Richard Roberts's Blog, page 9
April 8, 2015
Fan Art Roundup!
There is nothing an author loves more than fan art. NOTHING. It means that you liked our ideas so much, you wanted to make them your own. Even when we're running screaming from pornography, we're skipping a step because you CARED enough to violate our sensibilities.
I figured it was time to gather together the fan art I've been receiving and show it off. I am still a tiny name, and I don't get much, but it all makes me happy.
Most of it is from one person, my alpha reader Nicole. Most of that are OCs of her own. So, I guess I'll start with Wild Children. I am not including Wild Children OC pictures here, which I swear I get more of than anything else by far. Well, I'll throw in one, because Agouti Rex tried to Wild Children his own OCs.
Here is your I'm More Artsy Fartsy Than You Rant for the day: Gosh darn it, people, I'd be more flattered if more of you noticed that Wild Children are almost never classic anthropomorphs. I was so in love with the idea of random pairings of animal and human traits!
And yet, still, I treasure every picture. Notice I have that one carefully stored forever in my fan art folder to show you folks.
Okay, I'll throw in one more, because this comes from Dana, who inspired Wild Children in the first place. Funny story - she hadn't read the book yet when she drew this!
In the Not OCs section, I don't recall Wolfgang being this pudgy. By MaeraFey
Jinx's story seems to be really popular, and I have two pictures by people trying to draw the Weaver of Pain! One by Agouti Rex, and one by Nikki. Sorry, Agouti - Nikki's is waaaaaaaay more accurate. Still, I love the Weaver's design, and seeing anybody draw him is a PIP. A PIP, Sir!
Those are the Wild Children pictures. Nikki really really really liked Heartfelt from A Sidekick's Tale, and drew TWO pictures of her!
Next in this wandering, cold-induced fever dream of a post is Sweet Dreams Are Made Of Teeth pictures. Oh, hey, I repeated the word 'dream' by accident. I'm really out of it. But check out these Coys!
Those are by Nerissa 'Queen Shubidu' Fuller and Pepfav. The latter holds the title for actually drawing Fang closest to how he's supposed to look. People keep wanting to make him a fluffy wolf. He's more of a bulky silhouette of a dog.
Ooh, wait. I almost forgot this, by my friend Ben! It's probably the first piece of fan art I ever got!
Okay, so, so... Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm A Supervillain art! Bad Penny by RiddleBanshee, eClaire by Phantom Dragon, and a giant crowd scene by Elyandrin! Phantom Dragon is working on a picture of Juliet and Harvey, but I don't want to put it up until they've finished the book and learn more about Harvey. Heh heh heh.
Oh, hey, there's a picture of Penny by Nerissa again.
And her interpretation of Goodnight, from 'Summer of Lob', the story of when Bull met Evolution. I'm about 2/3rds done with that, if only I can shake this disease.
And now the moment you've all been waiting for - fifty million pictures of Remmy by Nikki, who loves Remmy more than life itself! I was getting these one after another the whole time I wrote the book. It was awesome.
Unfortunately, my fans... do not love Remmy. So this was Nikki's response to the early reviews.
I'll finish up with my favorite piece of fan art, which is from Nikki. Her interpretation of the Walpurgis Night scene from Wild Children. Evocative, isn't it?
I figured it was time to gather together the fan art I've been receiving and show it off. I am still a tiny name, and I don't get much, but it all makes me happy.
Most of it is from one person, my alpha reader Nicole. Most of that are OCs of her own. So, I guess I'll start with Wild Children. I am not including Wild Children OC pictures here, which I swear I get more of than anything else by far. Well, I'll throw in one, because Agouti Rex tried to Wild Children his own OCs.
Here is your I'm More Artsy Fartsy Than You Rant for the day: Gosh darn it, people, I'd be more flattered if more of you noticed that Wild Children are almost never classic anthropomorphs. I was so in love with the idea of random pairings of animal and human traits!
And yet, still, I treasure every picture. Notice I have that one carefully stored forever in my fan art folder to show you folks.
Okay, I'll throw in one more, because this comes from Dana, who inspired Wild Children in the first place. Funny story - she hadn't read the book yet when she drew this!
In the Not OCs section, I don't recall Wolfgang being this pudgy. By MaeraFey
Jinx's story seems to be really popular, and I have two pictures by people trying to draw the Weaver of Pain! One by Agouti Rex, and one by Nikki. Sorry, Agouti - Nikki's is waaaaaaaay more accurate. Still, I love the Weaver's design, and seeing anybody draw him is a PIP. A PIP, Sir!
Those are the Wild Children pictures. Nikki really really really liked Heartfelt from A Sidekick's Tale, and drew TWO pictures of her!
Next in this wandering, cold-induced fever dream of a post is Sweet Dreams Are Made Of Teeth pictures. Oh, hey, I repeated the word 'dream' by accident. I'm really out of it. But check out these Coys!
Those are by Nerissa 'Queen Shubidu' Fuller and Pepfav. The latter holds the title for actually drawing Fang closest to how he's supposed to look. People keep wanting to make him a fluffy wolf. He's more of a bulky silhouette of a dog.Ooh, wait. I almost forgot this, by my friend Ben! It's probably the first piece of fan art I ever got!
Okay, so, so... Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm A Supervillain art! Bad Penny by RiddleBanshee, eClaire by Phantom Dragon, and a giant crowd scene by Elyandrin! Phantom Dragon is working on a picture of Juliet and Harvey, but I don't want to put it up until they've finished the book and learn more about Harvey. Heh heh heh.
Oh, hey, there's a picture of Penny by Nerissa again.
And her interpretation of Goodnight, from 'Summer of Lob', the story of when Bull met Evolution. I'm about 2/3rds done with that, if only I can shake this disease.
And now the moment you've all been waiting for - fifty million pictures of Remmy by Nikki, who loves Remmy more than life itself! I was getting these one after another the whole time I wrote the book. It was awesome.
Unfortunately, my fans... do not love Remmy. So this was Nikki's response to the early reviews.
