really there, or never really happened. For example a Glamour could make someone you just met believe you were their best friend, or make you appear to them as their best friend, or implant a false memory of a life long friendship between the two of you. More dramatically, a glamour could also make them believe they could jump from a cliff and survive, see a dragon, remember killing the king. The only limit to what a successful glamour can make an NPC believe, see, or remember is that of the player’s imagination.

There is a limit to how many people, and how long the effects of a Glamour last . . .

At 1st level a Spell Singer can Glamour one person for one plus their Charisma bonus in hours.

At 2nd level they can Glamour two people at once for one hour or one person for one plus their Charisma bonus in days.

At 3rd level they can Glamour a number of people equal to three plus their Charisma bonus, at once, for a day, or one person for their Charisma bonus plus three days.

Once the effects of a Glamour wears off the victim is allowed a ST with their Intelligence modifier as a bonus. If they make it, they remember what was done to them. If they fail they have no knowledge of being manipulated.

Hurrumph!

2010-02-09T12:36:00.000Z

This is annoying. I've picked up two new Followers, but can't see who they are or check out their blogs, becasue my Follower Widget has stopped working. Hmmm I might have to try a new template see if that helps or maybe something else? Meh.

Superlist Sunday

2010-02-07T23:21:00.004Z

Writing Goals for the week . . .

Monday the 8th Feb to Saturday the 13th of Feb 2010

1) Continue Notes for Lembek novel.
2) Another Scene for Magus script.
3) Continue to edit Ice Wastes short story.
4) Continue Redwald.
5) Research for T&T project.

On an unrelated note some Blogger stuff seems to have stopped working. I have followers but can't see them, despite reinstalling the Followers widget. I also can't post comments on some blogs. Some I can fine, others there's nowhere 'clickable' to post to once I've clicked on 'pots a comment' I thought that must be a browser problem, but some blogs are fine, other not, dunno still might be a browser issue I guess. Ohh and my Zemanta widget has stopped working. I don't know why this is happening I haven't changed any settings on the blog. Meh.

FRPG Friday: Redwald Magic

2010-02-05T12:30:00.003Z

It's Friday and that mena it's Fantasy Role Playing Game Friday so here is some more Redwald RPG. This time part of the Dwarf Rune Magic. Unfortunately not the runes themselevs as the images are two fiddly to post . . .

Rune Magic

Rune Lore
Unlike mortal men, who use runes for petty divination or to record their unworthy deeds, a Dweorgas Wyrdwebba contemplates the true meaning of each rune and uses this understanding to weave fate, to literally change reality. It is the meaning, the interpretation, and understanding of the runes from which they draw their power not the mere symbols.

However, this understanding is ephemeral and often uncertain. The Wyrdwebba may fail to bring his understanding and power to bear on fate and, successful or not, the sun must set and rise again before he can contemplate the meaning of the same rune twice.

Men believe their god Woden gifted the runes to them, but the Dweorgas know that men stole the knowledge of the runes from them. Not that they mind, after all they stole them from the Dragons. The twenty-four runes are divided in to the three Aetts, or families. A Wyrdwebba knows all the runes, but begins with mastery of only one Aett.

Rune Casting
Each rune has a sphere of influence. For example: the rune "Feoh" literally means Cattle, but refers to wealth in general and could be used to influence anything connected to monetary matters. Some runes can be reversed or if they can not be reversed can be used in opposition. For example Feoh the cattle/wealth rune would normally be used to gain wealth, or influence transactions in favour of someone, but reversed it could be used to ruinous effect against an enemy.

Wyrdwebba's start with mastery of one Aett, of eight runes, which they may choose from any of the three Aetts available. They gain mastery of the others as they progress gaining a new Aett each level. Their level also dictates the maximum number of runes they may use in combination, and is also a bonus to their Rune Casting Roll.

The Rune Casting Roll
To use a rune the player must make a Rune Casting Roll. At its most basic a Rune Casting Roll is simply rolling under the character's Wisdom score on 1d20 with bonuses for the caster's level, and penalties for the level of difficulty of the affect they wish to achieve. Other situational bonuses and penalties may be applied at the referee's discretion, but basically the Rune Casting Roll can be expressed simply as . . .

Rune Casting Roll = Roll under Wis+lvl with 1d20+Diff lvl.

