Chris Dodson's Author's Blog

Update on Prey for Vengeance and the reason for writing.

2012-06-05T14:41:00.002-07:00

It's been a while.

I've been easing back into the working world and found that writing was taking a back seat to the comfortable nature of being gainfully employed. This is my long march back. I noticed this past week that while at work I was beginning to feel a little less than satisfied. I couldn't help but ask why. I had only had the job for about a month and things were going pretty smoothly. The job itself was familiar and something I had been doing off and on for the better part of my life. The answer was simply that I wasn't writing and letting my creative juices flow. I had to realize that I opened a Pandora's box and there was no shutting it. Writing is an outlet for me for reasons I will describe later in this post. The important thing to note here is that I am recommitted despite not realizing that I had waned.

Why did I start writing?:

I suppose I have been for quite a while but not in a way that I wanted to make permanent. At age 14 I received a Toshiba laptop for school. Laptops in those days were around four grand and hideously expensive and bulky affairs by today's standards. The reasoning behind this benevolent gift was mainly due to my inability to read my own writing. This wasn't wholly the result of bad penmanship I might add.

It all happened at age 6. I woke up at around three in the morning. This memory is so strong that I still remember it in complete detail for about half an hour. No other memory survives in more than a split second chunk or so. I woke up and thought I saw a ghost in my room. There was a flashing blue ball traveling around the room at a snail's pace and I was tracking it as best I could but I couldn't quite see it dead on. At first I thought it was playing a weird trick on me. As a young lad I had been credited with a wild imagination that sported the fanciful and terrifying. I swore up and down that I had felt a snake coiled under my pillow. To this day I remember the scaley sensation and the immediate terror that followed. Even then I stayed perfectly still and took stock of my options. I slowly moved my arms out from underneath the pillow and ran screaming to my parents. The snake apparently wasn't there and this marked my first lucid dream experience.
But back to the ghost. After minutes had trickled by and I had tracked this ball of flickering light all over the room I decided to experiment with seeing if it would follow in another room. Indeed the ball actually managed to stay ahead of me and just to one side of my pointed gaze. I wandered into the living room and took stock of the time. This was more to gauge the relative anger I would receive if I were to wake up my parents. The wooden clock spelled out Jesus in the shape of a downward facing dove and gave the reassuring tick tock that grants children the reassurance that civilization is still at this very moment functioning. The ghost however had transposed itself on the clock. I composed a battery of tests which usually involved making unpredictable movements and sitting in areas of the living room which were only inviting to a child. At some point I went to bed. The next morning the ghost was still there and has become my constant companion ever since.

After some concerns from my first grade teacher and my inability to see the black board I was sent for a barrage of tests and it was finally decided that I had Star Gardts disease. A juvenile form of macular degeneration that is still non-correctable. I have no central vision. I basically look out of the corner of my eye at everything. This has influenced my life in countless ways. For example, at age eleven I came to the realization that the American dream no longer applied to me. The house in the suburbs and the white picket fence wasn't ever going to apply to the likes of me. I would never be able to drive. Having a child would be a risk. My visual impairment is passed on genetically and even with testing could be made elusive. To have a child would mean that there would probably be a 25% chance of them having the same problems as I had growing up and I don't think I can bear that weight of responsibility. If a child of mine did happen to win the devil's lottery and later came to hate me for it, he or she would be completely justified and just at the possibility of this happening makes me break out in a sweat.

Spending your life looking out of the corner of your eye has some interesting side effects. You do actually find most things suspicious as the metaphor implies. I find myself encouraged by Norman Rockwell real life settings of people gathering for company and basking in the mutual love and respect for it's own sake. The family with 2.2 kids and a two car garage is oddly settling. Everything else I see as an attempt to destroy the fabric of society and make things more difficult for me and therefore I despise it.

When I was handed my first laptop I used it as intended to take notes with my shiny new copy of DOS based Word Perfect v1.3. It didn't take me long to start banging out all the hate and rage I felt as being an outsider. Some people spend most of their lives cultivating a sense of otherness that allows them to stand out in a crowd. I have spent the majority of my life hating my lack of choice for that same feature.

On a particularly brutal day when my parents and I weren't getting along in an age my sister's refered to as "the dark years" I was banging on my computer. My father came into my room to tell me that everything I knew was wrong and that my mother was the penultimate sage and vessel of all wisdom and good sense and I would be a fool to disregard her words. Before his gruff commanding presence could be felt however he started reading what I was writing over my shoulder. In a stubborn denial of his presence I kept writing exactly the way I would if he weren't there. My father didn't comment on what I wrote he just read silently over my shoulder while I braced for impact. The words I was writing weren't particularly charitable or even fair minded. It did however ring true as the first time I could speak without being interrupted in that house in my entire life. He left the room before I had finished my diatribe of childish immature rage without saying a word. The next altercation with my parents was almost civilized. It was then that the power of the written word made its impression on me. It didn't stop the arguments. The worst ones were to come, but that nugget got buried away for a later date.

I had a creativity problem during those years. I thought my outlet would be music. I taught myself how to play the trombone for a few months and felt I was getting the hang of it. Then my over stimulated hormones decided to remind me that playing a trombone looked a lot like a training device for providing a high end blowjob. My interest faded quickly. Undeterred I turned my attention to the trumpet. This was an instrument that could get you in with the ladies. Fingering ability and firm muscular mouth control and the ability of belting out a jazz tune was my adolescent view of a good sexual training regimen. That's when my ghostly companion came in to rain on my parade. In order to play music I had to increase the size of the music sheets so I could read it. These bloated notes didn't fit well on a music stand and had a tendency to fall off especially when I had to run a page. Therefore I had to memorize the pieces I was playing and only use the sheet music as a rough guide for when I got lost. I saw no future here even after a couple years playing. My only solace being that I learned to play "Ode to Joy" and exerts from the "Star Wars" soundtrack.

From there the years got pretty bleak. I tried to develop some sort of identity as a nerd. I played nerdy games and submerged myself into technology. I thought to pursue a career in such fields and if I stuck to tech support I could probably hack it, no pun intended. However, I have an inquisitive mind and if I learn a thing I wanted to know how it all works and hardware was something that I was just incapable of doing. I have built my own computer before. An experienced computer builder can throw together a personal computer in about five minutes after prepping all the little pieces in a neat organized fashion. I on the other hand can spend a couple hours putting in just the CPU and possibly mangling the pins in the process because those little fittings and ports are just too much for me to overcome by touch alone. Coding software would be a nightmare. I tend to read by the common speed reading practices. This isn't for a faster reading experience but because I don't have the visual acuity to see each individual letter. That means software is out and my only recourse is troubleshooting. I'm pretty good at this but don't want to do it for a living considering pointing out a problem but not necessarily being able to fix it yourself without help is maddening.

So after many trials and tribulations I returned to writing. I can't imagine how many story ideas I have conceived and discarded over the years. I kept info dumping in the first chapter, got frustrated, and scrapped the whole thing. The only way I finished "Prey for Vengeance" was because I convinced myself that my friend Steve was counting on me to finish it. He had characters he wanted to write into a comic but couldn't come up with a suitable story idea. We started by spit balling ideas around and it became evident that I already had a story outlined in my head and in exasperation Steve more or less dared me to write the story myself and he would adapt it into a web comic. The first chapter or in this case prologue of the book contained the kind of info dump exposition that is the textbook standard of what not to do. So I took the prologue and spent about six months turning just it into a story giving the background of the story I wanted to tell. Luckily it worked. My first novel was literally a first chapter and I still had a large story I wanted to tell with even more characters. I accidentally found myself an author of a series. The epic struggle of longing to find a creative outlet for my frustration with my visual impairment and the artistic mind that my high school band teacher pulled my mother aside to point out had finally found a medium in which to swim through to the light. I doubt I could ever match the novels that I typically read and in some cases I don't really want to. I have found epic fantasy and science fiction and even thrillers have gotten a little crazy and too wide in scope. I'd like to tell the tales of people who might live in an over the top world but are just the background in most other author's tales. The man who'd like to start a family but doesn't have the means. In this current economic client I think it's relevant. Maybe it doesn't suit the escapist sensibilities of readers these days but it just might provoke something special like, I don't know, tolerance for your fellow man.

My job has sort of helped me gained prospective on this point. I work in retail in a produce department. It's not exactly glamorous, but there is no other profession that allows for voyeurism into the soul of the populous. You see the entire scope of human behavior. It's the one place that allows me to truly take stock of the world. I never understood just how thin civilizations thread dangled over anarchy until we ran out of cucumbers. The look of terror as a result of something rather meaningless is very telling and a gold mine for me as a writer.

I'm sure I could wax philosophical for days on the subject but I have some work to do on chapter 6 and 7 of Prey book 2. L.K. Campbell finished formatting my first novel "Prey for Vengeance" for Smashwords and it is now up on the site and pending the Meatgrinder. Her professionalism is unmatched and courtesy welcome. I asked for a projected date of completion and it was delivered on that date without delay. Her prices were more than fair and the money well spent. Her attention to detail was emasculate. She has earned my business whenever I can scrounge something up for her. If you are a writer banging your head up against the wall when submitting to Smashwords.com you can save yourself a lot of research and frustration. and I assure you the expense is laughably cheap compared to the alternative.