I'll finish up with my favorite piece of fan art, which is from Nikki. Her interpretation of the Walpurgis Night scene from Wild Children. Evocative, isn't it?
March 30, 2015
Random Book Review - Redemption In Indigo
I'd like to thank fellow author Albert Berg for pointing me to this book.
Today (okay, not today, like a month ago and I was too busy to write this), I read Redemption in Indigo by Karen Lord.
I recommend it. Like always, there are caveats. The tone is 'verbal folk tale', which like fairy tales some folks will find too stilted. It is creative, reproduces the feel of verbal folk tales well, and generally fun.
NOW FOR THE SPOILERS
As above, the book attempts to reproduce the tone of verbal folk tales, specifically the stories of the Caribbean which were a mishmash of the religions of slaves from all over. This is an ethnic legend set I'm unfamiliar with, and all I recognized was a nod to Anansi from West African religions. Karen Lord is a sociologist, so this is actually her area of expertise. I get the impression she did a bit of recasting herself, but it was wonderful to be immersed in another culture's myth system.
The most interesting parts, to me, was the first third of the book, where the heroine leaves her odious husband. It follows the world-wide folk tale pattern where he comes after her, and she has to come up with clever trick after clever trick. The wonderful twist is that he's an idiot, and she has to come up with tricks to keep his stupid acts from completely humiliating him. That would embarrass her in turn, and she doesn't want their breakup to be hostile. She just wants to get away from a bad marriage. She's very merciful and compassionate.
After that, the book becomes a little more traditional. In facing the corrupted chaos spirit, she enters a modern American story pattern. It's still handled in an unusual way, where the conflict is handled very passively. He seems to win every battle, showing her time and again how she's wrong, but that she continues to care reawakens his own compassion. That proves to be the real story.
Because it was more like a modern American novel, that part was less satisfying to me. The clever and unusual twists also make it slower. That was really the worst negative of the book.
I'll counter that with the best part of the book. The oral story telling voice is perfect. The narrator sometimes stops to chat with you about stuff. Once in awhile that disrupts immersion, but mostly it has the feel of listening to your grandmother tell you a bedtime story. I really liked it.
So, to sum up, neat book, unusual in format, but that strangeness is also fascinating. I recommend it.
Today (okay, not today, like a month ago and I was too busy to write this), I read Redemption in Indigo by Karen Lord.
I recommend it. Like always, there are caveats. The tone is 'verbal folk tale', which like fairy tales some folks will find too stilted. It is creative, reproduces the feel of verbal folk tales well, and generally fun.
NOW FOR THE SPOILERS
As above, the book attempts to reproduce the tone of verbal folk tales, specifically the stories of the Caribbean which were a mishmash of the religions of slaves from all over. This is an ethnic legend set I'm unfamiliar with, and all I recognized was a nod to Anansi from West African religions. Karen Lord is a sociologist, so this is actually her area of expertise. I get the impression she did a bit of recasting herself, but it was wonderful to be immersed in another culture's myth system.
The most interesting parts, to me, was the first third of the book, where the heroine leaves her odious husband. It follows the world-wide folk tale pattern where he comes after her, and she has to come up with clever trick after clever trick. The wonderful twist is that he's an idiot, and she has to come up with tricks to keep his stupid acts from completely humiliating him. That would embarrass her in turn, and she doesn't want their breakup to be hostile. She just wants to get away from a bad marriage. She's very merciful and compassionate.
After that, the book becomes a little more traditional. In facing the corrupted chaos spirit, she enters a modern American story pattern. It's still handled in an unusual way, where the conflict is handled very passively. He seems to win every battle, showing her time and again how she's wrong, but that she continues to care reawakens his own compassion. That proves to be the real story.
Because it was more like a modern American novel, that part was less satisfying to me. The clever and unusual twists also make it slower. That was really the worst negative of the book.
I'll counter that with the best part of the book. The oral story telling voice is perfect. The narrator sometimes stops to chat with you about stuff. Once in awhile that disrupts immersion, but mostly it has the feel of listening to your grandmother tell you a bedtime story. I really liked it.
So, to sum up, neat book, unusual in format, but that strangeness is also fascinating. I recommend it.
March 23, 2015
Chi Fi: So Many Costumes
I have returned from Chi Fi, a tiny first year convention up in Chicago. A friend of mine had an extra ticket, and invited me. He had a prepaid vendor desk, and I would provide company and sell the small handful of my books I had lying around.
Note to all considering going: From an organizational standpoint, the convention was a shambles. Attendance was miniscule. Entire concerts happened with no audience because there was no schedule posted.
I had a wonderful time, because the very few people there were the nicest, most intelligent, most cool and interesting I've met at any convention, ever.
This is my pictorial of their awesomeness.
SUDDEN DETOUR. This is a shirt sold by the booth across from us! I bought one for Dana.
There were no ID badges. All they had were these wristbands. I have to say, this was the con's promise, and they DID deliver. Many fandoms were united, and we were all gloriously one.
The first corset of the convention! Not the last. There were SO MANY corsets. It was wonderful. This nice lady stopped to chat several times. In fact, anybody you see photographed in front of our table probably stopped to chat several times. I left this one uncropped to show you our table.
Something awesome was revealed to me at this convention. When adults buy my books for tween girls, they buy Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm A Supervillain. When the girls are unsupervised, they gravitate to Wild Children. I tried to obtain photographic evidence.
Notice this woman's hair. I couldn't get her to bend over and let me just photograph the top of her head. Her hair had cool swirls. It must have been Hell to arrange that every day of the con, but she did.
Check it, there's some writer named David Webber who has his own fan military. They had a booth.
Random elf. You know how it is.
I guess these guys are patriotic or something?
Another customer! Or... maybe she's just the kid I flagged down for a random photo. To be honest, it's completely blurry who I sold what to.
One of many, many, MANY Jedi. I only photographed one, but they were every freaking where. There was no point to having a whole stack of Jedi photos.
I love this dress, and I love it front and back.
Cosplay of Elizabeth from Bioshock Infinite. I was in love.
And then she put her jacket on, and looked even more adorable.
