I'm Trying Real Hard...

... But stuff keeps happening in real life that tries to derail me from writing. I'm at around 42k words and am running out of time to get the word count I wanted to for the month, which I'm sure you've already guessed is 50k.

All the other novels I've ever written have been in the 60-70k range when done. Very short. This one is shaping up to be a much longer project. Hard to tell though, I may end up cutting a lot. But I'm thinking it will still be around 120k when done. Long by my standards. And I think at the upper limits of what any publisher would even look at for a paper book from a unknown author.

So, here's hoping I have a couple of days free of too many other distractions, because... damn... you just wouldn't believe the stuff that's been happening.

If You Are a Turkey, Let Me Start By Telling You How Sorry I Am

For those of us here in the States, it's Thanksgiving. A day that was ordained long ago that we must eat Turkey and watch football. Funny, I really don't like Turkey. Don't know why we eat it so much this time of year, they're difficult to prepare and are often dry, breeding grounds for bacteria, and of course, make me sleepy.

What I find interesting is that they have been bred to have such large breasts that it encumbers their ability to live a normal life. Yes, those butterball turkeys are so malformed that they can no longer breed in nature.

Every turkey in an American supermarket was artificially inseminated. Every. Single. One*. Because they literally, cannot do so on their own - they're too big to have sex. In fact, forget sex, many of the Turkeys sold in supermarkets are so large that they can't even walk.

With a name like that, it's hard to say no.

I mean, they don't even taste that good. That's what gets me. Granted, I have had one or two amazing birds over the years, but I don't want to appear to be waffling on the issue. I'm making a stand. I'm going to buy what is called a 'legacy turkey.' That's a bird that has been allowed to be breed naturally, one that is several times smaller than the typical thanksgiving bird. Because I'm a good person, it's important to me.

Well, hang on. Some of them can cost up to $9 a pound. WTF? Forget it then. I'm not going to pay $100 for a skinny bird. I don't care that much.

Enjoy the holiday folks. I'm thankful for much. Be happy.

*That's totally untrue. I'm just trying to make it more black an white here. You know, for drama.  But most of them are.

Check it out... I'm Batman:



I actually laughed at this. Honestly laughed. That doesn't happen too often.

Look! Stuff!

I like history. Probably because it's like time travel, except without the actual travel part. So it's like time, except past time. You know, history.

Damn. I'm sure everyone sees why I dream of being a writer. That's some good stuff right there.

Anyway, I like history, it's full of stuff that's usually way weirder than fiction. I know it's a cliche, but it's true, real stuff is way more bizarre. I think the reason fiction works so well is that it allows us a sense of justice, or closure, or whatever, that we rarely see in real life. No, in real life, nice people get struck by lightning on their honeymoon and die. Or the biggest ass in town wins $43 million in the lottery and makes all the people he's bullied and spat on his whole life suffer even more. Because that's real life (Ironically, I made up the one about the lottery, I couldn't think of anything else off the top of my head).

Whoa, I didn't mean to take this to such a dark place. All that is just to say I found the National Archives Flickr stream yesterday and spent some time being mesmerized. Please, go waste your time there just as I have mine.

Global Warming: Totally Natural

Too many jokes... I can't choose between them! 

Retirement home my ass. They put granny in a sweatshop

My Nano Disaster

A metaphor for my novel

That's a strong word - disaster. I'll just call it a bit of an oversight. You see, a large portion of what I thought was the plot for my current story is actually not a plot. Yeah, I know, a rookie mistake. I thought I had a this great meta-story and then this really good personal story to tell. You know, love and betrayal, all that.

Well, that meta-story is really more like a backdrop. You know, like WWII isn't a plot for most novels, it's something that's going in the background while the actual plot unfolds.

Oops.

I'm not writing a literary novel, and I don't think I can carry the story using just the love pentagon I've developed. Sigh. Problems problems.

Even when I take the day off work, Monday's still find a way to suck.

Saturday Quickie

Folks, just imagine what could have been...

 

Me, The 90's, and Potential

I have a funny story to tell, funny because while it’s true, and not funny, it’s illustrative of how other people perceive me. Or did at one time. 

Pretty much at the apex of my life

At a time of my life when I was still pretty young, early 20’s I guess, I was a bit of a wonderer. I was drifting along through life (I still am, if I’m being honest with myself here) without any real direction. At the time I worked in a gas station. The gas station was filled with people who had lots of other interests and tons of things that filled their out of work hours.

