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This Speck of Dust in the Webverse
Just like every other journal out there, this is a soapbox. And what's my platform? What do I have to share?

I am a writer and use this journal as a way to share news about my writing career and any thoughts I have on writing in general. I also use it to share pieces of my writing, because I love telling stories. I originally created this journal to share a serial story. That story is a classic fantasy tale in a world with very little in the way of magic and no elves or dwarves or the like.

I also provide reviews of board and card games. I try to make sure that I have played a game at least three times before I provide a review. I am an avid gamer and I know most of my friends are as well. I hope that the game reviews are appreciated and found useful by others. Clicking here will give you a link to just the game reviews.

A final note on the story - this was an experiment and all of these pieces are admittedly first draft quality. If you are just starting and are curious, here are some ease of use links.

The very first story section:
http://eyezofwolf.livejournal.com/937.html

Summary sections to catch up new readers or review for old ones can be found by clicking here.
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May. 9th, 2012 @ 10:01 am Reading Tomorrow!
Hey guys,

So if any of you are local, you should consider coming out to the University Book Store tomorrow at 7 pm. I will be doing a reading of part of one of my short stories. It is a collection of authors reading pieces of short stories from various anthologies.

I am excited because it is my first reading (not counting reading to friends in college or reading in classes). I am very much looking forward to it and admittedly a little nervous too. Good thing I don't get stage fright.
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Apr. 20th, 2012 @ 10:51 am Writer level-up
So I can't include too many details, but I received a book contract! This definitely feels like a writer level-up, a huge point in my career. I will share more details as I can, but for now this tease will have to suffice.
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Apr. 16th, 2012 @ 12:22 pm Secret project N announced!
I lost count of the secret projects, so I am just going with a nice round number of N.

Seriously though - this is one of the secret projects that I was working on that I know am assuming it is safe to announce since this is on a public website. I am officially being published in the Pathfinder universe. Check out the link!
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Mar. 22nd, 2012 @ 11:19 am Things are in the works
I realize I have been quiet on here for a while, but I promise it is not because of a lack of work. I actually have four or five writing projects in the wings. I haven't posted anything about them because I am still waiting on contracts for most of them. I try to make it a point to not provide updates until I at least have a signed contract.

I can mention that I recently wrote an article for the SFWA newsletter. It was approved and I have gotten a contract for that article. I do not know when it will be published, but I will provide an update once that happens. It was all about armor in writing and how to incorporate it into your stories.

Stay tuned, there is exciting news coming shortly!
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Feb. 27th, 2012 @ 10:59 am Origins Game Fair!
I will be attending Origins Game Fair from May 30th to June 3rd. And, I will be talking on panels and giving a reading! The schedule just went live and you can find it here. It looks like it is going to be a great time and there are a lot of great authors going.

Here is my schedule:
Friday, 11-12: Building Your World
Friday, 12-1: The Sword is Mightier than the Pen
Friday, 7-8: Reading
Sunday, 10-11: Armor Up
Sunday, 11-12: The Business of Writing

When I am not at one of those panels, I will either be at my table in the dealers' room or I will be gaming. Apparently, there will be "game with an author" events. I don't know what my specific game will be or when yet, but I am really looking forward to it.

I will submit another post shortly before the date, but wanted to share the news!

As a side note - I don't suppose any of my friends live near Columbus and would be willing to have some stuff shipped to them and brought to the convention? I was toying with the idea of bringing some show-and-tell pieces to the armor and weapon panels.
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Jan. 17th, 2012 @ 11:08 am Human for a Day Review
Tags: ,
It may be small, but I was very pleased to see this review for Human for a Day. You see, I specifically got a mention for my story about the angel. As I said, it may not be much, but it still pleases me that my story was memorable enough to be one of the ones specifically mentioned.
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Jan. 12th, 2012 @ 11:10 am How I Write a Story
I have been keeping busy lately - doing a lot of working and a lot of reading (four novels in less than three weeks and now fifty pages into a fifth; as a side note: if you want to write it is important to read, and read a lot). It is amazing what you will be able to accomplish if your normally cramped schedule of activities is put on hold because of a temporary injury! I wanted to take a moment to talk about how I write a story, mainly because it is something that I have been asked a lot when I go to conventions and talk on panels. I thought it would be useful to share.

Before I begin, let me preface this with everyone has their own process. I can only talk about what works for me.

For me, stories are about two primary things: a character and a world. It really is a toss-up which comes up first. At this stage of the process, I don't mean the entire world. I mean determining what it is that makes my world unique. Is it that people exist in the modern world who have the ability to change shape? Is it a historically accurate world, but kami actually exist? If it is a standard fantasy world, is their magic? How does it work?

