Chris Hechtl's Blog, page 49

LMAO

Here I am, trolling Io 9 for news and stuff and...
http://io9.com/poseidon-rex-trailer-asks-what-if-a-t-rex-could-swim-1560943231



I thought I was going to die laughing. lol

This looks cool though:
http://io9.com/a-game-that-lets-you-build-or-destroy-your-own-sola-1560740605

Multiverse 1 Cover + Art

Okay,
I finally got the last piece of the puzzle the other day, and finished (I hope) the cover of Multiverse 1. The font color and dividers between the different scenes are still in doubt though. All the Beta's are busy with their own lives, so I got impatient and posted it here after only two people gave me feedback. :)

The cover art is made up of six different scenes, all from the book's stories. Here we go...

The top is 'Survival of the Fittest' a short story from the Bootstrap Colony universe:
 Clockwise from that is an image for the Federation stories "Bringer of Fire and Light":
On the bottom right of that corner some of the bridge crew of Prometheus are shown. Captain Shelby Logan is in blue. The others are 1st LT Zeb the Veraxin in the deep background, in front of him is the TACO Conrad Murray, and the lady with curls is Chief engineer Cynthia Troll. In the foreground is the female Veraxin doctor V'brno and the calico neocat navigator Lt Silverfish.

For those of you wondering, Prometheus is in the center of the shot, with Bertha, a tanker in the upper part of the image, and two frigates as escorts on the flanks.
There are 3 stories. One each from the time periods. I'm not releasing the stories for AFTER Ghosts of the Past until it's published... >:D

Next we have the Dragon and the Unicorn, a fantasy story.
 In the six o'clock position we have an image from the Metalwar 2305 universe, which will make up 40-50% of the book. I think there are 8 stories plus a ton of back material. This particular scene is from a story titled 'Ambush'. It was my second or third short story I did for Metalwar, and one of the stories that got me back into writing.  Next we have 'The Cull'. It was inspired by the New Thundercats. I had wanted to turn it into a full on novel, but I didn't have enough there to go the distance. (That and I really wasn't inspired to take it further) I had actually intended for this to be a night shot, but it got too dark. And last but not least, the image for 'Portal', another fantasy story:
Here they are all together:
I tried chrome, steel, and other things for the Multiverse font, but all were rejected due to legibility. I had planned on lightning bolts breaking the scenes up, but decided not to bother with them and just blended some of the scenes.

Keep an eye out for it in May or June.

In other news:
I've gotten past the 1/3rd mark with Bootstrap 2, Second Chances. But I'm hitting two walls, 1 I don't like the main character of part 2, so it's hard to get into the mindset to write. and 2, dad and the family have spring break... so I'm in no position to write much... which can be frustrating. So are the 'ho hum borreeeeeedddd' sighs I get every hour. UGH.

I'm sorely tempted to work on the cover to Second Chances just to get me into writing the next part. Or I need to go watch some dark characters, like on Walking Dead. I dunno.

I cleaned up some of the other books in the pipeline (treatments and partial manuscripts) I tweaked To Touch the Stars and doubled it's page count... but that's going to be fun to write. Fun not in a good way. :P

I have been going crazy with the DAZ3D and Renderosity sales over the past 5 weeks as you can see from the above. I also bought most of the materials for the covers of Bootstrap 2, Alive, Ghosts of the Past, To Touch the Stars, and even bits and pieces for stuff wwwaaaay in the future. (2015-2016 books)  lol. I think I'm going nutty with the sales. A lot of cool stuff though!

I still want to release Jethro 3 this month. It all depends on when Jory gets it back to me, and how long it takes for Goodlife to work their magic afterward. I'm forcasting the third or last week of the month now. I'll keep you posted.

Oh, and finally, Hemoglobin (H1ac) test came back at 5.7. The diabetic threshold is 6.4. (I looked it up) So, I'm NOT a diabetic. Well, I'll find out the 'official' news from my doctor Monday. Believe me, I can't wait, I'm so tired of pricking my fingers two or more times daily and having them sore while I try to type!

 

Jethro 3 cover

Okay, here it is, without further dithering. I doubt I'll make more changes, I'm already ramping up to work on the cover of Multiverse 1.

Jethro Book 3 No Place Like Home.

I don't have the write up yet, but you can get a lot just from the title. Sorry. I'll work on that when the book is closer to launch.

FAQ:
1: The Asian woman with Black (yes it's black) hair, who is she?
She's someone you've read about in some of the books and short stories...

