• Writing Resources

    Story Updates

    I’ve converted ‘Skin Dancing’ and ‘Remembrances’ into the Flash Reader format for easy web-reading. I’ve also posted a never published story called ‘John and Socrates’. I wrote this story for a philosophy class in the early 90s. I decided to post the old, unedited version (’cause I’m lazy), so please no laughing.

  • Game Reviews

    Ogame Rant

    I’ve been playing a text-based online game for several months now called oGame. I enjoyed its minimalistic interface — it was very easy to go in and do a few quick things and then get out, onto other things. A fun, background activity. I’ve even shelled money out for it, to receve some perks (it is free play, you pay money for extras). And today I logged in and it was a different game. For some time the operators, GameForge, have been advertising a new skin for oGame but I always thought that was going to be optional. But I guess they decided to force it onto everyone. It is…

  • Review,  Writing Resources

    From Mountains of Ice

    This is a novel by Lorina Stephens. Full disclosure: I am a member of SFCanada of which Lorina is also a member. I don’t really know, other than through SFCanada’s very interesting discussion list. Overall I found the novel to be an interesting journey through a land rife with political turmoil. Initially I was a little overwhelmed by a profusion of odd names, such as Prima Violina Pallavicini di Negli, Principessa Viviana Pontiaro ni Valerio, and Principe Aldo Valerio all in the third paragraph/first page of the novel. This is not an uncommon practice for fantasy novels and I quickly came to understood who the various characters were and what…

  • Writing Resources

    Tales of the Talisman Vol 5, Issue 1 Review

    The Trouble with Tansy F.T. McKinstry This is a strong fantasy story, concerning a reclusive gardener and the magic disruptions in her garden. Liked it. A Minor Miracle Michelle D. Sonnier This is a cute ‘rural fantasy’ story, predictable but good. A Tale of Two Prophecies W.A. Hoffman Another good fantasy tale, delving a little into how prophecies can be misinterpreted and the resulting implicatons. Jake and Russel Take a Peek Wayne Faust Two miners walking home one evening have a rather disconcerting evening. A fun tale. Vette Fever Ken Goldman What does a man do when he hits his midlife crisis? Buys a sportscar, of course. Though this car,…

  • Review,  Writing Resources

    Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell

    I finally rescued this book from my big pile of unread novels. The first novel by author Susanna Clarke, this was an exceptional read. It had been recommended to me by several people, but took me a while to get around to reading. It is a large book and once finished, you’ll certainly feel you accomplished something. But I was a little disappointed that my foray into the authentic world that the author had created had come to an end. Filled with memorable characters and set in an alternative nineteenth century England, this is a novel I really fell into. The history of the world, especially the decline of magic…

  • Game Reviews,  The Lazy Designer

    BioWare-Brent Year 2 (2000 – 2001)

    This is the second of ten posts, one for each year that I worked for BioWare. A new engine, is like, new, you know After a short vacation and little basking in pleasure over Baldur Gate 2, I moved onto the Neverwinter Nights project. This was my first exposure to a game with an engine in development as opposed to Baldur’s Gate 2, with its stable infinity engine. I quickly realized that working with an incomplete and ever-changing engine was a hell of a lot harder. One major problem with a new engine, especially one started completely from scratch is that everyone has assumptions: The designers assumes the engine will…

  • Writing Resources

    A Ragman's Vow – to be reprinted

    It looks like a “A Ragman’s Vow” which was originally published in On Spec will be reprinted. I’ll have more details on the magazine that has agreed to republish it once things are finalized and I know which issue it will show up in. Very excited!. Also, I hope to have the ‘year 2’ BioWare blog up in the next week or so. We’ve just been on a mini-vacation and I’m slow to getting back into things.

  • Game Reviews

    Mass Effect Galaxy

    Pretty mixed reviews on this one so far. If you don’t know what it is, Mass Effect Galaxy is an iPod Touch / iPhone game made by BioWare and set in the popular Mass Effect universe. I didn’t work on the game, but did some late-in-the-day testing of it. While I agree with several of the reviews in regards to features it should have included I think it is a strong offering on the iPod Touch/iPhone. Part of the problem for people playing it is that they think because it is Mass Effect it will have dialog, story, and combat. And it does… but they are presented differently (obviously!) because…

  • Game Reviews,  The Lazy Designer

    Building a Shed

    So my wife and I built a shed on the weekend. It was a precut package, so on the surface it seemed relatively simple, just a bit of hammering and whatnot, but we needed it in between the garage and the fence, so some customization was required to make it fit into such a small space. I spent an hour or so sorting all the pieces, getting my tools prepared. My wife made a couple sketches on the instructions to account for the changes we needed (moving the doors from the sides to the ends, et cetera). And then we built it. It took some doing, I made a few…