Mark Brandon Powell's Blog, page 4

The Stretch

So, I have been absent for a bit. Mostly because I have been stretching out my next work based on what my beta readers were telling me. With that, I am almost done expanding The Honeymoon, and I am close to about 40k in words right now, not sure what I'm going to end up with, but that is at least 4 times more that what I thought it was going to be originally. 

 

So far, I love it.  

 

I knew what they were going to do on the trip but I left out things, and shortened it on purpose. Now it's is what I wanted for the two, a true romantic tale for Vernon and Marie.  

 

My first book, The Zero Class, helped me introduce the world and characters. The second, The Honeymoon will help expand on the world, characters, and bring you along for a light hearted adventure of the start of their lives together.

 

I am close to finishing the editing, and once I do I will setup everything for preorders. Also if anyone wants to read it early, send me an email to MarkBrandonPowell [at] gmail dot com.   

The power curve

Many people might not have heard of this before, but it's the concept of making sure that the enemy is as much if not more of a threat than the main character (mc) is to the enemy. Let me give you a non-scifi example. John McClain (from Die Hard) is up against a tower full of terrorist, fully armed with automatic weapons. He on the other hand is armed with wit, and a pistol, to start. If it had only been three terrorist, would that have been as exciting? Maybe. 

So back to the curve, if you make a character too strong, then everything gets out of proportion, which can lead to an unrealistic fantasy. I know, unrealistic fantasy, that is what it's supposted to be right, well only if it is explained correctly. If there really isn't this gradual rise or time of learning it feels disjointed and takes you out of the fantasy, hence unrealistic. 

No matter the medium, if there is story telling there is a curve, no matter how small. Take a look at your favorite stories and see if you can pick them out.  

Dragon Age

Here is a game I am excited for.

If you like Bioware, or great stories, the videos above do both. It is really awesome to see the evolution of not only this series, but games in general. 

Suggestions please

I want to know what everyone would like here, on the website. I have excerpts, I will have some reviews, the blog here, and of course I keep everyone up to date on what I'm doing on the writing front. The question, it seems, is that what you want? Me writing about my writing video games isn't going to change but is there something you want to see or don't care to see. 

I know pleasing everyone doesn't happen, or isn't even feasible, but I still like to hear ideas. So just comment for me and I will be glad to see what I can do.

Reliability

I have come to the realization that reliability is a very large part of our world. Whether or not you see it, hear it, read it, or experience it, reliability is in every business. So with that said, I am going to start posting things on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday(this being my first Monday post). 

I'm not quite sure what all is going to be here, but it's all about writing and video games, and I will do it through the blog posts and videos. I will also be updating the website, making sure not only the moble is working, but to make sure it's as best as I can make it.  

If any of you have a suggestion, just leave it here and I will try to get back to it. I am really thankful to all of you who are here, and I wouldn't be where I am, or where I want to go without you, so thank you.  

Xbox Birthday

Birthday Time!

Today is my birthday. It has been an interesting couple of days for myself, but I'll leave the details out for that. 

I am writing this to say thank you for all the birthday wishes. Thanks to my wife, and a few of my family members for the assistance in purchasing my new Xbox One! Once it gets in I will be un-boxing it on a YouTube video and posting it. I know there are already some out there but I haven't done one, and it will be my first you toobs vidz, so yay. 

I am very thankful to have all of you in my life, keeping me going, and being there in good and bad. Here is to another year of the unknown that lies before us, and let come what may, for we will endure, we will flourish.

New book title!

The second book that I am writing right now is called Dragon's Fire. I am going to be switching it to first person and jump into Vernon's head. It is going to be a thrill to get this out, and hope I can get a finished draft by the end of the year or sooner. It is going to be about Vernon's first case as a Paladin. Also I will be growing the story from where I leave off in the Honeymoon.

Speaking of it is getting close to being finished, and editing is going well, and then it will be followed by one more round of beta reading before a release into the world.  

Next I am also looking for ways to monetize the website, so if you see there are new things that would be why. I also want to tell you I am working on keeping my voice consistent throughout all of the channels that I talk to you in. That voice will be mostly about writing and games. Those are what I love and will talk about. There may be an occasional out-liner, but I promise to stay as focused as I can. 

Since I am talking about games here too, I am really looking forward to have some game time. I don't know when, I don't know how, but I am going to try to fit it in somewhere. It is an itch I need to scratch.

Well it's over

Come and gone like all great experiences do, they only leave us with want, and memories. This E3 really had a lot of really good things come out of it. No Man's Sky, Zelda U, Evolve, and more. Dragon Age Inquisition was something that I am personally looking forward to, and was impressed by what they had to show. Only 4 more months to go there!

So what were your favorites?

Mirror's Edge