Monica Valentinelli's Blog: booksofm.com, page 55

First Thoughts on Skyrim

Thanks to Amazon’s lightning deals on Black Friday, I was able to pick up the legendary edition of Skyrim for $30. I hadn’t played the game yet for a few reasons. One, buying games when they debut is pretty costly. And two? Time, really. But, with it being so cold outside, I figured an hour or two would be a good mental break.

My fear with this game, is that I’d get immersed in the world of Skryim and then never leave. I’m not going to have that problem, though, not with this epic sweeping game. After playing for two hours last night in first person, I realized that a) I really don’t like playing first person in general and b) even with switching to third, the non-linear form of storytelling offers a more well-rounded game experience. This game is impressive on many levels. Graphics, the depth and breadth of character options, an expansive bestiary — the only problem I had was readability and the way the fonts appeared on my screen.

Non-linear, non-sequential storytelling is extremely complex to put together. Many games use sidequests or miniquests to flesh out the primary storyline. Of course, it depends upon the scope of the game. In general, there’s often a stricter limit on how far you can go off the beaten path and, more importantly when. Skyrim doesn’t have that problem, because its construction gives me the illusion that it doesn’t matter what choices I make and when, the story will proceed the way “I” want it to. I’m in deep appreciation of how far off the beaten path I can go. There is no pathing issues in this game, either, where I can’t go up a ridge because that’s not the gameplay area I’m supposed to be in.

In short, Skyrim is an extraordinarily detailed, fully submersible gameplay experience down to the last tankard. I have had experience with non-linear games in the past, like Final Fantasy XIII-2 and its time-travel storyline (props to Square Enix!) before, but this is a whole new level of insanity and awesome. I can only imagine the months spent slaving away…

It’ll take me forever and a day to get through everything and even then I know I’m likely going to miss something. If you haven’t played and want to pick up a copy, I would say that “YES! It is new gamer-friendly.” This game is more about strategy than up up down down left right A A B B Select Start. Highly recommend the guidebook, though, for if you go too fast in the beginning you’ll gloss over some of the training or, if you’re like me, get worried that you missed something.

Cabbages and carrots FTW.

Mood: Winter blues. Yep.

Caffeinated Beverages Consumed: A couple of cups of coffee.

Work-Out Minutes Logged Yesterday: Sigh

In My Ears: Coldplay! Ironically enough…

Game Last Played: Battle Nations

Book Last Read: An encyclopedia on gemstones

Movie Last Viewed: BLACK FOREST

Latest Artistic Project: *Still* *still* *still* need to take pictures… It’s on the list!

Latest Fiction/Comic Release: Last Man Zombie Standing

Latest Game Release: Freedom Flyer

What I’m Working On: Primarily tie-in games work and novels.

New Firefly RPG Release: Freedom Flyer

Folk do what they can to scratch out a living in the ’Verse. Seems like some folk push their luck to scrape by in these tough times. Maggie Miller’s bad history and rotten luck are keeping her from achievin’ her dreams. She wants to get out of the Georgia System to make a fresh start out on the Rim, but she needs three things to do it: a hidden pile of cash, a ship she’s hidden with an old flame, Hollis Mason, and enough leftover credits to wipe Ma Millers’s medical bills clean before she goes.  The Crew will have to dig for treasure, outwit a wily Alliance officer, and steal a ship hidden in orbit to help Maggie safely on her way. Trouble is, there’s a kind of hitch: Hush Jackson, a tough-as-nails bounty hunter who’s hopin’ to cash in on Maggie’s head. Will the Crew turn Maggie over for the bounty? Or, will they help Maggie out and pray there is enough cash left over to cover their costs?

Friends in Low Places is part of the Echoes of War role-playing adventure series, which is centered on a common theme: the Unification War. Echoes of War adventures include basic rules to get you started. Main characters are found in the Serenity Crew, which is available separately. All releases in the Echoes of War line are compatible with the FIREFLY ROLE-PLAYING GAME, which is based on the television series by Joss Whedon.

