This has been making the rounds among some of my online writer friends, so I thought I'd participate:
1. Do you share your work with your partner or spouse? Does it matter if it’s been published yet?
Yes, absolutely, and no, absolutely not. My wife winds up appearing in my work in one form or another all the time, so it's only fair to share it with her.
2. How much of your family and/or closest "friends in real life first" read your stuff--let alone give you feedback about it?
Pretty much all of my immediate family and friends get exposed to my stuff. Sort of like germs.
3. What do you do with the pieces that continually get rejected--post on your blog? Trash? When do you know it’s time to let it go?
The short stories I wrote ages ago that never got published are languishing on disks somewhere I probably don't have the hardware to read. I self-published the two novels I wrote that I couldn't find an agent for.
4. Are there pieces you write for one very specific place that, once rejected, you just let go of, or do you rework into something else?
Hasn't happened to me yet. We'll see when I get there.
5. What is your main source of reading-based inspiration (especially you essayists)? Blogs? Magazines? Journals? Anthologies? Book of essays by one writer?
Pretty much everything. Fiction. Non-fiction. Movies. Songs. Comics. Games. Stuff that happens to me.
6. What tends to spark ideas more for you: what you see/hear in daily life or what you read?
It's a toss-up. I think it would be hard to isolate my inspiration to any specific medium. It's organic. (That sounds pretty pretentious. I must be an author now.)
7. Who have you read in the past year or two that you feel is completely brilliant but so underappreciated?
Every month, it feels like Gregg Taylor from Decoder Ring Theater writes a podcast radio show targeted directly at my specific geek-buttons. He and the voice actors who work with him are consistently fantastic.
8. Without listing anything written by Dani Shapiro, Anne Lamott, Lee Gutkind, or Natalie Goldberg, what craft books are "must haves"?
I've read several craft books, but I don't think I'd qualify any of them as must-haves, because I don't think there's one correct way to write. I expect that every writer eventually develops her own process. The best way to get started writing, in my opinion, is to write, and to keep writing, and to talk to other writers about writing. Everything else is just guidelines and preferences.
9. Have you ever regretted having something published? Was it because of the content or the actual writing style/syntax?
Not yet. I can't imagine being ashamed of my style, since that's a matter of practice and polish and constantly evolving anyway. It's entirely possible that I'll say something that's just stupid, though, so I have that to look forward to.
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
Sunday, November 30, 2014
Happy Thanksgiving from Up North
I'm a city boy. My idea of "roughing it" is staying at a hotel without wi-fi. But several times a year, we go up to Northern Michigan to visit Mary Lynn's folks, and every time, I'm struck by how gosh-darn pretty it is up there:
You'll want to click on this to see more of it. It's a postcard-perfect winter landscape, where dark huddled trees are frosted with snow, and the hills are white as far as you can see. And as the backdrop to all of this, the sun is setting, and there's a luminous silver band between the blanket of clouds and the forested horizon.
You're not getting the full effect of the celestial glow, since I'm not a photographer and this was just my camera phone. Your certainly not hearing what I was hearing, which was mostly nothing. No expressway rumble, no radio or television, no insipid endlessly-looping holiday music. The only sounds were the wind and the river.
It's those moments, far from home and far from my electronic cocoon, that stop me dead in my tracks and make me want to write a poem to try to capture the wonder I'm feeling.
Then I realize that I'm freezing, so I snap a picture with my phone and follow the dog back to the house.
You'll want to click on this to see more of it. It's a postcard-perfect winter landscape, where dark huddled trees are frosted with snow, and the hills are white as far as you can see. And as the backdrop to all of this, the sun is setting, and there's a luminous silver band between the blanket of clouds and the forested horizon.
You're not getting the full effect of the celestial glow, since I'm not a photographer and this was just my camera phone. Your certainly not hearing what I was hearing, which was mostly nothing. No expressway rumble, no radio or television, no insipid endlessly-looping holiday music. The only sounds were the wind and the river.
It's those moments, far from home and far from my electronic cocoon, that stop me dead in my tracks and make me want to write a poem to try to capture the wonder I'm feeling.
Then I realize that I'm freezing, so I snap a picture with my phone and follow the dog back to the house.
Wednesday, October 15, 2014
A Shooting Offense
If someone wants to express an opinion about video games, it's wrong to threaten to kill them.
The above sentence should not be controversial. No one should have to defend it. No one should even have to say it. Common sense and basic human value should tell you that it is simply wrong to threaten to kill someone for expressing an opinion.
But, of course, that's exactly what someone did.
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/10/death-threat-forces-cancellation-of-sarkeesian-university-speech/
Whoever wrote that e-mail threatened to kill not only Anita Sarkeesian, but other bystanders as well if Sarkeesian was allowed to deliver her speech.
You would think that everyone who can operate a keyboard would roundly condemn the person who issued this threat. But, of course, the Internet being what it is, you can find crowds of people lining up to justify this.
How do you justify mass murder? Easy. It's because Sarkeesian is a feminist. It's because she's not a real gamer. It's because she cherry-picks examples and alters the facts to back up her argument. It's because games should stand on their own merit, regardless of how politically correct they are.
Even if all of those accusations were true and valid (and that conversation alone could go on for quite a while) none of those things are shooting offenses.
Some of Sarkeesian's opponents (as well as many recent opponents of womens' voices in gaming) like to play a trump card to bypass the whole "murder is wrong" issue: she's lying. There are no death threats. She's inventing the whole thing to gain attention and to back up her position.
This isn't the first time someone has threatened Sarkeesian, though, and it isn't the first time she's reported it. I'll tell you what: you fabricate half-a-dozen death threats against yourself and get law enforcement involved for every single one of them. Let's see how long you last before you get tossed in jail yourself. Sarkeesian's opponents would rather believe that she's a criminal mastermind than believe that there are idiots out there on the internet willing to e-mail her death threats. It shouldn't be hard to guess which one of those alternatives is more likely.
I've tried participating in comment threads where people are justifying the recent violent harassment that's directed against women who dared to express an opinion. Even if I suggest that maybe hacking and doxxing and threatening people is not appropriate in a civil society, I'll find myself shouted down with a variety of accusations:
You're a feminist shill.
Because, apparently, if you post something reinforcing the GamerGate party line, you're a responsible adult voicing an independent, well-considered opinion. But when I express an opinion, I'm acting as a brainwashed agent of the global feminist conspiracy.
(Incidentally, if anyone knows how I can get into the global feminist conspiracy, please put in a good word for me. I'm a decent coder and I have good writing skills.)
Here's another zinger:
That link you posted is from a feminist and/or SJW and it automatically invalidates your argument.
Yes, that accusation is almost word for word. When you post a link defending your position, it's evidence. When I post a link, it ejects me from the discussion. It's nice to be able to arbitrarily set the success/fail rules for a debate, isn't it?
(For those wondering: SJW stands for "social justice warrior". Which is supposed to be an insult, somehow.)
I'm waiting for someone to accuse me of being a white knight so that I can collect the whole set and redeem it for my cash prize.
It defies comprehension. My comprehension, at least. When I say "You shouldn't threaten to shoot a bunch of people to prevent a speech from being held", I cannot conceive why anyone's response would begin with "Yes, but..."
I don't know how to respond to these people. I don't know how to engage with whatever outer-space-alien logic they're using. I don't know how many times we all have to stay "threatening to kill and rape people is wrong" before it starts to sink in.
So I'm saying it again, here, in this blog post. It's a little personal blog that hardly anyone reads, and for all of the reasons shown above, it's not going to convince anyone on the other side of the discussion to change their tune.
But I'm going to say it anyway, because it just doesn't matter whether or not Sarkeesian's opinion about video games, or your opinion, or my opinion, is right or wrong.
If someone wants to express an opinion about video games, it's wrong to threaten to kill them.
The above sentence should not be controversial. No one should have to defend it. No one should even have to say it. Common sense and basic human value should tell you that it is simply wrong to threaten to kill someone for expressing an opinion.
But, of course, that's exactly what someone did.
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/10/death-threat-forces-cancellation-of-sarkeesian-university-speech/
Whoever wrote that e-mail threatened to kill not only Anita Sarkeesian, but other bystanders as well if Sarkeesian was allowed to deliver her speech.
