Jason A. Cheek's Blog, page 19
September 18, 2014
Names for book two
The story for Book Two of the Last Paladin Series carries on the ongoing struggle of Startüm against his people’s ancient enemy. There is no place left to hide, the Tuonellians now know about Earth and the situation on Irlendria is quickly deteriorating as the enemy’s long term plans turns the Alliance of Aurenko against itself. While a large portion of the story focuses on the growing evil that once again threatens to destroy the races of Irlendria, the story on Earth proceeds further as Humanity races to discover more about the enemy that invaded their world.
I know that this is a VERY brief rundown of the general story arc for Book Two, but I felt that it was necessary to discuss the various titles I have been going through in my head. The lists of my first choices are below:
Destiny
Revelation
Descent
Discovery
Exposure
For now Destiny is at the top of the list, although Revelation and Descent are close runner ups. Destiny fits many of the characteristics of the overall storyline, and has the added benefit of being a highly searched name due to the new Destiny MMO that Microsoft recently released. Although that was not part of my initial thoughts when I was choosing the name, but after a couple friends of mine pointed out this additional benefit. It has made Destiny my planned name for Book Two for all of these reasons. Descent would have also been a preferred title in my mind. I’m partial to Descent due to an old video game that had the same name. Descent was my first love within the realm of first person shooters. Also, it has the added benefit of fitting the story’s theme in many ways, unfortunately out of all of the friends I run things like this by, the title was not well received : / Although, I am still interested in having discussions on possible names with anyone who is interested =D Feel free to comment or drop me an email.
For those of you who haven’t noticed, I prefer one word titles for books. Partly this is because I really loved how R.A. Salvatore did his naming conventions for his Dark Elf Series. Titles such as Homeland, Exile and Sojourn are so powerful and simple. I know there are many other writers who have done this with good results, but since the Dark Elf Trilogy is such a powerful story. I’ve been greatly influenced by his writing and the choice of titles in my own books.
I know that this is a VERY brief rundown of the general story arc for Book Two, but I felt that it was necessary to discuss the various titles I have been going through in my head. The lists of my first choices are below:
Destiny
Revelation
Descent
Discovery
Exposure
For now Destiny is at the top of the list, although Revelation and Descent are close runner ups. Destiny fits many of the characteristics of the overall storyline, and has the added benefit of being a highly searched name due to the new Destiny MMO that Microsoft recently released. Although that was not part of my initial thoughts when I was choosing the name, but after a couple friends of mine pointed out this additional benefit. It has made Destiny my planned name for Book Two for all of these reasons. Descent would have also been a preferred title in my mind. I’m partial to Descent due to an old video game that had the same name. Descent was my first love within the realm of first person shooters. Also, it has the added benefit of fitting the story’s theme in many ways, unfortunately out of all of the friends I run things like this by, the title was not well received : / Although, I am still interested in having discussions on possible names with anyone who is interested =D Feel free to comment or drop me an email.
For those of you who haven’t noticed, I prefer one word titles for books. Partly this is because I really loved how R.A. Salvatore did his naming conventions for his Dark Elf Series. Titles such as Homeland, Exile and Sojourn are so powerful and simple. I know there are many other writers who have done this with good results, but since the Dark Elf Trilogy is such a powerful story. I’ve been greatly influenced by his writing and the choice of titles in my own books.
September 15, 2014
Cultures, characters and story arcs
When I started writing Book One of the Last Paladin Series, I was really having difficulties deciding where to start the story at. Since the world of Irlendria has so much history there were many places I could start the story from, but I wanted an Urban Fantasy novel that mixed in Real World and a Magical World. That desire to have both made me decide to start Flight with Startüm on Earth.
I’ve received some criticism on how quickly I started the story out. While the story if fast paced and fun, there were people who wished for a little more back story on Startüm, and rightly so. To be honest, in a way I look at Flight as being the “Star War’s” of my series in the sense of how you are introduced to everything going on in the middle of Startüm’s story.
With Book Two, this will be a lot different. Partly this is because my writing ability is that much better and I am more confident in keeping the action flowing, while giving readers a deeper appreciation of the characters and their cultures. While Flight was about fun and action, Book Two has those same characteristics and much more. I really love the depth of the story.
A good example of this is with the new species and characters being introduced into the story. Legatus Tiberius Decius Lupus, prince of the Minotaurs of the Imperium is a prime example of this. I really wanted to make his culture come alive and give you a depth of his honorable character that is so much more than the beasts so many people think of when they hear the word “Minotaur”.
Nessa Manitou, Centaur of the Great Plains, is her own person with a very distinctive culture. Her people are very different then the Minotaurs of the Imperium. Her beliefs, magic, culture and viewpoint of life come to life. She is much more than just a traditional Centaur from Greek Mythology. The pains of her heart and her loves have a suffering that I believe many readers will be able to identify with.
Also, the Elves in Book Two are similar yet different to the Fantasy we all know and love. Growing up on stories and concepts of D&D and Lord of The Rings, Elves for me had a spectrum of flavors. Wild, Forest, Gray (High) Elves were distinctive and unique in their own ways. I’ve added my own twist to their cultures and story, but without a doubt my past influences flavor their cultures strongly. Lúthien Narmolanya, Enelya Tasartir, Warden Morwen Telemnar and others are distinctly different between one another, but at the same time very Elven.
Just thinking about the story and talking about it here gets me excited all over again, so back to writing.
I’ve received some criticism on how quickly I started the story out. While the story if fast paced and fun, there were people who wished for a little more back story on Startüm, and rightly so. To be honest, in a way I look at Flight as being the “Star War’s” of my series in the sense of how you are introduced to everything going on in the middle of Startüm’s story.
With Book Two, this will be a lot different. Partly this is because my writing ability is that much better and I am more confident in keeping the action flowing, while giving readers a deeper appreciation of the characters and their cultures. While Flight was about fun and action, Book Two has those same characteristics and much more. I really love the depth of the story.
A good example of this is with the new species and characters being introduced into the story. Legatus Tiberius Decius Lupus, prince of the Minotaurs of the Imperium is a prime example of this. I really wanted to make his culture come alive and give you a depth of his honorable character that is so much more than the beasts so many people think of when they hear the word “Minotaur”.
