P.C. Haring's Blog, page 11

The Difference one Year Makes

It wasn’t until I watched the first couple seasons of “24″ that I realized how much could be accomplished in a single day.  With events occurring in real time it became very easy to see just how much could happen in the span of 24 seemingly short hours.  Of course, if you don’t need to eat, sleep, bathe, or take a bio break, you pick up a LOT of time.

But when you expand that to the time span of a full year… holy crap.

One year ago, today, (as this post publishes), I began the process of studying for and taking the CPA exam and as I look back on the past year, I want to share some numbers with you all -

Parts to the exam: 4

Hours spent in formalized instruction:  105

Number of practice test questions taken:  Thousands.

Hours spent studying and reviewing: Incalculable.

Exam Sections Taken: 4

Exam Sections Passed: 4

That’s right boys and girls.  After nearly a year of blood sweat and tears over this exam process, I have passed all four parts of the exam.

It’s been an experience to say the least, one fraught with both good and bad developments.  There was an unexpected job change as I came around to the final section, and a lot of stress there threatened to de-rail the otherwise smooth process.

And the process isn’t over.  At least not yet.  There is still an ethics exam I need to take in order to fully complete the certification process.  Then there is still the process of getting my license activated.  (The latter of which will not happen until November).  But it feels like the vast majority of the heavy lifting is done.

It’s not unlike the process of writing a full length novel.  When you finish that first draft you have something in your hand.  It’s DONE.  Okay deep down you know it’s not done and there’s still a lot of work to do with edits and re-writes and the publishing process.  But dammit… it’s DONE

And frankly…I couldn’t be happier.  It’s been a crazy stressful year.  My writing has suffered as a result.  But it was an important year and one that was inevitable.  I can’t wait to see what the next year has to offer.

Until next time!

Saying hello to an old friend.

It’s been almost a year since I completed a full length novel manuscript.

For a writer, especially one in my position who is trying to build up the catalogue of titles, that’s a scary thought.  It’s been almost a year since I finished something new.  Had I not been buried with other priorities during that past year, I might even be embarrassed to admit this.

I always make a policy to drawer a first draft for a measurable period of time.  It’s a good way to put some distance between the construction process that is writing the first draft and the constructive de-construction that is the first round of edits and this project was no exception, other than I put a little more distance between us than I’d intended.

Oh Ciris… How I have missed you.

It’s an odd thing, returning to the Codename Ciris universe after so long.  Even odder is suggesting that I’m ‘returning’ to it.  Although I haven’t really looked at the manuscript in almost a year, Ciris has always sat in the back of my mind, making me mull over something or another.  She’s kinda a pain like that.

But it’s been about a year since I’ve given it a solid look and after my latest problems getting Hunter off the ground for lack of a well defined story universe, one of my plans has been to go back and consolidate notes for all three of my worlds – Codename Ciris, Slipspace, and Hunter, into three master world bibles.  In starting with Codename Ciris, it’s been an interesting adventure.

With one book published, and a second only in it’s draft, I thought that one might be the easiest to build.  Afterall, it’s the one i’ve spent the most time with right!?

Yeah…  It’s the one i’ve spent the most time with.

Its the one with the most inconsistencies and knots that need to be untangled from it’s various threads.  It’s the series where I need to brainstorm forward while still keeping it consistent with what’s been published.  It’s the series where I have 30 pages of E-mails  with notes on technical specifications for a certain someone’s Cybernetic components that I’ve been developing and specifying with two separate advisors.

And all that gets spun into a single 3300 word character sheet.  Fun right?

Hell. Yes.

In the past two weeks, I have worked almost exclusively on Ciris, her cybernetic specifications that is both consistent with, and far more detailed than, what I revealed in Cybrosis, and some new tactical gear that makes it’s debut in the next book.  I have added systems, I have removed systems that I thought I’d written about but never ‘appeared’, I’ve pulled pie in the sky brainstorms and wielded them into technology that is sleek, elegant, theoretically plausible, and very efficient.  It’s been hard, frustrating, confusing, and exhausting work.

