Did you know that I yet live? Fun Fact.

NaNoWriMo begins next week, so perhaps I will actually have a reason to open my mouth soon.

funny nonsense.

i am very on hiatus. I was pretty much completely out of commission for about a month due to having massive sleep issues. in this time I got virtually no writing done whatsoever.

now I’m focusing on actually writing my novel rather than socioblogging junk.

to return at a later date.

I made a whole lot of “not-productive” this week.

I did go through the second Cameo book and was fairly surprised with it. I had quite a bit of afterglow going on after I was done with it. Significant improvements from the first; I was going to kind of offhandedly mention it in my next review, but I haven’t really made good on my “read more” deal <excuse>because I have been struggling with mild insomnia.</excuse> I suppose I don’t really have a choice there. I haven’t settled in on what my next prospect is going to be for “let’s read stuff.”

I’m still working on the “don’t double space after sentences” shit.  I caught myself a lot earlier this time.

Seeing as how I’ve been incredibly lazy this week, I’ve been trying to work on an outline I started for my NaNoWriMo project from last year in an attempt to make myself feel less useless. Unfortunately, I am discovering that trying to outline a story for which you have already written 60,000+ words feels pretty damn clunky. At the same time, I feel like I would have an issue with this sort of micro-writing that outlines entail even if I didn’t have anything already penned to summarize, but perhaps that can just be chalked up to inexperience. I can’t say for certain, but it feels like my time would be better utilized actually writing. I haven’t done any copy editing either, so I have this weird sort of fake outline editing thing going on where I’m trying to change the story in this minimalistic way in terms of actual writing (I’ve compressed 4000 words into about 600 so far) that seems to be kind of working against me.

Long story short: I am trying something new and getting mixed results.

I sort of want to go into what my NaNoWriMo project actually is, but I feel like it would be best to dedicate a post to it proper. Perhaps I will have to get to that in the next week or so.

I also spent a good amount of time this weekend going over my ideas for a separate, far more vast project that I could only dream of actually completing over the next several years. It is definitely something I would like to share with anyone who would read it, but it is a rather ambitious project and I am unsure when that will actually happen. The NaNoWriMo project I mentioned would be a single book of probably somewhere around 100,000 words or more. (Whenever I get around to actually posting stuff or publishing things, you will find out that I tend to be fairly long winded. I’m doing my best to make sure this doesn’t screw up the pacing for my storytelling.) Contrastingly, I am expecting this other larger project to be at a minimum of four different books, possibly anywhere as much as six of similar (if not greater) length.

Here’s another totally noncommittal post ending.

Before I get started here and since I haven’t actually written up any book reviews yet, I will be doing my best to keep these write-ups relatively spoiler free. If there is some point I absolutely cannot ignore, I will be sure to place fair warning before I even begin to write the review to avoid any mishaps.

It’s also probably worth noting that it’s been like two weeks since I actually read this book.

Anyway:

Cameo the Assassin, by Dawn McCullough-White

From McCullough-White’s website:

The Kingdom of Sieunes is rife with taverns, dirty streets, and clay pipe smoking citizens all toiling to feed their families and keep themselves in something little better than rags. With a foiled revolution just ten years prior still burning in the hearts of many, the royals enlist the aid of assassins to keep things in order.

The townsfolk entertain themselves by dreaming of better times to come and regaling in stories of the undead said to walk the graveyards at night… and of Cameo the killer with corpse-like eyes… Scarred and jaded Cameo is one of the most effective assassins in the employ of the Association, moving from one mission to the next as long as the alcohol keeps flowing.

Her acceptance of the murder-for-hire lifestyle is thrown into doubt when she meets a local highwayman with a penchant for fine clothes and women, and then she begins to think about breaking with the company but no one ever breaks with the Association under good terms.

I binged through this book pretty quickly when I finally sat down to reading it, but it has its ups and downs.

