Personal tastes in stories

A while back I read a story recommended by a friend. It was Red, White, and Blood and I didn’t like it very much. That series started strong, but has been losing me and I’m not even sure I want to try the next one. I had a talk with my friend, who loved the book, about what we did and didn’t like about it. Got me thinking about the sorts of things I enjoy in the stories I read. Which is something I try to think about now that I’m doing the writing my own stories thing and trying to be a author. By analyzing the stories I read I become better able to write good stories myself.

 

Book: Wannabe a Writer?

Wannabe a Writer? – hilarious, informative guide to getting published (Secrets to Success Writing Series) by Jane Wenham-Jones was somewhat disappointing. It’s a book about writing and getting published and about the author sort of complaining about her personal woes. There is some decent stuff in it for someone who just is getting started being a writer, but I found nothing useful in it.

 

Book: Guardian

The Lost Fleet: Beyond The Frontier: Guardian by Jack Campbell is the most recent book of the Lost Fleet series. I actually finished the book several days ago, but just haven’t gotten motivated to write anything about it. Guess that is a pretty accurate view of how I felt about the book after finishing it. Kind of bland and no real energy.

 

Vallan in print!

The latest payoff of my writing efforts is ready to be revealed. From the people who brought you Vallan as a ebook brings you Vallan as a printed book. My current short story is still in the limbo between manuscript and published, so this is the biggest news on the writing front. Pictures at bottom of this post.

If you wish to purchase a copy of this scifi Arthurian novelette, contact my publisher: Prairie Dog Publishing. Also available soon at fine online bookseller Lookout Mountain Bookstore. Hot off the presses and limited qualities available. If you enjoyed this book in electronic form enough to buy it again, or know someone who doesn’t like reading digital text, this is the book you’ve been looking for..

Yes, I do tend to think in over the top marketing sales pitch when I don’t know what to say about things that make me happy. It’s a flaw I’ve learned to live with. Still, this is really cool. Harvard Book Store has a awesome (yes, as in it inspires awe) book printing machine that cranks out high-quality copies. Though this story was on the very bottom end of the minimum pages requirement. Next story they do a print run for me will be much longer. Get this book straight from the printer here.

Of course the ebook version is still available (new improved edition coming soon) on amazon here and as always all my for-sale published stories can be found on the sidebar on the right side of this blog under the category Empyrean Library.

 

Gravedigger Class

This is a RPG content post. Been a while since I’ve done one of those. Mostly because I haven’t been gaming in a long time and therefor don’t need to give players setting information and any thinking I do on the subject of tabletop gaming has just sort of been running around in my head with no place to go. I can only tweak and invent stuff for so long without a game to try it out in before I’m just running in circles.

However, since the next story I am publishing as a ebook is not only set in the last campaign setting I ran a game in, but involves one of the primary classes in the future campaign worldbook, I figured I would post this. This is a character class using the random table method of advancement as seen here and here. I’ve decided that this is a pretty cool way to make one character different from the other and a great way to cram a lot of interesting ability ideas into a single class without making it confusing and overpowered. Sure there are about 25 class powers, bonuses, and whatnot for the class, but any particular character is only going to end up with some of them. This a class for Classic Dungeons & Dragons type games and should be fairly compatible with almost any class-based D&D ruleset. Be sure to tweak to match your game for best results.

To get the full flavor and more setting information, look forward to the digital release of the book Gravedigger on Amazon. Coming soon.