Charlie Foxtrot's Blog, page 5

NaNoWriMo: Week Two

I’m participating in NaNoWriMo this year. I’m focusing on finishing the first draft of my work in progress, tentatively titled Technomancer. I’ve shared some of the character background and opening chapters of the work here as well.

This week, my pace has fallen some, but I’m still ahead with a planned completion date of Nov 20th. My current stats:

35,711 words written in 14 days, (71.4% of goal)I’m writing earlier in the day, with most of my writing between 8:00 and 9:00 AM.My peak day is still a Saturday with 6,099 words written. I’m averaging 2,550 words per day.

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WIP: Forsaken Powers – Elara’s Quest

Continuing to share the opening scenes from my current work in progress, Technomancer. This is the novel I’m working to complete during NaNoWriMo.

A palpable stench assaulted Elara’s senses, a noxious blend of decay and filth. The pungent tang of rotting food mingled with the rank aroma of spoiled garbage, its sickly sweetness clinging to her nostrils and forcing her to wake, gagging. Decomposing organic matter gave way to a sharper, more pungent smell – the unmistakable stink of putrefying meat and fish. The sour, acrid odor of urine added another layer to the cacophony, a reminder that this was a place where nature fought a constant battle against decay and filth. It was a smell that spoke of neglect, disarray, and the unyielding passage of time.

Elara groaned, and forced her eyes open, afraid to see what foul place she had been thrown into now.

“Goddess, help me,” she pleaded softly as she spotted the barest hint of moonlight edging its way into the filthy alleyway she awoke in. Garbage was obvious in the large metal bins pushed against one wall. Dirty rainwater, she hoped it was water, puddled the rough street, and she heard strange sounds from the distant opening. A few lights shown through the mouth of the narrow passage.

She took hold of herself, realizing she was still naked except for the silver anklets with their tiny jewels and moonstones. She reached out with her mind, seeking the cool comforting connection to the powers her goddess had granted. The barest trickle of power would clothe her. It was one of the first lessons an acolyte learned, weaving the moon beams into clothes.

For the first time since learning the weave, her goddess’ power eluded her. The loss of her connection hit her as hard as the wizard’s fist had. She struggled to sit up and hugged her knees to her tightly. Where was her patron? Why had the connection been lost? How?

Alone. She could sense none of her sisters in the order. She could not feel Mother Nightbloom, the only woman she had granted the appellation of mother. Elara had always had someone of the order on the periphery of her awareness. Even in the dungeon of obsidian, she could feel a tenuous connection to the women of the temple in the Enchanted Forest. Of course, there it had been nearly overwhelmed by the emotions of the other prisoners. Now, it was simply absent. The magnitude of her loss sent a shiver through her soul, and she felt unbidden tears touch her face.

Alone. Not only were her friends and sisters gone, but her goddess was also as well. The usual sense of comfort and reassurance was absent.

She sucked in a deep breath of the putrid air, wishing for some hint of home, only to remind herself of the many lessons from her training.

“Have pity for others, but it has no place in your actions,” Mother Nightbloom had instructed. “Do not waste time pitying your circumstances, do something about them!”

She focused inward, seeking the place where she felt the peace of the goddess. This too, she had been deeply trained in. Her years as an initiate had prepared her mind and body for the trials of being an acolyte. Her years as an acolyte had honed powers that mere mortals could only imagine. She had reached the final trials to be anointed a priestess five years earlier than most expected to achieve that rank. She would not be deterred.

Elara reached out once more, focusing on the memory of the power granted to her. She resisted the urge to strain for it, opening herself and waiting until she felt the lightest of touches on her awareness. The power was there, but faint like an echo in her mind. Regardless, she willed that trickle to manifest. She felt the soft caress of cloth on her skin and opened her eyes.

It was not the full gown of a priestess as she had envisioned, but a short dress of blues and greens. At least it covered her nakedness. She felt drained from the effort but forced herself to stand and move away from the stench of the container hiding her from the main street. A crate of some strange material was a few steps further down the alley. She sat, exhausted, but determined to try once more to weave the moonbeams.

Before she could reach the meditative state of calm again, a new sensation intruded upon her. A longing, not for the goddess, but for a man. She relaxed her mind, trying to fathom who the man was. It was not the magician who had raped her before casting her out, that much she was certain of. She shuddered at the thought of the evil man’s touch even as she realized she could feel his seed leaking from within her. She needed a bath.

