Revenge of the Gamer

The essence of business is fulfilling a need people have before they know they have it.  Those able to do this become very successful not because of any specific industry or product, but because of their ability to reinvent themselves.  How do they do this?  By forecasting the future.  Not with a crystal ball, but with a keen understanding of emerging technology and trends.

What do I mean by that?  Consider the iPod.  Before it existing a few people had MP3 players, but they were a very niche product.  Most people still used portal CD players, because it was a hassle to convert your music to MP3s and then transfer them to the device.  I remember having one that held about 20 songs and had no screen so I had no idea what I was about to hear until I hit next track.

Then the iPod came out.  It revoluntionized the portable music player overnight.  The tagline ’1000 Songs in your Pocket’ really got people’s attention.  With the addition of iTunes it was really easy to get music onto the device and quickly find whatever you wanted to hear.  People loved it.  They still do.  Apple made it because they understood emerging technology.  They knew where to find all the components they’d need and assembled them  into something no one had ever seen.  As of October  2011 Apple has sold over 300,000,000 iPods.  One for almost every citizen of the United States.  All because they identified a need and filled it.

Apple’s advent of the iPod taught me two very painful lessons.  First, I should have dumped that $8000 into Apple stock (today that would be worth just over half a million dollars).  And second I should never have bought a Zune. 

I watched as the company everybody loved to hate(myself definitely included) conquered the music world.   It really got me thinking especially as I saw how everyone around me fell in love with their iPods.  I kept an eye on Apple because I wanted to see what they did next.  When they came out with the iPhone in 2007 I waited to see how everyone reacted.  People loved it.  Despite the $500 price tag Apple was selling them as fast as they could be manufactured.

I saw my first one in 2008 when my Apple fangirl friend (you so were Megan) showed me hers.  I was floored.  It was a phone, a camera, a GPS, an iPod and you could download apps for it?  Three days later I bought my first Apple product for $199.  The iPhone was the first pocket computer that felt real to me.  It was also the first phone I’d ever actually liked. 

The part that most blew me away was the app store.  The fact that I could buy thousands upon thousands of apps, some of which changed my life in unexpected ways. 

I remember thinking ‘man, the people who make these apps are probably making a fortune’.  And they were.  The developers of apps like Angry Birds and Goodreader became unexpected millionaires in a few short months.  That really started the wheels turning.  I even considered and then discarded the idea of becoming a developer.

Doing so  would have required buying a Mac.  Even if I could have afforded it I’d always been a PC guy.  I didn’t know anything about Macs or OS X.  So I reluctantly resigned myself to working collections for a local credit union for the forseeable future.  Until something caught my attention in a way I couldn’t ignore.

The iPad.

When I’d first heard about the device I’d dismissed the iPad as a big iPhone without the phone or camera.  But then I held one for the first time.  I was shocked to realize that this device was going to change everything.  I was witnessing what I call the VHS Moment, when a new technology arises that will erradicate an existing one.  Within a decade I knew everyone would have a tablet computer.

Laptops and desktops were a dying breed. I saw this a a clarity and certainty I hadn’t felt since I’d first discovered the web back in 1994.   All I had to do was see how kids and teenagers reacted to touch screens.  They loved their iPhones (and by that point their Androids).  They would embrace the iPad in the same way.

It helped me finally understand how people like Steve Jobs or Bill Gates had made their respective fortunes.  They risked everything to pursue their vision of the future.  Not blidly though.  They did it with an understanding of what people were going to want before they wanted it. 

To use a football metaphor they didn’t run to where the ball was.  They ran to where it was going. 

The iPad and iPhone are still in their infancy.  Smartphones and tablets will come down in price and increase in functionality.  All sorts of features we haven’t even conceived of will be added.  These devices will transform our world.  Within two decades every person in every nation will own one or both.

The visionaries of this decade will be standing in the end zone waiting to score a touchdown.

Wow, it’s been nearly two months since my last blog entry.  I’ve been extraordinarily busy, but I’m still a bit surprised that I allowed such a long gap.  Time to rectify the problem!  This will be a longer post the usual, as I have a lot to catch up on.

Since the last post was about my software I’ll start there.  The last two months have seen explosive growth in E.G.E.A.K, and I am on target to begin beta testing in early January.  But that doesn’t really tell you squat about the software itself, so here goes.

A Quick Peek at EGEAK

Those who know me are aware that I have played games like Dungeons & Dragons since I was six years old.  I’ve always loved the art of interactive storytelling, and I imagine I’ll still be playing these games when I’m old and grey.

When I first encountered the iPad a lightbulb went on in my head.  Could I run games using it?  I didn’t see why not.  So I searched the app store to see what I could find.  Unfortunately there were no decent applications for people who played pen & paper roleplaying games like D&D.  The few that did exist were simplistic, poorly designed and didn’t really meet the needs of your average gamer.

So I started thinking about the features I really wanted.  As a Storyteller with decades of experience I knew exactly what I’d pay money for.  A good gaming app would need the following:

- A dice roller smart enough to make rolls for dozens of characters at once

- A library of non-player characters including character portraits so my players could see what the NPCs looked like

- A library of player characters, complete with the ability to track experience, magic items, level ups and everything else about those characters

- A library of monsters and encounters I could spring on my players. 