The World Conspires Against ME!

2012-05-15T15:14:00.002-07:00

I have to admit that I am feeling a bit cranky as I write this..

I started a part time job to keep me fed while I do my writing and suddenly there has been many matters requiring my attention in the past two weeks. These weren't unwelcome distraction but they did make my writing suffer quite a bit.

First, a friend of mine I hadn't seen in a decade happened to be coming through Omaha on his way to Chicago. It was great to see him and it was great introducing him to my favorite pig out spots around town and witnessing his acceptance into Wheaten University. As we said out reluctant goodbye's I suffered a resurgence of a cold I had been fighting the previous week. I had thought I was on the mend but the evening before my friend's departure I started feeling pain in my ear. Five hours of agony later the drum finally gave and my ear has been ringing ever since.

With no rest for the wicked I had to forge ahead to the next day as I attended a all day bachelor party for a friend that culminated in final alterations for our tuxedos for the wedding. The bachelor party itself was pretty tame consisting mainly of bowling and getting all you can eat hot wings. The bowling was fun specifically because I scored a 174 complete with two turkeys. It's always fun to rub it in when a legally blind man wipes the floor with the able bodied. The hot wings were great and helped better than Dayquil at clearing my sinuses.
Still draining like a siv I continued on with the wedding and work the next day. We had family in for the wedding so there wasn't much chance to recuperate from the cold. I'm still hacking up a lung and sticking cotton balls in my ear and blowing my nose every few minutes. Sleep has been a quarry that has proved elusive and despite all the good memories I am generating, I think my long term memory of the event will be better than the short. Ringing ears, tissues defacement, and projectile coughing for distance is sort of clouding the otherwise smile inducing activities.

Despite all that I managed to give a decent toast at the reception and I think the Catholic church I performed my groom's man duties won't require too much consecration.

Overall great times with the only the slight germ infestation to detract. The only concern is that I have lots of writing self appointed homework to do and I am still battling to keep up with email and podcast stuff. So if you are waiting with bated breath to see what's coming out next I apologize.

Missions:
-Work on a few short stories I started on.
-Prep "Prey for Vengeance" for Smashwords meatgrinder.
-Whine unceasingly at Ed and Steve about Prey book 2's cover and edit.
-Work on side project "Digital Divine Intervention" and figure out how to resolve conclusion.
-Call "Ro-Row" and get some details about Moscow living habits and every day sundries.

That's what is going on with me. /sniffle... /sneeze ... /cough/cough/cough

The Ascent From the Valley of Misery

2012-05-01T19:36:00.002-07:00

Smashwords Style Guide + Me = Frustration.
(L. K. Campbell + ME) + Smashwords Meatgrinder = Success

Okay so what do these equations have to do with my writing? Well I have spent many moons bashing my head up against the wall with the Smashwords System. I read the Style Guide which is very thorough and indeed gives all the information that I needed. The problem I had was picking out the few things I needed to get my formatting straight. The Style Guide is good at a lot of things. Putting up a condensed version of what is required with a quick reference isn't one of them. Paging through content isn't quick and simple. I probably should have looked more thoroughly for a quick tip wiki or something similar but I thought I had it done correctly. I had thought it done correctly twice before I gave up.

In the wake of my evident failure I requested for a list of freelance formatters from Smashwords.com. The one I picked was L.K. Campbell (http://design.lkcampbell.com/). I sent her a quck email for confirmation of price and where I might send a payment. I received a reply in less than half an hour with the work already done with no charge and an explanation where I failed. I had missed the paragraph spacing and since my story was really short and it wasn't too hard to fix she cut me a break. Ms. Campbell has earned my future business with quick response and professional approach and more importantly smoothing out the bruise on my ego. I encourage anyone who is having difficulties formatting their ebooks to visit her site.

Thank you so much for your help Ms. Campbell and when I am ready to format my future works you will be the first I email!

http://design.lkcampbell.com/

Blind functionality and Smashwords

2012-04-09T13:46:00.000-07:00

So I finally got all the bells and whistles worked out on my phone. I have a old blue tooth headset that actually worked with my shiny new phone and the voice dialing actually works quite well. I found an app on the Google Play website called Zoom Messenger that allows me text to speech along with the ability to zoom the text to as a high a font size as I like. I inadvertently saw ran across an app that would allow you to work your phone like a magnifying glass which I could find infinitely useful for reading menus and such. The problem I ran into was that none of them worked for my phone. Luckily I ran across the Swiss Army Knife app which had all kinds of goodies that included a very functional magnifying glass. The moral of the story is that you can make just about any Android app blind friendly if your bloodyminded enough to doggedly pursue it.

So after finding out that Kindle wouldn't publish my short story for free I went slightly insane with rage. I brushed up on my Google-fu trying to find a way to make it free and I came up with Smashwords.com. I have "My Turn-ons Include Napalm" on there now and am awaiting approval for premium publishing which will atuomatically throw me out on a bunch of marketplaces like Apple and Barnes and Noble. Hopefully they won't find too many mistakes that require weeks of editing and other nonsense. I read the book on publishing on Smashwords (literally) and hopefully I have things well in hand.

Once my short story is published on all these other sites I will then be able to tell Amazon about the price difference and then hope and pray they see fit to price match. This has been my burden over the past couple weeks and hopefully it doesn't turn into a epic tale.

I'm still waiting for Ed to send me back some notes on Chapter 6 of Prey book 2. I'm working on another project in the mean time. Ed gets a little distracted by shiny objects from time to time (Mass Effect 3) and it's not like I've actually paid him for his work, so I really don't have a good reason to do much whining. I still have plenty of work to do with marketing and working on first person narative style for some upcoming projects.

If you have recently read "My Turn-ons Include Napalm" or "Prey for Vengeance" please feel free to send me some feedback or leave me a review on Amazon. I'd love to hear what you have to say about it.

New Cover for "My Turn-ons Include Naplam"

2012-04-04T15:23:00.000-07:00

Well I ran into an issue.

I needed a cover for my short story but I didn't want anything too terribly involved and I was afraid that my normal cover artist Steve Griffing might find it demeaning. So I turned to my long time pal Phillip Johnston to load up his graphic artist skills to give me a simple but effective cover. After an hour on Skype and plenty of consultation Phillip really made the image pop. I can't thank him enough for this and it has the added bonus of not dragging Steve off the cover for the second book. Steve has been working diligently on the second cover and I am excited to see the final product. Probably the biggest issue is that I still have yet to come up with a decent title for the second book. The second novel's cover is quite a bit more elaborate than the first so I hope everyone likes it as much as I do.

I've been killing myself on another project involving the Massive Multiplayer Online Gaming Industry that has been a lot of fun and I have the added bonus of being able to bend the ear of RW Harper when I have questions. He's answered my questions with ruthless efficiency and the project so far has gone quite well. I'm planning to release them as a series of shorts to be released as an anthology, but free online. I'm using the exercise to hone my skills in the first person narrative. Hopefully I'll have more stuff to share with you guys soon. Until then let me know what you think of my short story and if you were able to grab my book for free, please give me some feedback and tell me if you liked the book.

My Turn-ons Include NapalmA Prey for Vengeance Story

2012-03-29T20:12:00.000-07:00

A Prey for Vengeance Story

by Chris Dodson

Reader’s Note

This short story is a standalone but takes place shortly after the “Prey for Vengeance” novel. The story infers back to the novel but not in any significant way that detracts from this story. This short is also a bridge to the next book which is still forthcoming.

Nina

Someone threw up on my combat boots but it still couldn’t tear me away from the bodies laid out and putrefying in the Brazilian sun. The youngest girl still had the pink ribbon in her hair I had tied on yesterday afternoon. It was the only tangible evidence of who I was looking at. Cheetoh came to my side silently. His breath was rasping from the smoke near the incinerator, the smell of blood and old sweat mixing with the char.

“How about it, Sorrow or revenge.” I said quietly so that the others jostling me wouldn’t hear. Cheetoh alone had the choice I wouldn’t do it for anyone else.

“Leave the women and children out of it.” He replied staring at the girl who begged him for marriage. Her arms were too disfigured to allow her hands to properly rest on her chest.

“Gather all who are willing to fight. I’ll get the local Tanakas here for support.”” I said softly and turned to go. Cheetoh grabbed my arm. I stopped waiting for his words but he only gave me a gentle squeeze that let me feel his gratitude. The wailing started when the women were allowed forward.

Fritz

Code named “The Leprechaun” otherwise known as the Leper was droning on about the project I had authorized but was now beginning to regret. I fought to keep my eyes from glassing over or rolling as he started showing the first signs of passion. It was always the same, he would come in and rattle off his numbers in his status reports and then start in on what he wanted to do going forward. That’s when the cocoon shattered and the psycho nerd butterfly emerged and he didn’t stop flapping until I squashed him. I smacked the desk and he cut off and stared apprehensively.

