3 Green Fish

Well, I took a little break over the weekend to recharge, and then another couple days after that to recover from my weekend break. Whew. Now I’m back in the game and churning out pages again. The lesson? Take a break every week. Who would have thought?

I made some progress moving things along today. Now that the tongue is fully introduced, I can move on to other matters. I’m going to have to be prolific if I still want to finish part 1 by the end of the month, and average 2 pages a day to boot, but I think I might still be able to manage it. We’ll see.

I also wrote a preliminary “jacket synopsis” today. This would be the sort of thing that you’d find behind the front cover of a hardback (or on the back of a paperback). Mostly, I just wanted to start the attempt to come up with a synopsis of this story, since every time I get asked about it, I give some long confusing rambling answer as to what the story is about. So, this might put some stuff in context. It might not. It’s a work in progress.

The synopsis:

Bandolor O’Sorce has a problem. His theories of magic, branded heretical by the church that governs sorcery in the land of Tindol, are close to being verified. When last he tried to bridge the gap between his world and another, the spell went disastrously awry, sucking away his apprentice and depositing a strange young woman in his place. Bandolor needs a new apprentice to finish his research, and he is quickly running out of time.

Adrianna Jordan has a problem. Whisked away to a distant world in a magical accident, she is far from home and haunted by the memory of her boyfriend’s death. Trapped in strange and terrifying land, her only hope of returning home is to become Bandolor’s apprentice and help him try to open a gateway back to her own world — a risky enterprise in a land where no woman has ever been allowed to learn the art of sorcery.

Ellia Shepherd has a problem. In love with the local blacksmith’s son, she can’t ever seem to get his attention. Perhaps sorcery might help her out….

The Tongue of Erskavit O’Sorce has a problem. Used and abused since being cut out of its owner’s throat centuries ago, the tongue is ready for revenge, and woe to all who stand in its way.

When sorcerer, foreigner, shepherd’s daughter and tongue meet, their lives will never be the same again.

I seem to be in a competitive mood these days (by which I mean “in a mood to make others compete”), so it looks like the first review of the week is going to be another Versus Mode. This time, we’re looking at Coats of Arms — symbols of national identification that don’t really mean as much in our modern world. Nowadays “arms” usually refers to firearms of some kind or another, and regular old shields aren’t as effective against bullets as they were against swords. Still, I recently noticed that both the United States and Germany have eagles on their coats of arms, so it seems like an interesting comparison to make.

The Coat of Arms of the United States of America

Technically, the obverse (non-reverse) of the Great Seal of the United States is considered the country’s coat of arms. Let’s look at this, shall we? There’s an eagle, holding an olive branch and a bunch of arrows, and biting down on a ribbon that reads “E Pluribus Unum.” Also, there’s big thing floating above its head with stars surrounded by clouds or something. There’s a lot going on, and it’s very meaningful and all, but it’s a little too busy. Also, the position of the shield across the eagle’s belly makes me think of some kind of nature documentary censored by people unwilling to show the naughty bits of eagles. I mean, really, it looks like someone just pasted the shield on top. Yeesh.

The Coat of Arms of the Federal Republic of Germany

Likewise bearing the likeness of an eagle, the German coat of arms is refreshingly uncluttered in comparison to that of the United States. However, its a little too stylized and blocky to be a really good coat of arms, especially compared to some older designs. Take a look at Wikipedia’s article — see the double-headed, firebreathing eagle? Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about. On the other hand, it’s still better than the creepily angular version used by the Nazis in the 30’s and 40’s.

And the winner is…

I’m a gamer. I make no excuses for the habit — at least it’s better than watching television all the time. I also hope to be a published author some day, and thus, barring a miracle of popularity, I’m pretty much condemned to poverty, and the likelihood of me being able to buy all three current video game consoles is almost nil. But I’ve gotten over it.

Today I’m starting a weekly “versus mode” series. Each week I’ll look at one (or multiple) factors that distinguish the three current generation consoles, in an attempt to figure out which one is the best. I don’t own any of them, and I’ve only had a chance to play extensively with the 360 and the Wii — but I figure that balances out the fact that the only console I own is a PS2, and I’ve been very happy with it. That said, even I don’t know how this is going to end, so check in every week and be surprised along with me.