- An MP3 player capable of creating a soundtrack for my games

- A Storytelling engine that would guide me through adventures.  

- A timeline feature for tracking events

- A library that could read PDFs for gaming books and character sheets.

- An Atlas that included all the maps I’d use during the game. 

- A web browser so I could look up information as needed

- A robust generator that could create characters, magic items, encounters or locations

Believe it or not this was the list that came out of just a few minutes of brainstorming back in July.  I knew exactly what I wanted to do, but at the time I had no idea how to do it.  That’s why I spent the last several months learning the ins and outs of iOS.

Once I understood how the software worked it was simple to begin creating of each of the features listed above.  Nothing I wanted to do was out of my reach, and the initial release of my software will include everything above.  What’s more in learning iOS I discovered several other important features I could add.

The most important of these was the ability to communicate between devices using bluetooth.  This means that I can send information back and forth, so if the game master has an iPad and one of his players has an iPhone he can request dice rolls, send maps or even magic items with the press of a button.

I discovered one other very important feature when learning how to program on iOS.  You can create an ‘in app store’ where people can make purchases from inside your application.  This is incredibly exciting, and vastly expanded the scope of EGEAK.

If I build the right engine I can sell adventures for people to play.  I can create NPC, monster or map packs as well.  I can sell game systems like Pathfinder or my own game, Shattered Gods.  The possibilities are endless. 

The further I get with the application the more positive I am that it will sell like hot cakes.  I know gamers, because I am one.  Most of my friends are gamers too.  So all I need to do is leverage their experience along with my own, and my app should be exactly what they are looking for.

I’ve already shown it to several friends, most of whom were shocked by how polished it already is.  Each has provided suggestions for changes, and that feedback has greatly improved the app.  I have a few major pieces to add, but those should be done by early January.

After that I need to submit the app to the Apple store for approval.  Then I’ll be able to start my advertising campaign, and hopefully the money will start rolling in!

I’ll have another update on EGEAK by the end of the month, complete with a youtube movie showing how it works.  I can’t wait to show off all my hard work!

My RPG- Shattered Gods

This next update goes hand in hand with the software.  As I mentioned I’ve played pen & paper roleplaying games for over two decades.  For about fifteen of those years I’ve been working on my own game.  It’s seen many different incarnations over the years, each a bit more detailed than the last.

The most recent began when I lived in Los Angeles.  I commissioned original artwork and laid out a manuscript in Illustrator.  Unfortunately, the publishing market has exploded with new products over the last decade.

I quickly realized that my game would be lost in a sea of similar RPGs, so with a heavy heart I set the manuscript back on the shelf and stopped work on it.  What was the point of pouring hundreds of hours of work into something that almost no one would buy?  Especially when a print run would cost me several thousand dollars to produce.

When I started work on the iPad app I finally solved the problem.  If I released my game as a book it would have to compete with hundreds of others…unless I made it available via the software I was making.  I could self publish Shattered Gods inside of EGEAK. 

Anyone who bought the software would be exposed to it, which meant I could completely circumvent traditional publishing!  After fifteen years of work my game could finally see the light of day.

I eagerly gathered my reams of notes, maps and old campaigns and started work.  Two months later the game is really starting to shape up, and by early January it will be complete.  This was intentional of course, because I’d like to release it concurrently with EGEAK as the first addon available to purchase inside the app itself.

I am unbelievably excited about this, so much so that its hard sitting still.  I’ve dreamed of publishing my own roleplaying game since I was in elementary school.  A half dozen times in the last decade I’ve tried to do exactly that, but each and every time I failed.

Now, after all these years, I have a real chance at success!  I don’t care of if only a few dozen people buy the game.  At least I’ll have finally published it.

NaNoWriMo

Part of the reason I’ve been so quiet is that November is National Novel Writing Month.  The goal is to write 50,000 words of fiction, usually as part of all of a novel.  In my case I worked on a novel called The Dagger of Olivanticus, which is a prequel to The Bond of Jhordil.

Unfortunately, for the first time in three years I failed NaNoWriMo.  As of this writing I stalled out at 23,000 words, less than half of the goal.  But you know what?  That’s ok.

The reason I failed is because I’ve poured every waking moment into EGEAK and Shattered Gods.  It’s hard to feel bad about not finishing NaNoWriMo when I’ve made such amazing progress in those other areas.

Succeeding with Shattered Gods and EGEAK means something very important where my fiction is concerned.  If I can build an audience of people who love the game and use the software, then I have a ready market to sell my fiction to.

All of my novels are set in the Shattered Gods world anyway, so fleshing out the game only provides more fuel for fiction.  So hopefully by November of next year the game will be finished and I can focus on belting out 50,000 words for the next NaNoWriMo!

Working Out

A good friend of mine has long held that our well being is balanced atop a tripod of critical parts.  Mind, body and spirit.  If you wish to be truly happy and live life to its fullest you cannot neglect any of them.

I’ve long understood the logic on an intellectual level, but it wasn’t until this year that I can claim to really know what he meant.  You see in the past the best I could ever achieve was mental with a nice dose of spiritual.

