Jason A. Cheek's Blog, page 14
August 15, 2015
Heading to the south of france for vacation, but first I had to deal with a natural disaster
I keep on trying to get back into the practice of updating my blog on a regular basis, but every time I turn around something major is happening.
Just before I started my vacation, I found out that Teksyndicate is doing a European Tour. I was getting ready to grill when a friend of mine, Angela, posted on Facebook that Vincent Zain (aka: Ian) was going to be in Germany with his good friend Ward Hale (aka: Logan) and she’d wondered if he’d made plans on visiting me while they were driving through the country on tour. Unfortunately with all of the crazy plans and meeting up with fans from Ward’s website https://teksyndicate.com/, he completely forgot about letting me know when they were going to be in country, so we didn’t get a chance to meet up in Frankfurt when they were on their way to Munich. There was no way I was driving down to Munich Sunday afternoon on a school night … I mean work night. That would have been an eight to ten hour round trip drive for me “IF” there was no traffic and that doesn’t even take into the account hanging out. I would definitely need more time for hanging out with those two since they are still hardcore gamers and metal heads looking to have fun and see the nightlife in Germany. Still, it was a big disappointment.
One of the things that I hate about living in Germany is that I don’t usually get any time to meet up with my old gaming friends. Usually when I head back to Florida I make sure to take some time to visit people one-on-one here and there, but unfortunately there’s no massive LAN party to hang out and BBQ at like old times. Don’t get me wrong, now-a-days I suck ass at playing, but for me it’s no longer about winning. I mean, of course I always want to win and try to win, but it’s not about gaming or winning, but just seeing those good friends I miss. Now for my friends, it might be more about beating my ass, since I was so hardcore to beat in-game when I was into playing.
Vacation started Thursday when I left work. Even though I had a lot to do, such as picking up my daughter and my wife’s nephew from the airport (a four hour trip), I surprisingly had a chance to get a lot of writing in. The plan was to take a week to relax and pack for our trip and then head to the south of France, but then Monday morning at 2 AM (02:00 for you Europeans) a river of muck decided to take a trip through the bottom portion of our house. Now Tuesday morning (around 00:30) I’ve finally had a chance to get dry and sit down before collapsing.
Coming from Florida, I have a long history with flooding and being declared a disaster zone. My home city of Rosdorf here in Germany would be close to hitting that “disaster zone” level. What I find really odd in comparison between Florida and Germany with flooding is that usually in Florida you get a warning when shit’s about to get bad. In Germany you find out when the shit just hits out of the middle of nowhere. While a lot of rain, a large hill and a farmer’s field might not sound as exciting as a hurricane, surprisingly enough I have learned to have some respect for this combo. It’s amazing how much water can start traveling downhill at once to create a flash flood. My wife sent me up to our backyard (we have a two level house since we live on a hill) and the amount of water I saw waiting to pour into our house made me realize there wasn’t jack I could do to stop it, so instead I came up with a great plan. Open up the back window it was pouring into and the front door. Sounds strange, but there really wasn’t any other choice. The water and mud poured through the house and then things got better. Better is relative. Better meant lots of water damage and a carpet of mud two inches deep, but better than the river that was passing through a moment earlier. Once things calmed down we were able to clean things up. The whole lower level of our house is thrashed and our landlords are going to have some major repairs to do, but it’s clean. Oh, we also found out that the flood insurance we have doesn’t count for natural flooding, only man made flooding. My wife had specifically requested to have full coverage, but the jack who wrote up the policy didn’t add in natural flooding and we missed that point.
Luckily it’s just stuff. The important things, such as our lives and health are good. The other stuff, although upsetting, is just stuff. I’ve lost everything I’ve owned before, this isn’t the first time … more like the fourth … but there is only so much you can do. We are still going to go on vacation. We’d lose too much not going and well staying won’t make things better.
Story wise tying up this last fight scene is time consuming. I’m not even bothering to worry about word counts or anything like that. I just want the scene written correctly. When of my plans with the Last Paladin Series is to have the story progress somewhat like an MMO’s major dungeon crawl. Each book needs to have a major boss to defeat or deal with that opens up the next book to the series. The “boss experiences” have to be unique and over the top, so I’m trying to come up with a scene that was as cool as the ending climatic fight scene in Flight. At first I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to do this adequately, but now that I’m almost completely through the scene I have to say I think I hit it. It’s really sounding good.
Okay, I think that is enough for an update. I need to go collapse in bed.
I'm adding a link for those of you who are interested in seeing the flooding. The video is in German, but the pictures of the flooding is all the explanation you need. http://www.wetteronline.de/wetter-videos
Just before I started my vacation, I found out that Teksyndicate is doing a European Tour. I was getting ready to grill when a friend of mine, Angela, posted on Facebook that Vincent Zain (aka: Ian) was going to be in Germany with his good friend Ward Hale (aka: Logan) and she’d wondered if he’d made plans on visiting me while they were driving through the country on tour. Unfortunately with all of the crazy plans and meeting up with fans from Ward’s website https://teksyndicate.com/, he completely forgot about letting me know when they were going to be in country, so we didn’t get a chance to meet up in Frankfurt when they were on their way to Munich. There was no way I was driving down to Munich Sunday afternoon on a school night … I mean work night. That would have been an eight to ten hour round trip drive for me “IF” there was no traffic and that doesn’t even take into the account hanging out. I would definitely need more time for hanging out with those two since they are still hardcore gamers and metal heads looking to have fun and see the nightlife in Germany. Still, it was a big disappointment.
One of the things that I hate about living in Germany is that I don’t usually get any time to meet up with my old gaming friends. Usually when I head back to Florida I make sure to take some time to visit people one-on-one here and there, but unfortunately there’s no massive LAN party to hang out and BBQ at like old times. Don’t get me wrong, now-a-days I suck ass at playing, but for me it’s no longer about winning. I mean, of course I always want to win and try to win, but it’s not about gaming or winning, but just seeing those good friends I miss. Now for my friends, it might be more about beating my ass, since I was so hardcore to beat in-game when I was into playing.
Vacation started Thursday when I left work. Even though I had a lot to do, such as picking up my daughter and my wife’s nephew from the airport (a four hour trip), I surprisingly had a chance to get a lot of writing in. The plan was to take a week to relax and pack for our trip and then head to the south of France, but then Monday morning at 2 AM (02:00 for you Europeans) a river of muck decided to take a trip through the bottom portion of our house. Now Tuesday morning (around 00:30) I’ve finally had a chance to get dry and sit down before collapsing.
Coming from Florida, I have a long history with flooding and being declared a disaster zone. My home city of Rosdorf here in Germany would be close to hitting that “disaster zone” level. What I find really odd in comparison between Florida and Germany with flooding is that usually in Florida you get a warning when shit’s about to get bad. In Germany you find out when the shit just hits out of the middle of nowhere. While a lot of rain, a large hill and a farmer’s field might not sound as exciting as a hurricane, surprisingly enough I have learned to have some respect for this combo. It’s amazing how much water can start traveling downhill at once to create a flash flood. My wife sent me up to our backyard (we have a two level house since we live on a hill) and the amount of water I saw waiting to pour into our house made me realize there wasn’t jack I could do to stop it, so instead I came up with a great plan. Open up the back window it was pouring into and the front door. Sounds strange, but there really wasn’t any other choice. The water and mud poured through the house and then things got better. Better is relative. Better meant lots of water damage and a carpet of mud two inches deep, but better than the river that was passing through a moment earlier. Once things calmed down we were able to clean things up. The whole lower level of our house is thrashed and our landlords are going to have some major repairs to do, but it’s clean. Oh, we also found out that the flood insurance we have doesn’t count for natural flooding, only man made flooding. My wife had specifically requested to have full coverage, but the jack who wrote up the policy didn’t add in natural flooding and we missed that point.
Luckily it’s just stuff. The important things, such as our lives and health are good. The other stuff, although upsetting, is just stuff. I’ve lost everything I’ve owned before, this isn’t the first time … more like the fourth … but there is only so much you can do. We are still going to go on vacation. We’d lose too much not going and well staying won’t make things better.
Story wise tying up this last fight scene is time consuming. I’m not even bothering to worry about word counts or anything like that. I just want the scene written correctly. When of my plans with the Last Paladin Series is to have the story progress somewhat like an MMO’s major dungeon crawl. Each book needs to have a major boss to defeat or deal with that opens up the next book to the series. The “boss experiences” have to be unique and over the top, so I’m trying to come up with a scene that was as cool as the ending climatic fight scene in Flight. At first I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to do this adequately, but now that I’m almost completely through the scene I have to say I think I hit it. It’s really sounding good.
Okay, I think that is enough for an update. I need to go collapse in bed.
I'm adding a link for those of you who are interested in seeing the flooding. The video is in German, but the pictures of the flooding is all the explanation you need. http://www.wetteronline.de/wetter-videos
August 7, 2015
The european ukkodians and a nearly perfect weekend in germany to enjoy the sun
I’ve noticed that most of the urban writers that I tend to read usually bring their home stomping grounds into their stories. I believe this is an excellent way to bring a touch of reality and grounding to your novels as you twist the world around you to fit your vision. I figured if Patricia Briggs can make the Tri-Cities areas of Washington exciting and interesting, then I should have no problem bringing my old stomping grounds in Florida to life for my first book, Flight. I mean come on its Florida. There are so many different things to choose from. I was able to reference the Coral Castle and Trapper Nelson’s, both of which are super cool locations. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve canoed down the Loxahatchee River on my way to Trapper Nelson’s to hang out for a day in the wilds of Florida. The whole area is just cool and great for the imagination. Not to mention, it was just cool to create an action packed story like Flight in my hometown.
