OK, so where am I with Way With Worlds? Here, let’s break it into bullet points to make it easier.
- I am/will be putting in the prereader feedback soon. That’s a bit behind, but that’s the way it goes. I hope to do this by EOM.
- Then the book ships to my editor, which is easy because that’s called “asking my roommate to do it.” My roommate is a professional tech writer and document manager, so it’s going to be some serious quality work.
- I hope for the editing to take two months with a month for followup. It may go quicker.
- The cover artist has been engaged and I’ve seen a draft for Book 1 already. I like this enough it may be poster-worthy.
- I want to drop book #1 in June and Book #2 in August. That’s the plan, barring any interruptions
- There will be followup work.
At this rate I don’t know what else to say except to occasionally post updates. It’s really in editing and making great covers – and yes, I’ll start a book section here as mentioned for Sanctum-related works.
– Steve
A context to create randomly generated books? I’m so there – though it sounds like it’s got a way to go in some areas. Do dig the idea of a choose-your-own-adventure book.
- Steve
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
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
Came off of a busy well, so the update is I’ve been collecting feedback on the Plot Twist generator – and have a pretty healthy list. So when things calm down a bit, back at it. I think I got a pretty good amount.
Sorry this is tacking so long, but a few projects at work took precedence.
Some of our authors are a bit on hiatus due to other challenges as well. The joy of end of summer and start of fall . . .
- Steve
And the update is – not much of an update. Having some busy times at work that won’t slow down until next week. That means no more updates to the Plot Twist Generator for a week or two. But I got a lot of ideas from folks, so it will come . . .
- Steve
We return this week with, well, a few more magic systems. And to round them out, here’s a link to an old story of mine, which is as much overview of a magic system as it is creation myth: A Legend of Creation.
- The Multitudinous Way
The financial astrologers are not the only power in their world. In some opposition to them (not so much morally but ideologically, for their respective magics depend on wildly variant world-views) are those that consider themselves Icewalkers, or Driven, or Joktanists, or the followers of Ishmael’s Way, or nomad-princes.
There are three tools through which a Joktanist wields zir magic: wine, bowl, and dust. No cup will do to hold the wine, which may be of any quality, nor a deep plate, but only a bowl. The dust is tossed in (the more you put in, the more you get out) to fuel the spell, and once the bowl is struck or swirled to achieve movement the dust dissolves and the spell takes effect through the medium of the wine.
What exactly is done depends upon what kind of dust is used. Salt, for example, will imbue the wine with protective properties. It shields against harm such that, if placed on the doors of a house, it will make the building impregnable for a time. Ash-charged wine will ignite. Common earth will heal or repair.
Just as the financial astrologers lose something in return for their powers, though, so too do the Driven. Each of the nomad-princes has become what ze is because ze wanted freedom and wonder. In a dream ze pursued zir quarry— deer, man, RC car, or something else entirely— until it was caught and revealed itself to be the Dream of Kings (no accidental switching of order there) and granted zem power. As consequence, however, the Joktanists can never rest their heads in the same place more than once. No bed, cot, or sleeping bag can serve the same man again, nor building, lest the offender suffer nightmares all through zir sleep, and when ze stays in the same city for a full lunar month zir powers— but not the required nomadism— are lost until ze moves again.
Generally, financial astrologers want bigger cities and Icewalkers want smaller ones. Larger cities lend themselves to easier manipulation through ley lines, while smaller cities make things more flexible for the Icewalkers. Nevertheless, it is not unheard of for a financial astrologer to hire an Icewalker for some task.
- Stars and Sun
There are those who have sought out the power of the stars and made bargains with them upon the mountain-tops. To each of them a star comes. They speak, and deal one with another, and make their contract. To one that has made a stellar-pact there is given a small power. Through one star may be granted the power to relieve exhaustion, through another the power to turn steel back to untreated iron, and through a third the power to speak with mice. The number of powers and stellar-pacts to be had is as great as the stars themselves, for no star will refuse to come down and deal with the children of men.
But there is one cost that is ever the same, no matter the terms of the pact. The usage of this magic hollows out memories, emotions, and other aspects of the mind, leaving space for them to be infested with parasites of a spiritual nature. These parasites, perhaps proto-stars, are not malevolent, but neither are they benign; by natural consequence of their presence they warp their habitation, altering the mind of their host in ways that are small at first but grow greater in the course of time.
The sun, chief emperor among the stars, does not take part in these pacts, and neither have the stars ever been permitted to remain in the land except for the space of a few minutes. But there are those whose blood goes back to those times when the sun itself came down and tarried long, making merry with the sons of men, and the daughters of men. It bore children to the sons of men, and begot children by the daughters of men, and some of these lines have continued true to this day.
The power of these bloodlines is tied to the sun, coming with its rise and departing with its setting. Because of the rising and setting of their forebear they have internal clocks precise to a thousandth of a second, being able to tell time by the waxing or waning of their power. When the sun is risen they have not so much great strength as they do the ability to make other things weak, and simply by so choosing they can interact with matter as though it were warm butter, no matter whether it is granite, flesh, or steel. This power is theirs from birth but it does not affect others with the same heritage.
- Morospicy
This magic is as simply as it is horrific: the murder of a human being, under the right conditions, can give the killer a glimpse of another point in time and space. The more removed this point is in either time or space, the more deaths that are required, and changing both has a disproportionate effect. Viewing another location in the present is about as easy as viewing one’s present location in the past, though just a handful of deaths are necessary to glimpse a few minutes of one’s present location ten years hence.
It is possible, in theory, to glimpse everything, past, present and future. The number of deaths that would be required is unknown, but must surely be immense. It is possible that the population is not even large enough to accommodate make it possible yet. It is just as possible that a group of morospexes are patiently waiting through the centuries for the time when their order may make the necessary sacrifice or, if life extension is possible in the setting, that a single long-lived morospex has been killing through the centuries and saving zir charges in preparation for the day of revelation.
Each morospex has zir own necessary conditions, which can be anything from intoning a certain chant or to using a weapon inscribed with the right runes. These conditions can be discovered either by accident or by the intervention of another morospex using zir own conditions to view the future and see under what conditions someone is practicing morospicy.
R. Donald James Gauvreau works an assortment of odd jobs, most involving batteries. He has recently finished a guide to comparative mythology for worldbuilders, available herefor free. He also maintains a blog at White Marble Block, where he regularly posts story ideas and free fiction, and writes The Culture Column, an RPG.net column with cultures ready for you to drop into your setting.
Hello one and all – and here’s the latest updates!
First, I’ve revamped some of Informotron, my press site, and want to invite you to get my LinkedIn Guide and newsletter! You get my checklist for using Linked In, updates on my various projects, and of course some extras now and then. It’s also been great for me – I already got another pre-reader for Way With Worlds!
Next up, is the Plot Twist Generator which is . . . creaking it’s way forward. The feedback provided has been invaluable, but this is also a lot harder than I expected. The challenge is that plot twists often run into tropes, and some are so common they stand out even when you try to vary them. It’s also hard to find good documentation on plot twists. So this one is gonna be challenging, and I’ve already got some fun generator ideas queued up as this one is a pain . . .
Way With Worlds the book is in another editing phase, a sort-of-second read through. When I finish that I’ll do one more read through and get it to pre-readers. That should be about October.
Speaking of october – and on speaking, I’m going to be presenting at PMI Silicon Valley 2015 Symposium on the role of creativity in the Project/Program Management. You better believe the Sanctum is going to get mentioned.
That’s it for me. How are you doing?
Respectfully,
– Steven Savage
http://www.musehack.com/
http://www.informotron.com/
http://www.seventhsanctum.com/