No, the man she sought was not a magician, but someone of power from this world. She knew she needed to find him. A man of power, but she could think of no name, no face, no way of identifying him. She only felt the need to search and find.

A geas! That evil bastard was using her to find someone, she realized.

She knew of spells to impose a geas. Only the highest priestesses were allowed to use them, but she knew the signs. The flames of her anger were blown brighter. Her goddess had truly forsaken her if she could not fight this compulsion on her mind. While she wanted to resist the pity welling up in her throat, her loss was all consuming. For the first time since being raised as an acolyte, she cried with the nearly silent sobs from her childhood.

Alone and abandoned again.

What do you think? Does it make you want to read more? Drop a like or comment and let me know what you think. All feedback is appreciated.

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NaNoWriMo Update : First Week

I’m participating in NaNoWriMo this year. I’m focusing on finishing the first draft of my work in progress, tentatively titled Technomancer. I’ve shared some of the character background and opening chapters of the work here earlier as well.

I’m pleased to share that one week into the challenge, I am 170% ahead of my planned goal pace. I aim to finish 50,000 words by the end of the month.

A few other facts from the project tracking at NaNoWriMo:

I’m averaging 3,268 words per dayI do most of my writing between 9 AM and 10 AMMy peak writing day was a Saturday, with 6,099 words written.If I keep up this pace, I’ll reach my goal by Nov 15th.

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Discussing Excerpt Twelve: Marketing Mondays

This week’s post is the opening prologue for Cosimo. I chose to use the prologue of the book for a few reasons:

Firstly, I launched a promotion for the Kindle version of the book on Amazon this week, so naturally wanted to highlight it. Secondly, the prologue sets up the basis for the universe, and the colony that emerges from mankind’s flight from the Sol-system. Finally, at 435 words, the prologue is intended to intrigue the reader without bogging them down with lots of details and characters. It tries to set the stakes for the story, and hints at some of the challenges they will face and overcome.

The prologue could be removed from the story. However, losing it would make it more difficult for readers to orient themselves on the world that unfolds in later chapters.

Enjoy the excerpt and I hope you take advantage of this week’s sale on the book.

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Cosimo: The Fight for Humanity’s Future Begins

I’ve mentioned before that Cosimo is my most problematic story when it comes to marketing and promoting the tale. Today, I’ll share another “non-spicy” excerpt, actually the prologue of the book, which sets the stage for the universe the story is told in. Additionally, my Kindle Version of Cosimo is on-sale for this week, so if the opening appeals to you, check out the full story and let me know what you think.

Ayako watched as Kgosi, her husband, descended from the side hatch of the shuttle.  The crew was bustling around them, unloading cargo with a sense of urgency that echoed through the hangar bay. She understood the gravity of their task: the seeds they carried were the key to the survival and future prosperity of their human colony on a distant planet. But her concern went beyond the importance of the cargo. The sweat on Kgosi’s brow, the weariness in his eyes, testified to the immense struggle they had faced on Earth. The cold climate of Norway had only added to their challenge.

The fight against the artificially intelligent machines had been more brutal than anticipated. The raid on the Svalbard Global Seed Vault had been a last hope to secure greater biodiversity for their new home. The mission’s success came at great cost, as they knew all too well. Kgosi had left her with a kiss that mixed both farewell and determination. Ayako had listened to the decoded transmission from the mission, her heart heavy with the knowledge that this was the end for the crew on Earth.

The New Horizon, their spacecraft, had been moved to the Apollo asteroids to complete its loadout and prepare for the final battle against the home world. The dinosaur killers they had launched from the belt were already enroute to Earth, leaving no chance of rescue or salvation for those left behind. Free men of this generation would never touch foot on their birthplace again.

Ayako knew that Kgosi carried a burden far greater than the physical one he showed. As the future leader of the colony, he had been at the forefront of the debates and discussions about their actions. The decision to destroy the machines had weighed heavily on him, a cold calculus of saving a select few while condemning the rest to a fiery end. It was a burden no man should bear, yet Ayako trusted that Kgosi would help them build a new world based on wisdom and compassion, free from the hate and prejudice that had led to the weaponization of technology in the first place.

Kgosi turned to look back at the shuttle, his eyes meeting Ayako’s. His smile gave her hope. Despite the weight of their decisions and the sacrifices they had made, he believed in their future. And with that belief, she knew they could build a better world, one where mankind learned from its mistakes and created a new home filled with peace and prosperity. Together, they would face the challenges ahead and ensure the success of their colony.