This new release for the Echoes of War line is the brainchild of Nicole Wakelin. She wrote about her experience working with us on her blog. Here’s what she said:

Like so many of you, I fell in love with Firefly when it first aired. It was my new favorite show and I was nothing short of heartbroken when it was cancelled. The end, but not so fast. Fans asked, demanded, screamed for more and more we’ve been given.

There was a movie and there are comics and games and now there’s a new RPG that I had the joy of getting to work on over the summer. I wrote an adventure called Freedom Flyer and I am still giddy that I got to play in that universe. I got to not just dip a toe in the wonderful world created by Joss Whedon but I got to take a full-on swim. It was amazing. — Nicole Wakelin

I hope you get the chance to check Freedom Flyer out. It is, as they say… SHINY!

Reading Broadly

I’ve got some link salad for you today and also some comments on a meme that’s going around. But first? LINK SALAD!

Beatrice the Biologist : Really cute science-y comics with a sense of humor.

Medieval People of Color : Fascinating blog by a historian who provides a different take on people of color from the time period.
Clarifying the Firefly RPG approach : I blogged for MWP Productions to clarify our approach for the line.

Now that that’s out of the way… There’s a meme going around about the top ten books that have influenced you. This meme, in particular, speaks volumes to me about what people’s personal preferences are. As a professional writer, I cannot tell you how incredibly crucial it is to read broadly. Even if you don’t like a particular genre, there’s always something you can learn from a different perspective. Not only is this technique something to consider if balancing characters from a gender, sexual, or cultural perspective is important to you, it’s also good to help you better understand your readers. Most people don’t read one genre!

On that note, here’s mine. It’s CERTAINLY not everything, mind you… I’ve specifically avoided non-fiction, public domain, mythology, fables, folk stories, comics, books I’ve mentioned before that have influenced my work, and classic literature in this list.

1.) Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

2.) A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

3.) Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon

4.) The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

5.) The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

6.) Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

7.) The Mummy (or Ramses the Damned) by Anne Rice

8.) Imajica by Clive Barker

9.) The Otherland Series by Tad Williams

10.) The Stand (Unabridged Verson) by Stephen King

Mood: The end is in sight

Caffeinated Beverages Consumed: The equivalent of three cupes of coffee.

Work-Out Minutes Logged Yesterday: Yeah, let me get right on that.

In My Ears: Background noise

Game Last Played: Battle Nations

Book Last Read: An encyclopedia on gemstones

Movie Last Viewed: RED 2

Latest Artistic Project: *Still* *still* *still* need to take pictures… It’s on the list!

Latest Fiction/Comic Release: Last Man Zombie Standing

Latest Game Release: Freedom Flyer

What I’m Working On: Primarily tie-in games work and novels.

Two Cats in Snowsuits

You may recall seeing the notorious Rimmon (our black kitty) and Zakar (the orange tabby with no tail and seven toes) in this picture perfect holiday photo. I mean really, don’t they look thrilled?

In the spirit of the season, here’s another set of silly photos. Since these suits lasted all of three minutes on them, there’s no pictures of the two together. Hah! It snowed here for the first time and accumulated quite a few inches. Both cats have mixed feelings about the weather. Rimmon has become much more of an indoor cat in recent years; Zakar, on the other hand, really likes to adventure which is something we watch for. They are both very spoiled and have many admirers both here and at the vet.

Enter the snow suits. Hee. Had to do something new for the holiday photos!

Here you can see that Zak did venture out (supervised, mind you) into the cold.

Rimmon, on the other hand… Well his expression speaks volumes.

Mood: Hobbitses!

Caffeinated Beverages Consumed: Quite a few. Ahem.

Work-Out Minutes Logged Yesterday: I typed. A lot.

In My Ears: The Hobbit soundtrack

Game Last Played: Battle Nations

Book Last Read: An encyclopedia on gemstones

Movie Last Viewed: RED 2

Latest Artistic Project: *Still* *still* *still* need to take pictures… It’s on the list!

