New Project

So as of yesterday -- the 2nd of February -- I've been invited onto the team at Pure Steam RPG to write two companion novels to their d20-licensed gaming system for Pathfinder.

If you're not familiar, here's the run-down. Pathfinder is a system that is based on the Wizards of the Coast new release of D&D 3.5 rules set. (For those of you who aren't gamers, that's Dungeons & Dragons). It is a unique system with its own worlds and rules and is highly adaptable to a variety of worlds and eras. It was started in 2009 by Paizo Publishing and has a pretty good following in the tabletop rpg circles.

So I've been asked to help Pure Steam market and promote their material with two companion novels about a major character (or two) from the world to help shape the gaming world. It'll be like my own Drizzt or Elminster (look them up; they're cool characters).

I'm pretty damn excited about this. I even get to work with a guy named Crockett. I mean come on. Boone & Crockett. That just sounds like a bad-ass cop-drama team. Way better than those guys from Hawaii Five-0.

I'll keep you all abreast as I learn more and as we progress through development. Thankfully, I am still working diligently on the "Charles" novel, which is going through some of its own major changes. But it's working out well, and I'm exciting for the new material I'm writing.

New Story!

So I completed my first short story of the year. Hooray! I am currently typing it up -- being a hand-written kind of guy -- and it's breaking 2000 words right now with plenty to go and plenty of room for expansion.

 It's tentatively titled, "The Temple of Guayna Tuampa" and takes place in the same world as my "Empress of the Danforthe" stories. It was a challenge on one of the websites I participate in to write a story in alternate history Earth that included dragons. So I wrote about a temple-busting explorer who encounters a dragon in a temple in South America. It's a pretty romping good time.

 I'm working as hard as ever on the new Milwaukee Writers Workshop venture. I.E., it's a business now (or will be very shortly) and so it's a bit of a mentality shift to go from "Oh, this is just a fun group I run" to "Hey, this is a business, and I need to treat it professionally." Not that I wasn't professional before, but it's a big change, and I think it'll put a good light on us for the future and help our potential. It's exciting nonetheless, and we've got some good help with a new intern who's very capable.

 On a side note, the revisions to "The Mechanics of Man" -- my steampunk rewrite of the infamous "charles" novel -- have been going very well, and I am nearly through the entirety of Book One with my additions and rewrites.

Work Work Work Work Work

Projects have been coming in copious amounts lately. It's been a busy summer for my writing, and I'm happy about that.

After CONVergence I felt like I'd made a discovery, or perhaps I simply allowed myself the pleasure of admitting something: I write steampunk. I'm good at it. I like it. I'm ok with that. I've always had an inordinate love for Victorian literature (Dickens is my man), and I love socially-conscious science fiction. So I blend the two and whala! I have created my own steampunk.

So that -- for the last two months -- has been my driving force. I am working on a series of shorts that are going to be converted to script in order to make them into a graphic novel. It will be a bit of a process, but I'm hoping to get a few of the initial issues into Steampunk Magazine.

I've also been working on yet another edit of the Charles novel, which I have tentatively titled (yeah, after 12 years I finally came on a title, which I think is a good sign) "The Mechanics of the World" or possibly "The Mechanics of Man." The rewrite is going well, and I'm going to use NaNo to finish it off.

I have a few thoughts to say about motivation, though. My job, of late, has not been as conducive as it once was to getting work done, which has left me to get work done at home or elsewhere. Let me tell you there are a lot of distractions at home, and I have had to force myself to go to places where I have only writing to keep my occupied. If you find yourself in the same quandary, find a place without personal distractions: the library, a bar, the coffee shop, a park. Go somewhere that works for you that's not riddled with the internet, and dishes, and pets, and kids. Otherwise you'll make excuses, and writing just won't happen.

CONvergence

So much going on. Many updates.

WriteCamp 3 was good. We had about 90 people and some really good sessions. I also think that we did a good job of really pushing the envelope as far as garnering sponsors and repeat visitors. So who knows what next year will bring. Overall I was pleased.

