Raven Oak's Blog, page 69
January 24, 2015
Scrivener Saturday – Using Targets
This week’s Scrivener Saturday - Using Targets.
With everyone covering keywords, snapshots, & other options, I feel like targets are easily overlooked, and yet they are quite powerful on their own. In Scrivener, there are two types of targets: document targets and project targets.
Using the outline view, you can see progress bars for each scene or document:
Click image to view it larger.
Those progress bars come from document targets, which are set using the circular target-button in the bottom r...
January 23, 2015
Flashback Friday Goes Dark Fantasy
This week, Flashback Friday Goes Dark Fantasy. I’m back this week to cover Anne Bishop‘s dark fantasy novel, Daughter of the Blood (The Black Jewels Book #1).
This book wasn’t published until 1998, two years after I graduated high school, but it was still an influential book during my formative writing years.
Anne Bishoptaught me two things about writing:
Don’t pull your punches. Write the story you want to tell, even if it makes the reader squirm.Don’t be afraid to kill and/or torture your char...January 22, 2015
Book Cover Throwback: The Golden Key
This week’s Book Cover Throwback: The Golden Key by Melanie Rawn.
What I Love about this Cover: There isso much going on in this cover by the always awesome Michael Whelan. Layers upon layers in this one.
What I Don’t Love about this Cover: I could wish for less of an orange tint to the entire work.
Click here to view other Book Cover Throwbacks.
The post Book Cover Throwback: The Golden Key appeared first on Raven Oak.
January 19, 2015
Reading Updates
It’s time for some reading updates, as well as updates to what I’m writing, watching, and playing.
With the release of Amaskan’s Blood and the promotion that goes with a book publication, I’m woefully behind on my reading!
I read and finished Hugh Howey‘s book, The Hurricane, which is a sweet little YA book about the role of technology in our lives, especially during natural disasters. I didn’t realize when I bought it that it was YA.
While I mostly read SF/F, I have been known to read and enjoy...
Monday Night Gaming: Discworld
This week’s Monday Night Gaming: Discworld Ankh-Morpork.
Two years ago when we were just getting started in our exploration of tabletop games, we played another Discworld game called Guards! Guards!, which was overly convoluted and annoyingly complex in its rule-set for no other discernible reason than “just because.” Despite enjoying the world of Discworld, I disliked the game and would not play it again, so imagine my skepticism when my husband wanted me to play Discworld Ankh-Morpork.
Oddly...
January 16, 2015
Flashback Friday: Dystopias
For this week’s Flashback Friday, I once again welcome back author, J. L. Forrest, here for a guest post on how dystopias influenced him (and others) as writers.
Two weeks ago, from a science-fiction writer’s point of view, I explored the inherent tension between our society’s technological advancements and our social quagmires. Technology outpaces our legal systems, cultural mores, and collective conscience. We struggle globally with irrationality, superstition, racism, sexism, theism, and ot...
Dreaded Differences
I’m the featured author over on The Oak Wheel today. I’ve also got a guest post entitled, “Dreaded Differences,” which talks about the prejudice I experienced growing up and how it influenced the writing of my upcoming novella, Class-M Exile.
Quote from the article: “Sci-fi allows writers and readers to discuss, to warn, and to contemplate our existence and our purpose.”
It’s a good read. You can check it out here:
https://theoakwheel.wordpress.com/2015/01/16/dreaded-differences/
The post Dreaded...
January 15, 2015
Book Cover Throwback: Magician Master
To follow up last week’s Magician Apprentice, this week’s Book Cover Throwback: Magician Master, also by Raymond E. Feist. Both books were bound together originally as one book titled simply Magician, which I owned after I read them separately. (I also wrote about this in my Flashback Friday here.)
What I Love about this Cover: It’s electrifying! 
Puns aside, Pug looks like he means business. And the electricity around him is a nice contrast to the blue sky.
What I Don’t Love about this Cover:...
January 12, 2015
Monday Night Gaming: Ticket to Ride
This week’s Monday Night Gaming: Ticket to Ride (Base Game).
Image copyright Days of Wonder
This is one of those games that is loads of fun and fairly flexible for all level of players. It has a decent amount of strategy and luck, yet maintains a casual gaming atmosphere to it along the lines of Catan or Clue. The game is one that can be learned in under 15 minutes. The strategy used will change as the game progresses and often based upon decisions by other players. Once you feel you’ve played...
January 10, 2015
Scrivener Saturday: Meta-Data
This week’s Scrivener Saturday: Meta-Data.
Last week, we covered Keywords, which can be used to help track POV, setting, characters, etc. Scrivener Meta-Datacan do the same thing, just a bit differently. I prefer Meta-Data for certain things and keywords for others. For example, I use keywords to track which characters are in a scene as well as information about the scene, but I use meta-data to track multiples.
Using meta-data is great for:
tracking stories with multiple POVtracking stories wit...