Latest Fiction/Comic Release: Last Man Zombie Standing

Latest Game Release: Friends in Low Places

What I’m Working On: Primarily tie-in games work and novels.

Shameless Comic Plug

Over at Red Stylo Media, you can get the Monster Edition of UNFASHIONED CREATURES along with two other literary-based graphic novels POE TWISTED and SHAKESPEARE SHAKEN for $50. Here’s a link to the monster bundle. Enjoy!

My first comic Last Man Zombie Standing is included in both the monster edition and standard edition. You can get your hands on a digital copy now and see a preview through DriveThruComics.com and Red Stylo Media. The print editions of both will be available early 2014.

Light Bulbs and Measuring Sticks

It’s winter here. Cold, blustery, and dark. I love winter — especially snowflakes — but sometimes too much dark gets to me. Had to go on a cleaning meltdown for that reason. Washed the curtains, the rugs, did a little house maintenance, got an architect lamp to add some full spectrum lighting to my office — the whole bit. Also celebrated new phase of my career with a FitBit to keep me on track.

Now that I’m back from the U.K., I’ve been diving back into the pile and loving it. Getting a ton of words written, projects completed, outlines sent… Yesterday, my short fiction for Hunter the Vigil: Mortal Remains had been accepted. It’s interstitial and connected in a series, so each piece builds off of the other. It was a LOT of fun to write and I can wait to see it in print. Tying up the Episode Guide for the Firefly RPG corebook while the other pieces are being edited and proofread. We are very close to calling it a day. Phew!

But in the midst of all that, every once in a while I catch a whiff of the drama. You know the kind I’m talking about. The “You’re not a real writer until…” Or “If you write, it’s not really work.” Kat Richardson recently talked about this on her blog a little bit in the context of NaNoWriMo. And I laughed when I saw the “It’s not really work.” I never STOP working.

To me being a writer is one part craft, one part business and my job is to balance the two by making smart decisions that impact me now and in the future. (Here’s a financial snapshot of this career’s sustainability through the lens of self-publishing, traditional, and hybrid models.)

More to my point, there’s a lot of magical thinking out there about the craft. I get frustrated when the measuring stick gets pulled out. I’m sure you’ve heard this before. The “you’re not a real writer” unless you:

a) publish an original novel that person has heard about

b) publish a series of novels on that first book

c) have a graphic novel/comics based on those novels

d) sell movie/TV writes based on those novels

e) MERCHANDISING

f) roll in the dough

g) have a million Twitter followers

h) etc.

Gah! So why does the measuring stick exist? Jealousy and insecurity, sure. That’s natural and going to happen. But deeper than that, our personal qualifications for success are putting those tick marks on the ruler. Take 50 Shades of Gray for example. I can’t tell you how many people came to me and said: “This was badly written, but I had to keep reading.” And then I found out how this book came to be published, and well… I know so many erotica/romance writers who write high-quality prose. This runaway hit blew my mind because it broke my rules of what I feel deserves to sell that many copies and get all the licensing, etc.

Obviously, my opinion is just that. Does it have a bearing on the future of that property? Sales, etc? Nope! It’s just “talk.” My point here, is that a stranger’s opinion shouldn’t make you feel bad about what you’ve achieved as a writer. Half the time they’re saying: “I wish I was as success as you.” or in my case “I don’t understand your success.”

To me, the lesson to be learned about measuring sticks is that they’re useless. Success is, to be perfectly hokey, in the eye of the beholder. Measuring sticks are just opinions that can get in the way or attack your confidence as a writer so you freeze up and avoid the blank page. Success is always best viewed in context, anyway. Don’t let anybody take your happiness away from you. If you’re pleased with what you’ve done? Then that’s really all that matters. If you’re not, well… That’s a whole ‘nother conversation.

Mood: How did it get to be December again?