Let’s see, two guys were in a band that had just gotten signed to a record label and were on the verge of breaking it big.

Two guys had just graduated from college and were football players. One in particular was a QB who had dreams of playing in the NFL – he had an agent, offers on the table to play in the arena league and wrapped up his collegiate career as a pretty successful player.

One of my best friends, who had gotten me the job there, was in a band as well, they were just signed to a record label too. In fact, they were signed to, what was at the time, the largest record label in the world (well, a small label that was owned by the largest label in the world). They knew they weren’t budgeted to be superstars, but they had their foot in the door. Again, it was a big deal.

One day, my good friend and I were chatting about things, the future, what we’re going to be doing in life, you know, when you don’t have any real responsibilities and don’t know that the odds aren’t in your favor. He says to me, “Have you ever thought about how much talent we have here at the store?”

“No.”

“Well,” he said, “think about it, we’ve got Andre, Chris, Scottie, (all discussed above), I feel pretty good about my chances… and yours too.”

“Me?” I asked. “I’m not even playing much anymore.” A reference to my guitar playing.

“Yeah,” he said. “But you’ll do something great.”

And that was that. I never forgot that conversation. He was sincere, and I was touched. I lost touch with most of the guys, except for being Facebook buddies. But none of us, except for him possibly, really achieved anything close to what we’d envisioned. Later on, at his wedding, he introduced me at the rehearsal dinner to the rest of his rather large party as, “the smartest guy I’ve ever known. Go ahead, ask him anything you want to about Star Trek.”

Yeah, that's sounds like something he would say. Good times. In some ways, it was probably close to the high point of my life, in regards to having friends, having no worries, and feeling that the world was my oyster. 

Sigh. I love my life now. But something 'great' hasn't just fallen in my lap. Here's hoping that I'm just a late bloomer.

Add A Caption!

I know, it's stupid. I'm a sucker for this type of stuff though. So please someone add a caption for the picture below (which I whipped up a few months ago for another blog post.).

I have wasted entire days, days, looking at those damn 'add a caption' contests. I don't know why, but for some reason I just have this need, it comes from deep within, and I need to add captions to all pictures. 

It's a curse.

It Started Poorly Then Got Worse...

After yesterday's rant, I had the brief inkling to continue to air my grievances today, but thought better of it at the last moment. I've got a list of things that infuriate me about the world that's a mile long. I could post every day about it, but it makes me miserable. So instead, I figure I'd throw something out there about the state of my writing.

After the full manuscript of my novel was summarily rejected by one big time publisher, I queried a big six publisher and cringe at the crappy query I sent. Really should have proofread that one one more time Still waiting for that next rejection.

A Dead God's Wrath is still hanging around there in the ebook world. Sales to date look like this:

Kindle          Barnes & Noble          Smashwords
25                            6                             2

For a grand total of 33 copies. I'm still pretty pleased with it. I think most of the sales have been to people who stop by the blog on occasion. I do realize I'm a crappy marketer, and would probably do better if I forgot the whole blogging/twitter thing and just wrote more. But I kind of like where I'm at right now with that. I enjoy reading the blogs I follow and I think I write about as much as the family will allow.

I do think I'm going to try to put something else up for sale in an e-format soon. Probably. I'll give it a few weeks for certain, I was listening to a podcast tonight and I started really thinking about why I'm sitting on so much stuff, I have short stories (a few anyway), novels, all sorts of stuff that I've been sitting on for a long time. Most of those need some editing work, which I think is at the heart of why I've not already done that part, as I am not a huge fan of editing. For me it's the difference between designing race cars and being a mechanic. One is a dream come true and the other is what you have to do for the damn thing to work.

So I need to do a lot more of the mechanic type stuff for a while. When nano is over this year I'll dive right into that.

There has been some push back from a number of authors in regards to pricing, as that race to the bottom seems to have, well, bottomed out. First, I saw a very minor author (meaning, they have a small following of fans that will buy anything they produce) selling novellas for $2.99 and it surprised me. Then I heard an interview with another author, one that has no professional sales to their credit, that is selling short stories for $2.99 and doing so with no fanfare, several pen names (for different genres) and no marketing at all on their part, and selling in the hundreds of copies per month. The latter mentioned in the interview that they saw a bump in sales of one of their novels when they raised their novel price to around $5. The logic being that the perceived quality of the cheaper priced book was poor, but when the pricing got closer to what a reader would expect for a professional product then they were more likely to buy. Weird.

