Christopher B. Wright's Blog, page 49

NaNoWriMo Update: Nine Days In

Nine days in to NaNoWriMo... how am I doing so far?

It's a mixed bag. I'm actually ahead in my word count (I dropped behind on the 6th because Election night is terribly exciting--even during non-Presidential election years I tend to find them far too distracting for me to write productively) but I set myself a number of goals for this year:

Write NaNoWriMo
Do a comic a day M-F
Publish a chapter of The Points Between a week
Do a podcast for each new chapter of The Points Between
Get Curveball Issue...

Review: Space Eldtritch

This review also appears on Goodreads.

This is a long article. If you’re not interested in long articles, the short version is that I like Space Eldritch very much, and I recommend you buy it immediately so that you too can like it very much. The long version follows.

One of the great allures of H.P. Lovecraft’s writing was that it didn’t so much cross genres as it did appropriate from them to make something uniquely his own. There was a strong element of fantasy in his work: dark fantasy, cert...

So Now I'm Considering a Pen Name

I like my name.

My full name is Christopher Brennan Wright. It's a good name. I've had it for 41 years and it works well for me. My wife likes the name. My friends like the name. All in all it's served me well.

That said, it's not a very distinctive name. There are currently no less than four people named "Chris" in my current job. We're all in two rows of cubes and whenever anyone calls out "Chris" we all stand up like prairie dogs, trying to figure out which one of us is being called. There's...

Uninvited Guests: Part Four

Aftermath

It all goes down pretty much the way CB expects, with one exception: the police arrive before the press. This is a positive development. Still, the arrival of the fire department, followed by the local police, followed by the press, followed by the EMTs, followed by CSI, followed by the FBI, followed by the Army, and then, finally, followed by the Federal Bureau of Metahuman Affairs makes the scene a mess. The police cordon off the block, forcing the press to either retreat or make h...

Uninvited Guests: Part Three

Assault

CB sits in Martin’s easy chair, smoking and waiting. All the lights in the house are off. All the curtains are drawn, the blinds are closed, and the house, for the moment, is silent.

He clenches and unclenches his right fist, forcing his arm to limber up. It wants to hurt. Now is not the time.

He sits up slightly as he hears the sound of a vehicle slow, then come to a stop a few houses down. Then he hears it again, and then a third time. CB gets up, walks to the front door, then peers th...

Uninvited Guests: Part Two

Forrest Brownstone

It’s almost 3AM when CB finally stumbles through the front door of the Forrest’s brownstone. He still aches from his encounter with Richter. The adrenaline has worn off, leaving him exhausted.

“CB?” Martin is in the living room, sitting in his easy chair, reading a newspaper. He’s still dressed.

“Jesus, Marty…” CB manages a half-rictus grin, then stumbles over to the couch, collapsing into it. “Did you wait up for me?”

Martin shrugs.

CB laughs weakly. “I’m not your kid, you know...

Uninvited Guests: Part One

Loft Apartment, Queens

The sound is quiet, even in the near total silence of the room: the faint sound of crickets chirruping on a summer night. It does not, however, go overlooked. The man throws off his covers, rolls out of bed, and lurches toward the jacket thrown over the back of an office chair. The room is dark, the curtains drawn, the only light comes from an old digital clock displaying 2:25 on a red LED. He fumbles for the inside pocket of the jacket and pulls out a smartphone. It’s n...

Issue Four: Uninvited Guests

Story: Christopher Wright
Cover: Garth Graham
Logo: Garth Graham

NANOWRIMO 2012

Yes, we are once again creeping up on that time... that time when hordes of muse-addled lunatics embark on a journey to write an entire novel in a month.1

NaNoWriMo is almost upon us.

I had sworn, sworn I wasn't going to participate this year... but I am a sick, sick man.2 So I will once again be taking up my pen3 and embarking on a personal journey of self loathing and monstrously unfair deadlines.

Oh, and I'm upping the ante.

Consider:

I will be doing NaNoWriMo. Specifically, I will be using NaN...

Terms of Service; Didn't Read Needs Your Help

Two months ago I wrote an article about a great web service called Terms of Service; Didn't Read. I just found out they're nearing the end of a fundraising drive at Indiegogo.

As of today they are six days away from the end of the drive and still need to raise 1500 Euros to meet their goal.

Now I don't make a habit of asking you guys to give me money, but I would like to ask you to consider giving them a donation and helping them meet their goal.

ToS:DR is a service that I believe the we really...