Following Grand Central Arena, my next solo novel was Phoenix Rising, the first novel in the Balanced Sword trilogy. Originally called Fall of Saints, this story went back to my early grad school days in Pittsburgh, and the character of Kyri Vantage was derived from Kyrie Ross. a Paladin I played in a Ravenloft campaig...
2022-09-07 00:07:07 +0000 UTC View Post
It's been several years since I finished recording and presenting Polychrome to my high-tier Patrons. I've now made all of the recorded videos publicly available and assembled them into a single playlist.
Everyone can now hear what I sound like when I read!
2022-08-29 23:43:41 +0000 UTC View Post... first, I have just tested positive for COVID again, so I'm looking forward to at least a few days of unpleasantness.
Second, in the wake of Eric's death, Ring of Fire Press is shutting down. This means I'll have to find another publisher, or start self-publishing everything.
2022-08-16 13:39:33 +0000 UTC View PostI didn't have any music that specifically associated itself with Diamonds are Forever, and I think I'll do the Eric Flint coauthored works as a group, so that brings us to the Arenaverse's origin.
I built up a very significant soundtrack around Grand Central Arena, so this will be a fairly long post!
I have always "seen" the...
2022-08-07 16:53:13 +0000 UTC View Post...I must tell you all that my often-coauthor, good friend, editor, and guy who started my career, Eric Flint, has passed away today. I am in shock and will be kinda wrecked for a while.
2022-07-17 19:56:34 +0000 UTC View PostLast month I finished the series of "my favorite scenes". Today, I'm starting a new one, which is the music that inspired, or was a part of, my writing of each book. Some books only had a few associated tracks, others had entire soundtracks associated with them.
We start today with Paradigms Lost, the expanded ver...
2022-07-08 00:23:19 +0000 UTC View PostWith this post, we reach the end of my published novels, so this will be the last My Favorite Scenes (at least for a while).
Shadows of Hyperion is the fourth and currently last in the Arenaverse series. It was published following a successful Kickstarter, and starts us on the way towards completing the series itself. <...
2022-06-05 15:55:30 +0000 UTC View PostCastaway Resolution, originally called
2022-05-11 01:29:30 +0000 UTC View PostThe third and final crossover idea that I've taken is to cross our heroes from Godswar with the world of Polychrome. Of the three, this is the one that really could have happened and would at most require only minor dialogue or thought tweaks in the published version of Godswar, as in Godswar: The Spear of...
2022-04-11 01:46:24 +0000 UTC View PostThe culmination of the Balanced Sword trilogy, Phoenix Ascendant obviously had a lot of scenes worth remembering, some I'd been waiting to write for twenty years. This is one of the hardest ones for me to decide on, because there's so many I love revisiting; Light Tanvol's magnificent death in the beginning, Condor winning the final bat...
2022-04-07 01:04:45 +0000 UTC View PostThe second of three, this one gave me a bit of trouble; I started it three times before finishing it. But I think it's fun. The basic prompt? Star Trek : The Next Generation intersecting with The Arena!
By its nature, this one should be limited only to Patrons; it is not and likely never will be publishable, and I have no rights...
2022-03-28 03:54:21 +0000 UTC View PostHere's the first of the selected crossover concepts -- which was A.J. Baker of Boundary meeting up with DuQuesne of Grand Central Arena!
A.J.'s at his home, after all the events of Portal...
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"Holy shit!"
A.J. toppled from the stool he'd been sitting at, knocking the ha...
2022-03-08 18:40:26 +0000 UTC View PostBack in 2008, I was driving home from work and had to pick up a few things. On my way, I saw one of the most magnificent double-rainbows I've ever seen, one which persisted for close to 20 minutes. And at one point it looked like the rainbow came straight down into the parking lot of Westgate Shopping Plaza.
And into my mind, as a ve...
2022-03-06 18:06:31 +0000 UTC View PostI am awed and terribly grateful to all of you for providing your support over these five years. You know that much of the money goes to producing things like the covers and illos shown at the Sketchy! level (and later seen on the published books). But it also has, at times, provided desperately needed help to bridge financial gaps here at my hom...
2022-03-06 17:19:57 +0000 UTC View PostYou can cross characters, locations, etc, however you like, as long as at least one of them is mine. I'll choose probably three of the suggestions to actually turn into a scene, a vignette, a short story, all to celebrate the FIFTH YEAR of this Patreon!
