Bryce Moore's Blog, page 273

Ramping Up the Tension: Vodnik Chapter Six

We're up to the commentary for Chapter Six of Vodnik this week: the chapter where Tomas has a bbq and then almost turns into one himself. I've got two main things to say about this section. The first concerns the plot, and the second is on the food and the setting.



Plotwise, it took me a bit to find where this section was in the original draft. That's because it used to occur a full quarter of the way into the book. Here's a rundown, chapter by chapter, of the first draft up to this point (Warning--I'll be touching on some spoilers here. And some things that seem like spoilers, but ended up getting changed through the revision process, so they aren't actually spoilery):




Tomas and his best friend Peter discuss Tomas's upcoming move to Slovakia--and how less than enthused Tomas is about it.
Tomas packs for the move and confronts his parents about how unhappy he is. They ask him if he remembers anything from his childhood there.
They travel to Slovakia, and Tomas complains about the cars and the apartment. He glimpses the castle. That looks cool.
Tomas has his first water vision, and then he goes to the joust.
Katka takes Tomas on a tour of the city. He sees Death at the end of the chapter.
Tomas and Katka go and confront Lubos about Tomas's vision. Lubos doesn't believe them.
Tomas talks to his parents about how he's not having a great time. Lubos offers him a job at the castle.
Katka takes Tomas shopping and to the movies. He has his second water vision. Katka gets her first seizure.
Katka and Tomas talk about the seizures and Tomas's water visions
Tomas and Katka have the barbecue--and we find out Katka is Lubos's step daughter (there was a whole subplot in the original as Tomas and Katka had a developing relationship. Alpha readers found this too blechy--they didn't like Tomas and his cousin being a thing, even if she was a step-cousin. Also, this conflicted with later Lesana plot lines.)
Tomas meets Ohnica


So there you have it. The tour of the castle didn't even show up until later. Reading that over, I think it's pretty clear why I ended up changing things as much as I did. Too much sitting around and talking, and not enough actually doing anything. Plus, in the first draft there was too much doubt for too long--Tomas wasn't sure he was having real visions or not until Ohnica. That was lame, and didn't work as a source of tension.




For me in my early drafts, a large part of the effort goes into getting the plot and the voice down. Plot is something I've struggled with. I'll write something out on paper, and then it doesn't work in practice. Nothing's worse than having your character refuse to do something you thought they'd have no problem doing. You can't force it--that results in a lame book. So you have to change your character or your plot. By that point, I typically choose changing the plot. Find out a different way to get to B from A.




Anyway.




My second point was on the food. Mmmm . . . barbecue. Slovak grilling is a very different beast compared to American grilling. You're not doing burgers and bland hot dogs, for one thing. Awesome sausages--and have you ever barbecued a slab of bacon? Think about that for a bit. It's epically awesome. One of my best memories about my first trip to the country was grilling by the castle tower late into the evening one night. I was happy to be able to get that memory its spot in the book.

Why I Think Firefly Failed as a Show--and How that Impacts Me as an Author

Let me be clear: I love Firefly. I think it's a fantastic television show, and it's an absolute travesty that it didn't get the years of success it deserved. That said, Denisa and I finished rewatching it a few days ago, and I've been thinking about the reasons why the show didn't take off an flourish as quickly as it needed to in order to, you know--still be on the air today (or at least make it past season one).



Also note that I'm not concerned with the actual reasons here. What Fox did or didn't do, how negotiations broke down and all that jazz. Because you know what? I don't think any of that matters. In the end, a home run is a home run, a single is a single, and three strikes always means you're out.



What I mean is that if Firefly had had a stronger beginning, the show would have lasted longer than it did. I feel like it took a few too many episodes to get its groove going, and in these days when shows have to fly right off the bat, that just was too long for it to last.



Look at it for a bit. Episode one introduces the characters, but it doesn't really do a good of being a great episode of Firefly. The humor is there, but not quite up to speed yet. Jayne isn't at Full Awesome. The banter is missing some of the oomph. The romance between Mal and Inara isn't sparking. Add to that the fact that there's no really good overarching mystery or plot element to get viewers hooked, and it's no surprise that the pilot didn't hit it out of the park.



