Rawr! Dragon Con!

Quick blog update as I finish up the novella, work on a new one, play test the tabletop war-game rules, and try to get the darned sourcebook done, along with other up and coming biz things. I'll talk more about those as they move along. Great things are a comin'.

But that's not what I'm going to talk about here. Here I'm going to talk about DRAGON CON! A friend of mine from a previous life (read: active military) texted me and said I should totally go to Dragon Con in Atlanta, GA.

So I totally am!

I have my plane ticket and my Dragon Con pass. But a hotel? Forget it. Everything was booked up. So I'll just have my friend and a backpack and an adventure ahead of me. But aren't those the best trips? :)

I won't be there in Author/Entrepreneur mode. I'll be rollin' like an average ginger squeeing over the celebrities I've always wanted to meet . . . that's right, I said squeeing. What? You wanna fight about it?
But, should you wanna say herro (O herro!), or just chat a bit, if you see me feel free to do so. And excuse me in advance if I seem off, I'm bringing my A+ Game for this one, so I'll be partying hard 'till 7AM each morning.

As my friends Tony and Dell always say: No excuses, play like a champ.

Until next time . . .

Final Cover Image

Here it is! What you've all been waiting for: the final cover image!

The wonderful and talented Ganassa created this piece. A big hearty thanks to him!

You can find free downloadable wallpapers of this image in the FREE STUFF section of the Renegade Data Core website. I will have the formatted cover of the book up soon, along with the book description.

We're coming down to the wire on the book. Currently it stands at 75,293 words as it heads to the copy-editor. That said, I may be pushing the publication date back a bit. When I started out on this journey of self-digital-publication I never thought everything would take as long as it has. Even writing took longer than I thought. I'm still shooting for the 1st of June, but be prepared to have the release date pushed back a week or two.

While pushing the release date back is bad, good can come of this in two ways. 1) You will receive the quality product I promise in my ABOUT section of the site. I would never want to sell you an eBook or eComic that was of degraded quality purely because I rushed the job. 2) This gives me a better measure for when I write my next book (already in the works) to provide you, the readers, a more accurate, realistic release date.

Keep watching for updates.

Until next time. . . 

The Patient Spider and Yahoo eCommerce

I have just posted a new short story on the Renegade Data Core website titled The Patient Spider. Head over to the Free Stuff section and download it. Again this is FREE science fiction for your enjoyment.

I've been working diligently on both this short story and In Darkness Forged. If there's one thing I'm discovering about all this it's that it's not easy. Between work, fight training, bull riding training (yes, I said bull riding), and friends, writing one story is hard enough, let alone writing TWO. I give props to those authors who do it every day. I know there are a lot of authors at The Black Library who work on two, three, or four stories/scripts/comics DAILY. That's incredible. My hats off to you, gentlemen.

I will be posting yet ANOTHER short story next month around the same time (though probably after Easter, as I will be spending much of my time with family that weekend). Hopefully this one will have associated art with it to spice it up a bit.

In other news, I've decided that, prior to the release date of In Darkness Forged, I will be migrating Renegade Data Core to a Yahoo eCommerce website. I thought about using PayPal, but a $30-$40 a month Yahoo eCommerce account is much more cost effective than PayPal. PayPal charges 2.5% +.05 for each transaction. If I sold just one hundred (100) copies of my book, they would charge me almost $65. I guess the pros of having PayPal, though, is if nothing sells I don't pay them anything. But that's where an aggressive marketing plan comes in.

Until next time...

Wacom Cintiq

It's been a while since I last blogged. Returning to the USofA and getting settled in, as well as holidays and seeing family and friends, has filled much of my time.

Updates: I don't think I will be adding to the "Legion" story any time soon. I'm working on several projects that demand my attention. I will attempt to Blog more often as things are settling down.

Today I would like to touch on the Wacom Cintiq, which can be found here: http://www.wacom.com/cintiq/

Both the 21UX and 12WX are superb devices. With these models you actually draw on the screen on the tablet, then transfer to computer, rather than drawing on the tablet and looking at the computer screen to make sure you got it right. I currently ordered the Cintiq 12WX, and am awaiting it's arrival in the mail.

An individual I watch on YouTube, reiqws ( ), has a video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95GvRH_e38s, in which he demonstrates his new Cintiq 21UX. He purchased the 21UX based on size and his constant drawing. I purchased the 12WX for the same purpose. He has a lot of desk space, while my desk...needs work. He draws daily, even several times a day. I draw...once in a while...I should draw more.