Nessa Manitou, Centaur of the Great Plains, is her own person with a very distinctive culture. Her people are very different then the Minotaurs of the Imperium. Her beliefs, magic, culture and viewpoint of life come to life. She is much more than just a traditional Centaur from Greek Mythology. The pains of her heart and her loves have a suffering that I believe many readers will be able to identify with.
Also, the Elves in Book Two are similar yet different to the Fantasy we all know and love. Growing up on stories and concepts of D&D and Lord of The Rings, Elves for me had a spectrum of flavors. Wild, Forest, Gray (High) Elves were distinctive and unique in their own ways. I’ve added my own twist to their cultures and story, but without a doubt my past influences flavor their cultures strongly. Lúthien Narmolanya, Enelya Tasartir, Warden Morwen Telemnar and others are distinctly different between one another, but at the same time very Elven.
Just thinking about the story and talking about it here gets me excited all over again, so back to writing.
September 11, 2014
squeezing in a little reading
o even though this was a short week I’ve managed to squeeze in several more novels from John Conroe’s Demon Accords. An amazing series btw if you’ve hadn’t checked it out yet. I’ve had a couple friends point this series out. This weekend I’ll be sure to give Mr. Conroe some well deserved reviews for his writing. Since I’ve started writing there is never just a “pleasure read” so to speak.
It’s not that I’m not fully enjoying the writers I talk about in my blog, but there are really important examples of how the writers have done something in particular that I’m also researching. It’s one of the best things about writing. I can research and learn while enjoying great stories. Gotta love that!
What’s really interesting about John’s main characters are that they are so incredibly overpowered. For those of you that have read Flight, then I expect you can understand my interest in how he handles his characters stories. I know some people might instantly think that an overpowering man character would make for a dull story, but that’s entirely not the case. No matter how powerful you are, there are always things that make you vulnerable. Also, I just enjoy the raw power of the main character and how it's welded into an incredible plot line. I take my hat off to John for his amazing stories. As enjoyable as the “Good Intentions” series is, the Demon Accords are just as good. Although not at the same level of eroticness they are definitely worth reading.
Just in case you were wondering, the answer is "yes". I was also researching the different levels of sexual/eroticness between the stories to assist in my own learning/writing of my own stories romantic scenes. My ideas are definitely falling somewhere in-between these two writers flavors.
For those of you wondering how I can write and read in an evening, I tend to finish off most normal sized books in around six hours or less. Yea, we are not talking about Wheel of Time books, those just give me a headache because it takes me like three or four sittings to finish a freaking book, although great stories. So far I’ve been faring better when I read first and write afterword, since the reading will keep me up to 4 in the morning, but the writing I’ll go to bed by 1. It means I get a little more sleep for my work day.
Right now I’m working on the Elven part of my story. All of my characters are there in the middle of it, so it’s like not “ALL” Elvish, if you know what I mean. But there is so much culture involved that it keeps my mind working full time on getting the flavor where I want it to be while bringing the world to life. It would have been easier to just make one species of elf, but in all of my time playing D&D or reading Fantasy. Just having one type of elf didn’t seem right, hence why I have three distinctive Elven cultures in the story.
Anyway, it’s time to get writing tonight, so I’ll blog again another day.
It’s not that I’m not fully enjoying the writers I talk about in my blog, but there are really important examples of how the writers have done something in particular that I’m also researching. It’s one of the best things about writing. I can research and learn while enjoying great stories. Gotta love that!
What’s really interesting about John’s main characters are that they are so incredibly overpowered. For those of you that have read Flight, then I expect you can understand my interest in how he handles his characters stories. I know some people might instantly think that an overpowering man character would make for a dull story, but that’s entirely not the case. No matter how powerful you are, there are always things that make you vulnerable. Also, I just enjoy the raw power of the main character and how it's welded into an incredible plot line. I take my hat off to John for his amazing stories. As enjoyable as the “Good Intentions” series is, the Demon Accords are just as good. Although not at the same level of eroticness they are definitely worth reading.
Just in case you were wondering, the answer is "yes". I was also researching the different levels of sexual/eroticness between the stories to assist in my own learning/writing of my own stories romantic scenes. My ideas are definitely falling somewhere in-between these two writers flavors.
For those of you wondering how I can write and read in an evening, I tend to finish off most normal sized books in around six hours or less. Yea, we are not talking about Wheel of Time books, those just give me a headache because it takes me like three or four sittings to finish a freaking book, although great stories. So far I’ve been faring better when I read first and write afterword, since the reading will keep me up to 4 in the morning, but the writing I’ll go to bed by 1. It means I get a little more sleep for my work day.
Right now I’m working on the Elven part of my story. All of my characters are there in the middle of it, so it’s like not “ALL” Elvish, if you know what I mean. But there is so much culture involved that it keeps my mind working full time on getting the flavor where I want it to be while bringing the world to life. It would have been easier to just make one species of elf, but in all of my time playing D&D or reading Fantasy. Just having one type of elf didn’t seem right, hence why I have three distinctive Elven cultures in the story.
Anyway, it’s time to get writing tonight, so I’ll blog again another day.
September 9, 2014
A Quick Note on Writer's Block
So I’m off Monday and Tuesday this week, which means family time. Even so, I wanted to share some quick thoughts I’ve had on writing.
I’ve heard a lot of questions from people on different forums questioning how to deal with writers block and thought I would throw my two cents into the mix. So far in my short time of writing of two and a half years I haven’t really run into this, but not because I haven’t shared that feeling that so many other writers get. I think this is because of how I plan out my stories and how I deal with that initial “writer’s block” feeling.
I’ve read many articles on writing styles. The two main agreed upon division lines are that people a planners or creators. Planners typically plan their whole world out ahead of time before they write, while creators make up the story as they go creating everything on the fly. I myself do both when I write a story. This flexibility I think helps me deal with situations where I could be hit by writer’s block. Typically I do a whole outline for the individual book I’m sitting down to write. In some spots this outline can be extremely detailed, but mostly for me it’s just the general flow of the events of the story, main plot lines I’m planning on following and approximately where I want my book to wrap up at when I write “The End”.