Today, I’ll look at what is probably the most defining difference between Xbox 360, PS3, and the Wii: their controllers.

Nintendo Wii

The Wii was originally named “Revolution,” because the console was going to revolutionize gaming. At the heart of that was its controller — it looks like a remote, is filled with motion sensors, and has an optical sensor on the end. It also comes with a nunchuk attachment for two-handed play. Motion sensing is a great idea, and it works decently, but when a game has you hold the controller in any other manner (say, perpendicular to the screen, as if it were a regular controller), it’s a little uncomfortable. Also, the broader motions that come with using the Wii remote can actually injure you; I found my shoulder getting sore once when playing Wii Tennis. Finally, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again — I’ve yet to see the perfect application for the Wii remote.

Microsoft Xbox 360

On the opposite end of the spectrum we have the Xbox 360’s controller. It’s pretty much the epitome of the classic controller: lots of buttons, two analog sticks, and a digital pad. It has a nice feel and is quite ergonomic, unlike the Wii remote, and it has rumble, something the PS3 controller lacks. Still, it doesn’t sense motion, so it’s basically just a last generation controller with a major makeover: it’s sleek and usable, but hardly innovative. Unlike the PS3 and Wii, not all of the 360’s controllers are wireless. Those that come with the core console are wired, and must be plugged in at all times.

Sony Playstation 3

The PS3 controller occupies a sort of middle ground between its competitors. Much more of a traditional controller, the PS3’s SIXAXIS looks and feels a lot like the PS2’s DualShock. However, instead of rumble, the SIXAXIS has some motion sensing capabilities of its own, although due to the differences in design, it’s not easy to directly compare the motion sensing of the PS3 and the Wii. In terms of comfort, it’s still a lot like the DualShock — perfectly reasonable, but they could have smoothed it out a little to make it more ergonomic. There are a lot of rumors floating around right now about Sony putting rumble back in the SIXAXIS, as its lack has caused something of an uproar. Which rumble isn’t hugely important to me, it would round out the controller.

And the winner of Round 1 is…

Next week: POWER!

Another day, and I added about two and a half pages worth of blah. Well, okay, there are bits that I like, but there’s definitely a rough draft feel to this part. I’ve been plowing ahead just to make progress, but I think it’s time for a short break to recharge my batteries. And, lo and behold, I’m heading out of town for a couple days. I might get some writing done over the weekend, or I might not. We’ll see what happens. A little break should do me good.

Once I get through this tongue introduction, then I can go into a more narrative mode, and things will move faster for a little while. I think I’m still on schedule to finish part 1 by the end of August.

I got to use the word “gargat” today. That was fun.

I added two and a half pages to my total today, but I’m not very happy with most of them. That’s okay, though, as this is a rough draft process for the moment. I’m still moving along, storywise, and I can go back later and fix them in my revision process.

Still on target for averaging 2 singlespaced pages per day for August. I might finish Part 1 sooner than August 31st, even, depending on how long it decides it wants to be.

Today I focused a bit more on Fink and then brought in Tibalim, one of Bandolor’s old (ancient, really) sorcerer buddies. He’s got the tongue of Erskavit with him. I think I’ll stop writing now before this post stops making any sense whatsoever. Bedtime!

In the Middle Ages, I learned recently, bacon was considered peasant food. This led me to wonder why that should be so, when bacon is perhaps the greatest breakfast food ever invented. I have learned with great certainty that all bacon is not created equal, and Daily’s Peppered Bacon is the cream of the crop.

You cook this stuff right, and it’s like an explosion of intense flavor in your mouth, a veritable death-star-detonation-sized burst of ecstasy. It’s salty, peppery goodness. You’ll want another slice. What, you might ask, does cooking it right consist of? I don’t really know, honestly, because it’s hard to cook this bacon wrong. The pepper adds a nice kick to it, and of course the usual salty flavor still presents with aplomb.