“The game is up right?”

“Yes sir,” he said blinking rapidly. I really hoped he didn’t start crying this time.

“Is it functional for the money laundry scam?”

“Yes sir.”

“So why are you going on about it. You did as instructed and you’ll get your share. Why are you still talking about added content to the online game?” He slid a one page report across to me. It had a long column of numbers on it and it was the beginnings of a profit/loss statement. The final tallies were missing and I looked at him inquiringly. I must have had a severe expression because he flinched and actually brought his hands up as if I would strike him. He gave me a sheepish turning over gesture. I flipped the page and glanced down and then bent over the paper in shock.

The stupid multiplayer online game in one month had exceeded the projections for the money laundering for the entire year. I looked up at the Leper with a big smile. I almost declared him clean for the public on the spot but then I would have to explain and this was no time to make fun of my little genius that might turn me almost legitimate.

“You can use forty percent of the profits for redevelopment. The rest will be spread around in profit sharing for the team working on it. Bring in as many as you need that aren’t already busy.”

“How much is your cut sir?” The Leper asked dejectedly. He probably wanted all the profits for generating new content.

“The same as everyone else. I want it standard across the board.” The Leper looked up in surprise at that. “Of course the money laundering part of it won’t change.” I said hurriedly. It didn’t seem to affect him. My scramble phone rang and I looked at it nervously. Nothing good ever came from that phone and I didn’t want to ruin my good mood.

“I have to take this. Thanks for your hard work.” I said in dismissal. The Leper gathered his stuff and fled. He probably thought that his evil cousin might change his mind if he had a chance to reconsider. I dug the phone out of the locked drawer and opened it and only dimly registered that the number was unfamiliar.

“Guten Tag”

“It’s ne,” Nina said. I nearly dropped the phone. I hadn’t seen her since the last day of school and wasn’t even sure if she was alive. Relief flooded through me and muscles I didn’t know I had started to relax. Part of the evil cousin mystique banded about was in large part due to my irritation that I didn’t know what happened to Nina that day.

“Why the hell did you wait so long to call me?” I shouted before I remembered who I was talking to. There was a long silence on the other end. I opened my mouth ready to apologize.

“I was busy. The guys that gave me a lift from school have some family problems. I need a favor to help resolve the issue.”

“Sure, what do you need?” I asked and silently swelled that she actually called me for help. Nina wasn’t the kind of girl that liked relying on anyone for anything.

“Pretty standard stuff really, I need assault rifles, grenades, mortars if you can get some, and plenty of napalm. It doesn’t have to be the good stuff just make sure the delivery system is idiot proof as you can manage. Oh yeah and some high grade sniper rifles would be great and make sure all the guns have fire suppression.”

“I’d have thought you wouldn’t get involved in another family feud. You’re already elbow deep in that sort of trouble.” I said trying to lighten the mood. Her brooding tone was starting to freak me out and the hardware wasn’t something you took to a family picnic.

“Not that kind of issue. He is out of family members and that’s the issue. Check your email.” As if on cue my computer bleeped at me and I opened the email. There was no subject and no body but there was a picture. I only glanced at it so I wouldn’t spend the next minute or so rediscovering what I had for lunch.

“Where do you want the stuff and when?” It was all I could manage.

“You’ll get another email with details tomorrow along with payment.”

“I can bankroll you if you need. How about mercs? I can send you some guys.” Nina’s cavalier attitude did a number on a boy’s machismo.

“Mercenaries would bring down CIA heat, and I don’t want to burn this place as a refuge.” She said neatly without mentioning that the Smith’s would burn her haven to the ground to find her. I knew for a fact that several of the aggressive family were given high clearance in the CIA.

“Watch yourself Fritz. It was easy to get this number and your email.” She said and the phone went dead. I leaned back in my chair and struggled not to trace the call. Nina would have taken care of that but the desire to have a solid point of contact was strong. I grabbed my desk phone to call in the only two family members I trusted to give them the good news.

Nina

The virgin jungle was cleared in a matter of days and the men and women were already being trained by the Tanakas. I would have left the villagers out of it all together but it seemed unfair. It was their own country after all and I couldn’t deny them their revenge. Not for the first time I marveled at how quick and efficient the Tanaka members were. Even exiled to Brazil they had kept up their traditions and still served me as well as their ancestors served mine.

My uncle Shiro was supposed to have called by now and he was behaving rather squirrelly on the phone last we chatted. I knew he was up to something to safeguard me in the upcoming attack but I couldn’t imagine what it was. The main Tanaka force in Japan would stick out like a polar bear in the Sahara. I didn’t have time to worry about it but I hoped he wouldn’t do something stupid like use Fritz to help me in a blind email. I would just have to stay in constant contact with him to make sure. The jungle suddenly felt a little warmer and I fought down the butterflies in my stomach. I should have eaten more at lunch. Guerilla work always required more energy.

Cheetoh jogged by with a newly formed squad and I fought down the urge to tell him to cut off those orange dreadlocks again. Of course if he did I wouldn’t be sure what to call him anymore and I had forgotten his real name. An image of Fritz with orange hair came unbidden into my mind and I fought to keep the severe expression on my face. A young woman who had been staring at me in adoration screwed up her face in concern. I glared at her until she scurried off with food and water for the troops.

Fritz

My office door slammed open and my hand slid under my desk to the pistol I had there and brought it up. Grace advanced on me and I angled the gun to one side in relief. Grace was one of few I wouldn’t shoot on sight if they entered my office that way. Grace reached over the desk and pulled me out of my chair and she casually disarmed me in my shock.

“Why did you send Hans to Central America with two teams of mercenaries and enough firepower to attract the attention of every sovereign nation with an itch to hit the big red button?” I squirmed in her grip but gave up and did my best to look innocent. I really was, but I wasn’t used to it.

“The mercenaries were supposed to be in reserve for Nina. I told Hans about it but I didn’t give him orders to do anything with them.” Grace slapped her hand down on the table and released me and marched around the desk. She was casually carrying my gun in her hand and all my concentration was focused on not getting shot with my own gun. Grace started banging on my computer and I had enough time to wonder if there was a backup keyboard and mouse in the office before she pointed at the screen imperiously. Confused I peered at the screen while trying to keep an eye on Grace’s gun hand. Sure enough there was my authorization for Hans to use the forces I had allocated on standby.

“I didn’t do it. You know Hans has my clearance to expedite stuff. You do too come to think of it. He’s acting on his own initiative and I want to know why.” Grace relaxed and her face took on a worried expression.

“I tried calling him but he’s not answering either phone.” I nodded and was going to have a long hard talk with Grace and Hans about professionalism. I didn’t mind that they started dating but if it was going to get me shot every time things got sticky I would have to reconsider my position.

“I’ll contact him and let you know what I find out.”

“The hell you will,” She said in challenge. I sighed and started going through the complicated coded system me and Hans communicated in. Several text messages later Hans rang my phone.

“Your girlfriend nearly shot me because of you.” I said without preamble. A snort of laughter was my reply. “Tell me what I want to know before I have to label my own brother as a rogue.”

“Nina’s uncle contacted me through a blind. He must have hacked your email and pulled my contact info. I’m going to run interference for Nina during her operation. When I am done, nobody will care what she is up to.” I thought about this for a minute but Grace had veins pulsing dangerously.

“What if you get caught in the open?” I asked pointedly.

“I’ll be miles away. You know I don’t like the front lines. I just like to be close enough to see the carnage.” I looked at Grace and shrugged. I had the phone on speaker but she snatched it out of my hand anyways.

“If you endanger yourself or us I will personally kill you.” She snapped into the phone.

“I love you too honey. Have an apple pie waiting for me when I get back.” Grace broke the connection. Hans was certainly going to pay for that little comment. I suspected he knew it but he was probably hoping that if he did get killed it would dull the pain a little which had me worried. Grace stomped out of the office without looking back. I wondered who was going to be my go between now with the rest of the family. I sighed and started towards the door preparing in my mind how I was going to deal with The Leper when I got to his cubicle.

Nina

There was something crawling up my inner-thigh and it really tickled. I sighted down the barrel of my shiny new AX50 sniper rifle. This wasn’t easy while gripping the tree branch with my legs and resting the barrel on another branch. The house set a quarter mile from the fence still had the lights on and my target was just sitting down at his desk in the study. I checked the wind one last time and gave my scope an extra click. I fired and was rewarded with a clean hit. It wasn’t in the head like I wanted but shooting a fifty caliber bullet through someone’s neck is just as fatal. I hopped out of the tree and dug in my pants for the offending critter and crushed the life out of it. That was my second target of the night and the security wasn’t too bad. I had about half an hour at least before they would find my firing position. I jogged down the animal track and to the stream where my boat was waiting.

Fritz didn’t like my tactics of picking off the small fries first but he liked only messing with the people at the top. When it came to drugs there was always someone ready to take over. The only way to make sure it stopped was to completely eradicate the supply and everyone involved in distribution or you accomplished nothing.

