Updates!

ICYMI, I changed the layout of the blog pretty significantly a few weeks back, and I'm digging it so far. Also, I've got two new pages up:

"Appearances," where you can check out some cool places I'll be and when, and

"How I Got Published," which is just a dedicated page for the ongoing series I'm writing on, well, exactly that. (You can find the first post here.)

Also, you'll notice I've changed the names of my pages from my "Yeahbuwha," "Yeahbuwho," etc. to more professional-y things. No comment.

Finally, you may also see that the progress bar for Dark Immolation is getting miiiiighty close to 100%. I think I am actually very close to finishing the book, just a few weeks out, perhaps. The progress bar may be a bit deceiving, though, because it tracks my progress towards my word count goal of 225K words--and I think I'm going to overshoot that by just a bit. (My original word count goal for DI was 150K. Yikes.) But I'm getting very close, and I'm very happy about that.

Of course, once I finish the first draft, I'm going to need to take another pass at it before I send it out, but all things in due time, my friends.

I'll also need to get one more draft of Duskfall hammered out before my deadline (hey! I have a deadline!), but that shouldn't be too difficult. Just some minor changes, fixing some language issues, etc. on that front.

So that's what's going on lately! Should be another #HIGP post up tomorrow. Until then, folks!

Your friendly local desultory blogger, here...

Because this defines my blogging habits in all the ways:

desultory |ˈdesəlˌtôrē|adjectivelacking a plan, purpose, or enthusiasm: a few people were left, dancing in a desultory fashion.• (of conversation or speech) going constantly from one subject to another in a halfhearted way; unfocused: the desultory conversation faded.• occurring randomly or occasionally: desultory passengers were appearing.
Also, I'm hard at work on Book 2 of the Chaos Queen series*, and it's going well. It's actually been quite fun to get back into the characters of Knot, Winter, Astrid, and Cinzia. It's been so long since I've written actual new material for them (I wrote the first draft of Duskfall in 2010, believe it or not) that I thought it would be something of a disaster. But I'm happy to see that is not the case. So, that is happening, and it's making me happy.

My other Chaos Queen project, which was tentatively titled Dark Immolation but has now been tentatively changed to Deadnight, is on the backburner for now. In fact, that project may become something closer to a series of novellas/novelettes, depending on Things.

And, finally, I'm pretty sure I'm going to attempt a D&D-style campaign in the Chaos Queen world. It wouldn't happen until Christmastime-ish, but if it goes well it might be the first in a long series of similar campaigns. I've never GM/DM'd before, so this will be my first experience telling the story, but I'm looking forward to it. Fun times ahead. (And it's not all for fun, either--the idea is that it will help me explore different facets of the Chaos Queen world. Okay, you're right, that actually does sound fun to me. So it is all for fun.)

Anyway, that's me lately. And, in the spirit of D&D, and one of the greatest sitcoms of all time, enjoy the following laugh:





*  Did I mention I changed the series title from The Blood Queen to The Chaos Queen? Well, I did. It fits a lot better. Also, there are no WoW NPCs named Chaos Queen, so, added bonus.

Meanwhile...

...it's another Monday morning, and I hate Mondays. I'm in Provo today (I usually come down here every other week or so, just to get out of the house...cabin fever and all that), but I'm historically less productive here than I am from my office at home. I mean, my office at home has a white board wall, ya'll. Can't beat that.

Anyway, progress is coming along swimmingly for Dark Immolation. I'm about 26k words into it, and my current minimum daily goal is 1500 words. I've sort of been crushing it, lately. It's been awesome. This part of writing--the first draft stage--might be my favorite part of the process. The unpredictability of what might happen, the organic feel of it all, the way the words just start to flow out of me at a certain point...it's lovely. So I'm enjoying that, and actively not thinking about how much rewriting will have to go into this project :-).

I missed another #FIF post on Friday...I'll hopefully have one this Friday. At least I'm consistent at being inconsistent, though. Right? Is that a thing?

I've also enjoyed what I've written so far for my current blog series on story structure. If nothing else, it's helping to solidify these concepts in my own mind for further reference. As a discovery writer, I believe the more knowledge I have bouncing around inside my head about stories, structures, characters, etc., the better--the more I  know about these things, the easier and more effective my first drafts will be. And, as a discovery writer, efficient first drafts are a necessity.

I've got a few more posts planned on story structure. I'm going to talk about the Hero's Journey and look at some examples of that structure in various media (Star Wars will definitely be among said examples, partly in honor of May 4th, partly because it's almost ridiculous how closely Star Wars follows the Hero's Journey), and do the same with the Virgin's Promise (Disney's Frozen is leading the pack for that spot, but we'll see what kind of mood I'm in, and whether I'm up to a Frozen re-watch before then). I'll also writer at least one post talking about the Virgin's Promise, the Hero's Journey, and Dan Harmon's story structure all at once, comparing and contrasting.

In other news, my wife and I are planning a trip to Italy we're taking later this year. That's going to be awesome, to put it lightly. And, incidentally, Dark Immolation takes place on an island very similar to Sicily, so I'll be able to do some "hands on research" while there. Nice, indeed.

Speaking of nice, I'm still watching Community, but I just hit season 4...and it's like hitting a brick wall. Harmon's absence is painfully obvious. I'm only two episodes into the season, so there's definitely room for improvement. But, on the whole, I absolutely cannot wait to watch season 5.

Anyway, that's my deal lately.