You would think that everyone who can operate a keyboard would roundly condemn the person who issued this threat. But, of course, the Internet being what it is, you can find crowds of people lining up to justify this.
How do you justify mass murder? Easy. It's because Sarkeesian is a feminist. It's because she's not a real gamer. It's because she cherry-picks examples and alters the facts to back up her argument. It's because games should stand on their own merit, regardless of how politically correct they are.
Even if all of those accusations were true and valid (and that conversation alone could go on for quite a while) none of those things are shooting offenses.
Some of Sarkeesian's opponents (as well as many recent opponents of womens' voices in gaming) like to play a trump card to bypass the whole "murder is wrong" issue: she's lying. There are no death threats. She's inventing the whole thing to gain attention and to back up her position.
This isn't the first time someone has threatened Sarkeesian, though, and it isn't the first time she's reported it. I'll tell you what: you fabricate half-a-dozen death threats against yourself and get law enforcement involved for every single one of them. Let's see how long you last before you get tossed in jail yourself. Sarkeesian's opponents would rather believe that she's a criminal mastermind than believe that there are idiots out there on the internet willing to e-mail her death threats. It shouldn't be hard to guess which one of those alternatives is more likely.
I've tried participating in comment threads where people are justifying the recent violent harassment that's directed against women who dared to express an opinion. Even if I suggest that maybe hacking and doxxing and threatening people is not appropriate in a civil society, I'll find myself shouted down with a variety of accusations:
You're a feminist shill.
Because, apparently, if you post something reinforcing the GamerGate party line, you're a responsible adult voicing an independent, well-considered opinion. But when I express an opinion, I'm acting as a brainwashed agent of the global feminist conspiracy.
(Incidentally, if anyone knows how I can get into the global feminist conspiracy, please put in a good word for me. I'm a decent coder and I have good writing skills.)
Here's another zinger:
That link you posted is from a feminist and/or SJW and it automatically invalidates your argument.
Yes, that accusation is almost word for word. When you post a link defending your position, it's evidence. When I post a link, it ejects me from the discussion. It's nice to be able to arbitrarily set the success/fail rules for a debate, isn't it?
(For those wondering: SJW stands for "social justice warrior". Which is supposed to be an insult, somehow.)
I'm waiting for someone to accuse me of being a white knight so that I can collect the whole set and redeem it for my cash prize.
It defies comprehension. My comprehension, at least. When I say "You shouldn't threaten to shoot a bunch of people to prevent a speech from being held", I cannot conceive why anyone's response would begin with "Yes, but..."
I don't know how to respond to these people. I don't know how to engage with whatever outer-space-alien logic they're using. I don't know how many times we all have to stay "threatening to kill and rape people is wrong" before it starts to sink in.
So I'm saying it again, here, in this blog post. It's a little personal blog that hardly anyone reads, and for all of the reasons shown above, it's not going to convince anyone on the other side of the discussion to change their tune.
But I'm going to say it anyway, because it just doesn't matter whether or not Sarkeesian's opinion about video games, or your opinion, or my opinion, is right or wrong.
If someone wants to express an opinion about video games, it's wrong to threaten to kill them.
Sunday, August 24, 2014
Divinity: Original Sin
I have somewhere around 50 hours in on Divinity: Original Sin, and I'm finding it challenging and rewarding. The turn-based combat requires planning, preparation, and tactics, and is finely balanced so that you're constantly on the edge between failure and success. The co-op is well-implemented, allowing you to coordinate strategy and character builds with a friend. The story is pretty bland fantasy-RPG fare; the best I can say about it is that it gets out of the way quickly so that you can get back to the game.
The one down side is that it can be unforgiving. The fights don't scale to your character level, and if you try to confront certain areas of the map in the wrong order, you'll walk into fights you can't possibly win. During early phases of the game, when it's not entirely clear where you should be going and when, this can result in a series of unavoidable deaths while you figure out where the high-level and low-level enemies are hiding out. Also, it's critical to have a variety of skills and spells across the characters in your party in order to handle a variety of situations.
A few tips for anyone just venturing into this game:
The one down side is that it can be unforgiving. The fights don't scale to your character level, and if you try to confront certain areas of the map in the wrong order, you'll walk into fights you can't possibly win. During early phases of the game, when it's not entirely clear where you should be going and when, this can result in a series of unavoidable deaths while you figure out where the high-level and low-level enemies are hiding out. Also, it's critical to have a variety of skills and spells across the characters in your party in order to handle a variety of situations.
A few tips for anyone just venturing into this game:
- Save often. After every fight, at least. Very few fights are cake walks, and it's disheartening to lose a half-hour or an hour of progress due to losing your party in an unexpected ambush.
- Pick up your two free NPC companions as soon as you reach the main city. You'll need to explore a bit to find them, but you'll need a full party of four to get through the game.
- Elemental spells (fire, earth, air, water) are critical. Spread these skills across your characters as best you can. You'll need them to counteract enemy elemental spells, and if you use them correctly, you can combine their effects for extra benefits. Combining water and air spells allows you to create electrically-charged fields of water; combining poison and fire can set a significant part of the battlefield ablaze.
- Get at least one healing spell as soon as you can. Healing potions are expensive early in the game, and you'll need a source of healing that works in-combat and that doesn't use up your precious gold.
- Learn summon spells as soon as they're available. Just putting extra allies on the field to serve as targets for the enemy can be enormously helpful.
- Save money for healing potions and resurrect scrolls. Sometimes you're in a position where everyone's healing spell is still on cooldown and you need another hundred or so hit points right now. Also, even though you can reload and try a fight over again if a character dies, sometimes it's easier and quicker just to spend the money for a resurrect, call the character back from the afterlife and keep going.
The game can be frustrating, since it seems to like to teach you to play by killing you repeatedly. But the hard-won victories are all the sweeter, and when your cleverly-planned strategies bring down the big bosses, you'll feel like a proper champion.
Saturday, April 19, 2014
Card Hunter: Early Impressions
I'm finding myself addicted to Card Hunter, a game that's a cross between a dungeon-crawl RPG and a collectible card game. If you lost interest in this blog post at the words "collectible card game," just give me a few more paragraphs. You might find that this game isn't quite what you expect.
I'll explain the game first, and then I'll explain what really keeps me coming back.
Card Hunter isn't primarily a competitive, player-vs-player game. There is a PvP mode which can earn you in-game loot, but from my experience, it looks like most of the interesting content is in the single-player campaign mode. In brief, you control a small party of adventurer characters, battling their way through an extensive series of maps and encounters. Your characters' powers are represented by stacks of cards. When it's time for your characters to act, you play a card in order to use a character's ability. The cards represent movement, attacks, spells, healing, curses, and other such game effects.
There are some map tactics involved as well. Each encounter takes place on a battleground containing terrain elements such as walls, rubble, chasms, and other features that you'll need to contend with. You'll need to keep your characters moving to keep the enemy from flanking you, to put your heavy hitters where they can have the most effect, and to rush your healer to where he's needed most.
Leveling up your characters and gaining equipment gives you more cards, and better cards. Your characters' abilities will expand, and their capacity to suffer and inflict harm will increase. By inspecting the cards that your equipment grants, you can find synergies that allow your cards to amplify each other.
The AI is a decent opponent, and the encounters present a wide variety of threats. You'll have to adjust your tactics from battle to battle as you learn the capability of the enemy. All of this, by itself, makes for a rewarding game experience.
But it's the style of the game that pushes my buttons. The game is presented as if it's a classic, old-school roleplaying game, being played in a classic, old-school environment: around a table in someone's basement, with snacks and dice close at hand. At the start of each adventure, you'll get to see the cover of the adventure book you're playing through, and the visual style of these books will be immediately familiar to anyone who played the original D&D. The battlefield itself is presented as a cardboard map, and the players are stand-up cardboard tokens. The illusion even extends off the map, where you can see dice, GM notes, and adventure aid cards from the fictional "real life" Card Hunter game. For gamers of a certain age, this is a fairly faithful re-creation of your childhood.