When I finally arrived back at camp Cheetoh came up at a dead run. He bent over panting as I collected my gear and stared down at him expectantly.

“All the big guys have sent their families out of the country and all the shot callers are gathered at the main house to figure out what to do.” He had a broad grin on his face and a little wonder that my plan came off so well.

“How are the men?”

“They won’t shoot each other.”

“Good enough, tell them to be ready. Tomorrow night we go and get your lives back.”

I went to my hut and took a bath and washed the jungle off of me and only then did I sit and check my phone. I called Shiro first.

“I thought you didn’t like my alliance with the Germans.”

“They were useful.” Shiro said without a trace of concern.

“You disapproved of me dating one readily enough.”

“Business is one thing…”

“Don’t give me that crap. If they are good enough to die for me, they are good enough to date me. If you deal with my contacts one more time without my authorization that’s it. I will cut ties. I’m not a little girl anymore and I think the way the school went down you would appreciate that.” I hung up before I said something worse. I didn’t even really like Hans until now. I thought he wasn’t much more than a pain in the ass and I told Grace she should tell him to take a hike more than once. If he was willing to risk himself in this way though, maybe Grace was on to something. Fritz believed in him but Hans made me nervous and this operation didn’t shake that feeling.

I didn’t reply to Fritz’s email. I didn’t trust myself to. I felt ashamed that his brother was risking his life for one of my obligations. I was paying one debt just to accrue another. The vicious cycle felt like a stain I couldn’t wash away. I went back to the bathroom for another bath. I wasn’t sure if it was just jungle that was making me feel unclean.

Fritz

I was in my newly finished war room watching my brother giving CNN news anchors fits. The UN was going into special session and the President of the US was declaiming the actions of my brother while parental and religious activists were proclaiming the second coming of Christ. Video streaming sites were trying hell for leather to take down Hans’ homemade documentaries of the wanton destruction. Poppies and coca plants were burning by the thousands and paramilitary troops from the CIA’s bucket list were being slaughtered in dirty inhumane ways that the world powers found distasteful for their citizens to consume.

The true political cannon ball to the crotch was the two CIA agents killed defending the illegal plants. It was broadcast across the world before the NSA could scream national security. As much as I hate my brother’s methods he was truly a visionary when it came to misbehaving. The people were cheering him on and the establishment was creating new adjectives and nouns to describe their utter contempt.

Grace joined me and decided her namesake was inconvenient for the day and alternated between sobs and sacrificing my high dollar electronics to the God of Google in hopes to spare my brother’s life. I tried to keep her fed with small cheap devices that were easily replaced so I wouldn’t lose the news feeds I needed. The bank of televisions and computer monitors had so far escaped her wrath but I was running out of remote controls and pre pay phones. My only solace was the disturbing amount of cash dumped into my account presumably by Nina’s uncle. If it cost me my brother though, our alliance was going to be pretty hazy moving forward.

There was a decided lack of plastic and circuitry genocide for going on fifteen seconds and I spared an eye to check on Grace to make sure she wasn’t picking up anything heavier. She sat sobbing her eyes glued to the television in apparent acceptance. I took a seat beside her and threw an arm around her. She buried her face in my shoulder and I could swear she daintily wiped her nose on my suit coat but I graciously let it pass. We sat and watched and the emotions crossing our faces matched the shifting screens of the news feed.

Nina

More domestic policy should be solved with the public at large with a stockpile of mortar rounds and the politicians using the words that got them elected. The compound was close to a mile across and the security had been wiped out in the first half hour. Children were running gleefully across the back of the line with shells and machine gun rounds. I kept them out of range from the opposition’s defenses but it was an effort. Father and daughter reloading together and Mother and son sniper teams were ruling the day.

The house on the hill was now in range of the mortars and we were hitting it hard. Men wielding small arms periodically ran from cover heading to the vehicles and went down in a hail of bullets. The constant barrage of sniper fire over the past week had stripped the defenses bare of the fields and they were ablaze with the smoke curling in almost every direction.

The offensive was only about an hour and a half in and the reserves had come into relieve the first wave. Fresh enthusiastic explosives and bullets went tearing through the main house and waiting vehicles. Two walls of the main house finally buckled and whoops of joy went up. I finally called a cease fire and Cheetoh’s team and the Tanaka’s and I moved forward to clear the area surrounding the main house.

I was just clearing one of the cocaine refineries when a guy in a bloodied suit came out of a back room rushed me and knocked away my weapon and buried his knife in my forearm. He stayed close to keep others from shooting. He had one arm wrapped around my neck and a gun pressed into my neck. I pulled the knife and jammed it in his wrist holding the gun. I did it with enough force to push the gun off my nick but it still went off and the guys head exploded giving Cheetoh a brain and blood facial.

The body still managed to push me to the ground and it took a while to get out from under it. I was tying a bandage around my arm with the help of a Tanaka when I saw the look on Cheetoh’s face. He looked like a murderous clown who went off his meds with the blood and orange dreadlocks.

“That was the guy who took Machita’s wife and kids.” He said somberly but with a vicious smile cracking his lips. The blood was visible on his teeth and the scene made me wish I could be a normal girl that could throw up at such a sight. With my past and friendships it wasn’t even worth a wet burp.

Cheetoh and I clumped outside and let the rest of the team clear the last building. Cheetoh was walking with a limp. Other than us, there was only one other casualty. A boy had ran to a forward position and taken a bullet in the butt on the return trip. Last I had scene he had many of the village girls playing nurse.

“What happened to you?” I asked Cheetoh casually. He adopted a defensive posture and shrugged.

“I twisted my ankle coming through the fence.” He said sheepishly.

“Remind me to never let you train troops again.” I said with a smirk. He snorted and clapped me on the back.

“Remind me to never clear a building with you again.” I gave him a severe look that usually sent people’s skin to crawling but Cheetoh just widened his grin and slapped me on the back again. I signaled the troops forward for clean up and egress before the political puppets sent the army after us.

Fritz

Hans peeked through the door and gave me a searching look before oozing in and shutting the door quietly. Grace’s office was next door and Hans had a haunted cast to his face but his eyes were shining and I doubted I would get an apology.

“You outdid yourself this time bro.” I said mildly.

“No one knew it was me. Not even the mercenaries.” He said defensively.

“Not true, Nina’s uncle knew you did it and now he’s got something on you. You just put us at a distinct disadvantage with the Souh’s.” Hans looked abashed and penitent which was more than a little shocking. I might get that apology after all.

“So what is your punishment?”

“It’s already been carried out.” I turned the phone around and showed him the light to Grace’s office was on and she had been listening in. It was sheer coincidence that Hans walked in when he did but let him think I had the upper hand. It might even keep me from having to keep too close tabs on him. The only reason Grace had taken so long was she was probably looking for all the weapons she had stashed in her office. I had disarmed her just in case and when she came through the door and launched herself at Hans I was kind of glad I did.

I left the office skirting the walls so I wouldn’t be drawn into the melee. The Leper had a fresh financial report that would probably allow me to use the laundering money to buy out all our families’ financial interests in the next six months. Life was looking up for me. The high pitch squeal told me that Grace had Hans well in hand and the rest of our cousins had some new found respect for us. Now if I could only get my girlfriend out of firefights long enough for a date I could almost be content.

Short Story and Cell phone Blues.

2012-03-27T21:51:00.000-07:00

My Turn-ons include Napalm:

So I started trying to publish this on the Amazon Kindle for free, but apparently there is a long drawn out process that will require me to do all kinds of irritating things that still might not spur Amazon to price this short at zero. So for now the story will only be free on my blog and http://lorewriter.com/ . Hopefully one day I can complete this but for now my more enterprising readers will have to find a way to get my short on amazon without paying for it. I did turn off DRM on it and allow lending whenever possible. Please help spread the word and of course I appreciate you reading my work.

The short should be available in the next day or so here. The story has already been published on RW Herper's website at Lorewriter.com and you should feel free to check out the other works posted there.

Cell Phone Blues:

As I have discussed before with my new Android cell phone, I have run into a few issues. This is an account of what I have been able to figure out to make the phone more accessible to the nearly blind.

I found an app called Big Font which more or less makes the menu options legible for me. It doesn't really help with the icons in my app menu and doesn't do much of anything for my email and text messaging. I tried several SMS Messaging apps and most just caused my phone to blink at me with no real effect. I finally settled on the MySMS app which came with a dark theme in a seperate download which at least allows me to see who is sending me a text and I can more or less puzzle out what was said. There is a big font version as well but it isn't much bigger and the white background with black text is actually more difficult to read than the dark theme. This app also has the added benefit of allowing me to read and send texts from my computer where my adaptation software is a little more extensive. This doesn't help me in a pinch but for the ajority of time I receive texts while at home anyways.

I got stitcher up and running so now I can listen to podcasts on my phone which I have been enjoying. I haven't been able to get the Netflix app to actually work but chances are that the screen is too small for me anyway so I don't particularly care. I don't think I want to bother with the twitter or facebook apps because that might be too taxing on my eyes.

