Doc Coleman's Blog, page 26
October 28, 2011
#NaNoWriMo update: Crackle & Bang Synopsis
Still in the process of getting ready for NaNoWriMo next Tuesday. I know what I'm writing. I pretty much know my characters, at least the main ones. But it occurs to me that I've never actually written up a synopsis for my story. Sooooo… here is a first attempt at the synopsis. Let me know what you think.
The Adventures of Crackle & Bang, Book the first.
A young English Lordling is taking his Grande Tour to mark the completion of his education and the beginning of his adult life. A night at the Opera of Prague leads to a chance meeting with an eccentric professor and his lovely young assistant. But before the evening's entertainment is over, a hidden assassin makes an attempt at a visiting member of the royal court, destroying the opera house and putting our trio on the track of a mad scientist bent on toppling the Imperial Court from power. Can they find him and stop him before he makes another attempt on the Crown Prince? Or will they have front row seats for the first salvo in a war for control of the empire?
Yes, this is just the first book. And I'm pretty sure it will have its own title by the time I am done with it, and the series itself with be The Adventures of Crackle & Bang. Then again, considering that I've set this adventure in Prague, I may just end up calling it "The Canceled Czech."
If you'd like to get a feel for the style of The Adventures of Crackle & Bang, a mini adventure in the form of a short story has just been published in the Steampunk Special Issue of Flagship Magazine. The issue is available now in text form and audio versions will soon be available as well. The text-only version is only $1.99 and includes short stories from Doug Souza, Mike Plested, Philip Carroll, Scott Roche, Bill Blume, and Ryan Underhill in addition to my own. And articles by Zack Ricks and Laura Nicole. Pretty good for just two bucks.
If you are doing NaNoWriMo this year and would like to be my writing buddy, just add me here: http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/participants/scaleslea. Or if you'd just like to keep track of how I'm doing, check back and watch my progress unfold.
October 21, 2011
The Wayback Machine: The Shrinking Man Project: Episode 11 – Shattered
Once more into the breach, dear friends! It was the best of times, and then things went to hell in a hand basket. Today's trip into the past lands us on March 2nd, 2011, and the recounting of one of the toughest weeks of my life. I started off the week with everything going just the way I wanted it… and then it all fell apart due to my wife getting sick and going to the hospital. I think Murphy was working triple overtime this week.
We started with my wife being sick, and being in the hospital with her made me sick, too. Ugh.
Show notes included below.
Show Notes:
The Week
Wife's illness leads to…
Emergency Room visit.
Hospital stay.
And now I'm sick, too.
Coming back home.
Weigh in
Wrapping up
Lessons learned. Sickness trumps everything. Do what you need to get through
Moving forward. Pick up the pieces, rebuild, get back on track.
Thanks for everyone's support on Twitter and Facebook. Special thanks to Karen and Kermit who came and visited.
Sign off
Comments on the blog at http://theshrinkingmanproject.com
E-mail at Doc@theshrinkingmanproject.com
Voice mail at (240) 745-5022
Join the Fans of the Shrinking Man Project on Facebook
If you have a podcast, send me your promos! Promos will be back next week.
Leave a review on iTunes or Podcast Alley.
Tell your friends about the podcast.
Have a good week!
End credits
Mentioned on the show:
Galley Table
Fans of The Shrinking Man Project
October 19, 2011
New Work in Progress: #NaNoWriMo Project – The Adventures of Crackle & Bang
I have mentioned in a few places that I will be doing NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, this year for the very first time. I'm stoked at the idea of doing this, just as much as I am daunted by the demands of the writing schedule I'm going to have to follow to "Win" the event. In the past I've been trying to write five days a week, with limited success. Between my blogs and my podcast, I can usually manage to write something significant on five days of the week, but I don't always manage to get around to writing fiction. Or if I do, it might be just once or twice a week. For NaNoWriMo, I'm putting all the other projects aside and just focusing on my fiction.I've talked to a few folks about my project for this year, but I've never posted any real discussion of the project. This is actually something I've been working on for over a year, and characters that I've been playing with for several years. I had originally imagined this as a series of short stories in a steampunk setting, but whenever I tried to work on the stories, they just kept getting longer, and longer. I'd write until I got around ten thousand words with no end in sight, and then I'd switch over to something else in the attempt to get short stories out. Now my emphasis is changing. I'm throwing away the words I've already written, but keeping the action and the plot. On November 1st I'll start writing from scratch and see how far I get before the story ends.
