Scott McCloskey's Blog: RainHand Books (Goodreads Digest), page 7

Wrapping up the roughage of Ord

At long last, the end draws near. I'm happy to be starting work on the final chapter of TGL's sequel. Surprisingly, this road feels like it's been longer than the one that led to creation of the first book. Maybe it's the content. TGL was the start of the series, so there was a fair amount of "build up" before it was time to tackle the meat of the story. Book 2 launches right into the thick of it. As a result I was able to cover more ground, but as I look back, boy have I put the cast through a lot! I have a feeling if some of them were reading over my shoulder they would be less than pleased (which, depending on the character, could be very, very bad for me).

At any rate, there will most certainly be a completed draft soon!

A Little Ord "to go"

So, like a lot of people, I have a laptop. It's a little on the older side, but it can more than keep up by modern standards, and it pretty much suits all my computer needs. I'm not much of a fan of Windows, so I'm running Linux Mint 15 with a stripped XP installed as a guest host in seamless mode. The translation of that gibberish is that when I want to write, even if I'm using Linux, all I have to do is click on one shortcut and a windows taskbar appears at the bottom of the screen just over my Mint taskbar, allowing me to very quickly and very easily boot up MSWord for my writing.

I like it, but it's still not enough.

Those who know me probably know I have a thing about extreme portability. I prefer handheld video game systems to consoles. I carry the smallest, thinnest possible wallet and take out absolutely anything from it I don't need to have on a daily basis. My keyring consists of a house key, a car key, and a single 5-yen coin I got as change in Japan that happens to have the year of my birth on it, on a tiny lanyard. Once upon a time laptops were the key to portability, but by today's standards they're big, bulky, hot, and since they don't live for very long on a charge, you're pretty much tethered to AC power most of the time anyway.

So, I bought a Sony Vaio netbook on ebay that was being sold "for parts". 90% off of retail is a deal to me, especially when I figured out the problem it was having wasn't so bad. I won't bore you with the technical details, but the long story short is that I had it working just fine for one night, and then discovered a short circuit. By the time I had the whole device torn down to look for the problem, I found so many other little things wrong with it that I wrote it off, and will in turn be selling it for parts.

What's left? I could just suck it up and stick with my laptop, but nooooo...I just have to have something smaller and more portable. So, now I'm waiting on a lapdock 100 for my phone. All the features of the phone in the package of a netbook, with a full keyboard and a nice display. What's even better, after my exhaustive search and comparison I have finally found an android word processing app that correctly preserves all of my word paperback formatting! Docs to Go wins the prize!

So, soon enough, perhaps you'll see me at Starbucks with a venti soy chai (no water) in one hand, and typing away with the other on something that looks like a netbook with a phone sticking out of it.

Nah, you won't see that. Typing with one hand just sucks. Maybe they'll give me a straw...

Still hangin' out in Ord

Hello all,

Just wanted to come back around and breathe some more life into this blog. The Traveler of Ord Saga is not in the least bit down and out - far from it, I just have a tendency to put the blinders on when I'm deep into writing. So, remembering to blog and keep everybody in the loop sometimes falls by the wayside. Sorry about that!

At any rate, progress on the sequel to The Goldenwealth Light has been good. The rough manuscript is nearly complete, and though it will of course need edits, I have a more refined system this time than I did for book one, so I don't expect it will take that long. If TGL was the setup for the series, expect book 2 to move a bit faster and include more detail. It will definitely be longer, and for those of you out there who wanted a more concrete ending, you'll at least be getting some short-term closure. Remember that the Traveler of Ord is not a series of stand alone books. I'll give you one hint as to the content and let you know that the first paragraph of book two is the exact same as the last paragraph of book 1 -- that should give you some idea of how quickly we'll be plunging back into the action. Be on the lookout for new locales, a cast of many new supporting characters, and a lot more action as we start to see just what Theodore Ellsworth is really up against in his travels through Ord! As always, progress updates are available on the facebook page :)

