Podcast of Authors Commentary: Jihad Turning Points Tharkad.

This blog has been quite desolate the last year. Classes and personal issues have taken up the vast majority of my time.

However, with what little time I have had I started to go back to look at my older projects. During looking over my hard drive, I started going “Wouldn’t it be cool if there was a commentary much like dvds of tv shows and movies for these little E-books?” and this commentary was born. I figured it would be nice to have something extra to go along with a small e-book someone purchased.

One thing to note: Your really need to have the E-Book for this podcast to make sense. Using Adobe Reader, I turned on auto-scrolling when I started recording. Running time was approximately 15 minutes, just where I wanted it to be at. If people enjoy it, and I get better with the podcast software, I will be doing more of these periodically.

If you don’t already have Jihad Turning Points: Tharkad already, you can buy it here at Battlecorps.com or here at Drivethru RPG for only 4.95.

Right now I’m using Yourlisten to upload the audio, and wordpress is funny about who it lets embed the podcast so until I get use to it Click here to listen

Coming Soon! New Battletech .pdf Exclusive Product line!

Line Developer Herbert Beas of Catalyst Game Labs has allowed me to kinda-sorta-not really announce that this month a new line of BattleTech .pdf exclusives will begin being released.

This is a delight to me, as I’ve been working on this product line since mid-last year as a assistant developer and a primary writer of this specific product line. Alas, he won’t let me give out the name or the content of the line, but I suppose I could be allowed to say its bringing something back that none of us thought would come back again to the BattleTech line.

Intrigued? Well keep your eyes on Classic Battletech’s Website for announcements during May!

Still Swinging

Well, After three different attempts my computer is back up and running. Literally every piece of hardware except maybe the fan was replaced (and that had a thorough tune up). You see, I had to have everything except the hard drive replaced, and when I got it back, the laptop worked for 24 hours before… the Hard drive died.

Yeah, just my luck, right?

Well, its back and I am furiously catching up on all my back work, skipping projects I wanted to do but no longer had the time, and gritting my teeth as even more projects were cancelled.

Such is the life of a freelancer.

And, at the start of my schools Spring Break, a brief storm that passed over knocked a tree onto my car, smashing the top and windshield, and what looks like, the shocks as well.

So I have my laptop back, but no car. When I had my car, I had no laptop.

What irony. I’ll start posting again, starting with a post on my latest release from last month.

Don’t Plan, Improvise

Despite the title, I don’t advocate not planning. However, plans are almost meant to not work. The more back-up plans one seems to have, the more problems happen to arise at the same time, making each and every plan useless.

So, its always good to be able to improvise at a moments notice.

Due to the likelihood that the accidental warranty coverage may end up simply giving me a brand new laptop. Which would be nice, but would mean I would lose 2 Novel Outlines, 4 nearly completed short stories, Poetry, possible new gaming systems, a 98 percent completed e-book, and about 2k in words for a print book due at the end of the month. Quite the painful loss.

So in the meantime, I shall be working whatever I can from the college computers for the next 10 buisness days, on projects with the closest deadlines, on the parts that have not been done yet, just in case I do get all my information back. All this stuff will be saved on thumbdrives and emailed to myself for immediate upload on whatever computer I get back. Thankfully the super important stuff was also saved by gmail as I sent them out, so that is not a worry.

Longest two weeks of my life.

Vulnerability

One of the issues being a freelance writer these days is an over reliance on our technological gadgets. Almost everyone uses email, .pdfs for proofing and nobody uses snail mail much.

So if you are using your laptop, and it breaks, its almost like the end of the world. Deadlines still need to be met, you are cut off from your editors and co-writers. It’s almost like the world is ending.

And I type this from a college school computer as my laptop died on me last night. I’ll be back online as soon as possible, though with my funds and situation, that may take longer than desired.

“Falcon Incursion” E-Book Now Availible and Reviewed!

A new E-Book “Operational Turning Points: Jade Falcon Incursion” was released this week.