If the player makes the Rune Casting Roll his magic works as described if he fails nothing happens, fate is after all fickle. Either way, a rune can only be used once per day.

At its most basic rune magic can be used for a flat bonus of +1,+2, or +3. Things such as Saving Throws, or To Hit Rolls, and Damage being the most obvious examples for a bonus, but their greatest use is improvisational magic of a more open nature.

It is up to the player to decide how he wants to use each rune and to what effect. It is up to the referee to decide if the player's desired use is possible and if so to set the Difficulty Level. There are three levels of difficulty when using runes . . .

Difficulty Level 1
The Wyrdwebba use his power to achieve goals that could just as easily be explained by natural phenomena or coincidence. For example: causing a bow string to snap, causing it to rain on a cloudy overcast day, or making someone lose their footing on rocky ground.

Difficulty Level 2
The Wyrdwebba uses his power in an obviously supernatural way such as causing a bow to burst into flames, sudden rain on a cloudless sunny day, or causing the ground to open beneath someone and swallow them.

Difficulty Level 3
The Wyrdwebba use his power in way that is not only obviously supernatural, but powerful and reality warping as well. For example: causing a bow to come to life and throttle its wielder, making thunder, lightning and a torrential downpour of rain in the king's mead hall, or causing the earth to rise up in the form a great beast and devour a warband.

There are three ways to use runes all require successful Rune Casting Rolls.

Casting
This is the primary usage. The Wyrdwebba selects a rune and contemplates upon its meaning before using the insight gained to change reality and weave fate.

Before performing a casting the character must contemplate the rune for an hour before the actual casting. Less than an hour or even no contemplation may be taken but at a penalty. For more than one Turn, but less than an hour it is a +1 penalty. For less than a Turn and more than one Combat Round +2, for no contemplation at all +3. As Wyrdwebba's increase in level they may use more than one rune at once in combination, but incur a penalty of +1 per additional rune and each rune used requires a separate successful Rune Casting Roll.

Runic Warding & Binding
The caster places, carves, or inscribes the rune somewhere or on something and dictates the circumstances that will activate it in the future

For example: the rune "Thorn" is inscribed on a bridge as a Wolfpack crosses it into enemy territory so that when they later flee, back across the bridge, a wall of impassable thorns spring up after them to impede their pursuers.

Preparation for runic warding must be made in advance and cannot be done quickly as it takes at least four hours of game time. The rune used cannot be used again until the ward has been set off and the sun has set and risen again. A normal Rune Casting Roll is made, but only when the ward is actually activated.

A rune may also be bound to an item, weapon, or person for a single use. For example: binding the "Death" rune to a spear so that when it next hits it kills the enemy instantly. As per Warding the Rune Casting Roll is made when the bound rune is actually activated and until the bound rune has been used and the sun has set and risen again the Wyrdwebba cannot use it.

Runic Inscription
A rune may be permanently inscribed, carved, or attached to something, someplace, or even someone for a permanent effect. However, the use of that rune is lost to the caster. This is done with a normal Rune Casting Roll and requires the Wyrdwebba spend a day contemplating the rune and another day performing the ritual of inscription. Note, that if the Rune Casting Roll fails the rune is lost and another inscription (of any rune) cannot be attempted for at least a week of in game time.

Runes permanently inscribed or lost through a failed Rune Casting Roll can only be regained for the Wyrdwebba if the item is dedicated to the gods and destroyed by means of either earth, fire, water, or air.

For example, a Wyrdwebba inscribed his finger with the rune "Yew" a rune of protection to gain a permanent +1 to his AC, but his lord demands he use his powers to protect him. To regain the rune our Wyrdwebba must cut of his finger and either bury it, cremate it, place it in a sacred pool as an offering , or tie in the branches of a tree for excarnation.

Those that want a look at the Runes can take a peek here . . .

Redwald Runes.

Fight Scene Blogfest!

2010-02-01T13:01:00.001Z

This fight is from an unpublished piece and is a few years old. Just to set the scene . . .

Our hero has been banished from his homeland for the drunken slaying of his brother, the king. The feud was started by their cousin Angwyer who thinks there should be a more permanent solution than banishment and has sent three of his men after the hero . . .

They made slow progress, across the snowy valley, towards the wooded hills that bordered their homelands. Bran was happy to lose himself in daydreams and let Bedwyr lead the pony by its reins.