Another thing I do to help deal with “writer’s block” is to just start writing the chapter I’m struggling over. This can happen where I’m struggling with how to start a certain chapter or I’m struggling on getting the correct flavor. Just writing the general thoughts down that I have in my head, even if it flows terrible, is enough to get me started. It breaks me out of that jammed place I’m stuck in and then either I continue onto the next chapter or I go back to the place I was stuck in and start tweaking it until it flows right. Actually either way I end up going back to it to fix it up, but it doesn’t have to be right away. Usually when I go to sit down to write I read the chapter before to get pick up the flow of where I was at and many times I start smoothing out that rough chapter. So far I haven’t been forced to completely re-write one of these chapters … well not entirely. Sometimes you don’t know if something is too much or too long until you get it down on paper and have your friends check it out.
Lastly, I find a lot of ideas from watching TV Series, reading my favorite authors and watching Movies, along with looking at digital art from graphic artists across the web. Even from friends as we discuss different plot ideas for the story. I usually keep my mind open to different ideas and ways to flavor my own story and make it better. Many of these ideas help to add to my current story outline to make the individual plot lines more detail and realistic. This is not stealing ideas. Your ideas in your head are yours and yours alone, but you can always pick up additional concepts to enhance your story and characters within it.
Okay, that’s about it. My family is chomping at the bit for me to get moving, but before I go, I want to make one last comment on World Building. I am no expert on how many writers fall into each category and I know many “world building” writers that takes years upon years to create their world and then have moved on to become very successful, but I find this very hard to do solely. Much of my worlds are build from dreams I’ve always had over my life, and although these different worlds have been with me forever. I have not sat down and actually created the world in detail. I tend to do this when it is required detail for the story. This even includes adding in non-main characters. I consider them similar to extras in a movie. There are many times that you run into characters that you need to pull up and give brief detail to flesh out the story, but it is not something you need to plan down to the last remote detail before you ever sit down to write your story. I am so careful about “NOT” doing this, mainly because I love story planning. I have spent years planning different aspects of words that I like, but then I never actually simply write the story. I think this can become a trap for many writers. We get so hung up on the details that we never actually take that first step and begin writing. As I write my stories I have discovered that suddenly in a scene I need a squad or two of soldiers, or maybe I need three squad cars with an officer in each. Unless they add something to the overall story, I don’t worry about documenting their characters in the story, unless it’s needed. Also, many of your characters take on their own life in many ways that you have to tweak parts of your story to fit their growing character development. Planning that ahead of time is not always possible.
Ha, well not a short “one last note”. Talk later…
I’ve heard a lot of questions from people on different forums questioning how to deal with writers block and thought I would throw my two cents into the mix. So far in my short time of writing of two and a half years I haven’t really run into this, but not because I haven’t shared that feeling that so many other writers get. I think this is because of how I plan out my stories and how I deal with that initial “writer’s block” feeling.
I’ve read many articles on writing styles. The two main agreed upon division lines are that people a planners or creators. Planners typically plan their whole world out ahead of time before they write, while creators make up the story as they go creating everything on the fly. I myself do both when I write a story. This flexibility I think helps me deal with situations where I could be hit by writer’s block. Typically I do a whole outline for the individual book I’m sitting down to write. In some spots this outline can be extremely detailed, but mostly for me it’s just the general flow of the events of the story, main plot lines I’m planning on following and approximately where I want my book to wrap up at when I write “The End”.
Another thing I do to help deal with “writer’s block” is to just start writing the chapter I’m struggling over. This can happen where I’m struggling with how to start a certain chapter or I’m struggling on getting the correct flavor. Just writing the general thoughts down that I have in my head, even if it flows terrible, is enough to get me started. It breaks me out of that jammed place I’m stuck in and then either I continue onto the next chapter or I go back to the place I was stuck in and start tweaking it until it flows right. Actually either way I end up going back to it to fix it up, but it doesn’t have to be right away. Usually when I go to sit down to write I read the chapter before to get pick up the flow of where I was at and many times I start smoothing out that rough chapter. So far I haven’t been forced to completely re-write one of these chapters … well not entirely. Sometimes you don’t know if something is too much or too long until you get it down on paper and have your friends check it out.
Lastly, I find a lot of ideas from watching TV Series, reading my favorite authors and watching Movies, along with looking at digital art from graphic artists across the web. Even from friends as we discuss different plot ideas for the story. I usually keep my mind open to different ideas and ways to flavor my own story and make it better. Many of these ideas help to add to my current story outline to make the individual plot lines more detail and realistic. This is not stealing ideas. Your ideas in your head are yours and yours alone, but you can always pick up additional concepts to enhance your story and characters within it.
Okay, that’s about it. My family is chomping at the bit for me to get moving, but before I go, I want to make one last comment on World Building. I am no expert on how many writers fall into each category and I know many “world building” writers that takes years upon years to create their world and then have moved on to become very successful, but I find this very hard to do solely. Much of my worlds are build from dreams I’ve always had over my life, and although these different worlds have been with me forever. I have not sat down and actually created the world in detail. I tend to do this when it is required detail for the story. This even includes adding in non-main characters. I consider them similar to extras in a movie. There are many times that you run into characters that you need to pull up and give brief detail to flesh out the story, but it is not something you need to plan down to the last remote detail before you ever sit down to write your story. I am so careful about “NOT” doing this, mainly because I love story planning. I have spent years planning different aspects of words that I like, but then I never actually simply write the story. I think this can become a trap for many writers. We get so hung up on the details that we never actually take that first step and begin writing. As I write my stories I have discovered that suddenly in a scene I need a squad or two of soldiers, or maybe I need three squad cars with an officer in each. Unless they add something to the overall story, I don’t worry about documenting their characters in the story, unless it’s needed. Also, many of your characters take on their own life in many ways that you have to tweak parts of your story to fit their growing character development. Planning that ahead of time is not always possible.