I was never in good shape.  I ate like crap and was consistently overweight.  At many points over the last fifteen years I have been downright obese.  Most of my time was spent either on the couch or in front of a computer monitor.

In January I endeavored to change that for the first time in my life.  I began working out every day.  I started hiking the mountains and forests of scenic northern California.  At first this was enormously challenging, but within a few months the hikes became second nature.  So did lifting weights and running five miles at the gym every morning.

Fast forward eleven months.  I am still going to the gym every day.  I hike as often as I can.  I’ve gone from benching 70 pounds to a startling 180 pounds.  My entire body has changed in ways I would never have predicted when I first began.

It isn’t just that I look better or even that I feel better, though that last is certainly true.  I have more energy, but what is really surpising is how I view physical activity.  I have always dreaded things like helping a friend move.  Now I look forward to it, because at the end of a long day of exhertion I still feel great.

This mentality has changed so many things for me.  Before I called myself lazy.  The idea of running out to my car to get something I’d forgotten was foreign to me.  It was enough of a barrier that I’d rather just get it in the morning, even if it was a book I enjoyed reading.

Now I walk my butt out to the car and get the book.  Why?  I know longer dread physical activity.  I welcome it.  This, I now believe, is why body is a part of the trinity I mentioned earlier.

If you are in good shape you greet the world each day, ready for a challenge.  Being in poor shape presents many barriers, barriers that will stop you from accomplishing the things you want.  You have less energy, less drive.

I still have a very long way to go.  I need to drop another 40+ pounds, and my physical conditioning has a long way to go before I’m happy with it.  But I have begun and that’s a very good thing!

Life is good.  Damn good.  Everything seems to be going my way lately, though that’s partly because I’ve made some smart decisions and put in a lot of hard work.

If you’ve read recent entries you heard about my new truck Kermit.  Kermit and I have driven all over the place and are gretting along great.  I’ve taken him up to Chandelier Drive Thru tree, Jack London State Park and this weekend I’m aiming for Muir Woods.  I’ve taken some great pictures and can’t wait to explore more places.  Kermit allows me to take much longer trips to more remote places, and I definitely plan to take advantage of that!

I’m also doing great on the weight loss.  I’ve finally lost enough weight that I don’t look so much like the fat guy in the picture on my weight loss page.  At the end of June I’ll post a new one so you can see the difference.  I plan to take a new picture at the end of each quarter, and hopefully by the end of the year you’ll really see a transformation.

So what’s the secret of my success?  Hard work.  There are no shortcuts to losing weight.  I have to watch my diet closely and work out like a fiend.  If my diligence wavers at all I start gaining weight, or at the very least stop losing it.  It’s going to take a lot of willpower to hit my goals.  There’s no other way to do this, but I am prepared to buckle down and do it.

Both of my sisters have lost a ton of weight recently, which also helped to inspire me.  We’re eating healthier and it we can all lean on each other for support.  I can’t wait to do a before and after picture with the three of us (four if my brother in law wants in).

Relationship wise things couldn’t be better.  Amelia and I are spending more time together, and we’ve become very good friends in addition to boyfriend/girlfriend.  It’s so nice being able to hang out and joke around, just like I would with any other good friend.  I definitely believe we are a good fit, and it will be interesting to see how the relationship develops.

Writing is another bright spot.  All of the prep work for the fourth draft of The Bond of Jhordil has paid off.  I refined and re-refined the plot until I feel like I have a winner.  The characters are memorable, the plot is good and the world is unique and interesting.  Now that I’ve done my mountain of homework I’m very excited that I’m about to get back to my favorite part.  Fiction.

Instead of plot summaries I am finally ready to sit down and write the thing.  Using my previous performance as a benchmark I’m expecting to finish this draft by the end of August.  After that I need to edit and polish, but I believe that by the end of the year I’ll have an amazing novel ready to submit.

Even if I don’t I’ve made enormous strides in my writing.  I’ve learned so much in the last year and a half, and I know I’ll learn more in the years to come.  The important thing is to never stop writing.  Even if The Bond of Jhordil bombs there will be another book after.  Then another.  As many as it takes for me to become a professional author.

The writing has spawned some spin off projects as well.  I’m realizing that in order to successfully sell my novel I need to master advertising.  My first project is a preview movie I’m making using Anime Studio and Windows Movie Maker.  It will probably be fairly basic to start, but as I learn more about both programs I’m hoping to churn out something that will dazzle my audience.  A picture tells a thousand words, but a short movie will tell far more.

I’ll post the final product once I’ve finished it to get some feedback from my target audience.  If they like it I plan to use the movie as a sort of virtual business card to pimp the book when the time comes.  Cross your fingers for me, cause if all goes well this time next year I’ll have submitted a novel I am confident will succeed.

I realize this is a short entry, but there wasn’t much more going on this week.  I’ll be back again next week with a longer post!

To date I haven’t posted anything I’d consider political, so this will be a bit different than anything you’ve read on my site.  Today’s post is about Sarah Palin’s new book Going Rogue.

Let me start by saying that I am about as far from a Palin supporter as you can get.  I don’t hate the woman, but she is in no way qualfied to be either vice president or president of the United States.