"Bran . . . it does not quite have the ring of your royal name, I’m sure you’ll get used to it. I daresay it isn’t the worst of the druid’s banes." Bedwyr, knowing his lord would not comment, plunged on. "I blame my wife if she weren’t such a terror I’d have still been in the hall to save you from yourself."

"Save me, pish," Bran said still half lost in his own thoughts. "If you weren’t a drunken gambler she wouldn’t need to chase you anywhere. Besides there was a touch of fate about events and what the gods will, the gods get."

"Fate my arse. There was more than a touch of ale about it, and more your cousin Angwyr’s lies as I heard it told this morn."

The pony snorted, shook its head, snorted again, pulled away from the reins. Bran turned in his saddle.

"Well you always were a—Javelin."

"I’m a Javelin?" said Bedwyr.

"Pass me a Javelin, fool and quick."

Bedwyr craned his neck, saw three horsemen galloping towards them, dropped his war spear, shed his pack, and fumbled with the bundle of light throwing darts. Presently, he handed one to Bran, then hefted one himself, tossing it in his palm to get a feel for the weight.

The three horsemen thundered towards them. Their horses, wide eyed and snorting, kicked up snowy spray as they came on.

"Angwyr’s men,” said Bran. “As ever my cousin has no stomach for dirtying his own hands."

Bran spat on the snow, and his mouth twisted in a grimace. He dismounted. His horse snickered; he patted it without thought, and then planted his feet to take good aim.

"Which of them is the best?" He asked.

"Gareth, the big red haired monster in the middle. Even you should be able to hit a target that big." Bedwyr said.

"If he’s the best, I want him for my sword,” said Bran. “You take Gwint; I’ll spike his brother, Lleyr. I never did like him."

"But we have three javelins." Bedwyr sighted his horseman down the length of his spear. "Why must you always do things the hard way?"

"Beddy, old friend, with your ancient eyes we might need the third javelin if you—"

With a grunt Bedwyr heaved his javelin. It sped from his cast on its sure and deadly arc and hit his man hard in the chest.

Gwint fell sideways from his saddle. His horse veered away free of its rider’s will.

"Not bad," Bran said and cast his own javelin. It flew fast and true and lodged in Lleyr’s throat.

The warrior flopped from his saddle. Blood gushed from his neck. Rider and javelin tangled under the horse’s legs. Man and beast crashed into the snow. Lleyr's gurgling merged with the screams of his horse as both kicked and thrashed in the bloody slush.

The last rider, the red haired giant, Gareth, pulled hard on his reins. He forced his horse onto its side, rolled from the saddle, and hid himself behind the bulk of his steed.

"You are a coward and murderer," Gareth shouted from behind the safety of his horse.

"No man calls me coward, “said Bran. “Draw iron and face me."

Bran drew his long sword and strode towards Gareth. The crunch of his feet in the snow added an eerie tempo to the death throes of Lleyr and his horse.

"What," Gareth shouted, "and have you and your man spike me full of spears? Come get me whoreson."

"There will be no spears just you and I, Gareth."

Bedwyr settled himself to watch and wait, hunkered down on his haunches, his war spear resting on his shoulder. He shook his head.

The horse kicked up, cantered away, and Gareth rose to face Bran. Sword in hand he threw off his heavy fur cloak. Even without it he still looked more bear than man.

"Then you are a fool and shall die with your song unsung,” said Gareth. “I'll eat your heart boy."

"Aye and may the gods piss in your eyes too," Bran said letting his own cloak slip from his shoulders.

The two warriors rushed forward, blades raised, eyes afire, each with a wicked grin, and a love for slaughter singing in his soul.

With a clang of iron they clashed. Gareth roared and drove at Bran and with huge hacks of his blade sought to smash him down using his raging strength.

Bran stumbled backwards under the onslaught. Calf deep in powdery snow only a desperate side-step saved him from being slashed in two. Where Gareth was strong, Bran was fast, skilful. For each great swing Gareth took, Bran parried, and countered with his own deft flicks and cuts.

Grunts and the clank-clank-scree of iron scraping iron were the only sounds in the stillness of the valley. Each strike was met, each counter repelled, each stroke traded for stroke. Grins turned to grimaces and the fire in their eyes turned to the dull glaze of fatigue.

Slow as the fallen dead they pushed away from each other; exhausted. Clouds of heaving breath steamed out of them. Heat misted in wisps around bodies that burnt and ached with exertion.