At present, I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Sony Viao netbook I ordered on ebay last week. Got it at an almost literal "steal" - about 90% off of retail. The seller listed it as "broken", but from what they described, I'm pretty sure all it needs is a wipe, an OS reinstall, and some TLC. So long as the BIOS is good (fingers crossed!), I'll be sitting pretty. I'm particularly excited about the netbook because it's going to breathe some new life into writing for me. There are times now and then where I could be writing, but I just don't feel like having a hot, heavy laptop tethering me to the wall and weighing me down. How about that progress, huh? Years ago laptops were considered such beautifully portable alternatives to desktops and towers, and here I'm thinking of mine as clunky! Well, I'm an on the go sort I guess. I like computers, but I have never liked being stuck in the same chair for long periods of time. A netbook with good battery life should help with that. Can't wait to put Word 2010 on it and a stripped down XP install with "no-frills" so it'll chug along like lightning with little wear and tear. Here's hoping she comes to me with a sound body!

"The World of Ord" -- New Home!

Hello all!

While ordonline.net will of course remain active, I have noticed that I have a far easier time connecting with readers, authors, and the community in general (and they with me) through facebook. So I have spiffed up Ord's home on FB and added some fun new features, all of which are clickable tab apps from the main FB page:

-The World of Ord - A detailed reference for a myriad of aspects of the world The Traveler of Ord saga takes place in. Everything from politics to cuisine!

-Links to Ord's Pinterest Board, and Twitter feed.

-Links to my profiles on Goodreads and Linkedin.

Not to mention I'm making an effort to add lots of content and posts about the literary world in general. I've been subscribing to a lot of worthy blogs by a lot of talented and informative people, and hope to pass along some of what they have to offer. So come over and visit (and if you're so inclined, "like" before you go!)

Don't be a stranger! (At least, don't be stranger than me!)

"Triple Word Scare" - YA/horror short story

My 3,940 short story, "Triple Word Scare", was submitted to Dark Moon Digest last night for their YA special issue. I got a confirmation email, which I'm happy about. Nobody can blame publishers for not responding personally to every submission they receive because of how inundated most of them are, but it's really great when you at least get a confirmation that your submission was received, so you're not worrying about garbled email screwing things up. Even better, the message was not a form letter, and it mentioned that all submitting authors would be informed of the outcome, accepted or not. That's a class act, in my opinon. Good work guys :)

Updates and Birthday!

Time to catch up with the world!

Spent a few days out of life sick. Now that it's behind me and the warmer weather has charged up my batteries, it's time to get back to work. The short story submission to Dark Moon I mentioned last post is finished. It needs a teeny-tiny bit of edit work before it gets shipped off, but it will be ready to go before the deadline at this point. I hope for the best! If I can publish enough short stories, I intend to release an anthology once all the first-world rights to the various publishers expire.

TGL's sequel continues. The plot has taken a turn for the mysterious, and at this point in the book the reader will have some new questions to contend with -- not to mention the new settings and multitude of new characters to enjoy! I will consider the ending a success if the reader turns the last few pages and thinks -- "Oh! So THAT'S it! I see!"

More to come!

Did I mention the 9th was my birthday? I spent half of it not feeling well, but my stomach and I made friends just in time to enjoy a sushi smorgasboard, courtesy of my wonderful wife. That and a new chainsaw (which I swear is being used to fuel my lumberjack needs -- no horror here!!)

Other News in Writing

Taking a brief break from TGL's sequel to write up a short story for Dark Moon's YA horror special issue. I think getting chosen for an anthology is as much about putting an original spin on an idea as it is producing top-notch writing, and that can be tough with all the cliches that exist in the horror world these days. I hope they like it!

Who gets the most time?

There is a new poll at the Journal of Ord, at the top of the lefthand sidebar. Vote for which supporting character you hope will get more "screentime" in Book II!

If you choose "Somebody Else", please feel free to elaborate either here or at TGL's Facebook Page!

The Journal of Ord
TGL on Facebook

Hanging at the Edge of the Cliff

Hello all!

The topic at hand came to mind when I had an ironic experience recently. Several days ago I was in a conversation on Goodreads where the question of cliffhangers came up. One participant explained that they really hate cliffhangers because they hate being, per the term, left hanging and waiting for more. Closure was needed, even if it was only closure for a given scene. I remarked that cliffhangers don't really bother me that much. Sure, if I'm really into it I can be heard to say things like "Aww man! No more until next time?" But, to me it's all in good fun and I enjoy the excitement of waiting for the next installment. I've heard though, that some readers are prone to becoming honestly angry with an author who makes use of cliffhangers in certain ways.