In reading the book something very rapidly became clear.  Sarah doesn’t accept responsibility for anything.  Katie Couric was mean to her, and the interview was ‘taken out of context’.  McCain’s staff caused each and every problem the campaign suffered.  (In a whiny voice) It wasn’t her fault.

The prank call from the Canadian radio station?  Yeah that was a staff member’s fault, not hers.  Troopergate?  That was the evil liberals trying to take her down. 

Quitting her job as Governor and forsaking the oath she swore?  Of course that wasn’t her fault.  She had to deal with *gasps* lawsuits and ethics probes and it was hard.   The last is my favorite and I’d love to see Palin talk to Bill Clinton about frivilous lawsuits.

The bottom line is that she took responsibility for nothing.  Now don’t get me wrong, everyone makes mistakes and Palin was obviously new to the political scene.  This book was her chance to own up  and pave the way for the future.

Instead she comes out looking like a whiny victim, and the ugly reality is that no one likes a loser.  Yet somehow she still has her diehard supporters.  People like these  tirelessly champion her, yet as you can see from the link not a single one can say why.

They can’t name a single one of her positions.  They can’t say what she would do as president or vice president that might save the country.  They can’t say why she’d do a good job.  In the end they can’t really say anything except we love Sarah!

So, where am I going with all this?  Well, when I first heard about the book I went to amazon after reading my pirated copy.  I took a look at the reviews because I was curious to see what people thought of the book.

As you can imagine things were broken into two camps.  Many of the reviews were five starred.  They had nothing to say about the contents of the book, and basically consisted of We love Sarah and her book is GREAT!

The other camp were one star reviews by liberals who’d read the book.  One of these reviews was particularly interesting, because it was posted by a man who’d lived in Alaska for 55 years and who gave a real assessment of Palin.  Having actually lived in her state while she was governor it seemed like his opinion would carry some weight.

The conservatives came out of the woodwork to attack this man, and I jumped in to defend him.  That’s where the title of this thread comes in.

If you’ve watched the clip of the Palin supporters earlier in this post you have some idea of their mindset and intellectual capability.  They can’t carry on a rational debate.  Instead they parrot soundbytes picked up on Fox news or from Glen Beck.

I subscribed to the conversation so that every time someone posted I’d get an email informing me.  This allowed me to easily keep tabs on the review comments and for the past couple of weeks one of my recreational activities has been utterly destroying Palin supporters.

It’s been very amusing.  They all lead with the same argument, which is how Obama is the antichrist/muslim/liberal/insert insult who is dooming our country to destruction.  Then they move on to anyone else who’s ever said anything negative about Palin or even about Bush.

For 23 pages (so far) I used the sword of logic to crush their arguments.  I point out that Obama’s failings do not make up for Palin’s.  I explain the multitude of ways in which Bush damaged the United States during his two terms.  But the most enjoyable thing was the challenge I posed over and over.

Why do you support Palin?  Is it because she would fix the economy?  Make abortion illegal?  Deport all the evil muslims?  After twenty three pages and hundreds of angry responses not a single person has successfully answered the question.  They literally can’t tell me why they like her, beyond saying that she’s real. 

Then they launch right back into attacking Obama.  This is especially amusing because I don’t like Obama, and actually voted for Ron Paul.  I don’t support him or his actions, which confused the hell out of the conservatives attacking me.  They couldn’t wrap their mind around the fact that I didn’t support Obama. 

Long after I’d agreed with them that he is doing a poor job they still fell back on attacking him as their only defense.  They like Palin because Obama is evil.

I know most people look down on trolls, but I’m hoping in this instance you’ll forgive me.  Sarah Palin’s book review is the best troll cave ever and I plan to live there for some time to come. 

If you find yourself bored at work I encourage you to read the thread, and jump right on in if you enjoy trolling the Palin followers as much as I do.

Amazon is a big site and Palin is obsessed with how she is viewed.  I have this little fantasy that she’ll actually see my posts, and that somewhere she is cursing my name.

There’s nothing like the internet to make you feel like an ass. I posted the Gender in Gaming- Equality or Special Treatment thread a couple of days ago. I also posted this on my blog.

The women here posted a letter asking for a number of changes in the gaming industry. I took issue with a part of the letter that suggested that the current trend of advertising was putting women in danger at conventions and other gaming venues.

This sounded ludicrous to me. I couldn’t imagine the cover of an RPG driving men into a sexual frenzy, and I was right. The thing is that’s not the type of advertising they were talking about.

What they were talking about are things like this:

 

This is the single most tasteless piece of advertising I have ever seen.  In a nutshell its asking men to run around and get as many pictures of sexual acts such as kissing and groping as they can.  Then they twitter these to prove that they did it.

Now any sane person wouldn’t expect this to cause a lot of issues, and I know I didn’t.  I was wrong.  This ad very much placed women in danger, as one man came forward to post on my site told me. David tells a frightening tale.

While at a con a man ran up and grabbed his female friend’s breast. The bastard doing the sexual harassment had his friend take a picture of this, per the advertisement you see above. So in a nutshell EA’s advertising caused at least one woman to be brutally groped at a convention. This poor woman is probably scared for life, and may never come near another event like this.