I am still working (though not as strongly) on my post-apocalyptic, Second Coming story. I'm roughly 40,000 words in, which is pretty solid. I think I should finish by the end of the summer -- only because another project has landed in my metaphorical lap.

Hence the title. CONvergence. It was great.

This year's theme was "The future through the past." Needless to say there was a lot of steampunk-ery going on, which was great. I was really stoked for the conference because of that, and I was equally enthralled with all the costumes and the sessions. Most notable was a session entitled "Beyond Dirigibles and Pith Helmets," which was about going beyond Europe or even Earth as a setting point for steampunk works. In it I got a great idea for an adventure-based story with a strong female main character and a lot of non-European story to be told. I'm quite excited for it.

My tentative title: "The Amazing Adventures of Lucinda Barrington, Empress of the Danforthe: a Tale in 7 Parts Regarding the End of the World." Yeah, it's long. But it's gonna be awesome.

Eureka!

In a moment of brilliance -- or perhaps just idiot savant-ness -- I figured out the integral flaw in my very first attempt at a novel. It's a project I've long thought was worthy of having been written but more than once person has pointed out error after error. It was never that I didn't think that the errors were un-fixable; I just didn't know how to do it.

At work last week, however, it dawned on me where the crux lay: the main character's passiveness needed to be changed to make him more active. Now, that might seem like a pretty easy thing to pick out when reading a draft -- and it was -- but like I said the problem wasn't in not knowing the flaw; it was knowing how to fix it.

I think the problem is pretty much resolved now, though, which makes me happy. The main character has really blossomed in my re-writes (and I'm only about 20 pages in, with an additional 10 or so pages of new material). Not only has he become more active in his own story, but his actions make him significantly more empathetic, which was a big issue for people in previous critiques.

As a side note, I took comments from a few people to heart and made what was essentially a Victorian-era pastiche piece (as an homage to Charles Dickens) into a Steampunk piece.

Now, in my defense, I feel like this change is worthwhile. Steampunk is a very broad genre, and I feel like this piece can be made into what some chidingly refer to as 'Li-fi' -- literary science fiction. I'm ok with it being that, because I think that it fits more in line with literary fiction, rather than entertainment fiction.

Giddy With Inspiration

Three years ago, when the Milwaukee Writers Workshop still had all of its groups on one day, I braved the novel critique with a project that was nearly seven years old (at least) and in its fourth or fifth iteration. It was a novel that was (perhaps still is) my former* wife's favorite piece. A colleague in the group, who I thoroughly respect for his critique and his writing skill, offered up the advice to turn what is essntially a pastiche of a Charles Dickens novel into a science fiction piece. At the time, I had no idea how that could be possible. 

Over the last two days, though, I think I've discovered how I can make that happen. I'm entrenched in the Steampunk genre now. I love it more now than I did when I first discovered it, than I did when I fully recognized its potential, and than I did when I read "The Difference Engine" for the first time. I enjoy the genre, and I enjoy its capabilities. Now, I believe I have truly discovered the root of the story that began as an attempt to write a Victorian novel. 

So, putting most other projects aside, I am going to revisit said project -- which I haven't looked at in nearly two years -- to try and hammer out this new direction. I have it in my head, and also on a ton of scraps in my bag at work, and I think I can really make something marvellous out of it. 

Also, in short story news, I completed a brand new story this week that's roughly 4200 words, and it's about cowboys, in the future, in a post-catastrophe America. It's fun. 

*I like to use the term former for my soon-to-be-ex-wife because it sounds better. It's like being the former president: the title is still there, because the importance of the position hasn't changed, but there's no real duties that lie therein. We're still friends, which is nice, so she's not really an "ex," just (as I say) former. 