Ha, well not a short “one last note”. Talk later…
September 4, 2014
A brief history and two new characters
I'm trying to get back to doing two updates a week again on the blog. Preferably I would like to get back to three updates a week, but between work, family, writing and life I’m not sure if that’s possible. But it’s always good to have goals, right =D
Here are two characters that I’ve had a lot of fun with and have pictured from the very beginning of the story. I hope you like the brief history of the Elven Races on Irlendria that comes with them:
On Irlendria there are three distinctive groups of Elves that make up the Elven Kingdom that resides within the Great Forest. Although they all live the same general domain, they live separately from one another, internally dividing themselves into Clans: Gray Elves, Forest Elves and Wild Elves. Albeit when referring to themselves, most Gray Elves consider themselves High Elves, a title of pride left over from the Great War. Because it was Daeron Fortress, the Gray Elf ancient home, that stopped the invaders when the Tuonellians sent their hordes to destroy the Elven Race over forty-seven years ago.
While both Gray and Forest Elves are xenophobic to the other races of Irlendria in the extreme, they respect one another and work closely together due to their mutually shared philosophical perspectives on the evolution of the Elven Race. Unfortunately, this commensal relationship does not extend to the Wild Elf Clan. While the Gray and Forest Elves did work closely with the Klavikians at the onset of the War and even altered their metaphysical beliefs to stand against the Tuonellians, the Wild Elves have never left the core values that their race was founded upon. This adherence to the old ways greatly weakened the Wild Elf Clan’s effectiveness during the Great War and caused a rift between them and the other Clans.
This brief history of the Elven people I thought was somewhat necessary to explain my next characters from Book Two, Enelya Tasartir and her soulmate Argus. Enelya is a Spirit Shaman from the Wild Elf Clan. She has an animal companion named Argus, which she calls her soulmate due to the spirit-link they share. While the spirit-link enhances them both, their lives are linked together from this bond. If one dies, so then does the other.
Argus is from a race known as the Wenci, which are apex predators within the Great Forest. The Wenci families are formed into Packs that hunt and live together in small communities with the Wild Elves. Although their bodies are long and slender with short legs, they are large enough to act as temporary mounts for their Elven Companions. The Wenci naturally have incredible dexterity and are armed with long claws and sharp fangs with hides that are protected by thick fur coats that combine to make them tough aggressive fighters.
Here are two characters that I’ve had a lot of fun with and have pictured from the very beginning of the story. I hope you like the brief history of the Elven Races on Irlendria that comes with them:
On Irlendria there are three distinctive groups of Elves that make up the Elven Kingdom that resides within the Great Forest. Although they all live the same general domain, they live separately from one another, internally dividing themselves into Clans: Gray Elves, Forest Elves and Wild Elves. Albeit when referring to themselves, most Gray Elves consider themselves High Elves, a title of pride left over from the Great War. Because it was Daeron Fortress, the Gray Elf ancient home, that stopped the invaders when the Tuonellians sent their hordes to destroy the Elven Race over forty-seven years ago.
While both Gray and Forest Elves are xenophobic to the other races of Irlendria in the extreme, they respect one another and work closely together due to their mutually shared philosophical perspectives on the evolution of the Elven Race. Unfortunately, this commensal relationship does not extend to the Wild Elf Clan. While the Gray and Forest Elves did work closely with the Klavikians at the onset of the War and even altered their metaphysical beliefs to stand against the Tuonellians, the Wild Elves have never left the core values that their race was founded upon. This adherence to the old ways greatly weakened the Wild Elf Clan’s effectiveness during the Great War and caused a rift between them and the other Clans.
This brief history of the Elven people I thought was somewhat necessary to explain my next characters from Book Two, Enelya Tasartir and her soulmate Argus. Enelya is a Spirit Shaman from the Wild Elf Clan. She has an animal companion named Argus, which she calls her soulmate due to the spirit-link they share. While the spirit-link enhances them both, their lives are linked together from this bond. If one dies, so then does the other.
Argus is from a race known as the Wenci, which are apex predators within the Great Forest. The Wenci families are formed into Packs that hunt and live together in small communities with the Wild Elves. Although their bodies are long and slender with short legs, they are large enough to act as temporary mounts for their Elven Companions. The Wenci naturally have incredible dexterity and are armed with long claws and sharp fangs with hides that are protected by thick fur coats that combine to make them tough aggressive fighters.
September 1, 2014
Winter gaming group for WOW
For any of you that are interested, my I will be participating in a “Winter Gaming Group” that starts up November 2nd and goes on basically until the weather is decent here in Germany. A Teamspeak 3 server is being stood up for when the guild get up to the point of raiding.
Here is the official email I received about the group:
“First off, http://www.audiovideodisco.org
Please register, I'm trying to post information to the forums on a regular basis. It's also a great way to get information from the experienced WoW folks. Any questions you have you can post in the forums and I'll try to answer.
Secondly, Teamspeak 3... we have it. This means you need to be able to at least log in. Nothing is mandatory with it, but it's a very useful tool if you are a new player and have questions. Once we hit actual raiding content this will be mandatory.
Thirdly, nothing is stopping anyone from starting up right now! Guild invites are available right now. We just don't have anything on the event calendar until November. If you want to try to put together a higher level group feel free!
Lastly, November starts our Winter Gaming Group events. You need to do the following before November 2nd. This group is more for brand new WoW players than anything else. Helping them level up, learn the basics of the game to hopefully become entry level raiders for the guild later on.
1) Register on the website (I'll get you the correct permissions, just message me through the website or post in the forums)
2) Sign up for the events you will be at via the Events link!
3) Have a level 15 character ready to go on November 2nd! Play what you want and will enjoy!
4) Make sure you have Teamspeak 3 downloaded and you can connect to the server!
Second Lastly, feel free to forward the guild information to anyone interested. The more the merrier! Just send them to the website for more information!”
For those of you who don’t know my history, I was a hardcore gamer for a number of years. I loved all genres … first person shooters, strategy, MMO’s, etc. It was a huge part of my life and still is very important to me in many ways, even though I don’t normally play much now-a-days. Partly the reason I don’t play like I used to was that after being a Guild Leader of an End Game Raiding Guild for so many years. The constant responsibility sapped my love of MMO’s in general. Another part of the reason was that I had a long-term relationship end with my girlfriend who was my gaming partner, which made many of the gaming relationships I had painful to continue holding onto at the time. Also switching over to extreme sports and traveling around the world kind of threw a major kink into having any time to game too.