This does incalculable damage to our hobby and it makes all of us look bad. So I came back to say I was wrong. Very wrong. Adverstising can and does hurt women, and really this sort of shit needs to be stopped.

I apologize for my earlier post. I have definitely changed my opinion.

If you’ve read some of my previous posts you know that I grew up very poor.  I still remember climbing into the back of a moving truck when I was eight to fetch a piggy bank so that we could have dinner that evening.   Many people give me horrified looks when they hear that I had weeds growing through the floor in my room. 

I wouldn’t change that part of my life for anything.  It instilled in me an appreciation and understanding of the value of money.  When you have none everything you own becomes precious.  I learned the value of hard work at a very young age, and that taking care of my possessions was important.  If my bike was stolen or a toy got broken there was no replacing it, because that took money.

Since my parents couldn’t afford to give me an allowance I needed to make my own money.  When I was ten years old I went and got myself a job delivering papers.  Oddly, I never even considered asking my parents before doing it.  I just went out and took the job. 

At first they were against it, but after I made my case they decided to let me keep it.  How could I learn responsibility if I wasn’t given some of my own?  They were forced to agree.

The paper route only paid a few dollars a week, and in hindsight was definitely more trouble than it was worth.  In additon to delivering the papers I had to go door to door collecting money from people, which was pretty intimidating for a ten year old.  It taught me alot.

By the time I was twelve the paper route was no longer paying enough to buy the roleplaying books and dice I wanted.  I knew I needed to make more money, but not too many people will hire a twelve year old so I was left with few options.  Fortunately, I was going through puberty and it afforded me exactly the opportunity I was looking for. 

We had a local bookstore in the shopping center not far from my house.  Every week I was in there buying novels and I remember the place well. I discovered Lord of the Rings, Dragonlance and the Dragonbone Chair in that little store.

I also discovered a rack that held adult magazines, but I knew the guy behind the counter would never let me buy one.  I blame the raging hormones for what happened next.  Since I couldn’t buy the magazines I decided to steal them.

To do this I needed a plan.  I carried a massive sachel over my shoulder that was designed to hold about fifty newspapers, and by the time I got to the bookstore every day it was nearly empty.  I’d walk in and give the guy behind the counter a free newspaper.  He was very grateful and would immediately crack it open.  As soon as that happened he was oblivious to the world around him.

I crept over to the rack and grabbed a fist full of magazines and shoved them in my bag.  He didn’t notice.  Pulling the latest Dragonlance book off the shelf I walked up to the counter bold as you please and paid for my book with the pile of stolen magazines safely stowed in my bag.  The man never noticed.

For a twelve year old a stack of Playboys has a magical quality to them.  At that point in your life you are just discovering the opposite sex, and is really all you think about for the next ten years or so.  I was no exception and I loved my new stash.

I quickly realized I could take a few magazines a month without anyone the wiser, and that’s exactly what I did.  As my collection grew I realized other boys in my class were also going through puberty.  They wanted to see naked women just as badly as I did.

So I brought a stack of these magazines to school, and quietly spread the word through my seventh grade class that I had something special to sell.  Seven or eight boys eagerly coughed up a week’s worth of lunch money for each magazine, and all of a sudden I was pulling in over $50 a week from my ill gotten porn.

I was ecstatic!  Not only was I providing a valuable service to hormonally charged boys, but I was making great money doing it. 

Of course word got around and eventually the girls found out.  Suddenly a lot of glares were shot my way every day, but I didn’t care.  I had money!  Then one of the girls told a teacher, and the next thing I knew I was being dragged out of class to have my locker searched.

The tore it upside down but couldn’t find a single dirty magazine, but as luck would have it I’d already sold my entire stash that day.  They tried to get me to crack and admit to selling them, but my father taught me at a young age never to give up until you are sure you’ve lost.  I kept a stone face said I wasn’t sure what the girl had been talking about and went about my merry way.

Unfortunately while I wasn’t actually caught it did scare away most of my clients, so I had to move on to another scam to earn enough money to buy my novels and roleplaying books.  Still, out of all of them this was certainly my favorite and not just because it was my first!

If you look at my previous posts they all have similar elements.  I talk about my novel, my short stories and the campaign I’m running.  These things are important to me so it stands to reason that you’re going to hear a lot about them on my blog.  Today I’d like to try something different and tell you a bit more about me.

I’ve lived an interesting life.  So interesting that many stories I tell aren’t believed.  People look at me like I’m crazy, though I suppose I can’t really blame them.  I’ve been on the back of a milk carton after being kidnapped.  I’ve shot Martin Lawrence in the face with a paintball gun.  My father made the front page of the local paper after he was arrested for drugs.  He was the president of the school board at the time.  That’s just a thin slice of the more bizarre events in my life, but it gives you an idea of what I’m talking about. 

Today I’m going to tell you how I met Saul, one of the other authors I’ve mentioned in the blog.  It’s a long tale but one of the advantages of being the author is that I can ramble as much as I want muhahahhaha.

I began high school in Syracuse, New York.  They had a wonderful school system, and after dreading junior high I quickly learned an appreciation for the way things were done in high school.  They segregated kids based on intelligence so we had an advanced class and a…less advanced class.  I was in the advanced class and for the first time I was surrounded by people of a similar intellect.  For once we weren’t going at the pace of the slowest kid in the class.  Instead, we were able to learn much more quickly and I loved it.