And I’m falling in love with her all over again.

Not only is Ciris taking on a new life all over again for me, but so to are the characters around her who shaped who she was and who she has become.  Connections between her and the others are forming in new ways and I’ve never been more excited to dig into edits and re-writes for this manuscript.

Just imagine what will happen when I dig into the characters around her.

2014- The first 45 Days

As we roll into the mid point of February, I look back on the last month and a half and realize both how much, and how little has truly gotten done.  Yes, January was spent studying for the last part of the CPA exam and Yes I did take that exam back on the 29th.  Scores aren’t available yet by the way so I don’t know how the results came out and I’m not about to try and armchair quarterback it.  Yes, the day job exploded on the 30th with unexpected, and abrupt, staff changes, month end, and the auditors all descending on our department within the same 3 day window, and 11 work days in the past 12 calendar days.  Not unusual for many… but definitely out of the ordinary for me.

And because of all that, it’s hard to quantify what it is I’ve actually been able to achieve on the creative side.  I haven’t touched Slipspace production since New Years Day.  I haven’t written new fiction and what scant word count I have managed have been oriented towards something I’m working on with my local RPG group, and fleshing out the Code Name Ciris world bible.  Putting it another way, we are 45 days into 2014 and my word count on the year, before adding in this blog posting, is a whopping 3,300 words.

It’s mental and/or emotional exhaustion, of that I have no doubt.

I also have no doubt that in the days and weeks to come, my creative batteries will re-charge and I’ll be back in the saddle in no time.  The world building and notes consolidating I’m doing is already having an affect and the more I write the background on the universes, the more I want to play.  I’m planning a four day weekend once things settle down a little more at the office and at least half of those days will be dedicated entirely to creating.  Not sure if it will be audio or writing, probably a little bit of both.

In a sense, its as though I’m starting over.  There’s been a lot of distance put between me and my characters since I stopped writing in November to focus on exam preparation and as I return to it, I feel as though I need to build that momentum back up again, much like a freight train as it slowly accelerates.

But rest assured, the freight train is rolling.  Slowly right now, yes.  But a new chain on the magic spreadsheet is being assembled.  Quantifying daily progress in anything beyond just a word count is difficult on the magic spreadsheet, but I have a spare calendar laying around.  I think I’ll be borrowing a page from Nathan Lowell’s book and use that calendar to mark out what specifically is accomplished each day.

So for now, it’s back to the day job and then on to the weekend.  Catch you later!

Three Words for 2014

I hope you all have had a very happy, healthy, and most importantly SAFE holiday season.  I know I have, despite a small head cold.  In keeping with the tradition I started for myself last year, I am happy to present my Three Words for 2014.

For those of you unfamiliar with the exercise, it is discussed in “Amazing Things Will Happen” by CC Chapman and is originated from Chris Brogan.  I strongly encourage you to take a look at it and see if this exercise is something that can help you.

I’m not going to discuss “Organize, Produce, and Live” too much in this post, as I went through them in some detail in my previous post, wrapping up 2013.  Suffice to say if you’re interested in my thoughts on those words in context of last year, I encourage you to check it out.  However, I will say that given 2013’s role as a ‘foundation’ year for me, I look to these words as a way to build off of that.

 

Create

This has its genesis in my writing and podcasting goals for 2014, and last year’s ‘produce’.  But as I spoke with friends and colleagues about my three words, I realized that there was more to my list than just writing the next novel, editing the last one, and podcasting the current one.  In 2014 I want to create.  Not just worlds, characters, and stories for listeners and readers, but also I want to create new experiences and form new memories for myself.  I don’t have a lot of experiences in my life.  Well, no.  That’s false.  I do.  But the experiences and memories I have are to a certain degree niche.  They are of the type where ‘you had to be there’ and they don’t have a lot of re-telling value.  So, in 2014 I will create.  I will create opportunities.  I will create worlds.  I will create experiences and memories that will carry with me through 2014 and beyond.

