• My Life

    Smashwords Reprints

    As most of you know I’ve been posting reprints of my previously published stories up on Amazon and Smashwords. This is the list of stories that I have on Smashwords, I’ll post the Amazon list tomorrow. Even if you don’t have an eBook reader Smashwords is pretty cool because you can read the stories online in a little embedded reader. A Ragman’s Vow (originally published in On Spec) Digital Rights (Writers of the Future #26 Winner) From the Sea (Originally Published in On Spec) From the Sea, The Monastery and Tale of Lady Spite Collection His Island (Originally Published in Quantum Muse) John’s List (Originally Published in War of the…

  • eBook,  Writing Resources

    Digital Rights… free for a limited time

    To help readers with their Aurora Award nominations I’ve uploaded my Writers of the Future winning story ‘Digital Rights’ to Smashwords. Blurb: Izzy’s new job aboard a solar station orbiting Earth becomes more complicated when she begins receiving cryptic messages from a ghost. And if you use coupon HB67G on checkout you can have the story for free. If you enjoy ‘Digital Rights’ please consider nominating it for an Aurora award. Nominations are free and the deadline for them is April 30 2011. Not coincidentally that is also the day the coupon expires :) Thanks! Read the story Nominate the story – Brent p.s. I’ll be putting the story up…

  • The Lazy Designer

    Writing Videogames

    Just a short observation but I get asked the question of whether its worthwhile to work, as a writer, for a videogame developer, like BioWare. Most often I am asked this by other writers I have met. So here goes. A disclaimer: I was never really a writer at BioWare (other than a bit of dialog in Baldur’s Gate 2 and item descriptions and other misc text throughout my career) but I worked with and managed writers. As well what advice I offer is in the context of writing strong narrative games like those that BioWare creates… plots, subplots, followers and so on. I have no experience, say, writing a…

  • Writing Resources

    More Happy Endings?

    In fit of writing procrastination I scanned through my published or soon-to-be-published stories, mostly looking at how they ended. What did I discover? Seven of the stories had unpleasant endings for the protagonist (or ambiguous endings that some readers, I think, would take as unpleasant) although one of those stories would technically be considered a happy ending by many readers as the protagonist is a real jerk. Eight stories have what I consider to be a happy ending. My early stories almost always had negative endings. This is ok sometimes — some stories have to end unpleasantly, if they are to end naturally. But I was finding that often I…

  • Writing Resources

    Writers of the Future XXVI

    Just a reminder for new readers to this blog that Writers of the Future Anthology #26 is full of top-notch science fiction and fantasy stories, including my own ‘Digital Rights’. If you haven’t picked up a copy yet, here’s some handy dandy links for you. Note that you can purchase Kindle versions instead of print if that’s your preference. Amazon.com Amazon.ca Kindle ‘Digital Rights’ is also eligible for the Aurora Awards so if you read it and like it please consider nominating it!

  • My Life

    Dragon Age 2

    Looks like Dragon Age 2 has gone gold! Congrats to the team and BioWare. I’m impressed at how quickly they were able to release the sequel and hope they all get a bit of rest before tackling their next project!

  • My Life

    Should I Open This Box?

    Okay I admit it… despite being a fan I haven’t watched the original Star Wars trilogy in years. Worse still I don’t really own a copy of it. Anyways today I wanted to sit down with my 5 year old and watch the first movie. Digging through some old boxes I found this: It is an unopened box containing the original three movies in VHS format. We still have a VCR so I *could* watch them now but I’m hesitating. I mean this box has been closed up for over a decade. Maybe its destiny is to never be opened? What do you think?