And that, I think, is what makes Card Hunter special. It celebrates the simple appeal of "kick in the door" RPG's like D&D, and the excitement of opening a new adventure book with your friends. The card-collecting aspect of the game may put off traditional roleplayers, but honestly, it's not a hardcore CCG like Magic. You don't have to hand-assemble a deck, card by card, balancing your mana curve and inventing devastating combos. You just have to drop some swords and armor on your character sheet and sally forth.
Yes, it's a free to play game, but it's not one of those free-to-play games. It doesn't try to penalize you or shame you if you haven't paid up. There's a lot of adventuring to be had for free. I wish more free-to-play games were like this; they should earn your gaming dollars by entertaining you, giving you such a good time that you're glad to kick in just to support the developers.
If you like tactical RPG's, or if you like card-collecting games but you don't want to spend time studying cards and building decks, or if you just have fond memories of making saving throws while eating potato chips, give Card Hunter a look. It won't cost you a dime to take a good, long look and decide for yourself.
I'll explain the game first, and then I'll explain what really keeps me coming back.
Card Hunter isn't primarily a competitive, player-vs-player game. There is a PvP mode which can earn you in-game loot, but from my experience, it looks like most of the interesting content is in the single-player campaign mode. In brief, you control a small party of adventurer characters, battling their way through an extensive series of maps and encounters. Your characters' powers are represented by stacks of cards. When it's time for your characters to act, you play a card in order to use a character's ability. The cards represent movement, attacks, spells, healing, curses, and other such game effects.
There are some map tactics involved as well. Each encounter takes place on a battleground containing terrain elements such as walls, rubble, chasms, and other features that you'll need to contend with. You'll need to keep your characters moving to keep the enemy from flanking you, to put your heavy hitters where they can have the most effect, and to rush your healer to where he's needed most.
Leveling up your characters and gaining equipment gives you more cards, and better cards. Your characters' abilities will expand, and their capacity to suffer and inflict harm will increase. By inspecting the cards that your equipment grants, you can find synergies that allow your cards to amplify each other.
The AI is a decent opponent, and the encounters present a wide variety of threats. You'll have to adjust your tactics from battle to battle as you learn the capability of the enemy. All of this, by itself, makes for a rewarding game experience.
But it's the style of the game that pushes my buttons. The game is presented as if it's a classic, old-school roleplaying game, being played in a classic, old-school environment: around a table in someone's basement, with snacks and dice close at hand. At the start of each adventure, you'll get to see the cover of the adventure book you're playing through, and the visual style of these books will be immediately familiar to anyone who played the original D&D. The battlefield itself is presented as a cardboard map, and the players are stand-up cardboard tokens. The illusion even extends off the map, where you can see dice, GM notes, and adventure aid cards from the fictional "real life" Card Hunter game. For gamers of a certain age, this is a fairly faithful re-creation of your childhood.
And that, I think, is what makes Card Hunter special. It celebrates the simple appeal of "kick in the door" RPG's like D&D, and the excitement of opening a new adventure book with your friends. The card-collecting aspect of the game may put off traditional roleplayers, but honestly, it's not a hardcore CCG like Magic. You don't have to hand-assemble a deck, card by card, balancing your mana curve and inventing devastating combos. You just have to drop some swords and armor on your character sheet and sally forth.
Yes, it's a free to play game, but it's not one of those free-to-play games. It doesn't try to penalize you or shame you if you haven't paid up. There's a lot of adventuring to be had for free. I wish more free-to-play games were like this; they should earn your gaming dollars by entertaining you, giving you such a good time that you're glad to kick in just to support the developers.
If you like tactical RPG's, or if you like card-collecting games but you don't want to spend time studying cards and building decks, or if you just have fond memories of making saving throws while eating potato chips, give Card Hunter a look. It won't cost you a dime to take a good, long look and decide for yourself.
Sunday, February 9, 2014
The Last Video Game
From time to time, I consider abandoning my nice, secure IT job and going into video game development. I have visions of developing original, entertaining games that are well-regarded and are enjoyed around the world.
But after visiting this Tumblr, I see that my opportunities for becoming a video game developer will soon expire, if they have not already.
Game development companies have found that innovation is unnecessary. It is more economical and reliable to find an existing, successful copy, and produce a close copy of that game. If you make your copy quickly enough, you can seize market share both from the original game and from the other copies that will inevitably follow.
As software tools become more sophisticated, we will be able to automate more and more of the development process. Game development companies will develop tools that can find hot games trending on app stores, download them, reverse engineer the code, scrape off any intellectual property, add new graphics and styling, and re-upload the same game with a slightly different name. There will be no software developers any more, simply computer software running 24x7, flooding app stores with homogeneous spam. Even the big development companies will become nothing more than vast arrays of soulless servers, without respect for the craft or for their customers. (Some might suggest that EA has achieved this level of sophistication already.)
The last original game will be developed by a young hobbyist in Ukraine, using a pirated copy of Multimedia Fusion. The game will put the player in the role of a boy with a golf club, standing over a gopher hole. At some random time, a gopher pops out of the hole. The player presses a button, causing the simulated boy to swing his golf club. If the boy swings his golf club at the right time, the club strikes the gopher and sends it flying. The game calculates the player's score based on the distance the gopher travels.
This by itself is not an original idea, but since the author does not include any hint of Bill Murray or Kenny Loggins in the game, there is no obvious copyright violation. The author uploads his game to a few app stores, writes a Facebook post about it, and a few of his friends buy a copy.
This brief uptick in sales alerts automated game development systems all across the globe. Within moments, thousands of Gopher Golfer clones appear. They all appear superficially different: there's a version with a caveman bashing a velociraptor with a club; there's a version with a presidential candidate smacking the opposing presidential candidate; there's a version with a giant gopher teeing off over a miniature golfer; there is a Star Wars themed clone that you have probably already designed in your head while you were reading this.
The real job of the game development engines is to layer on microtransaction content, so the clones of Gopher Golfer all the player to pay real money to buy different clubs, or to buy pets to scare the gopher out of the hole, or to buy snazzy clothes to dress up the simulated golfer.
The casual clones of Gopher Golfer inspire big-budget clones. Within days, every MMO is an endless plain populated by male warriors in elaborate armor and female warriors in tight lingerie, all carrying swords as big as skyscrapers, all lurking outside caves waiting for the demons inside to pop their heads out. A week more, and EA/Bioware releases an epic RPG version of Gopher Golfer, with voice talent provided by several dozen celebrities, and containing a thick web of romance options.
By the time this future comes to pass, copyright laws will preclude any concept of consumer ownership, and the authorities will have collected and destroyed every last DVD, CD, floppy disk, cartridge, or cassette tape produced in more forgiving times. Every game you subscribe to, or buy a microtransaction for, will delete itself as soon as its owning company determines that the game is no longer generating sufficient revenue. There is no legal way to purchase or play your old, expired games. You may only play the latest releases, the games whose owners are still paying game bloggers to write good reviews for. So, within a month of the debut of the original Gopher Golfer, every video game on the planet will be an iteration of Gopher Golfer.
Naturally, game development companies will have also figured out how to automate copyright lawsuits, and millions of Gopher Golfer related DCMA takedown notices will blast through the internet hourly, but these lawsuits will have become a zero-sum game for every professional development company. One penalty paid here is reimbursed by another penalty rewarded over there. Unfortunately, the author of the original Gopher Golfer is not part of a professional gaming company, and when he tries to release an RTS sequel to his own game, the sheer economic force of the lawsuits generated against him causes the global economy to ...
But that's a different sort of apocalyptic story, perhaps for another day.
So cherish your video games while you can. Dust off your old copy of Baldur's Gate, or Freedom Force, or Chrono Trigger. Whisper a silent "thank you" to the men and women who used their talent and imagination to entertain you.
Because your future is made entirely of gophers and golf clubs.
But after visiting this Tumblr, I see that my opportunities for becoming a video game developer will soon expire, if they have not already.
Game development companies have found that innovation is unnecessary. It is more economical and reliable to find an existing, successful copy, and produce a close copy of that game. If you make your copy quickly enough, you can seize market share both from the original game and from the other copies that will inevitably follow.