For Destiny’s story, I wanted to do something similar, hence the whole European / NATO feel of my story. Being stationed in overseas and frequenting places like Ramstein Airbase just made me want to be able to create a story around these cool places in my daily life, so in book two I’ve tried to do my best to bring in the cultural stuff from living and working in Europe into the story. Agents Beth Kurwoski and Ryan Moss end up flying into Ramstein Airbase in a C-17 Globemaster III before flying out of Naples, Italy in a V-22 Marine Osprey. Klaus Krüger, a German Ukkodian who is essential in helping Beth and Ryan in get several groups of Ukkodians together, is a fun character taken directly from a nice German I used to work with at the Army Corps of Engineers. His first name is Klaus. Klaus in many ways is built from this interesting man, which helps to breathe life into this character. Klaus (when you say that you have to use a hard “K” sounds that drags out like Kkkloous) happens to get three young Polish men to join him for the adventure. Again, due to my wife’s heritage and our yearly visits to her family in Poland, I felt like I was able to see these characters easily. The three men are named Janusz Lipowski, Ivan Bartkowski and Kai Yurek, which all are based on people I’ve met. Both the Germans and Poles have an interesting history when it comes to swords. An example is Klaus’s five foot long Zweihänder sword.
For the Italians I went for more of a Matrix theme. One of the interesting things I discovered in some of my research is that many Italian martial arts work with different ages from Italy’s past. The two Italians are named Marco Bruno and Fabio Lombard. Marco is more of a Roman Style fighter, while Fabio is a swordsman/fencer. Whenever I think of Italians I think of fine leather and stylish clothing. To get the right feel I watched scenes from the Matrix series to get the feel of what I was looking for. I think they turned out pretty awesome.
Lastly, I decided to go with Greeks for my last group of Ukkodians. I wanted to do something like a Spartan style fighting warrior, but after researching their culture I didn’t feel like that would be the right thing to do. Although Greeks love their Spartan past, modern day Greeks love the freedom fighters that freed their country from the Byzantine Empire. This is huge to the Greeks. Even in today’s day and age you’ll see Greek men dressed on Sunday in this honored uniform and their Honor Guards dressed in the typical battle dress from that time period. Even cooler is the fact that these Maniots freedom fighters were basically Dorians, the decedents of the Spartans, and have been the backbone of country, fighting off invader after invader while the rest of the country fell around them. Truly an awesome history and something that will be a lot of fun for my story, the only problem is that I hate the traditional outfits the Greek fighters wear. Here is a link for those who don’t know about the Evzones uniforms: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evzones
Sigh … I’m sure white tights, silk skirts, garter belts and pomp-pomp shoes were cool in the early 1800’s, but I have to say I’m not a fan of the outfits. None the less, the Greeks are such a cool people that I just have to go with them as they are. Helpful since the story is actually occurring on a Greek island. I do try to have fun with the story with this in a respectful way. Picture how modern day Marines and Special Ops units from anywhere else in the world would react to such a uniform. While many would ridicule the Greek uniforms, surprisingly enough many Special Ops operators worth their salt know just how deadly these Greek fighters really are. Anyway, in the story two of the main Ukkodian Greeks are Colonel Thanos Karaiskakis and Sergeant Stelios Anagnostakos who have a squad of six additional Greek warriors.
This doesn’t mean the story is going to be only about foreign fighters. The primary force that I’m pulling into the story is the U.S. Sixth Fleet and Task Force 60, which has a U.S. Marine Expeditionary Unit assigned for ground and air assaults. Still the Ukkodians play major roles in the story and will be a huge part of book three and four.
On a more personal note, one of the things I constantly am dealing with is the differences between my home state of Florida and living in Germany. Surprisingly enough, the thing that stands out to me the most is the differences in the weather. I won’t even mention the whole “not having any descent beaches” nearby to go to. Going surfing on the weekends with my two Labradors or just simply taking a walk after work during the week and looking for sea-glass was two of my favorite pastimes that I simply have learned to live without. The weather on the other hand, is another matter altogether.
Right now the temperature is ranging from the low forties to the hundreds, mostly ending up towards the high nineties to one hundred ranges. Although this sounds severe, especially when most offices and houses do not have air conditioning, this typically only lasts for a month to a month and a half, before it once again turns cold and rainy. Although cold and rainy is perfect for writing, it’s lacking in the whole “sunshine” department, which is why I feel guilty complaining about the hot weather. Still it’s freaking hot! I guess I’ll have to pop open a cold strawberry beer to deal with the heat. Luckily the beer here is some of the best in the world, at least to my limited palette.
For Destiny’s story, I wanted to do something similar, hence the whole European / NATO feel of my story. Being stationed in overseas and frequenting places like Ramstein Airbase just made me want to be able to create a story around these cool places in my daily life, so in book two I’ve tried to do my best to bring in the cultural stuff from living and working in Europe into the story. Agents Beth Kurwoski and Ryan Moss end up flying into Ramstein Airbase in a C-17 Globemaster III before flying out of Naples, Italy in a V-22 Marine Osprey. Klaus Krüger, a German Ukkodian who is essential in helping Beth and Ryan in get several groups of Ukkodians together, is a fun character taken directly from a nice German I used to work with at the Army Corps of Engineers. His first name is Klaus. Klaus in many ways is built from this interesting man, which helps to breathe life into this character. Klaus (when you say that you have to use a hard “K” sounds that drags out like Kkkloous) happens to get three young Polish men to join him for the adventure. Again, due to my wife’s heritage and our yearly visits to her family in Poland, I felt like I was able to see these characters easily. The three men are named Janusz Lipowski, Ivan Bartkowski and Kai Yurek, which all are based on people I’ve met. Both the Germans and Poles have an interesting history when it comes to swords. An example is Klaus’s five foot long Zweihänder sword.
For the Italians I went for more of a Matrix theme. One of the interesting things I discovered in some of my research is that many Italian martial arts work with different ages from Italy’s past. The two Italians are named Marco Bruno and Fabio Lombard. Marco is more of a Roman Style fighter, while Fabio is a swordsman/fencer. Whenever I think of Italians I think of fine leather and stylish clothing. To get the right feel I watched scenes from the Matrix series to get the feel of what I was looking for. I think they turned out pretty awesome.
Lastly, I decided to go with Greeks for my last group of Ukkodians. I wanted to do something like a Spartan style fighting warrior, but after researching their culture I didn’t feel like that would be the right thing to do. Although Greeks love their Spartan past, modern day Greeks love the freedom fighters that freed their country from the Byzantine Empire. This is huge to the Greeks. Even in today’s day and age you’ll see Greek men dressed on Sunday in this honored uniform and their Honor Guards dressed in the typical battle dress from that time period. Even cooler is the fact that these Maniots freedom fighters were basically Dorians, the decedents of the Spartans, and have been the backbone of country, fighting off invader after invader while the rest of the country fell around them. Truly an awesome history and something that will be a lot of fun for my story, the only problem is that I hate the traditional outfits the Greek fighters wear. Here is a link for those who don’t know about the Evzones uniforms: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evzones
Sigh … I’m sure white tights, silk skirts, garter belts and pomp-pomp shoes were cool in the early 1800’s, but I have to say I’m not a fan of the outfits. None the less, the Greeks are such a cool people that I just have to go with them as they are. Helpful since the story is actually occurring on a Greek island. I do try to have fun with the story with this in a respectful way. Picture how modern day Marines and Special Ops units from anywhere else in the world would react to such a uniform. While many would ridicule the Greek uniforms, surprisingly enough many Special Ops operators worth their salt know just how deadly these Greek fighters really are. Anyway, in the story two of the main Ukkodian Greeks are Colonel Thanos Karaiskakis and Sergeant Stelios Anagnostakos who have a squad of six additional Greek warriors.
This doesn’t mean the story is going to be only about foreign fighters. The primary force that I’m pulling into the story is the U.S. Sixth Fleet and Task Force 60, which has a U.S. Marine Expeditionary Unit assigned for ground and air assaults. Still the Ukkodians play major roles in the story and will be a huge part of book three and four.
On a more personal note, one of the things I constantly am dealing with is the differences between my home state of Florida and living in Germany. Surprisingly enough, the thing that stands out to me the most is the differences in the weather. I won’t even mention the whole “not having any descent beaches” nearby to go to. Going surfing on the weekends with my two Labradors or just simply taking a walk after work during the week and looking for sea-glass was two of my favorite pastimes that I simply have learned to live without. The weather on the other hand, is another matter altogether.
Right now the temperature is ranging from the low forties to the hundreds, mostly ending up towards the high nineties to one hundred ranges. Although this sounds severe, especially when most offices and houses do not have air conditioning, this typically only lasts for a month to a month and a half, before it once again turns cold and rainy. Although cold and rainy is perfect for writing, it’s lacking in the whole “sunshine” department, which is why I feel guilty complaining about the hot weather. Still it’s freaking hot! I guess I’ll have to pop open a cold strawberry beer to deal with the heat. Luckily the beer here is some of the best in the world, at least to my limited palette.