Episode 2? Train heist. Cool, but again--the puzzle pieces aren't quite fitting together. It's only once episode 3 & 4 roll around that the show starts to shine. By that time, Fox was already looking at cutting the show, because TV executives have all the attention of a cocker spaniel.



If episodes 1 & 2 were up to snuff, things might have gone a whole lot better for the series.



Of course, Joss Whedon has a history of this with television shows. I don't feel like the first season of Buffy was up to snuff, and in many of the subsequent seasons, it would take a few episodes before the season snapped together and started churning along nicely. Dollhouse was the same.



Some of this has to do with the fact that his shows don't typically fall into a single genre. Horror/Comedy/Drama. Sci-fi/Western/Comedy. They're mutts, and it takes an audience a bit to understand how the show's working, when there aren't pre-established tropes for them to fall back on. This concerns me quite a bit, because one of the reasons I really like Whedon's shows is because they're similar to my writing. I like to bend and break genres myself. I like to step outside of conventions.



Does that mean my books will have a harder time selling?



Possibly.



But I also think that pop culture is developing a way to embrace creators like Whedon. Standard television contracts are on the way out. Shows can spread like wildfire through the web and instant streaming. Fans latch on to a creator, and stick with that creator through the bumps and jostles of contract negotiation. In a few years, I think a show like Firefly would do just fine if it were to come out today. DVD and streaming sales provide a source of income beyond the standard ABC/NBC/CBS/Fox line up.



Thank goodness.



Now the question is what will happen to the book world. I can't help but think the same sort of situation will evolve, though I'm not sure what exactly it will look like when it does.



In the meantime, I just write what I like to read. That's all I really can do, anyway. Hopefully people (and editors!) end up coming along for the ride.

Bacon, Ruffles, and Milk Shakes Proven to be Miracle Cure

That's right, folks. You read it here first. Bacon has finally be proven to fix just about anything that's wrong with you. The trick, scientists say, is that you have to couple it with a precise blend of chocolate milk shakes and Ruffles potato chips.



"No one's quite sure why it has to be Ruffles," Dr. Chondriac said in an exclusive interview with the author. "We tried Lays, Pringles, Wise, Utz--they all just made us put on about fifty pounds. But when the Ruffles, milk shake, and bacon hits your stomach? BAM! It's like your body unlocks a cheat code. Pure awesome."



The study, which is going to be released next month in The New England Journal of Medicine, used the worldwide population of World of Warcraft players as their subject base. Chondriac explained that the methodology was obvious. "Most of them only eat potato chips and bacon anyway. We paid them in milk shakes, not explaining that was actually part of the test. Still, I think they might have done it just for the free bacon. I mean--who doesn't want free bacon, you know?"



Dr. Chondriac and his associates became convinced back in the early 90s that if anything was going to solve just about every ailment known to humanity, bacon would have to be a part of it. But their early studies proved fruitless. In fact, their infamous "Bacon Only Diet" resulted in a wave of lawsuits that just about brought the doctor to his knees, financially speaking. But somehow he managed to pull through that dark period. True, half the test subjects had died in the experiment, but a few of them had somehow not just remained alive--they'd prospered. Flourished. Dropped weight. Gained muscle mass. Lost their allergies. You name it.



Dr. Chondriac knew the answer was out there.



He studied those few subjects closely for years. "At first I thought it had more to do with leading a sedentary lifestyle--and eating bacon. Maybe the key was in not exercising." But applying that hypothesis on a wide scale proved fruitless. "And it makes sense. Lots of people eat bacon and sit around all day. You don't see them turning into Superman."



The breakthrough came when he discovered that the few had been sneaking junk food on the side. (Junk food other than bacon.) From there, everything just snapped into place.



Dr. Chondriac won't reveal the exact proportions of each ingredient, although he admits that the ratio is key. If you eat just an ounce too much or too little bacon--a few chips more than you should, or half a milkshake less--then the result is just your typical weight gain. You have to eat the right amounts, at the right times, in the right order. "It's kind of like the old Konami code," he said. "Up up down down--you know. There's a big difference between that and just hitting the buttons in any old order."