In junior high I’d been a C student, but in my very first semester I hit the high honor roll and stayed there for my entire stint at Solvay High School.  I’d been a geek in junior high, and I guess I was still one in high school.  The difference was that in high school there was a whole community of geeks, instead of just me.  I made geek friends and got myself a cute little geek girlfriend named Allie.

The first week of my junior year my father was busted for possession of marijuana and speed.   All of a sudden my friends weren’t allowed to hang out with me anymore.  My girlfriend’s parents no longer felt I was a ‘good influence’.  My whole life came to a screeching halt, and I was miserable.  In response my father did what he always did when something wasn’t going his way…he decided to move.  In this case we were leaving New York and moving all the way out to California where I knew not a single person.

I begged and pleaded to stay behind with my grandmother, who loved the idea.  We were overruled and my father insisted I accompany the rest of the family.  This made me bitter on several levels.  First, I had to leave my brother behind.  He was three years older than me and having just turned 18 there was no way he was going to move to California.  I also left my dog behind.  I was very close to Ruffin and it devastated me.  We left her in a kennel and I gave them all the money I’d saved from my paper route, but it eventually ran out and they put her to sleep.  I also left behind my friends, girlfriend, my job and a full scholarship to Syracuse University that I was elligble for through my job as a junior reporter at the local paper.

Yes, yes I know it sounds like a bad country song.  It really wasn’t all that horrible, but at 16 my whole world was shifting on its axis.  You can imagine my state of mind as we drove across the united states, with each day putting my old life further and further behind.  I was bitter, angry and spoiling for a fight.  Back then the style in New York was the dreaded mullet.  Seriously, I kid you not.  The chicks loved it though I have no idea why.  So here I am an angry 16 year old driving across the united states with a mullet and a dirty jean jacket.  Somewhere in Arizona I had a really bad nose bleed all over my jacket, so add in a blood stain.

When I arrived at school in California I had no idea what to expect.  I’d been a geek in New York.  Not completely unpopular by any means, but certainly not part of the in crowd.   Not knowing anyone at this new school I was terrified of what might happen.  What if I couldn’t find any other kids who played D&D or Shadowrun?  What if they hated me because I was from New York?

The reaction I got upon my arrival was nothing I could have imagined, though in hindsight I shouldn’t have been surprised.  I showed up with long hair, my bloody jacket and the whispered rumor that I was from *gasp* New York.  When people thought of New York they didn’t envision the small town I’d lived in.  They imagined the hardened streets of Harlem and assumed I was a gangster.  After all, who else would wear a mullet and have blood all over their jacket?

Not long after I arrived a kid picked a fight with me.  He was a good foot taller than I was and made fun of me because I was poor.  What he didn’t know was that my dog had just been put to sleep because I was out of money.  My father had moved without first having found a job, so for a little while my family was living on welfare.  I don’t know what came over me, but I saw red and the only thing I could think of was my dog dying.  I snapped and beat the ever living crap out of him.

I don’t remember the kid’s name, but we called him Beanpole because of his height.  Well, poor Beanpole wasn’t all that hurt from our scuffle and came out of it with nothing more dramatic than a small cut on his face and an even smaller bruise on his lip.  Unfortunately for him he had a doctor’s appointment after school, and the doctor insisted on putting bandages on his face.

The next day when he came to school rumors flew all over campus about what a cold blooded killer I was.  I was the angry killer from New York who’d beaten the crap out of a much bigger kid.  That same day a cloud of girls started following me around, though I was too young and too timid to understand why.  I’d effectively become the alpha male of our class without meaning too.

Within three days I had a girlfriend.  Not one of the plumply pretty ones like I dated in New York.  Danielle was one of the hot ones and she wanted me.  I was shocked but what teenage male would say no?  Certainly not me.  Danielle and I had absolutely nothing in common except that she had breasts and I wanted to touch them, but somehow it turned into a year long relationship.

Superficially things looked great.  I had a girlfriend and I was popular.  The thing is I’m a gamer geek and I missed gaming.  I tried sitting in the library with a Dungeons & Dragons book displayed prominently in front of me, but with no luck.  I was starting to despair when I heard someone at the next table mention the word ‘resurrection’.  I figured I had a 50/50 shot.  Either they were talking about religion, or they were talking about gaming.

I took a chance and plopped myself down amidst four guys.  All four of them shot me terrified glances, but they relaxed when I asked if they were gamers.  It turned out they were, but they were in need of a GM.  It was a role I was happy to fill, and one of those guys (Jeff) was the best man in my wedding and is still my best friend today.

Another one was a die hard Christian named Saul, though he’s long since become a heathen like the rest of my friends.  That’s the same Saul you hear me mentioning in the blog.  Fifteen years after we first met we’re still friends, and we still have the same dream of seeing our name on a novel.  Anyway, long story but I hope you enjoyed it.

Every campaign I run is an attempt to one-up the previous one, probably because I’m such a perfectionist.  My games heave nearly always been good and I’d even call a few of them great.  Many are talked about years later and provide the examples I use in my Evil GM Tricks column.