July 20, 2015
the last fight scene of destiny and summertime in germany while working in information technology
The last couple weeks have been crazy with my personal life being as crazy busy as my work life, which is why I’ve been MIA for the last couple weeks. Temperatures here have been fluctuating between 90 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit (36 to 41 Celsius). For those Information Technology professionals like me working inside without air-conditioning in a room full of computers and people the temperature is around 98 to 105 degrees on almost a daily basis. Even with the new job where I’m allowed to wear shorts in the worst of the summer months, it’s still unbelievably hot in the office. At the same time, I feel bad complaining about the hot weather, since we get very few hot, non-rain filled days in Germany. Basically a month and a half and it’s back to the cold rainy weather where I never leave home without a jacket. Still, it’s hard to get used to sweating myself to sleep in oven temperatures that make you light headed. Temperatures that give me flash backs of my early childhood growing up in Florida when my family was too poor to have air-conditioning, not that air-conditioning or even screens are common in Europe unless you live down south in Italy and Spain.
The good news is that most weekdays I’ve managed to get some writing time in. The bad news is that as I started finishing off the final fight scene that I had to add in a whole new set of characters. These characters will play pivotal roles in books three and four too, which brought me up short for almost a week as I began fleshing out these new characters. Since the action is book two in Europe based, many of these characters’ nationalities are German, Polish, Italian and Greek and part of the European Arm of the Ukodian Religion. Another cool aspect about the European side of this book is that I can bring aspects of my IRL into the story. Like having Riviera Beach Police Detective Beth Kurwoski and Agent Ryan Moss of the CTA team up together into a new government agency that has been formed to deal with this new alien trans-dimensional threat and then having them fly into Ramstein Air Base Germany to meet up with some of Polish and German Ukodians, before flying to Naples Air Base Italy on a C-130 Hercules and then flying a Marine V-22 Osprey to the Greek island of Santorini to meet up with a Marine Raider battalion and part of the United States Sixth Fleet.
God, just researching what I want to use for the book has been a blast! It’s taken a good week of thought and research to flesh out these European Characters, their looks, their likes and dislikes, cultural differences and how to bring them into the storyline in a way that makes sense in a storytelling way and Military procedural way. I’m putting a little more forethought into who they are then I did for CTA Agent Ryan Moss, who is turning out to be a major character. Not that Agent Moss turned out to be bad. I’m actually quite fond of him and was probably just as surprised as many of my readers when he made it through the climatic ending of Book One still alive.
For the rest of the stuff I’m using a writer’s prerogative to a point. I’m doing my best to keep the story within the realm of possible military operating procedures, while at the same time keeping the story fun and action packed. I already know a bunch of stuff about the Polish people due to my wife being Polish, but the Greek stuff has been super cool. There is a whole history of modern day Spartans that live in the region of the Mani Peninsula. The descendants of the ancient “Dorian” population that was once Sparta and who have been the backbone of Greece’s resistance to foreign invaders, from the Byzantine Empire in 1821, Fascist Italy in 1944 and Nazi Germany in 1945.
For those of you in the United States who worry about having the book’s Earth side story focus too much on Europe, don’t worry. There is plenty of action going on with the United States military along with our NATO allies. Kind of like the TV Series 24: “Live Another Day” with the whole series being placed in London. For those of you who haven’t seen it I’ve attached the trailer below.
On a side note before I finish up today’s post, I unfortunately didn’t get a chance to wish those service members and government civilians working overseas a happy fourth of July. What every one of us does while serving our country overseas makes a difference in so many people’s lives. Not just for the countries that we give aid to around the world as we strive to make a positive difference in those peoples’ lives, but supporting the troops, civilians and their families that makes this all possible. I salute you!
The good news is that most weekdays I’ve managed to get some writing time in. The bad news is that as I started finishing off the final fight scene that I had to add in a whole new set of characters. These characters will play pivotal roles in books three and four too, which brought me up short for almost a week as I began fleshing out these new characters. Since the action is book two in Europe based, many of these characters’ nationalities are German, Polish, Italian and Greek and part of the European Arm of the Ukodian Religion. Another cool aspect about the European side of this book is that I can bring aspects of my IRL into the story. Like having Riviera Beach Police Detective Beth Kurwoski and Agent Ryan Moss of the CTA team up together into a new government agency that has been formed to deal with this new alien trans-dimensional threat and then having them fly into Ramstein Air Base Germany to meet up with some of Polish and German Ukodians, before flying to Naples Air Base Italy on a C-130 Hercules and then flying a Marine V-22 Osprey to the Greek island of Santorini to meet up with a Marine Raider battalion and part of the United States Sixth Fleet.
God, just researching what I want to use for the book has been a blast! It’s taken a good week of thought and research to flesh out these European Characters, their looks, their likes and dislikes, cultural differences and how to bring them into the storyline in a way that makes sense in a storytelling way and Military procedural way. I’m putting a little more forethought into who they are then I did for CTA Agent Ryan Moss, who is turning out to be a major character. Not that Agent Moss turned out to be bad. I’m actually quite fond of him and was probably just as surprised as many of my readers when he made it through the climatic ending of Book One still alive.
For the rest of the stuff I’m using a writer’s prerogative to a point. I’m doing my best to keep the story within the realm of possible military operating procedures, while at the same time keeping the story fun and action packed. I already know a bunch of stuff about the Polish people due to my wife being Polish, but the Greek stuff has been super cool. There is a whole history of modern day Spartans that live in the region of the Mani Peninsula. The descendants of the ancient “Dorian” population that was once Sparta and who have been the backbone of Greece’s resistance to foreign invaders, from the Byzantine Empire in 1821, Fascist Italy in 1944 and Nazi Germany in 1945.
For those of you in the United States who worry about having the book’s Earth side story focus too much on Europe, don’t worry. There is plenty of action going on with the United States military along with our NATO allies. Kind of like the TV Series 24: “Live Another Day” with the whole series being placed in London. For those of you who haven’t seen it I’ve attached the trailer below.
On a side note before I finish up today’s post, I unfortunately didn’t get a chance to wish those service members and government civilians working overseas a happy fourth of July. What every one of us does while serving our country overseas makes a difference in so many people’s lives. Not just for the countries that we give aid to around the world as we strive to make a positive difference in those peoples’ lives, but supporting the troops, civilians and their families that makes this all possible. I salute you!
June 29, 2015
deciding at what point to end destiny's story at and picking strawberries in germany
As I was driving home Friday I suddenly realized I’d started writing parts of Book Three and had to take stock at what I was doing for the ending of Destiny’s story. At the same time I received a call from my wife that she wanted to go pick strawberries and make some homemade preserves. Interestingly enough even though we’d never spoken together about making homemade jam or done it before in our lives, we were in sync once again around the same time with the same idea. Funny how things like that happen between people who love each other.
We ended up picking fresh strawberries that evening and spend the weekend making various batches of jam: strawberry-vanilla, strawberry-banana and of course just straight strawberry. The process is relatively easy and not incredibly time consuming, except for the multiple batches of different combinations I made up, so I had a chance to think about the ending of Destiny and decide “where” the ending should be exactly. I was also able to talk to some friends who are up-to-speed with my story in general to give me some criticism about where the cut-off should be.
Part of the problem is the story has ended up being a long longer than I’d initially thought it would be to get to the point where I wanted to end the story at. I could have bypassed the details in-between of what’s been happening with the characters to a point, but I think that would have taken away from the overall story. Those “little things” can mean so much and there is no need to rush through the story to get to a particular point. I was really tempted to stop where I’m currently at. It would have left a nice cliff hanger that would have been cool and annoying all at the same time, but I decided not to. The reason is simply my writing style for this series is loosely based on “computer gaming principles”. There are bosses at certain points that need to be overcome in each book, which creates a nice climatic ending for each individual story. Also, as one of my friends pointed out, if I ended in the middle of a battle then I would have to bring everyone up to speed enough not to confuse new readers in book three. Seriously though, who starts a book series off in the middle? A good point none the less.
I know exactly how the battle will go. Well maybe not exactly, but I have the flow of the action in my head. Unlike the Wild Elf battle with the Tuonellian, Argus (the Wenci) and a Grey Elf where I had almost punch-by-punch planned out in my head ahead of time. Oh wait, that’s all part of Destiny’s story, so you haven’t read it yet. Heh, too bad, because it rocks, but don’t worry. You’ll get a chance to read it soon enough.
Anyway, doing this epic battle scene is a good amount of writing, but I feel that it’s a good place to stop the story. The climatic action feels right in my head and heart. I think the idea of keeping in line with that whole “boss ending” for this level … or book is what did it for me.
For those of you who are surprised at my homeliness with making jam and cooking in general, don’t be. I enjoy cooking and am quite good at it. It also follows my desire to live a healthy life and to keep away from processed foods and chemical substances as much as possible that are in so much of the food we eat in our modern society. Making it from scratch helps to a point to ensure that I am staying healthy. Although the fresh croissants and homemade jam hasn’t been so good for my diet. One of my wife’s friends were shocked to see me come home and whip up several batches of homemade jam, which made me laugh. I definitely do not subscribe to any type of domestic roles for men and women, like so many people still do in the world.
