Rick Cook Jr.'s Blog

The Wings Take Shape – Part Nineteen – Finale

And here it is, the final part of The Wings Take Shape!

If you’re new to the story, head to Part One and start from the beginning!

Last time on Wings, Sadie led the imprisoned Wings headed by Claire Claymonte to the city gates in order to escape. A presence Sadie had sensed took control of her body and she forced the others to flee without her, but not before gifting Claire and Jeffrey with the Totem spirits of Ursatrundle and Shadow-Dancer.

Meanwhile, Renee Mollen and her Totem-Bonded fled t...

The Wings Take Shape – Part Eighteen

After a brief week’s hiatus, Part Eighteen is here!

If you’re new to the story, head to Part One and start from the beginning!

Last timeon Wings, Captain Renee Mollen and her Winged Riders assaulted the city of Rothfort, held by a foreign enemy. Their goal: free the city if possible. It became abundantly clear that they could not martial the strength to overthrow an entire army of foreign soldiers, so they regrouped and settled on freeing who they could and fleeing to regroup, starting with R...

Widen Your Comfort Zone

There’s a special feeling when you’ve got a niche and you fill it so nicely. Everything’s in its place, because you know this place and it’s your place and you dictate where all the things go.

You’re in your comfort zone. Your little personal bubble. You’re hidden away safe and sound where you know all the dark corners and all the damp spaces and juuuust where to lay down on that mattress.

But sometimes you have to leave that comfort zone. And it causes you anxiety. You start to fidget nervou...

The Wings Take Shape – Part Seventeen

Part Seventeencoming at you!

If you’re new to the story, head to Part One and start from the beginning!

Last week on Wings, the preparation had begun for the assault on the besieged capital of their homeland. Rothfort was a fortress, but they had a dragon.

Renee and the rest of her Wings that had bonded with the animal spirits, the Totems, changed into their animal forms after agreeing to a hasty plan to free their families and any soldiers within the capital to fight back. It was a desperate...

Breaking the Author – Week Twenty One

It’s Monday, May 30th. Which means this post is a day late, but whatever, let’s get to it!

I’ll be brief this week because I’ve got a lot of stuff to do before going back to work tomorrow. A fair amount of my time has been taken up with homestuff as I’m preparing to take over my two-bedroom apartment in full instead of sharing it with a roommate. So shopping and planning and all the chores that go with keeping up the place now fall directly on my shoulders.

Which is to say that it’s my excuse...

Media Medley – May 2016

Holy cow, it’s closing in on the end of May already? Let’s talk about stuff I’ve been watching, reading, and playing!

Movie

I watched two movies this month, Special Correspondents which was kind of a stinker, and Captain America: Civil War, which was not, so Civil War takes the prize!

Things I loved about Civil War: Captain America gets actual character development. Black Panther. Spider-Man. Ant-Man’s twist on powers. Falcon and Winter Soldier hating on each other. There were issues with t...

The Wings Take Shape – Part Sixteen

Part Sixteen, and the beginning of the final act of The Wings Take Shape!

If you’re new to the story, head to Part One and start from the beginning!

Last time on Wings, Captain Renee Mollen, having survived betrayal at the hands of her new recruits by melding with the Totem spirit Swiftstrike (along with Marie), worked to convince her Winged Riders to take on other Totem spirits that Sadie had gathered to her.

After much discussion, she succeeded in granting all but three of the Totems to her...

Breaking the Author – Week Twenty

It’s May 22nd,2016. Let’s talk about goals and things!

My goals for Second Quarter of 2016 (April-June) are as follows:

Finish Shapes 1 Editing and Self-Publish It Finish Writing Game Year 1 Editing and Release It For Free Finish Writing Game Year 2 Finish Shapes 2 Writing Plot Shapes 3 for Third Quarter Posting Write Four Short Stories Submit Three Short Stories Finish Gridfall Editing and Begin Submitting to Agents Maintain the blog

Here’s the brief accomplishments toward these goals:

S...

Delivering On Your Premise

We’ve all been there. An idea pops into your head and it’s so ludicrous, so fun, that you just have to start writing it down. Erudite and lusty space dinosaurs? Go for it! A world in whichyou can taste colors, giving completely blind people a way to describe the spectrum? Why the hell not!

Then you get excited about it, and because you’re not a soulless automaton, you talk to people about the thing you’re excited about, which in turn excites them. You have just built anticipation for the idea...

The Wings Take Shape – Part Fifteen

A late posting of the next part of the serial novella, The Wings Take Shape!

If you’re new to the story, head to Part One and start from the beginning!

Last time onWings, Stalker and Jon were busy with Sadie gaining a new, deeper bond. While she waited, Renee let herself be pulled into a trap by Danver and Hilde, who told her they were recruiting for her new army. When she arrived, Hilde stabbed her in the back and Renee thought she was going to die.

Except the spirit of the Wolf Totem, Swift...