So check it out. If you're an avid drawer I highly recommend it, and I will post pictures and info about my experiences with it when I receive it.

Also, please check out my DeviantArt gallery, where I post both pictures and short short stories: http://barontophervonpanda.deviantart.com/

Until next time...

Steamworks, Developing for XBox Live, and Unity

Legion is on hold for now as I prepare to return to the States. I've had little time to write, and what time I do have is used to work on the book. More to follow there.

For now, let's talk Steamworks (http://www.steampowered.com/steamworks/). Steam is the lovely computer application that allows you to download games to your account, and then play on any computer where you have an internet connection and login to your steam account. Steam is owned by Valve, creators of Half Life, Half Life 2, Team Fortress 2, and Portals and Portals 2. Steampowered is their business solutions division. Here they give you the tools to distribute your game for free through Steam, and Valve takes their cut through the actual sales. There's even info on Steam for Mac, micro transactions, the Steam Cloud, how to give your product the Steam makeover, and the Unreal engine that the team at Valve uses to create their games. The main Steamworks page above has everything you need to get started. If you're interested in producing games and distributing them, then Steam and Steamworks is the way to go.

XBox live also has a development page, though less detailed than Steamworks: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/Community/Developer/DevelopingForLiveArcade. You have to contact the XBox Live arcade team, but they give you a venue to distribute your game through Live.

UNITY (http://unity3d.com/unity/) is a free game development software that makes game creation relatively easy. The program gives you everything you need to create, program, and distribute your game. You can even save your game as different formats such as PC, Mac, XBox 360, PS3, Wii, iPhone, or Android.  This flexebility allows you to distribute your game across multiple platforms. If you want to sell your game, you have to purchase the $1,500 package. Though a steep price, it's a one time purchase and is equivalent to a game selling liscence. Besides, if you put the work into the game and make good sales, it will pay for itself, perhaps many times over.

I bring this to light as one of my colleagues and I are slowly working on a game. The details are super secret squirrel right now. Suffice to say our plan is concrete as we venture into the video game making realm.

My next post will see me back in the great old US of A. I'll see you all then.

Serious (Small) Business

I apologize for the lack of updates. Work over here has taken me away from my normal posting time (as has sleep).

Today I would like to talk a little bit about small business. I am already working on a business and marketing plan for my small business, and when I return from overseas I will be working to realize my publishing dreams (he said with stars in his eyes). I'm quickly finding out that getting everything needed to start a small business - all the minute details - is almost overwhelming. How does one start a small business with everything they have to do?
One way to do it is by sheer force of will. I salute those who can do that.
The way I am going is to gather all the resources I can in order to make a polished (or at least not-so-rough) finished product. I discovered two sites that will help any would-be entrepreneur in their quest to start their own business, whether it be a full up company, or an at-home-run eBusiness. First is www.sba.gov/, the Small Business Administration's online resource. It is chock full of details, including resources in your local area. The "Small Business Planner" will assist you in actually designing your business and gathering the tools and knowledge needed to run it, as well as articles on leadership, management, and other topics of interest. The second site is www.score.org/. SCORE provides workshops and articles for small business start-up and development, and even has a resource for local, seasoned entrepreneurs to mentor you as you take your small business journey. Both sites are free, and are chalk full of useful information.

Second on today's business topics is this little device: http://money.cnn.com/2010/06/25/smallbusiness/pogoplug/index.htm. I thought this was really cool. An external hard drive that has internet capability so you can acess your business files anywhere. Don't get me wrong, DropBox and sites like it are a boon to anyone or any start-up small business. But large space on such sites comes at a price (DropBox is $250 for extended space). This $139 PogoPlug is an excellent, cost-effective resource to store business files and be able to access them outside of the home or office.
Just a side note: I found it strange I found this on CNN rather than Forbes...but useful knowledge is useful knowledge.

Slowly but surely working on a bit of fiction. I should have that up within a week or two for your viewing pleasure.

The Tablet Business Revolution

I have been writing furiously, and will post a snippet into what I have been creatimg...Saturday. I know I promised Tuesday...in the future I will work more wiggle room into my self-set deadlines.