Anyway, for those of you who are interested I added the pictures below. Hope you enjoy it.
We ended up picking fresh strawberries that evening and spend the weekend making various batches of jam: strawberry-vanilla, strawberry-banana and of course just straight strawberry. The process is relatively easy and not incredibly time consuming, except for the multiple batches of different combinations I made up, so I had a chance to think about the ending of Destiny and decide “where” the ending should be exactly. I was also able to talk to some friends who are up-to-speed with my story in general to give me some criticism about where the cut-off should be.
Part of the problem is the story has ended up being a long longer than I’d initially thought it would be to get to the point where I wanted to end the story at. I could have bypassed the details in-between of what’s been happening with the characters to a point, but I think that would have taken away from the overall story. Those “little things” can mean so much and there is no need to rush through the story to get to a particular point. I was really tempted to stop where I’m currently at. It would have left a nice cliff hanger that would have been cool and annoying all at the same time, but I decided not to. The reason is simply my writing style for this series is loosely based on “computer gaming principles”. There are bosses at certain points that need to be overcome in each book, which creates a nice climatic ending for each individual story. Also, as one of my friends pointed out, if I ended in the middle of a battle then I would have to bring everyone up to speed enough not to confuse new readers in book three. Seriously though, who starts a book series off in the middle? A good point none the less.
I know exactly how the battle will go. Well maybe not exactly, but I have the flow of the action in my head. Unlike the Wild Elf battle with the Tuonellian, Argus (the Wenci) and a Grey Elf where I had almost punch-by-punch planned out in my head ahead of time. Oh wait, that’s all part of Destiny’s story, so you haven’t read it yet. Heh, too bad, because it rocks, but don’t worry. You’ll get a chance to read it soon enough.
Anyway, doing this epic battle scene is a good amount of writing, but I feel that it’s a good place to stop the story. The climatic action feels right in my head and heart. I think the idea of keeping in line with that whole “boss ending” for this level … or book is what did it for me.
For those of you who are surprised at my homeliness with making jam and cooking in general, don’t be. I enjoy cooking and am quite good at it. It also follows my desire to live a healthy life and to keep away from processed foods and chemical substances as much as possible that are in so much of the food we eat in our modern society. Making it from scratch helps to a point to ensure that I am staying healthy. Although the fresh croissants and homemade jam hasn’t been so good for my diet. One of my wife’s friends were shocked to see me come home and whip up several batches of homemade jam, which made me laugh. I definitely do not subscribe to any type of domestic roles for men and women, like so many people still do in the world.
Anyway, for those of you who are interested I added the pictures below. Hope you enjoy it.
June 13, 2015
Will the future be more like star trek or star wars?
Being a gamer, writer and a person living through these constantly changing times, the future is very much on my mind. I’m sure my generational plays a major role in this forward looking perspective. For those of you who didn’t know, I’m a generation Xer.
Google’s definition: A member of Generation X (born from the early 1960s to mid 1970s), "as a Generation Xer I have come to the conclusion that the politicians have let a whole generation down".
Wikipedia’s definition: A generation whose worldview is based on change, on the need to combat corruption, dictatorships, abuse, AIDS, a generation in search of human dignity and individual freedom, the need for stability, love, tolerance, and human rights for all.
A very different label than the one we were given by Douglas Coupland in the 80’s when we were called the materialistic, slacker, disenfranchised stereotype youths of America. Not a surprising description when you think about how sensationalism sells. It amazes me that my generation was ever called materialistic, since most of us considered finding a strong wooden stick or the ownership of a rubber ball the same as kids today think about having an iPhone or iPad. Being raised by a grandmother who was a child of the Great American Depression and as a very poor latch key kid, I was one of the lucky ones who was able to surpass my economic situation and work myself out extreme poverty. An experience that makes me focus on surviving in the now, while doing my best to plan for an ever changing and economically chaotic future.
The next ten to twenty years is going to be one of amazing technological breakthroughs in new technologies and a series of terrifying social upheavals. Being raised on Star Trek, I always enjoyed the idea of this semi-perfect future of the human race, where poverty and hunger and prejudice has been wiped out of society like a disease, but from my experiences I know the world will actually look something closer to the world of Star Wars. Sadly enough, I fear that the world of Star Wars is even too nice and pretty of a future. The reality, I fear, will be much worse and something more along the lines of the movie Blade Runner / Johnny Mnemonic / Gattaca / Almost Human and the world from the MMO Anarchy Online. I’ve attached the trailers down below, just ignore the cheesy 80’s graphics and special effects on Blade Runner & Johnny Mnemonic. Oh, completely ignore the electro dolphin, because that shit just didn’t make any sense.
In many ways many of these are being seen in our current lives. Blade Runner where companies use human-like robots off earth to mine minerals in asteroids or for are sold to people for entertainment purposes. There are discussions about the use of robot control space craft and drones making more sense to send for exploration to other planets then sending humans. Not to mention the idea of AI running amok. Johnny Mnemonic, where people enhance their body functions with technology by assisting their memory, making them stronger and quicker, or improving their vision, all of which is happening now. Also, how international companies grow too large until they begin to control parts of the government, which allows them to enforce their own desired regulations that hurt the citizens. Gattaca, where companies want to know a person’s genes to help reduce cost for health insurance and as a guarantee how smart an employee is and will become. Almost Human, because the technology is right around the corner. The ideas of robots that are basically human. The technology crimes that normal people are facing. I feel like they really hit this right on the mark. Ignore the whole Buck Rodgers sealed off city thing from the mutant humans, that’s just off the wall, but everything else I would say is right on the mark. Anarchy Online, where a large international corporation nearly controls all aspects of the government and use this control to abuse their employees.
I’m not saying this small list is every good movie or MMO showing the concerns of a possible dark future for us, but this is my immediate list of futuristic films and MMO’s that depicts things we are starting to see coming to pass right now. I guys if you took a piece of each of these films and mixed them together into one world, I fear this could be the future we will find ourselves living in.
The sad part is that we are really nearing a point in human evolution and technology where hunger and poverty and discrimination could be eliminated, but unfortunately the intrinsic nature and focus of our current materialistic society cannot allow that to come about without major changes to our current societal focus. I’m not saying having cool tech and technology to improve our lives is a bad thing, but the focus on stuff at its current levels is definitely not healthy. To be honest, I would have even taken the Star Wars ideology even if that meant overcoming some terrible Empire or even working for the Empire. Think of Corran Horn in the Rogue Squadron Series http://www.amazon.com/Rogue-Squadron-Star-X-Wing-Legends-ebook/dp/B00513HXBA/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1434224057&sr=1-1&keywords=x-wing+rogue+squadron I love how Michael A. Stackpole had his hero start out as working for the Empire as a TIE Fighter, before he became part of the Republic.
The sad part, one that I didn’t cover, is that in every book, movie or game that I think does a great job in predicting a very possible real future if we keep going down the road we’re headed down always has a Third World War that humanity must face before things gets better. Lately when I watch everything going on in the world today. Russia’s recent invasion of the Ukraine and their subsequent increase in troop build-up and flexing their military might around the world. China’s aggressive military and economical stance over their claims for the Senkaku Islands, their push to become the new monetary and their disregards for human rights in general. It makes me wonder how close we really are to this possible Third World War. Five years ago I would have said that such a fear was insane, but the invasion of the Ukraine with conventional forces by Russia made me say “WTF, how could something like that happen in today’s day and age.” Unfortunately you know what they say. It always gets worse before it gets better. I hope my fears of a possible World War Three is just an overreaction to the events I see happening around, but none the less I find it very much on my mind as I see the strained economic chaos happening around the world. Desperate people do desperate things in desperate times.
Anyway, I am slowly solidifying an idea of a near futuristic society for a new book series where I put all of these ideas together. It’s been churning around in the back of my mind for a while and the pressure is growing stronger and stronger to begin working on the story, but first I need to finish the four books I have planned for The Last Paladin Series.
Google’s definition: A member of Generation X (born from the early 1960s to mid 1970s), "as a Generation Xer I have come to the conclusion that the politicians have let a whole generation down".
Wikipedia’s definition: A generation whose worldview is based on change, on the need to combat corruption, dictatorships, abuse, AIDS, a generation in search of human dignity and individual freedom, the need for stability, love, tolerance, and human rights for all.
A very different label than the one we were given by Douglas Coupland in the 80’s when we were called the materialistic, slacker, disenfranchised stereotype youths of America. Not a surprising description when you think about how sensationalism sells. It amazes me that my generation was ever called materialistic, since most of us considered finding a strong wooden stick or the ownership of a rubber ball the same as kids today think about having an iPhone or iPad. Being raised by a grandmother who was a child of the Great American Depression and as a very poor latch key kid, I was one of the lucky ones who was able to surpass my economic situation and work myself out extreme poverty. An experience that makes me focus on surviving in the now, while doing my best to plan for an ever changing and economically chaotic future.
The next ten to twenty years is going to be one of amazing technological breakthroughs in new technologies and a series of terrifying social upheavals. Being raised on Star Trek, I always enjoyed the idea of this semi-perfect future of the human race, where poverty and hunger and prejudice has been wiped out of society like a disease, but from my experiences I know the world will actually look something closer to the world of Star Wars. Sadly enough, I fear that the world of Star Wars is even too nice and pretty of a future. The reality, I fear, will be much worse and something more along the lines of the movie Blade Runner / Johnny Mnemonic / Gattaca / Almost Human and the world from the MMO Anarchy Online. I’ve attached the trailers down below, just ignore the cheesy 80’s graphics and special effects on Blade Runner & Johnny Mnemonic. Oh, completely ignore the electro dolphin, because that shit just didn’t make any sense.