This excerpt highlights some of the non-erotic basis for the world of the story. Subscribers can read an additional “spicy” excerpt from the book and everyone can enjoy the discussion of that excerpt as well.

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Flash Fiction: Applying the MICE Model

I mentioned previously that I’ve been watching Brandon Sanderson’s lectures on writing Science Fiction and Fantasy at BYU. Lecture #7 features a guest lecturer, Mary Robinette Kowal. In the lecture, she covers the MICE quotient and has the class apply it to a piece of flash fiction. This struck me as a perfect writing exercise to add to my own practice, even though I have little practice or experience writing flash fiction. Let’s take a look at what she shares.

MICE

The MICE quotient is shorthand for the types of story, story-arc, and conflict you can have in a story.

M is for Milieu. In Milieu stories, your character enters a new space at the beginning of the tale and exits the space at the conclusion. The conflict of the story revolves around figuring out a way out of the space.

I is for Inquiry. Inquiry stories start with a question or a mystery to be solved and end when the question is answered. Conflict is the process of trying to find those answers, with no luck.

C is for Character. In the simplest form, character stories start when a character is unhappy with themselves or their lot in life, and end when they have new understanding of themselves or their situation. Conflict comes from the things that keep them in their starting situation. Character stories are inherently inward focused with internal conflict.

E is for Event. Event stories are action. They start with a status quo and end when a new status quo is reached. Conflict comes through the efforts and set-backs that prevent the character from reaching the new status quo. Event stories are focused on the external conflict.

Most stories are made up of multiple threads from the MICE quotient. Nonetheless, it is important that the threads be concluded in a logical manner to be satisfying to the reader. This “nesting” of concerns implies that if you open with an Inquiry element, then open a Milieu element, that you resolve the Milieu element before you conclude the Inquiry item. (Jump to the 7:55 mark of the lecture to see and hear a great explanation on this.)

The Challenge

After explaining the concepts of MICE and how to apply them to stories, she takes the class through an exercise to write a 250-word flash fiction story. Her example makes a great writing exercise you should consider.

The Opening: The first three sentences of the story must orient the reader and establish the “who”, “where”, and genre of the piece. This will be an Action-driven Opening. For her in-class exercise, she provides the class the genre (Science Fiction), the “who” (a jockey), and the “where” (a coaster). She guides them to include a sensory detail in the location description, and an adjective to define the attitude of the character. Finally, the opening sentence for the character will include the action they are doing. For the genre sentence, she asks them to include a genre specific detail that is unique. She allows them three minutes to write three sentences and challenges them to use fewer sentences while still delivering the elements of who, where, and what.

The Conflict: The next part of the story is the conflict. She states that the next sentence should introduce the conflict; what is the goal and why to set up the try-fail cycle. And then, once we know what they are trying to do, what is stopping them? This sets up the character’s try-fail cycle. She gives them two minutes to write these next two sentences.

Try-Fail: Trying something and failing takes on two general forms; “Yes, but” / “No, and”. “Yes, but” implies they tried something, did not reach their goal, but made some progress toward it (two steps forward, one-step back) while “No, and” implies they failed, and had an additional set-back. Multiple try-fail cycles build tension in the story and help readers care more about the conflict and character. She gives the class five sentences and five minutes to write several try-fail cycles in the story.

The closing mode: At this point, we’re about two-thirds into the story. We have five sentences setting up the situation and five sentences illustrating the conflicts using try-fail cycles. We are now ready to start resolving some of the conflict. This takes the form of “Yes, and” narratives along with “No, but”. These structures allow progress toward the goal and conflict resolution. In short, this is the shift from try-fail to try-succeed. She allows five sentences and five minutes to write the solution to the problem.

The wrap: solving the problem likely does not provide a complete resolution to the story; it needs to wrap up the final MICE nested element, and bring the story to a satisfying conclusion. The class is allowed three sentences to wrap the story, mirroring their opening.

One point that is made during the lecture is that the MICE quotient scales. It can be used for flash fiction as well as epic fantasy. Obviously, the number of threads and depth of nesting will be different for various formats, but it is an interesting observation. Maybe a chapter is really four flash-fiction stories weaved and nested together. Maybe a novel is fifty such threads. Using the structured thought approach shared in the lecture means you have tools to write long or short fiction.

Again, I encourage you to watch the video lecture and think about how you can apply the lessons there to anything you are writing.

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Discussing Excerpt Eleven | Marketing Mondays

In yesterday’s post, I shared the introductory scene about Finn from a work in progress, tentatively titled “Technomancer”. This book will not have any explicit content, though it may have some romantic elements, so it is a departure from my prior works.

