Skyrim, Conan, and Writing Progress

Been playing a lot on my XBox 360 lately. Lots of Modern Warfare 3 online. If you see me I'm RenegadeDataCor (OmahaRenegade was already taken! WTF!?).

But I've also been exploring the wide, wondrous world of Skyrim!
I love this game. It has such an in-depth story line, not just on the surface in the missions you do for everyone and anyone, but also in the background stuff. Going through a lot of tombs and caves you see a lot of ancient Nord art and, fighting the reanimated Nord skeletons, you see a lot of ancient Nord weaponry. I love this aspect of the game. It gives the entire world of Skyrim a great deal of flavor and gives you a sense of where the Nords came from. It also makes me ask questions like, "What were they doing when they died?", and, "Why would a Nord be buried with an iron ingot?"

In the game I'm a red haired Nord (surprise surprise, right?), seen here.

Yes,  I know, the picture quality isn't great. I play on XBox 360, not computer, so screenshots are done with my iPhone 4.
Technology at its best, I know.
Another feature the XBox 360 version does NOT have is the ability to pan the camera around your character. So you can't see the awesome red skull warpaint on his face. If you could he would look REALLY mean.

Really. . .he would. . .

Alaric Khan (my character) is on the roughly defined berserker track. Two handed weapons (a steel warhammer in this case), heavy armor, smithing, and some blocking are his specialties. I have added a bit in lock picking  sneaking, archery (damn mooses!), and light magic (burn, frost troll, burn!!) to round him out.

I have, of course, sided with Skyrim.

Here I am at a Stormcloak encampment preparing for another daring raid to free Skyrim from the damned Empire.

The vast number of characters and NPCs really gets me, too. It's incredible just how lively towns and villages are. I mean, it's still a game, and with it there's that game-stiffness to it all. But Bethesda did a great job on everything. The graphics are incredible. And fights with dragons are truly epic. :) I love how there aren't any specified classes. Instead the player develops certain ability areas to their liking. The 600 page strategy guide gives players a general guide if they want to specialize their characters (ie. Berserker), but trait development it completely left up to the player. I really think this is the new standard instead of the more locked-in classes of other RPGs, MMO or otherwise.

So if you don't hear from me for a few weeks/months/years. . .brb, goin ta Skyrim. :3

All this Northern barbarian fighting has gotten me into a rather Northern barbarian mood (although my ancestors were Northern barbarians, so that might have something to do with it). I've been reading the Conan stories lately. Robert E. Howard wrote some amazing stories, and the prints I'm reading (with the Frank Frazzetta covers) are great! A buddy of mine went to Vegas to visit family and happened upon a small bookstore off the strip. Herein he found IMMACULATE copies of the 1963 prints of the Conan books. We now have all of them.

While some of the writing is kinda of bad (in some cases miserable) the stories are awesome and ALL THAT IS MAN! Dangerous fights with swords, daring adventures around the world, fearful dread magics, and drinking and wenching as you go!! Who couldn't love these stories!!?? And as the books and stories go on they get better. I just read the story The Frost Giant's Daughter. The battle scene between Conan and the Vanir warrior was heart pumping. My adrenaline was through the roof! So I went to the gym to work it off. The point is these stories are great and you should read them.

So go, read them. Now!

But I'm sure all this talk of video games and reading books has you wondering, "Where do you have time to write?"
Worry not, reader, for I have been writing up a storm. Run, the upcoming novella, is in it's second chapter, with the third starting soon. If you still haven't read the free first chapter, go HERE and do so. You could also go to my DeviantArt website and read it there.

Next Blog Post: Occupy My New House! Join me!. . .actually just read about it here. I want my new house to myself. The last thing I need are smelly picketers. :/

Until next time. . .

Glee Fail

Crazy I know, but I'm updating again in such short order.

Except it's not about writing or technology or my website (see obligatory link and GO THERE!).

No, it's about Glee.

Yes. Glee. The TV show.