2: The ghost cat... huh?
That is a young Bastet. (Bast) For more info on her, go read Pirate's Bane.

3: That HUD is cool, is that his suit?
No. That's what Jethro sees with his implants...

4: That thing coming at him... what is it?
That's a smart whip. The tip has a shape metal in it that is responsive to the user's thoughts. It can change into a mace...blade... etc..

5: Where did you make that, did you make it all yourself?
Hardly. I'm getting lazy in my old age. I made the Veraxin and a few minor props. The rest are from Renderosity, ShareCG, Daz3D, and Deviantart. The HUD was made from stamps from um, that Z guy. Z-Design. I almost remade that by hand. Glad I figured out Gimp can import the brushes! :)

And finally,
6: That thing in the left bottom corner... what is it?
That is a drone that squished a Veraxin. The redressed drone is from Daz3D and is someone's version of the drones from the movie Oblivion. The guns and 'face' are facing the left out of view.

For those of you who haven't read the comments, I finished Multiverse 1 and handed it off. I'm catching up on chores and family things... (about to be kidnapped to play Dominant Species again) and then I'm going to spend the next week or so working on the cover to Multiverse 1, dealing with any editing issues that the guys bring up, and deciding on what to write next. I'm debating on Alive, or Bootstrap Colony 2. I'm leaning heavily to Alive since I just did a Bootstrap story for Multiverse 1, along with some Federation shorts...

Cat cast images

Okay,
I did these two weeks ago after buying:
http://www.daz3d.com/cat-world-regenesis-hd-bundle

I combined it with other stuff I've bought lately, and did these. They are far from perfect, so consider them the 1.0 versions. Some are good, some need a bit of work. They were all rendered in DAZ3D. Oh, and before you ask, yes the whiskers were done in post. lol
 Kiara: Kovu: Letanga: The Matriarch: Mwvekii:
Sergei:  Yup, I know Sergei seems... small. It's the limits of the engine. I can rescale him a bit in Cinema.    I want to do Jethro eventually, as well as the Cheetah, but the Cheetah will be an issue, I'll have to make their skin and morph the bodies a lot from the Jaguar baseline. I also would like to do Hrriss and some of the other cats eventually.    In other news, I still haven't heard back from Gord or Darion, but I sent Poon Jethro 3 anyway last night.   Multiverse 1 is coming along, despite my trimming a couple stories from it. I'm past 275 pages and I've got 3 more stories left. (Including Fire and Light!) It is raining cats and dogs here, I'm enjoying it while I wait the pizza guy! lol 

Afraid of the Dark

Just a quick update,
1 If you didn't see my comment in the previous post's comments, I've finished the first draft of J3. I'm going to be poking at it for the next week hemming and hawing before I finally relent and pass it on to the betas. :D
2 But, I've already started gathering the materials for the cover art. That keeps evolving though which is a pain.
3: For those of you into the superbowl, good luck. I bought stuff for the party at my sister's tomorrow, but I'm staying home to vegg. :D
4: Underworld Awakenings was... different. Let's put it that way. Not as good as the other movies though.
5: I just got my Disney Gargoyles DVD collection... only to find it wasn't what it was supposed to be. I got Final Fantasy VII the movie. I'm just a wee bit put out over that. GRRRR.
But, I did get Terranova and a few others.
6: Everette seems to be making some interesting progress with NUTZ. Small steps, but it's cool. Now that J3 is roughed out I can help him out a bit more with my end.

And finally:
7: Poon just sent me back AD, with only a couple minor corrections. I'm going to implement them over the weekend and then begin the tedious process of converting the manuscript and uploading it. It's a biggy though, 600 real pages. (Yes, I got repetitive in it, but there is a reason for that)
So, look for this cover sometime this week or next! IF NOT SOONER!

FINALLY! Two, no THREE years in the making. lol

No, no game with it darn it though darn it... I wanted the game bad, but the game engine tech isn't up to it at this date. Maybe in the future. Who knows what Unity 5 or Unreal 4-5 will bring?

I'll update the post with an edit later. You can look through my blog to find posts (with videos) of some of the concepts of the aliens in the book.

Happy New Year!

Well, a Happy Belated New Year to everyone!
Yeah, I know I'm late. I wanted to leave the Pirate's Bane blog post up a bit longer.