Updates Feb. 2011

So here's the scoop. Since the beginning of the year, I have the following new pieces written:

"The Pariah of Langeford" -- 1100 words; pseudo fantasy
"Electric Golems" -- 4700 words; steampunk
"The Pageant Fire" -- 1700 words; contemporary
"The Horticenter" -- 900 words; futurist science fiction
"Annalisa (WT)" -- 3400 words; steampunk
"Thomas, Boy Wonder" -- unfinished steampunk

I have also been working diligently with a new writing partner on an extension of the "Westerward Expansion" story that unfortunately got rejected (by default) for the Clockwork Choas anthology, which I hope to see very soon in publication. The project is a series of letters, along with narrative, between the two main characters presented in the short story. I believe I'll be polishing the short work to be sent out as a stand-alone with the longer work to follow.

I also sent out "The Pod Village of San-Zhr," which is an older story, but one that I liked quite a lot. It went out to an anthology for stories of liminality. Needless to say, I am excited for that one.

Once polished and critiqued, I will be sending out "Annalisa," "Thomas, Boy Wonder," "Electric Golems," and "The Pariah of Langeford." I think they're all solid and with a good polish should prove to be good works. My hope is to get at least two pieces published this year, and I know that there are a few new publications to look forward to.

I'll also be trying out a bit of something new on the blog, but I'll need some help from my trusty readers: I would like to answer writing questions. I have one in the wings -- perhaps by Friday or Saturday -- and that should give some idea of what I'm talking about. Feel free to send me things. You can send it to boone@milwaukeewritersworkshop.com; just be sure to put something like "writing question" in the subject, so I know to mark it properly.

Music & Me

Lately I've been trying to inspire myself through music, and it's worked, though not in the most uplifting of ways. I tend to write relatively somber pieces (which most know if they've ever read my work), but I seem to be listening to a lot of very quiet, brooding, mood-dampening music. It's worked to produce some good work, though -- at least in my opinion.

I did recently finish a short story of 4700 words. It's another steampunk story, which I'm pretty pleased with. It falls a little more into the fantasy side of things, with a lot less history blended in. All-in-all, it's pretty solid, and I'm eager to get it polished and sent out as another submission for the year (though it will only make 4 this year).

I also finally found someone I'm very pleased to work with for the letter-writing project I tried to start about six months ago with someone else. It's a continuation of the "Westward Expansion" short story I completed back in January of this year. If things go well, it will at least be a novella comprised of both narrative and letters written between the two main characters of the previously-mentioned short story. I think it will be an interesting project regardless of its success, and it will be the first time I've really worked with someone long-term on a project, as I tend to write by myself (being that I'm kind of picky when it comes to my narratives).

WriteHouse is coming up soon -- second or third week of October -- and I think it's going to be great. I'll update as the event gets more formalized in date and time.

Successes & Failures

It's always surprising -- though not shocking -- how things come in droves when they do come, whether good or bad. So here are some updates -- both the good and the bad -- and don't worry, there's some writing-related bits at the end.

1. After a very long and packed Spring planning for WriteCamp, we were rewarded with a great turn-out for the event and an even better response to it this year than last. There will most certainly be a continuation of the event for years to come, which has been my hope since it's inception.

2. After six years of marriage, my wife asked me for a divorce, which I must say will be on the biggest changes in my life to date. It's been a year filled with family tragedies, and this will certainly be something more to add to my list of life experiences. Life gives us a lot of hurdles to jump over; this is but another of those, and I will prevail.

3. For those who don't follow me on Facebook or Twitter (and you should), I had another story published on 365 Tomorrows' website. It's my first Steampunk piece, and I'm very happy about it. It's probably one of my most polished and experimental pieces.

4. With the success of WriteCamp -- as mentioned above -- I've decided to turn The Milwaukee Writers Workshop into a full-fledged organization, and I'm in the process of incorporating it in order to apply for non-profit status. That way (I can hope), we'll have a much easier time next year and years to follow to get more and bigger sponsorships from folks for WriteCamp and other events we might hold.

It's always friends and family that help me through the ebbs and flows of my life, and I thoroughly appreciate their presence right now. While many things in my life seem wildly out of control, at least I am kept sane by the continued mental benefit of my writing. I'll write again soon -- I promise.