 

Open

Building off of ‘create’ I, in 2014, will open myself up.  I have always lived in a narrow confines of a comfortable space and as I look back on the past two years in particular, I come to realize that the narrow confines has only been getting narrower and narrower as I have inadvertently retreated.  There are many reasons for that retreat, some easily deducible, others not.  But as my world has been closing around me.  It was rightly (and embarrassingly) pointed out a day or two ago that my world had become “work, sleep, CPA, and [games]”.  How true that has become and I’m embarrassed to admit it and up until recently I hadn’t even realized what was going on around me.  No wonder I’ve been less and less satisfied with the overall picture, I’ve been retreating deeper and deeper.  That ended on 12/31/13 and in 2014 I open myself up, force myself out of my comfort zone and begin reversing the contraction that occurred in my world over the past few years.

Relax

This is more than just sitting on the couch with a beer and watching the game.  I’ve done plenty of that over the years.  No.  This is more about an overall state of worry and anxiety.  Those of you who know me best know that if there’s a Con in May, I’ll be trying to nail down specifics in November.   At my previous job, I operated under a constant state of worry over one thing or another.  I have been described as ‘high strung’ on more than one occasion. My father has a poster of a stopwatch that shows exactly what worrying and consternation can do.  That watch shows that 40% is ‘useless’ worry over things that can not be controlled.  In my case it’s probably closer to 60%.  So in 2014 I learn to relax.  I learn to accept that when I’m writing, I’m allowed to suck.  I learn to accept that I don’t need to plan 6 months ahead of a convention, that there will be plenty of time to see and catch up with everybody on my list of people to see.  I learn to find a way to truly accept the things I can not control and not just say I do.    This is not to say I learn to not care or that I learn to be oblivious.  Far from it.  Simply put, I learn to put things into their proper context, relax, and go with the flow instead of trying to paddle up stream.

 

So, there they are- 3 words for 2014.  I look forward to tackling them, and to sharing with you all my progress as the year develops.  I encourage you to constructively keep me accountable to these words.  And I can’t wait to see how this year plays out.

Relax and Openly Create.

Happy New Year!

[image error]

2013 – A Year In Review

So, that was 2013.  Well now…

As I sit down and write this post in the waning days of December, I’m not entirely sure what to make of this past trip around the Sun.  I find myself in one of those scenarios where it’s going to take some time and some looking back to put this past year into a proper context.   Some of the drama from 2012 spilled over into the early days of 2013, and some of it still continues to this day, 2013 felt drama free… at least in comparison to 2012.  That is not to say it was stress free ohhhh no.  There was plenty of that. So, lets look the past year in the context of three words I prescribed to myself back in my January 2013 and render a verdict on the year.

Organize

I think this one played out about as well as I had expected it would.  “Organize” was intended with multiple meanings.  I managed to get a daily routine organized that included writing on a consistent basis for a while.  I organized Off The Deep End Studios into Off The Deep End Multimedia LLC.  I organized my schedule to make room for the time requirements needed to properly study for and take the first three parts of the CPA exam.

Produce

Like “organize”, “produce” took on multiple angles.  The first, and most obvious being the idea of producing a new podcast novel followed very closely by producing another novel.  It also included producing results on the CPA exam.  The podcast production in 2013 did not happen per se.  The foundation was laid in place with the organization of OTDEM during the spring/summer and then built upon as I began contracting primary and secondary voice actors.  Some narration has been recorded on the first few chapters, a lot of audio has been turned in, but I have not yet produced even a single chapter.

Production on a writing front has proven interesting to say the least.  100 days after discovering the Magic Spreadsheet back in late January, I completed work on Virtuality; A Codename CIRIS conspiracy.  Almost immediately thereafter, I began work on my collaboration with the ever talented Veronica Giguere, as well as a third attempt to draft Hunter.  It had been my intention to finish Hunter’s draft before the end of the year, but it was not meant to be and I find myself once again looking at the world building and outline with the eye to overhaul.    The Collaboration with Veronica has met a similar fate for now and due to my other priorities as well as constraints on V’s time, our project is on hold.  Once we resume it (hopefully in the spring if not sooner), we will need to re-visit the world building and make some tweaks to the outline.