I was finally able to get all my contacts ported over to my new phone and have a app that makes that least a little bigger and I can call people largly on purpose.

That's all for now. The new short should be up in the next day or so. Thank you again for all your support.

Finally into the Blessed Darkness

2012-03-23T17:26:00.000-07:00

Sleep, Wonderful Sleep!

So after a few false starts I was finally able to catch some z's and crashed hard after ingesting a ridiculous amount of pizza and the sheer grease of the deep dish pizza gave me the effect of an induced coma. This allowed my phone to charge completely.

Battles with the Transfix phone:
Email setup WIN
Google Wallet Setup WIN
Finding the back button on the phone WIN
Changing Font size DRAW more on that later.
Netflix installed DRAW
Stitcher installed DRAW
MLB.TV installed STILL ENGAGED
Messaging Font: STILL FORMING BATTLE LINES.
Setup Voicemail: STILL FORMING UP.
Moving and Creating Shortcuts for APPS: WIN

Netflix is giving me a confusing problem. I am installed and the account is connected but when I go to start a video it starts buffering and then just stops and doesn't give me an error and the screen doesn't flip longwise and I'm not sure what to do about it. I'm curious if the app is ready for the phone since it's brand new no matter that the Android Marketplace says it's compatible.

Font size has been my main concern and given me the most trouble because if I manage to fix that the rest of the problems will be minor for my low vision issues. I have downloaded Big Font which works after a fashion but manages to be completely unsatisfactory for my uses in general. It claims that it globally increases the fonts which is true but it doesn't really increase it enough to really be all that useful. It works really well on the text in the settings menu which is nice but it doesn't really do much for the text underneath icons and the such. I have done quite a bit of researchon apps that are supose to help with this sort of thing and it appears that I will have to root my phone to do what I need to see it. I'm really wary of doing something like this and I am afraid that I could be one fatfinger away from screwing up my phone.

I downloaded a weird little app that I think will be quite cool once I have thoroughly explore it. It's called Spare Parts and it has a number of little gismos that equate to adding a ton of options to the phone. It even has another app called "Font Size" built in that usually requires that you have your phone rooted. I thought that I had found a clever way to circumvent the whole rooting process and immediately dove into Font Size feeling quite full of myself. I cranked up the global font to XXL and the option seemed to take but when I got to the menu nothing happened. I thought Big Font might be giving a conflict so I turned it off. I tried again but Font Size still didn't work. I tried running it and then restarting the phone like I saw someone do in a youtube video but that didn't work either, so I am guessing that rooting is still necesary.

Stitcher is being a little irritating because I signed up but it is whining that my email isn't on fiile so I will have to investigate that nonsense sometime today.

I've downloaded MLB.TV and I am holding off on that for a bit since the baseball season doesn't actually start for the Texas Rangers until the 6th and I primarily just want to use the app for when I am away from home.

I got a text this morning from my "answer monkey" saying that my voicemail was broken which is probably true since I haven't set it up yet so I suppose that should receive some consideration moving forward.

I'm getting a little better with the slide out keyboard and doing my best to familiarize myself with it's function. I discovered that holding shift down was problematic and all you had to do was hitit once and it would shift the next thing you hit and then revert which is a good thing to know I guess.

The miracle of figuring out which symbol stood for the back button has really been helpful and I feel less of an idiot.

My poor powered magnifier has finally gotten a full charge and I am sure I will probably run it dry by the end of the day. Hopefully I can get some of these issues resolved.

Missions
Find a way to see my phone or organize it in such a way to render the issue mute.
Find a way to get my text messages in larger print by default. I believe this can be achieved by getting some SMS enlarger.
Find this magnifying glass I heard about even though I heard it was basically useless.
Figure out how to click a link from my email.
See if I can't change the wallpaper to something a little more blind friendly instead of a sea scape that is while beautiful, rather impractical.
Get my contacts imputed into my phone.
Learn to use the Voice imput options where possible to avoid screwing with the keyboard whenever possible.
Familiarize myself with all the gizmos I already have.

Well there it is. My battle report of a blind man with his first smartphone. Stay tuned for updates of how far off the rails I am getting from working on my stories.

The technological woes of a blind man.

2012-03-22T20:10:00.000-07:00

A word of warning. I have only had one hours sleep in the past two days and I am at my most insane. My visual impairment punishes me all the worse when I am in this state and my blind spot grows larger and my patience with it is pretty thin. That's probably why I am having the issue I have right now.

I have had the same piece of crap phone for five years. It was out of date when I got it and it hasn't aged well since. I was running around with a Samsung Sync on AT&T all this time and averaging about 100 minutes a month. Why this constituted 50 bucks a month after taxes and 200 message add on I have no idea. So the Sync was finally dying a slow agonizing death and causing me no end of troubles. I come from a line of people with vivid imaginations and when I called my mother and the mic in the phone decided to pop out for a smoke, I was left yelling into the phone while my mother asked if I was being dismembered because I wasn't speaking. Two phone calls and a restart later I was able to allay her fears but it was still a horrible conversation that annoyed me.

So I finally ran over to Cricket and picked up a Sansung Transfix and took my first plunge into the new smart phone revolution. My first issue is that I needed to pull down an app just so I could see the darn thing with its small fonts. The app I had researched didn't do very good and kept pushing me to grab another app which I found annoying and it took several goes before I finally figured out how to make the stupid thing work as intended instead of being a clicky billboard. That finished and with lackluster results I turned to other spects of the phone and was trying to get a handle on some of the options to make things easier for me. That's when issue two settled in.

I went to call my guru o technia only to find that the phone wouldn't let me call out. Two hours and a phone call alter I had somehow turned airplane mode on. Airplane Mode? My old hoopty just got a nice heathy stab to the power button when I got on a plane. So now I feel like an idiot and I still haven't figured out half of what I need to know just to operate the phone as well as I did the busted one.

I neglect to mention that I am trying to use a powered magnifying glass and holding it over the screen the entire time and it is contructed in such a way as to need to lie flat in order to be in focus. So I am dealing with a fuzzy UI and trying not to jab my own fingers on the keyboard and the touchscreen the whole time and my magnifier ran out of gogo juice before I really could make any more significant headway.

I go through this stuff all the time but when it is something as fundamental as a phone it can really be a pain. With my last phone, which was far less complicated as this one, it took me a while but I managed to be able to operate it and send texts without even looking at the screen or dial pad. I could read a text and start typing back with my phone in my pocket.

I think the most frustrating thing is that I keep fatfingering the display and I haven't figured out how to go back a menu. I somehow manage to do it eventually but haven't gotten the knack of it yet. It's really good times and since I am sleep deprived there is a great deal of grunting, high pitched whining, and chest beating. I was lucky I didn't need to go to the bathroom because I might have been willing to give aerial deification tricks a try. Lack of sleep and a visual impairment can really make you go mental and the best part of being stark raving mad is that you simply don't care. Thank goodness the house was empty tonight. If I had to ask for help I might have burned a few bridges and terrified children.

Feel free to laugh at my ppain and sorrow because I sure plan to, and then go right back to it tomorrow and see if a new psychosis presents itself and tips its cap. If I keep messing with this phone I doubt it could call before it came over.

A Change of Pace

2012-03-20T17:52:00.000-07:00

I always wondered when I started writing "Prey for Vengeance" if I would be the kind of writer that just had the one series and that was it. Some of my favorite writers were this way and I didn't think there would be any shame in it if the books took off. Even when I resolve the main objectives of Nina Suoh it would be very easy for me to call forth a range of tasks for her to indulge in.

I have found however that I am increasingly abrraged with new ideas and more genre specific work that I would love to tackle once I iron out how to do a first prospective style that doesn't make me scream every time I read back over it. I spent so much time with my quick shots of multiple prospectives that when I am writing a first person narative I use far to many "I's" and it reads like I am telling the story instead of letting the reader experience it. It feels really weird being transported back to when I started my first novel and having to relearn and redefine my style all over again. I thought writing a first person would have been easier since I have been a ravenous reader most of my life and by and large, most of the books I read are first person.

The idea and creative aspects of storytelling have always come rather easy to me and even when I am doing my best to follow an outline I am able to work within the framework with a little spontaneous scenes that enhance the scene. The true struggle is keeping the technical bits down and making things read smoothly or deciphering when I have the descriptive writing down properly. I have a hard time meeting in the middle on that point and either go to far or not far enough and it sometimes creates confusion when there is a lack and when there is too much I get bored and hate editing it down.

When working to write the second novel for "Prey for Vengeance" I had very few issues with this. I banged out the entire first draft in November during National Novel Writing Month. Going through the second draft has actually been a pleasure and quite easy to edit with only a couple glaring continuity errors that are easy to fix and a few issues with details surrounding a few scenes. The overall structure is fine and requires little editing.

