• The Lazy Designer

    Lazy Designer: Pricing

    Okay, this is perhaps a strange blog post but I’ve been spending some time thinking about this and figured I’d solicit opinions from the readers out there. (And yes, I’m sure I’m overthinking this). Anyways… To reward (or at least avoid punishing) those of you who purchase my Lazy Designer books as they are released I am considering adjusting their prices. Not right now, but down the road when the third and fourth books are complete. What I imagine will happen at that point is that I’m going to want to combine all four books into one convenient (albeit higher priced) book. This was my original intention with the Lazy…

  • Writing Resources

    Star Wars: Annihilation

    Drew Karpyshyn’s latest novel is now available! Here’s the blurb for Annihilation: The Sith Empire is in flux. The Emperor is missing, presumed dead, and an ambitious Sith lord’s attempt to seize the throne has ended fatally. Still, Darth Karrid, commander of the fearsome Imperial battle cruiser Ascendant Spear, continues her relentless efforts to achieve total Sith domination of the galaxy. But Karrid’s ruthless determination is more than matched in the steely resolve of Theron Shan, whose unfinished business with the Empire could change the course of the war for good. Though the son of a Jedi master, Theron does not wield the Force—but like his renowned mother, the spirit…

  • My Life,  Writing Resources

    Word Goal Reached

    This week I passed the 300 000 word mark for 2012’s writing effort. Most of this work has been on novel #5 and Lazy Designer #3 but I also wrote more stories this year than I have in any other one year period. I am light on words, compared to the past two years (last year for example I exceeded 430 000 words), but this was intentional. The youngest kid is home more with me for the remainder of this school year. Next year he starts going to school more regularly, so I’ll get a bit more time to write. The year after that I’ll get *a lot* more time…

  • Writing Resources

    Another Story Sells to On Spec Magazine!!

    In case you think I’m just repeating myself, this is not the same post as my earlier announcement. This science fiction story is called ‘Sin and Toil’ and I’m very pleased that they’ve chosen it. For those of you counting this makes six stories that I’ve placed with On Spec. Three have been published already. I am not sure when the other three will show up in print but I imagine at least one will appear in 2013. The stories that are available are: A Ragman’s Vow From the Sea Touch the Dead And the stories that have yet to appear: A Terrible Loyalty A Primer on the Ins and…

  • Writing Resources

    The Call Back

    I set goals (tasks I want to accomplish during a year) and I list milestones (things I hope to achieve but do not have direct control over). So far I’ve met, or am close to meeting, all my goals for the year, which is fairly standard for me. If I have work to do, I do it. I haven’t had nearly enough success reaching certain milestones, unfortunately. A couple days ago, that changed. I’ll need to back up to explain. Generally, for the genres I write in, to sell a novel to a publisher requires sending a synopsis (summary of the main action and development in the novel) and a…

  • Writing Resources

    My Work on Smashwords

    Just a quick update. As many of you know I have several story reprints available on Amazon as well as the first two volumes in the Lazy Designer series. Up until now I have also had the same content available on Smashwords. Smashwords is a great service because it distributes work onto multiple platforms, including Apple’s iBooks and Kobo. But as convenient as it is to have Smashwords distribute for me I’m finding that the vast majority of my sales are still occurring on Amazon. And unfortunately, for me at least, the process of getting the Lazy Designer books to work properly with Smashword’s formatting tools has been time consuming.…

  • Writing Resources

    Story Sale to On Spec Magazine!

    I hinted at good news earlier and here it is. Last week I learned that I’ve sold my fifth story to On Spec Magazine! The story, A Primer on the Ins and Outs of Building Bliss, will appear sometime in 2013 though I already have another story in the queue (A Terrible Loyalty) to appear next year, so we’ll see if both make it in before 2014. Either way, I’m very pleased and I’ll let everyone know when it is avaialble. And I have more good news to share but I’ll wait till next week :)

  • Game Reviews

    XCOM Enemy Unknown

    I should hate this game. Really, if not for XCOM (a remake of a tactical squad-based game that I really enjoyed in my younger days), I probably would have finished Novel#5 sooner. So I really should hate it. But I can’t. It is just too much fun. In X-COM Enemy Unknown the gameplay consists of building squads of soldiers and then using them to stop alien invasions. There are several different types of missions and part of the fun is deciding which types of soldier (heavy gunners, assault specialists, snipers, or support) to bring along for a particular mission. The player doesn’t choose the types of soldiers they recruit, so…

  • Writing Resources

    No Nano this year

    Last year I participated in Nanowrimo, but I won’t be doing it this year. I’ve just finished a novel and need to revise it and don’t want to dive into something new. I will be adding words to the Lazy Designer Book #3, but I don’t think it will be more than 30K and its of secondary priority to finishing the novel. Still keeping busy thought. Today, for example, I’ve wrote 1700 words on Lazy Designer #3, edited 2 chapters of Novel#5, and sent out a couple short stories. I’ve also started an editing pass on my four previously written novels, as I’ve noticed some bad writing in my earlier…

  • Writing Resources

    Novel 5 is Alive!

    I’ve finished the first draft of the fifth novel! I started writing mid-July, so it has taken me a tad longer than I originally intended (meaning that yes, I’m behind schedule). In my defense the novel has turned out to be slightly longer than I intended, weighing in at about 130 000 words. I have no doubt that at least 15 000 of these words will vanish during edits, as I am a compulsive over-writer in my first drafts. When I started the novel I mentioned that I was writing the last chapter first. In hindsight, has that turned out to be a good idea? Overall I think it was.…