So, of the four ‘production’ projects undertaken, only one of them has actually been completed.  I don’t know if I’d call that a success from a results oriented standpoint.  But I’m trying to cut myself some slack because of the 500 pound gorilla grabbing me close to it as it pets my hair and calls me “ooogh”

Yes, the CPA….

For various reasons, the CPA has proven to be highly time consuming and highly stressful since I began the process.  This is not a shock to me, nor should it be to anyone who has ever taken it, or knows someone who has taken it.  But as the process took it’s hold and the days turned into weeks turned into months of study and preparation for the first 3 parts of the 4 part exam, the emotional and mental energy required felt like it was sucking the life out of me, leaving with no sense of creativity whatsoever.  However, the work on the exam did produce some tremendous results.  I found myself very well prepared for two of the three parts and concerned about the third.  Those concerns have proven unfounded, as I’ve officially passed all three parts taken so far.  The final part still looms on the calendar in 2014,  but given my production so far, I’m feeling… more or less… good about where I am.

 

Live

CPA exams and life do not equate and in hindsight I almost want to say it was a mistake to include ‘Live’ as one of my three words in 2013.  You’ll remember that the CPA sucked the life out of me, and left me exhausted more often than not, so not much ‘living’ got done in 2013.  Again, in hindsight, this is no surprise.

But all was not lost in the word of “live”.  While my social life may have not kick started in the way I wanted it to, my core group of friends and I have grown much closer in the past year.  Additionally, as I continue to sort out the remnants of the 2012 drama and push forward I find myself in better touch with my own emotions.  This latter part alone makes me feel like an almost completely different person than I was just a year ago.

 

The Wildcard

Waitaminute… there’s no ‘wildcard’ in the three words exercise!  No.  No there isn’t.  But it had a dramatic impact on the second half of 2013 and set the stage for several things that I believe cement (pun not intended) the idea that 2013 was a ‘foundation’ year for me.

The Job Change.

I will not go into excessive details about my stint in the ranks of the unemployed.  By all objective measures, my unemployment was short and painless.  But damn it did not feel like that at the time.  Perhaps it would have been easier had I chosen to become unemployed.  But, in my case, someone else chose to make me unemployed and while I both respect and disagree with that decision, it was very good in killing what little creativity I had left in me after the CPA studies each day.

But I’m not unemployed any more.  I’m in a new position at a company that is a part of a conglomeration that has global reach.  In the 10 weeks I have been here, I’ve been made to feel more welcomed, and valued than I had in 6 years at my previous position.  Had things not happened at the previous job in the way they did… or had the timing been even a week different, I would have missed this opportunity entirely.  Yes, there would have been others but those uncertainties can’t be predicted.

 

The Verdict

As I said earlier, I think it’s going to take some time to get a full context on what this year was all about.  But as I write this and look ahead to 2014, the early verdict is that 2013 was a good, if not stressful, year.  It very much felt like a foundational year, upon which the next year will be built, which I suppose would make sense.  A few things did happen out of order, a few things are taking longer than I expected, and a few things that I wanted to happen did not happen in the way I had hoped for them.

Oh well.

I don’t consider myself a fatalist, nor do I believe in pre-destination.  However I do believe that things happen for a reason and that in the long run, things turn out for the best.   I’m very happy with where things are now and had things not happened in the way they did, I would not be where I am now.  I like where I am now.  There’s no saying where I might have ended up if things had been different and there is, of course, no saying that things would be any better or worse as a result.  But things happened, in the only way they could, I suppose and I am, where I am.  And I love it.

So here’s to 2013 and here’s to what’s to come in 2014.

