This has been a good year for me. I’ve made three story sales. I’ve written many stories that I’m happy with, and created the Nine Roads world/magic system. I’ve begun laying groundwork for what will probably be a series of novels. I’ve also made some great new friends and managed to help some of them with some problems with my other, long-unused set of skills. My only wish is that I could have everyone I care for with me at this time but, you can’t have everything.

So instead I want to wish everyone a very merry, happy and safe Christmas…I hope you do have everyone you care for around you.

In other news, since the revisionary part of my mind refuses to function, I think I will start that giant monsters story instead…

There’s a whole cast of crazy, intriguing and deeply messed up characters, although only the most central receive full development. The narrative is not always told in chronological order, but the shifts are generally easy to follow, especially once you realize what’s happening. The pace is quick and yet little is resolved until very near the end…and even then, some character’s fates are never really known, and the ending is quite open. I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of Katja. The short chapters and frequent cliffhangers keep you turning the page, even though you know the next chapter probably won’t contain the resolution of the last cliffhanger, making this a most unique and enjoyable reading experience. I highly recommend it.

http://www.severedpress.com/

Now it is time to go into revisionary mode for a bit. Crits are in for “Lost and Found” and there are still those tweaks I wanted to make on “Guardian of the Green Node” and a few very small polish points for “A Destroyer, A Protector” before I send it off to IGMS (given their positive rejection of “The Open Hand.”

Also high on the list is the continuation of work on my novel-project. I have a few character outlines…I know the major threat, the crux of the story…and one subplot. But that’s about it. Especially, I have no idea where to start, nor even who will be the central character or protaganist. Mostly, I’m going to keep creating characters for those specific roles I know of (The Nine Chromas, and the nine assasins hired to rub them out for example) and hope that something is revealed as I go.

Early in the story, Emrys my recurring super-wizard who dresses in Medieval style clothes and has a clawed hand and foot, appears in a spectacular display before two archaeologists in a ruin in a modern-day type world.  One of them responds with considerable skepticism, trying to rationalize him as some sort of wacko that snuck into the dig, despite what he just saw. Most of my esteemed critiquers have said this doesn’t make sense and I can agree with that. However, I’m not sure if it’s entirely unrealistic. The question, which I have considered before is, how would a “normal” person from the “real world” react when confronted with a supernatural occurrence or being, given that we have it drummed into us from childhood that there is no such thing as magic/monsters/ghosts etc. I think in the end it depends upon the person. But I think that, for many, in such a situation their mind would see two options: Rationalize it, or confront the possibility of their own insanity.  I’m not sure how many would, at least right away, entertain the possibility that what their seeing may simply be real and be exactly what it seems to be.

Thoughts?