As software tools become more sophisticated, we will be able to automate more and more of the development process. Game development companies will develop tools that can find hot games trending on app stores, download them, reverse engineer the code, scrape off any intellectual property, add new graphics and styling, and re-upload the same game with a slightly different name. There will be no software developers any more, simply computer software running 24x7, flooding app stores with homogeneous spam. Even the big development companies will become nothing more than vast arrays of soulless servers, without respect for the craft or for their customers. (Some might suggest that EA has achieved this level of sophistication already.)
The last original game will be developed by a young hobbyist in Ukraine, using a pirated copy of Multimedia Fusion. The game will put the player in the role of a boy with a golf club, standing over a gopher hole. At some random time, a gopher pops out of the hole. The player presses a button, causing the simulated boy to swing his golf club. If the boy swings his golf club at the right time, the club strikes the gopher and sends it flying. The game calculates the player's score based on the distance the gopher travels.
This by itself is not an original idea, but since the author does not include any hint of Bill Murray or Kenny Loggins in the game, there is no obvious copyright violation. The author uploads his game to a few app stores, writes a Facebook post about it, and a few of his friends buy a copy.
This brief uptick in sales alerts automated game development systems all across the globe. Within moments, thousands of Gopher Golfer clones appear. They all appear superficially different: there's a version with a caveman bashing a velociraptor with a club; there's a version with a presidential candidate smacking the opposing presidential candidate; there's a version with a giant gopher teeing off over a miniature golfer; there is a Star Wars themed clone that you have probably already designed in your head while you were reading this.
The real job of the game development engines is to layer on microtransaction content, so the clones of Gopher Golfer all the player to pay real money to buy different clubs, or to buy pets to scare the gopher out of the hole, or to buy snazzy clothes to dress up the simulated golfer.
The casual clones of Gopher Golfer inspire big-budget clones. Within days, every MMO is an endless plain populated by male warriors in elaborate armor and female warriors in tight lingerie, all carrying swords as big as skyscrapers, all lurking outside caves waiting for the demons inside to pop their heads out. A week more, and EA/Bioware releases an epic RPG version of Gopher Golfer, with voice talent provided by several dozen celebrities, and containing a thick web of romance options.
By the time this future comes to pass, copyright laws will preclude any concept of consumer ownership, and the authorities will have collected and destroyed every last DVD, CD, floppy disk, cartridge, or cassette tape produced in more forgiving times. Every game you subscribe to, or buy a microtransaction for, will delete itself as soon as its owning company determines that the game is no longer generating sufficient revenue. There is no legal way to purchase or play your old, expired games. You may only play the latest releases, the games whose owners are still paying game bloggers to write good reviews for. So, within a month of the debut of the original Gopher Golfer, every video game on the planet will be an iteration of Gopher Golfer.
Naturally, game development companies will have also figured out how to automate copyright lawsuits, and millions of Gopher Golfer related DCMA takedown notices will blast through the internet hourly, but these lawsuits will have become a zero-sum game for every professional development company. One penalty paid here is reimbursed by another penalty rewarded over there. Unfortunately, the author of the original Gopher Golfer is not part of a professional gaming company, and when he tries to release an RTS sequel to his own game, the sheer economic force of the lawsuits generated against him causes the global economy to ...
But that's a different sort of apocalyptic story, perhaps for another day.
So cherish your video games while you can. Dust off your old copy of Baldur's Gate, or Freedom Force, or Chrono Trigger. Whisper a silent "thank you" to the men and women who used their talent and imagination to entertain you.
Because your future is made entirely of gophers and golf clubs.
Thursday, January 23, 2014
Write every day - no, really
If you've ever made any attempt at seeking advice on becoming a writer, you'll have run across one suggestion that pops up everywhere: "Write every day." It's easy to look at this suggestion and say "Okay, I see the intention here. You're supposed to establish a work ethic, keep your output steady, and treat your writing seriously. Fine, but I can do that by just writing two or three times a week, so long as I keep it up."
There's certainly nothing wrong with writing just X days a week, or Y days a month, so long as you keep to your schedule. That's how I got Stone of Names finished. But recently I've rearranged my schedule so that I actually can write every day.
I've found that the effect of this goes beyond merely word count. Now that I'm writing every day, it's getting into my blood. I find that some small part of my mind is always thinking about the book. I'll be standing around, waiting for the microwave to ding, when a line for my next chapter will pop into my head. Then I have to run and grab my little notebook and write it down. When I do sit down in front of my laptop, I can get back into the flow more easily, because it feels as if I never really left it.
When I was writing just a few days a week, I felt like a software developer who sometimes does a little writing on the side. Now that I'm writing every day, I feel like a writer.
There's certainly nothing wrong with writing just X days a week, or Y days a month, so long as you keep to your schedule. That's how I got Stone of Names finished. But recently I've rearranged my schedule so that I actually can write every day.
I've found that the effect of this goes beyond merely word count. Now that I'm writing every day, it's getting into my blood. I find that some small part of my mind is always thinking about the book. I'll be standing around, waiting for the microwave to ding, when a line for my next chapter will pop into my head. Then I have to run and grab my little notebook and write it down. When I do sit down in front of my laptop, I can get back into the flow more easily, because it feels as if I never really left it.
When I was writing just a few days a week, I felt like a software developer who sometimes does a little writing on the side. Now that I'm writing every day, I feel like a writer.
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Stone of Names is on the Kindle Store!
I said I'd get Stone of Names available for purchase by the end of the year, and I made it with a few hours to spare. Click here to check it out.
I'm also going to be moving most of my author-related posts to my new blog and to my new Facebook page. These sites will present my public face as an author. My more chatty personal posts will remain here at Adventure21.
Now on to getting the print version ready for sale...
I'm also going to be moving most of my author-related posts to my new blog and to my new Facebook page. These sites will present my public face as an author. My more chatty personal posts will remain here at Adventure21.
Now on to getting the print version ready for sale...
Monday, November 25, 2013
Stone of Names: November Status Report
I'm still on track to have Stone of Names up on Amazon in December. It might be 11 PM December 31st, but it will be December. I'm in the final editing phase, correcting a few continuity and missing-information issues. Unfortunately, my productivity has really slowed down. I might have to step away from the book for a couple of days to reboot.
I'm torn about whether my next book should be the alt-history whodunit I have planned, or the young adult urban fantasy I recently had an idea for. I already have the mystery all plotted out, down to the characters and scenes and whatnot, but I expect that more contemporary urban fantasy is an easier sell right now.
In any case, Stone of Names is definitely in the homestretch now. Can't wait to have a copy in my hands.
I'm torn about whether my next book should be the alt-history whodunit I have planned, or the young adult urban fantasy I recently had an idea for. I already have the mystery all plotted out, down to the characters and scenes and whatnot, but I expect that more contemporary urban fantasy is an easier sell right now.
In any case, Stone of Names is definitely in the homestretch now. Can't wait to have a copy in my hands.
Saturday, October 26, 2013
Review: The Walking Dead [Game]
I've expressed my discontent with zombie fiction before. So many zombie stories are simply endless sequences of live people shooting dead people in the head. I also think that there are entirely too many zombie video games (although, as a genre, it's certainly outnumbered by "elves, swords, and magic" games, which leads to a whole different conversation).
That being said, The Walking Dead is a fantastic game.
It might be more accurate to call it an interactive story, instead of a game. Though it's a point-and-click adventure game at heart, there are only a few puzzles that could be considered challenging. The quick-time events ("click this hotspot NOW!") present more of an obstacle, but a couple of these are more frustrating than engaging. The rest of your interaction with the story primarily consists of walking the main character through a series of obvious steps.
Once in a while, though, the simple actions you're presented with leave you with a choice of options, and the decision you make has a significant effect on the rest of the story. If you have the hints turned off, it may not even be obvious that you've hit one of those branching points. And once your decision is made, you get to play through the consequences.
The game designers made sure to put some emotional weight behind those choices. There were several occasions where I was horrified at the decision that I was being forced to make, and given only a couple of seconds in which to make it. Those mouse clicks are far more gut-wrenching than any other game's "click here to kill a zombie" mechanics.
Even the sequences where you're just clicking through a series of fixed events are used to really drive home the mood of the story. Whether you're staggering through a corridor or wielding a gory axe, the interactive events put you into the middle of the story and make you feel that the blood is really on your hands.