[image error]

#WritingWednesday – On Using your resources effectively

As I sit down to write this blog post, or at least the first draft of it, I’m on a lunch hour at my new day job (more on that in a future post, I expect).  I’m sitting at my desk thinking already on the ‘meta’ nature of this thought process.  My smart phone stares back up at me, my dual screen computer is within reach, my iPod is on the other side of my desk, and even my laptop is in it’s case at my feet.  Yet, as I write this, all of my electronics sit idle.

Writing in long hand feels much different than typing it out on a keyboard (Even though it has obviously been  transcribed into wordpress).  It feels more intimate, more personal, and I an already feel the change in tone between this post and many of my previous posts.

I had intended to do some brainstorming on this notepad.  I had planed to flesh out the barebones story that is Hunter, do some world building for another Slipspace title, or something else entirely.  But as I did, I realized that I still lack a good central source for my universe bibles.  I’ve played with various wiki platforms, I’ve put a private self hosted wiki online behind password protection, but no matter how many times I try, I inevitably fall short somewhere for some reason.  I do want to build a fleshed out database system for my universes, so the idea of a centralized Wiki, seems to make logical sense.

But in my search for the latest and greatest wiki platform, one that I could export to Scrivener, the software I use to draft my books, I realized one very obvious truth.

Scrivener is a wiki unto itself

Understand, this is not a promotion of Scrivener.  But rather, this is the realization that the solution I have been seeking has been right under my nose this entire time.  I had been so focused on finding the latest and greatest, that I lost sight of the resources I clearly had available to me.

And therein lays the moral of this story.  Whether you’re writing, or working on a different project, or anything where you might be looking for the new tool to make your process that much more effective, don’t overlook the resources you already have at your disposal.  Perhaps you have something in your toolbelt that you’ve been using, but perhaps haven’t been using to it’s fullest.  In my case I remember looking at Scrivener’s tutorials and seeing the notes about it’s ability to cross reference items and pull in various pieces of multimedia.  I remember looking at that and saying “hmm… that’d be fun to play with”.  But I never got to it and eventually I pigenholed the software into the role I had given to it.  How many of you have done that?  So go back… look at your process and the tools you use.  Are there any ways you can streamline it down by making better use of the tools you have and potentially remove redundancies?

So, thus begins the longer term project to pull together the three story bibles across six different full length novels, a short story, and other snippets.  Never before have these threads been fully consolidated, but once they are and I have the Slipspace Bible, the Codename Ciris Bible, and the Hunter Bible, I sense good things coming along.

I’ll keep you all in the loop as things progress and there will be writing and production updates coming in the next few days.

[image error]

The limits of the Magic Spreadsheet

So for those of you who have been reading and following, you know how much I touted the Magic Spreadsheet in a previous post.  I still stand by that post but as the past 9 months have been rolling along, some of the disadvantages of the spreadsheet are starting to appear and I’m starting to see where the model falls short.

The biggest hurdle I’ve found myself trying to maintain has been the idea that every 30 (or so) days, you ‘level up’ and an additional 50 words is added to your quota.  To put that in perspective, right now I am at level 9.  Just made that a couple of days ago actually.  At the 9th level your minimum word count becomes 650 words per day.

Every Day.

In theory that’s not too bad.  After all the jump from 250 to 300 wasn’t bad, nor was the jump from 300 to 350.  Etc.  But I’ve found that the jump from 550 to 600 was damn near impossible.

Perhaps it’s a factor of life circumstances.  I was getting busy with CPA studies when I leveled to the 600 quota.  Family needs were getting busy and my own state of mind was starting to enter that “fraying” part of it’s cyclical nature.  Focusing was proving difficult.

Perhaps it was the nature of the way I write.  With my outlines I prefer to finish my day of writing either in the middle of a scene or at the end of one.  I hate… absolutely hate ending a scene  only to start another one and only put a minimal number of words in it just to meet a quota.  So to combat that, I was writing longer more laggy and draggy scenes that took 1000 words to do what could have been done in 800.   Why?  To meet the escalating quotas of the magic spreadsheet.  I was fighting so hard to maintain a pace that simply wasn’t for me that the quality of my work suffered and I questioned my ability to keep writing.

