Past the halfway point!

OMG! Has it been that long already without an update?

Sadly, yes it has been that long.

There is not much to report on terms of the job hunt, I might a have a couple of viable offers coming my way so I have my fingers crossed. I am still sending resumes and talking and emailing to any headhunter registered in Mexico City. I am less anxious to be honest, and I am starting to enjoy the time I have been given to spend with my kids and with my wife.

On the novel front, progress has been steady. I am now way beyond the halfway point. I am now sitting on 90k words, so now only 60k words are left. I am really enjoying this part of the writing experience, seeing the story advance, seeing my characters evolve before my eyes is a feeling that I cannot describe.

On the last post, I wrote about going the Independent route in terms of publishing, and I still feel strongly that my novel will be published that way. Traditional publishing might not be dead yet, but I am willing to take my chances with my story using the social platform I have been carefully building for the past year.

However, I am starting to think that I will need an editor. And those don't come cheap. In addition, some small publishing groups will help you convert your document into an e-book, and give a professional cover art as well as some sort of marketing for your book, for a small percentage. The conundrum is wisely choosing what I want to do with my book once it is finished. I know I am going to have to edit it myself in order for the second draft to be ready, rewriting what needs to be changed, etc. But I feel that I will need an expert's take on the book before committing to any publishing ideas. Editing means I am going to have to invest some serious money on the book, about 1500 dollars. This is a good problem to have, because it means that I am one step closer of finishing the novel!

I have been reading a lot, going this way and that...flip flopping between Fantasy and Sci-Fi and some Anne Rice.

I finally read the Wolf Gift by Anne Rice, her return to the supernatural world. I am one of her biggest fans, but I have to admit that the last Vampire Chronicles books were not my cup of tea, to say the least. I don't want spoil the Chronicles to anyone who have not read them, but the last two books were a big disappointment to me. This book is...strange. Not in theme but in structure. The main character did not feel real to me, the circumstances surrounding the story were not there for me either. The story was engaging once I got past my dislike of the protagonist. Again, I won't spoil the book and give away the whole plot. But in my opinion, Ann Rice followed the same pattern from her last Chronicles books and from her Seraphim series, which is to ramble around the story.

I also read Empire, an Orson Scott Card novel. I love his books, the Ender series, Pastwatch, I even read his horror book. This one though, is very different. It is fast paced, it is complicated, it is a notch above anything I have read from him in terms of vocabulary and difficulty. It is a very good interpretation of what might happen in the U.S. or in any country in the world where the views between the left and right are so radically different and noxious. A good back drop to my country's own electoral disputes. A good read overall.

And I also read I, Robot. I love this book. The way Asimov intertwines his stories, the way he portrays his characters, the hard and critical view of how things turned out by Dr. Susan Calvin just transports me into the future Asimov envisioned.

I am halfway through Robert Jordan's New Spring, the prequel to the Wheel of time of series. I am preparing for the marathon of re-reading the WOT series again before the last book launches, and I am also still reading The Second Generation, The Hero of Ages and have just started Warbreaker.

Hope you all have a great week end, hopefully I will see you next week!

NaNoWriMo is approaching!

Hello all! It has been a long time since I missed an update completely, but again I had some health issues, (minor stuff really, but annoying as hell) and work has taken over my life, and I would not have it any other way.

Bu I am glad to be back!

On to this week’s post!!

Books

Well, yesterday I finished Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn: The Final Empire, book one of the famed Mistborn trilogy. This is the second Sanderson book I have read, the Way of Kings was the first one, (not counting the Wheel of time books, which I have also read), and I have to say that I am now, a true Sanderson fan. I like how he writes, which is important, I like how he constructs the world around his characters, I love the way he throws us into his world head first, with no noob manual about his cities, its costumes, folklore, legends, fetishes and more importantly, its inhabitants. Also, and I believe this is what I like the most, the books have depth. I live in Mexico City, a third world country, where the wealth is distributed unevenly, to say the least. In his books, Sanderson always tackles the inequalities in his world, harshly and dramatically, but in a sense that one can relate or at least understand to how the wealth of the world is distributed, and I truly like that. I love to feel a connection with the story per se, not only the characters, and The Final Empire gave me that opportunity.

The amazing use of metals (Allomancy) integrated into the story is the icing in the cake, a great use of magic in world devoid of hope.

Sanderson is a brilliant story teller but he also makes me think, and I do value that from my fantasy.

I did not have much time to read the last couple of weeks, The Final Empire is a large book, but yesterday I began this books: (Some were already started :D )

Shadow Games

The Hand of Oberon

The Well of Ascension

Writing

Phew! It has been a very good two weeks for me in terms of writing. I finally have found a way to write 2,000 words per day, but I have not been able to discipline myself into writing on Saturday’s and Sunday’s, it is as if on the weekends, the portion of my brain that allows me to write is turned off. However, I am getting somewhere and I am enjoying the process immensely.