Sources close to the doctor claim that the secret formula has already been sold to the US government, and indeed, this reporter has found evidence that the government has suddenly been purchasing bags of Ruffles by the crateload, and military pig farms have started springing up in the most unlikely of places. Couple that with the fact that Dairy Queen has received a confidential standing order from an anonymous entity in the Washington DC area, and it's clear something is up. (In after hours trading, Dairy Queen and Ruffles stock has shot through the roof, as has bacon futures.)



Still, with so many dedicated bacon eaters out there, it's only a matter of time until the ratio is discovered. Estimates say millions of people have already been working for years, trying to discover a cure just like this. Now that it's been proven by science, those efforts can only increase. Rumor has it the Chinese government already has over 50 million people working on the problem around the clock, and the Germans aren't far behind.



Truly, we live in exciting, marvelous times.

Returning to Diablo: Life Changes and Video Games

Ah, Diablo. I spent so many hours of my life playing you back in 2000 and 2001. (And 2002. And 2003. And--you get the point). Now that the third installment is finally out, it's been a lot of fun to go back to that world and that style of game and find that so much is still there. I'm totally loving the new version, by the way. It was everything that the beta hinted at. You click things. They die. You get multicolored loot, and then you go click more things.



Denisa wonders what in the world the appeal is. She looked at the game and said, "Yup. Looks like the last one." (It's a sign of how much I played the last one that she can recognize that it looks the same this much later.) I think the game's designed much like a slot machine. Just a slot machine that takes a bit of skill to run use properly. You never know what awful baddie will blow up and give you the perfect new weapon. Or maybe it won't be a baddie at all. Maybe it'll be that barrel over there. Or that pile of bones there. It's like this virtual Easter egg hunt.



Of course, as much as the game feels the same, I've had to confront a singular fact: I am not the same person I was twelve years ago. Back then, I'd just gotten back from my mission to Germany. I wasn't married. I was living in an apartment with a bunch of other guys, and going to school. I could stay up until 3 in the morning any time I felt like it, and not have to worry about anyone's schedule buy my own.



Those days are gone.



Do I miss them? Not really. When Denisa was gone with the kids in Slovakia over the summer, I hated it. (Of course, if she'd gone when Diablo 3 had just been released, maybe I would have had a better coping mechanism.) Yes, this means I don't get to play video games until my eyes bleed. But I get to do other rewarding things like raise a family.



It's just interesting to me that in the intervening years, I somehow got older. I don't feel like a different person. Not really. But a 21 year old college student is one thing, and a 33 year old father of two is a very different thing.



I wonder where I'll be when I'm 75. Still clicking things to kill them in Diablo 7? Who knows.



In the meantime, that's enough waxing philosophical for now. There are demons to click. Or rather, first a day job to finish. Then demons to--no. Then kids to help with homework, and THEN--no. Then dinner to make and an Elder's Quorum Presidency meeting to run, and THEN . . .



Check with the wife. Make sure she doesn't need anything else.



AND THEN.



Those demons are going down. :-)

Online Storage and Backup Solution: CrashPlan

NOTE: This post is also mirrored over at my library blog. Just wanted to remind you all that it's there. And awesome. Because that's what libraries are.



So about a week ago, I got the urge to start taking backup more
seriously. Not because I had a close call with losing all of my
information. (That's a good reason to start backing up, but it's not
really a great reason. I'd rather not get that close, thank you very
much.) I already use Dropbox for my personal files, and I added all of
my wife's files to it, too. That's very convenient, and I like it--as I've mentioned before. I have 3GB or so of space over there, and that's more than enough for my text files.



But
I have more than just text files. I have a whole lot of music I've
ripped from my CD collection. I have a slew of digital pictures. And I
have a growing collection of digital video (quite large, since I
transferred all of my mom's home movies of my childhood to digital
format a year or so ago).



How large?



450GB worth.



That's
a lot of gigabytes, for those of you who don't know. I've backed it all
up locally to a 2TB external hard drive, but with the advent of the
cloud, I had to wonder if there was a better way of going about storing
it all. I love how with Dropbox, I can access all of my information from
anywhere, at any time. I can get it on my iPad. On a friend's computer.
Anywhere.



But storing over 400GB of storage with
Dropbox is going to set a guy back $795 per year. I like my data--but
that's just too much. SugarSync would cost $400. Google Drive would be
$240.



I back up my music to iCloud and iTunes match. That costs me $25 a year, and I'm very happy with it.