 
“Operational Turning Points: Falcon Incursion details the events of the Jade Falcon strike into the Lyran Alliance, opening up the battle for players to join in the fight using the successful Turning Points PDF-exclusive format. Return to the campaign that sparked the rebirth of the long-held dream of the Star League.”

This E-Book was also reviewed by the fansite ScrapYard Armory, which claimed that: “By far, this is one of the best of the Turning Points series.”

To find out more or to purchase this, click Here!

New Story Published, “The Hunted”

(Edit not: This was changed to the published title, the previous title was used on a related – but different – piece)

My new short story, “The Hunted” is published up on http://www.battlecorps.com

This is a brief story (3,000 words) based in Catalyst Game Labs BattleTech(tm) universe. This is the second short story I have published on that website for them. The site is subscriber based with affordable rates and lots of published fiction by other authors and other game goodies.

Check it out and let me know what you think!

Dealing with Rejection

It happens to the best of us. A rejection. Depending on the severity and frequency of rejection, it can be heartbreaking, and leaving one feeling disheartened, insecure, and you almost want to stop putting forth any further effort.

No, I’m not talking about relationships. Get a few drinks in me, and I could write books about that.

No, I’m talking about submissions and proposals for writing. We all get rejected sometime or another. It happens. Sometimes it is sloppy writing, sometimes its already been done before, or sometimes, who you send it to just is not interested.

They key is not to let it get you down. You look over the rejection notice and try to see what you can take away from it. Did they say why? If so, learn from it. Rewrite it.

If it is something so niche that you can’t rewrite it and shop it around, see what scenes, what characters, and what dialogue can be salvaged for the next project. Not all of it is to be discarded.

But no matter what, don’t give up. Especially if this is your livelihood. Continue on, if only to better yourself, and continuing to work hard will improve your abilities. It will be rewarded.

Beyond the First Draft: Editing and Proofing

So, the past few weeks has allowed me to get a closer look how things look on one of the other sides of production; the editing and proofreading of ones work.

This is a stage many people fear and hate for good reason: Their work of art, the very creation they often pour their time, energy, and soul into will get sent back rejected or worse; changed and distorted to the point of not even recognizing it as their own anymore.

But people need to remember that proof readers and editors are not doing this just to piss you off, or to ruin your work. Time is money to them and they are not doing it just to make you cringe. They lose money that way because they can be working on other countless other submissions that will be published.

Look at what they did, and ask why. Chances are they did for very specific reasons and almost all of them will justify the changes. If they take the time to polish it, then they think its worth publishable with just some work to be done (unless you are paying them to do it that is)

I’m probably one of the sloppier writers out there. Heck, I think I’ve gone back and revised every post I put up on this blog post publication due to some stupid typo or off sounding sentence. I admit it, so when I send something in I ask to see edited documents and comments and always ask “Why?” and about the trends of what they were changing. Tense, situational descriptions, they all matter. What you had a good reason to put in, they may have just a good reason to take out. They want your work to look good, just like you do. So if a editor or proofreader comes back with a changed document, or a request for revision be glad; its good enough for them not to outright reject, and your work has potential. And look at it and see what you can take away from it for future works.

“Augusta Nights”

Well, as of tonight I finished and sent off the last act of a 6 act screenplay I started writing a few weeks ago. Tentatively titled “Augusta Nights” (P.S. I hate that name btw), the story follows the two main characters, a “Mobster’s” daughter Amy and her Bodyguard Dan, through obstacles such as rival made men, Amy’s hard partying, and underlying emotions and bonds one gains when hanging around someone too long, even if all they bring is trouble.

The first act was written in a moment of pure sleep deprivation and boredom. Showing to a friend, a film student, she immediately wanted to add more to it and start filming it. As far as I know this project is nothing more then a labor of love for all interested in participating, with no schedule currently in the works (if it even gets past development).

Of course, this is my very first attempt at a screenplay, so a whole lot of editing will need go into it to get the script ready. But the “will” and pro bono support for it is there, so who knows. Maybe next year on youtube you will be getting actually seeing a short plot, with it as a mini web series or something similar.