The art, the writing, and the voice acting are all top-notch. This would have been a decent story even without the interactive elements. But the game gives you enough control to really draw you into the hope and the pain of the characters, and elevates it to a higher level.
I wouldn't say this is a "fun" game. It's certainly not a happy-go-lucky murder simulator where your character deals death with a quip and a wink. Parts of this game hurt to play. But I think this is the best zombie apocalypse story I've seen, and quite possibly it always will be.
That being said, The Walking Dead is a fantastic game.
It might be more accurate to call it an interactive story, instead of a game. Though it's a point-and-click adventure game at heart, there are only a few puzzles that could be considered challenging. The quick-time events ("click this hotspot NOW!") present more of an obstacle, but a couple of these are more frustrating than engaging. The rest of your interaction with the story primarily consists of walking the main character through a series of obvious steps.
Once in a while, though, the simple actions you're presented with leave you with a choice of options, and the decision you make has a significant effect on the rest of the story. If you have the hints turned off, it may not even be obvious that you've hit one of those branching points. And once your decision is made, you get to play through the consequences.
The game designers made sure to put some emotional weight behind those choices. There were several occasions where I was horrified at the decision that I was being forced to make, and given only a couple of seconds in which to make it. Those mouse clicks are far more gut-wrenching than any other game's "click here to kill a zombie" mechanics.
Even the sequences where you're just clicking through a series of fixed events are used to really drive home the mood of the story. Whether you're staggering through a corridor or wielding a gory axe, the interactive events put you into the middle of the story and make you feel that the blood is really on your hands.
The art, the writing, and the voice acting are all top-notch. This would have been a decent story even without the interactive elements. But the game gives you enough control to really draw you into the hope and the pain of the characters, and elevates it to a higher level.
I wouldn't say this is a "fun" game. It's certainly not a happy-go-lucky murder simulator where your character deals death with a quip and a wink. Parts of this game hurt to play. But I think this is the best zombie apocalypse story I've seen, and quite possibly it always will be.
Saturday, October 19, 2013
Anachronox is on Steam!
Anachronox is one of my favorite games of all time, and I'm elated that it's now available on Steam. I still have my original install disks, secured in a hermetically-sealed safe in a secret offsite location, but now it's available to everyone for easy and convenient download.
I recommend this game almost without hesitation. The reason I hesitate is that it's a bit odd, and some folks might not care for it as a result. The graphics are surely dated and quaint by now (they were even a bit dated at the time it came out) and the combat system is not exactly a tightly tuned engine of tactical complexity. But the story, style, and humor kept me glued to the screen from beginning to end, and for that alone, I'm glad that more gamers will get a chance to experience this game.
At heart, Anachronox is a classic console-style RPG, a mixture of dungeon crawls, turn-based battles, character progression, and world exploration, with a strong focus on story. I love all of these elements, but for many console RPG's, the "story" is somewhat lacking. I don't need to play any more RPG's staring the brave-but-bland hero without a past, accompanied by his pure-hearted love interest and a cast of stereotypes including the gruff but loyal bruiser or the gorgeous woman with big breasts and few clothes.
The story of Anachronox is about a down-on-his-luck private eye who ...
Yeah, they had me at private eye.
Anachronox is primarily a mix of cyberpunk and space opera, in a world that never takes itself too seriously. One of your companions is a grumpy old wizard who can stun opponents with a powerful stream of gibberish; another companion is a miniaturized planet whose population has decided to send their homeworld off on adventure. At one point in the game you encounter a large organization of superheroes, whose detailed backstories include the issue number of the fictional comic book series they debuted in. (I wanted very badly to read these comics.) The game's humor can be found even in subtle details of the setting, like the vending machine you find in a lobby of the game's central space station, with a label on the side reading "Asnackronox".
One day, when I have some time on my hands, I hope to play through this fantastic game and enjoy it all over again. I still nurse an ambition of one day running a tabletop roleplaying game set in the Anachronox universe. But for now, I merely want to give the game a shout-out, and encourage anyone who loves a little humor and noir with their science fiction to plunk down seven bucks and let Sylvester "Sly" Boots show you around his world.
(Oh - and is a sequel too much to hope for? Maybe by way of a Kickstarter project? I'll be first in line to pledge.)
I recommend this game almost without hesitation. The reason I hesitate is that it's a bit odd, and some folks might not care for it as a result. The graphics are surely dated and quaint by now (they were even a bit dated at the time it came out) and the combat system is not exactly a tightly tuned engine of tactical complexity. But the story, style, and humor kept me glued to the screen from beginning to end, and for that alone, I'm glad that more gamers will get a chance to experience this game.
At heart, Anachronox is a classic console-style RPG, a mixture of dungeon crawls, turn-based battles, character progression, and world exploration, with a strong focus on story. I love all of these elements, but for many console RPG's, the "story" is somewhat lacking. I don't need to play any more RPG's staring the brave-but-bland hero without a past, accompanied by his pure-hearted love interest and a cast of stereotypes including the gruff but loyal bruiser or the gorgeous woman with big breasts and few clothes.
The story of Anachronox is about a down-on-his-luck private eye who ...
Yeah, they had me at private eye.
Anachronox is primarily a mix of cyberpunk and space opera, in a world that never takes itself too seriously. One of your companions is a grumpy old wizard who can stun opponents with a powerful stream of gibberish; another companion is a miniaturized planet whose population has decided to send their homeworld off on adventure. At one point in the game you encounter a large organization of superheroes, whose detailed backstories include the issue number of the fictional comic book series they debuted in. (I wanted very badly to read these comics.) The game's humor can be found even in subtle details of the setting, like the vending machine you find in a lobby of the game's central space station, with a label on the side reading "Asnackronox".
One day, when I have some time on my hands, I hope to play through this fantastic game and enjoy it all over again. I still nurse an ambition of one day running a tabletop roleplaying game set in the Anachronox universe. But for now, I merely want to give the game a shout-out, and encourage anyone who loves a little humor and noir with their science fiction to plunk down seven bucks and let Sylvester "Sly" Boots show you around his world.
(Oh - and is a sequel too much to hope for? Maybe by way of a Kickstarter project? I'll be first in line to pledge.)
Monday, October 7, 2013
The Memory of Flight
So I had a very odd dream.
Mary Lynn and I were sitting on the roof of an apartment building, about three stories up. Above us was a blue sky, draped with several broad white clouds. One particularly large cloud bank was approaching, and as I looked at it, I saw that a large round hole had opened up in the bottom of the cloud, and something like a waterfall was spilling down from the opening's rim.
I immediately pointed this out to Mary Lynn. As we watched, the stuff (whatever it was) that was falling from the cloud seemed to level off, forming a horizontal stream, which began to drift by us at the level of the roof we were on. I expected to see just a horizontal column of mist, but as we looked, we saw that the stream was actually formed of innumerable floating feathers, about as long as my hand. Each feather had an intricate, delicate structure, and was colored white with grey touches.
One of us (I don't know who) reached out into this passing stream of feathers and brought back something larger. It was also white, gray, and fluffy, but was about the size of a soccer ball, with the heft of something that had been made of papier-mache. A point at one end that gave it a round teardrop shape, and opposite the point, a long feathery crest hung from the object, nearly as long as I am tall.
After staring at it a while, it became clear to us that we were holding the mummified head of a huge bird. This fantastic white-gray avian had, for some reason, disintegrated in the upper atmosphere, and its feathers and impossibly light bones had spread out into a cloud. This cloud had drifted with the wind until some twist of atmosphere and temperature had caused the feathers to suddenly fall, near the apartment building where Mary Lynn and I sat. Thermals near the buildings had temporarily halted the descent of the bird's remains, causing them to float past us where we sat on the roof.
Below us, an actual river flowed past the building whose roof we occupied. We dropped the head off the roof, and it fell into the river, along with the other feathers and remnants that had begun to succumb to gravity. The head, and the other feathers, turned black when they touched the water, sank, and dissolved.
I woke up shortly after that, knowing that I had seen one of the most miraculous and astonishing sights of my life -- and that it had only been a dream.