Then, I suddenly found myself on the opposite side of the fence. Those of you who know me probably also know that I consider a well-written manga targeted at adult audiences to be just as interesting as a good novel. Typically to find juicy bits like that you need to go to fansub groups for books that will never be licensed to anybody outside of Japan, as opposed to traveling down to your local Barnes and Noble. On the plus side, there are so many great titles out there (if you know how to find them) that it's literally impossible to run out of constant brain-stimulus while waiting for the next chapter of one that's hooked you to be released. On the minus side, the groups that translate these things don't get paid for their work, and translating a manga to a readable quality takes a lot more work than one might think (editing, typesetting, cleaning, translating, et cetera...). You're also at the mercy of whatever groups choose to drop a project, unless another group chooses to pick it up again. It's nothing to complain about since if it weren't for these groups we wouldn't have any manga to enjoy at all, but still.

My point after that large digression is that when reading manga, you have to get used to cliffhangers that might never be continued in some cases, unless you plan to learn more Japanese than I did during my time over there. That, and you must be patient. One title that I have been following as closely as possible for nearly two years now is Shinigami-sama ni Saigo no Onegai wo (Last Wish to the Shinigami), by Mikoto Yamaguchi. It's an intriguing murder-mystery with high paranormal elements, shocking moments, suspense, humor...basically the gamut of emotional responses (something I appreciate in any good story). Most of all, it's extremely well thought out. In all that time the series ended at only eighteen chapters, but I was pleased when another group picked it up and saw it out to the end. Until I read the last chapter and found myself...on the other side of the fence. I won't give anything away, but suffice to say the ending raises just as many questions as the beginning did, and I received no real sense of closure. "What the heck is this?" I thought. I actually found myself becoming a little upset, and I trolled around a few forums just to be certain the 18th actually was the last chapter. To my dismay, the series did indeed end there.

It seemed to me that either the publisher had decided to axe the title and pull the rug out from under the mangaka (author), or the mangaka got lazy/gave up/etc and just left us readers to "figure it out on our own". I'm fine with a mystery story, but in my opinon, any story must have some sense of closure to be considered finished. You can conjecture all day long about whether or not Colonel Mustard was killed in the library with the candlestick, and it's a lot of fun to do that while the story is going on, but how would you feel if you never really found out whodunnit? Right, I felt the same way.

All the same, I've calmed down now and I can't say that I'm still upset about it. The mangaka insists that he dropped enough clues during the story to allow readers to determine the culprit. So, since 18 chapters isn't that long, I will most likely go back and re-read the entire thing to see what I come up with. Was the end-of-series cliffhanger a bad idea? I'm really not sure. I could cry foul, but then, I appear to not be the only one who's going to read it all again (which is rare for me), and if I'm willing to do that, I must have liked it. Also, now people have something to talk about. It's no longer "Oh, so-and-so did it, that was cool, let's move on." It's now, "Who do you think did it? Let's discuss ." I'm sure the story will garner even more readers now that people who have read it can make such comments.

Just like I'm making now. Go figure.

Well, that's my two cents. Would love to hear some opinions on cliffhangers for anybody who took the time to read this entire post! In the meantime, I think I have the list of suspects in this story narrowed down to two possible culprits. It's GOT to be one of them....

Updates from the World of Ord

Hello all!

Wanted to take a moment to keep interested readers abreast of the developments in TGL's sequel. Things have been a little on the slow side lately, as I've been using some of that oh-so-precious free time to fulfill reviewing obligations to fellow indie authors. I don't so reciprocal reviews, but I'm a memeber of several review groups on Goodreads that have excellent schemes for matching up books with potential reviewers. If you want something out of the community, giving back is a good way to get it :)

At any rate, I also wanted to bring up a friendly mention I received in Real Indies, Real Answers, an article by Simpklu, a small team of editors, proofreaders and promoters who work quietly behind the scenes with small press, minor publishing houses, independent writers and self publishing authors. Simpklu recently asked several pertinent questions of the indie author community, and included a blurb in their article including one of my responses to their questions. Thanks Simpklu!

More writing to come!