A strong point that most that reviewed it seemed to acknowledge was that McCullough-White wrote off a living, breathing cast of characters that were entertaining throughout the novel’s length. This for the most part held true in my experience. The aforementioned highwaymen are Opal and Bellamy, a dandy and a former lawyer/poet/playwright both turned to a life of thievery. These two have a tendency to sort of steal the spotlight from Cameo, who by contrast tends to come off as very dark and brooding.  Of course, the contrast makes her interesting when paired up with the other, much brighter characters and their interactions largely are what kept me reading through this book. The setting is also handled fairly well and seems true to the general time period that McCullough-White intended to convey, though description of the world at large could have gone with a little more stress. The environment is as much a character as any actual person is.

That said, there were a number of things that rubbed me the wrong way about the way McCullough-White handled her storytelling. First and foremost in my mind was that the pacing for events in the story that seemed anywhere from significantly to monumentally important were often breezed by in a few brief paragraphs. I saw many reviews praising the book’s quick action, but I almost felt as if McCullough-White was apprehensive of the reader becoming bored if a subject or scene was touched upon for too long (on top of the fact that the literal action scenes were flashed through in such meager sentences that I found myself rereading them to make sure my mental image of what actually happened synced up with the writing). That said, there was little proper buildup to scenes that seemed or obviously were important to the story, and the gravity of such scenes were tragic flops a lot of the time. McCullough-White showcases an important character from Cameo’s past early in the story that has strong antagonistic potential, but gets thrown out in a hurry as a plot device. These situations don’t necessarily hurt the story, but I feel like many things in this novel are a simple shame, because I can totally see the potential.

Another huge drawback to Cameo is that it is written in third-person omniscient, which is very easy to handle poorly. Instances of hopping from one character’s perspective to another in a matter of paragraphs were not amazingly rare—and by that I mean this occurred at all. I don’t believe there is a good way to handle this without breaks in the writing. Going from one character’s thoughts to another in the next paragraph can be fairly annoying. Ironically, at the same time I found myself trying to figure out who was saying what in several different dialogue-heavy scenes not too uncommonly. It seemed to me as if McCullough-White understood too well who was saying what, such to the point that not enough indications were left for the reader to discern from.

The book has minor typographical errors in places (I could only guess maybe 4 maximum). Rarer than those were serious grammatical errors. I am not a huge stickler for these, but that sort of thing sets some people off. I personally find them inexcusable in my own writing, but care less when reading others’ work.

The ending-in-name-only I felt was handled very poorly. Where I expected the story to continue as normal, instead I got “THE END.” This is largely due in part to McCullough-White’s aforementioned issue with buildup and establishing proper impact for important scenes. There wasn’t any rising action, there wasn’t really a climax, there wasn’t any falling action. It was more like “action action action end” without a lot of ultimate direction as far as rising/falling action goes. Build up matters a lot! There’s no climax if there’s no buildup.

Also, as you may have gotten from the description, a thwarted revolution is referenced a couple of times in the story. McCullough-White may have more plans for this in future installments (of which there is one already), though I thought it was unfortunate that it didn’t get touched upon in-depth over the course of the story. I haven’t finished the second book yet, so it remains to be seen if it will become a significant subplot or not.

All that aside, I did enjoy my time spent reading the book and I feel that its strengths at the very least make up for Cameo’s flaws. I might recommend it if you are able to look past my above listed failings in light of strong characters and a fairly well-handled setting. The story isn’t necessarily bad, it’s just handled rather disappointingly and the characters make you feel they deserve better. Regardless, as I understand it, Cameo the Assassin is Dawn McCullough-White’s first published work, so it can definitely be said that it is a pretty fair attempt for a first go. I am interested in seeing McCullough-White’s progression over the next few years.

Plus it’s only $1.00 on Amazon’s Kindle store, so any complaints are with that in mind.

I spent much of this weekend thumbing through what formatting is required for ebooks on Amazon’s Kindle. I can’t say if I’m surprised or not. It’s a mixed bag.