The name I'm using for the project is The Adventures of Crackle & Bang. This is the same name I had been using for the short story series I was trying to write, and it is still the name of the overall series. I'll decide the final name of the book by the time it is finished. Probably by the time I'm a third of the way through. I'm sorry if this is confusing to anyone. This really is a case of a project that has gotten a hold of me and won't let go until it is really done.
So let me begin at the beginning. Because that is where this story is going to start. The elevator pitch for the series is that it is a steampunk mash up of Doctor Who, the Sherlock Holmes stories, and Around the World in 80 Days. It definitely borrows elements from both. I've also come up with a slightly longer radio pitch:
The Adventures of Crackle & Bang
The year is 2010 and it is still the reign of Her Eternal Majesty Empress Victoria the first. Steam power is still ascendant and the digital age has never arrived. While the people feel safe in their homes under Victoria's Peace, ambitious men and woman plot to gain power without incurring the wrath of the Eternal Queen and her lightning powered armies. Onto this stage comes Professor Harmonious Crackle and his assistant Miss Titania Bang. Exiled for a crime he did not commit, Professor Crackle tries to prove his loyalty to the crown by seeking out those who threaten the empire.
This is a world of steam power and mad geniuses. Queen Victoria never died. Indeed, it seems that she may truly be immortal. She has used the superior power of her armies' lightning guns to enforce order on most of the known world. Over the last hundred years she has married her children into every royal house on the planet, giving her familial control over their monarchies. Even the independent nations pay respect to the Eternal Empress. As long as they maintain order within their borders, she lets them be. But the peace is only a facade. Power hungry men and women are everywhere, from scientists who are sure their intellectual prowess gives them the right to rule, to heads of state who chafe under Victoria's yoke, to members of the royal family who yearn for their own chance to take hold of the reins of power. Beneath the veneer of civility, rebellion festers and criminal empires rise and fall.
One way in which this series will be different from other steampunk offerings is that England is the one place where the action won't be happening. Instead of endless stories in 1890′s London, The Adventures of Crackle & Bang will explore the rest of the world, both within and outside of the Empire proper. The first adventure begins in what is now Czechoslovakia and then moves to India, the Indian Ocean, Austrailia, America, and then back to India. There is a whole world to explore, the question is where I want to go next.
The plan is that there will be further updates as things progress. Both through November and the rest of the writing and editing process. I don't want to talk about selling the story until I get there, but I do have some ideas on how to get the story out once it is done. Stay tuned.
The Wayback Machine: Galley Table Episode Twenty-Four: Worldbuilding
Today we are heading back to February 26th, 2011 for another Galley Table episode. The guest today is Jonathan Jacobs of Nevermet Press. We talk about RPGs, world building, and when enough is enough and you just need to get on with the story. And we curse Skype. A lot. A whole lot. Oh, and we invade Zach Ricks' brain.
Some notable quotes from the episode:
"Stop stealing my lines!"
"World building is a bit… masturbatory."
"Paging Mr. Tolkien, the white courtesy phone…"
"I made friends with J.C. Hutchins just like you would make friends with any puppy, you feed him."
"If you've spent 20% of your story on world building, you've gone on too long."
"I think we're saying world building when we mean Info-dumping."
"I think a lot of writers do their world building as they are writing."
"… she does all the world building throughout the story, but there is no info dump at all."
"It needs to be familiar enough that you're not questioning how everything works, but different enough to be intriguing."
"That old saw, show, don't tell."
"You are trained to tell. In most American schools, that is how kids are told how to write."
"And it is not surprising that kids think school is boring."
"I don't know why I have to explain every detail to my mythical audience…"
"This is not a story, but a book of myths and legends."
"I was basically going to grunt in disbelief for a while."
"The other tricky part is making sure you don't get lost in your own world building."
"It is never a crime to do not enough world building and start your story."
"Which comes first, the character or the setting? My answer has always been 'Yes.'"
"How do you as a writer recognize when an info dump is happening?"
"You can send your defenses of Tolkien to … sroche@…"
"You could argue that all Dune is is one big volume of world building."
"It's the book, and the RPG at the same time!"
"You can send your defenses of Jules Verne to…"
"Put it into captain dummy talk, Kaylee…"
"You know what they call that in gaming, right? Railroading."
"If you want your player characters to go somewhere, they don't want to go there."
"The characters are going around with candles, and all you can see of the world is what you can see by candlelight."
This was a great conversation about building your world vs showing the world to your audience. A bit more serious than our usual Galley Table fare, but a good show.
Check back here on Friday to see if the Wayback Machine has managed to produce another historical episode for your listening enjoyment.