I'm not a huge fan of Glee as it is, but I watched the November 15th episode (perhaps because the girlfriend made me?).

I understand that it's a bit out there due to the musical/dramatic nature of the show, so nothing really makes sense as it is. I learned that after my first viewing. . .where I got to see a lot of man love. . .*shiver*

But this got kinda ridiculous.

1) The Irish kid gets beat up by a bunch of GIRLS! Seriously? I mean, seriously? It's dodge ball. And he was bleeding? Man card: REVOKED. If I were Ireland I would be sending the IRA to blow Glee up.

2) The Irish kid got "saved" by the ultra effeminate weak gay guy (sorry, I don't know names of characters). That's a second strike on the man card. And Ireland should be rioting and invading wherever Glee is produced (California?).

3) In the fight for School President it was mentioned that dodge ball is a sport to bully - and I'll stop there for this point. To bully? I've always LOVED dodge ball. Who cares if someone gets off on throwing big red rubber balls to hit people. Guess what: EVERYONE DOES! Plus have you seen the movie "Dodge Ball"? Fail on that guy's part.

4) Then he says "Violence is never the answer." Or something to that effect.
So. . .we totally could have stopped Hitler with words. North Korea would have totally given up South Korea at the beginning of the Korean War war with negotiation. Iraq would have totally left Kuwait if we had not invaded. And Osama bin Laden would absolutely have turned himself in after 9/11 if we had just been more reasonable.
On a more close-to-home note, bullies will totally stop bullying merely because they're suspended from school and told not to. And gang violence will totally end because the gang members are arrested and told to stop.
I am of course being facetious here.

Really?! These are the messages they want to send to America's youth, and the USA in general? And by extension people in countries around the world?
REALLY!?

I dunno, maybe it's just me. What happened to being tough and not a bitch, and actually fighting?
See: The Conan stories by Robert E. Howard.

On a positive note the music was pretty good. I enjoyed most, if not all, of the musical performances. And the mash ups were pretty cool! I guess if I could cut out the story line the musical part would be phenomenal.
And then there's that guy in the wheel chair. . .

Abnormal rant. I don't normally talk about my societal beliefs here, but I felt I had to clash against "popular culture".

Next time: the joys of Skyrim. :3

Until next time. . .

Run - Chapter 1

I must admit I've been slacking on posts, both here and on the Facebook page. Life is a little busy right now as I start a new job and begin my Masters degree.

But I have been writing.

Really, I have. Though it's been slow (much like other projects I've been working on). So I've decided to treat you, my audience, with the first chapter of the novella titled Run, Peter's origin story. You can see it in PDF format on the RENEGADE DATA CORE website in the FREE STUFF section.

Or check it out here: Run - Chapter 01

I'll have a longer post up later this month.

Until next time. . .

Writings, LinkedIn, and Amazon Kindle

Writing
I promise I HAVE been writing vigorously. It's just been taking a while as I'm also between careers and looking for a full-time job. My current project is Peter's origin story tentatively titled "Run" (though I am planning another short story for late October/early November). So far I have a chapter written, with four more to go. This will be a novella and sell for $1.50 on the site. Just for your reading pleasure here's an extract from the first draft:

“How much do you have for a ship?”
Alfred Zwinger stared at the ragged pup in front of him.
The young man had the trademark white-blond hair of Sternvolk that lived the majority of their lives on the community ships of the fleet. His skin was pale from a life of exposure to only artificial lights.
It was the man’s eyes that sent a shiver down Alfred Zwinger’s back. They were as cold as the ice on Titan.
They were predator’s eyes.
Now they were locked onto Alfred, studying him.
“I have five hundred thousand marks with which to purchase a ship,” the young man said.
Alfred shook his head. “Can’t buy much for five hundred.”
“I’m not looking for a yacht. I just need a ship that works.”
“Not many ships for that price, period.”
“Don’t feed me that crap. I know that the Community Fleet took four pirate ships within the last two standard weeks, and that at least two of the Community Fleet picket vessels are on your payroll. You probably paid the crews half what those ships were actually worth.”
The kid was informed, Alfred had to give him that.
“What makes you think I want to sell any of my vessels to you?” Alfred asked.
“Because I have money in the bank, which is money in your pocket. You don’t have to worry about finding me if I don’t pay. Less risk.”
He had a point.
“You can verify your funds?”
The man proffered his new-model data pad. His account information was displayed on the screen.
Sure enough, there was five hundred thousand marks.
“You didn’t kill anyone for this money, did you?”
“Would it matter if I did?”
“Not unless it comes to bite me in the ass.”
“No, I didn’t kill anyone. I earned some of it. Part of it is a loan.”
“So the bank may come looking for you.”
“I’ll worry about the bank. You worry about finding a ship that matches my offer.”
Alfred scratched his chin in thought. It was a good deal.
With a nod Alfred stuck out his hand. “Alright, let’s see what we can do, Herr. . .”
The blond man gave Alfred’s hand a firm shake.
“Drexel. Peter Drexel.”


LinkedIn
When I first heard of LinkedIn I thought it was just a mobile phone App. Those of you who know what LinkedIn is are probably balking at that statement. When I discovered the actual site (i r smrt) I found myself in a whole new world, and a whole new platform to market my products.

But LinkedIn is more than that. You can connect with like minded people, find people with certain expertise, and ask questions and receive feedback. For example I posed a question to several of the writer's groups I belong to in order to gather info to improve my website (note: expect changes to the website). It's also a place to find jobs and post your resume to a global network.

If you're a writer like me and you want to get into some of the good LinkedIn writers' groups, I would suggest Writer's Hangout, Science Fction readers, writers, collectors, and artists, LinkEds & writers, Independently Published Author's Marketing Association, and Authors, Writers, Publishers, Editors, & Writing Professionals. All are excellent sources of knowledge and info full of numerous people with tons of knowledge about writing, publishing, and marketing your work.


Kindle 
This is a bit delayed, but I thought I'd bring it up: Amazon now has a whole new line of Kindles. The newest basic Kindle is now $79. This is a great price for such a device and makes it more accessible to more people. The Kindle Touch and Kindle Keyboard are $99. Again, cheap and reliable.

I rue this last bit, though, because I purchased my Kindle Keyboard for $139 just months ago. $139 is the price of the Kindle Keyboard with 3G. And finally the Kindle Touch with 3G is $149. Very reasonable prices for eReaders. Such low prices will allow more and more people to purchase them and make reading eBooks more common.

Finally Amazon has debuted it's tablet, the Kindle Fire, set for release November 15th and priced at $199. While there has been debate over whether it will dethrone the iPad as the tablet of choice, there's no doubt that the people at Amazon thought this one through very well. It can play movies and music, and allows users to read digital magazines and books. Amazon advertises thousands of apps and games. Web brousing will be done with the browser Amazon Silk, and Amazon provides free cloud storage for all your Amazon content. And if you're an Amazon Prime Member you'll enjoy unlimited, instant streaming of over 10,000 popular movies and TV shows.

All the details can be seen HERE.

So what do I think?

Do I think? 

As one wise filosofikal kitteh once filosofikized, "Aifinkso, derefor it iz!"

Anyhoo, I like the Kindle Fire so far. Relatively cheap price compared to the iPad with numerous similar features from a company that (I think) has been reliable with its technological products. Amazon didn't just release this product. They worked years on it to perfect it and make it the right device. Not so companies like HP, whose tablet was dead on arrival, or ASUS who ran out of ASUS Eee Transformers within the first month of release. The only drawback with the Kindle Fire is that it doesn't have 3G capability. That said, though, many people have wireless in their homes or portable 3G/4G wireless hotspots (I have a built-in 3G hotspot in my iPhone), and many businesses have wi-fi in their buildings now.

 Honestly I would have to play with a Kindle Fire to get a real good feel for it, and only time will tell if it's the product everyone is anticipating.