Usually, though, my games are plagued by issues that kept them from living up to their full potential.  Sometimes I had the wrong players.    Some games were ruined by the location I ran them in (try running a game in February in a house with no heat).  Sometimes I chose the wrong system (D&D 4th edition).  My only recent game that felt like it had the potential to go the distance was cut short when I left Los Angeles to move home.

Last Saturday was the first full session of my Exalted Campaign and its off to a better start than I could have hoped.  All three players have strong character concepts, and have poured many hours into their backgrounds.  Each loves to roleplay and slipped naturally into character very quickly.  In past games that sort of immersion took time to build, so I definitely feel like this group is ahead of the game.

They really seem to enjoy the story so far, and I’m having a hell of a time running it.  Its nice having so few players, because in each session we cover far more of the plot than would be possible with a larger group.  When I ran my Exalted game last year it was definitely a solid game, but five players meant everything from combat to travel took a lot more time.  This time the game isnt’ suffering from any of major roadblocks, and I’m hopeful it will go the distance.  Time will tell!

I’m also working on other projects.  Sunday I submitted an article to the Rifter, which I believe they’ll accept.  Its a rehash of one of my favorite Evil GM Tricks, and I know Palladium is always looking for that sort of thing.  Assuming they accept that I’ll probably re-write several more articles and send them as well.  In the meantime I’m still working on the Chaos Earth short story, which should be ready by the middle of next week.

In addition to the niche fiction pieces I’m also working on a pair of original short stories.  The first is a sci-fi story about the likely future of our world.  Its about an old man in a world where overwhelming debt is the legacy we’ve left our children.  People are no longer allowed to retire as they get older.  When their bodies fail, they’re simply given a job on the internet.  When their minds fail they’re finally put to sleep like an animal.  The story also explores the idea of corporations owning everything, even ideas and phrases.  Its dark, but that seems to be what most magazines are looking for.

The other short story has a title and a premise but needs an ending.  Its called The Bargain and is a fantasy story from my Faelands world.  The story is about a man who finds that he’s made a bargain with a spirit.  He’s given up all of his memories, but doesn’t know why or what he’s been given in return.  Its my first attempt at a mystery, and I’ve found it challenging to write so far.  Wish me luck with this one!

I covered most of the progress with the novel in my last post, but things are still going very well.  I’ve finished editing the prologue and the first three chapters, and have about 15 chapters to go before I’m done.

It’s also been a week for reconnecting with old friends.  I haven’t spoken to Shannon in about three months, but managed to track her down this week.  She’s doing well, and has been working on some fan fiction for World of Warcraft.  Given the quality of her past work I’m eager to see what she’s written.  If I’m lucky she might allow me to post some of it here.

I also got a hold of Daniel, who I’ve not spoken to since April.  He was at a Kajukenbo conference in Las Vegas with his Sifu, and it sounded like he had a good time.  He might get a chance to come up and visit me in the near future, which would be nice as I haven’t seen him in what feels like forever.

-Chris Aka Arkelias

First off, happy birthday me!  Today I turn 33, which feels about the same as 31 and 32.  I’m still a kid at heart, though it looks like I’m finally moving into my mid thirties.  One of my birthday traditions is a lot of introspection about my place and direction in life.  In the past these have taken the form of journal entries, but now that I have a blog this seems like a much better place for it.

Until now everything you’ve seen me post has been positive, but I’ve hit my first massive hurdle as far as my writing goes.  I haven’t slowed down.  The quality continues to improve.  So what’s the issue?  Getting published.

I did some research online, because I wanted to learn more about the game I was getting into.  Since 2007 every major publishing house has laid off staff.  Some of the major ones like Bantam are closed to all new submissions…they aren’t accepting books at all.

Those books they do publish aren’t selling.  Because there are so many other entertainment options books in general are less popular than they used to be.

At the same time a record number of novels are being written every year.  Anyone with a pulse and a keyboard can type out 300 pages of crap, and that crap is floating around everywhere.  So how do I get past the crap and get editors to actually look at my work?

Honestly, I don’t know.  Standard submission to publishing houses is generally ignored, so you need an agent.  From what I’ve seen if you have quality work finding an agent is possible, but what then?  If you’re agent is good he might get a publishing house to pick up your work, but for that to happen your novel better be damn good.

I’ll definitely be trying that route, but it seems like an uphill battle that gets more challenging every day.  I need to start thinking about a plan B in case it doesn’t work.

So what’s plan B?  Self-publishing.  Publishing your own novel generally results in a spectacular failure, which doesn’t surprise me at all.  Most novels are crap, and even the few good ones that are self published never reach their market. 

If you self publish you need to do all your own advertising, and very few people are both good writers and good self promoters.  I have the advantage of being both, but haven’t had to use my marketing skills since I left the mortgage industry three years ago. 

I need to dust those skills off and start putting them to work.  I need a Facebook page that sings, more publicity on this blog (read: any), and any other social networking I can set up.  I need a larger body of work for people who stop by to read, and I need to broaden the type of stories I write.

I believe that we stand at the threshold of a new era.  As the internet grows in size more and more readers will choose to read content online.  eBooks are the future, especially with platforms like the Kindle and the iPhone which allow people to read anything anywhere.