I took a few photos of random well dressed gents. This is one of them.
My policy is to insist on photographing every teenage girl in a fez that I see.
This girl in the Homestuck costume was AWESOME. She's standing next to her mother here, but she dragged her mother physically over to my table, whining and begging for her mother to buy her Wild Children. And then they posed for photos. This is one of my two favorite memories of the convention, and photographing the lounge singer Hollywood Monroe would have been impractical.
This lady had style. I needed no other reason to capture her soul with my devil camera.
HAT.
These young ladies represent Midwest Anime-con. I was ordered to watch the Puella Magi Madoka Magica movies, and despite my misgivings I shall. My policy is to do anything a girl with candy in her hair tells me to do.
This is probably a character? It's a well dressed woman in an eyepatch smoking a cigar. If that's just how she dresses, that's more than good enough for me.
Is there such a thing as Too Steampunk? This guy is trying.
Again, no idea who this is. A woman in a beautiful white dress was sitting in a chair, so I took a photo.
This is Jen. She cosplayed as Kim Possible at the convention, and we talked for HOURS. So friendly and sweet! I know her entire family history, now, how they shop, what she knows about kicking people in the knee, her parental issues, everything. Man, was she great.
Remember Elizabeth? I asked her Bird or Cage. She chose Bird! Notice the super tasteful way she covers her cleavage in the closeup.
A luchadore succumbs to capitalism.
There was a ball pit. At one point it was used to dispose of a body, but this is not that moment. I left this photo extra large for legibility.
Meow?
In retrospect, Finn and Tank Girl would LOVE each other.
Just, you know, an ordinary Saturday lunch. I don't know any of these people. I just thought they looked cute.
THIS. This wonderful young woman bought Sweet Dreams Are Made of Teeth, my very last copy of the old cover. Then she came back to buy Quite Contrary because she was loving it. She praised my genius effusively. Also, she knows, like, eight types of martial arts and can break parts of you that you didn't know you had. Once you put the raven on her hat, she became the Perfect Woman.
Some character from Kill la Kill. Taking this photo, I realized that I've watched the series, kinda liked it, know exactly who she is and what she's wearing and the sword and all, but damned if I know the name of ANYONE (or anything) in the series.
Another super well dressed man. I took a lot of photos of him, and none turned out. This was the best I could do.
Another hallway, another pretty dress. I couldn't even come close to photographing them all.
This girl is probably with the other candy maids, but who knows?
YOU'RE A WIZARD, HARRIET. Photographed primarily for Dana, who loves Harry Potter.
I'm not 100% sure this photo is ethical, because I'm not 100% sure he ever knew I took it. I'm at least 95% sure he wouldn't mind, so I'm goin' ahead and posting.
More really fabulous dresses.
At some point in any con they let the succubi in, and it all goes downhill.
Fortunately, a vulcan showed up to kick ass. She burst into hysterical laughter seconds after I took these photos, but that photo was too blurry to show.
The general consensus was that I had photographed this woman's dress before, but I don't think so. Maybe her, but not this dress.
Her friends did The Wave while I took photos, and it was so adorable I had to photograph them, too.
I felt thoroughly chastised by this gentleman, and left the gaming floor forthwith.
Gandalf got no respect. Seriously. Joke after joke after joke.
I didn't know what was prettier, the girl or the costume. I keep forgetting who the character is. Maybe I just love 40s fashion.
Seagulls on the way back. Because seagulls.
No photo I took in a moving car could capture the vast numbers of windmills on this wind farm, but this photo looks kinda nice.
And that, for the moment, is that! Back soon with speculations about genre.
Note to all considering going: From an organizational standpoint, the convention was a shambles. Attendance was miniscule. Entire concerts happened with no audience because there was no schedule posted.
I had a wonderful time, because the very few people there were the nicest, most intelligent, most cool and interesting I've met at any convention, ever.
This is my pictorial of their awesomeness.
SUDDEN DETOUR. This is a shirt sold by the booth across from us! I bought one for Dana.
There were no ID badges. All they had were these wristbands. I have to say, this was the con's promise, and they DID deliver. Many fandoms were united, and we were all gloriously one.
The first corset of the convention! Not the last. There were SO MANY corsets. It was wonderful. This nice lady stopped to chat several times. In fact, anybody you see photographed in front of our table probably stopped to chat several times. I left this one uncropped to show you our table.
Something awesome was revealed to me at this convention. When adults buy my books for tween girls, they buy Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm A Supervillain. When the girls are unsupervised, they gravitate to Wild Children. I tried to obtain photographic evidence.
Notice this woman's hair. I couldn't get her to bend over and let me just photograph the top of her head. Her hair had cool swirls. It must have been Hell to arrange that every day of the con, but she did.
Check it, there's some writer named David Webber who has his own fan military. They had a booth.
Random elf. You know how it is.
I guess these guys are patriotic or something?
Another customer! Or... maybe she's just the kid I flagged down for a random photo. To be honest, it's completely blurry who I sold what to.
One of many, many, MANY Jedi. I only photographed one, but they were every freaking where. There was no point to having a whole stack of Jedi photos.
I love this dress, and I love it front and back.
Cosplay of Elizabeth from Bioshock Infinite. I was in love.
And then she put her jacket on, and looked even more adorable.
I took a few photos of random well dressed gents. This is one of them.
My policy is to insist on photographing every teenage girl in a fez that I see.
This girl in the Homestuck costume was AWESOME. She's standing next to her mother here, but she dragged her mother physically over to my table, whining and begging for her mother to buy her Wild Children. And then they posed for photos. This is one of my two favorite memories of the convention, and photographing the lounge singer Hollywood Monroe would have been impractical.
This lady had style. I needed no other reason to capture her soul with my devil camera.
HAT.
These young ladies represent Midwest Anime-con. I was ordered to watch the Puella Magi Madoka Magica movies, and despite my misgivings I shall. My policy is to do anything a girl with candy in her hair tells me to do.
This is probably a character? It's a well dressed woman in an eyepatch smoking a cigar. If that's just how she dresses, that's more than good enough for me.