Until next time. . .

A Cruel Solar System - Released!

The short story A Cruel Solar System is now available in the PRODUCTS section of the Renegade Data Core website. Head over and get your copy today. Just $0.99! And keep checking back at the site for the artwork for the story.

UPDATE: Or you can purchase A Cruel Solar System here:

Lessons Learned: Working With Artists, E-Junkie, and Upcoming Story

To begin: Yes, more content IS coming. In fact, it will be up for sale THIS WEEK! Keep an eye out on the PRODUCTS section of the site for a new short story in the same universe as Der Sternvolker. Short stories will be released with more regularity in the weeks to come.

Which allows me to jump into the first topic.

Lessons Learned: Working With Artists

As you all know the talented Alessandro "Ganassa" Mazzetti has done a lot of amazing artwork for the site and for the book. And in the upcoming short story Alexis Kimble will be doing the cover art. I am appreciative to both artists for their help and the fantastic work they are doing and have done for me.

But sometimes the wait can be painful, especially if not planned right.

I began writing the upcoming short story at the beginning of this month. As I wrote I created an idea in my mind of what I wanted the cover image to look like. Finally, with the story completed (before three consecutive rounds of editing), I contacted Alexis to commission her to do the cover image.

But note, fellow authors: your artists have lives, too. 

Alexis has her day job and has been busy with other commissions she is scrambling to complete for their respective commissioners (part of the reason the short story will be released this week and instead of last week). Alessandro is a very famous artist on the internet in his own right, and is working overtime to complete a flood of projects and commissions. Three pictures I commissioned from him (pictures of Balder, Borge, and Eyolf from Der Sternvolker) are waiting in his ever growing queue.

The lesson here is to plan. Something I will be doing in the future is to create definite outlines of the story before I write so I can have the artist work on the image while I'm writing, so that image completion and story completion coincide and I can release on schedule. Usually I'm what's called a "Marvel writer" (correct me if that term is wrong): I write without any sort of outline or structure and the story flows from my fingers, to be refined in subsequent rounds of editing.

Most authors create an outline. The book Writing the Breakout Novel: Workbook (associated with the book Writing the Breakout Novel) has a very good structure to help you outline your stories. I used that outline structure to write Der Sternvolker (for the most part), and I think I'm going to start going back to it, at least to aid in rough outlines so I can get artwork and advertisement going at the same time.

E-Junkie

As you noticed on the Renegade Data Core site I've linked Der Sternvolker to the Amazon and Barnes and Noble sites so you can purchase the book. It worked out better this way because the sites were already available and so many people already have Amazon and B&N accounts.

For short stories and (most) novellas I will be using E-Junkie. With E-Junkie you can either build your own store or connect your account to your Google Checkout or PayPal account and sell goods online. It's $5 a month, and they even have space to load and store digital content. The upcoming short story will be sold via this method in PDF format. And, instead of direct DRM which blocks you from sharing digital content, E-Junkie merely puts the name and basic info of the purchaser on the front cover of the PDF. So you and your friends can enjoy it without troublesome restrictions.

And yes, I am against DRM. Does that mean I may lose money on some of my stuff? Yes, it might. But more people can enjoy my work, which ultimately is more important to me. :)

But I digest. . .

Upcoming Story

Finally, the good stuff. I know this is what EVERYONE was waiting for.

The upcoming short story will be titled A Cruel Solar System, and will be up the night of Thursday, September 22, 2011. It has a trip to Venus, advanced technology, and the meddlesome Technocrats we all know and love. . .or love to hate. This short story will be referenced in the next full length novel coming out next year.

Keep checking back throughout the week for the cover image and a video book trailer.

And let me know what you thought of Der Sternvolker! I know a lot of people have gotten their hands on it and have read most or all of it and I'm excited to discover what everyone thought about it, the good and the bad.

Until next time. . .