For
a while, I was thinking I'd have to just go with backing up my photos
only, and letting my video just sort of wait for now. Not a perfect
solution, however. I'm using my iPad more and more as a video recorder,
and HD video takes up a lot of space. I wanted a way to transfer stuff
off my iPad and into the cloud. Wasn't going to happen, it seemed.



50GB
would be a more manageable $25 per year through Microsoft's SkyDrive.
Then again, I also considered piecing together all the free offerings
out there--you can get about 25GB without too much trouble, though then
your data's spread out all over the place. Again, far from a perfect
solution.



Then a friend pointed me toward the online backup service CrashPlan.
Through their CrashPlan+ offering, I could store an unlimited amount of
data in the cloud, for $50/year. Unlimited. Including video. I could
access it from any computer, as well as from my iPad and other iDevices.



Unlimited.



$50.



Sold.



I've
been using it for around a week now, and I'm happy with it so far. It's
more limited than services like Dropbox, in that it backs up one
computer (and connected drives), no more. So there's no free wheeling
storage option, where you add a file from a different computer via the
cloud. But you can always email that file to your main computer, and
then add it that way. So upload from only one place, but download from
anywhere. That works for me.



Honestly, the biggest hurdle is the fact that 426.9GB of data is
an awful lot of data. I've been uploading almost constantly since I
signed up, and I'm at 150.4GB done so far. That's at a speed of around
2mbps. I was going faster for a while, but my network seems to have
bogged down some since. If you don't have a fast connection speed, then
uploading to the cloud isn't a super idea. (Though CrashPlan does have
an option where they send you a drive and you backup directly to it, and
then send it back. It's fairly costly, though--something like $200,
although that's just a one time fee.)



Anyway--that's what I have for you today. Anyone out there have questions, or use a different service they prefer? Speak up![image error]

Trencin Castle: Vodnik Commentaries--Chapter Five

[image error] So here we are at last (as far the ongoing chapter commentaries for Vodnik go)--the introduction of Trencin Castle. I approached the castle almost as a character in and of itself in the book. It has its own subplot, it's very much in danger, and it's has a big impact on the story line.



As I've mentioned in past commentaries, I went through the same tour Tomas goes through in this chapter. One of my favorite memories of my first trip to Slovakia was going around the castle with my brother in law, with him pointing out all the stupid things Communists and architects had done to his castle over the years. I'm the sort of guy who goes straight for the castle in whatever European city I end up in. Castles get explored first. Ruins are just as acceptable.



One of the things that has disappointed me over the years is the fact that some castles are just, well . . . phony. I'm looking at you, Neuschwanstein. Absolute poser of a castle. It was built to look like a fairy tale castle, not to actually be a castle. That might cut the mustard in Disneyland, but when you're in Europe, you need a whole lot more than that.



Trencin Castle represents almost everything I love about authentic castles. It's utilitarian. You can tell that it was built to be used, not to be pretty. This is no chateau. It's old, with a ton of history stretching back over the years. It has a bunch of interesting stories connected to it. It has a large park out back (which Tomas never really explores in Vodnik). And it sits high up in the middle of the town like some kind of watch-dragon.



Of course, a large part of my great impression was due to my tour guide: Milos "Lasky" Krizan. My brother in law is pretty much the best resource an author could ask for when it comes to Slovak history, folklore, and anything medieval-related. Not only does he take part in jousts and gladiator combat, he's a blacksmith (here's his FB page for arrowheads he makes) and the night watchman at the castle. He's also much more extroverted than I am. On one trip to Slovakia, we went on tours of a ton of castles and palaces around western Slovakia. Milos came with us, and he pretty  much got us in anywhere we wanted to go. Everybody knew him or knew of him. I don't know if we paid a single admission on that trip. Everybody just waved us through when they saw him.



Any time I had questions about a matter of folklore or history, I'd get on the phone to Milos and work things through. His English is about as good as my Slovak, but between the two of us, we manage to be pretty well understood--though every now and then we'd have to resort to using my wife as a translator.



What can you expect if you go to visit the castle? Well, no tours in English, for one thing. (At least not last I checked.) They have an information sheet in English that you can take around with  you, but all the tours are in Slovak only. (This might be a bit different in the summer. I'm not sure.) And the only way to see the tower and the palaces are by tour guide. Still--you don't need the guide in English now, right? You've read all about it in Vodnik. :-)
















Note the Communist star on top of the castle in this picture.