Caffeinated Beverages Consumed: COOOOOFFFEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Work-Out Minutes Logged Yesterday: Meh

In My Ears: Electronical buzzings

Game Last Played: Dragon Age II

Book Last Read: A modernized version of Mallory’s King Arthur

Movie Last Viewed: RED 2

Latest Artistic Project: *Still* *still* *still* need to take pictures… It’s on the list!

Latest Fiction/Comic Release: Last Man Zombie Standing

Latest Game Release: Friends in Low Places

What I’m Working On: Primarily tie-in games work and novels.

Progress Report #5: The “Yes, I’m Talking About Firefly” Edition

Well, August was my last progress report, and there’s a really darn good reason for that. It’s a word that begins with “F” and ends in “y.”

Of course, I’m talkin’ about Firefly. Since March, we have fulfilled every promise thus far and believe me when I say: “Yes, it’s a LOT of work.” GenCon was really exciting for us, and the limited debut of Gaming in the ‘Verse: a GenCon Exclusive was a smash hit. Though the GenCon Exclusive is no longer available, the stand-alone versions of Wedding Planners Plus, Shooting Fish, Serenity Crew, Wedding Planners Classic Bundle, and a new Episode I wrote called Friends in Low Places, are all available now through DriveThruRPG.com with more on the way.

On the Margaret Weis Productions website, we have also released the Firefly RPG pre-order, which is scheduled to debut in February. We have also published several previews including an article written by myself and Mark Diaz Truman for Game Trade Magazine Issue #166. (The design was provided by Daniel Solis and the article was edited by Amanda Valentine.)

Where we stand right now is that we have a:

corebook that is over 150,000 words (over 100,000 words of brand, new material compared to the GenCon Exclusive) in various stages of editing and layout
new supplement about antagonists called Things Don’t Go Smooth that’s already half done
new Echoes of War adventure called Freedom Flyer that’s done and being sent for approvals
…and other (unannounced) adventures and supplements in various stages of completion.

Have I been living, breathing this game line? Yes. I did go to England for two weeks (more on that later) but honestly… this is how I am normally. I am this intense all the time, because I believe that as a creative professional, my invisible employer are the fans. It doesn’t matter if it’s my own work or someone else’s property, I always keep fans in mind because I started out as one myself. If I don’t love what I do, then you won’t either.

I didn’t do all this work alone, though, and I want to be very clear on that point. There have been many people on my team, including both past and present freelancers, who have buckled down to get these products done on time in the quality that fans expect. I can’t thank them enough.

Overall, being the brand manager and lead writer for the Firefly RPG, doing all that I do, has been a really rewarding position and I’m happy Margaret had enough faith in me to give me a shot. But, the best part about this job is hearing how excited Fox TV is about all this and how happy many of the fans are already. That, to me, makes even the crazy days worthwhile. Sure, it’s true I can’t please everybody, especially with a property as visible as Firefly, but I’m very realistic about that. I take comfort in the fact that we’ve all done our damnedest to make this game as awesome as possible. Hopefully, with a little luck, you’ll think it’s fun, too.

SHINY!

Back from the U.K.

I’m a bit head-sniffly and doped up on all things Quil at the moment, but wanted to pop in and mention that I just got back from a two-week trip to the U.K. This trip had a lot of work-related elements to it; in addition to WorldCon in Brighton, I had a meeting in London that went really well. (More on that later.) It was our first jaunt over the pond and we both loved every minute of it. One thing in particular that I enjoyed was the sense of time. Hard to get that in the States since this country isn’t very old. That, combined with a lot of fairly recent (and hugely upsetting/sensitive) events comparatively-speaking, like the treatment of Native Americans, the Civil War, etc. Well, it was incredibly mind-blowing to have dinner at a friend’s house that was older than my state and drinks at a pub that survived the Great Fire of London in 1666. I’ve always felt between worlds given my family background, but this trip reinforced that some in a different way.