This doesn’t mean I won’t be writing regularly, but I thought it might be kind of fun to take two days a week to play a couple hours with some co-workers, friends and maybe some fans. I’m just warning everyone, I will be playing at some odd times due to my Central European time zone in comparison to people in Australia, Canada and the United States, but at the same time I would love to have some time to team up and hang out online for those of you that are interested.
Feel welcomed to drop me an email if you’re interested or just sign up on the Guild’s forums
Here is the official email I received about the group:
“First off, http://www.audiovideodisco.org
Please register, I'm trying to post information to the forums on a regular basis. It's also a great way to get information from the experienced WoW folks. Any questions you have you can post in the forums and I'll try to answer.
Secondly, Teamspeak 3... we have it. This means you need to be able to at least log in. Nothing is mandatory with it, but it's a very useful tool if you are a new player and have questions. Once we hit actual raiding content this will be mandatory.
Thirdly, nothing is stopping anyone from starting up right now! Guild invites are available right now. We just don't have anything on the event calendar until November. If you want to try to put together a higher level group feel free!
Lastly, November starts our Winter Gaming Group events. You need to do the following before November 2nd. This group is more for brand new WoW players than anything else. Helping them level up, learn the basics of the game to hopefully become entry level raiders for the guild later on.
1) Register on the website (I'll get you the correct permissions, just message me through the website or post in the forums)
2) Sign up for the events you will be at via the Events link!
3) Have a level 15 character ready to go on November 2nd! Play what you want and will enjoy!
4) Make sure you have Teamspeak 3 downloaded and you can connect to the server!
Second Lastly, feel free to forward the guild information to anyone interested. The more the merrier! Just send them to the website for more information!”
For those of you who don’t know my history, I was a hardcore gamer for a number of years. I loved all genres … first person shooters, strategy, MMO’s, etc. It was a huge part of my life and still is very important to me in many ways, even though I don’t normally play much now-a-days. Partly the reason I don’t play like I used to was that after being a Guild Leader of an End Game Raiding Guild for so many years. The constant responsibility sapped my love of MMO’s in general. Another part of the reason was that I had a long-term relationship end with my girlfriend who was my gaming partner, which made many of the gaming relationships I had painful to continue holding onto at the time. Also switching over to extreme sports and traveling around the world kind of threw a major kink into having any time to game too.
This doesn’t mean I won’t be writing regularly, but I thought it might be kind of fun to take two days a week to play a couple hours with some co-workers, friends and maybe some fans. I’m just warning everyone, I will be playing at some odd times due to my Central European time zone in comparison to people in Australia, Canada and the United States, but at the same time I would love to have some time to team up and hang out online for those of you that are interested.
Feel welcomed to drop me an email if you’re interested or just sign up on the Guild’s forums
August 28, 2014
Quick Update on Book Two
Today I was having an 80’s flashback at work. Being overseas and listening to the Armed Forces Radio, we get an eclectic selection of music played on a regular basis. While we have all the new stuff, the DJ’s also consistently play oldies. What got me on the kick for a couple hours today was hearing the Song “Voices Cary” from Til Tuesday. I had always loved the song but had never looked it up. Luckily now-a-days there is Youtube, so once I found the song I became lost in a haze of 80 tunes. Before I knew it I’d gone through “Holding Back the Years” from Simply Red, “Luka” from Suzanne Vega, a little Duran Duran & Modern English, “Harden My Heart” from Quarterflash and “The Captain of Her Heart” by Kurt Maloo.
Well, enough of that. Back to my Epic Music mega mixes.
I wanted to introduce another character from Book Two, Captain Sean MacRoy. I had thought he was an interesting character, but it wasn’t until after talking with several friends that are beta reading the story for me that I found out just how cool he is. So I’m introducing him here.
Captain MacRoy is Irish, but his decedents come from Scotland. His ancestors intermingled with Norse Settlers before they were invited as a group of almost fifty families to Ireland by the Irish Nobility as mercenaries. The locals called them “Foreign Geals” instead of Scotts due to their mixed heritage, which they later adopted as their name becoming known as the Gallowglass Clan. Sean is a big man with bright blue eyes, curly red hair and broad shoulders. He’s tall, standing at 6’4” or 193 cm, and was born in Belfast, Ireland. Brought up as a Protestant Unionist, he followed the family’s business of hauling bulk-cargo with his ship named Triumph, which was built during the Second World War. Over the years he’s traveled the world, mostly working off the coast of Africa and India where he became a smuggler and gun runner until meeting up with Larissa Evens. Although, once a smuggler always a smuggler.
Sean has a close nit crew of Irish, German and Polish merchant marines that have a number of unique skills acquired over the years from their legal and nefarious activities. Although now-a-days they run mostly legit operations depending upon the corruption of the local governments they are forced to deal with.
Anyway, the story is coming along good. I hope everyone likes the quick update.
Well, enough of that. Back to my Epic Music mega mixes.
I wanted to introduce another character from Book Two, Captain Sean MacRoy. I had thought he was an interesting character, but it wasn’t until after talking with several friends that are beta reading the story for me that I found out just how cool he is. So I’m introducing him here.
Captain MacRoy is Irish, but his decedents come from Scotland. His ancestors intermingled with Norse Settlers before they were invited as a group of almost fifty families to Ireland by the Irish Nobility as mercenaries. The locals called them “Foreign Geals” instead of Scotts due to their mixed heritage, which they later adopted as their name becoming known as the Gallowglass Clan. Sean is a big man with bright blue eyes, curly red hair and broad shoulders. He’s tall, standing at 6’4” or 193 cm, and was born in Belfast, Ireland. Brought up as a Protestant Unionist, he followed the family’s business of hauling bulk-cargo with his ship named Triumph, which was built during the Second World War. Over the years he’s traveled the world, mostly working off the coast of Africa and India where he became a smuggler and gun runner until meeting up with Larissa Evens. Although, once a smuggler always a smuggler.
Sean has a close nit crew of Irish, German and Polish merchant marines that have a number of unique skills acquired over the years from their legal and nefarious activities. Although now-a-days they run mostly legit operations depending upon the corruption of the local governments they are forced to deal with.
Anyway, the story is coming along good. I hope everyone likes the quick update.