Okay, my resolutions/ projects this year.
Other than loosing weight... (I have that one every year) there are a few things I want to do this year.
Here is what I'd like to write and publish this year.
Afraid of the Dark (Which was written back in 2011 and is still not out yet. Poon currently has it)
Book projects in write order:
Jethro 3 No place like Home (Currently 115+ pages including the short story with it, Searchlight)
Alive (14 page treatment)
To Touch the Stars  (still a treatment)
Ghosts of the Past (Currently 80+ pages including the short story with it, Lewis and Clarke)
Booststrap 2 -(Maybe?)
Short Stories: Multiverse (some have been done years and years ago)

Along with those, I get to do the covers for them, plus play with scenes I've wanted to make, such ask this:
(This is currently noncanon since I haven't gotten to that time period yet)
The Veraxin is by me. So is the Yard Dog image in the background. (I cheated) The rest all came from Daz3D and was modified by me to suit my needs. The corridor for instance is from Stonemason. I just got his latest version to play with too!
Since I have all those Daz goodies, plus I can model, sculpt, and rig stuff, I may do some more, or maybe a movie or 2. I dunno. I think that's asking a bit much though. This one I started back in November, but then hijacked it for that Xmas image I posted a couple blog posts ago...

...Let's see... work on a couple Zoid projects I've been putting off (including laying the groundwork for a possible comic, but alas, another thing I keep saying every year) Talks with Mechmaster over said comic, or another comic....(it is up in the air) and I'm also working with a buddy on a 2D side scroller Unity game called NUTZ we're working on right now. (Tut tut people! Don't be so dirty minded! It's not what you think!)
Wow, that is a lot. I've got my work cut out for me. lol

To top all that off, Da Hammer 91 cursed me by asking about the admiral's family. A few others have asked, so I finally got around to jotting out the treatment for Sparks, the first book in the Gottenburg time period. (Twighlight of the Federation, aka the Xeno war trilogy/series)
Thanks for that, it took forever to get to sleep that night. lol

I'm itching to dig into that... but manfully holding off ...for now. I don't know how long I can hold out though. I will say the plot is a bit different than I had first imagined. We'll see if I keep it that way or not.

Oh yeah...A couple people have bugged me about putting up my Amazon Author Page. I may get around to that too.

Oh, a certain somebody (not me) is also currently working on a wiki for the Federation Universe too. lol

The rest can wait!

EDIT: I ran this past Mechmaster who also pointed out the shadow errors. He advised me to switch to Area shadows, which I did. A bit of tweaking resulted in this:

And for those asking on the FB page, right now I don't know who the other people in the shot are, same as you. They are just people walking around. And no, this isn't a ship it is a space station...

The Final Countdown...

Sorry Mike. lol
I keep thinking of that "B" lady in Major League 1-2 who hated that other song. :D

Okay, here we go! I have frozen any further corrections. Anything else that comes in will be logged for future editions.

Pirates Bane has been uploaded to Amazon and B&N and are now in the publishing process. Expect them to go on sale within the next 6-48 hours depending on the site and weekend.

   Fresh from fighting the ghost of a terrifying bioweapon On Epsilon Triangula, Fleet Admiral John Henry Irons has taken on a new task, to get to the fabled star system of Bek on the other side of the sector. But to do that the admiral must do what is now unheard of, a long jump through uncharted space. The jump is a test of man and machine. But when he arrives at his intended destination, new challenges await. Old foes, who learn why he will become...
Pirates Bane.

EDIT: WOW! GOING LIVE ALREADY!
http://www.amazon.com/Pirates-Bane-The-Wandering-Engineer-ebook/dp/B00HKO356A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1388280849&sr=8-1&keywords=B00HKO356A

Twas the night before Christmas...

'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house,
Not a creature was stirring, not even a Denubian mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;
The insiders were nestled all snug in their beds,
while visions of corrections danc'd in their heads,
And Dad in his boxers, and I in my cap,
Had just settled down for a long winter's nap -
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the curtains, and knocking something over with a crash,
The lights from the streetlights on the breast of the frost below,
Gave the luster of mid-day setting objects aglow;
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and nine robotic reindeer,
With a little ole driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.
More rapid than missiles, his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted and call'd them by name;
"Now Jory, now Jacob, now Gord and Darion;
On Poon, on Thomas, on Chris, on Robert and Brandon;
"To the top of the porch! To the top of the wall!
"Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!"
As as a toy helicopter they did fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of books, and St. Nicholas too:
And then in a twinkling, I heard on the roof,
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound:
He was dress'd all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnish'd with ashes and soot;
A bundle of books was flung on his back,
And he look'd like a Tauren peddler just opening his pack:
His eyes - how they twinkled! His dimples: how merry,
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry;
His droll little mouth was drawn up in a smile,
and the beard of his chin was as white as the tile;
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encicled his head like a wreath.
He had a broad face, and a little round belly
That shook when he laugh'd, like a bowl full of T'clock jelly:
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him in spite of myself;
A wink of his eye and a nod of his head
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.
He spoke not a word but went straight to his work,
And fill'd all the stockings; then turn'd with a jerk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose.
He sprung to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew, like the down on a thistle:
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight -
"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!"

