P.C. Haring's Blog, page 12

#WritingWednesday – General updates on the state of #Doing

No word count this week as I attempt, yet again, to resurrect the weekly #WritingWednesday segment.

It’s been a very busy few weeks.  If you’ll recall my July 23, post I announced a project to write 1,000 words a day for 100 days and bang out Hunter.  At the time I was full of energy, having just finished the second part of the CPA exam a few days earlier, and after almost five full months of living Accounting first and creative second, I was more than ready to let the creative sit front and center.

It’s possible that my reach, exceeded my grasp.

Before I go on, please indulge me as I list out the various creative projects I have going on at the moment -

Slipspace: Harbinger podcast production (Casting and narration)
Preparing a Slipspace Harbinger print run
Drafting Hunter
Re-outlining Prospect with Veronica Giguere
Cybrosis related project that I’m not ready to detail quite yet
Website related project that I’m not ready to detail quite yet
Preparing to start edits and re-writes for Slipspace: Shadowplay
Continued brainstorming for a fourth Slipspace project
Beta reading one manuscript
Soon to be beta reading a second manuscript…I think.

In fairness not all of these tasks fall exclusively on me.  Many of the Harbinger print run needs can and will be done by others, thus freeing my time up to write, brainstorm, produce, and edit.  But the CPA exam looms on the horizon once more as I’m now two weeks out from the start of the review courses for part 3.  And while 1,000 words a day didn’t seem like that much at the time I made this pledge, (After all that’s a slower daily pace than the dictates of NaNo) I quickly found that the words for Hunter are not coming as easily as I might have thought and finding those 1,000 words every day often take a couple of hours.

A couple of hours that I want to spend recording, editing, and doing other things on this list.

Let me be clear.  This is not an issue of “Writers Block”  it’s more of an issue of world building, brainstorming, and trying to put the pieces of a story together.  I had similiar issues with the early drafts of Cybrosis.  By the same token, this is NOT a “I have writers block and can’t write” post.  I’m writing.  But as I write, I need to acknowledge my own inherent limitations.

So… I’m scaling back the writing quota back to align to the Magic Spreadsheet’s quota.  Currently thats 550 words and soon I suspect it’ll be 600.  I’m ending the “Lowell” experiment, but I’m not declaring it a failure.  I’m also not declaring it a victory.  It’s just not the right time for this right now.

Writing on Hunter continues.   I’m currently 15,000+ words in and, for the most part, I’m liking where it’s going.  The outline still needs some work, but it’s strong enough that I can write on, and worry about fixing holes later and/or see if the story itself presents some options to fill in the gaps.

Last week, I finished the last upgrade to the recording booth in the form of new, bright, consistent and (most importantly) silent lighting.  A good portion of last weekend was spent finding levels and re-establishing baselines and this week, tonight and tomorrow especially, will see a bit of time spent in the studio recording narration and some voice actor work on Harbinger and was able to finish laying down the raw narration for the first chapter earlier this evening.

So, things are moving, albeit slowly.  But this process reminds me of a freight train.  It’s slow to get going, but once it gets up to speed, it’s going to take a lot of effort to stop it’s momentum.

As my friend, Tee Morris always says, Enjoy the Ride!

 

 

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ANNOUNCEMENT: Slipspace: Harbinger goes into production!

This post has been long over due, longer than many of you know, but I am extremely excited to announce that I have put Slipspace: Harbinger into production!

Ten years after the sudden and undeclared end to a long and brutal war with the Ralgon, the Interstellar Planetary Alliance (ISPA) launches their newest battleship, the Mjöllnir.  However, Captain Cody Amado and his crew’s celebration of the ship’s maiden voyage is cut short when a fringe colony goes dark.  As Amado and his crew investigate, they find themselves falling down the rabbit hole as galactic alliances shift, shadowy organizations plot agains them, and a new player enters the galactic stage.  But the question remains— With the colony gone, have the Ralgon returned?  Has a new threat presented itself?  And, most importantly, is the loss of that colony merely a harbinger of darker events still to come?