Gareth bellowed his war cry. He leapt at Bran with the last of his great strength. His long sword, held two handed, came crashing overhead in a wicked arc aimed to hack Bran in half.

Silent, slow, grim Bran danced out of the way. Gareth’s sword whooshed past his shoulder. The desperate stroke, the weight of the sword in tired arms, pulled Gareth forward. His sword slashed through the snow and struck the frozen earth.

Bran swung his own sword in a spinning, twisting cut that sliced into Gareth’s exposed neck.

Blood spurted from the red haired giant. He sighed, loud like a lover, shuddered. The blade stopped at the bone, bit into it. His head lolled sideways. He crashed to his knees in the already bloody snow.

Bran put his foot on Gareth’s blood soaked shoulder, kicked him away, and dispatched his foe with a merciful strike. Exhausted, he fell backwards, his blade fell from his hand, he lay in the cold snow and the warm blood of his enemy.

Bedwyr rushed over, helped him to his feet, fussily looked him over for any wounds. When he was satisfied his master was unharmed he let Bran stand by himself. They looked down at Gareth who returned their gazes, his bloody mouth and dead eyes both wide open.

The lonely cronk-cronk of a raven broke the silence.

Bran took Gareth’s cold iron blade from the snow, raised it to his lips, kissed it in salute then lay it across the dead man. "A good man, a warrior,” he said. “I’ll drink his health when I cross the sword bridge and meet him in the otherworld."

"Aye," said Bedwyr. "Too good to be Angwyr’s man."

"By all the gods I hope you’ve packed a drink, Beddy. Fetch my horse and throw me on it with something to sup I fear my legs won’t be solid anytime soon," said Bran and fell back onto the snow.

In silence they drank peat-filtered whiskey from a clay jug. The clouds broke and fresh snow fell at last.

FIGHT ON!

2010-01-30T12:00:00.004Z

On Monday I'll be taking part in the Fight Scene Blogfest! that's being organised over at Mireyah Wolfe's Crimson Ink blog.

I'd have liked to have included a scene from my latest publication, as that has a couple of decent brawls, but I stumbled on this late when reading ralfast's Neither Here nor There blog, so haven't had time to contact the publisher and sort that out. I'll have to go with one of my older publications, or something unpublished. Shouldn't be to hard to find something; everything I write is packed with fight scenes!

FRPG Friday: Redwald Classes

2010-01-29T10:52:00.002Z

It's Fantasy Role playing Game Friday so here is some more Redwald. This time it's the final installment of the Classes . . .

WIZARDS

Dweorgas Wrydwebba
Before you became one of the edwita, the disgraced you were a Wrydwebba, a fate weaver training under one of the great Dwarven Runemasters. Now you roam the lands of men and fumble after the true meanings of the runes without guidance.

Wrydwebba's gain an XP bonus from a high Wisdom score. A high wisdom also gives a bonus when rune casting that stacks with their level bonus.

Starting equipment: Robes, Dwarven Dragontooth dagger, Runes, 1d6 farthings.

Lvl Hit Dice THB ST Rune Bonus Runes Combined Number of Rune Aett's
1 1d6-1 +0 14 +1 1 1
2 3d6 +0 10 +2 2 2
3 6d6 +1 6 +3 3 3

Criticals & Fumbles

Criticals
The casting goes so well that the Wyrdwebba may reuse the same rune later that day/adventure.

Fumbles
The casting was ill fated and the Wyrdwebba must relearn the meaning of the rune and may not use it until two weeks/adventures have passed.

Heroic Effort

Casting the Sun and Moon
The Wyrdwebba may make two simultaneous castings combining, in each, as many runes as his level allows.

Ælfcynn Gealdor Sangere
Until your spirit tree died, you were a Gealdor Sangere, a spell singer, learning to chant the magic of the forest. Now, lost in your doom, you dwell in the land of men and sing for silver.

Gealdor Sangere gains an XP bonus from a high Charisma score. A high Charisma score also gives them an increased bonus to their Glamour’s powers.

Starting Equipment: Antler Knife, Deerskin shirt and trews, Amulet of the Wolf, 1d6 farthings.