The Druid’s Grove

Is coming along nicely, the Elven story is done and the Human Story is flowing quite nicely. I have been able to write some acts, just random scenes that pop into my head every now and then, for when the three stories merge into one, and being able to write them, and then move on to the chapters has been quite satisfying.

X

I will be working on the story for the remainder of the month, aiming at having an actual first draft done by Oct 31^st. I am in no rush of getting this story done, because I feel that it is good, so I will take my time to edit and rewrite it.

NaNoWriMo

I am excited and, to be honest, afraid, of what I have signed up to do. Beginning on November 1^st, I will have 30 days to finish a novel. :D The goal is to write 50,000 words in a month, and I don’t know if will be able to do so, but I will certainly try. I am going to write a novel that has been inside my head for more than half my life now, Children of Sea, and I cant wait to see what I have done a month from now. This is an excellent tool to get my lazy butt off and running, and will be a great exercise as well. I am confident that I will be able to write the 50,000 words, but I do not know if I will be disciplined enough to do so, if that makes sense.

So, all of November, in terms of time and resources, I will spend them writing the novel I have wanted to write all of my life.

Games

With me being under the weather, again, I decided to relax and to revisit one of the games that I believe to be one of the greatest RPG’s ever made: Dragon Age: Origins.

It still is.

The music is just one of the many details that create a whole that is better than its counterparts, it elevates you when you need a boost, it brings you down when you are talking to your companions, and it urges you to go in the missions and makes you peek around corners looking for enemies. The voice acting is exceptional; each character is played with care and knowledge.

The story, much like the world, is enormous and generous, and it actually feels like you are part of the story, rather than only an spectator.

The graphics are good and the overall quality of the game is superb. I don’t think we will ever see another RPG quite as complete and beautiful than this one.

I will see you all next week!

Guns of Avalon

Good Tuesday to all! This has been a fun week for me, and I hope it was a good for you too. On to this week’s post!

Books

I am still well into my romance with The 1^st Chronicles of Amber. I read book 2 and 3, Guns of Avalon and Sign of the Unicorn.

Guns of Avalon is a great sequel to Nine Princes in Amber, it has so much depth and the descriptions of the places the Princes call Shadows reach epic and oneiric proportions. Corwin’s quest of conquering Amber is derailed, but his determination to sit on the throne rivals only that of his brother Eric, who is the actual ruler of Amber. This is a book that allows us to get closer to Corwin, thus revealing some of the truth hidden inside his imperfect memories.

Sign of the Unicorn is a faster book; it has a relentless pace that will navigate us through the political turmoil and family conspiracies brewing in Amber. The Shadow Road might be explained, the curse Corwin launched might come back to haunt him, brothers lost might be found and allies might become traitors. The key word here is might :P

The books were written in the early seventies, and it shows. This is a brand of fantasy that has a message behind it, not hidden, but subtle in its presence. This is a series about family, about loss, power, politics, treason and Shadows, the latter are wondrous worlds created and inhabited by the Princes, or their own shadows. I had wanted to read a fantasy series that evoked the sort of epic world where I could visit and relax, and rest my mind, and Amber is such a place.

I am already reading book 4, The Hand of Oberon.

I still managed to squeak by a few more chapters of Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn: The Final Empire, Volume 1 of the Mistborn trilogy (or quartet, since a new book of the series is due to be released a month from now). Like much of what I have read from him, the book is just massive, the people that inhabit his worlds are rich and colorful and interesting, customs and folklore and magic are well balanced and make for a great read. I will post more of this book next week, but again, what I have read is really good.

The Dresden Files are still on hold; I did not manage to read a single page of the first book, Storm Front, but will try to get a few chapters under my belt this week.

The Black Company is no longer on hiatus! I did manage to read quite a few chapters of the fourth book, Shadow Games, but wont comment on the book until I am done, hopefully next week. Croaker, I still love you!

Games

I am playing Dragon Age again; in between session of Final Fantasy VII of course (I am in Disc three, so I will take it easy and milk it as much as I can). Dragon Age: Origins is one of the greatest games I have ever played in my life. The scale of the world, the voice acting, the animations, the cut scenes, the story and the characters that will accompany you throughout makes this one the best RPG’s ever made. I have played this game twice already, both times (go figure) I played following the Human Noble origin story and because I bought the Digital Deluxe edition, I had a couple of quests that added a very good ally in Shale and gave me a place to keep my stuff (Storage space is a bitch in this game) in Warden’s Keep.