August 23, 2014
what a crazy cool week
We’ll as much of a crazy cool week as possible while working my ass off every day at work. Currently I’m sucking down a cup of java and listening to some Stabbing Westward – Sleep ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-z6YAZrauU ). Sorry for being late on my blog update, but it happens. Btw, if you like the old song, check out “Waking up Besides You”, which is another favorite of mine.
To be honest, I still feel somewhat hung over from reading a book that Nathaniel and Richard both recommended I check out during my “research phase” I’ve been working through for my own romance scenes. The book they both thought I should check out, along with Elliott Kay’s Good Intention Series, was John Conroe - Demon Accords 01 - God Touched. You can find the link here: http://www.amazon.com/God-Touched-Demon-Accords-Book-ebook/dp/B003G2ZCW0/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1408784847&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=John+Conroe+-+Demon+Accords+01+-+God+Touched Another one of those books I just had to read in one setting after swearing to myself I would head to bed early after writing until 2200 hours (10PM for those of you not familiar with military time). I promptly went to bed by 0330 in the morning, which made for a really hard day at work for the next morning. Although I don’t know if you can count two and a half hours as sleep, it’s more on the side of being a long nap than anything else. As of abusing myself once this week wasn’t good enough, I did the same thing the next night, only this time I read the second novel in John Conroe’s Demon Accords series. Only this time I didn’t make it to bed until 0430. The only good news was that I finished both books in one setting HA!
Okay, I have to be good this weekend and next week. I have to have some time to recover. I mean seriously, I’m way too old to be going to bed so late on a school (I mean work) night. John Conroe, just give me some time to catch up and I’ll make sure I get those reviews out.
The crazy cool part of my week came down to two parts. One was I received an email from Elliott Kay this week. He liked my review I gave him on Amazon and was (I think) pleasantly surprised to see my happy praise for his Good Intention Series on my blog. You know sometimes when you’re reading a novel you feel like you’ve gotten a good impression of the writer just because of their perspective of their Main Character and what they focus on within their story. When I read Elliott Kay’s books I overwhelming had this impression. Maybe that sounds odd, but the more I write the more I get these impressions, because anyone who writes a novel puts their heart and soul into their work. I think it definitely bares one soul to a point.
I guess I’m saying all of this because Elliott was super cool in his email. He offered to give me some of his personal advice on writing erotica and overall good authoring stuff to be aware of and shared understanding of dealing with some people’s negative reviews. Seriously he’s a pretty awesome cat! I still need to answer him back, but I probably won’t make it until next week. Also, Nathaniel, if you read this before I get a chance to email back, this goes the same for you. I have to watch out how much time I spend on book, blogging and author stuff when I’m home around my family. I’ve been given the talking to that book stuff only happens during non-family time. My wife is working this morning, so I have a little bit of time to do a quick blog update before I have to finish up my house chores.
Currently my wife and I have been catching up on the Teen Wolf Series. We started it late and are just about half way through the third season, so I expect we’ll be staying up late tonight trying to cram in as much Teen Wolf as possible before passing out tonight from staying up too late.
The other somewhat crazy cool thing that I did was accidently share my part of my raw story with my bud Richard. I blame this lack of attention to detail because I’d been staying up so late reading. This raw story is something I usually work a lot together with Deanna and Patrick who both helped with giving their thoughts on the story for book one. The reason is that I’m very shy / embarrassed about my writing until it’s in a cleaned up state and also I try to keep the story under wraps as much as possible. Although Richard was on my list of beta readers, I hadn’t planned to share the story with him until it was finished, but all in all it turned out okay. Richard gobbled the story up in one setting and we talked about his impressions the same day after I got home from work. I was pleasantly surprised and happy with the feedback. It lets me know I’m doing a kick-ass job on book two’s story arc. The only thing is where the part of the story he read left him majorly hanging at an exciting part, which is cruel and usual punishment for those of us who love a great story.
After my research and discussions, I believe I’ll try to base my romantic scenes somewhere in-between Elliot Kay’s and John Conroe’s methods of addressing this. I just won’t know 100% until I put everything down on paper and then run it by my friends, but that’s the plan. Who knows, if Elliot is open to it I might run some of it by him.
Anyway, I need to get started on my weekend cleaning.
To be honest, I still feel somewhat hung over from reading a book that Nathaniel and Richard both recommended I check out during my “research phase” I’ve been working through for my own romance scenes. The book they both thought I should check out, along with Elliott Kay’s Good Intention Series, was John Conroe - Demon Accords 01 - God Touched. You can find the link here: http://www.amazon.com/God-Touched-Demon-Accords-Book-ebook/dp/B003G2ZCW0/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1408784847&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=John+Conroe+-+Demon+Accords+01+-+God+Touched Another one of those books I just had to read in one setting after swearing to myself I would head to bed early after writing until 2200 hours (10PM for those of you not familiar with military time). I promptly went to bed by 0330 in the morning, which made for a really hard day at work for the next morning. Although I don’t know if you can count two and a half hours as sleep, it’s more on the side of being a long nap than anything else. As of abusing myself once this week wasn’t good enough, I did the same thing the next night, only this time I read the second novel in John Conroe’s Demon Accords series. Only this time I didn’t make it to bed until 0430. The only good news was that I finished both books in one setting HA!
Okay, I have to be good this weekend and next week. I have to have some time to recover. I mean seriously, I’m way too old to be going to bed so late on a school (I mean work) night. John Conroe, just give me some time to catch up and I’ll make sure I get those reviews out.
The crazy cool part of my week came down to two parts. One was I received an email from Elliott Kay this week. He liked my review I gave him on Amazon and was (I think) pleasantly surprised to see my happy praise for his Good Intention Series on my blog. You know sometimes when you’re reading a novel you feel like you’ve gotten a good impression of the writer just because of their perspective of their Main Character and what they focus on within their story. When I read Elliott Kay’s books I overwhelming had this impression. Maybe that sounds odd, but the more I write the more I get these impressions, because anyone who writes a novel puts their heart and soul into their work. I think it definitely bares one soul to a point.