October 17, 2011
The Wayback Machine: The Shrinking Man Project: Episode 10 – Changes
Happy Monday, folks! It is happy for us because the Wayback Machine is still ticking over. It's all warmed up this morning and for once, we're not going to visit Galley Table for a change! We've finally caught up to where I left off with the Master Feed back in February. Today's destination is February 21st, 2011 and Episode 10 of The Shrinking Man Project. This episode dealt with the changes I was going through with the impending move of my office to a new location, literally a different state, and how I was expecting it to alter my life. Unlike the Galley Table episodes, this one is just a short thirteen minutes long. This episode also announces my first paid writing sale to Issue 4 of Flying Island Press's magazine Flagship. For those who are not familiar with Flagship, it is an e-published magazine with short stories and articles on the craft of writing in every issue. The magazine is available in both print and audio format and puts out new issues every two to three months. Anywho, on with the episode!
Show notes included below.
Show Notes:
Welcome!
Off to the scales…
Promo – Flagship, Issue 4, featuring stories like:
Ovid's Legacy – by Chris Ward
Martin the Dictator – by Jason Palmer
Broken Dolls – by Philip L. Tite
All Elves are Stupid – by Jeromy Henry
The Sideways Machine – by Richard Zwicker
Weigh in
Week in review
Back injury.
Four of Five exercises done.
Started Couch to 5K.
My food has been good this week.
My office is moving. Chaos ensues.
Lessons learned: Try new variations.
Moving forward: Focus on priorities.
Feedback!
Sign off
Comments on the blog at http://theshrinkingmanproject.com
E-mail at Doc@theshrinkingmanproject.com
Voice mail at (240) 745-5022
Join the Fans of the Shrinking Man Project on Facebook
Follow me @Scaleslea on Twitter
Send me your promos!
Leave a review on iTunes or Podcast Alley.
Tell your friends about the podcast.
Have a good week!
End credits
Mentioned on the show:
Flagship, Issue 4
Fans of The Shrinking Man Project
The Maryland Renaissance Festival
October 14, 2011
The Wayback Machine: Galley Table Episode Twenty-Three: Dial-A-Junk
Is it working? Do we have contact? Holding steady? Good!
Hey, folks. We've managed to get the Wayback Machine up again and we're ready for another trip into podcasting's past. This time we are headed to February 20th, 2011 and the release of Galley Table Episode Twenty-Three. This episode features special guest Dan Sawyer sharing his expertise at story telling for film and audio and some of the lessons he has learned in making his living with writing. Fortunately Dan is an interesting and entertaining conversationalist so it doesn't come off as a dry lecture. In fact I think this is one of the funnest Galley Table episodes we've ever done.
And, of course, I've pulled out some fun highlights of the show:
"He is having babies, so he is qualified now."
"It was the most annoying voice I've ever heard." "Oh, Gilbert Godfrey."
"I hate to make this the Nathan Lowell show, but…"
"Life is too short for that. I've got a lot of stories to tell."
"You need to go into it thinking, even if this fails, am I better off in the long run than if I hadn't done it at all."
"Expect to fail, then any success is just gravy!"
"There is a difference between getting a return and getting money."
"I'm going to start writing to day because in a couple of years I'm going to be a Mid-List Author!"
"Writers, like all artists, tend to be spectacularly poor at business."
"We think of these as our babies but not as our products."
"You have to raise your darlings and then sell them off for scientific experiments."
"Never hire anyone to do a job you couldn't do if you needed to."
"I'm not always in the same mood as the story."
"Anyone who gets on top tends to want to become the next Jim Jones."
"I almost got arrested bringing tea through an airport on the way to Balticon."
"And they still didn't think of bringing the drug sniffy dogs!"
"The guards were all around him, but he disarmed them with his tongue."
"I have a large cranial capacity."
"I want to hear more hat talk!"
"I've heard you should mainline these podcasts before showing up."
"It's what I get for being a stowaway."
"Stop violating the laws of physics, dammit!"
"He has an old soul he keeps in a jar."
"You are a veritable font of bad television."
"Edit that out, my brain skipped a track."
"Maybe I need to drink more."
I hope you enjoy listening to the episode. Everyone, have a good weekend, and hopefully we'll get the Wayback Machine to fire up again next Monday.
October 12, 2011
Technical difficulties.
I know I said that we would be firing up the Wayback Machine again today, but we seem to be encountering some problems. We'll keep working at it here at Swimming Cat Studios and see if we can get it working for this Friday's scheduled jaunt into the past. Anyone happen to have a spare flux capacitor?