So, two instances don't equal a trend, but I'm thinking of playing with my pricing some. I don't think I could ever justify selling something like A Dead God's Wrath for $2.99, I don't think it holds that kind of value. But I also don't think I can really run an experiment with only one data point either. That brings me back to my need to have something else out there.

Anyway, I'm just thinking with my fingers at the moment, typing away, and avoiding working on my nano novel. My town constable has been attacked and carried off by an unnamed assailant. I suppose I should go back and write his death... or not. It's a plot twist I'm anxious to reveal. One of many. So much fun to be had there.

It Started So Innocently But Then...

Genius!

What a rant! I don't know where this came from. Sorry team, we'll try to do better tomorrow.

I think I’ve talked about Neal Stephenson before, actually, I know I have, I just can’t remember when (or which posts), and I don’t really want to talk about him again today except for what it means for my larger topic. He did, however, write of the most brilliantly odd books I’ve ever read in Cryptonomicon, which is a genre defying novel about a code breaker in WWII and his grandson in the present day, both kinda sorta on the hunt for the same thing. Flat out awesome. Drop what you’re doing and go read it quick, before others find out and mock you.

Of course, at a solid 1000 pages long, I’m not sure you can read it real quick, but do what you can.

Anyway, I have plans to read all his books at some point, and have one still sitting on my shelf that I picked up in the great Borders’s fire sale of 2011, but I’ve also got around 50 other books on my shelf I got then as well, it might be a while before I get to it.

Now, what was my point? Oh yes, I heard an interview with him the other day and he mentioned offhandedly about how America has shied away from mega-engineering projects for quite some time.

Also, it's a Star Destroyer!

And boy, did lights start going off in my head.  It’s true, oh so true. My first thought was the James-Webb space telescope. To put it bluntly, it’s the most awesome thing in the history of mankind, and it’s up for debate right now on whether or not it will ever fly. This was designed to be the replacement to Hubble and would be another giant leap forward in our understanding of the cosmos. It’s entering its home stretch in the assembly process, it’s over budget, it’s behind schedule, and it’s almost done. I blame those who budgeted the thing, but only partially. The thing is cutting edge, and we’re pushing the limits of technology, and in some cases, were counting on technologies that didn’t exist when the plans were being drawn up for the thing. It’s an impressive piece of engineering. The reason it might not fly however, is not an engineering one, it's a political one. The funding might get pulled now, in the 11th hour.

The shuttle program… gone. There is a replacement program in the works, but some insiders are doubtful that it will come to fruition. I personally feel like the shuttle program was a mistake anyway, but that’s a different topic. I don’t think ending a program with nothing concrete in the works is a good idea.

It would have been that big!

Anyone remember the superconducting supercollider? The U.S. spent tons of money on this project back in the 80’s and was far enough along in construction in the early 90's that shutting the program down was nearly as expensive as just finishing the damn thing (not really, but it was very expensive). It would have dwarfed the large hadron collider that had so many folks believing the world would end when it opened for business last year.

Even stuff as small scale (relatively speaking) as skyscrapers, the replacement towers for the world trade center got me thinking of when the last truly grandiose skyscraper was built in the U.S. When I was a kid most of the tallest, most awe inspiring structures in the world were the twin towers of the World Trade Center, the Sears Tower in Chicago. I know a lot of the reasons that we don’t continue to build bigger buildings are political – like a beautiful San Francisco building proposal was nixed because it violated height restrictions within the city – and there are federal regulations that would prevent anything similar to the giant tower in Dubai from being duplicated anywhere in the U.S.

Well, now that I look at it, it does look a bit... gaudy

I think the whole thing is depressing. I want to see a base on the moon, a trip to mars, a Manhattan type project to build a space elevator, or a maglev from Florida to Australia. I want to see miles wide solar cells high in orbit beaming down energy to the earth, or a plan to wipe out smallpox... wait, they may have done that one.

I wonder if those big dreams were part of the WWII mindset that carried over into the cold war. It was a time when using atomic weapons as a propellant for space craft wasn’t just a crazy idea, it was tested and ready to implement. Then it all came to a halt.

I want it back. I want us to do something big, so challenging that it might not work. The funny thing is, the main reason given is that it costs too much, that these projects are too much a financial burden, it would be foolish to waste our money on them.