For the character, I want to know everything about him or her. (For simplicity, I am using "he" for the rest of this post, but it can just as easily be "she".) How does he react to stress? What is he like? What do his friends like about him? What is special about him? Once I know how he will handle situations and the way that he behaves, I ask why. Why is he like this? Where did he come from? The character's reactions and behavior need to make sense, need to come from somewhere. He needs to have a history that fits with who he is now; he is not just a collection of random traits. Keep in mind, a lot of this will never go into the story, especially if it is a short story. But it is important for me to know it, because it makes him real.

These two steps take a lot of work and a lot of effort. For short stories, sometimes this can take longer than figuring out the plot of the story. But, I need these pieces before I can figure out what happens. I try to imagine a whole bunch of scenarios this character might find himself in. Which make sense? Which are entertaining? Which ones make my imagination do the equivalent of sitting up straight and leaning forward to see what happens next? And most importantly, which indicate growth or change? To paraphrase something I've heard from multiple authors: if a character doesn't grow, you don't have a story; you just have a sequence of events.

In the earlier side of my career this is where I would start writing. After all, I have a character, a world, and a general idea that I think is interesting and will make a good story. Why not?

Now, I start plotting the story. I take notes about what happens, how my character is going to progress from A to B to C all the way to the end. I need to figure out what is going to happen to him on the way, where he might get betrayed, what other characters might show up, etc. This helps keep the story consistent, lets me fix pacing problems early (it is MUCH easier to fix those in the planning stage rather than after you have written several thousand words), enables me to put in foreshadowing and clues, and makes sure I know where I am going. I used to think that it was more fun to write without planning, because then I was interested to see what happened and used that as motivation to keep writing. But I have found that as a writer my stories are better if I plan and plot them out ahead of time, for so many reasons. I like to think of this as an indication of my growth as a writer.

Once the story is plotted, then I begin the writing. From here on, I power through it trying to get a first draft done as quickly as possible. For me, this is the fastest part. Most of my short stories have been written in one sitting versus spending weeks or longer on the earlier stages. When I know my characters and where they are going, the words have a tendency to fly. After the first draft is complete, it goes out to my beta readers and I take a break from it for a few days, a week, a month, etc. Once I get feedback from my betas, I go back to the story and begin the editing. Most of the editing is removing entire sections that don't work and trimming out a lot of extra words. Finally, after all of this, comes the finished manuscript.

And hopefully, it is as enjoyable to read as it was to create. Who am I kidding? Hopefully it is even MORE fun to read!
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Dec. 12th, 2011 @ 09:12 pm Game Review: London
We have a new addition to our collection that is pretty popular lately. It is a nice strategy game that I highly recommend, but am concerned about the longevity of it.

Click here for full review )
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Dec. 6th, 2011 @ 11:04 am Human for a Day released!
Today is an exciting day. My second story published by DAW is available today. Human for a Day just came out. Very exciting news! You can find it at Amazon or at Barnes and Noble.

Here is the cover:


My story in here is about an archangel forced to become human for exactly one day.
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Nov. 28th, 2011 @ 07:00 pm Guest Post: Steven Saus Promoting a Writing Contest and Charity
So I know I have been quiet as of late and I apologize for that. I will be getting back to game reviews in the near future, and hopefully have some writing news as well. I am truly in the "multiple projects in the works" phase. But, I digress.

Today I wanted to share something from fellow author, publisher, and all around good-guy Steven Saus. He is running a joint writing competition-charity project that I think is worth paying attention to and learning about. He also explains a little bit about his giving philosophy, which I think is especially appropriate given the time of year we are entering. I'll let him explain it in his own words from here.

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My name is Steven Saus; I'm an author and publisher. I run Alliteration Ink, where I both publish original work and also provide publishing services. This year, I've taken up the mantle of running Spec The Halls from Abra Staffin-Wiebe. There's both a writing contest and a charity fundraiser. Right now, I'm doing a bit of a blog tour to support the fundraiser; each entry talks about something different, so you'll want to stop by them all. You can see a full linklist of the guest posts at specthehalls.tumblr.com and read more about the whole project (and get the charity eBook) at specthehalls.com.

Why is sharing part of the guidelines for the contest?

One of the stranger things about the Spec The Halls contest guidelines is that your story must be made publicly available - at least for a while. For free. For everyone.

This is one of the things that I inherited from Abra Staffin-Wiebe, and I'm quite happy about that.

First, it's because the winter holidays usually have gifts involved. And it's only right that there should be gifts here too - gifts from authors to readers.

Second, because I'm a firm believer that readers have to be given a chance to become true fans. We ask them to put down their money for our work - and that's right.

At the same time, readers like to know what they're paying for. Pick up a Barbara Kingsolver book expecting spaceship shootouts, and you're going to be disappointed. Pick up a Mike Stackpole novel expecting intricate "literary" devices, and you'll be annoyed. Both are good - but good in different ways. This is a chance for authors to share with an audience who otherwise wouldn't know if they were a good fit or not.

Some readers won't be impressed. Some will nod and smile.

And some will become fans.

That's a great gift to get in return.

This year's edition of Spec The Halls is only available for a limited time, so act quickly to get your copy!
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