Justin Wright's Blog, page 6

Short Story

I have finally posted one of my short stories.  It can be found under the NULL button.  The story posted- titled NULL- was sent to Tor Publishing about a year ago.  They didn't pick it up, but I did at least get an email back.  To this day, that was my first and only rejection letter and even though the story wasn't picked up, I was sort of proud to at least get a rejection notice.  I guess I'm just a little weird.  Please let me know your thoughts on the story.

Turisas

I recently picked up a copy of Turisas’ latest album, Turisas2013.  Turisas has been one of my favourite bands since 2008 when I saw them live at Paganfest in Toronto.  That was actually the best concert I’ve ever been to.  I was going to see another one of my favourite bands at the time, Ensiferum and had never heard of Turisas.  There was also another band there called Tyr, who ended up becoming another one of my favourites, but I will save that for another post. 

In 2007, Turisas released what is now considered their best album, The Varangian Way.  It is a concept album about a band of Vikings travelling through the rivers of modern day Russia to Constantinople.  It instantly became one of my favourite albums of all time and to this day, I still break it out and give it a full listen to.  The more I listen to it, the more I seem to appreciate it.  It was a while before they released their next album in 2011 titled Stand Up and Fight.  That album was good, but not quite as masterful as The Varangian Way and its predecessor, their first album, Battle Metal.  They used that first album to define their own sub genre of metal called… Battle Metal.This leads me to their latest album, Turisas2013.  I heard a few early tracks on YouTube before the album was released and I was not impressed.  It didn’t sound like Turisas.  It didn’t even sound like metal.  I was sure that I was in for a huge disappointment.  The day before the release, I watched their newest video for the song Ten More Miles (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhgsqSBHA6M) and felt a lot better about the upcoming album.  The song seemed to be more in line with classic Turisas and the video was quite well done, splitting its time between a medieval town being raided by Vikings and a boring board room.  (Just watch the video)  The day I got the album, I listened to it about four times.  I must say, it is quite good.  Not as good as their old stuff, but still better than what most bands are churning out and better than I expected.  The songs I originally heard on YouTube and hated, I grew to enjoy.A friend of mine also got the album after I recommendation it.  He is a metal fan, but never really listened to Turisas before.  I was blown away when he said that their new album was going to be placed in his hall of fame.  He then went back and listened to their older stuff, starting with Stand Up and Fight (2011).  He loved that album too, so I told him, if you like that, you should listen to their masterpiece, The Varangian Way.  I was surprised when he told me that album was only mediocre and that the two later albums blew it away.  We both like metal, but for very different reasons it would seem.  I don’t know why he didn’t like The Varangian Way as much, but what can I do?  Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.I also proceeded to read some reviews for Turisas2013 and let me tell you, fans have not been kind.  The reviews on Metal Archives are particularly vicious.  Turisas may not sound like the Turisas of old, especially since Netta Skog, their accordionist left, but they are still churning out decent music.  Five years from now, people may look back at this album and realize they judged it too quickly.

Magic in Fantasy Books

I am currently reading a book by one of my new favourite authors; Brandon Sanderson (http://brandonsanderson.com/) called Mistborn. I am only about halfway through, but I am quite impressed. This is the kind of fantasy writing I aspire to. His characters are incredible and the magic system in this series is something else. It is not just wizards throwing fireballs and summoning lightening, but based more on science, metals in particular. I don’t want to give too much away, but reading this gets me thinking about magic in fantasy books. I will admit, in my book, there really isn’t much magic. I like fantasy settings, but I’ve never been too keen on the magic aspect. It always seemed too convenient. Whenever a character is in trouble, they discover a new power they never knew they had and are able to escape. I more enjoy the problem solving aspect of writing, even though I have written myself into many corners. This is probably why I enjoy a writer such as George rr Martin over a writer such as Raymond E Feist. If you have read the Song of Ice and Fire series, or at least watched the show- if you haven’t what have you been doing with your life?- you know what I mean. There is not a lot of magic involved in those books and the magic that exists, is quite subtle.