The downside? It’s bacon, and it’ll still clog your arteries and kill you. It only comes in 1.5 lb. packages, so you’d better plan on having company over, or you’re going to eat it all yourself.

Daily’s Hardwood Smoked Peppered Thick Slice Bacon is available in grocery stores. You probably figured that out already.

After yesterday’s 4-page explosion of creativity, today was somewhat lean. I added some pages and also did some behind-the-scenes work. I created a glossary of strange words used by the natives of Tindol, so hopefully if I add to it as I go the process of creating it won’t be so hard.

I also compiled information on the lengths of stories I’ve written in the past. Clocking in at approximately 16,500 words at the moment, this book is currently novelette length, and stands in 12th place on my list of the longest stories, books, and series of stories that I’ve written. The number to beat is 106,121 words. We’ll see if that happens. That record has been in place for 9 whole years.

Spent some time with Fink today. I figured I have chapters in close third person perspective from the points of view of Adrianna, Bandolor, and Iggsle, and it would be kind of unfair to leave Fink out of that. I might have to have one from the perspective of Reginald, the mastiff, too…

Only one man had ever called Finkerner Weedman “smart” to his face, and that man had been the stupidest man that Fink had ever met. Although he was tempted by the thought, Fink didn’t punch him in the face—he worried that the blow might make him smarter, and he liked having someone to look down on. Finkerner Weedman knew his place in the world, and it didn’t require great quantities of intellect or education, of which he had neither. He wasn’t the slowest of folk, but he served the smartest man he’d ever met, and that suited him just fine. He was made to work in the soil, to toil in the dirt and mud. He knew just how smart he was, and just how fitting his employment was to his nature, and in that way, he was smarter than many.

Wow. In spite of being busy, I managed to add 5(!) whole single-spaced pages to my manuscript over the weekend. Most of that (say, 80%) came from today, when we were all less busy and my sister was out on her own for a while. Also, I managed to get some writing done before my usual writing hours of 11 PM to 3 AM, since the house was relatively quiet all day.

That means I’m still on track for my goals of averaging 2 pages a day for August and finishing Part 1 by the end of the month. Still, I’ve got some busy times coming up, so I should crank some pages out now!

The deal has been made, and I can move on to making this thing meatier. Here’s an excerpt for you.

The first stars were beginning to twinkle in the darkening twilight. She didn’t need to see the rest to know that they were the same stars that she saw every night; these few early adventurers always appeared first, although never so quickly as tonight. The pollution of even a small city seemed to hide the stars longer. She laid back and watched the constellations appear, star by star, until the night sky bled light from a thousand pricks.

I had a busy day today, what with family over and making an extra-special meal of homemade spaghetti and meatballs (yep, homemade meatballs, and even fresh homemade pasta. Sauce came from cans, but it WAS home-seasoned). Still, I managed to add just over a page to the book. I got to play around a bit more with Fink, had some fun with pigs, and then introduced the dog.

That’s all for now. Quote later. Gotta get to bed.

Today didn’t look like it would be productive, but I added almost 2.5 whole pages! Wow! I’m pretty happy with how this working out so far. Today I introduced Finkerner Weedman to Adrianna. Fink’s a combination of fun and excrutiating to write — on the one hand, he’s a coarse peasant type with no education and he tells it like he sees it. On the other hand, I’m even more hardpressed to antiquate his dialogue. It gives me the opportunity to use words that really aren’t comprehensible to the modern reader, as I don’t really intend for him to be completely understandable.

Current goal for August: finish rough draft of part 1.
Progress: good. I’m shooting to average 2 pages per day for August (single-spaced pages, mind you), and I’m still on target there. That gives me about 60 pages for part 1, which I think is reasonable. If it ends up shorter, that’s okay, as it’ll expand in revision.

And here’s a quote from Fink. He’s so… rough around the edges. Bonus points if you understand it well enough to be offended.

“These swynes wouldst swyve ye up yer tuwel! They thinketh not swich poraille as me be digne of reverence, n’matter how muchel I’ve swonken.”