I guess I’m saying all of this because Elliott was super cool in his email. He offered to give me some of his personal advice on writing erotica and overall good authoring stuff to be aware of and shared understanding of dealing with some people’s negative reviews. Seriously he’s a pretty awesome cat! I still need to answer him back, but I probably won’t make it until next week. Also, Nathaniel, if you read this before I get a chance to email back, this goes the same for you. I have to watch out how much time I spend on book, blogging and author stuff when I’m home around my family. I’ve been given the talking to that book stuff only happens during non-family time. My wife is working this morning, so I have a little bit of time to do a quick blog update before I have to finish up my house chores.
Currently my wife and I have been catching up on the Teen Wolf Series. We started it late and are just about half way through the third season, so I expect we’ll be staying up late tonight trying to cram in as much Teen Wolf as possible before passing out tonight from staying up too late.
The other somewhat crazy cool thing that I did was accidently share my part of my raw story with my bud Richard. I blame this lack of attention to detail because I’d been staying up so late reading. This raw story is something I usually work a lot together with Deanna and Patrick who both helped with giving their thoughts on the story for book one. The reason is that I’m very shy / embarrassed about my writing until it’s in a cleaned up state and also I try to keep the story under wraps as much as possible. Although Richard was on my list of beta readers, I hadn’t planned to share the story with him until it was finished, but all in all it turned out okay. Richard gobbled the story up in one setting and we talked about his impressions the same day after I got home from work. I was pleasantly surprised and happy with the feedback. It lets me know I’m doing a kick-ass job on book two’s story arc. The only thing is where the part of the story he read left him majorly hanging at an exciting part, which is cruel and usual punishment for those of us who love a great story.
After my research and discussions, I believe I’ll try to base my romantic scenes somewhere in-between Elliot Kay’s and John Conroe’s methods of addressing this. I just won’t know 100% until I put everything down on paper and then run it by my friends, but that’s the plan. Who knows, if Elliot is open to it I might run some of it by him.
Anyway, I need to get started on my weekend cleaning.
August 15, 2014
Update ON Book Two's story arc
After talking to some fans about the desire to have more romantic/erotic action in book two and then doing some research by reading the Good Intentions series, I had to sit back and think deeply on how that would affect my overall story line. While I loved how the erotic action of the MC in the Good Intentions series, I had to consider how this would work in my own story arc. Honestly I have to say this kind of tied me up for a good week to week and a half before I felt comfortable with how to proceed further.
I ran some of my ideas by my friend Deanna, Patrick and Richard who all have different perspectives on the topic. Everyone had some awesome perspectives that really helped me find peace with how everything should fit into the story.
I have found that I need to be careful when I’m getting outside influences into my writing style and how I allow the different things I read or hear affect my story. Richard listens to a lot of discussions and training sessions from various successful authors, which is very good and gives you some great ideas for what to consider when writing. At the same time, I’ve found that sometimes these different perspectives can really make you question your own story line and ideas. Finding a middle path between your own ideas and outside influences I think is very important. I know I listened to one forum of six well known authors discussing magic theory and world design that messed me up for a good two weeks before I felt like I was back to where I needed to be for my storyline.
I’m not saying it’s wrong to listen to how people are creating these very successful stories and worlds, because it is. What I will say is that you need to be careful once you start writing to be able to keep a certain distance between theory and your current story’s design.
Luckily for me, I was able to find myself once again and keep my magic and their practitioners where I wanted them to be. Somewhere between general accepted character types such as Clerics and Paladins while hopefully still keeping a slight mystical unknown quality to their abilities that come out in a logical way within the story.
Recently my biggest dilemma was how to add in romance/eroticism into my story in a way that fit my characters and overall story arc. When I think of some of the best stories that many of us love, a good example would be The Lord of the Rings series, there is not a lot of romance/eroticism within its pages. Even the love between Aragon and Arwen is very light and subdued, there is no question to the depth and the love that they have for one another.
Now I have to be somewhat careful to not give away any spoilers, but I was always a big fan of Pierce Anthony’s The Apprentice Adept series. I read the series at a very young age and there is no doubt that the mixed species relationships within the story affected me greatly. I will be exploring my own twist to such a story line in my Book Two.
Startüm Ironwolf will be facing many new challenges on Irlendria, including those involving the heart. Along with him are many new supporting characters that are dealing with their unique love situations. Although many of these relationships will be interspecies love affairs that cross many boundaries, I am not going to make the story into an erotic novel per say. At the same time I do plan to explore each of these relationships in much more depth than I had originally planned ... at least in the heavy panting way, so there will be a flavor of the erotic to a point. I think it’s important to have a comfortable medium that works within the overall flow of the story.
If that sounds confusing, think of it this way. Would the Lord of the Rings have been a better story if Aragon and Arwen had hot steamy R-rated sex scene in the movie? Wait … wait, I mean yea I could have gone with seeing more of Arwen too, but that’s not the point I’m trying to make here. Let me try this again. Would an R-rated sex scene have fit within the overall flavor of the series itself? I think not. At the same time, I would have liked a little more focus on their time together.
With the Last Paladin Series I have more flexibility within the story in this way. I think the story line itself is better setup for more closer and descriptive romantic scenes between characters that would not detract from the overall story itself. At the same time the story is not the same flavor as Good Intentions. Startüm doesn’t have a Succubus at his beck and call to lead him down a path of eroticism while fighting the good fight. Part of my week and a half pause in writing was to determine how best to tweak the story and fit in the intimacy between characters that many of us find so interesting, while still keeping true to the overall story arc.
I believe I’ve found a happy medium for the Last Paladin Series.
I ran some of my ideas by my friend Deanna, Patrick and Richard who all have different perspectives on the topic. Everyone had some awesome perspectives that really helped me find peace with how everything should fit into the story.
I have found that I need to be careful when I’m getting outside influences into my writing style and how I allow the different things I read or hear affect my story. Richard listens to a lot of discussions and training sessions from various successful authors, which is very good and gives you some great ideas for what to consider when writing. At the same time, I’ve found that sometimes these different perspectives can really make you question your own story line and ideas. Finding a middle path between your own ideas and outside influences I think is very important. I know I listened to one forum of six well known authors discussing magic theory and world design that messed me up for a good two weeks before I felt like I was back to where I needed to be for my storyline.
I’m not saying it’s wrong to listen to how people are creating these very successful stories and worlds, because it is. What I will say is that you need to be careful once you start writing to be able to keep a certain distance between theory and your current story’s design.