One of the best sightseeing parts of our trip was the Tower of London for me. I met a raven named “Bran,” after the Celtic goddess Branwen, saw the crown jewels, and Roman ruins. I have pictures, but sadly the Firefly RPG and the rest of my writing takes precedence right now. We previewed the cover and launched a Firefly RPG corebook pre-order while I was overseas. I’ll write up a proper post about that when my head clears.

The worst part? DEFUNCT CURLING IRON OH MY STARS. I had Very Bad HairTM the whole trip. The double-decker buses are righteously scary. How do they stay upright? And massive chains of the same stores over and over again. (Reminded me of the ‘burbs in Chicago.) But other than that, truly no complaints. London is a fantastic city.

P.S. Shame on the news for misinterpreting the beauty and light found in so many other countries.

Less Fear.

More Love.

P.P.S. Internet rage is overrated. Angry? Get offline…

Mood: Head swirling. Look at all the pretty colors…

Caffeinated Beverages Consumed: I can has all the coffee.

Work-Out Minutes Logged Yesterday: Snoring

In My Ears: Electronical buzzings

Game Last Played: Dragon Age II

Book Last Read: Research materials for work

Movie Last Viewed: THOR: A DARK WORLD

Latest Artistic Project: *Still* *still* *still* need to take pictures… It’s on the list!

Latest Fiction/Comic Release: Last Man Zombie Standing

Latest Game Release: Friends in Low Places

What I’m Working On: Primarily tie-in games work and novels.

The Spectacularity of Cat Rambo

For the past six weeks, I’ve been part of a writing workshop with a group of fabulous writers. Led by Cat Rambo, we critiqued stories and talked about the nuts and bolts of building a career in SF&F. Part of the reason why I wanted to take an online workshop, is because financially it’d be very difficult for me to drop what I’m doing and go to Clarion West or Viable Paradise. I’d love to go to an intense workshop like these, because though I come from literary-land, I feel like I’ve primarily been on the fringes of SF&F. For me, workshops is where a lot of the excitement happens, where there’s this brilliant mesh of ideas and creativity — that form of collaboration is very inspiring to me in small doses. Mind you, I don’t want to collaborate with another fiction writer long-term because I have specific goals I am trying to accomplish. When those happen, then I’ll reconsider. My goals are very clear.

What I had hoped to get out of this workshop, was to cut all the peripheral noise and anxiety, get back to the basics; and re-emerge with a clear path forward. How had writing for games affected my storytelling? What areas did I need to hone in on? Since the bulk of my time recently has been on writing and developing for games like Firefly and Vampire the Masquerade, I felt like I’ve been losing my perspective on my own, original work. Do I get discouraged? Yep, and those lead to excuses or “writer’s avoidance behavior.” Now, I know it happens to everybody, losing faith in yourself, but it sucks. It’s not a mental thing, it’s not insecurity as in “Oh, I could never be as good as ‘X’, ‘Y’, or ‘Z’.” It’s a “heart” thing. It’s a “what’s the point” and “who cares” thing. Publishing is based on people… And so is another “p” word. A “positive” attitude.

Anyway, to circle back around to what I’d been trying to say, I feel it’s one thing to write and have words down on a page; it’s another to know where you’ve gone wrong through internalization. And for me, I feel that process of internalization is weakened if I “take a break” from writing or am so hyper-focused on a different form I stop exercising those other muscles.

The first lesson I learned was… Don’t take a break. For me (and you may be different) I have to write every day. I have to. Part of that word count has to be spent on fiction even if it’s 500 words. Why? Gaps have an impact like this: I’m working on a few novels and I set them down in favor of paying projects. When I pick them up again, I forget where I left off and I need to “re-learn” where my place is. As I’m ramping up, I then change my mind about the structure, how some of the pieces fit, where I need to research more… It takes me more time to get back into the work than it does to finish it and keep that river of words flowing.