Mary Lynn and I were sitting on the roof of an apartment building, about three stories up. Above us was a blue sky, draped with several broad white clouds. One particularly large cloud bank was approaching, and as I looked at it, I saw that a large round hole had opened up in the bottom of the cloud, and something like a waterfall was spilling down from the opening's rim.
I immediately pointed this out to Mary Lynn. As we watched, the stuff (whatever it was) that was falling from the cloud seemed to level off, forming a horizontal stream, which began to drift by us at the level of the roof we were on. I expected to see just a horizontal column of mist, but as we looked, we saw that the stream was actually formed of innumerable floating feathers, about as long as my hand. Each feather had an intricate, delicate structure, and was colored white with grey touches.
One of us (I don't know who) reached out into this passing stream of feathers and brought back something larger. It was also white, gray, and fluffy, but was about the size of a soccer ball, with the heft of something that had been made of papier-mache. A point at one end that gave it a round teardrop shape, and opposite the point, a long feathery crest hung from the object, nearly as long as I am tall.
After staring at it a while, it became clear to us that we were holding the mummified head of a huge bird. This fantastic white-gray avian had, for some reason, disintegrated in the upper atmosphere, and its feathers and impossibly light bones had spread out into a cloud. This cloud had drifted with the wind until some twist of atmosphere and temperature had caused the feathers to suddenly fall, near the apartment building where Mary Lynn and I sat. Thermals near the buildings had temporarily halted the descent of the bird's remains, causing them to float past us where we sat on the roof.
Below us, an actual river flowed past the building whose roof we occupied. We dropped the head off the roof, and it fell into the river, along with the other feathers and remnants that had begun to succumb to gravity. The head, and the other feathers, turned black when they touched the water, sank, and dissolved.
I woke up shortly after that, knowing that I had seen one of the most miraculous and astonishing sights of my life -- and that it had only been a dream.
Thursday, October 3, 2013
Stone of Names: Cover Art Preview
Karri Klawiter, the artist who prepared the cover art for Stone of Names, was kind enough to post a preview of the cover on her web site. Click here to take a look. While you're there, be sure to check out Karri's other projects as well.
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
Stone of Names: October Status Update
Rejection letters are still trickling in from literary agents, which means I'm on track to self-publish Stone of Names come December. I've commissioned cover art from a professional illustrator, and I'm overjoyed with the results. The cover looks so nice that it would be a shame to just sell it on the Kindle. I'm now considering selling it through print-on-demand as well, through CreateSpace at least. (For anyone reading this blog who's also shopping around for cover art, I highly recommend Karri Klawiter; she turned around quick, high-quality work, and was very accommodating when it came to tweaks and revisions.)
The conventional wisdom among self-publishers seems to be that sales will be slow until you have several books available for purchase under your name. Readers who like one of your books will be more likely to buy the rest. The more books you have available, the more books you're likely to sell to happy readers. A common strategy is to publish a linked series of books and offer the first one for free.
This suggests, of course, that my smart move is to turn Stone of Names into a series. I know what the next two books in this hypothetical series would be about, but I'm more interested in telling a different kind of story. Stone of Names, at heart, is a fairly traditional high fantasy story; I have something more original in mind for my next book. If I get good results from Stone of Names, though, I might be more likely to write those hypothetical next two books.
The conventional wisdom among self-publishers seems to be that sales will be slow until you have several books available for purchase under your name. Readers who like one of your books will be more likely to buy the rest. The more books you have available, the more books you're likely to sell to happy readers. A common strategy is to publish a linked series of books and offer the first one for free.
This suggests, of course, that my smart move is to turn Stone of Names into a series. I know what the next two books in this hypothetical series would be about, but I'm more interested in telling a different kind of story. Stone of Names, at heart, is a fairly traditional high fantasy story; I have something more original in mind for my next book. If I get good results from Stone of Names, though, I might be more likely to write those hypothetical next two books.
Sunday, September 15, 2013
Verify, Then Trust
Today's first lesson: if you live in the United States and you are being questioned by a law enforcement officer, and you want to decline to answer a question, be sure to state explicitly that you are exercising your legal right to silence.
Today's second lesson, unrelated but equally important: don't sign a petition or call a public official until you've verified for yourself that you have the facts about the issue at hand.
I tend to be somewhat left-leaning on many political issues, and I get a lot of e-mail from left/progressive/liberal/Democratic/green organizations telling me about their cause du jour. Frequently these e-mails come in the form of a statement that something horrible has happened, accompanied by a plea to contact someone in authority and complain about it. For the most part, I appreciate getting these e-mails, because it lets me know when someone is trying to organize a coordinated outcry about an issue I care about.
But I always double-check the information these organizations are sending me. I'll go and look up the text of the law in question, or the facts about the Supreme Court decision we're talking about. Unfortunately, I have do do this homework on my own, because I've found that I can't trust my so-called allies on the left to give me the straight facts.
The note I got today is one such example. The underlying issue may well be something for folks to be concerned about, and is certainly something that everyone should be aware of, but the e-mail I received about it is misleading, exaggerated, and inappropriate.
In brief, I got a note about the SCOTUS Salinas v. Texas decision that was given in June of 2013. The court decision pertains to a criminal investigation in which a person of interest was being questioned by authorities but had not yet been placed in custody. The individual declined to answer a question about the crime, and later, the prosecutor included this refusal as part of the evidence of the person's guilt. This case made it up to the Supreme Court because the accused's defense claimed that this silence could not be used as evidence against the defendant, as per the Fifth Amendment. The Supreme Court nixed this defense, indicating that it is critical that law enforcement officers must have a clear indication of when a suspect is claiming his Fifth Amendment rights, as opposed to when a suspect is aware of his rights but has not yet chosen to exercise them. Therefore, the defendant's silence was admissible as evidence, since the defendant in this case did not explicitly declare that he was exercising his Fifth Amendment rights.
The e-mail I got, however, doesn't say any of this. The e-mail contains no details of the case, and simply includes language such as the following:
Today's second lesson, unrelated but equally important: don't sign a petition or call a public official until you've verified for yourself that you have the facts about the issue at hand.
I tend to be somewhat left-leaning on many political issues, and I get a lot of e-mail from left/progressive/liberal/Democratic/green organizations telling me about their cause du jour. Frequently these e-mails come in the form of a statement that something horrible has happened, accompanied by a plea to contact someone in authority and complain about it. For the most part, I appreciate getting these e-mails, because it lets me know when someone is trying to organize a coordinated outcry about an issue I care about.
But I always double-check the information these organizations are sending me. I'll go and look up the text of the law in question, or the facts about the Supreme Court decision we're talking about. Unfortunately, I have do do this homework on my own, because I've found that I can't trust my so-called allies on the left to give me the straight facts.
The note I got today is one such example. The underlying issue may well be something for folks to be concerned about, and is certainly something that everyone should be aware of, but the e-mail I received about it is misleading, exaggerated, and inappropriate.
In brief, I got a note about the SCOTUS Salinas v. Texas decision that was given in June of 2013. The court decision pertains to a criminal investigation in which a person of interest was being questioned by authorities but had not yet been placed in custody. The individual declined to answer a question about the crime, and later, the prosecutor included this refusal as part of the evidence of the person's guilt. This case made it up to the Supreme Court because the accused's defense claimed that this silence could not be used as evidence against the defendant, as per the Fifth Amendment. The Supreme Court nixed this defense, indicating that it is critical that law enforcement officers must have a clear indication of when a suspect is claiming his Fifth Amendment rights, as opposed to when a suspect is aware of his rights but has not yet chosen to exercise them. Therefore, the defendant's silence was admissible as evidence, since the defendant in this case did not explicitly declare that he was exercising his Fifth Amendment rights.
The e-mail I got, however, doesn't say any of this. The e-mail contains no details of the case, and simply includes language such as the following:
- The Supreme Court Just Eliminated The Fifth Amendment.
- This Supreme Court ruling guts the Fifth Amendment and turns the Constitution into a list of privileges, not rights.
- The Supreme Court just handed down a decision that rewrites the Constitution, claiming we have no Fifth Amendment protection unless we explicitly call for it.