I had some level of expectation that converting my writing from Word documents to something that wouldn’t be hideous on the Kindle would be a significant amount of work, though really the biggest time sink was finding information that wasn’t totally useless to me (see: Amazon’s Kindle Publishing Guidelines) or gated off by blessed dollars (see: Kindle Formatting: the Complete Guide etc.) Though, to be fair, I heard from a more reputable source that this book is the one to have.  This was after I followed said source’s instructions and formatted my writing without paying $10 for a book to tell me the same thing, and I’m not a fan of paying $10 to get a simple answer out of a book that I only need the single simple answer from and not the entire manuscript of all the how-to’s there are to know.

Needless to say, it turns out the Kindle just uses very stripped down HTML with some minimal CSS style sheeting.  However, the simple answer is that hand coding your writing to be formatted well on the Kindle is tedious work. Converters make a mess and do not work well. This is the key note for the issue.

Rather than go into it in depth, though, I will just plug the person’s work who I learned from. Natasha Fondren’s blog is a simple “tells you how” source for this information, step by step.  I believe her work isn’t finished on the guide to formatting, but the bulk of it is there and can be used to get a polished copy on the Kindle that looks authentic.

The HTML also needs to be converted into a compatible file that the Kindle can read—I believe the official extension for ebooks on Amazon is .AZW—but I did not delve into this at length since I was coding unfinished copy for the Kindle.  If I was done and ready to actually publish, I’d have more to share.

Regardless…

I also had a fun time (read: depressing) when I decided to check into whether or not the Kindle had the ability to run a word count. Upon googling this, I regretted it almost immediately. I lack the energy or enthusiasm to rave about it at length, but let’s just say Amazon and B&N’s failure to take initiative to move word count into more mainstream use by readers over vague and ineffective methods such as page count or “locations” strikes me as hugely upsetting. More than likely this topic will be back again at a later date for its dark revenge.

As far as my actual writing goes, I am in the process of overhauling the work I did during last November’s NaNoWriMo. Given the nature of how NaNoWriMo works, there are many snags to iron out in my story that will probably be months in the making.  I do hope to have a beta copy some time in the next few months for people to read.  At that time I may post samples!

Isn’t that something? Writing in a self-proclaimed writing blog.

I am slowly making progress on this “hey don’t double space at the end of sentences” thing that apparently is not preferred.

Still railing on that edit button.

Sometimes drawing things.  Sometimes researching things.  I also have a mediawiki set up (private) for keeping “notes” on my stories in the most woefully inefficient but self-gratifying way.  This ended up being startlingly more fun than I was expecting it would.

I realize I have not written much about myself so far.

I have been into video games since I was too young to remember (I am 21 now).  I guess the earliest memory I have of playing a game was Duck Hunt. I believe I have slowed down on it (meaning games in general, not.. Duck Hunt. I have not been playing Duck Hunt for like 15 years) enough to become not partial to any particular genre, but games that have good stories behind them tend to be my favorites.  A game can stop being about gameplay for me if it has good story telling or memorable characters. Soul Nomad & the World Eaters is one such example.  Sadly, I wouldn’t recommend it just because of that, though, as I recall spending much of the game just wanting to see the next part somehow sorely enough to weather the weak gameplay—but I digress. Mass Effect is pretty fantastic.  I will also admit I have played World of Warcraft since shortly after launch, but I am (thankfully) finally slowing down on it.

I’ve been playing Blazblue pretty consistently since mid-July, which is pretty new to me since I have had virtually no interest in fighters prior.  It has been quite the experience.  I believe it has a lot to do with playing games pretty much all my life and hungering for something that requires you to be sharp. The depth to this genre is pretty impressive and difficult to see on the surface. It is also a learning game.  It doesn’t really get good until you are familiar with the tools your character has and how you use them against various other characters on the roster.  It is a game of tactics that moves far faster than any strategy-oriented genre.  Blazblue also has a pretty exceptional story for a fighting game (PROTIP: It is not about a band of fighters from all around the world competing in a tournament), but it is a little difficult to piece together since you get samples of it through each character’s story more and not getting the big picture until the end.