The second, is that I have realized that a lot of the game-related fiction are primarily character sketches or plot-driven to show off the world. That differs from character-driven prose because there’s certain elements that are obscured in favor of the overall goal to highlight the game/setting. I suppose that’s why I’ve been noticing how many writers who “graduate” from games are influenced more by the worlds they’ve worked on rather than the characters. Games are GREAT to learn and develop worlds; certain games are GREAT to understand how to build unique characters. Writing stories, on the other hand, is the only discipline in my mind that will teach you about characterization. That doesn’t mean plot-driven stories are bad, mind you. It’s simply a different style of storytelling and fiction in SF&F has evolved to be more character-specific.

And finally, I just want to reinforce my feelings on this… There are many similarities between writers no matter what your level of experience is. Ego? Online persona? Etc. Don’t get sucked in. I care about people and doing the best job I possibly can. That’s pretty much it. Everything else — worrying about the state of the industry, freaking out about someone else’s kerfluffles, etc. I just don’t have the time. I have a job, a really great one in fact, and writing fiction is in addition to that and everything else I’m doing, too.

Now, to end this messy ‘ole pile of words and get back to the title of this post…

I found Cat to be extraordinarily patient, honest, and excellent all-around. (I’d like to give a shout-out to my classmates, too. They were brilliant!) Cat is a fantastic teacher. Or, to put it bluntly: there was no bullshit. I never felt like this was a top down kind of a class where we were worshipping at her author’s altar. Always encouraging and extremely empathetic, she’s an extraordinarily grounded person and a very fine writer to boot. I am so, so happy for her success and encourage anybody to take one of her classes. I’d also like to thank Kat Richardson for the recommendation (GO KAT!) and the other writers for being patient with me, my questions, and my dry sense of humor.

You can keep up-to-date on Cat Rambo’s online classes and workshops here: www.kittywumpus.net

She’s worth every penny.

Mood: It’s caffeination-time.

Caffeinated Beverages Consumed: Pepsi Max and a cup o’ java.

Work-Out Minutes Logged Yesterday: I exercised my butt muscles.

In My Ears: The drawbridge. Hee.

Game Last Played: Dragon Age II

Book Last Read: Research materials for work

Movie Last Viewed: Dreamworks Shrek’s Swamp Stories

Latest Artistic Project: *Still* *still* *still* need to take pictures… It’s on the list!

Latest Fiction/Comic Release: Last Man Zombie Standing

Latest Game Release: Friends in Low Places

What I’m Working On: Primarily tie-in games work and novels.

Meet Al. Our Spoiled Frog.

If you’ve been following my blog, you probably heard me mention that we have two cats and a frog. I’ve had a hard time taking pictures of Al, our thirteen year old albino water frog, because of the way his previous tank was set up. We recently constructed a new stand and situated Al in a brand new twenty-gallon tank in my office — now I’m *truly* never alone.

We opted to keep the setup relatively simple for now. There’s a glow-in-the-dark rock, a working drawbridge, and a gothic column. We managed to take a close-up of what he looks like.

Now, sometimes (because he’s VERY spoiled) we get a bunch of minnows. This time around, he swallowed five of them and then sat for hours without moving.

It’s been a few days and we’re down to the last three minnows. I’m really curious to see how long they last, but I suppose Al’ll surprise me. Oh, how he does tend to pig out…

If wishes were fishes, I’d have a tank that would stretch from one wall to the other. The ancient ruins aquarium theme would be our “dream” way to decorate it. ‘Course, if there were ruins… There’d have to be a few skulls and treasure chests lying around, too…

Mood: Curiouser and curiouser

Caffeinated Beverages Consumed: Coffee and a Pepsi Max

Work-Out Minutes Logged Yesterday: There was a chair and there was my bum.

In My Ears: Google Hangouts

Game Last Played: Dragon Age II

Book Last Read: Research materials for work

Movie Last Viewed: Alice in Wonderland

Latest Artistic Project: *Still* *still* *still* need to take pictures… It’s on the list!

Latest Fiction/Comic Release: Last Man Zombie Standing

Latest Game Release: Friends in Low Places

What I’m Working On: Primarily tie-in games work and novels.