I’m hoping readers of this blog will respond to the chapter and let me know what they think. As of right now, the book is 30,000 words, so about one third written. I’m planning on finishing the first draft before the year is out and will be adding 50k words during NaNoWriMo.

Here are a few common questions I’m willing to answer at this point.

What is the book about? Technomancer is a Sci-fi/fantasy novel that explores the intersection of magic in a high-tech world, or the impact of technology on a magical realm. As you can tell from this first chapter, it starts in a world of magic.Who is Finn? As you can tell from the expert, Finn is a bit of a hacker on a mission. He is trying to fight the system that he sees as being unjust. He is a bit of a white knight, but has enabled the darkness he is now fighting.How does Finn relate to Elara from the opening chapter? The short answer is their two paths will cross very soon. However, what path their relationship takes and what it means for their character arcs is not yet revealed. How can I read more of the tale before it’s published? That’s a good question. I may pull a few more WIP posting from it, but am not committing to that. I need to get the first draft done. I may open a beta reader program. If you are interested in being a beta reader, please subscribe to this blog so you can be notified if and when such a program opens. In the meantime, I’m back to writing.

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WIP: A Thrilling Introduction to Finn Miller’s Story

My last work in progress (WIP) post was a dark introduction to the world and two significant characters. This week, I’ll share the introductory scene with the main protagonist.

Finn Miller glanced at the silent timer showing on his phone. Two minutes left. He watched the progress bar on the screen and tapped his fingers on the edge of the ancient wooden table the third-hand terminal sat on. The flat screen was cracked, but still functioned. He hoped the location would give him a few more minutes of anonymity if the task took too long. He stood, stretching from his hours-long effort, preparing his body to flee. It was going to be close. He had three exits to choose from. If it took too long, he would have to pick which to run through. The fourth approach, how he had entered the room, was not an option. That path led to an open street that he knew had cameras. It had crowds as well, despite the late hour. It was, after all, a city that never slept.

He heard a sound and glanced at the main door. His temporary locks were still firmly in place. The plastic shims were inserted on the hinge side of the door, preventing it from swinging open. He glanced at the monitor, then crossed the small room to insert two additional wedges in the door, one high on the opening side and then the other on the floor, also away from the hinges. A tap of his finger sent the signal to them, causing the adhesive on the edges to expand and bind with the frame and the floor. Even a heavy battering ram would take several swings to shatter the door now. The wedges would hold much longer than the thin metal shell of the door itself. It was the best he could do to buy some extra time.

He glanced at his phone. It looked old, bulkier than the most modern models, but he would not trade it for anything. He knew every chip, circuit, and wire in the device. A commercial phone would have too many avenues of attack for him to ever trust. He should know, he had helped design the hardware compromises built into them for years. He had written parts of the low-level operating system they used as well. Finn had thought he was making the world a better place.

He shook his head at how naïve he had been.

Most people, even the technical elites, thought their phones were secure with end-to-end encryption and industrial operating systems. He knew better. His master’s thesis had gained him the job with the No Such Agency. They had placed him with a chip design company. He thought giving the agency the ability to by-pass all the commercial security efforts was warranted in the war on terror. Using quantum entanglement and post-deployment modifications to the processor’s microcode instructions let his superiors trigger a backdoor into anyone’s device. The agency had then subsidized the chips so heavily that no manufacturer could afford not to use them. He had been proud of his work. It should have earned him accolades. Instead, he was patted on the head and brought back into a windowless office hidden deep in a secure facility. He consoled himself with further refinements to the modified microcode running on so many phones.

A few years later, he realized that no one he worked with could understand what he did. They nicknamed him “microcode”, since they only seemed to understand that he did something that would modify how the processors operated. He began to wonder. If they did not understand how he did his exploits, did they understand the data collection those exploits enabled?

He began to look at how his work was being used. Yes, it was enabling traffic analysis for teams fighting terrorist and extremists. It was also being used to track citizens critical of the government. It was being used to listen in on private conversations of opposition party members. Then he found it being used to collect material to compromise government officials. The agency was controlling more than the flow of information, it was using that information to grow its own power.

His departure from government work had not come quickly. His clearances made it a slow withdrawal to avoid tripping any of the watchers tasked with keeping secrets, secret. He had used the time to slip away from the world. His phone had been built during that year-long retreat. It ran code that he would never give to the government. When he thought about how his work had been subverted, he got angry. Then he decided to get even.