Luckily for me, I was able to find myself once again and keep my magic and their practitioners where I wanted them to be. Somewhere between general accepted character types such as Clerics and Paladins while hopefully still keeping a slight mystical unknown quality to their abilities that come out in a logical way within the story.
Recently my biggest dilemma was how to add in romance/eroticism into my story in a way that fit my characters and overall story arc. When I think of some of the best stories that many of us love, a good example would be The Lord of the Rings series, there is not a lot of romance/eroticism within its pages. Even the love between Aragon and Arwen is very light and subdued, there is no question to the depth and the love that they have for one another.
Now I have to be somewhat careful to not give away any spoilers, but I was always a big fan of Pierce Anthony’s The Apprentice Adept series. I read the series at a very young age and there is no doubt that the mixed species relationships within the story affected me greatly. I will be exploring my own twist to such a story line in my Book Two.
Startüm Ironwolf will be facing many new challenges on Irlendria, including those involving the heart. Along with him are many new supporting characters that are dealing with their unique love situations. Although many of these relationships will be interspecies love affairs that cross many boundaries, I am not going to make the story into an erotic novel per say. At the same time I do plan to explore each of these relationships in much more depth than I had originally planned ... at least in the heavy panting way, so there will be a flavor of the erotic to a point. I think it’s important to have a comfortable medium that works within the overall flow of the story.
If that sounds confusing, think of it this way. Would the Lord of the Rings have been a better story if Aragon and Arwen had hot steamy R-rated sex scene in the movie? Wait … wait, I mean yea I could have gone with seeing more of Arwen too, but that’s not the point I’m trying to make here. Let me try this again. Would an R-rated sex scene have fit within the overall flavor of the series itself? I think not. At the same time, I would have liked a little more focus on their time together.
With the Last Paladin Series I have more flexibility within the story in this way. I think the story line itself is better setup for more closer and descriptive romantic scenes between characters that would not detract from the overall story itself. At the same time the story is not the same flavor as Good Intentions. Startüm doesn’t have a Succubus at his beck and call to lead him down a path of eroticism while fighting the good fight. Part of my week and a half pause in writing was to determine how best to tweak the story and fit in the intimacy between characters that many of us find so interesting, while still keeping true to the overall story arc.
I believe I’ve found a happy medium for the Last Paladin Series.
August 9, 2014
Researching for Book Two
After talking to different fans that have read Book One, I’ve heard multiple comments requesting more “erotic action” in the story. Luckily I’d planned for this within the series, but I needed to get some good examples of how I wanted to do this within my world and its characters. Also, there is that whole “Good Paladin” thing I have to take into consideration, but I have a good twist in the story that will fit what I want to do. I think everyone will like it.
Startüm is coming of age, and for his Werewolf side this means some intense emotional and physiological changes. On Earth he’s considered 24 years old, but on Irlendria he is fast approaching his 18th birthday. Unbeknownst to Startüm, this “coming of age” is extremely significant for his Werewolf half. Fighting his intense aggressive feelings was bad enough, but nothing in comparison to dealing with his raging hormones. He suddenly learns what it means to be a horny teenager.
Richard, a buddy of mine, suggested that I check out a book series to get some ideas of how I might want to think about doing the intimate scenes. I wasn’t sure what I thought initially when I read the book’s excerpt, but once I started reading I couldn’t stop. Thankfully there are only two books in the series, because I don’t think I could have stayed up for another night to read the third book. Two sleepless nights of reading and working through the day was hard enough on me.
Yea, the books are THAT good!
The author is Elliott Kay and the first book in the series is: Good Intentions http://www.amazon.com/Good-Intentions-Elliott-Kay-ebook/dp/B0054E8QYE/ref=la_B00B6QGFMY_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1407580735&sr=1-1
The second book is: Natural Consequences http://www.amazon.com/Natural-Consequences-Elliott-Kay-ebook/dp/B00EENE9G0/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1407580694&sr=1-2&keywords=good+intentions
Both are awesome. If you get a chance check them out. The only warning I would give is for those people who are closed mind about religious stuff. If you’re one of those people I would suggest not reading the series, but I figure if you’re reading my blog and have checked out Flight then that’s not an issue. They have a modern Robert A. Heinlein feel to them, mixed in with some Dresden Files and Patricia Briggs.
I now have some awesome ideas for how I want to do some of the specific intimate scenes. For those people who love the intense action, don’t worry. The story is still action packed.
Startüm is coming of age, and for his Werewolf side this means some intense emotional and physiological changes. On Earth he’s considered 24 years old, but on Irlendria he is fast approaching his 18th birthday. Unbeknownst to Startüm, this “coming of age” is extremely significant for his Werewolf half. Fighting his intense aggressive feelings was bad enough, but nothing in comparison to dealing with his raging hormones. He suddenly learns what it means to be a horny teenager.
Richard, a buddy of mine, suggested that I check out a book series to get some ideas of how I might want to think about doing the intimate scenes. I wasn’t sure what I thought initially when I read the book’s excerpt, but once I started reading I couldn’t stop. Thankfully there are only two books in the series, because I don’t think I could have stayed up for another night to read the third book. Two sleepless nights of reading and working through the day was hard enough on me.
Yea, the books are THAT good!
The author is Elliott Kay and the first book in the series is: Good Intentions http://www.amazon.com/Good-Intentions-Elliott-Kay-ebook/dp/B0054E8QYE/ref=la_B00B6QGFMY_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1407580735&sr=1-1
The second book is: Natural Consequences http://www.amazon.com/Natural-Consequences-Elliott-Kay-ebook/dp/B00EENE9G0/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1407580694&sr=1-2&keywords=good+intentions
Both are awesome. If you get a chance check them out. The only warning I would give is for those people who are closed mind about religious stuff. If you’re one of those people I would suggest not reading the series, but I figure if you’re reading my blog and have checked out Flight then that’s not an issue. They have a modern Robert A. Heinlein feel to them, mixed in with some Dresden Files and Patricia Briggs.
I now have some awesome ideas for how I want to do some of the specific intimate scenes. For those people who love the intense action, don’t worry. The story is still action packed.
