Thursday, April 30, 2009

The first revisions are done!

I've just typed out the last of what are the first revisions on Ephemeris. The revised rules are almost 15% longer with quite a bit more detail. There's still a lot of work, as we still need to add more things for the characters to play with, but this is a significant step.

I feel like I've been working on this beast for years, and I actually have been, and it will be nice once we finally release the game. As of right now, we're shooting for an Aug. 1st release, but if all goes well (which it rarely does), we might be able to push that release up a little!

Stay tuned for more information as I have it.

An update for the end of April

I've been very busy of late. I've had a case of the creeping cruds (no, it's not the swine flu...people really need to relax on that subject.)

We're nearing the end of the school year for the oldest, so she's had all kinds of events. I've also been putting a lot of effort into the revisions of Ephemeris, and I'm almost done with those. I've also been working on a bit of a redesign of the Flying Pen Press website...hope to debut that eventually.

We've also been working on trying to get all of our financial issues worked out. We were supposed to be getting married in a few weeks, but Rebecca's tax return was intercepted because of unpaid student loans, and now her wages are being garnished. Add to that me losing my "real" job, and things have been a struggle, and we've had to postpone the wedding until next May. By then hopefully the economy, and our personal finances will have improved.

In the next couple of days I will hopefully be posting an entry about finishing the first revisions on Ephemeris. At this point, we're hoping for a release date right around Aug. 1st, but there may be a pre-sale event even before that...so for those of you who have impatiently been awaiting the release of the game...it may actually be coming!!!

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Ken Rand

Back when I first started out this crazy endeavor of writing, I was published in several ProMart magazines. Around the same time, there was a guy named Ken Rand who was also being published alongside me. When I became an editor for ProMart, I had the pleasure of publishing Ken several times...often joking with him that his stuff was too good for what I was editing...and in some ways that was true.

Over the last few years, we've exchanged an occasional e-mail, posted on each other's LiveJournal from time to time...but overall we didn't keep in touch like we should.

I've just learned that Ken passed away yesterday. He'd been sick for a long time, and he often talked about the fact that he was outliving any of his own expectations for his health, but I guess his illness finally became too much for him. All I know is that I wished I would have kept in touch with him more than I did.

You'll be missed Ken. You were a great writing talent, but more importantly, you were a great guy...

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Great experience during revisions

Normally, revising my work is something that I really hate doing. Last night, I had one of those great experiences while working on the revisions of Ephemeris. It was after sunset, and I was sitting in our living room with the sliding glass door open. Yes, true, we did just get almost a foot of snow just a few days ago, but that doesn't mean it can't be really warm a few nights later. During that storm, this area got a lot of moisture (we saw a lot of rain and snow), so the river that runs through the field close to our house is running high and running fast. Needless to say, it was quiet enough last night that I could hear that river running while I was working on the revisions.

There's just something about the sound of running water that seems to drive the creative juices. I've heard this from a lot of writers, and I know it's true for me. So, I sat for a solid three hours and just cranked out notes for revising the game. It was one of the best revision sessions I've ever had.

Sadly, with the dry heat we're now getting, the water levels are starting to drop in the river, so I might not get to repeat that experience for a while...at least not until we start getting our Summer deluges.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

The initial draft of Ephemeris is done

I've just typed the last of the 80,000+ words that is the initial draft of the Ephemeris RPG. This has taken forever and a day to get to this point, but as of late, I've been getting a lot done on it. Unfortunately, my partner in this has dropped the ball a bit, and I've had a lot more work to do than I expected...but it's done...it's done...it's done!!!

There's still a lot of work ahead of us. I have to go back through and put in all kinds of table. I have to work on the language to make it smoother. And I have to make some changes to the early part of the game because some of the rules changed half way through. Things just made more sense the farther into them that I got.

It shouldn't take anywhere near as long to revise the rules as it did to create them, so we're still hoping for a late Summer release. It would be so nice to finally have this beast out of the way...but it's been a lot of fun creating the game.

Now...I think I'll sleep. This last little push has left me with some severe insomnia...

Thursday, April 02, 2009

An Ephemeris update

The RPG I've been designing, Ephemeris, is now very late in delivery. However, there is definite progress that is being made. Most of the initial draft of the rules has been written. My co-designer is supposed to be sending me the final chapter that I need very soon. At least, I hope he will be. If he doesn't, then I need to write that section. After that it will be some tweaking of the rules, and a whole lot of re-writing...but we are making progress.

I'm hoping for a release in late summer or early fall.

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Price on my Kindle books reduced

If you're lucky enough to have a Kindle, you can now get two of my books for just 99 cents!

The Opium of the People and Seedlings on the Solar Winds are both available from Amazon for a new low price. Here are the links...

The Opium of the People

Seedlings on the Solar Winds