Lvl Hit Dice THB ST Glamour Duration #Glamour Affects
1 1d3 -1 16 +1 1
2 2d6 +0 12 +2 2
3 5d6 +1 10 +3 3

Criticals & Fumbles

Criticals
The Glamour goes so well that the victim doesn’t get chance to break the Glamour for a year and a day.

Fumbles
The Glamour failed obviously and the victim is not only immune to any further attempts, they now hate the Gealdor Sangere with a passion.

Heroic Effort

Words of Gold and Honey
The Gealdor Sangere may Glamour everyone within hearing.

Scinnlæca
You were made an outlaw because you are a Scinnlæca, a Shinning One. Using forbidden knowledge, with a flash of eldritch light, you call the dread spirits of the otherworld. Once called you bind them to your will and use their malign powers.

Scinnlæca gain an XP bonus, and a bonus to the powers of the spirits they can contain, and the length of the possession, based on a high Wisdom.

Starting Equipment: A knife that has pierced the heart of an adulterous woman, the skull of a strangled murderer, a silver penny stained with the blood of a traitor, a wand of Rowan wood taken from a hanging tree. Robes made from the funeral shroud of a king betrayed. 1d6 farthings.

Lvl Hit Dice THB ST HD of Spirit Spirit Powers Duration
1 1d3+1 -1 17 1d3 1 1
2 2d6+2 +0 13 1d6 2 2
3 5d6+3 +1 11 1d6+1 3 3

Criticals & Fumbles

Criticals
The spirit you called is so cowed by your power that you may control it until you banish him. You suffer no taint or fatigue.

Fumbles
You lose the battle of wills with a vile spirit who possesses you for 1d3+1 rounds before departing leaving you doubly tainted and fatigued.

Heroic Effort

Call of the Dammed
You call forth foul spirits to posses your enemies (up to 3 HD + Wis bonus in total). You control them completely without fear of taint or fatigue. Their comrades must make a ST against fear to face them in combat. When you end the possession your victims must make ST or die.

Réðealingas Wicce
You cursed a chieftain and had to flee your wildling homeland. Before that you were being taught the craft of the Wicce, the Witch Woman, by your tribe’s crone. Now you are an outlander roaming the realms of your people’s enemies, and worse you must rely on a foul-spawn familiar to learn your Wicce craft.

Wicce rely on intelligence, to learn, memorise, and utilise their cures, curses, potions, charms and spells. A gain an XP bonus and a bonus to the potency of their magic based on their Intelligence bonus.

Starting Equipment: The bowl and the knife, small bronze cauldron and tripod, a nine herb charm, pouches of dried henbane, fly agaric, and belladonna, a brace of mandrake roots, a bag of dead things, a wax mommet and thorns. 1d6 farthings.

Lvl Hit Dice THB ST Apps of potion Potency
1 1d6 -1 0 16 1 1
2 3d6 +1 12 2 2
3 6d6 +2 10 3 3

Criticals & Fumbles

Criticals
You practice the craft so skilfully that your familiar is impressed and agrees to teach you another piece of the craft without the price.

Fumbles
Your magic backfires: a charm cause’s harm, a potion becomes a poison, or your poison fails, your curse rebounds on you, you are pierced by your own thorns.

Heroic Effort

Thrice Cursed
The Wicce may place three curses on her enemy that will automatically succeed.

A List, Not the A List

2010-01-25T13:01:00.003Z

Last Week . . .

Page a day, minimum, of new writing. - Yes, just about, was close.
Edit Ice Wastes story. - Made a good start
New scene for Magus script. - Yup.
Notes for Lembek novel. - Lots of notes.
Human Magic for Redwald RPG project. - Done needs an edit.
Outline for T&T RPG project. - Very rough outline.
More than one blog post a week. - No. Spaced this one out.

This week . . .

Writing Goals for 25th - 30th Jan 2010

Page a day of new writing.
Continue editing Ice Wastes story.
New scene for Magus script.
Notes and Character Bio's for Lembek novel.
Write Wicce Class for Redwald.
Continue with T&T Project.
Blog.

Getting Crafty

2010-01-18T18:02:00.001Z

The Purpose of this blog was, and still is, to keep a record and follow my, glacially slow, progress as a writer of fantasy fiction. I also wanted to use it as a place to discuss the craft of writing generally, and more specifically writing fantasy. I haven't really done this.

Partly because I'm often busy trying to actually write, but also because I don't feel qualified to drone on about 'the craft' as I'm so very slightly published. However, I then realised this is 'teh internets', the very place for people to drone on about things they no nothing of.