In many ways many of these are being seen in our current lives. Blade Runner where companies use human-like robots off earth to mine minerals in asteroids or for are sold to people for entertainment purposes. There are discussions about the use of robot control space craft and drones making more sense to send for exploration to other planets then sending humans. Not to mention the idea of AI running amok. Johnny Mnemonic, where people enhance their body functions with technology by assisting their memory, making them stronger and quicker, or improving their vision, all of which is happening now. Also, how international companies grow too large until they begin to control parts of the government, which allows them to enforce their own desired regulations that hurt the citizens. Gattaca, where companies want to know a person’s genes to help reduce cost for health insurance and as a guarantee how smart an employee is and will become. Almost Human, because the technology is right around the corner. The ideas of robots that are basically human. The technology crimes that normal people are facing. I feel like they really hit this right on the mark. Ignore the whole Buck Rodgers sealed off city thing from the mutant humans, that’s just off the wall, but everything else I would say is right on the mark. Anarchy Online, where a large international corporation nearly controls all aspects of the government and use this control to abuse their employees.
I’m not saying this small list is every good movie or MMO showing the concerns of a possible dark future for us, but this is my immediate list of futuristic films and MMO’s that depicts things we are starting to see coming to pass right now. I guys if you took a piece of each of these films and mixed them together into one world, I fear this could be the future we will find ourselves living in.
The sad part is that we are really nearing a point in human evolution and technology where hunger and poverty and discrimination could be eliminated, but unfortunately the intrinsic nature and focus of our current materialistic society cannot allow that to come about without major changes to our current societal focus. I’m not saying having cool tech and technology to improve our lives is a bad thing, but the focus on stuff at its current levels is definitely not healthy. To be honest, I would have even taken the Star Wars ideology even if that meant overcoming some terrible Empire or even working for the Empire. Think of Corran Horn in the Rogue Squadron Series http://www.amazon.com/Rogue-Squadron-Star-X-Wing-Legends-ebook/dp/B00513HXBA/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1434224057&sr=1-1&keywords=x-wing+rogue+squadron I love how Michael A. Stackpole had his hero start out as working for the Empire as a TIE Fighter, before he became part of the Republic.
The sad part, one that I didn’t cover, is that in every book, movie or game that I think does a great job in predicting a very possible real future if we keep going down the road we’re headed down always has a Third World War that humanity must face before things gets better. Lately when I watch everything going on in the world today. Russia’s recent invasion of the Ukraine and their subsequent increase in troop build-up and flexing their military might around the world. China’s aggressive military and economical stance over their claims for the Senkaku Islands, their push to become the new monetary and their disregards for human rights in general. It makes me wonder how close we really are to this possible Third World War. Five years ago I would have said that such a fear was insane, but the invasion of the Ukraine with conventional forces by Russia made me say “WTF, how could something like that happen in today’s day and age.” Unfortunately you know what they say. It always gets worse before it gets better. I hope my fears of a possible World War Three is just an overreaction to the events I see happening around, but none the less I find it very much on my mind as I see the strained economic chaos happening around the world. Desperate people do desperate things in desperate times.
Anyway, I am slowly solidifying an idea of a near futuristic society for a new book series where I put all of these ideas together. It’s been churning around in the back of my mind for a while and the pressure is growing stronger and stronger to begin working on the story, but first I need to finish the four books I have planned for The Last Paladin Series.
June 9, 2015
How crafting in MMO's helped to improve my real life!
By now, for most of you that enjoy keeping up with my blog, you know that sometimes I have to take time out to deal with IRL stuff that pops up from time to time. For you Indie Writers who have a full time job that has nothing to do with writing and a family on top of that to boot, you know what I’m talking about. At that same time, an old colleague called me yesterday about working on a writing idea that he had and reminded me how much he enjoyed keeping up with my blog, which again reminded me of the importance of not letting “headquarter consolidations” keep me from making my regular updates. Sometimes we all need that reminder. Yea “Headquarter Consolidations”, it’s exactly what it sounds like and is the reason I’ve been preoccupied of late, but enough of that.
I was talking with my daughter the other day and giving her a hard time about taking her phone away until she got her homework finished up, when she surprised me by saying it was a pretty good idea. The conversation ended up with “shocked me” holding two phones, while she went to study for her exams. Later when I talked to her about it, she explained to me that she knows that she needs to get ready for her college entrance exams, but sometimes it’s just so hard to focus.
This is something I think many of us share in common. I know for myself it’s something that I’ve had to fight my entire life. I was always interested in learning stuff, but I rarely found school particularly interesting, let alone confusing social interactions and clicks that made life miserable on a daily basis. Another thing I always found amazing was how even the stuff I was interested in could be made boring and a chore. Even worse, I’m one of those people who need to see the connection of why learning something theoretical is useful and practical. My resistance to this has gotten better as I’ve grown older, but that doesn’t mean that I agree with the structure that is “modern education”. Interestingly enough, I recently saw a video that proves I’m not the only one who thinks this way. Check out the attached “RSA Animate” video. It validates this feeling I’ve had over the years in so many ways!
Self-discipline is not easy. It’s something that I’ve always had to work at, but it’s really the only way to get things done. It took me a long time to learn this. Unbelievably I learned this from one of my greatest distractions in my entire life: MMO’s and computer gaming. I’d tried to get into computers before joining the Army, but I was too poor to have the equipment I needed for it to hold my attention. At that time the only thing I could afford was a tape drive for saving data, which made five and a quarter floppy drives look like “light speed”! It wasn’t until I got out of the Army and back into computers that the technology really become affordable and once it did my life was forever changed.
Computer gaming made computers fun and it was primitive enough that you had to actually learn a lot of hardware, software and networking to be able to game. In this way it made learning fun. I didn’t mind pouring over book of data, of learning about interrupts for motherboards and peripherals and how they interacted with the operating system. Whatever I needed to get my games to run and play multiplayer with other gamers was all that was important.
Over the years my addition to gaming lessoned, but the things I learned had forever changed my life and given me a career in System Administration. One was crafting in Anarchy Online and other MMO’s. Crafting is one of those parts of the game that’s not for everyone, but in Anarchy Online and even in the beginning days of World of Warcraft it was needed to access the higher content of the game. Without a fully functional guide or enough characters with specialized skills it was impossible to reach certain game content. Usually this meant months of leveling up a character and the required skills needed to get to this point. I cannot even begin to tell you the months upon months of crafting I did online. Studying any information I could find on how to access these areas and the steps needed to craft what was needed. Of watching my online character’s hands make a twisting humping movement that is the universal symbol for crafting in MMO’s. Sometimes it was just boring shit. Making the same thing over and over until your skills were high enough to get to the next level, because that was the only way to get the special key or amulet made that would allow you into this super-secret dungeon.
I don’t know when it happened. I don’t know when I made the connection between doing this online and doing this IRL, but suddenly I realized I could do the same thing in my own life to make it better. I could level up. Yea, I know just how nerdy that sounds, but none the less it’s the truth. At the time it was an incredible concept and something I started doing consciously. Something so profound that even now when I’m studying for a new certificate or learning a new language, in the back of my mind I’m standing in some virtual world with my hands twisting to craft this new item or skill.
Although it sounds cliché so say this, during this epiphany time period in my life after I’d been doing this RL translation, I came across a movie in 2011 that changed my perspective on this even further. The name of the movie was called Limitless. If you haven’t seen it, it’s definitely worth checking out the video below. Not so much that the movie itself is so incredible, but the idea that you could take a pill and overnight have access to your mind’s full potential grabbed my imagination. Although the main character in the film happens to start out as a failed writer, the film itself wasn’t what made me want to write. I’d always had the desire, but never seemed to get around to doing it.
At this point in my life the thought that hit me was that why couldn’t I do this without a pill? Why couldn’t I just learn what I wanted to do? I mean, really what was stopping me, the work of learning how to do something in and of itself? Just a few years before watching this video I’d learned German and was starting on Polish, I dropped thirty-five to forty pounds, I’d finished a college degree, picked up about thirty certifications for Information Technology and moved to Europe. Basically all of these accomplishments had been purely based on motivation and the belief that I could make my life whatever I wanted it to be. It was at this point in my life I wrote my first book Flight.
Surprisingly enough while I was getting the links for this blog on the movie Limitless, I ran into something even more interesting than the movie. It’s an IRL “Limitless Style” drug that the news is starting to talk about. The youtube video was posted March 22nd, 2015. Supposedly the drug is called Provigil (modafinil). For those of you who are interested I just linked the news article below. I had heard of biohacking. Many of us do this to an extent. If you think about it biohacking can be as simple as taking vitamins or eating healthy all the way to taking specific drugs to enhance muscle and endurance, but the articles on this drug is pretty crazy. Who knows, maybe there is a drug that can help you be a “better you”. Just remember, no matter what, bio-enhance drugs or not, it’s your choice. You really can do anything you set your mind to do.
