Category: Epsilon

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Writing update for July 17

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Progress on Epsilon is coming along very, very well at this point, though the fact that I’ve been working on it so hard lately has caused a bit of concern amongst some of my friends (who have since been reassured that I am not, in fact, going completely off my nut).  Book 1 is past the midway point and the critiques I’ve been getting at Critique Circle have only pointed out one or two things, which is good and makes me that much more confident about what I’m doing.

I have quite a bit more work to do on The Last Colony, however, but I think I can handle that–and if I can’t, well, the only person that gets hurt is me.  Awakenings is doing okay, though hits are down the past week or so.

I’m under deadline to get the short story “Falling Stars” prepped for a possible anthology.  If the anthology itself falls through, I’ll probably expand it slightly and then release it through smashwords as a 99¢ short story ebook, probably with a preview of Epsilon book 1.

If anyone’s got ideas on a title for Epsilon book 1, please leave me a note to that regard.  At this point, it’ll probably be three sections, two from Aaron’s point of view and one from Caren’s point of view, bringing everything up to the beginning of the Unification War.  Book 2 will probably deal mostly with the Unification War, leaving later books to deal with later conflicts.

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Epsilon Part 2 started, random restaurant checked out

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I started writing Epsilon Part 2 today, which is taking a bit of a different direction than the last drafts, interestingly enough.  It probably has a great deal to do with the addition of Lucas Ross as a character to the cast and the establishment of a relationship between Caren and Sam well before I’d originally planned for it (but it works in this context and then makes more sense for what happens later on).  I may or may not write a little more before I sleep tonight, considering sleep is trying to come on very, very hard right now and I need to get up and take pictures in the morning of the lakefront before there are any humans in sight and before it gets hot like it did today.

 

We checked out a new restaurant tonight, six miles outside of Elkhart Lake in the town of Keil, WI.  It was a place recommended by one of our favorite bartenders at Lola’s, and is run by someone she went to high school with.

Koehring’s was freaking amazing.  The food was phenomenal, the prices were reasonable, and did I mention the food was phenomenal?  The decor is a little overwhelming, but the food more than made up for it.  I had a filet mignon that I thought was going to kill me, it was so good.  If it had killed me, I’d have died happy.

If you’re ever in the area, definitely check this place out.

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Epsilon draft 3.5.1 Part 1 – COMPLETE

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It’s official, part 1 of Epsilon draft 3.5.1 is complete as of early this afternoon.  I’ve even started Part 2, but the word count above only reflects the work done on Part 1 (which is all I have typed).

At this point, I am under the influence of some lovely Irish whiskey, and I think that I will be collapsing onto my cot here at this lovely resort and turning into a nice, gelatinous pile of goo for a few hours before I get up and do it all over again tomorrow.

I love being pool-minder in the morning.  I really do.  I get tons of work done and it’s quiet and peaceful.  Until the small children start showing up.  Hopefully, there will be far, far fewer of those tomorrow.  Hopefully.

Maybe.

 

Current favorite Epsilon line (which probably won’t make the final cut, because it’s probably a little too shocking):

“And you’re not having hours of ‘I’m so glad you’re alive’ sex why?”

Like I said.  Kind of shocking, especially because that comes out of General Hunter’s mouth.  Gotta love it when your commanding officer shocks the hell out of you, right?

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Well…at least something’s getting worked on…

 

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In between binge-reading Caitlin Kittredge‘s Nocturne City books (as lovely and dysfuctional as Luna Wilder is, she still doesn’t hold a candle to Pete and Jack from Black London, if you ask me) and blankly staring at very obnoxious children (thank god most of them are going home tomorrow so the pool will be a quieter place) I actually got some work down by the pool today.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t The Last Colony.  Brendan, Lindsay, and the rest aren’t very talkative right now.  No, it was Epsilon, and good progress, too–progress I’ll probably continue tomorrow.  I finished off Chapter 10 and moved on to the last chapter for Part 1, which is Chapter 11 of the first book.  I’m still not sure how long it’s going to end up being–it might end up being two parts, it might end up being three.  It depends on how long Part 2 ends up being.

For the moment, Aaron’s angst is delicious.

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It’s good to have goals…

 

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I’ve already posted it on Facebook and I might as well make it official by posting it here, too. I’ve been thinking about it quite a bit the past month or two, and I’ve decided.

Goal-setting is good. Hopefully, I’ll manage to meet this goal (and if I don’t, it’s mostly me that gets hurt, which kind of means it’s the best kind of goal).

A while back, I was posting a lot about The Last Colony and the E-557 universe, which comprised my 2009 and 2010 Nanowrimo projects. The Last Colony is actually fairly close to being done, I just have to finish up another few chapters and polish it up (I probably underestimate how much work I’ve got to do) and then it’s done, I’m going to hand it over to some volunteer editors (probably two, one for spelling proofs and such, the other for continuity errors–I have two people in mind already, it’s mostly a matter of talking them into it). The reason for that is because I’m planning to release it as an ebook at some point in the near future.

Of course, this also means I’ll have to finish the second E-557 book, Ashes to Ashes (tentative title, honestly), and plot the third.

Plus finish at least the first book of the Epsilon saga, since I think that’s going to be more than one book (otherwise, it’d be one really, really long book that I’m not sure anyone would take the time to read), and manage three updates for Awakenings a week.

But it’s a goal, and it’s good to have goals. In reading about the future of publishing, it seems like Smashwords and e-publishing just might be a good direction to go in.

 

Wish me luck.

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Post-vacation update #1

Back from Wisconsin, and what a glorious trip without worrying about work calling me it was.  I got a bit of writing done, both WoWFic–including starting a new story, “Family Ties“–and work on Epsilon (Jen mentioned last night after her perusal that there was a marked shift between Sam Cooper’s attitude toward Aaron in one scene and her reaction to him the next morning.  I promised her it’d make sense later).

I’m still working in part on the revitalization efforts for Sentinels (US) — the RP community has suffered since the opening of Wyrmrest Accord and everyone has seen a sharp decline in numbers.  But at the same time as it’s brought out the lazy in some folks, it’s brought out the best in others.  One of the new blogs on the blogroll is one of those “bests” — Ravine of Lichbane has started a new blog with fiction and discussion of RP issues that I plan to be following closely myself.

Other recent addition to the blogroll is Erik’s blog.  I’ve known Erik and gamed with him for a long time (back since the days when I was almost exclusively doing things ISRP).  Lately, he’s been getting his campaign setting ready to hopefully query more gaming companies with.  I’ve seen bits and fragments of it, and while 4E is Greek to me, the flavor bits and pieces (which I think he really wanted me to pay attention to) are looking pretty good.

Also poked at Aurora Force with a stick, got set up for Michael Bullian’s tragic death at the Battle of Ithor.  I probably need to start drafting how that’s going to happen so I have it together and ready to go when we get that far.  If we ever get that far.

All in all, considering I spent several hours by a pool every day I was away, it was a pretty productive trip!  I’ll have to post pictures up here soon.

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5000 words? Smashed.

Broke 5000 words on Epsilon 3.5.1 less than halfway through chapter two.  Of course…Lucas Ross decided he wanted to go a little crazy on me, so we’ll see what that does for his relationship with Aaron Taylor further down the line.

I think it’s time to clean and organize my craft area, in the meantime, since I don’t have to go into work!

UC raid tonight.  We’ll see how that goes.   My hopes aren’t too high…but maybe there will be screenshots for later.