Is there such a thing as Too Steampunk? This guy is trying.
Again, no idea who this is. A woman in a beautiful white dress was sitting in a chair, so I took a photo.
This is Jen. She cosplayed as Kim Possible at the convention, and we talked for HOURS. So friendly and sweet! I know her entire family history, now, how they shop, what she knows about kicking people in the knee, her parental issues, everything. Man, was she great.
Remember Elizabeth? I asked her Bird or Cage. She chose Bird! Notice the super tasteful way she covers her cleavage in the closeup.
A luchadore succumbs to capitalism.
There was a ball pit. At one point it was used to dispose of a body, but this is not that moment. I left this photo extra large for legibility.
Meow?
In retrospect, Finn and Tank Girl would LOVE each other.
Just, you know, an ordinary Saturday lunch. I don't know any of these people. I just thought they looked cute.
THIS. This wonderful young woman bought Sweet Dreams Are Made of Teeth, my very last copy of the old cover. Then she came back to buy Quite Contrary because she was loving it. She praised my genius effusively. Also, she knows, like, eight types of martial arts and can break parts of you that you didn't know you had. Once you put the raven on her hat, she became the Perfect Woman.
Some character from Kill la Kill. Taking this photo, I realized that I've watched the series, kinda liked it, know exactly who she is and what she's wearing and the sword and all, but damned if I know the name of ANYONE (or anything) in the series.
Another super well dressed man. I took a lot of photos of him, and none turned out. This was the best I could do.
Another hallway, another pretty dress. I couldn't even come close to photographing them all.
This girl is probably with the other candy maids, but who knows?
YOU'RE A WIZARD, HARRIET. Photographed primarily for Dana, who loves Harry Potter.
I'm not 100% sure this photo is ethical, because I'm not 100% sure he ever knew I took it. I'm at least 95% sure he wouldn't mind, so I'm goin' ahead and posting.
More really fabulous dresses.
At some point in any con they let the succubi in, and it all goes downhill.
Fortunately, a vulcan showed up to kick ass. She burst into hysterical laughter seconds after I took these photos, but that photo was too blurry to show.
The general consensus was that I had photographed this woman's dress before, but I don't think so. Maybe her, but not this dress.
Her friends did The Wave while I took photos, and it was so adorable I had to photograph them, too.
I felt thoroughly chastised by this gentleman, and left the gaming floor forthwith.
Gandalf got no respect. Seriously. Joke after joke after joke.
I didn't know what was prettier, the girl or the costume. I keep forgetting who the character is. Maybe I just love 40s fashion.
Seagulls on the way back. Because seagulls.
No photo I took in a moving car could capture the vast numbers of windmills on this wind farm, but this photo looks kinda nice.
And that, for the moment, is that! Back soon with speculations about genre.
March 14, 2015
A Book That Wasn't
I have loved seeing people actually discuss my books, and I'm grateful to you all.
Here is a present. This was going to be my next book, completely unconnected to any previous, about a girl who falls into a magical land - or, more accurately, about her sidekick.
I put it in PDF format.
It didn't work. It's nice to read, but it's not page-turningly gripping, and the problem is built into the book so tightly I would have to rewrite from the beginning. I'm putting away the ideas, and they will be part of some new book in the future.
But for now, hey, maybe someone will enjoy a third of a book.
Here is a present. This was going to be my next book, completely unconnected to any previous, about a girl who falls into a magical land - or, more accurately, about her sidekick.
I put it in PDF format.
It didn't work. It's nice to read, but it's not page-turningly gripping, and the problem is built into the book so tightly I would have to rewrite from the beginning. I'm putting away the ideas, and they will be part of some new book in the future.
But for now, hey, maybe someone will enjoy a third of a book.
February 20, 2015
So, Where Next?
First, I want to thank you all.
You might think that the release to the sequel of my first bestseller would be a wonderful moment. It's actually been a pile of fear and stress. Every bad review hurt. The good reviews and the interest from the commenters here has warmed my heart and made it easier to get back on my feet and going again. The discussions, the questions - you have been a life preserver in a sea of career uncertainty.
So, now that my head is more or less clear, what's happening?
Well, to my great sorrow, A Sidekick's Tale is not going to work. I identified why it's cute but not gripping, and it's the central premise. I might post everything I wrote here? Not sure. Heartfelt and Anywhere will be back in another book, that I know.
Love, Hate, and the Chocolate Rabbit will be picked back up, and I've felt interested in it, but I'll probably want to wait until I have something more reliably wide audience just to make me feel better!
I've actually written the first chapter of Book Three of the Inscrutable Machine. I was going to launch into it next. I had a brief delay while I did research, but that got finished to my satisfaction. Except...
My publisher has asked me to write a 15000-20000 word novella set in the Inscrutable Machine continuum. They have some other superhero type titles, and thought an anthology sorta thing would be cool. So, I'm working on that. This idea was JUST raised, like, two days ago. I'm going through ideas and figuring out what I want. The three current leading ideas are:
The very weird day Bull met Evolution.
She Who Wots' younger sister, and their peculiar home life.
A further exploration of corporate villainous silliness.
What do you think?
You might think that the release to the sequel of my first bestseller would be a wonderful moment. It's actually been a pile of fear and stress. Every bad review hurt. The good reviews and the interest from the commenters here has warmed my heart and made it easier to get back on my feet and going again. The discussions, the questions - you have been a life preserver in a sea of career uncertainty.
So, now that my head is more or less clear, what's happening?
Well, to my great sorrow, A Sidekick's Tale is not going to work. I identified why it's cute but not gripping, and it's the central premise. I might post everything I wrote here? Not sure. Heartfelt and Anywhere will be back in another book, that I know.
Love, Hate, and the Chocolate Rabbit will be picked back up, and I've felt interested in it, but I'll probably want to wait until I have something more reliably wide audience just to make me feel better!
I've actually written the first chapter of Book Three of the Inscrutable Machine. I was going to launch into it next. I had a brief delay while I did research, but that got finished to my satisfaction. Except...