For now, though, I would like to turn your attention to a new revolution in business: the iPad. A beautiful little device, it's light, mobile, powerful, and easy to use. With hundreds of thousands of apps, and more created almost daily, there is very little it cannot do to aid your business, whether it be large corporation or small business.
I found these two articles via Google:
The first article is "5 Ways to Use an iPad for Small Business": http://www.smallbusinesscomputing.com/news/article.php/3880341/5-Ways-to-Use-an-iPad-for-Small-Business.htm. Herein, the author gives several examples of professions in which the iPad could be used to enhance overall task performance and organization. At the end of each example the author also describes drawbacks to the miracle device in that profession.
The second article is "5 Reasons Your Small Business Should Consider Apple's iPad": http://www.focus.com/briefs/information-technology/five-reasons-your-small-business-should-consider-apples-ipad/. The author, obviously a huge iPad supporter, lists five considerations that small businesses should take in deciding the usefulness of an iPad .The author clearly thinks it is applicapble for almost any small business; this is up for debate. But he makes very good arguments for the iPad.

Search Google, and you can find a plethora of articles arguing for (and against) the use of iPads in small business.

In my honest opinion, I think the iPad is the best thing since sliced bread. Though I hate the fact that flash will not work on it, limiting the sites that could be visited, I'm sure that the second incarnation of the iPad (the iPad 2? Or perhaps the iPad Leopard, following Apple's propensity for naming systems after big cats?) will include flash (I hope). I am debating getting one once I return to the States, or if I am going to just wait until the iPad's successor is developed.

Of course, there are new competitors in the Pad market. Research In Motion (RIM) has developed their BlackBerry PlayBook: http://na.blackberry.com/eng/playbook-tablet/?IID=rim_playbook_homepage. Though smaller than the iPad (7" as opposed to the larger iPad's 10"), it does have flash, and it has a USB port for connecting to other devices. Though not out yet, the BlackBerry PlayBook is an obvious other choice if an iPad turns out not to be for me.

The future will tell. Once I make my glorious return, I will be better positioned to decide.

Affordable Space Travel, Forbes, and Steve Jobs

First and foremost I had to comment on this article on CNN: http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/10/15/space.tourism/index.html. While I don't have the money to support it, I am a huge supporter of corporate owned, commercial space travel (partially from my belief that government screws it up pretty darn well). Flights for $200,000 are already on sale for a trip in Virgin Galactic's ship. Other commercial space flight companies are rigorously building their space ports across the US and taking reservations. In the article, the company Space Adventures will charge $102,000 per trip. As more money flows into commercial space travel and exploration, prices will drop (as with any technology or service), and technology will advance to do more lighter, and with less. I only wish there was a way to donate to such companies in order to help the cause (don't I sound all politicky and revolutionary).

Second on today's post is Forbes (http://www.forbes.com/). I thoroughly enjoy this site, and read it daily to see what new nuggets I can pull from it in the areas of investing, marketing, and starting a small business. I highly recommend everyone goes to the site and reads as much as they can. Just ingest the knowledge held there. When I get back from overseas, I'm going to subscribe to the magazine (or eMagazine, if it's available).
But two articles caught my attention this evening. The first is an article on how small businesses can defeat inaction (http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/1025/entrepreneurs-economy-planning-new-products-what-now.html?boxes=Homepagechannels), especially in the stressful economic environment we live and operate in today (no, sorry, the recession is not over for the majority of Americans still attempting to find jobs). This article spoke to me as I am slowly but surely planning to start my own small business.
More importantly, though, was the article on "How to Innovate Like Steve Jobs" (http://blogs.forbes.com/kymmcnicholas/2010/10/15/how-to-innovate-like-steve-jobs/?boxes=Homepagechannels). It's partially an article advertisement of the book by the same name - a book I plan to buy (eBook, here I come!). In the article, and the book, the author focuses on the principles that Steve Jobs follows in innovating in Apple. One of the major points was "sell dreams, not products". Your business should be about helping people and advancing their lives, not about you or your business. Jobs focuses on creating products that meet consumer wants and needs and the best way to build them to meet those needs. Another principle Jobs follows is "association"; looking outside your industry for ideas. Instead of just going through the computer aisle at a store, Jobs strolled through a home appliances aisle to get ideas. Also, Apple Stores don't have dedicated cashiers. Instead they have concierges, an idea he got from hotels. The role of the concierge is not to make a sale, but to help people better themselves.

A lot of interesting ideas for anyone going into any business - even publishing.