Since I have started on a couple different High fantasy projects, I have spent my time trying to frame the scope of the story. So many fantasy novels put the main character at odds with an unspeakable evil that palgues the land I wanted to do a snall snapshot of a particular character given an unusual task or a more personal ambition that effects just those he encounters. Doing this helps me thumb my nose at cliche and tell a more personal story. The problem I am having is that high fantasy needs lots of detail when it comes to dress, customs, architecture, plants and animal, and well, just about bloody everything. I want to tell a concise story in a genre that punishes you for it. I stand determined though and who knows what the word count will be when all is said and done.

I am still working on Prey book 2 and should have the revisions done soon and I only have to wait on my editor to see how his class schedule effects his free time. Steve Griffing, my illustrator, is working deggedly on the cover and I hope to have a title for him soon. I have a few short stories in the wings that I need to work on and my big side project "Digital Divine Intervention" will probably be my main project once Prey book 2 is out for purchase.

DDI is going to take far more research and more changes than I previously though mainly due to the first person native and because I just want to clean up the dialogue a bit in places and I am not quite happy with the antagonist and some of the religious philosophy yet. When its done I hope to have a personal tale with some thoughtful touches and its one of those projectss that might be a life's work. I'm not sure I will ever be truly satisfied with it since I do my best to transplant myself into the character and tell a story as if I was living it. It's a far cry from the character I write now that were slapped together pieces of people I knew thrown together into a series of Frankenstein monsters.

This project also keeps warping on me. I've never gone off outline more than this and the story keeps twisting and turning and when I closed in on the finish the ending didn't sound as clever as I thought. I can work on the begining and middle bits just fine but the ending is going to take some serious soul searching. It's hard to think about what would break me and push me over the edge or even put myself in a great deal of power which the character in this story does despite his wishes.

And now for something completely different,

The promotion is over and I am rather pleased with how many people picked up my book "Prey for Vengeance" for free. I'd love to receive some more feedback from random strangers. I got a text from an old friend that I used to online game with quite a bit. He told me he purchased the book when I called him and said that he couldn't put it down and even when he was working on the line he kept pulling out his phone to sneak a few sentences.

The crazy bastard works in a steel mill and catches glowing hot rods of molten steel for a living and he was doing something quite dangerous to read a sentence or to and I would be hard pressed to find a better compliment.

I'm hoping to figure out a way to get some ads going on Google Adsense soon and should be receiving my Press release around the end of the month. In a week or so my short "My Turn ons Include Naplam" should be going up on the Amazon Kindle. I'll start digging through the internet for blogs and podcasts to send the press release with a prmo copy of the book and hopefully get a little alternative press. If you are a shot caller on such a site and would like to interview me please send the request to thischrisdodson.blogspot.com and I shall answer directly.

Thank you to all of you that has read my book and made the effort of giving feedback. It's a big world out there on the internet with millions clambering for your attention and I appreciate hearing an answer when I am shouting into the void.

Let the Amateur Marketing Commence

2012-03-17T17:32:00.000-07:00

Well it's been a little more than a month since I released by debut novel and I have learned a lot. For one thin, you can't expect people to find your work just because it exists. I suppose I already knew that but there is always the suspicion that you will get discovered and win the lottery no matter how stupid you know your being. In the past month I have done a ton of marketing research and come to a few realizations.

One thing that I heard from the "Writing Excuses Podcast" was that you can't expect to have a following after one novel or even a few. One of the hosts himself came from a self publishing background and gave away his material for free for six years prior making his living through writing. I also have read many author's blogs I found through Twitter asserting the same thing.

In response to this I used the Promotion available through the Kindle Direct Publishing tool and put my book out for free for five days. There are still a few days left but I am already happy with how many people have grabbed the book. Hopefully I can get some feedback out of it and get some recognition when I come out with more stuff.

I'm gearing up to do some paid advertising soon and my hopes are high but my expectations are cynical. There's seems to be a theme going on with being a first time writer, one of discovery and trepidation.

Soon I should have my short story "My Turn ons Include Napalm" up for free on the Amazon Kindle and hopefully it can drive sales as well.

Lastly is that credibility seems to come with the more works you put out there so I need to keep my nose to the grindstone and keep plugging away on the material I am working on.

I thank those that have helped me along. The list keeps growing and I appreciate all the wise words and selfless actions.

"Prey for Vengeance" for FREE!

2012-03-13T14:45:00.000-07:00

It's time for A Consumer's Vengeance!

Pick up "Prey for Vengeance" staring March 14th for free. This promotion will last until March 19th. Get your chance to pick up my debut novel for free and check out my new short story "My Turn-ons Include Napalm" on http://lorewriter.com also for free.

Take advantage of your opportunity to see all my published works without any investment. Please leave comments and feedback and tell me what you think.

The Short story is up!

2012-03-13T12:31:00.000-07:00

My short story "My Turn-ons Include Napalm" is now available at http://lorewriter.com .

The story takes place a little after the novel "Prey for Vengeance" ends, but it works well as a stand alone story as well. I tried to be sneaky as I refer to events from the novel but without actually giving details as to what happens so it doesn't ruin the novel for you. Check it out and let me know what you think.

What happens when your villian in some way becomes your hero?

2012-03-12T18:32:00.000-07:00

        I have been pondering this for quite some time. Writing "Prey for Vengeance" really challenged my ability to roll with the punches and left me with some serious decisions about the integrity of my outline. As a first time author I was inspired by many of my favorite authors interview's where they stressed that your first novel is going to be terrible. I took great pains to buck the trend. I did all the professionally things like wrote an outline and story boarded scenes in my mind before tapping a key. I rewrote the first chapter over a dozen times to get the wording right. I sent copies to anyone who would read it and got their take on how they felt about specific situations in the book. I was pretty confident with the results but unfortunately that is only the beginning of the problem.
           When outlining I had a set evil villian character set as American child. My problem when writing this part was the child in question who I wanted to pin the sins of entire nation on, really didn't fit a normal American teenager when I was done with him. I was left scrabbling for a antoginistic character for my female heroine and when I really got down to it a male just didn't fit the bill.
        Here was one of my biggest problems. My story is filled with strong confident females that can kick ass and take names because I have a healthy respect for the fairer sex. I grew up with a strong mother and equally capable pair of sisters that could get one over on me without apparent effort.
      So as a male how do I write strong female characters that are both positive and negative archetypes. Well the long and the short of it was that I couldn't. Instead my antagonist was a variation on the protagonist but with a widely diverging background and goals. In essence I cheated like mad to tweak a simple personality and assigned personality traits that fit the experience.
      When I managed to accomplish this and it read true in my mind I threw it at people and begged for feedback and so far I haven't heard any screaming or gnashing of teeth.
       Here's my probem though, if my protagonist and antonist are basically the same person and neither are inheritantly evil, how do I honestly write the antagonist as a negative. So far my solution has been to take a page from some Japanese cartoons and pit them against each other as rivals and make the their problems personal as opposed to that of the main plot outline, but is that a real solution and will that come back to bite me early on? My main fear is that I might be too subtle and no one will pick up on it at all and the only place this is a problem is in my own head.
        In order for me to investigate this further I am going to write a stand alone story with the antonist as the main character and involving no other people from the regular story line, and use it as an exercise to explore this more deeply. If I can carry it off and the story makes sense for me to do so I will release it as free material. If not I will keep pounding on it until I can hammer out something.
         My first instinct was to kill off this character at the end of the first book but one of my readers' (Steve Griffing also my illustrator) begged me to keep her in. I honestly thought Nina could easily find a bigger fish to fry, but as the story took shape and Violet cemented herself into my heart I just couldn't do it anymore and I couldn't think of a good reason for her to die. So it was no difficulty at all to make the people in charge of her more sinister and evil and keep her alive. If Violet met me today in real life she would undoubtedly kill me without a seconds remorse and I can't say I would blame her.
        If your still sticking with me through all this I thank you. I just needed to put this down so I could work something through my head before I started this project. I appreciate all the time and effort invested by my readers and collaborators on my work. Feel free to leave comments or send me emails with questions and comments about the book or anything else.

Upcoming Events

2012-03-11T20:04:00.000-07:00

     I have recently appeared on The Otaku Momentum Podcast episodes 83a, 83b, and 84. Neokage the leader of that rowdy bunch has been very kind to let me spout off and let me get in shameless plugs. I again visited their ranks this weekend and the episode is currently available at http://an.132productions.com/2012/03/11/explicit-the-otaku-momentum-bonus-ep-the-quest-for-content/. I should also be appearing on episode 105 of the No Prisoners No Mercy Podcast in the next week or so. My own podcast 2 Lazy 2 B Otaku Podcast episode 74 is out at http://2lazy2botaku.com . A quick warning, I tend to do lots of swearing and general inappropriate commentary when I podcast. It's cheaper than therapy and anger management classes.
Hopefully in the next week or so my new short story "My Turn Ons Include Napalm" a Prey for Vengeance story should be up on http://lorewriter.com/ with the venerable R.W. Harper's blessing. Mr. Harper is still editing the story for best website presentation and is a vary busy man so I will wait patiently for his verdict.
         I have a friend putting together a press release for me and the timeline on it is a little sketchier. She is also working on a wedding for two of the hosts of The Otaku Momentum Podcast and it's cruch time. I again will wait patiently because the help I am receiving is being paid with a little gratitude and good will.
       I have joined the Linked-In website and still feel a little out of my depth. I've been lucky to know some people already hooked in but if you are interested in networking with me I'm sure I can bring something to the table. If nothing else you can come on my podcast and promote.
       I appreciate your patience and thank those of you who have been screaming for more of my content. It does the heart good to connect at such an early stage in writing.