My publisher has asked me to write a 15000-20000 word novella set in the Inscrutable Machine continuum. They have some other superhero type titles, and thought an anthology sorta thing would be cool. So, I'm working on that. This idea was JUST raised, like, two days ago. I'm going through ideas and figuring out what I want. The three current leading ideas are:
The very weird day Bull met Evolution.
She Who Wots' younger sister, and their peculiar home life.
A further exploration of corporate villainous silliness.
What do you think?
January 29, 2015
Yay, It's Out!
Volume two of the Inscrutable Machine is out! Here's the Amazon link until I get back from breakfast and can put one up officially.
Now I sweat bullets about whether people like it. There's some reviews already, if you can believe it. The consistent opinion: It's different from the first book. That's deliberate, since writing the same book five times would be boring for everybody. The question is, will people like that difference?
Now I sweat bullets about whether people like it. There's some reviews already, if you can believe it. The consistent opinion: It's different from the first book. That's deliberate, since writing the same book five times would be boring for everybody. The question is, will people like that difference?
December 23, 2014
Oh Yeah, The Cover
You people like cover art, right? Everyone likes cover art. Here's the cover for volume two of the Inscrutable Machine.
This may be the most pure and perfect example of cover art ever revealed, because everything on the cover is in the book, and everything is drawn completely wrong. The gate is wrong, that's the wrong moon, those are the wrong kind of tentacles, Conqueror Orbs don't look like that, and the cat... actually, the cat isn't HORRIBLY wrong. And none of the spaceship interiors look like that.
And he didn't include Remmy, and you don't have a book without Remmy.
Small note on the edits: We removed most of a page from the first book in the magic shop where the kids recap to Lucyfar. I agreed to cut it precisely because you are losing zippola, so it shouldn't have been in there in the first place. I know you folks like to know what changes.
Right now and through Christmas there's a 99 cent sale on the first book, in case any of you don't have it yet!
This may be the most pure and perfect example of cover art ever revealed, because everything on the cover is in the book, and everything is drawn completely wrong. The gate is wrong, that's the wrong moon, those are the wrong kind of tentacles, Conqueror Orbs don't look like that, and the cat... actually, the cat isn't HORRIBLY wrong. And none of the spaceship interiors look like that.
And he didn't include Remmy, and you don't have a book without Remmy.
Small note on the edits: We removed most of a page from the first book in the magic shop where the kids recap to Lucyfar. I agreed to cut it precisely because you are losing zippola, so it shouldn't have been in there in the first place. I know you folks like to know what changes.
Right now and through Christmas there's a 99 cent sale on the first book, in case any of you don't have it yet!
December 19, 2014
As Promised, The Additions
Book two's editing is finished. It's releasing on January 25th, and is available for pre-ordering already! The link is, uh... okay, here.
But you're not here for advertizing, because let's face it, if you're reading this you've already read my books.
Book one's editing is so close to finished that I can finally share with you the two significant additions. I put two points in the first book about why Penny and her friends weren't caught that were too subtle, and not many people picked up on. Given their crucial importance, I thought I'd better go back and make them a little more eye-catching! Here they are:
FIRST ADDITION:
I stared. I was being treated to what should have been a close-up of Claire as she and Gabriel chatted, but it wasn’t. Who was this girl? Claire didn’t have a dimple. I’d been seeing Claire’s smile most of our lives, and she didn’t.Or did she, with her power turned up high? What exactly did she look like then? All I could remember were eyes and a mouth, those oh-so-serious expressions she was giving Gabriel.My stupid mouth acted on automatic. “She almost looks like Claire.”Dad just chuckled. “She does, doesn't she? I think it was a half-hearted attempt to frame Claire. The name is deliberate, and the costume is a reference to her power. I say 'half-hearted', because if E-Claire were really trying she would hide her face. The first words out of your mother's mouth were 'Her cheekbones are wrong', and her body language was wrong in the first video. She can't even claim to be Claire in makeup.”Claire Lutra, you little vixen. You knew all along your secret identity was completely safe. Your Mom must have known as well. And if E-Claire couldn't possibly be Claire, then her teammates couldn't be me and Ray. You devious shape-changing vixen, Claire. You'd covered us all.
SECOND ADDITION:
“The Brain Auk does sound like a mixup waiting to happen,” I conceded, letting my grin at least peek out.Dad's mouth twisted in momentary disgust. “So did the Dark Brain, Bad Brian, Sir Brian the Brave, and that guy with the mind control powers who just called himself 'Brian'. He was never caught. By the time we figured out what he was doing, he'd disappeared.” Woo, so much weight on those words. Dad really hadn't liked that guy. No wonder I'd never heard about him.Dad was so eager to move on, he kept talking. “E-Claire is just the beginning of Claire's problems. When she gets older she'll have to deal with Clairevoyant, Clairion, and half a dozen others. Get used to people suspecting you're Penny Pincher, Penelope Peril, Penny For Your Thoughts, and probably Paranoiakk. I've always suspected we're related, and she's young and female.”I giggled. It wasn't just funny. Safety from discovery felt pretty good. “Does this happen a lot?”“Constantly. If you have a common name, there are hundreds of heroes and villains who share it. And they all love puns.”Giving him my biggest, most impudent grin, I asked, “And the Brain Auk?”My stratagem worked. He changed the subject.
But you're not here for advertizing, because let's face it, if you're reading this you've already read my books.
