So, now for the first week following the end of a story, we’ll be posting the story in full as usual. Then, the week after that, I’m going to post about what the next story will be, and use that post as the link on the front page of the site where I track percentages. That way you guys have an idea of what will be coming! So without any further delay, let’s talk about next week’s story!

Because of Alice in Wonderland coming back into our lives, I’ve been thinking a lot about making a story in a fantastical world of nonsense. It’s had me thinking in nonsense a lot, which is quite fun, if I do say so myself (and I do). So next Tuesday we will begin part one of Adventures Through The Window,  a fun twist of Lewis Carroll’s titles.

In this story, young James feels like he is just another face in a large school until a mysterious substitute teacher takes an interest in him. Despite his cautious nature, James can’t help his curiosity when he happens to see the man walk through a large glass window on his way home from school one day! Unable to stop himself, James finds himself following his new teacher into a world unlike anything he’s ever experienced. To get back out again, James must not only find his way, but find himself as well.

Samantha made this from scratch!

Well I attempted to write this yesterday, you know, on my birthday, but things kept coming up. It was a great day! For me, birthdays are what New Years is to others. It’s a time to look at what you’ve accomplished this year, and using what you’ve learned to make the next year better. This year, it was mostly about writing for me.

I realized that I haven’t done a writing update in awhile while I was thinking about what this coming year will mean to me as a writer. I’ve gotten behind on it. First of all, The Forest Awakens jumped up to 100% on my editing goal. It’s pretty good, grammatically speaking. The rejections I’ve gotten from agents have made me look at it under a new microscope though. They all like my writing, they all like the story idea, but they all also said they didn’t connect with the main character enough.

I’ve more or less come to the inevitable question that most writers probably go through. My assassin book has been sitting at about 20% completed on the backburner while I edited TFA, and now I have to decide if I want to work on the changes to my YA novel that agents have suggested, or if I want to put it aside for now and finish my new book?

Currently I’m leaning toward another draft of The Forest Awakens. It would be a big draft, basically rewriting many parts of it, although most of the current material doesn’t need to be cut, just have more added to it. We shall see over the next couple days, while I have a podcast to finish anyway.

Happy (now late) Birthday to meeeee!

Make sure to join us next week for the start of story #6, I have some interesting ideas for it. As always, I hope you enjoy the story!

Right Click to download the full MP3! (33:33)

I use “was” and “had” on purpose, the Rapture in the game takes place after the city, and her people, have begun breaking down. Genetic mutants rule the city now, with a little manipulating of course.  That’s what Bioshock does best, after all, the manipulating leaders who are always more than a little crazy.

The sequel has a new twist to it, now you are one of the Big Daddy’s from the previous game. With it comes some nice upgrades. Now you can dual wield your plasmids and your weapons. This was the first really great improvement over the last game. The second I found came with the hacking system. It’s simpler, and less repetitive, but it will also get your pulse racing a little bit when you mess up, and it’s much easier to mess up now.

The biggest improvement is the new creative strategy scenarios. In Bioshock 2 you really get to set up your battles much better than in the first. On top of that, you have a whole new set of weapons that will set many different sorts of traps for your enemies to walk through. You can really lay out where people will come from by looking around, and then plan your battles accordingly.  It’s fantastic.

And then there are the Big Sisters. These are just crazy. They are, at the very least, much  faster and stronger than you are. You know when you’re going to have to fight them though, so again you can plan ahead and setup some defenses. If you like the strategy of a good shooter you’ll like this, it’s not your every day run-and-gun, it takes some thought. This game is definitely worth checking out.

As always, thanks for listening!

It could be said that I’m on the “right path” to publishing a book. That could mean nothing of course, but if you look at the writer checklist (didn’t know there was one? Muahaha welcome to the crazy) then the argument could be made that if I stick with it I’m bound to sell a book. Let’s examine then, shall we?

1. Write a book – Indeed, this is an important step toward publishing. You could add plotting, creating characters, and all that if you’d like, but this is more or less the start. You have a finished book, what to do with it? This was the first thing I got right. Woo!

2. Set aside said book – My book was terrible. I loved it, don’t get me wrong, it was a great feeling to read it. But it was terrible and I put it away in a folder (where it’s still sitting). Hurray, I completed step two.

3. Writer another book using skills learned the first time – I happened to have another story to tell. You know, it was one of those “What a GREAT idea!” moments. Well skipping all the juicy bits, I wrote another book. I was on the right track and didn’t even know it at the time.

4. Edit, edit, edit, then get someone better to edit – I have the supreme pleasure, and the slight terror, of having a wife that is far better at editing than I am. After 4 drafts there was no page of my manuscript that didn’t have marks from top to bottom. You don’t need to research publishing to guess this step is important!

5. Discriminate against agents and test the waters – Yup, you heard me. Choose your top 10 agents then send your query to 5 others. Or better yet, attend a conference and try those agents first (which is what I did). You keep your top 10 list, you’ll see why in a second.