Then I found my answer

Last month I made a decision to throw the quota out the window.  I’ve set myself on a 500 words a day pacing which feels right for me.  Eventually my points will cap out and I’ll fall behind on the leader boards.  But I’ll still be writing every day, maintaining the streak.  That’s what the magic spreadsheet means to me… maintaining the streak for as long as possible.

Whenever you start a program.  Whether it’s an exercise program, a writing program, or something else that you use to hold yourself accountable to others and to yourself, it’s important that you know what you want to get out of it.  Are you trying to learn how to escalate your daily word count until you’re able to write 10,000 words in a day?  Are you simply trying to get into the habit of writing something every day?

For me I found my limit… 500 words a day.  Every day.  I still love and whole heartedly support the spreadsheet and the work Tony has put into it.  The only thing that’s changed is the way in which I use it to help me in my craft – maintaining a daily word count.  Eventually I may up my own personal quota, but when I do it will be when I am ready to.  Not when the spreadsheet tells me to.

It’s okay to have limits.  It’s even better to know what they are.  Pushing them every now and then is a fun challenge.  But don’t let the drive to push those limits take you to a point where your product suffers for it.

Until Next time

[image error]

Why do we fall, Sir?

So… that was September 2013.  That sucked.

To call September a rough month would be an understatement.  It started early with my losing my day job and went down hill from there.

It’s odd.  A few weeks ago, I had zero intention of even announcing my current state of unemployment until I could also announce the start of a new position.   Many reasons why, but none relevant in this moment.  But as I look back on the month and can now see how things slid downhill from there, I see there’s a lesson to take a way from all of this.

The past 30 days have not been kind to me.  Things were changing- without the structure of a day job, the days began running together and my ability to focus on anything for more than a few minutes was all but gone.  I felt lost with no sense of direction and everywhere I turned, things seemed to be falling apart and all I could do was watch.

In some ways I felt very much like Bruce Wayne does in this scene from Batman Begins,  as though I’m the one in the elevator looking up and watching the fire and feeling utterly powerless to do anything to stop it.  Until one simple question is asked -

“Why do we fall, Sir?”

There’s a lot going on right now that I have no control over.  But there is also a lot going on right now that I can control.  Although I am searching for a new employment opportunity and working with recruiters and job boards and the like I have time on my hands.  Time I did not have when I was employed full time.  I also needed to find something to focus my energy towards while I wasn’t on the job hunt, something tangible something I could sink my teeth into.  Something like…the CPA.

So I’m accelerating my CPA plans and with any luck and a bit of discipline I should have it completed by the end of November.  That’s my new job.  Granted, it’s a temp job, but it will do well to tide me over until I’m able to find the next opportunity to set me up in my career.  It’s going to be intense and stressful and a royal pain in the ass.  But it’s also the right time to focus on it and finish it.

The writing and podcasting continues, though it will be taking a back seat in priority to completing the CPA in the next 60 days.  Still, work on Hunter continues slowly but surely.  Production on Slipspace Harbinger continues to move along as I cast more secondary support roles and receive the first rounds of audio in from my primary cast.  Work on the project I am co-writing has been put on hold until further notice.  Most likely we won’t get back to it until 2014 and with any luck we’ll have a draft in time for Balticon.

Why do we fall?  To learn to pick ourselves up.  That’s a lesson to which we all should pay more attention.  Be it job loss, an insanely busy period in our lives, an insanely emotional and stressful period in our lives, or something we regret saying to a friend in the heat of the moment, there are countless ways for each and every one of us to fall each and every day.  The lesson we must learn, the lesson I’ve learned, is that we are not defined by the way in which we fall.  We are instead defined by how we pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and move on.

Until next time.

[image error]

#CyborgFriday – Cybrosis, Virtuality, and the future of Agent Ciris

Happy Labor Day weekend to all of my American readers!