Book Release, Lessons Learned, and The Future

The book is released!! You can purchase your copy of Der Sternvolker in the Amazon Kindle Store, Barnes and Noble Nook Store, Apple iBookstore, or the Sony Reader Store.

It's been a long time coming to this point. I actually started writing the book over a year ago, and since then its gone through numerous changes. Originally the story took place only five years after the nuclear holocaust that destroyed Earth, and Peter and his crew were part of the Elysium League (like a futuristic Hanseatic League). Peter's father was the head of a major corporation, and Peter was cutting his teeth in the business before taking his father's place. The mercenaries were organic security, and the team was twenty strong. Peter even had a sort of side-kick - a fifteen year old youth whose family had been killed when a rogue European Union military unit razed his colony.

It grew from there. At first it was just going to be a series of short stories, roughly 4,000-10,000 words a piece. But as I wrote and developed the post-Earth solar system I decided I wanted to write a full novel. Peter and his crew changed again into merchant-warriors who forged economic alliances with colonies and city-states to increase the power and wealth of The Elysium League - and themselves.

The idea of the Sternvolk, German for Star Folk, came from several sources. Clan Sea Fox, formerly Diamond Shark, from Battletech was the first source. I always liked Clan Sea Fox for their unClan like, merchant ways. I thought it was amazing when almost the entire Clan moved into ships and began hopping around the Inner Sphere. I had never thought of that, and never read about it in any sci-fi.

The nomadic space peoples in Mass Effect intrigued me, and the idea of an entire culture jumping around space was pretty cool. In fact, the first solid title of the book was The Pilgrimage, and Peter set forth to find himself in the Solar System. In this iteration of the story, Peter and Amelia had been friends since early childhood, and Balder and his six-man team were selectively bred, genetically enhanced super-soldiers that served as the Community Fleet's main offensive force. The book started with Peter and his mercs exploring "Kirk Station", a long lost space station that had been rediscovered in the asteroid belt, and ended up being infested with the genetically altered, feral descendants of the original populace that had been turned into the guinea pigs for a mad scientist. Part of the story was that Peter was the descendant of a long line of Berserkers, and his uncontrollable rage would lead to a huge turning point in the story (and would also spawn the third book in a series). That idea died a slow, painful death because the whole kirk station incident was three chapters and I worked so hard on it. But I wanted the story to be more "believable" (as believeable as it can be. . .), so I hacked it apart and forged ahead. But this is where the final story formed from.

So now we have Der Sternvolker in all its eBook glory. Roughly 246 pages, over 80,000 words, and plenty of blood, sweat, and tears to forge it into a pretty darn good book if I do say so myself (and I do).

There's a lot I learned from this process. . .and a lot I missed.

When you purchase the eBook you will notice that I jump back and forth between calling Rickard's lands "D'Helion District" and "House d'Helion Territory". With all my editing I totally missed that. It SHOULD be "D'Helion District". So, lesson learned: don't just triple edit, quadruple and quintuple edit. Keeping running notes on stuff like that helps, too. This will be corrected in future stories.

Another point: when you publish through BookBaby you will notice that, when your book is ready to be published, you can see in your book details how long you'll have to wait for your book to appear in one of the online stores after BookBaby sends it to that vendor. Some, like Amazon, take 3-4 business days. Others, like Sony Reader, take 3-4 weeks! This is part of the reason that the book is not showing up in the Sony Reader Store yet. Word to the wise: send your book in 6 weeks prior to your publication date JUST to make sure.
"And what is in store for the future?" you may ask. Renegade Data Core is just spinning up and I have lots of ideas that I want to turn into full stories. In the next few months I will be churning out several short stories that will be sold for $0.99 on the site as PDFs. I plan to find an artist or artists and finally create a comic. And I'm already working on the next full length novel. If you read through all of Der Sternvolker you'll know who the next novel is about.

Also keep watching out for more artwork. I will be commissioning the talented Ganassa, and others, to turn my ideas into amazing works of art for your viewing pleasure.

Until next time. . .