Complete at 149,500 words, Slipspace: Harbinger is the first installment in a trilogy chronicling Mjöllnir’s mission in response to the loss of their colony.  What starts as a simple investigation quickly leads the crew into a rabbit hole filled with twists, turns, divided loyalties, love, loss, and betrayal.  Slipspace will take you to new worlds, introduce you to a myriad of alien races, each with their own agenda and not everybody will live happily ever after once the dust settles.

This project has been a very very long time coming.  I began work on this back 2005, shortly after completing Cybrosis, and spent the next two and a half years working through the entire trilogy of stories.  It had been my intention to get this into production back in 2012, however circumstances of that year, prevented anything of the sort and I’ve been extremely eager to get the ball rolling.

And rolling we are!

Harbinger will be the first full length production undertaken by Off The Deep End LLC since it’s formal organization.  It will be a full cast audio featuring the voices of Laura Wilson, Tee Morris, Pip Ballantine, Veronica Giguere, Nobillis Reed and many more!  Scripts are already out to these actors, as well as others and I’ll be spending a good portion of this weekend in the Studio recording the narration.  I am extremely excited to be working with these amazing people and I can’t wait to see what they bring to their roles as they bring these characters to life.

Alex White has both designed the Cover art for this story and composed the theme musi for the podcast.  It’s a bit early to reveal the cover, but believe me when I tell you it’s amazing and I can’t wait for you all to see it.

The podcast is net fully casted and recording has only just begun.  So, unfortunately it is very premature to announce a launch date, or even a projected ballpark for it’s release.  However, when the podcast goes live, so too will the eBook, Print Book, as well as a more traditional paid version of the audio, allowing you to listen to the entire thing all at once..  Suffice to say that you, dear readers and listeners, will have a multitude of options on how you can consume this content and I think it will be well worth your wait.

So!  I’m off to get back to work on this!  I’ll be checking in with you soon as we touch base on what’s going on with our favorite Cyborg as Slipspace takes flight.

 

 

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10 Days * 1,000 words = 1 Lowell… Ten times?

Helo all!

It’s been far too long since I’ve communicated with you all on my writing progress.  It seems that despite my good intentions #Writing Wednesday keeps falling away.  The last formal writing wednesday announced the completion of Virtuality.

But now that I’m out of CPA hell for the majority of August and I’ve been able to both catch my breath and energy let down being half way through this is… (even though results won’t be posted till August 22) It’s time to look forward for the rest of the year in writing, podcasting and being creative.

Currently I’m working on a co-writing project with Veronica Giguere.  I wish I could say it was going gang busters, but it’s not.  We did make some excellent writing progress over the past few weeks, but we’ve come up against some rocky ground and we’re revisiting the outline, streamlining, and rebuilding.  That’s the bad news.  The good news is that it looks like a lot of our existing word count will be able to stand with varying degrees of needed revisions to fit the revised framework.  As any of you writers out there know, these things happen and while we don’t have a full look at the new outline yet… from what we have so far, I think we’ll come out with a tighter, stronger, darker manuscript than we had at first.

But that’s not all.  If you’re wondering what the title is all about, join me after the break.

So, with the completion of Virtuality, and the slow down in my project with Veronica, I am in need of a new project to work on in order to satisfy the never ending appetite of the Magic Spreadsheet.  I’m also starting to eye a Zoom H4N to invest into OTDEM LLC.

So why not kill two birds with one stone.  If you’ve been following my writing for a while, you’ll notice a word count for a project titled “hunter”, but no conversation about it.  That’s because it was shelved.

Twice.

So, it’s time to dust it off, rip the outline apart, rebuild the story bible and punch this manuscript out.  So for the next 100 days, I shall embark on a new self proposed Challenge.

Can I write 1,000 words a day and generate a Lowell of words in ten days time?

Can I generate a Lowell of words in ten days, ten times without a break in the chain?