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
It should be clear at a glance that this SCOTUS decision applies only to one clause of this amendment. The assertion that the decision "rewrites the Constitution" or "eliminated the Fifth Amendment" is a ridiculous bit of hyperbole.
In fact, it's not at all clear that even the clause "nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself" has been nullified by this decision. The SCOTUS case was specifically about a defendant who was not in custody and declined to answer a question. The decision seems to have no bearing whatsoever about the testimony (or lack thereof) given during a formal trial.
What we're talking about here are Miranda rights, which are a facet of this clause of the amendment. And while this decision does seem to weaken the protection given by Miranda rights, it's important to note that this is merely a repeat of a similar SCOTUS ruling given back in 2010.
Yes, there is a legal issue here to be concerned about. Yes, this decision raises a legal hazard for any potential defendant who isn't aware of this particular ruling and its implications. But no one has torn up the Constitution or the Bill of Rights, and in fact, the legal precedent here was set three years ago, if not earlier.
I would be happy to get an e-mail informing me that a recent SCOTUS ruling has re-affirmed what seems to be a weakening of my Miranda rights, and suggesting that I talk to my Congresscritters about it. I'm not at all pleased to get an e-mail telling me that the Supreme Court has started burning the founding documents of our democracy.
Monday, September 2, 2013
Stone of Names: September Update
This is probably going to be the last update about Stone of Names for a few months. I've sent the last query letter I intend to send for this book, and I need to wait a couple of months to let any late responses come in. I would hate to have this book uploaded and selling on Amazon and then get a note from an agent saying that they love it and want to represent it.
But the uniform series of rejection letters suggests that I am going to have to self-publish it. The book is clearly lacking something that makes it attractive to an agent.
It might be something simple. I had one response suggest that the book is too short to easily sell. This is a completely valid observation. The book is only 63K words and change, and I know that's pretty short. But that's as long as the story is. The story went everywhere I wanted it to. I'm sure that I could have padded it out with more stuff, but the book as written is the book that I wanted to write. If it's too short for the current market, then it's completely appropriate for me to self-publish.
Or I might be trying to sell a book that the market doesn't want right now. Urban fantasy is big right now, and there might not be as much room for a traditional elves-and-dragons kind of story.
Or my writing still might not have quite enough polish to catch an agent's eye. My beta test readers helped me quite a bit with Stone of Names; I've joined the Critters online workshop in the hopes of continuing to improve.
In the meantime, I'll be working on the cover art and the book description that will appear on Amazon. Hopefully, around the start of the new year, I'll have it available for download.
But the uniform series of rejection letters suggests that I am going to have to self-publish it. The book is clearly lacking something that makes it attractive to an agent.
It might be something simple. I had one response suggest that the book is too short to easily sell. This is a completely valid observation. The book is only 63K words and change, and I know that's pretty short. But that's as long as the story is. The story went everywhere I wanted it to. I'm sure that I could have padded it out with more stuff, but the book as written is the book that I wanted to write. If it's too short for the current market, then it's completely appropriate for me to self-publish.
Or I might be trying to sell a book that the market doesn't want right now. Urban fantasy is big right now, and there might not be as much room for a traditional elves-and-dragons kind of story.
Or my writing still might not have quite enough polish to catch an agent's eye. My beta test readers helped me quite a bit with Stone of Names; I've joined the Critters online workshop in the hopes of continuing to improve.
In the meantime, I'll be working on the cover art and the book description that will appear on Amazon. Hopefully, around the start of the new year, I'll have it available for download.
Sunday, August 25, 2013
Adventures in Query Writing
Throughout August, I've been hunting down literary agents on the web, identifying agents who seem to be interested in conventional fantasy fiction, and sending them query letters in the hopes of finding representation. For those who haven't participated in this exercise, it's a ... unique experience.
Most agents want some combination of the following:
Most agents want some combination of the following:
- A query letter
- A synopsis of your book
- Some portion of your manuscript, from a few pages to a few chapters
Every agent is different. I've been told that literary agents receive a huge volume of queries; their job is to sift through a mountain of broken glass and find a diamond in it. I do not envy them this task. So when I find that this agent wants five sample pages while this other agent wants ten, or this other agent wants my material inline within the email while this other other agent wants it attached as a Word DOC, I'm glad to comply. Whatever works best for their workflow is fine with me, and I'm happy to accommodate.
But every so often, I run across an agent who has very particular requirements. Some agents have online forms that you must submit through, instead of sending e-mail. A few agents want to see all material, including the query letter, in the form of Word documents. It takes a little more work on my end to get my stuff prepared to meet some of these unique requirements, but if I want to get published, I have to be willing to do the work.
And then there are the agents who just seem to be constructing an arbitrary and elaborate series of obstacles for reasons known only to them. I feel at times like I'm being made to pass some sort of examination to see how thoroughly I can follow instructions. This, combined with the steady stream of rejection letters I've been getting back, makes this an exceptionally humbling experience.
So, for anyone out there who's planning to try to find an agent for a book, I would offer the following advice: when you find an agent's web site, read it carefully, and try to find the following:
- Try to find the agency's web site, so that you can find their up-to-date information. There are several web sites that have listings of agents, but the information on those sites might be obsolete. The agent you're looking at might be out of the business, or might not be looking for your genre of fiction any more. Don't just send a query blind to someone's email unless you can determine their status first.
- While you're on their web site, check for any danger signs that might indicate that this isn't a legitimate agent. Anyone who wants to charge you money just to read your manuscript is not the kind of agent you want to associate with. A legitimate agent earns his or her money from the publisher by selling your book. (Here is a good place to start if you want to learn more about organizations and entities that you should avoid.)
- Try to identify whether or not they're interested in your type of work. Most agency web sites will list somewhere what they're looking for. If the web site has agent bio pages, this is usually a good place to start.
- Find their submissions guidelines, and read them closely. You probably have a pre-prepared query letter and synopsis, but you might need to tweak what you have to meet a specific agent's needs. Don't get yourself disqualified just because you forgot to send something that the agent asked for.
- Don't take rejection personally. Don't get upset at the agent who sends you a polite "thanks, but not thanks." Be professional. Query someone else.
In short: if you're going to try to find an agent, be prepared to put in a lot of work.
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Review: The Wolverine (Spoiler Warning)
Short answer: The Wolverine is an adequate superhero movie, but you've almost certainly seen this story before, even if you haven't read the exact comics this movie is based on.
Spoilers ahead, by the way.
I've never been that much of a Wolverine fan. When I was collecting comic books, I had a different first choice for my stories about a tough, cyncial, flawed hero. I was disappointed when the first three X-Men movies basically turned out to be "Wolverine and His Less Competent Friends". So it may not be much of a surprise that I thought this particular outing for the super-healing Aussie was lukewarm at best.
But the basic story of The Wolverine is completely paint-by-the-numbers. You start with your hard-edged hero, who's suffering from a painful past and hiding his bad-assitude under a basket. Then he's offered a chance to do something meaningful and noble. He tries to walk away, but eventually finds that he can't; he's become smitten with the story's damsel in distress, who is sufficiently helpless that the hero must come to her rescue. He succeeds, and by doing so, he rediscovers himself and his purpose.
The movie just keeps hitting the same old cliches, right down to the love-em-and-leave-em, "I don't fit into your world, babe" ending. I know that some of this story actually predates the movie, although there's not much in common between the original comics and the movie aside from a few characters and the general theme. With so much divergence from the source material, the scriptwriters certainly could have invented a less cliche Wolverine/Mariko storyline.
There are a few good moments in the movie, and Yukio is a fun character I wouldn't mind seeing more of. And, of course, there's the mid-credits teaser for the next movie, which by itself will probably justify the price of admission for hardcore fans. If you're keen to see Hugh Jackman beat up ninja or take his shirt off a lot, you're well-served by The Wolverine, but otherwise, there's nothing special or noteworthy here.
Spoilers ahead, by the way.
I've never been that much of a Wolverine fan. When I was collecting comic books, I had a different first choice for my stories about a tough, cyncial, flawed hero. I was disappointed when the first three X-Men movies basically turned out to be "Wolverine and His Less Competent Friends". So it may not be much of a surprise that I thought this particular outing for the super-healing Aussie was lukewarm at best.