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Milos is the one in the middle surrounded by the harem. Typical.




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A closer up shot.




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And . . . him dressed up like a vodnik. Because hey--why not?



















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Vodnik T-Shirts are Officially Here

I'm happy to announce that my Vodnik t-shirts are here, and that they turned out awesome. The glow in the dark is really nice and crisp, the images are clear and well done, and the shirt itself is high quality. The one bad thing? They ended up costing more than I thought they would, due to inadvertently ordering a higher quality shirt than I thought I was, and only getting 24 of this first run. (I have 3 smalls left, 2 mediums, 8 larges, and 8 extra-larges. I hope to be able to order a wider variety of sizes if I sell out of these--if you'd like a particular size that I don't have right now, let me know, and I'll reserve one for you out of the next batch if/when I order them. My son, for example, wants an extra-small.)



I've debated quite a bit how to sell these, and I think I've come up with an approach that's as fair as I can afford to be. I'm mainly doing the t-shirts as a way to promote the book--and to give fans a way to support the book and be fashionably awesome at the same time, both during the day and at night. (GLOW IN THE DARK!) The shirts cost me about $13.00 each, total. I'm going to sell them for an introductory price of $20 each, with shipping and handling costing $5 in addition to that ($25 total). I'll have them at signings for $20 (no shipping and handling, obviously).



HOWEVER.



I'm willing to lop off money for fans. That's right. If you'd like to get the shirts for cheaper, there are two things you can do.



I'll take 4 dollars off if you recommend the book publicly online--however is best for you. This could be on Facebook or Twitter. It could be by emailing a bunch of your friends. You could recommend it via Goodread's "recommend this book" function. You could blog about it. However you choose. Heck--do all of the above. If you've already recommended it, all I ask is that you recommend it once more. A book like mine coming out from a smaller press needs all the help it can get to gain some traction.



I will take off another 3 dollars if you've written a review for it on Amazon, Goodreads, or Barnes and Noble. No need to review it again. :-) And it doesn't have to be a good review. Any honest review will do. I'm not trying to bribe people to write good reviews of the book. More exposure is the goal.



So if you do both, then I'm basically selling the shirt to you at cost. You can also do either/or. Or just pay for the whole thing with no discounts. Shipping will still apply if I have to mail it to you, of course. However, I'll be out in Utah at the end of this month, and I should have the shirts with me. To get the discount, all you have to do is let me know what you've done when you order the shirt (whether in person or online).



To order, just let me know. Twitter works. Facebook. A comment here. An email. A phone call. Tell me in person. Whatever. We'll see how this experiment goes.





















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Refinancing. Again. And Thoughts on Ninja Researching

[image error] Today was supposed to be a morning spent going to DC's preschool graduation. And it was. Her class sang for the group, we had punch and cookies. A fun time had by all. But I also came across a tidbit of information: interest rates had dropped to a new low for house loans again. And so I started looking into things, and next thing you know, I'm applying for a refinance. It's lowering my rate from 5.25 to 3.875, which used to mean absolutely nothing to me, but now means a whole lot--in terms of actual money I'll be saving each month on my loan. When you pay interest on something for 30 years, every little quarter of a percent matters.



One of the things I like most about my job is how it forces me to stay current on how to research information quickly and effectively. When you're sitting at a research desk, you have no idea if the person who's coming up to ask you a question is just going to want to know where the bathroom is (often the case) or if they're going to have a deep question about laws in Maine in the 1850s. Or maybe the genetics of moose. Who knows? And maybe they ask you an easy one--anything on literature or linguistics, in my case--but maybe you're suddenly helping them research medical studies. You just never know.



But the thing is, you don't need to know everything. You just need to know the basics of how to search. When you have those down, you can find out anything these days--very quickly. That's how I taught myself the basics of TV antennas. It's how I analyzed what kind of car would be best for me, and what a fair price to pay for it would be. It's how I helped my son decide which Beyblade was "the best". It's how I researched what backup/cloud storage solution would be best for me. And it's how I taught myself all about mortgage rates, refinancing costs, and the like.