Book one's editing is so close to finished that I can finally share with you the two significant additions. I put two points in the first book about why Penny and her friends weren't caught that were too subtle, and not many people picked up on. Given their crucial importance, I thought I'd better go back and make them a little more eye-catching! Here they are:
FIRST ADDITION:
I stared. I was being treated to what should have been a close-up of Claire as she and Gabriel chatted, but it wasn’t. Who was this girl? Claire didn’t have a dimple. I’d been seeing Claire’s smile most of our lives, and she didn’t.Or did she, with her power turned up high? What exactly did she look like then? All I could remember were eyes and a mouth, those oh-so-serious expressions she was giving Gabriel.My stupid mouth acted on automatic. “She almost looks like Claire.”Dad just chuckled. “She does, doesn't she? I think it was a half-hearted attempt to frame Claire. The name is deliberate, and the costume is a reference to her power. I say 'half-hearted', because if E-Claire were really trying she would hide her face. The first words out of your mother's mouth were 'Her cheekbones are wrong', and her body language was wrong in the first video. She can't even claim to be Claire in makeup.”Claire Lutra, you little vixen. You knew all along your secret identity was completely safe. Your Mom must have known as well. And if E-Claire couldn't possibly be Claire, then her teammates couldn't be me and Ray. You devious shape-changing vixen, Claire. You'd covered us all.
SECOND ADDITION:
“The Brain Auk does sound like a mixup waiting to happen,” I conceded, letting my grin at least peek out.Dad's mouth twisted in momentary disgust. “So did the Dark Brain, Bad Brian, Sir Brian the Brave, and that guy with the mind control powers who just called himself 'Brian'. He was never caught. By the time we figured out what he was doing, he'd disappeared.” Woo, so much weight on those words. Dad really hadn't liked that guy. No wonder I'd never heard about him.Dad was so eager to move on, he kept talking. “E-Claire is just the beginning of Claire's problems. When she gets older she'll have to deal with Clairevoyant, Clairion, and half a dozen others. Get used to people suspecting you're Penny Pincher, Penelope Peril, Penny For Your Thoughts, and probably Paranoiakk. I've always suspected we're related, and she's young and female.”I giggled. It wasn't just funny. Safety from discovery felt pretty good. “Does this happen a lot?”“Constantly. If you have a common name, there are hundreds of heroes and villains who share it. And they all love puns.”Giving him my biggest, most impudent grin, I asked, “And the Brain Auk?”My stratagem worked. He changed the subject.
December 10, 2014
Actual Progress? THIS CANNOT BE
Sometimes, an author's job is really hard, as in 'work my perky little butt off' hard.
I am here to report that the first round of editing is done for Please Don't Tell My Parents I Blew Up The Moon, which I shall forever think of myself as At Least I Didn't Blow Up OUR Moon.
It took forever. It took several times longer than any previous editing job. It took two months to get the notes, and two weeks to go through them. It took so long that I am not sure we can make the December 31st release date. I'm not happy about that, but we play the hand we're dealt. I certainly worked myself into exhaustion every day these last few weeks.
The first round of edits are also done for the first book, but my publisher and I agree that the second book is by far higher priority. The updates to Supervillain can wait until Moon is finished.
Going forward, here is what has to happen:
A second round of editing, and possibly a third, must be finished. While I cannot guarantee how fast my editor moves, the general rule is that these take a day or two total, because they involve editing 1/100th the content of the first round.
Then I make some minor changes to the text, adding in story elements my editor and I agreed on. Then those have to be edited. We're talking less than a page of content.
We send those to the proofreader. In a normal editing run, this would be by far the biggest delay left, and it's the reason I don't think we can make the release date. The proofreader cleans up misspelled words, out of place commas, incorrect grammar, stuff like that. I have to go over those edits like I do the main edits, and it encompasses the whole book. They are much faster than the regular round of edits because this is almost entirely limited, obvious stuff. An awful lot is just 'accept accept accept' as commas scroll by. However, there's no predicting how long it will take the proofreader to go through a whole book, especially since my books are never small.
I can't predict anything for sure, because this has taken so much longer than a normal editing job. The biggest delays in the remaining rounds of edits should be me and my editor finding time to sit down and work. That's how little actual work is left.
But this time, I don't know.
I haven't gotten to write in two months. I'm looking forward to this being over.
Damn if you aren't getting a book that's polished until it squeaks.
I am here to report that the first round of editing is done for Please Don't Tell My Parents I Blew Up The Moon, which I shall forever think of myself as At Least I Didn't Blow Up OUR Moon.
It took forever. It took several times longer than any previous editing job. It took two months to get the notes, and two weeks to go through them. It took so long that I am not sure we can make the December 31st release date. I'm not happy about that, but we play the hand we're dealt. I certainly worked myself into exhaustion every day these last few weeks.
The first round of edits are also done for the first book, but my publisher and I agree that the second book is by far higher priority. The updates to Supervillain can wait until Moon is finished.
Going forward, here is what has to happen:
A second round of editing, and possibly a third, must be finished. While I cannot guarantee how fast my editor moves, the general rule is that these take a day or two total, because they involve editing 1/100th the content of the first round.
Then I make some minor changes to the text, adding in story elements my editor and I agreed on. Then those have to be edited. We're talking less than a page of content.
We send those to the proofreader. In a normal editing run, this would be by far the biggest delay left, and it's the reason I don't think we can make the release date. The proofreader cleans up misspelled words, out of place commas, incorrect grammar, stuff like that. I have to go over those edits like I do the main edits, and it encompasses the whole book. They are much faster than the regular round of edits because this is almost entirely limited, obvious stuff. An awful lot is just 'accept accept accept' as commas scroll by. However, there's no predicting how long it will take the proofreader to go through a whole book, especially since my books are never small.
I can't predict anything for sure, because this has taken so much longer than a normal editing job. The biggest delays in the remaining rounds of edits should be me and my editor finding time to sit down and work. That's how little actual work is left.
But this time, I don't know.
I haven't gotten to write in two months. I'm looking forward to this being over.
Damn if you aren't getting a book that's polished until it squeaks.
November 13, 2014
An Unexpectedly Good Story, FNAF2 Edition
This will be my analysis of the story of Five Nights At Freddy's 2. SPOILER SPOILER SERIOUSLY IF YOU DON'T WANT SPOILERS RUN AWAY NOW.
I admit, I'm fond of finding stories where I wasn't expecting them. I certainly was not expecting to find a heartbreakingly well told tragedy in the indie horror game Five Nights At Freddy's 2, but since I did, I'd like to talk about it!
