Hope everyone’s doing good.  I’ve been busy post-holiday – mostly catching up on all sorts of things I couldn’t do during the holiday.  Frankly didn’t get as much done as I wanted, but I also actually took a bit of time off as I needed it.  That holiday travel is not relaxing . . .

Reality Show Generator – Haven’t done much on this, but the notes are all there.  Once I get a bit further on my projects I can see when I can do this.  In theory it will go fast because the analysis is done.  But man, that analysis wasn’t that exciting . . .

Way With Worlds – Pre-readers are done for the first book (well now it’s two books, I finished the split)!  So now it’s time to integrate feedback and ship it off to the editor next month.  Still aiming for a later-summer release.

Creative Paths – I’ve been putting my theories of creativity and how people create into a small book, a guide to understanding how you create and how to practice other methods.  That should be out in January!

Other Things – Not too much up now, taking it easy, so keep generating!

– Steve

I’m sorry, if this isn’t story fuel (or a Carl Hansen inspiration), you’re not trying hard enough – Man Arrested with 51 Live Turtles In Pants.

• Steve

Hello one and all, and hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving where appropriate.  Lots happened (and you saw I vanished a bit).

Twitter – OK I’ve debated what to do with the Twitter.  I do want to post random stuff to it – but that seems to work at Tumblr.  But what I AM doing is, beyond posts and such, promoting a generator a day.  There’s over 170 so you can discover generators you didn’t know about . . . or that I forgot.  I may also add feeds from other cool twitters and sites.

Next Generator – I finished the breakdown of the Reality Show Generator.  This was an attempt to do actually do a full analysis before writing a complex generator – and apply what I learned not to do during the Plot Twist generator.  The analysis was incredibly useful and I will begin working on the generator next.  The issue?  It was boring, though it worked really well.  Maybe I just need to perfect my techniques.

Way With Worlds – The book(s) are back from one of my pre-readers, and pre-reading ends tomorrow.  Time for me to do an editing sweep, line up my editor, and line up my cover artist, as well as put it in front of my writing group.    Still aiming to publish both in the summer as well – but not at the same time.  It’ll be one then the other a month or two later, as well as some followup.

Well that’s it.  How’s everything on your end gang?

Generational Spaceships are an awful unlikely proposal according to Kim Stanley Robinson, though there may be some interesting solutions to the challenges discussed.  Thought-provoking reading.

For you writers out there, here’s a few story seeds:

• Earth takes a stab at a Generation ship – but when FTL is invented how does that affect everyone’s plans?
• Robinson notes that a big problem with a generation ship is making it a mobile ecosystem.  What if you built one (say inside a rotating, hollowed-out asteroid)?  What happens when you go bigger than ship to a miniplanet?

Hey, is it just me or does this War of the Worlds Walker from an old book cover look a lot like a Star Wars AT-AT?

Another story lead – Jogger finds 4-foot dead alligator.

A bit of silly fun for the Holidays – and because the Reality Show Generator provided to be deeper than I expected, we have the Class Masher!  Remember all those “X” characters as “Y” RPG class memes (especially Disney Princesses and The Avengers?).  This generator does it for you!

So you can get:

• Arya Stark (Game Of Thrones)-Demon Hunter (World Of Warcraft)
• Big Macintosh (My Little Pony)-Beast (Etrian Odyssey)
• Billy Quizboy (Venture Brothers)-Paladin (Diablo)
• Gomez Adams-Sinner (Disgaea)
• Kermit The Frog (Muppets)-Blue Mage (Final Fantasy)
• White Rabit (Wonderland)-Ninja (Final Fantasy)

Enjoy!

-Steve

A few links for you creatives.

• Kickstart a Romance-focused book store!
• Working on a list of books bound in human skin – there’s story fuel for you.
• Get a gander at amazing Star Wars concept art from Ralph McQuarrie.
• If you aren’t reading the blog of amazing found, obscure, weird literature Schlock Value you are completely missing out.
• The University of Santa Barbara digitized 10,000 old wax cylinders.  A wonderful piece of historic preservation and civic geekery.  Plus I bet you could get some story ideas out of this.
• A great essay on the role of both warnings and hope in Science Fiction.

• Steve

OK the Webinar on geeky careers with Lauren is done.  Check out the replay – https://laurenorsini.leadpages.co/live-webinar/

Plus you can get a serious bargain on e-copies of ALL our books – for a limited time – https://gumroad.com/l/oRRM

This was also a big experiment for me.  See, I’ve thought of doing webinars on a various subjects including creativity.  Think you Sanctum folks would like to have webinars with me and other creators talking on creativity?  Let me know what you’d like to see!

• Steve

Hello everyone, hope you’re all doing well. Been a bit of a busy week for me work-wise, so you can guess I’m looking forward to the holiday.

First, a shout-out to all the NaNoWriMo participants?  The NaNoWriMo traffic spike is lasting longer than last year, so I hope I’m helping all of you out!  Be sure to let us know how you’re doing and leave feedback.

Secondly, Way With Worlds – I should have prereader feedback start of December, so I can start editing – my big focus being sure I nail down the concepts.  I’m pretty positive I got it, but this was pretty heavy stuff to write, so I need the feedback.  As noted, it’s really going to be two books and then there will be supplementary material.

Oh, and I’m debating some webcasts on the subjects, maybe even before the book is out.  So stay tuned.

Third, new generators.  I have two in mind, and in both I want to try to actually write up an analysis, building on what I learned from the more painful processes of the Plot Twist and Writing Prompt generators.  The upcoming two are humorous/less-serious, but I’ll let you stew awhile longer on the subjects.

So, let me know how you’re doing and good luck all you NaNoWriMo Writers!

– Steve

OK gang, yes, I know people have asked me to do more than just speak at cons.  Well Lauren Orsini asked me to be part of a webinar and I accepted!  It’s a chance for you to join us and talk . . . careers!  We’re doing a discussion about how people build geek careers realistically, covering seven major steps that you’ll want to follow.  I figure that fits a lot of you folks here at the sanctum.  So,  you can read more at Lauren’s blog (which is well worth following), or just go and . . .

Sign up now!

It’s free, but seats are limited.  So go on, sign up, and we’ll get a chance to talk careers Sunday, November 8th at 9am Pacific, (12pm Eastern).

Now the big thing with this?  This is an experiment for me.  If it works, I want to try other Webinars, including ones on creativity, writing, and more.  So hopefully this’ll work out and I’ll try some Sanctum-themed Webinars on creativity, worldbuilding, etc. I’ve been a bit iffy on Webinars, but Lauren sold me on trying it out – and now I can’t wait!

• Steve