But the basic story of The Wolverine is completely paint-by-the-numbers. You start with your hard-edged hero, who's suffering from a painful past and hiding his bad-assitude under a basket. Then he's offered a chance to do something meaningful and noble. He tries to walk away, but eventually finds that he can't; he's become smitten with the story's damsel in distress, who is sufficiently helpless that the hero must come to her rescue. He succeeds, and by doing so, he rediscovers himself and his purpose.
The movie just keeps hitting the same old cliches, right down to the love-em-and-leave-em, "I don't fit into your world, babe" ending. I know that some of this story actually predates the movie, although there's not much in common between the original comics and the movie aside from a few characters and the general theme. With so much divergence from the source material, the scriptwriters certainly could have invented a less cliche Wolverine/Mariko storyline.
There are a few good moments in the movie, and Yukio is a fun character I wouldn't mind seeing more of. And, of course, there's the mid-credits teaser for the next movie, which by itself will probably justify the price of admission for hardcore fans. If you're keen to see Hugh Jackman beat up ninja or take his shirt off a lot, you're well-served by The Wolverine, but otherwise, there's nothing special or noteworthy here.
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
Review: OUYA
Now that we've had our OUYA for a while, I have to say that the OUYA is a cool and inexpensive toy, but it's somewhat superfluous right now, and will continue to be until it gets some more compelling content.
I've seen a lot of chatter on the internet from folks who have incorrect assumptions about what the OUYA is supposed to be. Some people are assuming it's a Playstation/Xbox/Nintendo competitor, and are dismayed at the low-end graphics and the lack of AAA titles. Some people are assuming it's just a way to run cell phone games on your TV, and don't know why they should bother, since they already have a cell phone.
The OUYA is not supposed to be a top-tier console; the tiny size ought to be a dead giveaway. And it's not just for cell phone games; games like Bombsquad and Towerfall work best with four friends sitting around the same screen.
The OUYA is supposed to be a console platform with a low barrier of entry for independent developers. If I personally took a week off and locked myself in the house with a copy of Unity, I could have a game up on the OUYA store by the end of the week. (Disclaimer: I don't actually know how long the OUYA game review/approval process takes, but I've heard that it sometimes takes mere hours.) This is great for small developers; it lets you get your game in front of the public at minimal expense.
The problem is that the console doesn't offer a lot to the actual gamer, which is the person who's supposed to be buying the thing.
Are you interested in cheap console games? The existing consoles already offer a variety of cheap games for download. I could go right now and download a variety of PS1 classics that are priced less than some of the less-polished efforts available on the OUYA.
Do you like indie games? Again, the digital download stores for the big consoles have you covered there as well, though you won't find a lot of quirky, lone-developer, "I did this because I thought it was cool" titles on the big consoles. For those more obscure indie titles, the best place to go is still your Windows PC. (And you can plug your PC into your big screen TV and break out a wireless controller if you still want that console experience.)
Since the more successful OUYA titles are already available on more mainstream platforms (or soon will be) there's not really a compelling reason to rush out and pick up an OUYA at this point. This may change in the future; more games are coming out on the OUYA all the time, and it's possible that we'll start to see some high-quality, OUYA-exclusive games. But for right now, unless you're really interesting in supporting the platform, youre better off getting your fix for cheap games and/or indie games elsewhere.
I've seen a lot of chatter on the internet from folks who have incorrect assumptions about what the OUYA is supposed to be. Some people are assuming it's a Playstation/Xbox/Nintendo competitor, and are dismayed at the low-end graphics and the lack of AAA titles. Some people are assuming it's just a way to run cell phone games on your TV, and don't know why they should bother, since they already have a cell phone.
The OUYA is not supposed to be a top-tier console; the tiny size ought to be a dead giveaway. And it's not just for cell phone games; games like Bombsquad and Towerfall work best with four friends sitting around the same screen.
The OUYA is supposed to be a console platform with a low barrier of entry for independent developers. If I personally took a week off and locked myself in the house with a copy of Unity, I could have a game up on the OUYA store by the end of the week. (Disclaimer: I don't actually know how long the OUYA game review/approval process takes, but I've heard that it sometimes takes mere hours.) This is great for small developers; it lets you get your game in front of the public at minimal expense.
The problem is that the console doesn't offer a lot to the actual gamer, which is the person who's supposed to be buying the thing.
Are you interested in cheap console games? The existing consoles already offer a variety of cheap games for download. I could go right now and download a variety of PS1 classics that are priced less than some of the less-polished efforts available on the OUYA.
Do you like indie games? Again, the digital download stores for the big consoles have you covered there as well, though you won't find a lot of quirky, lone-developer, "I did this because I thought it was cool" titles on the big consoles. For those more obscure indie titles, the best place to go is still your Windows PC. (And you can plug your PC into your big screen TV and break out a wireless controller if you still want that console experience.)
Since the more successful OUYA titles are already available on more mainstream platforms (or soon will be) there's not really a compelling reason to rush out and pick up an OUYA at this point. This may change in the future; more games are coming out on the OUYA all the time, and it's possible that we'll start to see some high-quality, OUYA-exclusive games. But for right now, unless you're really interesting in supporting the platform, youre better off getting your fix for cheap games and/or indie games elsewhere.
Monday, August 5, 2013
Review: Shadowrun Returns
I've spent some more time with Shadowrun Returns since my last post, and I'm still enjoying it. The story and dialogue are well-written; the puzzles are pleasantly challenging without being frustrating; the combat engine is simple and fun. It's not a terribly deep or complex game, though the different character classes provide a lot of variety. I'm playing a mage, but I'm looking forward to replaying it so that I can try the adept, the decker, the shaman, the rigger, and the street samurai.
I've heard that the campaign isn't very long -- only about a dozen hours -- but honestly, that's fine for me, given that I don't have time to sink hundreds of hours into a game. With a story this short, I can actually look forward to finishing a few replays during my lifetime. Also, player-created missions and campaigns should provide a lot more material.
The campaign editor isn't as user friendly as Neverwinter's, but the online documentation helps flatten the learning curve a little. I've started building my own little adventure, and I have ideas for several more.
My only serious complaint is the same complaint you'll see on any public discussion about the game: your progress is only saved at the start of each map. So if you enter a map, conduct a few conversations, solve a puzzle or two, get into combat, and get killed, you have to start all over at the beginning of the map and run the same conversations and puzzles. This can be frustrating, especially if you have to stop play and step away from the computer for any reason. I'm sure this design decision saved them a fair amount of development effort, but it's a significant flaw in an otherwise enjoyable game.
Even with the checkpoint-based save feature, I'm still pleased with the game and I don't regret backing the Kickstarter in the slightest. I've heard that the developers will be releasing a second campaign in October, which is supposed to be somewhat less linear than the first campaign. Since I'm a Kickstarter backer, I'll be getting it for free. I'm looking forward to playing it, and to releasing my own epic neo-noir cyberpunk adventures.
I've heard that the campaign isn't very long -- only about a dozen hours -- but honestly, that's fine for me, given that I don't have time to sink hundreds of hours into a game. With a story this short, I can actually look forward to finishing a few replays during my lifetime. Also, player-created missions and campaigns should provide a lot more material.
The campaign editor isn't as user friendly as Neverwinter's, but the online documentation helps flatten the learning curve a little. I've started building my own little adventure, and I have ideas for several more.
My only serious complaint is the same complaint you'll see on any public discussion about the game: your progress is only saved at the start of each map. So if you enter a map, conduct a few conversations, solve a puzzle or two, get into combat, and get killed, you have to start all over at the beginning of the map and run the same conversations and puzzles. This can be frustrating, especially if you have to stop play and step away from the computer for any reason. I'm sure this design decision saved them a fair amount of development effort, but it's a significant flaw in an otherwise enjoyable game.
Even with the checkpoint-based save feature, I'm still pleased with the game and I don't regret backing the Kickstarter in the slightest. I've heard that the developers will be releasing a second campaign in October, which is supposed to be somewhat less linear than the first campaign. Since I'm a Kickstarter backer, I'll be getting it for free. I'm looking forward to playing it, and to releasing my own epic neo-noir cyberpunk adventures.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)