Anyway, there will always be new and exciting things that pull your attention and distract you from things that you need to do for yourself and your family. I mean, look at the up and coming future of gaming with Magic Leap’s “Alternate Reality” glasses. The possibilities this creates for gaming are sick! While Magic Leap is not out yet, Microsoft’s Holodeck will be here soon. Soon as in possibly the end this year or the beginning of next and integrates with Windows 10! Check this article out: http://www.howtogeek.com/214395/head-mounted-displays-whats-the-difference-between-augmented-and-virtual-reality/
I was talking with my daughter the other day and giving her a hard time about taking her phone away until she got her homework finished up, when she surprised me by saying it was a pretty good idea. The conversation ended up with “shocked me” holding two phones, while she went to study for her exams. Later when I talked to her about it, she explained to me that she knows that she needs to get ready for her college entrance exams, but sometimes it’s just so hard to focus.
This is something I think many of us share in common. I know for myself it’s something that I’ve had to fight my entire life. I was always interested in learning stuff, but I rarely found school particularly interesting, let alone confusing social interactions and clicks that made life miserable on a daily basis. Another thing I always found amazing was how even the stuff I was interested in could be made boring and a chore. Even worse, I’m one of those people who need to see the connection of why learning something theoretical is useful and practical. My resistance to this has gotten better as I’ve grown older, but that doesn’t mean that I agree with the structure that is “modern education”. Interestingly enough, I recently saw a video that proves I’m not the only one who thinks this way. Check out the attached “RSA Animate” video. It validates this feeling I’ve had over the years in so many ways!
Self-discipline is not easy. It’s something that I’ve always had to work at, but it’s really the only way to get things done. It took me a long time to learn this. Unbelievably I learned this from one of my greatest distractions in my entire life: MMO’s and computer gaming. I’d tried to get into computers before joining the Army, but I was too poor to have the equipment I needed for it to hold my attention. At that time the only thing I could afford was a tape drive for saving data, which made five and a quarter floppy drives look like “light speed”! It wasn’t until I got out of the Army and back into computers that the technology really become affordable and once it did my life was forever changed.
Computer gaming made computers fun and it was primitive enough that you had to actually learn a lot of hardware, software and networking to be able to game. In this way it made learning fun. I didn’t mind pouring over book of data, of learning about interrupts for motherboards and peripherals and how they interacted with the operating system. Whatever I needed to get my games to run and play multiplayer with other gamers was all that was important.
Over the years my addition to gaming lessoned, but the things I learned had forever changed my life and given me a career in System Administration. One was crafting in Anarchy Online and other MMO’s. Crafting is one of those parts of the game that’s not for everyone, but in Anarchy Online and even in the beginning days of World of Warcraft it was needed to access the higher content of the game. Without a fully functional guide or enough characters with specialized skills it was impossible to reach certain game content. Usually this meant months of leveling up a character and the required skills needed to get to this point. I cannot even begin to tell you the months upon months of crafting I did online. Studying any information I could find on how to access these areas and the steps needed to craft what was needed. Of watching my online character’s hands make a twisting humping movement that is the universal symbol for crafting in MMO’s. Sometimes it was just boring shit. Making the same thing over and over until your skills were high enough to get to the next level, because that was the only way to get the special key or amulet made that would allow you into this super-secret dungeon.
I don’t know when it happened. I don’t know when I made the connection between doing this online and doing this IRL, but suddenly I realized I could do the same thing in my own life to make it better. I could level up. Yea, I know just how nerdy that sounds, but none the less it’s the truth. At the time it was an incredible concept and something I started doing consciously. Something so profound that even now when I’m studying for a new certificate or learning a new language, in the back of my mind I’m standing in some virtual world with my hands twisting to craft this new item or skill.
Although it sounds cliché so say this, during this epiphany time period in my life after I’d been doing this RL translation, I came across a movie in 2011 that changed my perspective on this even further. The name of the movie was called Limitless. If you haven’t seen it, it’s definitely worth checking out the video below. Not so much that the movie itself is so incredible, but the idea that you could take a pill and overnight have access to your mind’s full potential grabbed my imagination. Although the main character in the film happens to start out as a failed writer, the film itself wasn’t what made me want to write. I’d always had the desire, but never seemed to get around to doing it.
At this point in my life the thought that hit me was that why couldn’t I do this without a pill? Why couldn’t I just learn what I wanted to do? I mean, really what was stopping me, the work of learning how to do something in and of itself? Just a few years before watching this video I’d learned German and was starting on Polish, I dropped thirty-five to forty pounds, I’d finished a college degree, picked up about thirty certifications for Information Technology and moved to Europe. Basically all of these accomplishments had been purely based on motivation and the belief that I could make my life whatever I wanted it to be. It was at this point in my life I wrote my first book Flight.
Surprisingly enough while I was getting the links for this blog on the movie Limitless, I ran into something even more interesting than the movie. It’s an IRL “Limitless Style” drug that the news is starting to talk about. The youtube video was posted March 22nd, 2015. Supposedly the drug is called Provigil (modafinil). For those of you who are interested I just linked the news article below. I had heard of biohacking. Many of us do this to an extent. If you think about it biohacking can be as simple as taking vitamins or eating healthy all the way to taking specific drugs to enhance muscle and endurance, but the articles on this drug is pretty crazy. Who knows, maybe there is a drug that can help you be a “better you”. Just remember, no matter what, bio-enhance drugs or not, it’s your choice. You really can do anything you set your mind to do.
Anyway, there will always be new and exciting things that pull your attention and distract you from things that you need to do for yourself and your family. I mean, look at the up and coming future of gaming with Magic Leap’s “Alternate Reality” glasses. The possibilities this creates for gaming are sick! While Magic Leap is not out yet, Microsoft’s Holodeck will be here soon. Soon as in possibly the end this year or the beginning of next and integrates with Windows 10! Check this article out: http://www.howtogeek.com/214395/head-mounted-displays-whats-the-difference-between-augmented-and-virtual-reality/
May 7, 2015
"Higher, higher, burning fire, making music like a choir!"
If you’ve never seen the movie Legend, you should check it out. Even though now-a-day its old 1985 graphics is somewhat outdated in comparison to the modern movies that most movie goers are accustomed to, but somehow its eighties graphics are still fresh in a time of CGI computer graphics. In its own way, it was just as incredible as Star Wars was for its innovative depiction of The Lord of Darkness and overall fantasy vibe. I’ve attached my all-time favorite scene from the movie. The massive horns and cloven hooves of the red devil stepping through the surface of the mirror in the clip touches something deep and primitive in my soul, even now when I watch the scene it still freaking rocks.
To say that the movie hasn’t influenced some of the creatures in The Last Paladin Series would be a lie. Truthfully my “nerdism” goes much deeper than that. Throw in Barsoom and the Princess of Mars Series by Edgar Rice Burroughs to present and you’d have a much better understanding of the depth of my love for Sci-Fi and Fantasy. I use Edgar Rice Burroughs in particular because it still amazes me that a story written in 1917 could have influenced modern Sci-fi and Fantasy and is still good enough of a story that they chose to make a movie from the book in 2013. Once again, this was a Sci-Fi story written in 1917! If you never took the time to see the movie, it’s definitely worth the time and the books are quite enjoyable. Not to mention, Burroughs’ writing has directly and indirectly influenced many generations of writers since 1917 to present. Unfortunately, the movie got a bad write-up and I think many people didn’t end up checking it out, which is too bad. The film was quite enjoyable, no matter if it altered the original storyline and kept itself PG13, but unfortunately that goes without saying since Walt Disney Pictures produced the film. Otherwise there would have been a lot, I mean a “FREAKING LOT”, of nudity. I’ve attached the trailer below for those of you who haven’t seen it. Too bad it wasn’t truly depicted as Burroughs wrote it. Even more amazing, is J.R.R. Tolkien’s world of Lord of the Rings that was written in 1954, which is in the top ten of the largest modern grossing film series to date, not to mention its influence on pulp fiction in general and Fantasy around the world and across multiple generations. Really, Dungeon and Dragons and the whole Fantasy MMO concept might have never developed into the incredible detailed worlds that we know of today.
Another interesting movie I finally tracked down late night by accident was Fire and Ice. One of those 80’s cartoon movies that inspired a generations of movies that came out around the time, such as: Heavy Metal movie, The Lord of the Ring cartoon movie series, The Secret of Nimh, Dark Crystal and Wizard. Huge contributors to Generation X’s mind set and the blooming of computerized gaming. Darkwolf is one of the main heroes of the film, which is part of one of the nomenclature I like to use for my characters online: aka Darkstar, Darkstorm, Darknova … If you’ve ever tried to create your own Darkxxx name, you know how hard it is to find a combo not already used. Every once in a while I watch the old anime and cartoon movies. I was actually pleasantly surprised with Fire and Ice. Another film I threw on the list is one of my all time favorites, Wizard. The movie is a story about the battle of good vs evil and elves/fairies against mutants/demons. It has some great artwork and some shockingly sorrowful scenes and some sexy ass fairies. It’s dated, but it kind of has that classic Heavy Metal following.