If I can… then in 100 days, by October 31, I will have a completed 100,000 word manuscript for Hunter.  And I will give myself permission to buy a Zoom H4n.

Wish me luck!

Promised updates on Cybrosis, Slipspace, and other news coming soon.

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Announcements: Off The Deep End Multimedia LLC

I’ve been sitting on this news for quite a while… since well before Balticon really, as I put the last bits of finishing touches on things and make sure that the plans I have in place are in fact feasible.  But now the final pieces have fallen into place and I have several announcements I’m very excited to share with you all!

For those of you who were at Balticon, you may already know this, but I am very excited to announce the formation of Off The Deep End Multimedia LLC.  This company has been operating in the background for some time now, but in early April I took the leap and formalized an LLC geared towards the production of my written projects and their related podcasts.  It will provide me the necessary framework to continue bringing top notch talent to voice my work and will open new outlets for me to offer alternative ways to deliver and, yes, profit from my content by opening it up to new audiences who might not be interested in (or know how to) download a free podcast.

Let me be clear:  The ability to download my content as a free weekly podcast is NOT going away.  So long as I have a say in it, the option for a free weekly podcast will NEVER go away.

However, for those of you who might prefer to read a novel instead of listen to it, for those of you who would prefer not to be cliffhangered week after week and would like to get the entire production in one fell swoop, those paid options and more will now be made available to you and to others.

Truth be told you, dear reader and (hopefully) listener shouldn’t see much of any changes in the next audio production aside from the things you’d expect to see.  The quality of the production will be just as strong, if not stronger, you’ll hear a top notched voice cast, and more.

Not only that, but in time it is my intention to expand OTDEM’s role and offer the resources of the company and the studio to produce projects by others.   Whether through programs such as ACX, or private conversations, once OTDEM is rolling, the studio will be more than happy to quote a project for you.  In fact, the first OTDE production under this plan – Fear of Thought by Veronica Giguere, is working it’s way through Quality Control as we speak.

But wait!  There’s more!  Lets talk about the future of our favorite Cyborg secret agent but lets do that in the next post.

Until then!

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#Balticon 47 Wrap Up – A new Year Begins

So I’ve been back from Balticon for almost a week now and having had a few days distance from the event, it’s time for the wrap up.

Veronica Giguere and Scott Sigler (sporting a Detroit Redwings Playoff Beard) at the Bar on Sunday night.

As always Balticon proved to be a wonderful experience, and an awesome time to catch up with old friends who I talk to on a fairly frequent basis outside of the convention as well as connect with new names and faces who I’ve only come to know in the past year or who have been previously unknown to me as fans and listeners.

It seems that every time I go to Balticon, I’m both humbled by the people who know and are looking to see me, while at the same time being slightly embarrassed that I’m not more active in the community than I already am and within 24 hours of my return to Chicagoland, my podcatcher picked up two and a half days (no exaggeration) of new podcast media that I’ve either not heard of, or not had the opportunity to listen to, that I now am driven to consume. I could spend all this post listing the amazing people I had the opportunity to hang out with, but I’d likely forget someone.  But suffice to say, I always have a list of people I want to catch up with when I go into Balticon and I’m always worried that I won’t get to see everyone.  Well, not only did I see everyone I had hoped to and catch up with most of them, but I met even more wonderful and fantastic individuals.

Doc Coleman, Starla Hutchton, Renee Chambliss and Christiana Ellis and I  talk about juggling squirrels.

As this was my first Balticon as a guest, I sat on 8 panels and had a reading.  For the most part I felt the Panels went well, though there are a few that I wish were better attended, and one specifically on the business side of being an author (or any other creative for that matter) where I think we barely were able to scratch the surface.  This is due mostly in part to the depth of material and the time constraints of just an hour.  It’s my hope to work with a few people over the summer and have something to propose to the con committee for inclusion into next year’s program.  Some of these panels were recorded, though none of them are mine (bad podcaster), and one of the new studio purchases I’ll be budgeting for will be for a Zoom H4N for next year.