He sees you when you're sleeping...

Happy Holidays to one and all!
 I did my annual 3D Christmas card this year, a tradition I've had for neigh on 10 years I think. This year I cheated a bit, I used mostly canned models I bought with only a few of my own. lol
 
I also jotted out a quick story to go with it, more of a rambling thing than anything else. Just for fun, and no it's not in any universe.


He sees you when you're sleeping:
 
Nicholas looked out the window to the world spinning below. "So beautiful. so, so ever so beautiful," he murmured softly. He looked around to the steel and plastic around him and then back to the world below.
It hadn't always been like this, on a cloaked space station orbiting Earth. No, up until four decades ago they had been based in their hidden Antarctic base, having moved there after humanity had begun exploring the North pole, forcing the abandonment of the base there.
"See something Santa?" a small female voice asked.
Nicholas turned to the female Alp and smiled. "No Siri, just admiring the view."
"Nervous?"
"After so long in the sleigh?" he chuckled, shaking his belly. The elf doctor kept reminding him to leave off the cookies and milk but he couldn't help it. He felt obliged to eat the things, and besides, he needed the burst of energy. He had been doing this job for centuries now. He and the other Santas. He smiled slightly. He had been the first though.
He looked at her reflection in the glass briefly. "No, I'm fine. The equipment test out?"
"Yes Santa, of course," she said with a smile and flick of her long pointed ears. He snorted. Of course it did. It wasn't like the bad old days centuries ago when they had first started this project.
Over a thousand years ago the Alps had crashed their ship on Earth. They had attempted to live with humanity, but the barbaric humans had either hunted them or worshiped them. They had withdrawn further and further north into what later became known as Scandinavia. Meanwhile the barbaric humans had taken the nature of the elves and created stories about them, demonizing them as nightmares and such. It was ever the way of his people, to see a threat in something they do not understand. At least until the past century. Now, hopefully, things were changing. They were starting to explore, to see with fresh eyes the wonder of new things. He hoped it would last.
When the Alps had retreated, they had left stories of themselves in their wake. Their species name had mutated into elf, even he thought of them as elves from time to time. Sometime in the past, he forgot the exact date, they had started interacting with proxy humans, taking in humans who had been abandoned or orphaned, and raising them as their own. There had been dark stories of changelings but he knew they weren't true. After all, look what they said about him! He chuckled softly, remembering some of the movies and books the other humans had made about him.
He had been one such waif. An elf family had taken him in, taught him their ways and raised him as one of their own. He in turn had traded for goods and materials for the elven community when he had come of age. At first they had needed a lot, but their stubborn use of their ship's recycling systems and greenhouses they had eventually created had helped them taper off their needs more and more every year. Eventually they had a surplus of material.
The crash had scattered their population and destroyed much of their technology. But they clung to some of it. Out of boredom and to stave off insanity some of the long lived elves had taken up hobbies, whether it be science, or engineering.
Frustrated by the lack of appropriate materials they had turned to making things of wood. Some had made toys, and the humans of the day had traded them or given them away to children. Thus the myth had been born.
Seeing a positive impact in human civilization, the elves had encouraged the practice. They constructed a base under the ice inside the remains of part of their ship. As human society grew the elves became increasingly uneasy about direct interaction, preferring Santa to do it for them.
They clung to their tech, and when human civilization had started to catch up, they had begun rebuilding their own from human materials.
They had tiny probes that allowed them to view people from afar. Cloaks to hide their people and equipment, much like this great station. It was quite large, enough to house the hundreds of elves, their craft, and most of the adopted humans.
Their medical science was state of the art, each of the elves were old, centuries old. Nicholas himself was ancient by human standards, blessed by good food and elven medical science. But even he couldn't deliver all the presents now, even with their time and dimensional shifting equipment. Thus, the Santa legion had come to be.
When he had first started out, oh so long ago, he had used a sleigh craft drawn by specially bred reindeer when he and others had traded in Scandinavia and Germany, it had become his calling card. Elven scientists had salvaged anti-gravity harnesses for his reindeer and sleigh, rigging it to expand his ability to trade. He smiled fondly, remembering their first wild ride. The reindeer had pissed themselves senseless until they had gotten the hang of it. He chuckled. They hadn't been the only ones!