Anyways, back to Mistborn. When I began reading this book, I was not in a reading mood at all. In fact, I read about five pages and then put it down for a month, not because it didn’t interest me, but I just didn’t feel like reading, or writing for that matter. But I am glad I picked it up and now all I want to do is read which in turn, makes me want to write. I will reserve judgment on this book until I am finished, but as my cousin has told me, it only gets better. He has read all three books in the Mistborn trilogy and tells me that there will be two more trilogies and two standalone books, bringing the total to eleven. If the early part of the first book is any indication, I think I have found my next long running series to read. Of course I will drop whatever I am reading to read the next Ice and Fire book, and hopefully one day, I will feel the same way about the Mistborn books.

Good Excuse?

Again, I know it has been over two months since my last post, but this time I have a good reason... for real.  Well, at least I consider a wedding a good reason.  It has been a stressful ten months, (Mostly for Shawna) but we are finally married.  We had a 1920's themed wedding and it was awesome.  Everyone had a good time and a lot of people dressed for the occasion.  My brother's friend also swung by with his 1931 Mercedes that we used for pictures.  I think it really makes them standout.

I am still editing away and re writing some old chapters from scratch.  The Landis and Sam storylines have gone through a complete overhaul (as I knew they would) but as always, I feel they are now more flushed out.  They still need a good editing, but one step at a time.  I swear, I will finish this one day.  Just when I thought it was done, it pulled me back in. I also created a 4000 word wiki (word document) containing all the information I can think of pertaining to the world of Kallodhan.  It is still growing and I have a feeling that once it is finished, it will be over 10,000 words. Anyways, now that the stressful part is done, I hope to get back into the swing of things and finish this beast that has taken up two and a half years of my life.

Six Samantha Chapters Completed

Again, it's been a while, but for the few people that read this, don't think I've been sitting around doing nothing.  I've completed (pretty much re-written) six Samantha chapters.  Her storyline seems to be changing quite a bit although the end will remain the same, but I'm just tightening up the story that gets her there.  I will be starting chapter six this week and hope to complete it before the weekend.

It's been a crazy few weeks and it seems like I've had no time to write.  On June 8th, we had our Jack and Jill and we did quite well.  We feel a lot better about being able to afford the wedding now.  The lead up to it was quite stressful.  We were unsure if anyone would come or if we'd make back the money that was spent on the event.  It was a great time, but I'm glad it is behind us so now we can focus on the wedding, which is coming up fast.

My cousin has also started writing again (taking a break from editing all my stuff) and he let me read the first draft of book he is working on.  I read the first 26,000 words and thoroughly enjoyed it.  I hope he continues on with it because I'd like to know what happens to his characters.  He also gave me a book to read by Brandon Sanderson.  It is Sanderson's first book called Elantris and I must say that so far I've found it quite engaging.  For a first novel, he has done a great job and I can only hope that my first novel is near as good.

For the past few months I've not been in a reading mood.  I started a few books but was unable to get into them.  I've only completed one book this year which is far off my usual pace.  I did read Eye of the World which is the first book in the Wheel of Time series.  The series has 14 books all between 600 and 1000 pages, so it will be a daunting task to complete it, especially at my current pace, but I'll manage.  I once thought that I'd never finish the Dark Tower series, but it's been years since I finished those.

Anyways, I always promise more consistent updates, so I'm not going to do that this time.  I'll write when I write, but hopefully more often than not.

Two Books

So A Brother's Will is finished and just needs a quick once over to correct some spelling issues, but unfortunatley, it will not be released just yet.  I have once again changed my mind and instead of releasing four novellas, each about a different character, I have decided to release two books, each comprising of two novellas.  This is something that has been rattling in my mind for a while as from the beginning I've had two prologues.  When I look back at things now, it only seems natural to release everything as two books.  The first book will follow the characters of Andor, Ori, Eryk and Sam while the second book, untitled at the moment, will follow Myra, Yanon and Yeino.

A Brother's Will takes place on the North Western side of Kallodhan while the untitled second book takes place on the North Eastern side of Kallodhan as well as the Isle of Amaranthine.

Everything is written, so it is just a matter of editing, and now that I finally have a clear direction, I have once again returned to my writing mood.  I cannot wait to finish the Sam chapters and combine them with the other chapters of A Brother's Will.  Currently, the novella stands at 42,000 words, but with the addition of Sam's chapters, it will add another 30,000 words, give or take, and make A Brother's Will a complete novel.