So like I said about digressing…

Movies are okay, but I’m not an avid movie goer.  I believe the last movie I saw in theatre was Avatar…?  Movies are expensive.  You are paying for ~2 hours of entertainment.  I’ll often take note of movies that seem interesting to me and then not go see them.  However, not many movies do genuinely interest me as much of them seem rather formulaic.  I suppose they might if you’re going to spend several years and several millions of dollars filming them.  I wouldn’t want my 5 year, 200 million dollar pet project crashing, either.

I recently unplugged my cable box because the power strip I am using for my consoles and my Frankenstein LCD monitor + Logitech speakers setup that I’m using as a TV ran out of plug slots.  That said, I virtually never watch TV. I don’t need TV when I waste enough time on the Internet as is.

I have watched a little anime (a friend and I slowly and begrudgingly watched all of Dragon Ball Z over the past year. I don’t recommend you do the same), and among my favorites (unsurprisingly) are Cowboy Bebop and Ghost in the Shell. Bebop is always going to be a classic I feel, though I believe I honestly have grown more fond of GitS, as it has a strong tendency to be very thought-provoking. Ethics and morals and all that.  Where is the line between man and machine drawn?  What makes us human? (Both of these I am speaking mostly of the English dubs, by the by.)

I am sort of into strength training, but things happen and I am not as active at the moment as I should be.

I’m trying to get better about reading, since all that aside, I haven’t done enough of it in my life and you can only be so good at writing without leafing through other authors’ works.  So far it’s been educational and I am enjoying it, in spite of being constantly assaulted by entertainment media that is grossly more stimulating than it should be—such as radiating myself for hours on end daily at my computer desk, for instance.

I think I’d like travel, but I’m poor. Not much more to add there.

I guess it’s worth noting that I enjoy putting stuff together and ripping it apart. My dad is an engineer, so it’s in my blood I guess.  I built my computer from raw parts, but that is really not hard at all and if you are in the market of buying a new computer, please do yourself a huge favor and look into it.  It is rewarding in many, many more ways than one. I have taken apart and fixed laptops with photo reference only of how to rip their guts out, which I am significantly more proud of than building a desktop computer.  I have replaced hinges in one laptop and figured out what was up with another’s monitor not turning on (it was, but the power connector for the backlight somehow came undone and needed to be plugged in again. Thanks, Toshiba). However, I don’t go out of my way to do these things.

I’m a big fan of ambient music, much of which is indie that I scrape together off last.fm. Karsten Hamre’s work under his own name as well as under the project titled Dense Vision Shrine is what got me into this and is among my favorites. Bohren & der Club of Gore is a pretty excellent ambient noir jazz bit from Germany if you’re into saxophone mostly (which I am; I’d like to learn to play someday).  When it’s not ambient stuff, I tend to be on the other end of the spectrum with heavy rock/metal esque stuff.  Did I mention Blazblue has a fantastic soundtrack? Seether is my favorite band, but it seems like they’ve moved on past the sound I really loved after Disclaimer II and Karma & Effect. I love basically all of the tracks on both of these albums.  Anything past there won’t get undying devotion from me, but it must not be all bad since they’ve gotten more popular.

Often that does mean bad things, though.

I’m also apparently a fan of not sleeping.

On that note, the edit button and I have been best friends for years.  I want to get better about this, but it might be easier for you, the reader, to get used to it. No promises.

Tumblr does not get along well with double spacing after the ends of sentences.  This makes me rage.