I've already got a few good suggestions, but more won't hurt!
(only for Pat...
2022-02-24 02:06:28 +0000 UTC View PostIn this continuing series, we now reach my first epic fantasy release, the first volume of the Balanced Sword trilogy, Phoenix Rising.
This trilogy, just being re-issued now by Ring of Fire Press, remains one of the closest to my heart; it introduced my world of Zarathan, created in 1978, to the readers and was a story...
2022-02-06 21:37:10 +0000 UTC View Post... as to what intersection between worlds might interest you! I've already gotten a couple interesting suggestions, but we can always use more for this special 5-year event!
Want to have Jason Wood meet Dana Kisaragi? Ask what happens if a Star Wars vessel enters the Demons of the Past universe? See DuQuesne meet his original? Have Legend...
2022-02-04 02:11:36 +0000 UTC View PostNext month will be the beginning of the sixth year of this Patreon; many of you have been here from the beginning, and all of you have been well-appreciated supporters.
Inspired by a conversation I once had on my beta list, I am announcing a SPECIAL EVENT: X Meets Y, open to every one of my Patrons.
Here's how it works: you tel...
2022-02-02 00:25:45 +0000 UTC View Post
As most of you must know by now, I'm a long-term roleplaying gamer (since 1977). I've been playing in one or more games pretty much continuously since that time, with only brief breaks.
The current game began well before Corona began to rear its ugly head. The original campaign grand story arc took us from 1st through 20th leve...
2022-01-07 01:35:41 +0000 UTC View PostContinuing this series of posts, we now move to my overall best-sellers. Following Digital Knight and Diamonds are Forever, Eric Flint gave me the opportunity to write a hard-SF novel in collaboration with him, and the result was Boundary.
Boundary is a much less action-oriented and far more thinking-oriented book t...
2022-01-05 01:52:11 +0000 UTC View PostI'll continue my Gaming-influenced posts later, but I can't find the box with key notes for some of that, so instead I'll do this little series until I do.
I often say that I don't write for a particular audience. That doesn't mean that I don't very much appreciate having an actual audience, but rather that I'm writing ...
2021-12-10 02:02:00 +0000 UTC View PostAs of this morning the Kickstarter reached its 10k goal! Don't expect to reach the stretch goal, but I posted one -- to make theme music for the Maidens! (here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/420370544/the-apocalypse-maid...
2021-12-05 17:55:01 +0000 UTC View Post
... today I started posting the D20 Modern character sheets for the OSC agents seen in _On-Site for the Apocalypse_!
Kickstarter is going slowly, but it's not impossible for it to succeed! Please spread the word wherever you can!
It's no secret that my main world wasn't just built for writing, but for gaming, nor that many games I played influenced what I have eventually written. In this little series of posts I'll give you looks at some of those games, and the versions of characters that showed up in them that we later met in my books.
Today, it's everyone's...
2021-11-03 00:25:13 +0000 UTC View Post
And so it begins. Please spread the word!
2021-11-01 10:12:27 +0000 UTC View Post(if you haven't read the short story "On-Site for the Apocalypse" you may be missing some details)
Shortly after the final battle...
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THE APOCALYPSE MAIDENS
Second in The Ethical Magical Girl
Prologue: Cleanup
"What the
... of The Apocalypse Maidens kickstarter! This preview link should turn into the real thing on launch day!
2021-10-30 23:12:16 +0000 UTC View PostWith today's fifth posted chapter, Demons of the Past: REVOLUTION has been fully read and posted to the Read Me Something Reward tier. This makes three complete books I've read and posted -- Polychrome, Demons of the Past: REVELATION, and now REVOLUTION. Next up: Demons of the Past: RETRIBUTION.
(unless of course the people at t...
2021-10-20 01:12:34 +0000 UTC View PostAs we may recall, this little sequence of posts showcases how Castaway Peril (later relaaed as Castaway Resolution) could have gone in a somewhat different direction. In very broad strokes they were no different -- the castaways discover there's a huge meteor on the way, it hits at the same time as the rescue mission arri...
2021-10-03 17:31:22 +0000 UTC View PostI have posted all the Read Me Something rewards, plus an extra chapter to start to make up for the ones I missed!
Also, a welcome to some new patrons who just signed up in the last week or so! Thanks for joining, and hope you enjoy what you find!
Remember you can always send me suggestions as to new rewards you might like to se...
2021-09-26 20:16:48 +0000 UTC View Post