Some of it is Google. (Although even Google can be tricky to use right--something I'm reminded each time I help someone find something on Google that they just. couldn't. find.) Some of it is knowing who to call or email (my brother in this case, and a realtor friend). Knowing the answer is "out there" and knowing where that is in each specific case is a huge difference.



If you have access to the internet, you can find just about any information you need. Whenever you want. The trick is sifting through all the garbage to find the right information. Reliably. That's what librarians are great at. And now I'll stop bragging about my profession. Sorry.



In case you were wondering, if you can drop your interest rate by about a percent or more--and you're planning on staying in your house for another couple years at least--then it's often a great idea to refinance. Especially if you're like me and have a ton of time left on your loan anyway. Rates are low right now. If yours is 4.75 or higher, you should look into it, at least a little.



And now, back to the rest of my day.[image error]

Family Pics--and a Baptism Boy

Last Sunday we had a big event--TRC got baptized. (For those of you who don't know, Mormons don't get baptized until 8 years old at the earliest. Doctrinally, we believe children younger than 8 are innocent and incapable of sinning. (Long story short)) He's been really excited for this for quite some time, and it was nice to see how seriously he took it all.



I look at him and see a lot of myself there. He's a real perfectionist with things that are important to him, but kind of loosey goosey with things that aren't. (Get him going about the pro's and con's of various types of Beyblades, and he can talk all day. But try getting him to practice the piano some days. I'm the same way. When  I get into something, I forget anything else exists. If I'm not into it, it can be a struggle to stay focused on it. I think this runs in my family genes. Particularly in the men.)



Anyway, we had a really good turnout for the baptism--somewhere in the range of a 100 people or so, I'd guess. (Another of TRC's friends was baptized the same day, which helped make the crowd bigger.) I performed the baptism myself. Very proud of my boy and the way he chooses to live his life. He's a very good kid.



In other news, we went exploring some over the weekend. Off to Popham Beach and Fort Popham. (Did you know they had Civil War forts up in Maine? Well they did.) Much fun was had by all--we had family in town for the weekend. Here's a smattering of pictures for you. And now, I must get back to work.


















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iPad 3 Review

Okay. I've had my new iPad for a while now, and I feel like I can finally review it. I know you've all been waiting breathlessly for this. My opinion could totally make or break Apple.



In a nutshell, the new iPad is a fantastic piece of hardware. The screen is just as amazing as you've heard. (Going back to use my iPad 2 makes me feel like I'm looking through a screen door at the screen. Seriously.) The camera is tons better--especially in lower light. The videos look great. The battery life hasn't dipped, and it zips along just fine through anything you throw at it. I'm really happy with mine.



Should you upgrade?



If you have an original iPad, and don't mind shelling out another couple hundred then I'd say yes. You should. Original iPads still go for about $200-$250 (when I last checked). If you sell yours, then that makes the upgrade less steep. I know there were some apps on my iPad 1 that were much slower than on the other iPads. That will only continue to increase. Not a big deal if you don't use those apps, but if you're an app fiend like myself, then it becomes more problematic.



That said, if you're primarily using your iPad to check email and the internet and play a few games, then you don't need to upgrade. If you would like to use it to take some pictures and video, then obviously an upgrade begins to look more appealing.



If you have an iPad 2, there's less incentive. You can already take okay pics and video. The awesome screen is awesome, the zippy speed is great, but worth hundreds of dollars? Probably not, unless you're an Apple fanboy (self-confessed--right here). That said, having such a significantly better screen really is helpful. It impacts everything you do on the device. Reading (for me) is much easier on the eyes, and that's a big plus.



If you don't have an iPad at all, then you really ought to buy one. :-) I've said it before and I'll say it again--I use this thing for everything. It goes with me everywhere. I've started using it instead of my old video camera. I'm taking more and more pictures with it. (Now the problem I'm facing is how to figure out a way to back up all that video when I don't have cassettes or discs that it's stored on. Still thinking about that one.)



I know plenty of people who didn't buy an iPad at first, claiming they didn't see the point. Many of them have since caved, and none of them have said to me, "I wish I hadn't bought one." It's something that once you have, you find out how many ways you could really have used it all along.



Anyway--if anyone has any questions, I'm happy to answer them. That's all I've got for you today.