Send out those first 5 queries, wait patiently for your rejections, and hope for some tidbits as to why. My responses were dead on (that’s why they’re agents). “The prose is good and you do a fine job setting the scene (always take the compliments where you get them!), but I felt a bit removed from your main character, Colby.” That’s a direct quote from one, the others said the same, but not as clear. One good, detailed response out of 5 is GOOD luck. Now you know what’s missing and you know what these agent’s were looking for. Fix these things, then fix up your query to show other agents that you’re strong in that area (note: that’s show NOT tell). Most agents want at least a few pages. Make them stronger.

6. Write another book and keep submitting – Here is where you wait, and show your persistence. Almost every single published author has stories of rejections. Your book very well may not find an agent. Maybe the market isn’t ready for it. Maybe it’s not very good. Maybe you just aren’t ready for it. Write because you want to tell stories and each book you write will be better than the last. Patience and Persistence.

What do you think, agree or disagree? I’ve found it to be pretty accurate in the fantasy genre.

As a side note, today I fixed a problem somebody mentioned with the iTunes podcast feed. The problem is resolved and the feed is working again, sorry about that! Click here if you have iTunes and want to see our podcast listing. There is also a link to it on the blog sidebar.

As always, I hope you enjoy the story!

My grandfather, Charles Ringler, founded the award. So it’s extra fun for my family to get to go. We take up about three tables in all (alright, about 2 1/2!). My grandmother always sits with the family of whoever is getting the award. It was fun getting to meet McCoy’s parents and grandparents this year. They were so very friendly. Unfortunately, Charles wasn’t able to come because of his health. But McCoy and Fouts spent part of the day with him before coming tonight, also very nice of them.

Colt McCoy of UT won the award this year. He seemed like a really nice guy. A lot of people I’ve seen get this award came across arrogant, but he didn’t at all. I guess that’s what comes from growing up in a small TX town, go Texas! Dan Fouts, retired player from the Chargers, won the Legends award, and his speech was absolutely hilarious. This award you DEFINITELY see arrogance during, but Fouts gave a good speech and didn’t come across that way at all. All around, it was great fun. Here’s a picture of my family all dressed up before we left.

One of of the best things about going to this thing every year, despite the fun of getting to dress all fancy and meet professional athletes of course, is the food. MMMMMmmmmmm! This year was delectable as always, but the desert is always the most fun. This year it was orange cheesecake on a crazy-rich chocolate crust, I looove cheesecake, have I mentioned, love it. See picture below for mouth watering goodness.

P.S. Sorry about the feed problems the last couple days, if anyone noticed. Was tinkering with the blog and, of course, I should have left well enough alone. Fear not, for I have fixed what should not have been broken!

I have a lot to share with you guys since I haven’t had the time to post much lately. It’s important to me that we keep the podcast episodes coming consistently for you guys, but that means some of the in-between posts get pushed aside at times. I think things are calming down now though.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

This week’s story changes to the viewpoint of the archer, Owyn Dest. Just when he think maybe he’s followed a bit too far, he finds Keilly ushering him to lead for a change. Being a man of Owyn’s experience, he has his suspicions.

As always, thanks for joining us!

Download this episode

It was fun getting to root for Drew Brees since we went to the same high school. Not like we were friends or anything, I just think it’s kinda fun. I was a total geek in high school. Certainly not out partying with the football players. Shocking right? The fantasy writer was a geek in school?

Even if I’m not all that into football, this game was crazy fun to watch.  Both quarterbacks did a phenomenal job. Good times. I didn’t see the interception coming, but what timing!

The streets of New Orleans are going to be partying it up for quite awhile I’m guessing. Especially with Mardi Gras coming up soon! Congrats Saints!

As always, I hope you enjoy the story. Feel free to leave your ideas in the comments and help guide the story.

The World (top row): Dragon Age took a traditional Tolkien world of races: Human, Dwarves, Elves; and all those bad guys of course. The screenshot  on the left is from the Dwarven city. What’s cool about the world in this game specifically is the detail of each race choice. When you start the game you are thrown into the midst of 6 very cool stories. On top of that, each race has very serious political and racial tensions, and you can easily change the story by taking one stance or another. I’ve never felt so guilty playing an evil character before. I even went so far as to quit playing the evil dwarf path because I felt like a real bastard, it’s fantastic.

Dragon Age truly begins once you leave your home, for a number of excellent reasons based on who you play of course, and venture out into the world. Here is when you really start to see what the High Fantasy genre has done to video games. The two biggest themes I saw in this game came from two series, The Songs of Fire and Ice (by George R. R. Martin) and The Wheel of Time (by Robert Jordan). In the game, Gray Wardens (ahem, warders?) are an elite force who must save the world. You guessed it, you must join the Gray Wardens.

The Characters (bottom row): The people you meet in the game are the best example of the new age of RPGs. I mentioned above that I thought they took lots of hints from the high fantasy genre, and I’ll emphasize it even more here. Characters are what high fantasy is all about. The depth you get to know people in this game make you care about each and every one of them, for better as often as worse. The interactions between them is hilarious, and the voice actors make it all even better still.

Even characters you don’t get control over have distinct personalities. You end up hating or rooting for most of them as well (Bann Teagan comes to mind). If you only play this game for the interactions between characters, you will still absolutely love this RPG. I would definitely recommend trying it out if you are into fantasy (which you should be, if you are on my blog, right?!).

Oh yeah, and be blown away by this video, I recommend viewing it in HD.