I usually like to play characters (in games where choices do have some sort of impact on the development of the story), tending to be more on the good side. With the two human characters I managed to fall in love with Morrigan, the sexy witch everybody hates to love or loves to hate.

For this go around though, I created a City Elf and will try to be more on the neutral side. I will let you now how I am doing.

Still waiting for SWOTOR to be launched!

Writing

Well, on Friday my two writing buddies and I discussed and dissected my short story, X’s Game, so that now I can edit and rewrite it at will, for the second and third drafts. The good news it that the story is a go, they liked it, the bad news, well, there are no real bad news. It still has a long way to go and I need to work on it still. But, we are getting there!

The Druid’s Grove is coming along fine, today I hope to finish Chapter 20 and will be a couple of chapters shy of finishing the Elven part of the story, which is the real meat and potatoes of the story. The Human and Dwarven part are going to be smaller. I love to write!

I have laid my goals for the final weeks of the year. I want to be writing 10,000 words per week, 2,000 words per day (I won’t write on Saturdays and Sundays, not yet anyway) and last week I fell short 3,000, but I am getting there.

The Druid’s Grove word count: 36,811

See you all next week.

The Legend of Huma

Hello all! Last week, me and my wife just about recovered from a very strenuous week and half, and the weekend was not much better. On Saturday we got to go out with some good news and on Sunday I got to enjoy a quiet, NFL Sunday. So, on to this week’s post.

Books

I managed to finish The Legend of Huma, and I was reminded why I loved this book so much. From all of the Dragonlance series books I have read, I like this one better because it is darker, it has an air of despair, of hopelessness that the other books do not have. It also has well rounded characters and interesting plot points, giving us a glimpse into the Knights of Solamnia’s world, before the change of Age, filled with political intrigue and their fair share of backstabbing. But, most of all, the book describes the relationship between Huma, Kaz and Magius, an eclectic trio of heroes that for one reason or another, found themselves thrown head first into the battle against Takhisis.
Other Dragonlance novels are not quite up to par to Knaak’s superb narrative and it makes Huma stand out from the rest of the Heroes books.

Ugh, I need to give Pattern Recognition another shot because the book club is going to meet soon. I have never left a book I started and I won't start now.

I am halfway through the Black Company’s fourth book and I am still quite engrossed in the history and in the characters. I am one of those readers that truly identifies or antagonizes with the characters I am reading, thus I get truly involved in the whole reading experience. Croaker and Raven are the types of characters that I root for and that I am not likely to forget any day soon. Enjoying the book so far.

I also began the first book of the Mistborn Trilogy, Mistborn: The Final Empire, and as usual, the beginning of the book is interesting, enticing and maddening, all at the same time. He always dives into the world with no respite; no explanation, no warning and I just LOVE that! It is still too early to really tell if I ma going to like the book or not, but so far so good.

Also reading book 1 of the Chronicles of Amber series, Nine Princes in Amber and, while I only have a few chapters under my belt, the story flows quickly and I am still at that stage where I have absolutely no idea of what I am reading, but want to know more.

I have been in the mood for a good mystery novel, anyone has any suggestions?

Writing

Well, this past week I finally finished X’s Game, the short story I am going to submit to the contest. It is fairly short, for my standards anyway, a tad over 7,000 words, but I do feel that this one has a real shot being successful.

The Druid’s Grove is next, and I will tackle it this week. The chapters I have posted have been read quite more than I had imagined at first, and the reviews have not been that bad. What is evident is that they need to be proofread more thoroughly before being posted, and I will do a much better job of that from now on. There are a lot of typos and stuff like that that simply will not cut it.
The story of the novel is based on three characters, and we get to see the story told through the eyes of these three characters. The Elven, Human and Dwarven story. I am almost finished with the Elven story, but have not really worked on the Human and Dwarven story. So, I still have a lot of work to do.

The Scribes of Lore is finished, and will be edited and re-written (if needed) so that it will be ready for the contest as well. I found a few interesting websites where I can submit my work for cash prizes, but more importantly, for it to be read, so I will probably will be working in that as well, but the Grove is still the number 1 priority.

Games

Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR) has now a definitive launch date: December 20, 2011. I cant tell you how excited I am for the release of this MMO, because, honestly, after World of Warcraft, there is a HUGE void of MMO action in my life.

I am planning on playing a Sith Warrior, more intent in generating threat and receiving damage than inflicting it, that is the original plan anyway. I am also truly excited because most of my real life friends will be playing this game, but we still need to convince a few more.

The site will still be updated on Mondays and if there is anything worth posting during the week, I will do so, but the Thursday update is now gone.

Have a great week guys!!!