Why my eyes itch

2012-03-10T12:30:00.000-08:00

           I have a new thing to add to my list of things that cause me trouble with my visual imapirment. As a person suffering from Star Gardt's disease I spend the greater part of my life trying to circumvent my shortcomings. Simple tasks such as shaving require concentration and a seperate set of skills from the majority of humanity.
        This has also carried over into the writing process for me. Writing a story doesn't require much except a program called Zoomtext which magnifies a portion of the screen and scrolls with the text that I am writing. Where things get really interesting is when I go back to revise my work and proof read. Since I have no central vision and I look at the world out of the corner of my eye so to speak, I have to slow the editing process down to an absolute crawl. Each letter has to be carefully scrutinized even with spell check. This is especially true to proper names that spell check doesn't usually pick up on. A few pages of revising and I literally feel an itch and sometimes a pulsing across the surface of my eyes. The tricky part is to know when to stop and avoid the piercing headache that this work inevitably produces. It isn't uncommon for me to have to take a thirty minute nap every couple hours just to let the muscles in my eyes to relax. The process is usually done at a one of the higher settings in my adaptive software and the curse is that the higher the magnification the more I lose my place in the text.
         All frustrations aside it's very rewarding to find a creative outlet for me to explore. I largely taught myself to play the trumpet when I was in midle school an achievement I was quite proud of. I hit a wall with try to read sheet music with my visual impairment and as the musical pieces got longer they became harder for me to memorize. I eventually abandoned the trumpet and have spent the intervening years searching and struggling to find a way to explore my creative side and it appears that writing fiction is finally combining all the things I need to adapt and overcome my disability.
        I still have a lot to learn and I have appreciated all the advice and those who have taken time out of their busy lives to help me along and I will always be grateful to them. I only hope that the enjoyment of writing will one day outshine the enjoyment of others reading my material.

Onwards and Upwards!

2012-03-08T12:43:00.000-08:00

         It's nice to see that so many of you have found my blog. I haven't bothered learning to use most of the doo dads that the service on this site provides so I was surprised when I actually bothered to click on the stats tab. Feel free to leave comments or if you have questions you can always feel free to email me at thischrisdodson@gmail.com.
         My short story is finished and I have sent it to the illustrious R. W. Harper from http://lorewriter.com/ . He agreed to take a look at it next week after he returned from GDC (Game Developer's Conference). I hope that it meets with his approval and goes up on the site smoothly. Once there I will wait a couple weeks before posting both here and for free on the Amazon Kindle. I wanted to show a sign of respect to Mr. Herper for taking an interest in my work and allowing me to present some of my work on his site. The short story was his idea and I want to give credit where it's due. Being he is a professional writer himself, I really look forward to his feedback.
         Moving forward I have started revision on the first draft of the Prey for Vengeance series book two. I have a few working titles but having settled on one as yet. I have revised and sent a total of four chapters off to my editor all of which were returned in record time. At this rate I should have the final draft in a few months. Edward Walerius, my editor has been working on his own book and I have been trying to do my part to offer help where I may. Ed is a smart cookie and has sent his work to quite a few people and getting some good feedback. I have his first two chapters staring at me and they will be the next thing I tackle after this post.
         It was a nice surprise to receive some work from Ed and I am grateful for all the editing work he has done for me. It's really nice to know that I will be able to return the favor. I knew he had it in him and it's exciting to see him spread his wings.
        My cover artist Steve Griffing is starting the concept art stage for the comic version of "Prey for Vengeance" and I a am really excited to see what he comes up with. The whole reason this novel got started was so he could adapt it into a comic and I am glad to see Steve is up to the challenge. Since the novel was in it's final stages he started working on his own story and another comic idea, only this time he will be doing the writing himself.
         It's so exciting to see what had started as friends playing a online video game together become a den of creative ideas. When we left the game and Steve and I moved to different states I was concerned that we might grow apart. Since then we have carried on the frienship and grown together with my friends in Ohio and started a podcast ( www.2lazy2botaku.com ) and from that sprang forth a need to create some more traditional media but with a distinctly modern twist.
          In my 33 years I never thought things would turn out this way and for the first time in my life I have a rather positive outlook. It's a little scary to be upbeat as a life long cynic, but I am doing my best to remain tentatively cheerful for the time being.

Companion Short for "Prey for Vengeance."

2012-03-03T09:41:00.000-08:00

      As I have stated in a previous post I started work on a short story as a companion to the "Prey for Vengeance" novel. In it we will find two major characters in the novel about two weeks after the first novel ends. I have submitted my final draft to my friend and editor Ed Walerius and to my illustrator Steve Griffing and already gotten some feedback.
        This was my first shot at short fiction and I wanted to do it right. According to Wikipedia a short story is a work that is 7,500 words or less and I regret I was using that as a ceiling and forgot the basic point of short fiction which is to say as much as you can with the fewest amount of words. I finished my first draft and it was well over six thousand words. When I was going over the first draft I wasn't satisfied with the word choice and unecesary sentences. The problem was so wide spread that I thrashed the first draft and re-wrote the whole thing. My second attempt ran just over four thousand words and got straight to the point. I sent it off before even performing a spell check I am ashamed to admit now but my good friends somehow looked past my indiscretion and dutifully read it immediately and gave me some minor points to reword or rephrase.
       My main concern about the content itself was that it be consistent with the novel and that the characters would do something not because I wanted them to, but because it was something it was in their nature to do. I thought it necessary for the side characters in this series to really take on a life of their own despite not having their prospective involved. I did my best to continue this in my short story and even dial it up a notch. I will be releasing this for free along with some sample chapters of my novel. Mr. R.W. Harper has graciously said that he would consider hosting them on Lorewritter.com and has given me some guidance on how they should be presented to which I am eternally thankful. It was a really good day when I heeded Sister Julie and Sister Fran's advice from the No Prisoners No Mercy Podcast when they suggested that I drop Mr. Harper a line.
          I hope to get my short story back soon from Ed Walerius, but he has a rather busy schedule with school and I must allow for that since he edits my material out of the kindness of his heart. I hope I will be able to post it soon so that I can share my work with all of you.

Chris Dodson

Book aftermath

2012-02-26T02:53:00.000-08:00

     So the books out and I have been in a wild rush to figure out how to promote it. I of course did a bonus podcast on the 2 Lazy 2 B Otaku feed. http://www.2lazy2botaku.com/archives/948 I did a guest appearance on The Otaku Momentum on episode 84 and shamelessly plugged my book. http://theotakumomentum.info/2012/02/20/20120220.aspx I will be appearing in episode 105 of the No Prisoners No Mercy podcast as well. http://www.virginworlds.com/podcast.php?show=26&ep=103 I have been taking advice from all corners including reading articles I have seen linked on twitter from other authors who were really nice to follow me back and even pop in with a note from time to time. One of the members of the Otaku Momentum (Midori) is even now putting together a pres release for me which I thought was awfully nice of her. The wonderful ladies from the No Prisoners No Mercy podcast suggested that I talk to R.W. Harper from Lorewritter.com. I did so and Mr. Harper gave me the wonderful idea to write a companion story to my novel to give people a satisfying taste of the world I have created and a nice highlight to the characters I have introduced into this world. I am currently four thousand words into the story and about two thirds away from completing the first draft. My only concern is trying to get my ever busy editor to get a look at it before I have the second novel for him to work on. Let it be said that I came to Mr. Harper with a request to post sample chapters of my book and shamelessly exploit the traffic on his site to get them to buy my book. I would have felt him well within his rights and wouldn't have thought any less of him if he had turned me down. Instead he gave me some brilliant advice and was nothing but a nice guy and even managed to work in a little mentoring.
        I have felt more than a little blessed by all the people who have touched my life as a result of this book. It's threatening to make me reconsider my cynicism towards mankind. Even before the book sold the first copy I have been riding a high that has left my brain in a fog. I've had a hard time concentrating on working on writing and marketing the book so overwhelmed I have been by all the thoughtful and insightful help I have received. Maybe it's not such a terrible old world after all.
        I got my first review on Amazon the other day from one of our podcast listeners (Aaron). Aaron messaged me to let me know he purchased the book and was reading it and even gave me a few tweets along the way to let me know how he felt. Afterwards he told me that he loved the book and I asked him if he wouldn't mind leaving me a review. I was surprised and grateful to see that he gave me a five star review but didn't stop there. He went on to give a very comprehensive review that was flattering and very kind. To know that someone I don't personally know would go out there and give me such a wonderful review touched me in a way I don't think could ever be topped.
         When I was in high school in my junior year I won the medal in Speech class saying that I was the finest student in school. I also received a certificate nothing that I was in the top 10% of my class in the subject. Even with those honors, the next morning my father got up before six AM and stumbled down the hall to my room and opened my door and called my name. When I responded his words of eternal encouragment were "You know you won those awards because your good at shooting your mouth off." His echoing laughter down the hallway was what I heard while I tumbled into a sleepy incredulous rage.
        I'm glad to say that he vindicated himself this year when I called to let him know my book was out. Once you publish on the Kindle store it can take about twelve hours t apear in the store. I had posted and gone to bed. When I called the next day it had only been out for a couple hours. When my mother answered her phone she immediately commented on the acknowledgment I had paid them at the begining of the book before I could even mention that the book was out. My father had been checking to see if the book was out all this time and had been my first customer. He has since finished the book and even gave me some favorable feedback. It's always nice to do your parents proud. The thing that I think I loved most was when he said that he had lost himself in the book. My father has been reading novels since I was a child and the bathrooms in our house were always littered with paperbacks. Besides being a nice toilet paper replacement in an emergency all those books lying around the house are a nice reinforcement when my father complimented my work.
          That's all for now. I got a ton of work to do and I can't sit here reveling in my own self proclaimed glory. If writing has taught me anything it's that it's hard and just because you tell a good story it doesn't mean it's gonna get read unless you have some marketing behind it so that people know it exists.