Anyway, last Friday I had to cut my blog off quickly, because the weekend was starting and it’s hard for me to get any writing time in once the weekend starts. I was mainly finished except for discussing the dividing line between too much detail of a particular topic in a story and not enough. Being aware of what movies have taught people to expect and knowing the reality is a tough balance. A good example of this was the movie “Final Countdown”. The actual book was awesome. Martin Caidin’s book is well balanced between military terms and information and the flow of story. Unfortunately, the director of the movie turned the film into a commercial for the Navy’s toys, which just ruined the film. I mean you can only watch planes taking off and landing for so long before you’re just like “Shoot me now!”
I had expected to get some great writing time in this week, but Richard, a buddy of mine I met from reviewing Flight, got me into a couple books. The newest Demon Accords and an Immortal Series. I ended up reading three books in three days. The good news is that the stories were great, but the bad news is that I’m still recovering from eye burnout and sleep deprivation. Thanks Richard! So back to writing on Monday, unless I can sneak a little in over the weekend.
To say that the movie hasn’t influenced some of the creatures in The Last Paladin Series would be a lie. Truthfully my “nerdism” goes much deeper than that. Throw in Barsoom and the Princess of Mars Series by Edgar Rice Burroughs to present and you’d have a much better understanding of the depth of my love for Sci-Fi and Fantasy. I use Edgar Rice Burroughs in particular because it still amazes me that a story written in 1917 could have influenced modern Sci-fi and Fantasy and is still good enough of a story that they chose to make a movie from the book in 2013. Once again, this was a Sci-Fi story written in 1917! If you never took the time to see the movie, it’s definitely worth the time and the books are quite enjoyable. Not to mention, Burroughs’ writing has directly and indirectly influenced many generations of writers since 1917 to present. Unfortunately, the movie got a bad write-up and I think many people didn’t end up checking it out, which is too bad. The film was quite enjoyable, no matter if it altered the original storyline and kept itself PG13, but unfortunately that goes without saying since Walt Disney Pictures produced the film. Otherwise there would have been a lot, I mean a “FREAKING LOT”, of nudity. I’ve attached the trailer below for those of you who haven’t seen it. Too bad it wasn’t truly depicted as Burroughs wrote it. Even more amazing, is J.R.R. Tolkien’s world of Lord of the Rings that was written in 1954, which is in the top ten of the largest modern grossing film series to date, not to mention its influence on pulp fiction in general and Fantasy around the world and across multiple generations. Really, Dungeon and Dragons and the whole Fantasy MMO concept might have never developed into the incredible detailed worlds that we know of today.
Another interesting movie I finally tracked down late night by accident was Fire and Ice. One of those 80’s cartoon movies that inspired a generations of movies that came out around the time, such as: Heavy Metal movie, The Lord of the Ring cartoon movie series, The Secret of Nimh, Dark Crystal and Wizard. Huge contributors to Generation X’s mind set and the blooming of computerized gaming. Darkwolf is one of the main heroes of the film, which is part of one of the nomenclature I like to use for my characters online: aka Darkstar, Darkstorm, Darknova … If you’ve ever tried to create your own Darkxxx name, you know how hard it is to find a combo not already used. Every once in a while I watch the old anime and cartoon movies. I was actually pleasantly surprised with Fire and Ice. Another film I threw on the list is one of my all time favorites, Wizard. The movie is a story about the battle of good vs evil and elves/fairies against mutants/demons. It has some great artwork and some shockingly sorrowful scenes and some sexy ass fairies. It’s dated, but it kind of has that classic Heavy Metal following.
Anyway, last Friday I had to cut my blog off quickly, because the weekend was starting and it’s hard for me to get any writing time in once the weekend starts. I was mainly finished except for discussing the dividing line between too much detail of a particular topic in a story and not enough. Being aware of what movies have taught people to expect and knowing the reality is a tough balance. A good example of this was the movie “Final Countdown”. The actual book was awesome. Martin Caidin’s book is well balanced between military terms and information and the flow of story. Unfortunately, the director of the movie turned the film into a commercial for the Navy’s toys, which just ruined the film. I mean you can only watch planes taking off and landing for so long before you’re just like “Shoot me now!”
I had expected to get some great writing time in this week, but Richard, a buddy of mine I met from reviewing Flight, got me into a couple books. The newest Demon Accords and an Immortal Series. I ended up reading three books in three days. The good news is that the stories were great, but the bad news is that I’m still recovering from eye burnout and sleep deprivation. Thanks Richard! So back to writing on Monday, unless I can sneak a little in over the weekend.
May 1, 2015
sometimes you have to ask yourself "How real is too real?"
From my previous time serving in the Army overseas during Desert Storm and my current “day job” working overseas, I’ve had experience, one way or another, with many of the different Military Branches of the United States Armed Forces. Between “my own experiences” and watching movies like American Sniper, The Hurt Locker, G.I. Jane, Navy Seals, Lone Survivor or Strike Back, I tend to have a pretty good idea of how military units operate and communicate, which for writing is a good and bad thing.
A work colleague of mine is a retired Special Forces Lieutenant Colonel. A cool guy, if he likes you and, besides having some of the most interesting stories I’ve ever heard, the man is one of those people who you wouldn’t take a second look at walking down the street in civvies, but he could kill you fifty different ways in the blink of an eye. Yea, pretty kick ass. Anyway, he has a lot of ex-special forces friends who try to write books about their experiences. While the stories are extremely accurate and realistic, most of these Special Forces writers’ books simply do not sell.
My buddy and I have discussed this point a lot since I’ve written Flight and one of the things we constantly come back to about this odd phenomenon is that many of these writers do not have an “entertaining story” and/or a “feel good” message to their writing. Both of which are important for sales. A good example of this is “Starship Troopers” from Robert H. Heinlein, one of the few Science Fiction books that is considered “required reading” on the United States Marine Corps Reading List.
Another common mistake I think many writers make is not being careful when they know too much about a topic they are writing about. When you know too much of any one field it is easy to start going into details that most readers are just not interested in hearing and before you know it your story dragging out into monotony. A good example of this might be an entertaining book on a hacker. Do I want to read pages and pages of code while I’m reading the story or get the gist of what the lead character was doing. Another example would be a story on a Tanker’s experience in War. Do I want to know all of the details only true Tanker on an M1A1 would know about? Would that knowledge add to the story I’m reading or my enjoyment?
This is something I am trying to be aware of in my own story. Destiny has some huge battle scenes I’m working on with modern day units. Dealing with all of the military units makes me want to keep the details as accurate as possible, but there has to be a point where I either allow some things to not be 100% accurate to keep the story moving and fun, improve my story to fit as much accuracy in or possibly turn out a boring climatic scene. I’m choosing to allow some things to not be 100% accurate to fit my story, but I am struggling to keep the units as realistic as possible and still have a good story for my readers to enjoy.
Anyway, have a great weekend and catch everyone on the flip side.
A work colleague of mine is a retired Special Forces Lieutenant Colonel. A cool guy, if he likes you and, besides having some of the most interesting stories I’ve ever heard, the man is one of those people who you wouldn’t take a second look at walking down the street in civvies, but he could kill you fifty different ways in the blink of an eye. Yea, pretty kick ass. Anyway, he has a lot of ex-special forces friends who try to write books about their experiences. While the stories are extremely accurate and realistic, most of these Special Forces writers’ books simply do not sell.
My buddy and I have discussed this point a lot since I’ve written Flight and one of the things we constantly come back to about this odd phenomenon is that many of these writers do not have an “entertaining story” and/or a “feel good” message to their writing. Both of which are important for sales. A good example of this is “Starship Troopers” from Robert H. Heinlein, one of the few Science Fiction books that is considered “required reading” on the United States Marine Corps Reading List.
Another common mistake I think many writers make is not being careful when they know too much about a topic they are writing about. When you know too much of any one field it is easy to start going into details that most readers are just not interested in hearing and before you know it your story dragging out into monotony. A good example of this might be an entertaining book on a hacker. Do I want to read pages and pages of code while I’m reading the story or get the gist of what the lead character was doing. Another example would be a story on a Tanker’s experience in War. Do I want to know all of the details only true Tanker on an M1A1 would know about? Would that knowledge add to the story I’m reading or my enjoyment?
This is something I am trying to be aware of in my own story. Destiny has some huge battle scenes I’m working on with modern day units. Dealing with all of the military units makes me want to keep the details as accurate as possible, but there has to be a point where I either allow some things to not be 100% accurate to keep the story moving and fun, improve my story to fit as much accuracy in or possibly turn out a boring climatic scene. I’m choosing to allow some things to not be 100% accurate to fit my story, but I am struggling to keep the units as realistic as possible and still have a good story for my readers to enjoy.
Anyway, have a great weekend and catch everyone on the flip side.
April 26, 2015
I'm down to the last few chapters and the climatic ending to Destiny
Last month was crazy, but I’m back writing once again after our quick trip into France to see the Maginot Line. My daughter was sick and my wife didn’t want to leave her at home, but she begged us to go anyway. By the time we made it to Schoenenbourg it was too late to catch the last tour, so we’ll all end up heading there again in the future. I did see some parts of the line and took a picture of the main entrance. Not to mention a cool pre-World War II flier of the whole defensive idea about the line. It’s posted below. I just love the old World War I & II artwork.