Ideology, Pt. 2

I've been discussing the nature of ideology and steampunk a lot over on the Brass Goggles forums lately. Even after a few posts, it has become very clear to me that my vision of the genre is completely different from most of those who frequent the forums. I have always been one to take a serious approach to literature. As I've mentioned before, I feel like fiction ought to have a purpose: whether that purpose is to entertain or enlighten is entirely up to the author. For me, I want my readers to walk away having gained something more than just a fun story to add to their list of "have reads."

In light of the discussion, I began to think very specifically about the nature of genre and its meaning to people. So I've added to my list of tasks to research a number of others' views on genre and genre theory as it pertains to speculative fiction and begin to formulate my own ideas to either grow out of those thoughts or stand in opposition to them.

In general, I believe genre fiction has a unique place in the repertoire of literature because it has the ability to speak towards topics untouchable by mainstream fiction by placing them in a context that is either foreign or futuristic (or some other conception). It has the potential to talk about things in a way that other authors might be shunned by the general populace for bringing up. With that in mind, I think that there is something to be said for some of the movement towards strictly embracing a particular movement's aesthetic aspect only. To disregard ideology is to lose part of what makes a particular genre or sub-genre stand out and bring home its message.

I invite you to join in on the discussion over at the forums if you're keen on discussing steampunk. Otherwise, your thoughts here are always welcome.

Ideologies Abound

Literary movements typically happen without an express intent to do so. Writers working under similar perceptions of the nature of language, writing, politics, society, or whatever else drives a writer to write, tend to create movements inadvertently by writing in similar fashion. Modernism was a response to the Romantic idealism of the 19th Century. Post-Modernism was a response to the traditionally-bound and structurally-minded artists of Modernism. This is the way of movements: the writers didn't intentionally try to create a movement; it just happened.

The "punk" movement in science-fiction is a good example of this. For very general information, you can look up cyberpunk and steampunk on Wikipedia (though the information is certainly less than exhaustive). Both of these movements were created in reaction to a previous way of thinking; both of them created a new movement that spawned a way in which to present a story.

I believe, however, that both of them are dead - or at least not progressing - movements. Cyberpunk has run its course. It's message has been stated, and the reaction has been made. Steampunk has also run its course, ideologically, though it is still around as an aesthetic. The stylized nature of the sub-genre has produced more than its fair share of fashion, movies, and styles. But it can be revived.

Why am I bringing this up? Because my current project lies in the attempt to recreate a new steampunk. The message of the first wave of steampunk has been sung; I think, though, that the environment can be kept and a new message inserted. So that's what I'm trying to do. I'm reading a fair amount of literature that I hope will inspire a new idea (one I already have in mind but wish to solidify) and some essays. When I'm done, it will either be a grand success or a very educational failure.

I'll keep everyone informed :-)

Thoughts: 5/12/09

It's a quiet night in Milwaukee, and I'm up later than I ought to be after a long day and very little sleep last night. I'm listening to the new Better Than Ezra album and feeling hopeful. WriteCamp is coming up in little less than a month, and I'm very excited about it.

I wrote a steampunk flash fiction piece the other day that I'm fairly happy with. I had my wife read over it, and she said that there's little to draw you in to it, so I'm looking to retool it with a different point-of-view, perhaps, or something a bit more compelling. Perhaps it's a longer story than I'm making it: the character of Doctor Luscowicz is a good one; maybe I need to give him more attention than I have already.

I've also been jotting notes for a few essay ideas regarding creative education, literary theory, and something related to mentorship. I seem to have been doing a lot of "here's my thoughts on writing" rants/discussions/speeches lately, and I might as well see if I can capitalize on them. I might not be original (read, I'm probably reiterating much of what Ken Robinson has said - it's a video, fyi), but I feel that there are a lot of people locally who might not have the same venues that I have and so have not heard what he's got to say about those topics.

I think it's too late to really continue. Just some thoughts for the day.