To those who say that, I say you’re wrong. We spend more money on air conditioning in Iraq then we spend on NASA in a year*. I’m not making a political statement (as any discussion about congressional money quickly becomes), I’m just saying we spend money, lots of it, on things that don’t matter that much in the big picture.

The reason for me is two fold, 1) corporations are only interested in their quarterly earnings. Long term projects are those that take 2 or 3 years. We won't see any decades long research coming out of a publicly traded company, there is no money in it.

2) Governments. That's the only way to get really large scale projects done. They actually hire publicly traded corporations to do the big projects, it's inefficient, costs are hugely inflated, and corruption abounds, but it gets done (years late and way over budget). Except politicians are under more and more scrutiny, and they think of long term as their next election cycle, which means a 20 year project to get my ass to mars won't happen there either. They're more likely to make a big deal out of spending money that could be used to feed orphaned tuna is being wasted sending squirrels into space. Space science gets cut, the orphan tuna still starves, but people think that they're being frugal.

The end result. I think we're screwed.  

*What is more profound to me, the total amount of dollars spent on NASA since it's inception in the late 50's totals around $500 billion. A lot, but we've spent about two and a half that amount on the U.S. war on terror.

Well, Crap.

I had a brilliant post all planned out in my head for today, but it was going to take a bit of work and I forgot. As this nano thing is going in fits and starts and I've been getting behind during the week and trying to catch up on the weekends. Of course, this weekend didn't work out that way due to unavoidable surprises. But, like a sick patient, barely hanging in there on life support, my story had a blip of life as I was mired in the depths of my craptacular disaster of a novel. Yes, I had a moment, just a moment, where I felt like it might be salvageable. Big moment. As I mentioned before, my outline went out the window almost from the first paragraph. Probably because I didn't have faith in what I was supposed to write. But it looks like I'm essentially writing three interwoven stories.

 1) Abused wife finds out she has more power than she ever dreamed.

 2) Kid with an identity crises finds out he's a god, wait, maybe a demon. Whatever, either way, it doesn't help his self-confidence.

 3) Town constable finds out every person in the whole damn town is a liar.

 The part I do have worked out, more or less, is how these pieces intersect in the end. Thank goodness. I hope to actually write something entertaining at some point for this blog, but not today. It's Monday after all. I don't understand why we didn't name Monday after Satan. That feels right.

They Should Have Sent a Poet

Because I don't have words for this:

Earth | Time Lapse View from Space | Fly Over | Nasa, ISS from Michael König on Vimeo.

Memory Lane Continues!

Another doodle from work. I was too lazy to take out the rule lines on the notebook. Damn, does smoking ever not look cool? Yes, this is another recycled piece of something I'd already posted, but again. I'm pretty sure no one ever saw it the first time it went up.

I'm doing a fantasy novel for Nano this year, I'm thinking this is my obligatory wizard. The story so far, having a few issues. I'll try to get them all fixed over the weekend.

A Blast From The Past

Every time I go to post a pic, Blogger asks if I want to choose a picture already on the blog. It makes me remember when I used to post drawings and sketches all the time. I figured I would repost this one then, to relive my glory days, and of course, recycle old content.

This one was a doodle done at work.

Happy Day

Well... That Sucked

As of this writing (Sunday), I'm way behind my writing goals. Namely my Nano plans. I had hoped to get a huge amount ahead early on during the month and coast through the rest of the month, but instead I got behind almost right off the bat. I've got a great idea for a novel that has been percolating for a while. I'd outlined it and once I started writing I got derailed right off the bat. Figures. Now I'm back to trying to figure out what I want to write as I write... I don't encourage that behavior. The big hope is that I'll write myself right back into my outline.

Still, it's fun, and I'm writing. I may be posting about my story for the next few weeks. Maybe make it a public brainstorming session. Maybe not. Just be prepared.

I Want A New Body

I went to the doctor the other day, I have to go every six months in order to get my medicine that continues to keep me alive (relax - I have high cholesterol), and while I was there I tipped the scales at a good 204 pounds. Five years ago I was freaking out because I was one 165. Two years ago, not too long after I started this blog, I was tipping the scales at around 175. I've been creeping ever closer to enormous for a few years now. Looks like it's time to get radical.

That gastric bypass thing has been around for a few years, nice, but not for me. The problem is that it doesn't really give you immediate results. You still have to actually lose the weight. Way too inefficient.

See? I trade body "A" for body "B"

No, I am looking into a body transplant.