The big secret revealed on the last night of the game is that this is a prequel. FNAF2 happens during the murders of five children that lead up to the much-talked-around 'Bite of '87'. Given the 1987 date on the check, and the phone comment that a birthday party on day seven will be the last event before the store shuts down, that day is almost certainly the day of the dreaded Bite. During the week, the phone messages reveal ever more explicit hints that children are disappearing. FNAF1 told us the bodies were never found.
The strongly hinted extra twist is that Jeremy Fitzgerald, the guard you play, is the murderer. Towards the end of the week the phone messages say that store employees are under suspicion, and on day five the day guard is fired, possibly arrested - but judging from phone guy's panic on day six's message, another child disappeared. That, and the fact that Jeremy is there on night six even though he's not supposed to be, are two of the biggest hints that it's Jeremy and not the day guard.
Also, and this is an important consideration in judging any literary mystery, 'you play the murderer' is exactly the kind of twist creator Scott Cawton has shown he likes.
AND NOW THE INTERESTING PART.
See, that's all fine as far as it goes, but it's a simple story told with vague hints and minimal input. No, what makes this beautiful from a writing perspective is how the animatronics tie in.
When you die, sometimes you get a mini game. You can look up Five Nights At Freddy's 2 mini games on YouTube and see tons of videos of them. They're not really games. They're as ridiculously simple to play as walking into another room. What they do is provide the animatronics' viewpoint of the murders. THAT is super cool and brilliant.
In each game, you play an animatronic character. The graphics are so crude it's hard to tell who you're playing sometimes. They do their schtick. Chica(?) gives cake to yelling children. Freddy wanders the restaurant. Marionette gives gifts to children. Foxy runs out of Pirate's Cove to a crowd of children.
Each game is warped by the murders. The restaurant Freddy wanders is filled with bloodstains and slumped over bodies. While Chica serves cake, another child is standing outside crying. A car pulls up and a purple man gets out. The child cries more and more, and then turns into a skeleton. Marionette's first round is 'Give Gifts', and he puts present boxes next to slumped over children. The second round is 'Give Life', and he puts puppet heads on them. During Chica's round, an 80s speech synthesizer slowly recites the letters 'S-A-V-E-H-I-M' and in Marionette's, 'H-E-L-P-T-H-E-M.'
The most interesting game to me is Foxy's. It's the simplest of all. 'Get Ready' is at the top of the screen as he stands between curtains in the first room. Then 'Go! Go! Go!' flashes, and you follow an arrow into the next room. There are five children standing in it, and when you get close 'Hurray!' flashes and fireworks go off. You do this twice, identically. On the third run, the purple man is standing next to the curtains. When you get out into the other room, it's five skeletons. There is no Hurray.
In all games, when you get to the dead children, the mini game slows to a crawl and then stops. When it does, you get the game's 'attacked by this robot' jump scare animation.
The message is simple and evocative. The robots are simple and stupid, but they love their jobs and they love children. They witness the murders, and they're tormented by what's happening to the children they love. The phone messages actually mention that even as the animatronics get erratic and potentially dangerous towards the end of the week, children seem to be perfectly safe.
Now, let's tie that to the actual behavior of the robots in-game. Here the creator suckers you beautifully. You're not supposed to know this is a prequel. The first game primes you to think of the robots as murderous. But phone guy is surprised as the robots get aggressive towards the end of the week. His first message throws in some words that FNAF1 has sensitized you too, like 'endoskeleton', but in fact he doesn't say, deny, or even imply the animatronics are dangerous. They recognize the faces of 'predators' from a database, and the last security guard complained about the robots wandering into his office. You're primed to think they've tried to kill him. Judging from phone guy's surprise as the robots get aggressive... they were just annoying! Can you imagine New Chica standing next to you all night trying to feed you cake because you're the only human in the restaurant? A fake head to get them to go away starts sounding really attractive.
In-game, that's consistent with their behavior. Night one is very quiet. Marionette will come to you if the music box runs down. New Bonnie and New Chica wander around, and sometimes get into your office. If you're wearing the head, they stare really close at you and then wander away. Marionette is the smartest robot, and can't be fooled by a mask.
Jeremy is the murderer. The point of the face recognition software as a plot point is that they recognize him from their predator list, and if they get a close look at him during their normal behavior will attack.
On day two, the first child goes missing. The phone message refers to ugly rumors.
On night two, everything changes. The bots go berserk. Night one is only hard because you have only the vaguest idea how to avoid the robots. On night two, all robots are potentially active, but in particular, Foxy starts up on night two. Foxy and Marionette are mentioned as being smarter than the other robots, and impossible to fool with a mask. Foxy's mini game implies Foxy really, really loves children. It's a very excited game. And starting on the second night, Foxy is the most constant and aggressive animatronic in the building. He's easy to get rid of, but he comes back again and again. He knows. They all know, but Foxy gets angry first.
As the week goes on, you hear more hints about the murders, and eventually the phone messages start talking about the animatronics becoming dangerous. Each night, as more children are killed, the robots go more and more ballistic. Night six is a war, where every animatronic in the building is going all out to kill you. A game difficulty mechanic becomes part of the plot. The animatronics are breaking down with desperation to protect the children and to get vengeance on the killer.
On day seven, Foxy snaps. He breaks his programming and attacks someone in broad daylight. The famous Bite of '87. The victim lives, but is effectively dead. If you play the optional night seven, it's a different security guard. Jeremy was the murderer. Foxy took him out. He and the other robots are now irrevocably insane. They still love children, but they've learned to hate anyone wearing a security guard uniform at night. When FNAF1 happens, they're murderous.
Everything ties into this story, and watching the murders through the animatronics' eyes is painful. The gradually slowing action conveys helplessness and pain. The simplified presentation, where children turn into a skeletal corpse and the games are tightly restricted, conveys the struggle of robots to deal with events outside their very limited programming.
I was not expecting writing this good in a game as simplistic as Five Nights At Freddy's 2. I'm impressed.
I admit, I'm fond of finding stories where I wasn't expecting them. I certainly was not expecting to find a heartbreakingly well told tragedy in the indie horror game Five Nights At Freddy's 2, but since I did, I'd like to talk about it!