It seems to me that the best way to hype your book would be to put together a pimp website.  Then develop an eBook for every major platform, and just distribute it electronically.  Your overhead costs are next to nothing, and if the book is popular most of what you make will be profit.

eBooks can sell while you’re asleep.  They can reach readers in India, Austrailia, England, the US or anywhere else in the world.  It seems like a no brainer for me to join the eBook wagon.

Now I just have to figure out how.  My skills with Publisher are pretty decent, and I can design a decent layout for a novel without having to pay someone else to do it.  That’s the easy part.  The hard part is advertising.  How do I get the book to the readers?  How do I find them?

I’m thinking one of the first things I can do is start writing niche fiction.  If I write Exalted fiction and distribute it for free, I might get some traffic to my main site from it.  Repeat that process for Shadowrun, Star Wars and every other IP I can think of. 

I can also post on forums across the web, though I need to find the right communities.  I also have to be careful how I do it as no one likes to see a bunch of ‘buy my book’ spam.

Beyond that?  I don’t know.  At least for the short term, though, I have a plan.  Work on the website, work on the writing.  I’ll just keep creating content while I learn the ins and outs of the market.  One step at a time, and eventually I’ll achieve my goal of getting a novel published!

It’s been one hell of a week!  The article over at www.gamegrene.com has done extremely well.  Every other article on the main page averages under 1,000 reads, but after just a week mine has garnered nearly 8,000 views.  That’s definitely rewarding as it shows that I’m putting out quality articles.

In other news my campaign is in full swing.  Last Saturday I had all three players come over, and I ran them through some scenes from their character’s past.  We also completed the introduction story that gets them up to the point where the party meets. 

The players really seemed to like the website which you can check out here if you’re curious: http://unconqueredsun.wordpress.com

They also seem to like the NPC handouts, which I pioneered in my last Exalted game.  They show a picture of the NPC along with some basic information that would be apparent to someone who met them.  The handouts serve to fix the NPC in the party’s minds by giving them a visual reference.

The novel is still going well, though I’m starting to run out of steam.  I’ve worked on nothing else for nearly six months, and have finally backed off a bit.  Looking back I realize I’ve belted out 300 pages, which works out to about 50 pages a month.  Given my previous record that’s nothing short of amazing, especially considering that I’m working on projects like my campaign as well.

Over the last two weeks I’ve belted out 40 pages of new material which will serve as the intro to the book.  I have three more scenes to write, after which I go back to page one and give the whole thing one last edit.  I’m excited about finally being done.

I’ve put more work into this project than any other, and it shows.  I feel confident that the story is interesting, and I’m hoping people in the Exalted community will enjoy reading it. 

At this point I’ve given up on having White Wolf publish it.  A cursory look at their product schedule doesn’t show any novels for any of their game lines.  I’m guessing they just don’t sell well enough to justify the effort they’d have to put into them, which is why their letting their fiction lines die off.

I never expected to submit it anyway so I don’t feel like I’ve lost anything.  I’ve decided to just go with the original plan instead.  I’ll make the slickest PDF I can, and then distribute the novel for free online.  If its good people will read it, and it will get me at least a little attention.

If nothing else writing the Exalted novel has taught me more lessons than I can even begin to articulate.  Up until now I’ve always looked at writing a novel as a very linear process.  You sit down and belt out chapters until you’re done.

Now I realize that you need a much better roadmap.  You write some chapters, sit back and reflect on the characters and story, and then write some more chapters.  You meander in different directions, and ultimately discard some of what you’ve written.  It’s been an interesting journey, and one I wouldn’t trade for anything.

It’s also got me thinking about the next novel.  I have some really good ideas for the Faelands book, and can start on it at any time.  The thing is now I’m questioning if its the next project I want to work on.

I spent some time today looking around the web, and I found over a dozen publications looking for short stories.  All of them pay at least $.05 a word which works out to $50-100 per story depending on the word count.  That’s not going to get me rich, but it does mean I could get my name in print while making a small profit.

I’ve decided to write at least one story each week, and the excess time will be spent editing the Exalted novel until its completed.  While doing that I’ll keep fleshing out the chapter outline for the Faelands novel.  That way when the Exalted novel is finished I can start on it in earnest.  I still want to finish the rough draft by January first, and if I get started by September I should be able to do that.

I’m still amazed by how many words I belt out a day now.  For so long I struggled.  I’d set goals of 1,000 words a day and I’d just fail miserably after about three days.  Every single time.  Now, I belt out 2-5k words every day like its nothing, and I’ve been doing it for over five months.

In a way that terrifies me, because I worry about slipping back into old habits.  What if one day I wake up and stop writing again?  I’m hoping to avoid that.  Since I’m very goal oriented I figure the best way to keep at it is to get more things published.  If I make a little money and see my name in print that will help me keep my momentum.

The current short story is for Rifts: Chaos Earth, which is published by Palladium Books.  It’s an old story I wrote several years ago, but I’m re-tooling it and finally submitting it.  The last piece I submitted was accepted, and it wasn’t nearly as good as this will be.

Anyway, this is one massive post.  Guess I hada lot to say!

-Chris Aka Arkelias