Today, I bring news of the future of a certain Cyborg.  Many of you who saw my Post announcing the completion of the draft of Virtuality have asked me about when the project will be podcasted.  Unfortunately, it’s not even on the schedule.  Rest assured, I will podcast it at some point, but with Slipspace Harbinger already in the hopper, it demands priority at this time.  So the bad news is that you’re going to have to wait for Virtuality for the time being.

But I have not forgotten or forsaken Ciris, Chen, Tecgui and Briggs.  Quite the opposite in fact- they are getting a LOT of love.

With the launch of OTDEM LLC and the completion of the first run at the Cybrosis sequel, I came to the realization that I needed a better way to refer to the collection of current and future stories centered around Ciris and her team.  I’ve been causally referring to it as the “Cybrosis Universe” which makes sense to an extent, but truth be told it didn’t sit right with me.

So, with a little help from my colleagues, I am pleased to announce the launch of “Code Name Ciris” which will serve as an umbrella for all current and future stories focused on Ciris and her team.

As a result, Cybrosis will be re-branded as “Cybrosis: A cCodename Ciris Conspiracy” as will Virutality.  Jared Axelrod who laid out the original cover for Cybrosis has returned and is modifying the original art to accommodate the new branding.

Additionally, Cybrosis will be re-laid out and re-released in Electronic form for your E-reader of choice.  And, for the first time, a print version of the novel will be made available.

Yes, boys and girls:  After three and a half years, Cybrosis is coming to print!  I am very eager to be able to hold a paper copy of this book in my hands and to put it in the hands of some of my friends who have been with me from the very first… horrid… draft of this book, but have never been able experience the final product due to hearing issues.

At this time I have no schedule for a print launch, but I would suspect to see something hit around the winter holiday season.

With all of that in the works, you can imagine that the website will be getting a significant makeover.  I will be shutting down the Cybrosisnovel.com domain and re-directing it to a new domain that I have registered that will house the Code Name Ciris properties.  The original Cybrosis podcast episodes as well as the feedback/discussion shows will be relaunched as well so you and others new to the work can experience it well ahead of the podcast release of Virtuality.

So, a lot happening there and while I’m expecting the ‘Lucas revisionist” comments to start flying fairly soon here, rest assured that I won’t be doing a re-edit of the novel.  The events you read and/or listened to will still be happening.  I’m not adding nor am I removing any content at all.  Ciris, like Han, shoots first.

Keep your eye on the #CybrogFriday for more updates

 

[image error]

#StarshipSunday – Slipspace: Harbinger Production Update 01

Hello everyone and welcome to the first production update for Slipspace: Harbinger!

This will be the first in a series of posts updating the production status of the podcast.  However unlike the #WritingWednesday entry (at least in theory), #StarshipSunday will NOT be a weekly entry, but rather an infrequent Sunday posting if and when I feel there is a need to update you all.

So about production…

Production started in earnest three weeks ago and I’m happy to report that things are moving along.  All of my primary characters are cast and I’m very pleased to announce the addition of Doc Coleman and Renee Chambliss to the cast of amazing voice talent I have lined up.

The raw narration for Chapters 1, 2, and part of 3 have been laid down.  I’m hoping to have 3 and possibly 4 finished by the end of the day today.

Casting for my supporting characters is moving along albeit slowly.  Despite this I have had five actors, all local to me over to Off the Deep End Studios to record their roles.  Initial test audio from Veronica Giguere and Renee Chambliss came in overnight Thursday and damn… these ladies have it.  On top of that, I’ve received audio from Nobilis Reed for his role and while I’ve not yet listened to it all quite yet I’m very happy with what I’ve heard so far.  You will not be disappointed by their performances.

It’s still far too early to even begin projecting a launch date for the podcast.  I’m a bit behind in recording the narration.  (I’d hoped to have ten chapters done by next week.  I’ll be lucky to get 5 done).  Part 3 of my CPA review starts tomorrow which will also consume a fair amount of time until Mid October.  That does not mean production will grind to a halt, it will just remain slow for a while.

So, that’s about it for now.  I’m off to work up more recording.  Catch you next time!

 

 

[image error]