“A little help?” called Angie. “I’m down sixty-four hit points! This thing is killing me!” Cassandra didn’t even look up from the figures on the table. “I know! That’s why I’m about to hit it in the head with a mace!” “Cassandra, you’re the cleric! I want some… Writing RPG Scenes
It was roughly three years of observing and dreaming, before I had finally realized I’d saved enough. And lemme tell you, there’s no feeling like achieving a dream.
Word got out this weekend, when I picked up the car itself. I have become the very pleased owner of a Tesla Model S.
And the key point for this blog is, my books are buying it. (Thank you, thank you, thank you!)
News: I Have a Tesla
There are several stories of dogs showing unbelievable tenacity in looking for or waiting for their missing owners. One of the most famous is Hachiko.
Hachiko was a regular at Shibuya Station in Tokyo, where he spent the first couple of years of life meeting his owner Ueno Hidesaburo as he returned from teaching at the University of Tokyo. But one day in May 1925, Ueno collapsed during a lecture of a cerebral hemorrhage and died at work. Hachiko went to the train to meet him as usual, but Ueno did not arrive.
Icon of Loyalty – Hachiko
So, I won NaNoWriMo this year. But I cheated.
Okay, “cheating” may be something of an overstatement. I did not write my 50,000 words in a single project, but I did complete or make significant progress on several different projects, and that qualifies me as a “NaNo Rebel” in the NaNoWriMo community, but still a winner.
Projects included:
1) A fun little disaster tale which will be appearing in the upcoming C is for Chimera anthology (look for release details in January).
I’m pretty proud of this one, because while it isn’t the fastest story I’ve ever written, it is definitely the fastest I’ve ever produced on demand, from editor email to finished product in about a week.
2) A short story I’m intending to submit for another anthology this month. I won’t say too much on this one, because it’s not done yet and the deadline’s coming up scarily fast, and it’s a genre that’s a bit of a stretch for me. But I did get about 12,000 words written so far, so I’m certainly giving it the old college try.
3) A novel — again playing with folklore and mythology, but not Japanese or the Fae this time.
NaNoWriMo and My Secret Weapon
I’ve solved the mystery of Atlantis. (Well, okay, I have some plausible ideas.)
That’s the awesome thing about story research — you never know where it’s going to lead you.
I was writing a short story about Atlantis, and speculating a semi-plausible way for it to go as quickly as Plato related, and I started playing around with fissure rifts and earthquakes. Some Googling brought me to an account of how a rift in the African desert opened far more rapidly than previous theory had allowed and will eventually become a new ocean:
And then I sank Atlantis.
So I was picking up around the house, and I noticed a theme to my personal accessories…. It’s been no secret that I like red, and black, and red and black together, but this was a fairly solid example. At least shopping is easy!
With the impending release of The Force Awakens, a lot of old Star Wars material is being revisited about the internet, including several fun conspiracy theories. I delayed writing this post too long, so you may have seen some of these by now, but here’s a roundup of my favorites.
Star Wars and Conspiracy Theories
It was a nearly-inconceivable tragedy.
The New London School explosion has gotten relatively little coverage over the decades, in part because the traumatized community did not want to be put on display — and this was before exploitative news camps hounding victims to supply 24-7 coverage, so they were better able to refuse. Rather, it’s reported that rescue organizers told journalists helpers were needed more than news reports and recruited their aid. But it’s one of the most significant disasters you’ve never heard of.
The New London Texas School Explosion
I think it’s time we were all honest with ourselves and just admitted that Daylight Saving Time is a failed idea.
It’s not a bad idea, in its original form. When early proponents (such as Benjamin Franklin) realized that we could take advantage of longer daylight hours by getting up earlier, that was a legitimate and factual observation. Ben satirically suggested cannons to rouse the populace earlier rather than changing the clocks, because changing the clocks was kind of a dumb idea, but the cannons didn’t exactly take off either.
Since then, Daylight Saving Time (it’s singular, despite popular mispronunciation) discussion has been full of good intentions with poor follow-through.
So, About Daylight Saving Time
Don’t forget, I (and others!) will be at the Allen County Public Library Author Fair this Saturday.
I’ll be speaking on self-publishing, with others. I’ll have a table with books and shirts and stuff, and I’ll be happy to sign or help you pick Christmas gifts (shop early!) from my table or another author’s table, and just talk about your favorite fiction.
Details below. Please stop by!ACPL Author Fair this weekend!