Yes, I had heard about the experiments done, mostly during the 50's and 60's, where assorted animal heads were detached from their bodies and either A) they were kept alive without any body attached, or B) they just attached it to something else and kept it alive that way.

It wasn't until this weekend when I was researching* for my Nano novel that I saw photographic/video evidence that this happened. It's as surreal a moment as I've ever seen. Then I was hit with the epiphany that they already have the technology, it's decades old, why not use it as a weight loss program?

You know, get fat, trade in your flabby body with some young, fit person who will take it (and money) and they hit the gym. Everyone wins.

Anyway, all kidding aside, do yourself a favor and check out the video. It's a 15 minute documentary about that whole head transplant rage that swept cold war era scientists for a time. Looks like the U.S. preferred using monkeys/apes for research while the Russians preferred dogs - just like the space race. I'm a huge fan of science and I hate to criticize folks in the pursuit of knowledge, but seriously, did anyone at all consider the ethics of this sort of thing?



*meaning, I was avoiding writing.

Meme Spreader!

Rogue Mutt tagged me in a meme thing the other day. I debated on whether or not to respond. I decided in the end that I probably should. This blogging thing is all about being social, after all. So, let's just dive right in here.

 
1. If you could go back in time and relive one moment, what would it be? There is no way in hell I'm sharing that one. No way.
2. If you could go back in time and change one thing, what would it be? Uh, did you ever see a time travel movie, ever? I mean, any time travel movie? Going back in time and changing things leads to disaster. Let's see, Back to the Future, The Butterfly Effect, The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror # 7 (or 8, whatever, the one where Homer's toaster turned into a time machine), crap, what was the Ray Bradbury one, the movie I mean, not the book? I think The Butterfly Effect has already been taken. Anyway, that one. There was Primer, the small indie movie about that guy that invented the time machine... all of them shared one thing. If you screw around with the past, it will be a disaster. That said, I'd definitely go back and muck around. Picking lottery numbers seems like a popular choice, but I'd just like to go back and talk to myself at around the age of 14 or 15. That's it.
3. What movie/TV character do you most resemble in personality? Geez. Stupid as it is, I think it's Paul Rudd as he was in, I Love You, Man. 
4. If you could push one person off a cliff and get away with it, who would you choose? That really isn't my personality to do that sort of thing, you know, murder people. But, I really didn't like my 3rd grade math teacher. Did she really have to be that mean? It was every day with her. She stole my damn eraser because she said it was a toy. WTF? It was an eraser! I used it to erase things, nothing else. Damn that woman. So petty. 
5. Name one habit you want to change in yourself. I wish I could quit obsessing over my third grade math teacher. Damn her, that woman was mean.
6. Why do you blog? Narcissism. 
7. Name at least three people to send this to: Rogue Mutt, Rogue Mutt, and Rogue Mutt. I just want to see if he'll do it again.

That's me on the left

Nano update

Not going real well, I'm finding lots of things very distracting right now. Like, for example, the fact that I think I'm being featured at The Best of Everything blog today.

I need to stress that I only think I'm going to have something there today, as I tend to write these things in advance and you never know what might come up and make things go awry. Still, you should check out the site, I managed to reveal more of myself in that short interview than I ever have here, with nearly 200 blog posts under my belt.

Of course, if I'm not featured, check it out anyway.

November Edition Insecure Writer's

The months keep whizzing right on by. Can't believe another month has gone by since the last post I've made as my part of The Insecure Writer's Support Group, as hosted by Alex J Cavanaugh (who by the way, saw his novel, CassaStar, hit the top 10 in space opera on Amazon last weekend. Good job, dude!).

This is always difficult for me, not because I don't feel insecure, but because I'm not sure I can articulate all that mess that is going on in my head and it come out in a way that the reader can understand. Well, there's that, and I can kind of be like that guy, the one that just broke up with his girlfriend and won't stop talking about it. I mean, at first you try to be supportive, you listen as he tells you about how much he cared for her, how she crapped all over him, how she was so awful when they were together. How much better it will be now that she's gone.

Then, the next day, he says the same thing. The second time through you kind of figure he just needs to get it out of his system, and you try your best to come up with a reason to leave. Then before you know it, it's been two weeks and every time you've seen or talked to the guy he's trying to corner you so he can complain about his crazy ex-girlfriend.

Well, I've been on both sides of that. I've been that guy who can't shut up,and I've been that guy who takes the long way to the bathroom at work because I'm avoiding that other guy.