The big secret revealed on the last night of the game is that this is a prequel. FNAF2 happens during the murders of five children that lead up to the much-talked-around 'Bite of '87'. Given the 1987 date on the check, and the phone comment that a birthday party on day seven will be the last event before the store shuts down, that day is almost certainly the day of the dreaded Bite. During the week, the phone messages reveal ever more explicit hints that children are disappearing. FNAF1 told us the bodies were never found.
The strongly hinted extra twist is that Jeremy Fitzgerald, the guard you play, is the murderer. Towards the end of the week the phone messages say that store employees are under suspicion, and on day five the day guard is fired, possibly arrested - but judging from phone guy's panic on day six's message, another child disappeared. That, and the fact that Jeremy is there on night six even though he's not supposed to be, are two of the biggest hints that it's Jeremy and not the day guard.
Also, and this is an important consideration in judging any literary mystery, 'you play the murderer' is exactly the kind of twist creator Scott Cawton has shown he likes.
AND NOW THE INTERESTING PART.
See, that's all fine as far as it goes, but it's a simple story told with vague hints and minimal input. No, what makes this beautiful from a writing perspective is how the animatronics tie in.
When you die, sometimes you get a mini game. You can look up Five Nights At Freddy's 2 mini games on YouTube and see tons of videos of them. They're not really games. They're as ridiculously simple to play as walking into another room. What they do is provide the animatronics' viewpoint of the murders. THAT is super cool and brilliant.
In each game, you play an animatronic character. The graphics are so crude it's hard to tell who you're playing sometimes. They do their schtick. Chica(?) gives cake to yelling children. Freddy wanders the restaurant. Marionette gives gifts to children. Foxy runs out of Pirate's Cove to a crowd of children.
Each game is warped by the murders. The restaurant Freddy wanders is filled with bloodstains and slumped over bodies. While Chica serves cake, another child is standing outside crying. A car pulls up and a purple man gets out. The child cries more and more, and then turns into a skeleton. Marionette's first round is 'Give Gifts', and he puts present boxes next to slumped over children. The second round is 'Give Life', and he puts puppet heads on them. During Chica's round, an 80s speech synthesizer slowly recites the letters 'S-A-V-E-H-I-M' and in Marionette's, 'H-E-L-P-T-H-E-M.'
The most interesting game to me is Foxy's. It's the simplest of all. 'Get Ready' is at the top of the screen as he stands between curtains in the first room. Then 'Go! Go! Go!' flashes, and you follow an arrow into the next room. There are five children standing in it, and when you get close 'Hurray!' flashes and fireworks go off. You do this twice, identically. On the third run, the purple man is standing next to the curtains. When you get out into the other room, it's five skeletons. There is no Hurray.
In all games, when you get to the dead children, the mini game slows to a crawl and then stops. When it does, you get the game's 'attacked by this robot' jump scare animation.
The message is simple and evocative. The robots are simple and stupid, but they love their jobs and they love children. They witness the murders, and they're tormented by what's happening to the children they love. The phone messages actually mention that even as the animatronics get erratic and potentially dangerous towards the end of the week, children seem to be perfectly safe.
Now, let's tie that to the actual behavior of the robots in-game. Here the creator suckers you beautifully. You're not supposed to know this is a prequel. The first game primes you to think of the robots as murderous. But phone guy is surprised as the robots get aggressive towards the end of the week. His first message throws in some words that FNAF1 has sensitized you too, like 'endoskeleton', but in fact he doesn't say, deny, or even imply the animatronics are dangerous. They recognize the faces of 'predators' from a database, and the last security guard complained about the robots wandering into his office. You're primed to think they've tried to kill him. Judging from phone guy's surprise as the robots get aggressive... they were just annoying! Can you imagine New Chica standing next to you all night trying to feed you cake because you're the only human in the restaurant? A fake head to get them to go away starts sounding really attractive.
In-game, that's consistent with their behavior. Night one is very quiet. Marionette will come to you if the music box runs down. New Bonnie and New Chica wander around, and sometimes get into your office. If you're wearing the head, they stare really close at you and then wander away. Marionette is the smartest robot, and can't be fooled by a mask.
Jeremy is the murderer. The point of the face recognition software as a plot point is that they recognize him from their predator list, and if they get a close look at him during their normal behavior will attack.
On day two, the first child goes missing. The phone message refers to ugly rumors.
On night two, everything changes. The bots go berserk. Night one is only hard because you have only the vaguest idea how to avoid the robots. On night two, all robots are potentially active, but in particular, Foxy starts up on night two. Foxy and Marionette are mentioned as being smarter than the other robots, and impossible to fool with a mask. Foxy's mini game implies Foxy really, really loves children. It's a very excited game. And starting on the second night, Foxy is the most constant and aggressive animatronic in the building. He's easy to get rid of, but he comes back again and again. He knows. They all know, but Foxy gets angry first.
As the week goes on, you hear more hints about the murders, and eventually the phone messages start talking about the animatronics becoming dangerous. Each night, as more children are killed, the robots go more and more ballistic. Night six is a war, where every animatronic in the building is going all out to kill you. A game difficulty mechanic becomes part of the plot. The animatronics are breaking down with desperation to protect the children and to get vengeance on the killer.
On day seven, Foxy snaps. He breaks his programming and attacks someone in broad daylight. The famous Bite of '87. The victim lives, but is effectively dead. If you play the optional night seven, it's a different security guard. Jeremy was the murderer. Foxy took him out. He and the other robots are now irrevocably insane. They still love children, but they've learned to hate anyone wearing a security guard uniform at night. When FNAF1 happens, they're murderous.
Everything ties into this story, and watching the murders through the animatronics' eyes is painful. The gradually slowing action conveys helplessness and pain. The simplified presentation, where children turn into a skeletal corpse and the games are tightly restricted, conveys the struggle of robots to deal with events outside their very limited programming.
I was not expecting writing this good in a game as simplistic as Five Nights At Freddy's 2. I'm impressed.