About a month ago I came down with something nasty. Between being sick, throwing my workout program into overdrive and work going into overload with projects and work, we’ll let’s just say I’ve been coming home at night and just crashing. Last week things started to get better. I finally recovered from whatever bug hit me, my body finally got adjusted to the intense work out I’ve been putting it through five days a week and have been getting back into the swing of writing regularly. Work has been too tough to do anything but run around with my head chopped off, and when I get home at night all that I want to do is work on Destiny. Unfortunately, that means my blog has been left without my normal updates for a month, but sometimes that’s how life goes. Things should be getting back to normal, so expect regular blog updates once again.
The climatic final scenes in Destiny are huge. This last week I started writing the beginning chapter that goes into the scene and it took me all week to get it straight. I swear I rewrote the intro chapter four times before I felt like it was write. Even so, I still need to tweak pieces of it to get the full feeling I want, but at least the meat and bones are in place. Trying to make sure all of the elements are in place, makes sense, and will work for the following book series is a juggling act. Sometimes I feel like Destiny is a little bit like Game of Thrones for the fact that there are a lot of characters running around in the story. I’ll post a link below from Honest Trailers about the number of characters in Game of Thrones. It’s pretty funny!
I introduced a lot of characters in Flight, but it was easier to follow what was happening because I killed off so many people off in book one. In my mind this was necessary to make the evil truly evil. You have to hate the protagonists in a story. I didn’t want the evil to be just a little bad or annoying, but to be so horrible that you wanted everyone who was a part of it destroyed to make the world a better place and because they deserved it. In book two the evil is still there and I refer to past deeds they’ve done and current actions being taken, also many of the new characters I introduce make it through the story alive, and I don’t go into as much gory detail as book one. Notice I say “as much”. I mean this is a story with swords, guns, Werewolves, Demon Hordes, Minotaurs, a Paladin, Marine Rangers, Navy Seals and more, so you know there’s going to be a lot of action going on, which also means blood and explosions. I’m just keeping out some of the heart wrenching details that were in Flight, like when the Werewolf pups were slaughtered in front of Novastar Ironwolf.
I struggled over how much detail to put in the story about the evil in book one. Was it any more terrible than some of my favorite writers such as R. A. Salvatore’s Dark Elf Trilogy? I’ve run it past my friends and coworkers who are into Sci-Fi and Fantasy. Not people who love horror, but typical readers who share the love of a good story. They didn’t think my dip into the dark side was too much, but said that it fit the overall story quite well. I did get some people who didn’t like the grittiness, because they were expecting something light and airy like the Twilight or Teen Wolf Series. As long as a number of my readers enjoy my story, that’s okay. It all takes different strokes from different folks.
Driving home on Friday I ran into a six hour traffic jam. Yea, I said six hours. Luckily a friend of mine had given me her left over fajitas to take home with me. I ate them while waiting for the accident to clear up. The good news is I was able to take some cool pictures. The best is the Hell energy drink advertisement that I passed plastered to the side of a tractor trailer. I’m still laughing about it. Anyway, I’ve added them below.
About a month ago I came down with something nasty. Between being sick, throwing my workout program into overdrive and work going into overload with projects and work, we’ll let’s just say I’ve been coming home at night and just crashing. Last week things started to get better. I finally recovered from whatever bug hit me, my body finally got adjusted to the intense work out I’ve been putting it through five days a week and have been getting back into the swing of writing regularly. Work has been too tough to do anything but run around with my head chopped off, and when I get home at night all that I want to do is work on Destiny. Unfortunately, that means my blog has been left without my normal updates for a month, but sometimes that’s how life goes. Things should be getting back to normal, so expect regular blog updates once again.
The climatic final scenes in Destiny are huge. This last week I started writing the beginning chapter that goes into the scene and it took me all week to get it straight. I swear I rewrote the intro chapter four times before I felt like it was write. Even so, I still need to tweak pieces of it to get the full feeling I want, but at least the meat and bones are in place. Trying to make sure all of the elements are in place, makes sense, and will work for the following book series is a juggling act. Sometimes I feel like Destiny is a little bit like Game of Thrones for the fact that there are a lot of characters running around in the story. I’ll post a link below from Honest Trailers about the number of characters in Game of Thrones. It’s pretty funny!
I introduced a lot of characters in Flight, but it was easier to follow what was happening because I killed off so many people off in book one. In my mind this was necessary to make the evil truly evil. You have to hate the protagonists in a story. I didn’t want the evil to be just a little bad or annoying, but to be so horrible that you wanted everyone who was a part of it destroyed to make the world a better place and because they deserved it. In book two the evil is still there and I refer to past deeds they’ve done and current actions being taken, also many of the new characters I introduce make it through the story alive, and I don’t go into as much gory detail as book one. Notice I say “as much”. I mean this is a story with swords, guns, Werewolves, Demon Hordes, Minotaurs, a Paladin, Marine Rangers, Navy Seals and more, so you know there’s going to be a lot of action going on, which also means blood and explosions. I’m just keeping out some of the heart wrenching details that were in Flight, like when the Werewolf pups were slaughtered in front of Novastar Ironwolf.
I struggled over how much detail to put in the story about the evil in book one. Was it any more terrible than some of my favorite writers such as R. A. Salvatore’s Dark Elf Trilogy? I’ve run it past my friends and coworkers who are into Sci-Fi and Fantasy. Not people who love horror, but typical readers who share the love of a good story. They didn’t think my dip into the dark side was too much, but said that it fit the overall story quite well. I did get some people who didn’t like the grittiness, because they were expecting something light and airy like the Twilight or Teen Wolf Series. As long as a number of my readers enjoy my story, that’s okay. It all takes different strokes from different folks.
Driving home on Friday I ran into a six hour traffic jam. Yea, I said six hours. Luckily a friend of mine had given me her left over fajitas to take home with me. I ate them while waiting for the accident to clear up. The good news is I was able to take some cool pictures. The best is the Hell energy drink advertisement that I passed plastered to the side of a tractor trailer. I’m still laughing about it. Anyway, I’ve added them below.
April 5, 2015
a quick trip to le fort de schoenenbourg and the maginot line for easter
Happy Easter, I hope everyone is having a great holiday and taking time to relax with your families. Since no one else came up with a plan for our quick trip for into France for a day, that left me at the helm. HA HA HA! (Picture an evil triumphant laugh here!) Usually my ladies plans revolve around shopping locations and I have to squeeze my tourist activities of historical sites and museums in-between TK Max and other shopping attractions wherever we travel, but this time it’s all me.
Luckily my new place is only about an hour and a half from the border of France, which gives us some neat options for taking day trips. Today I remembered I’ve always wanted to visit the Maginot Line. Fort Schoenenbourg and a cool portion of the Maginot Line is less than two hours away. How cool is that? Here is some links for the location: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maginot_Line and http://www.lignemaginot.com/accueil/indexen.htm
If you’re a gamer like me or into Sci-Fi and Fantasy, then I expect you’ve seen movies like Princess Mononoke, Nausicaa Valley of the Winds or Castle in the Sky. Hayao Miyazaki is right up there with Mamoru Oshii for me. Mamoru Oshii is the creator of the Ghost in the Shell series along with other fine movies. Anyway, a lot of excellent Sci-Fi and Fantasy movies have taken the Maginot Line and made complete worlds from the concept, aka Castle in the Sky.
Just looking at the fortifications and the concepts behind helps one to understand the world at the time they were created. World Wars, the Industrial Revolution, massive mechanization and weapon buildups. It just gets my gears running in my mind!
Anyway, we might not make it today. Everyone in the family is sick, except for me and the boys (aka my dogs), so the trip might get pushed back until Monday. I just hope that doesn’t mean next weekend I’m sick as a dog too. For now I’m going to link Castle in the Sky & Ghost in the Shell down below. If you’ve never seen either of these films then I recommend checking them out. Awesome storylines and some great artwork. Hayao Miyazaki is more like a cool Disney. Masamune Shirow is a famous artist that did most of the work for Ghost in the Shell, and both of my tattoos are based on his work.
Luckily my new place is only about an hour and a half from the border of France, which gives us some neat options for taking day trips. Today I remembered I’ve always wanted to visit the Maginot Line. Fort Schoenenbourg and a cool portion of the Maginot Line is less than two hours away. How cool is that? Here is some links for the location: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maginot_Line and http://www.lignemaginot.com/accueil/indexen.htm
If you’re a gamer like me or into Sci-Fi and Fantasy, then I expect you’ve seen movies like Princess Mononoke, Nausicaa Valley of the Winds or Castle in the Sky. Hayao Miyazaki is right up there with Mamoru Oshii for me. Mamoru Oshii is the creator of the Ghost in the Shell series along with other fine movies. Anyway, a lot of excellent Sci-Fi and Fantasy movies have taken the Maginot Line and made complete worlds from the concept, aka Castle in the Sky.
Just looking at the fortifications and the concepts behind helps one to understand the world at the time they were created. World Wars, the Industrial Revolution, massive mechanization and weapon buildups. It just gets my gears running in my mind!
Anyway, we might not make it today. Everyone in the family is sick, except for me and the boys (aka my dogs), so the trip might get pushed back until Monday. I just hope that doesn’t mean next weekend I’m sick as a dog too. For now I’m going to link Castle in the Sky & Ghost in the Shell down below. If you’ve never seen either of these films then I recommend checking them out. Awesome storylines and some great artwork. Hayao Miyazaki is more like a cool Disney. Masamune Shirow is a famous artist that did most of the work for Ghost in the Shell, and both of my tattoos are based on his work.