This is the part where I make no effort to properly conclude this post whatsoever.

wlmpr:

Monday:Joseph Picard - Lifehack
Tuesday: Timothy Hallinan - CRASHED
Wednesday: Fern Cook - Wild Evolution: Book I of the Wild Series
Thursday: Jodi Langston - Nature of the Beast
Friday: George J. Bryjak - The Power of the Dark Goddess and Other Stories
Saturday: Barbara Ellen Brink - Entangled
Sunday: Bruce A. Sarte - Towering Pines Volume One: Room 509

The Indie Spotlight - http://www.theindiespotlight.com/

I foresee getting much use out of this website.

Rather than sit here and mull over the idea of what to write about, I have decided I would rather better myself in more areas than one by posting a book review weekly.  This will get me to read more (and change my attitude about reading—more on this at a later date, now that I realize it’s an interesting blog topic) and also get me more used to this writing lots of words at people thing.  Here’s looking at you, twitter.

I already decided that I didn’t want this to be on Tuesday.  Tuesday is quite possibly the shittiest day of the week.  Maybe you’ve escaped the torment of Monday, but now Tuesday is here reminding you that the weekend is still four painstaking days away.  At least on Monday you come to terms with the fact that the weekend is over.  Tuesday is when you start asking if the weekend is here yet.

So, what do I do?  Any day in particular doesn’t strike me as an exceptional one to write up comments about a book, so I turned to everyone’s favorite heartless monster for guidance: the random number generator.  I never get enough of expressed my profound hatred for the random number generator, yet how quick I am to turn to it in my time of need.  It is a truly demonic thing.

So, like any good demon might, when asked for a number of one through seven, the cursed random number generator gave me three.  Tuesday.

It did this thrice in a row. I quickly surrendered, as this is the random number generator’s business, after all.  It is a godless machine, put upon this earth to torment mankind under the guise of probability.

In any case, I suppose I will be writing book reviews every Tuesday, then. For the most part I deal in dark fantasy, though I am trying to branch out. Unfortunately, the “dark” elements that I favor are presently being butchered by the otherwise popular young adult and paranormal romance genres. (DISCLAIMER: Vampires are boring.) I also write in “mainstream” and science fiction, so I may find some titles of interest there.  As stated in my makeshift introduction, however, I am chiefly interested in indie authors in ebook stores.  You can expect that anything I review will be on the cheap side monetarily (so long as you’re not feeling compelled to buy up a printed copy, that is.)

I believe I had more to say on the matter of the actual reading and reviewing itself, but surely you can understand the trauma of my encounters with “random” number generators.

EDIT: Funny how “rng” asserted itself to the front of the line in my tags list when it was one of the last ones I typed up.  I am moderately terrified by this.

EDIT 2.0: And of course, as soon as I mention this, it gets in the back of the line where it really belongs.  They won’t believe your farce forever, RNG.

Some day.

i have no earthly idea where to begin starting this thing.

One day I will have writing-related nonsense here.  I am not entirely sure what all that entails.  I am also not sure when that is going to actually happen.  More than likely I’m going to lurk around for a time—because tumblr absolutely is a forum, and you lurk on those for an indeterminate period of time before you open your mouth and make an ass of yourself.

As a disclaimer, if you are unable to detect sarcasm, we are going to have problems.

• I write things.  I want to share my work with people by selling it in Amazon’s kindle store for next to nothing.  Maybe I can post trashy works in progress here or something.


• I also read things.  I enjoy leafing through indie authors on Amazon in search of good talent.  I like seeing what people are capable of without traditional publishers crashing their dreams because something may or may not have a small risk of not turning a profit.  More than likely I will blab about crap I may be reading through at the moment here.


• I am also known to sit down and talk about my writing, general storytelling, things like character development and world-building, and things that inspire me without pause.  Things like this may also bleed through here not infrequently.


• Though this is supposed to be for writing, I also draw on the side.  Take of that what you will.

This is absolutely a list to remind myself what kind of things I am supposed to be writing about here.  Any and all are welcome to join me on this tragically mediocre adventure.

P.S.: Comments are appreciated since I still haven’t finished sifting through tumblr’s custom CSS labyrinth.

P.P.S.: Disqus is gross and I hate it.