So I may not be an expert, but if I hold forth with the attitude that I'm just musing about things, rather than spouting authoritative truths, I can't see the harm. So, I'll add a few regular posts on writing craft to the RPG stuff and all the lists. I guess the place to start would be at the beginning, so that's where I'll start, with a post later in the week about story openings.

Goals: The Listing

2010-01-17T09:09:00.003Z

Last week . . .

Page a day, minimum, of new writing.- Missed friday.
Finish Elf magic for Redwald. - Done
Finish Delverton article.- Done
Read notes for next Magus scene. - Done
Start writing notes for Lembek ( and other novels?)- Other novel, not Lembek
Edit Ice Wastes story. - No
Brainstorm ideas for Tunnels & Trolls GM Dungeon. - Have basics.
Write a blog entry that isn't a list! - Almost!

Next Week . . .

Writing Goals 18th -23rd Jan 2010

Page a day, minimum, of new writing.
Edit Ice Wastes story.
New scene for Magus script.
Notes for Lembek novel.
Human Magic for Redwald RPG project.
Outline for T&T RPG project.
More than one blog post a week.

The Rules of Writing

2010-01-14T10:18:00.002Z

To say there’s a lot been said about writing rules is to push the boundaries of understatement. Most of it is contradictory and confusing so I thought I’d clear things up . . .

The Rules of Writing

Rule 1
There are no Rules when it comes to writing. There are however a million-and-one tips, guidelines, hints, and pieces of good writing advice that new, and unpublished, writers ignore at their peril. This is what people are really talking about when they’re talking about writing rules. When thinking about these a writer should always bear in mind Rule 2.

Rule 2

What works for you, works for you. What doesn’t, doesn’t. Always remember this. However, see Rule 3.

Rule 3

What works for you and what doesn’t work for you can change. If that is a problem consult Rule 4.

Rule 4

If in doubt consult Rule 1.

There. That should clear things up. :D

This Week's Goals, Last Week's Goals!

2010-01-11T15:13:00.005Z

Last weeks goals went well . . .

A page a day, minimum, of new writing - Check two pages most days.
Start Galdr class write up for Redwald - Finished that and made a start on magic too.
Start Delverton article for TrollZine! - Started
Re-read Magus script - Read script and wrote another scene.
Prepare notes, etc. for Lembek of the Towers - played with these a little could have done more.
Start editing Ice Wastes story - only a brief look at this and a few deletions.

This weeks . . .

Writing Goals 11th -16th Jan

Page a day, minimum, of new writing.
Finish Elf magic for Redwald
Finish Delverton article
Read notes for next Magus scene
Start writing notes for Lembek ( and other novels?)
Edit Ice Wastes story
Brainstorm ideas for Tunnels & Trolls GM Dungeon
Write a blog entry that isn't a list!

Writing in a Winter Wonderland

2010-01-05T17:36:00.001Z

Got up at stupid am and wrote my two pages today (medal in post). After writing I opened the curtains to see the land, well our street, blanketed in snow. Which made my morning walk cold but beautiful. Many of my stories written in January feature snowfall, No big surprise there I guess, although for a long time January has been a snow free zone. Here in England snowfall has been rare for a good few winters recently. Instead we had overcast; grey, rainy affairs that were more like extend autumns. At one point there were more than a few years with no snow at all. However, over the last few years snow has made a welcome return. Well I say welcome; it seems these days the whole country grinds to halt at the first flake of snow, but welcome to me at least.

Living in the city snow doesn't stay pristine very long, often it turns to a dirty slush, but when I lived in the hills of mid Wales, snowfall was something breath-taking. Now when it snows I always try to get a 'feel' for it, to make a sense memory that I can save and use in my writing. I try to record the pregnant heaviness of clouds full of snow ready to fall. I stare up into a sky of heavy snowfall watching the flakes swirl and whirl in the wind, try to remember the feel of cold then wet as fat flakes of new fallen snow melt on my face. Anything really to get a great feel, a sense of snowfall that I can then relate in my writing.

Outside it is dark and snowing heavily again, which bodes well for my morning walk and more chances to soak up the wintery atmosphere. I have a story I wrote in the summer, a story set in the icy wastes of an imaginary mythical dark ages north. I think tomorrow would be a good time to start editing it.