Over time they changed their practices, instead of trading he took some of the waste or broken bits. But the elves insisted on some form of compensation, so he delivered toys and goodies for children. It became a tradition he at first hated, but now loved. Seeing the smiles on the children's faces made him feel like he was walking on air.
To make it easier on him and to keep with the traditions building around him they limited his deliveries to one night a year. Fortunately one of the elven scientists had recovered and rebuilt a dimensional shifter that not only slowed time, it allowed him to pass through walls or down from the ceiling as needed.
That Clarke guy had it right Nicholas mused, advanced technology really was indistinguishable from magic. He shook his head. Still, even with all their vaunted technology he could no longer do this job alone. So the legion had been born. At first a few, and now sixty Santas. Men and even a few women in the adopted human side grew up wishing to fill his boots. It amused him a great deal to think of what they would think a few hours into the job. But he had to admit, despite the exhaustion, he knew he would feel elated, completed, and thrilled when the evening was done. It was the same every year.
In the 19th century, the elves hadn't liked the humans continued interest in war so they had moved the base to Antarctica when humans began to explore the northern wastes. Their sense of safety hadn't lasted long, they had become uncomfortable when the humans started whaling off Antarctica.
The turn of the 20th century found a quickening in human development, which had in turn restored some of the long lost Alp tech. It had also  frightened the elves into exploring space once more. In 1947 they made contact once more with their species. A shuttle crashed in America, but the main explorer ship had successfully hid behind the moon.
Spurred by this contact, some of the elves had returned to their home, but others had elected to stay and continue their work on Earth with the Santas, refusing to abandon the charity they had started. He understood their thinking, his people needed a positive role model and treasured their sacrifice.
In order to fuel the demand for materials, they still recycled, but now imported raw material from the asteroids in the system. If humanity only knew what they were doing to help them! He wished he could make them understand, but knew they were still young, still ever fearful of what they don't understand.
They had also started to become greedy, something the elves hadn't expected, it was still foreign to their nature. The holiday was becoming commercial, which bothered some. There were trends some didn't like, he hoped something would alter them. He reminded himself to talk to the psych department when he got back.
They, like him saw his role as beneficial to humanity, encouraging charity, humility, and many other good qualities. He knew it did, at least around this time of the year. Despite the greed, people really did help one another. Every little bit helped, bringing the positive spirit out in everyone.
"Is the list finished?" He rumbled, tugging on his belt.
"And checked twice," Siri replied with a smile. "The probes report excellent results this year. The encouragement of recycling and the modification of human responsibility as stewards of the environment seems to be holding."
"Good," He said as he nodded. He heard a click of hooves. He turned to see one of the genetically engineered reindeer being led by an elf walk by. He nodded again and then returned to his mussing.
"We'll be ready for you shortly Santa," Siri said and then withdrew.
He snorted softly and nodded. He adjusted his hat and then straightened to his full height. "Time for another night of magic," he murmured with a twinkle as he strode past elves who nodded politely to him.
He entered the shuttle bay and smiled to his loyal crew as he stepped up to the sleigh. His wife gave him a kiss and a smile, better tonic than any bottle of rum.
He took up the reins and nodded to Siri. She nodded back and stepped back with the others as he flipped switches and the field around his craft and reindeer began to form, bending space around them.
 
"Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!"   
I hope you and your families are doing well. I am about to go to see mine at my sisters.
Have a safe and happy holiday!
 Chris Hechtl

13 Degrees.... in 10... 9...

Sorry for the delay!

I goofed on the spelling of 'Separation' (separation) on Amazon, I'll correct it shortly.
The manuscripts have been uploaded, again, sorry for the formatting on B&N. Amazon should have it ready in 12-48 hours. Hopefully sooner. B&N said not until tomorrow sometime.

I'll post an update here when it goes live.

Have a good T-day everyone!

EDIT: And we are Live! Blast Off!
http://www.amazon.com/13-Degrees-Separation-Chris-Hechtl-ebook/dp/B00GYI9CB0/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1385659870&sr=1-9

And now I get to cook dinner and hope we can figure out how to fry the birds without the experts here to do it. Hopefully I have eyebrows tomorrow.