So, now I'm here, given the freedom to talk about what I'm feeling insecure about. Well, in the immortal words of Dave Coverdale, "Here I go again."

No, wait. I don't want to go there again this month. What am I insecure about? Well, among other things. I'm afraid that I'm going to give up one day. I have a history of it. My rock star dreams, my artist dreams, even my photography dreams. I don't trust future me to want the same things that present day me wants.

I don't trust me to pursue my dreams. Again, I've gone to school to be a bible scholar, a biologist, an accountant, and have pursued none of those things. I dreamed of being an actor, but never auditioned for anything. I'm tired of obsessing over something new every 5 or 6 years. Dammit, I'm done with my wanderlust.

I'm a writer. I hope.

A History of Me and Nanowrimo

It begins today. I didn't have my outline as fleshed out as I wanted to, but I got enough to at least start writing. I've been saying all along it's fantasy... really it's science fiction. But without me telling you that it's Sci Fi, I'm pretty sure you wouldn't know. As it's clearly fantasy. Well, that doesn't make a ton of sense, but I think my conceit is pretty clever. I won't give it away yet. As I want to pretend for a while that it's completely unique.

But I also realized that I've participated in several Nanos to date. I figured I'd recap previous years entries to see what I've done.

Year 1: James and Galfar: The Blutonian Death Egg. Yes, this book is my first ever Nano attempt. I had written several short stories before, but nothing serious. This was my first try at a novel. It was really, really bad. I had rants that went on for days. I had a kernel of a story I liked though. But I shelved this one, chalking it up for experience.

One sentence synopsis: An average guy ends up being humanity's ambassador to an alien race.

Year 2: The Alarming Alterity of James Coastsman. This was a sequel to the previous Nano. Even though I knew the previous year was chalked up as practice, I liked where I was going and so I wrote more. It was a much better attempt at a novel and I still really like it. I plan on revisiting this later this year.

One sentence synopsis: A new kid in school claims to have moved here straight from outer space.

Year 3: The Bleeted Undulations of an Aphasic Universe. This one was a framed novel. A present day story with a long novella length tale set about a hundred years ago within the larger story. I love the novella part, but not the modern day part. That's kind of a mess. I think I was trying a murder mystery, those things need more planning ahead of time. It might be salvageable, but I have no plans to try. Well, the novella will probably get recycled for something else.

One sentence synopsis: When a gas station attendant that runs a website dedicated to welcoming aliens to earth receives an artifact unlike anything he's ever seen, people start dying and he has to run for his life, all while trying to uncover the artifact's origins.

Year 4: The Blutonian Death Egg. I went back to year one's Nano and started over from scratch. This novel has been shopped around some without anyone showing any real interest. Although I continue to query.

One sentence synopsis: Twentysomething slacker and gifted codebreaker is drafted to take a top secret mission to discover the secret of an alien artifact that's been found near Earth's moon.

My personal life got a little crazy not too long after this and I didn't write for a couple of years. Well, I did write, but only short stories. So when I came back I decided I was going to really try to get something done and see if I can make this writing thing work. I'm still in the middle of that - I'll let you know how that goes.

Year 5: Crazy Shit with Space Aliens and Stuff: Yes, that is only a working title, I realize that it might need a bit of work. I wrote A Dead God's Wrath and another novella length piece set in the same universe. I even have a spreadsheet that details the history of the universe that I use as a guide. This one is set in the modern day and is probably the most fun I've had writing since I was much younger. Full of insane aliens and zombie attacks... as well as the possible end of all life on earth. I tried to raise the stakes here. Well, the end of all life on earth is something I've tried before. But this at least was more of an immediate threat. I really like the concept here, but this novel is pretty rough. It needs tons of work before I can start showing it to anyone.

Once sentence synopsis: When his grandfather dies, a man finds his grandfather was part of an ancient secret society that has vowed to protect the earth from an unnamed threat - that threat has now arrived.

Year 6: The Wizard's Secret. That brings us back to the present. This year is again, an attempt at fantasy. That medieval society with monsters and magic and all that. I've tried to spend some time doing some worldbuilding. I haven't got as much as the story plotted out as I meant to. Enough to get started I suppose, but not what I wanted.

One sentence synopsis: When Jeb flees his village and into the forbidden lands beyond he stumbles upon a dead wizard, and is now the only hope to save the world from an ancient evil.

And now you know. Wish me luck with this year.