The book is out!

2012-02-18T02:13:00.000-08:00

Well the book finally came out for purchase on Valentine's day! I have had friends and family congradulate me all round. Now the real struggle begins as I attempt to do some grass roots marketing on a low budget. I'm not sure how I will be able to do it but I always have friends around that are more than willing to lend a helping hand.

I was able to involve myself with the KDP Select program which allows Amazon Prime users to borrow the book for free. Thus far I have sold books but no one has actually borrowed the book yet. As I am not a Amazon Prime user myself I am unsure of how the Owner's Lending Library works. At least I have a free option for new readers and I am glad for its availability.

I have already done a bonus podcast for the 2lazy2botaku.com site and the title of the podcast will be 2lazy2bpublished. In it I discuss with my illustrator and editor how the book got started and all the stages in between until the book was published and the background as to how the story took shape. I also go into the detail of the painstaking work that goes into preparing a manuscript for Kindle publishing. It wasn't anything too difficult but I did have some slogging through help forums to do. I'm sure publishers require an even higher standard. The conversion to the .mobi format took a bit and I got some real headscratching problems that didn't fall into FAQ territory, but I was able to muddle through just fine.

The first draft of the second book is already finished and part of the book has already been edited. I hope to get back to it and have it out sooner than the first book as far as time frame. With my attention on trying to promote the first book and researching how to do it successfully I haven't really been able to concentrate on writing much. I hope I am able to do a good job and get lots of feedback so I can further refine my style.

That's al for now. I have to descend into the dregs of social media hell and do a lot of shouting and hope somebody will hear me. Maybe I can make some new writer friends along the way. I think I would like that.

Final Read Through and Beyong

2011-11-11T15:14:00.000-08:00

        I've finally finished my final read through and have sent it over to Ed my editor for his final approval for the first book of "Prey For Vengeance." Steve has started work on the front cover and things are looking really good. It's been a year since I started this project and I am eager to get this first book off the ground and start posting sample chapters for the reading public. It's really gratifying to finally get a life goal ticked off the list and I have found that I have a ravenous need to write even more. I've been going over everything that I have written thus far on the second book in the series and I am close to half way done. I have been sending things along to poor Ed so I don't overwhelm him with one big book when I finish the draft. Unfortunately Ed is mired in school so i just ended up dumping chapter after chapter in his lap without him having the time to go over them. Once I finish the second book and am left sitting stwittling my thumbs I'll probably take a stab at my side project again ("Digital Divine Intervention") and see how I can tighten up the story. I got a little ambitious with the scope of the book much in the same way I did with PFV. In PFV however I got caught up in the multiple prospective style which cause havoc with continuity and being forced to give the same information in a condensed form with a different prospective and make it still seem fresh.
       My new book I went a little crazy with grandiose events and had to try and seat them in a believable reality. I also tackled some religious questions and avoided others a bit too pointedly. Hopefully I can keep a little of the philosophy and not lose the humor. It's a tightrope I am walking with this book and one wrong move would be a great slip of responsibility to my reader. I've already written around 60,000 words in this story and it will take a two book approach. It's pretty simple cause and effect. Watching the utopia form and then watch come crashing down around the main characters ears in a blaze of glory. I'm hoping the blending of complex themes with basic primal response will lend some weight to the "savage civilian approach to my writing style.
         I'm finding in my writing that I want to explore the primal nature and show how it doesn't work in a civilized world. I surround my characters in complicated events and try to show that underneath it all it's our basic needs that drive us and nothing quite as honorable as we like to believe. We like to couch our behavior into some exagerated ideal but mostly it always seems to biol down to some sort of selfishness and some how I feel it defines humanity and the addition to consciousness makes it somehow a little more profain.
        Well that's about enough of the ramblings of a sleep deprived author. Hopefully next time I will be able to announce a release date and show Steve's artwork. I'm almost looking more forward to his growth in creativity more than my own.

The Edit is Done!

2011-10-25T21:22:00.000-07:00

        I have received my book back from my editor and now am doing a final readthrough. Some of the edits I did left double commas and other punctuation errors and I'm reading it through again to make sure everything is clear and can be understood by my readers.
        I'm really excited about releasing my first book and I only have a few hurdles left to overcome. I have my artist friend doing a mock up of the cover art so we can brainstorm the look and colors. I need to tweak my acknowledments and make sure I have all my footers in the right place. The final document has gone through multiple incarnations of file extension giving a format a hairy ride so I have been double checking to make sure everything is in the right place. Once I get everything just so I will be dropping the book in ePub and hope the formatting doesn't go wonky again. Once I have the final product done I will post the first five chapters on this site so I can give everyone a chance to read the start of the book and I hope that it will give you readers a reason to purchase it.
          This process has left me tired and I have been getting chronic headaches but it hasn't detered me. I am about a third of the way through the first draft of the second book in this series and have a few scenes written in the third book. I have a couple side projects going that have also kept me busy while I waited for the edit to come back. Hopefully I will have more on those soon.

Chris Dodson

Moving at a snail's pace

2011-09-06T18:57:00.000-07:00

So things are starting to move forward again. My editor has sent me back chapters five through seven and we have completed the final revisions of all but chapter seven. In a few weeks I will probably release the first five chapters as a sample before the release of the book. This quite an exciting time for me and I hope people enjoy the story I plan to tell.

I also have a new project in the works. It's completely different from the series I will be releasing unter the title of "Prey for Vengeance." The new book is quite a bit more personal since the main character will be closely mirroring my own life in many ways. That's where my personal experience diverges from the characters enviroment. The main character is working on a device to provide much faster internet speed. There is only one problem. He accidentally hacked into God's internet. The fallout with this causes him to stuck between God and country and his own desire to provide a ecological and cheap way to access information at the speed of light. Ideals die quickly as reality set in however and our plucky protagonist is getting grief on all sides which challenge his sense of practicality. I'm roughly 70 pages in now and it has been a real treat writing this story. It probably has something to do with it being one of my teenaged power fantasies made tangible. If I had a genre, I think this might be it. In a world full of bitter disappointment. sometimes you just want to win out on something important. It's all just a story about how I trumph against a world that's out to get me, but making it tangible somehow gives it a reality all its own. Come along with me on our journey to change the world without all the variables that could screw it all up.

Chris Dodson

Off to get opinions.

2011-06-24T09:21:00.000-07:00

I've finally finished the edit! I have sent out a few copies to friends, and one off to my poor editor to pour red ink all over the pages. I hope to get it back in a few days with some notes. So far it's looking like I will be posting the book on the Amazon Kindle store and on the B&N nook. I hope to have it out soon. The series will be titled "Prey for Vengeance". The working title for the first book is "The Price of Young Love". I'll post here when it is officially out. When the book is ready for release I will post a sample chapter here on the blog so you can get a sneak peak.

Still editing

2011-06-10T07:36:00.000-07:00

So I am about half way through final revisions of the book. I have been quite dogged in this experience. I have found it strange how my usual procrastinated nature has been subdued in the face of this project. Most of the time I tend to get side tracked on new projects, but even with me doing the 2 Lazy 2 B Otaku podcast, I have been able to keep up with the shows I need to watch to review and still keep pounding out the edit.
I think I have found the process of editing, irritating as it is, is far more preferable to the marketing that I will have to plunge through to get the book e-published. I don't relish the time I will need to start trying to alert people to the book. I haven't firmly embraced the social media sites yet, and I fear that I am going to have to wade into it, doing my best not to get swarmed by spammers.
If nothing else, I can finally cross writing a book off my bucket list. The pride I feel of bringing something into the world of my own creation gives me a feeling that is unmatched by any other experience. I can't wait to bring this work to the masses and hope that I can reach people with the story I am still crafting.

Chris Dodson