Technically I lost a bet and owed Veronica Giguere dinner on Saturday night. DARN!

One thing that DID get recorded, however was my reading.  I read the first two scenes from Slipspace: Harbinger .  I do have that recording, and it will be going into the feed at some point this summer as a bit of a preview of what’s to come when that podcast goes into full production.  (Watch this space)

But it wouldn’t be Balticon without a creative shot in the arm.  And Ohhh boy did I get one this time around.  I walked into the con on Friday with 3 or 4 projects in mind.  I left on Monday with a half dozen more.  Now, not all of them are for me.  Some of them relate to the convention itself, or to my work for Escape Artists.  But between a fantastic brainstorm with Veronica Giguere and Starla Huchton I have a well developed framework for a new novel I’ve been noodling with.  After a great dinner in which I settled a bet with  Veronica, we re-visited our outline for our co-written project tentatively titled “Prospect”  And after an interesting conversation on faith, with my new nemesis, KT Bryski, I believe I have a hook or two in line for the future Cybrosis novels.

I seem to have found a new nemesis in KT Bryski. I went easy on her. My mistake.

 

As I said, there’s so much I could go into and discuss but it’d take far longer than I have and you all might get bored.  Instead I’ll simply say this –  In my last post, which was a bit of a downer, I spoke a lot about the anniversary and the milestone of a single year.  I won’t delve back into that topic here, but as I flew home, putting notes together and drawing up lists of things that needed to get done so I could ride the momentum out of Balticon and into a productive summer, I realized that yes, this is the start of a new year.  This is the start of a new creative year for me and now that the pieces are finally in place I am very excited for the year to come.  There is much to do, and much still to announce and a lot to look forward to over the next 355 days before Balticon 48 begins anew!

 

 

 

 

 

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Mantra – On Anniversaries

May has always been an interesting month for me.  It marks the closing of school for the summer, it marks the transition from spring into summer, Balticon, and more.   I write this post on my parents’ birthday (both of them actually), and this post goes live on the one year anniversary of my best friend’s wedding.

Steve if you and/or your blushing bride are reading this, I wish you both a very happy First Anniversary.  I’ll try and call you guys sometime today and say hello

It was not my idea for my best friend to get married on Memorial Day weekend.  Had I been asked I would have told him “no!  That’s Balticon weekend!”  But alas I was not.  However, I was asked to stand up at the wedding, and from the moment Steve called, there was no question, no debate, and no doubt in my mind as to where I belonged.

That weekend was frakking epic and between an awesome bachelor’s party, getting to spend some quality time with Steve’s brother, setting up and presenting an epic gag gift with one of our mutual friends, some sheer insanity at the reception, including meeting an awesome dance partner, indulging in my first cigar, a completely rocking “air band” rendition of Johnny B’ Good by five young men and women dressed for a wedding that drew so much attention we didn’t give a damn about the band on stage… yes… there are a LOT of great of that weekend.  Hell, even writing this is putting a smile on my face.

Had I known what was waiting at home, I might never have left California…

Now, before I go on I want to caviat a couple of items.

Things are going to get serious.
Things may get a little uncomfortable.  Read at your own risk
I do not claim to have an emotional monopoly on last year.  I know many people who had far more intense things to deal with than I did.  I in no way intend to minimize their experiences.

A week after I returned from the trip, energized and enthusiastic, excited, motivated and more, I received the call from my father that his brother was in the hospital after having suffered a bad stroke.  I alluded to this in my Year in Review and, again I’ll not go into detail.  But the upshot of the month of June was that my Uncle passed away on Fathers Day 2012.

Again, I don’t claim to have the emotional monopoly on loss last summer.  Within my own family I’m certain my cousins and father felt it deeper than I did, and I know a few people in the podcasting world also suffered deep loses last year.

But something happened….

