Reading when you should be writing

Somewhere in the middle of all my time off I’ve ended up spending a lot of time reading peoples theories on why there’s such a delay on the next book in a Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones to those of the TV inclined). A few theories are the amount of time that George R R Martin takes off at the moment, and he doesn’t write during his time off.

I can relate to that. Well, not so much don’t, as find it hard with so many distractions.

Amongst all that reading about Song of Ice and Fire, I inevitably ended up thinking about all the many issues of pacing and such that I have with the series. That aside though, I can’t entirely fault him. He’s published. That’s pretty much the be all and end all of any writing complaints. But in the middle of all that reading, I came across another series that is meant to be just as sweet; the Mazalan Book of the Fallen. Book one is Gardens of the Moon.

I love fantasy with scope and destruction. I love to get lost in fantasy. It’s probably what drew it to me as a kid, and kept me writing all these years. I also end up voraciously devouring any decent examples of this genre. And wanting to mess crap up as nicely in my own novels. Have to get through writing the first before I can do many sequels, publishing allowing.

Another such example of the sort of fantasy I like is Century of Sand, by writing compatriot Christopher Ruz. Anything that will take me into another world and keep me there for a while. With all this time off, I might not have got a heck of a lot of writing done, but I’ve still lost myself in fantasy worlds. And that’s what good downtime should be all about.

Finally famous

What is the definition of fame? Having a string of short stories under your name both nationally and in the USA? Being a published novelist? Or having yourself as a character in fan fiction?

Long term writing friend and compatriot of mine Christopher Ruz has been working on an X-Com fan fiction that I can definitely get behind on a number of levels. It’s the sort of crazy writing idea that I’d come up with, were I not firmly fixed on finishing this current novel. Essentially it’s a no holds barred write up of his current play through of X-Com (PS3 version). And as we’re all guilty of at some point as X-Com fans Ruzkin is naming his soldiers after friends.

Finally though, I’ve made an appearance in the series. There’s a decent amount of chapters already to read through, and it’s worth checking out, for more reason than I manage to survive a mission. I’m looking forward (rather hoping) for a long career as a literary character in the series.

Horray for the Raspberry Pi

When I found out about the Raspberry Pi I asked around about it, and got better responses than I thought to the question of; Do you know what a Raspberry Pi is?

The answer to that question is a fairly straight forward one. It’s a cheap computer (of sorts) aimed at teaching kids about programming and hardware. There’s a picture of one over there to the right, and that’s it. No case, just a board, which is about the size of a credit card, and comes in at about $35 US (or $55 NZ).

I instantly wanted this tiny computer (I haven’t yet got one) and thought about all the possible things I could use it on. After a little plotting and planning, I realized that one idea I had was just building an Asus Eee, which I already have for writing (I am forever looking for something that can just write up text documents at a pinch, for writing). What about a dedicated MAME machine, or gutting the insides of a c64 and putting that in its place?

All in all, there’s absolutely no end purpose for one of these little pieces of machinery other than what they’re intended for; learning and experimenting with. And that’s that I think is probably the coolest thing about them. I think back to when I was a kid, and pushed the c64 to its programming and memory limits. Then when I moved to PC, it was a lesson in hardware and obscure DOS commands. Now days we’re a whole number of layers removed from that sort of thing. I strike it in technical support all the time. I lament that people just flick a switch and ta-da. Internet.

Once I get a hold on one of these things and mess around with it, I might well post what results I have. It makes me think of all sorts of non writing projects, it does. But I continue to push on with writing, regardless.

An update of sorts

I have been writing.

2012 had been a bit of a up and down year in terms of produced work, but I did get a novel published during that time, and started two novels as well as working on a ghost writing project and a few other bits and pieces.

Some might rate that as a rather stellar year, actually, but I’m fairly hard on my writing self. I tend to forget the ups when I’m in the downs. Most of my focus in writing is on word counts and output. Can’t see the forest for the trees sort of thing.

Earlier in last year I started working on a novel that had been in my mind for a while, throwing together all my favorite things into the pot and seeing what happens. 60,000 words in, it got disrupted by something, although I can’t remember what. It’s a far post apocalyptic fantasy novel, following a technologist and his group as he tracks down a weapon that will end a coming war.

Somewhere along the year I considered that I should be writing something specifically focussed on getting published again and started Kingdom of the Sun. It ended up having a lot of the same sort of themes but done a little better I thought. More robust information can be found a few posts down from this one, when Ruzkin called me out.

Currently, I’m at around 27,000 words for that project, with a fairly decent idea on where it’s going. And although I find it pretty liberating to just write, knowing that it’s the first draft and things are fluid to the final form, this ones a bit of a hard slog. I tell myself I just have to knuckle down and write. And on a daily basis too. Time to find my stride again.

Hello 2013 Rainbow List!

A bit of a late mention here, but here nonetheless. The latest in a nice line of accolades for Street Dreams is its inclusion of the 2013 Rainbow List. This is a list of books that are considered good reading for GLBTQ youth complied by a group within the American Library Association.

I’m stoked! Considering that one of the main drives for me wanting to write Street Dreams was to give youth what I didn’t have growing up gay; a book that told me that being gay, Maori and loving hip hop was ok, among many other things. Something I could relate to in the medium I knew best.

One of my first gaming memories

I know I’ve written about this game before (or it might have been its successor Guild of Thieves), it’s just my blog is sprawling enough that it would be a hard search to hunt it out. I’ve certainly spoken about Interactive Fiction, but this predates all that, back when they were called ‘text adventures’.

Showing my age, I was thinking about The Pawn by Magnetic Scrolls a few days ago. It’s possibly one of my earliest gaming memories. Released in 1985, I didn’t play it until much later, but I remember reading reviews for it in gaming magazines back in the day. Along with The Last Ninja, it was one of the few games with rather stunning graphics. Magnetic Scrolls were known for their rich games with equally rich graphics. The monk there was one of the screenshots showcasing the game.

The Pawn is the story of you, the player, knocked out cold and waking up in a strange fantasy world. Most text adventures back then were fantasy games. With a strange bracelet afixed to your wrist, you had to find a way to get it off, and get home. It was released on a number of platforms including the Commodore 64, but I think I eventually played it on the PC.

Magnetic Scrolls went onto make a number of other games, probably their most famous was Guild of Thieves. Their only game I played on the C64 was Corruption. It had groundbreaking things like time based puzzles, including one that relied on you waiting outside your bosses office for him to use the bathroom before breaking in and searching the place.

I still look back fondly on those old games. Now days, as I’ve recently discovered, you can play them on the Magnetic engine. All the Magnetic Scrolls games are up on there for playing, something I’d recommend if you feel like a bit of a mental challenge rather than one that relies on reflexes. At the risk of showing your age also, what are your earliest gaming memories?

Hello again Kirkus Reviews!

Something that I should have posted earlier, but my novel Street Dreams has made the list as one of the Kirkus Books of the Year. It’s made the teens list. Kirkus Reviews has been rather kind to me in 2012 with a Kirkus Star, and then inclusion on the teens Books of the Year list. Much stoked!

If you haven’t already checked out Street Dreams now’s the perfect time to do so.