October 11, 2011
Guest post at http://www.TheSecretLair.com
Chris Miller, one of the founders of Podiobooks.com, came to me in late August and asked if I would be willing to read a book and write a review for The Secret Lair, his online magazine dedicated to the plight of the grown up geek trying to survive in this modern world long enough to achieve world domination. Because I'm a nice guy, and it represented an opportunity to reach out to new readers and listeners, I agreed. Chris sent me an e-copy of Gary McMahon's "Dead Bad Things". I'm not really a fan of horror, but I gave the book a read, and my review went live yesterday over at The Secret Lair. Please check it out, and take a peek at some of the other things that Chris and his partners in crime have to say about the state of geekdom.
And let Chris and I both know if you liked the review and would like to see me do more of them for The Secret Lair.
October 10, 2011
The Wayback Machine: Galley Table Episode 22 – Roleplay
The Wayback Machine is powered up again, and this time we're traveling back to February 11th, 2011. Once again, we've got an episode of Galley Table. This week's episode features guests Willie Freeman and the lovely Veronica Giguerre. In this episode we are talking about voice acting, playing roles, roleplaying games, and discussing the various offerings coming up from Incubator Press, Willie's company.
Some quotes from the show:
"Where were you when you realized that mankind had completely lost the war on zombies?"
"That's how you practice your voice acting. You screen calls and when the telemarketers call you drop into the Pandemona voice."
"It's called voice acting practice time."
"They either hang up or they start laughing at you."
"Answer our trivia questions and Veronica Giguerre will do the message on your voice mail!"
"So… you were gaming with Mercedes Lackey?"
"Mercedes Lackey was playing an MMORPG?" "Yes!"
"Sounds like there are a few other storytellers here who are gamers." "Yes…"
"We always play on the evil side."
"Let's all walk on the evil side of the map!"
"Some of the best stories I can think of off the top of my head are from video games."
"You kids and your fancy-smancy video games."
"You're stepping on me, Doc."
"Having to rely on your imagination for your game…"
"We played D&D, Champions, Lords of Creation, just about any gaming system under the sun. You had to have a great grasp of character."
"Our GM offered extra experience for write ups of each weeks adventures. So I wrote them up as my characters would write them…"
"Not just a pimp, a demon pimp. Nothing says sinning like trafficking in demons."
"Kind of the Huggy Bear to your Starsky and Hutch?"
"High School and college is the time when people are supposed to get all their stupid out."
"He's a teenaged necromancer."
"He's going to save people by killing them and raising them as zombies."
"They zombies are not as dumb as they thought they were."
"Skype, for all your lack of communication needs!"
"What was that? Trashy two-bit tease?"
"I have fun making funny voices in my microphone."
"Reading for Laura and reading for Midsummer Night's Dream wassomuchfunIwanttodoitagain!"
"It's awkward question time!"
"To heck with it, I like writing!"
"You've been mainlining Galley Table Podcasts?"
"I'm on this show and I don't even listen to it."
"Laura revealing her age is actually my ring tone."
"Scott has a battle cry?"
"It's a love-hate relationship."
"I'm somebody's hero."
"Lack of confidence and Angry Birds."
That is it for this trip through the Wayback Machine. While you're waiting for the next one, we invite you to listen to Veronica's work on The Secret World Chronicle. There is a lot of good listening there. And we'll be back on Wednesday to fire up the machine again. See you then!
October 7, 2011
The Wayback Machine: Galley Table Episode Twenty-One – YA Fiction
Strap in, folks! This time the Wayback Machine is taking us back to February 4th, 2011 for the 21st episode of The Galley Table! To celebrate the twenty first episode, we set about discussing young adult fiction. Joining us for this discussion is our special guest J.R. Murdock, along with the rest of the Galley Table crew. We disassemble what it means for a story to be YA, and some of the prevailing advice on fitting into that market.
Some excellent YA works mentioned in the episode:
Tumbler
Pocket and the Pendant
Empress Sword
Space Casey
Nina Kimberly the Merciless
Schlock Mercenary
Archie Comics
Dragon Age Comics
Bone
Invincible
Other featured moments from the show:
Are they actually stealing beer from the past?
Phat Cao.
Getting into the guts of life…
Hobbits are a childlike race.
Harry Potter's too angry.
I don't know what I can't do yet.
Are you having fun when you do it?
Heinlein Juveniles.
There are how many Starship Troopers movies?
Not a lot of sex, a heck of a lot of violence.
Tight pacing.
The passive protagonist.
"I'm not going to take it anymore!"
The Chronicles of Narnia
Why are we still on topic?
e-readers for kids?
YA novel as video game.
Get out of my head, Doc Coleman!
Why do you have to bring reality into this?
Addicted to Dragon Age.
Nerd rap.
Have a good weekend, folks, and we'll see you back on Monday for another trip with the Wayback Machine!