In hindsight, I suppose it was bound to happen sooner rather than later and this event, as unexpected and intense as it was simply became the first domino that tipped things off.  You could call it ‘anxiety’ or ‘depression’ and either (and both) of those terms would be potentially valid though nothing has been formally diagnosed as yet.  But it became obvious that I was in over my head and I’ve spent a good portion of the past seven months untwisting the Gordian Knot of feelings and emotions that have balled together over the years.

I am not doing this alone, I have a tremendous support network of both personal and professional resources and those individuals (and they know who they are) have been absolute saints and I am happy to say that I’m on a good path to where I want to be.

But back to Anniversaries.  To an extent, today, and this weekend marks another anniversary, the start of all this in May 2012.    After a year, May 2013 marks the closing of a very difficult chapter in my life and my intent for much better days ahead.  It marks the completion of the first draft of Virtuality, a project I was finalizing the outline to on the flight back from California last year.  It marks some new beginnings that I’ll be announcing in the coming days.  (Watch this space)

Balticon has always been a bit of a re-birth for me.  It has consistently recharged my batteries, left me with new ideas, and goten the creative juices flowing.  I’ve always left the convention feeling optimistic about the future and the things to come.  On the surface, last year was the exception, not just because I did not go to the convention, but also because even though I left the wedding celebration feeling just as energized and recharged, the year did not play out as I would have hoped.  At least on the surface…

As I said, the dominio effect was inevitable.  That it was set off by a death in the family is unfortunate.  That I am finally addressing some of these ongoing issues before they get any worse is most fortunate and given the things I’ve learned about myself in the past year, my only regret is that I did not start down this road sooner.  But better late than never, and in the long run this path is a good one.

So, for all of the annual celebrations this month brings, whether it’s a birthday, a marriage, a completed project, a gathering of an amazing group of creative individuals, or a milestone in a journey.

Happy May.  To my Saints, Thank you!  Happy Birthday, Mom and Dad.  Happy Anniversary to you and yours, Steve.  Here’s to next year!

 

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#WritingWednesday – Oh Hai! I’m not dead

For the week of… um… weeks of… er… months of March, April, and May 2013

Okay… it’s been a very long time coming since I did this writing wednesday update and… frankly I blame the CPA exam.  More on that later.  But it’s time to be accountable -

Word Counts – New Writing

March 11-31, 2013 – 11,016 new words written

April 1-30, 2013 – 20,486 new words written

May 1-2, 2013 – 1,698 new words written

Average Daily Words: 615 words a day.  

I’m actually very proud of this data.  Trying to manage words while learning how to study for the CPA exam and keep upon the 10 weeks of material through March, April, and the early part of May was, honestly no small task for me.  I mentioned back in my Three Words post that Organize was going to be a critical part of this year, and these past two, three months have been no exception.

May 2, 2013 proved to be one hell of an interesting day.  Not only was it the 100th day of consistent writing for me (thank you Magic Spreadsheet), but it also marked the day I completed the Virtuality draft after almost a year of work, bringing a definiate and notable conclusion to a rough year.  More on that in a couple of days (watch this space!)

The draft is rough, pun not intended, and needs some work to streamline and edit but I don’t anticipate any significant re-construction to the outline.  I’m very proud of the resultant story and I can’t wait to get the draft into the hands of my beta readers after I hit the first edits and re-writes.

So, with the draft of virtuality complete, what’s next for me and have I not written anything new since then?  Ohhh hell no!  I’ve got a streak to maintain.

There was a debate about how to account for edits on the Magic spreadsheet’s facebook group and ultimately it seems to be decided that we can track edits as words by taking 10% of the total words edited as your ‘word count’ for the day.

So, with that in mind, I dove into a final polish edit to Slipspace: Harbinger on May 3.

Word Counts – Edited Writing

May 3-19, 2013 – 66,149 words

Buuut that’s not everything.  I took the first part of the CPA exam last week and in many cases during the last week of prep and study, I found it easier to spit out new words in writing instead of trying to edit.  Editing was just too time consuming.