In a roundabout way, that had led him to the dirty room with a decrepit terminal and spotty connectivity. He was tracing funds and messages between buyers and sellers. It was not weapons or intelligence in the traditional sense. It was the transactions people in power, people who thought they were beyond the law, were using to literally buy and sell lives. His digging had shown how the leaders of the agency, along with several multi-billionaires, were trafficking in people and using them as sexual playthings. Adding insult to injury, they were using parts of his backdoor technology to hide their actions and communicate across a network of perverted power-players without any regular law enforcement agency having a hope of finding them.

He glanced at the timer. The progress bar reached its end, but he was a minute past his self-imposed deadline. Someone would be coming for him. It was time to leave.

What do you think? Does it make you want to read more? Drop a like or comment and let me know what you think. All feedback is appreciated.

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Architect or Gardner?

I’ve recently been going through Brandon Sanderson’s Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy lectures at BYU. If you are interested in writing, I encourage you to check the lectures out. In the introductory lecture, he discusses author’s approaches to how they plan and write their stories.

He describes authors who plan extensively and spend much of their time outlining so when they actually start drafting their prose as Architects. They create their detailed plans and then build those plans.

The other end of the spectrum are authors who have an idea or character or world and start writing while letting their imaginations guide them and develop the story. This type of author is labeled a Gardener; they grow, prune, and tend their ideas until a story emerges.

Of course, Brandon also says that no one is a pure embodiment of each of these. Generic outlines can then have the Gardening aspect applied during the writing, or chapters may have objectives to create an overall outline, but the narrative is grown more organically.

I find these descriptions interesting, since in my non-writing life, I would consider myself an Architect; I plan my work and then work my plan. However, when signing up for NaNoWriMo, I took a little quiz on my approach to writing and was clearly a Gardner (they label it a Discovery writing style). As I look back at my books, I have to agree. A New Past started with an idea and several tropes from an Erotic Science Fiction site. It grew from a do-over story with a twist to almost a million words of prose that took three years to write. Cosimo was the same way. I had an idea and then populated a wold for the characters to explore that idea within. I had no clue where the story was going.

None of this means you have to pick one approach over the other. They simply define the end-points of a spectrum. What works for you is the best approach. However, one other thing that Brandon suggests in his opening lecture is to “try new things”. Hopefully, we will all embrace trying something new as we focus on our writing.

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Discussing Excerpt Ten | Marketing Mondays

My last Marketing Monday’s post was a departure from the trend of posting excerpts from my published books. Instead I posted the opening chapter of a work in progress, tentatively titled “Technomancer”. This book will not have any explicit content, though it may have some romantic elements, so it is a departure from my prior works.

I’m hoping readers of this blog will respond to the chapter and let me know what they think. As of right now, the book is 30,000 words, so about one third written. I’m planning on finishing the first draft before the year is out.

Here are a few common questions I’m willing to answer at this point.

What is the book about? Technomancer is a Sci-fi/fantasy novel that explores the intersection of magic in a high-tech world, or the impact of technology on a magical realm. As you can tell from this first chapter, it starts in a world of magic.Who is Elara? She is one of the main protagonists in the book. You may recognize her from my postings on character development. I used her character background as examples in those posts.What’s Malachi’s story? I think from this opening, it’s pretty obvious Malachi is the bad guy. In my writing to date, his character is still a little obscure, but his back story and patron god, Set, have a rich mythology that will get shared as the story unfolds.What’s the compulsion Malachi has placed on Elara? He has placed a geas on her to search out someone he needs to bring his plans to fruition.When will this story be published? I’d like to say later this year (2024), but realistically it will probably be sometime next year. I’ve been on a tear writing lately, adding 5,000 words or more a day, but I am not sure I’ll wrap up the first draft on time at that pace.Where will you publish it at? Given my findings on various channels and marketing efforts, I’ll likely publish via Amazon first and then possibly add channels.Will you have a “beta” reader program of any sort? Maybe. If readers here want to help me polish and refine the story before publishing, like and leave a comment. If I do a beta reader program, I will start with subscribers to this blog first.What would being a beta reader entail? If you become a beta reader, I’d ask you to commit to reading and providing positive and critical feedback on chapters, sections, and the overall book in advance of my publishing them. I would want to hear what you liked and what you would like to see improved on each item posted. beta readers that can’t or don’t provide feedback would be dropped. As I get closer to completing this work, I’ll post more about beta reading.

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