Word Counts – New Writing

May 3-19, 2013 – 1,911 words

So… it’s been a very busy, very productive few months in terms of word counts, edit counts and the like.  But what does it all mean and where am I going from here?

With Virtuality fully drafted, I’ve decided to drawer it and focus on other works.  I realized as I wrapped up the writing just how much emotional energy I poured into this manuscript, more so than any of my other pieces combined.  The circumstances of 2012 and early 2013 simply forced it into the manuscript.  So I’m going to need to put some time and distance between it so I can look at it as dispassionately as I can in order to give it a proper edit pass.

In the meantime, I’m pressing forward with the pre-production edit to Slipspace: Harbinger in final preparation to put it into Podcast production.  There will be more news on this in a future post as well (watch this space).

But, I can’t spend all of my time editing… ohh no..  new content must be created.  Details are still under development, and I suspect that much progress will be made at Balticon, but I can say that I will be partnering with the amazing talents of Veronica Giguere and co-writing a science fiction project currently code named “PROSPECT”

So as you can see there is a lot going on, there’s a lot that’s been going on and yes, there is still a lot to announce and discuss.  Stay tuned!

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Announcement: Balticon 47

I’ve been sitting on this for a while now while I focus on the CPA exam preparation, and while the details iron out and I’m very excited to announce that not only will I be attending Balticon 47, but I will also be a guest of the convention!  Being a guest of the convention means I’ll be appearing on panels throughout the weekend which also means I have a panel schedule!

Friday

5pm: Helping Authors Find and Work Effectively With Narrators

Saturday

11am: Parsec Award Steering Committee

8pm: Podcast Editing

Sunday

10am: Business of Being An Author

4pm: Reading

7pm: Full Cast vs Straight Read

8pm: From Page to Pod

9pm: Music in Podcasts

Monday

Noon: Multi-Creatives

I don’t know which room(s) these panels will be in, but it will be listed in the pocket program.  With nine panels scheduled, it looks like it’s going to be a full weekend for me, especially on Sunday, though I can’t say for sure as this is my first experience as a convention guest.   But I’m excited to bring my perspective to the table not only as a writer and a podcaster, but also as an accountant.  I’m anticipating that The Business of being an Author panel will be particularly interesting in that respect.

I will have a reading on Sunday (4pm) where I will be reading an excerpt from Slipspace: Harbinger.  So if you’re interested in a sneak peek of the novel and the upcoming podcast production, I would love to see you there.

The convention is Memorial Day weekend, as always.  If you are in the Baltimore area, or can make it there, I would strongly encourage you to come out and experience the convention!

If you’re attending the convention, please come and find me!  You’ve got my panel schedule.  If you can’t make the panels, you’ll more than likely find me around the convention somewhere.  I should have access to all of my social media while at the con, so feel free to E-mail, tweet, or message me on Facebook.  I’ll be around and would love for you to stop by and say hello.

So, with that I’m off to get some sleep.  More updates and announcements are still to come, but I would expect to see them next week and in the days following Balticon.  Right now, I have a CPA Exam on Thursday to prepare for.  I hope to see you at Balticon and thanks for reading!

Until next time!

Watch this space…

The blog has been silent for almost two months now and I am oh so very very far behind in my promised weekly posts.

Watch this space.

No, I am not going to back fill all of the missed #WritingWednesdays, but just because I’ve been quiet here, does not mean I’ve been doing nothing.

Far from it, actually.  There are a lot of plates spinning right now and more than a few of them will have a direct affect on the goings on here.

Watch this space in the coming days and weeks for the following:

Updates on the latest Work in Process
The future of Agent Ciris and her stories
Announcement of the next work in process
Announcement of the next podcast production
A guest post
Announcements pertaining to the future direction of my writing and podcasting.
And quite probably more!

It’s been a very busy few months, but we’re only getting started.

Watch this space…

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ONe more test post

Another test post.  Both of these will be taken down shortly

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