Still messing about with my characters, but, plot-wise, there’s no there-there.
Time, alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine will fix. Please bear with me.
Month: June 2018
F&A Cover
Formerly an exclusive on Gab.ai, where you can speak freely, below the fold is the cover of the my next novel. Monica is wrapping up her copyediting, so I hope to have a proof copy in my hands in no more than a week. A week beyond that should see it released to the wild. So honestly, call it two to three.
I really need to get back to writing Part Two!
Montrose’s Toast
This did not end where I expected. I knew Teresa would look into what’s going on out east. A play for the throne? Wow. I am now reacting to, not writing, this story. I must make haste slowly.
Friends and Allies
Chose the winning design for the cover of my next novel: The Saga of Nichole 5: Part 1 – Friend & Ally. It still needs a little tweaking, so I shan’t roll it out quite yet.
In other news, I’m also getting back into the habit of writing. I have to: if I am about to publish a book called ‘Part 1’ I tanjed well better have a ‘Part 2’ lined up on deck and ready for launch. Of course, I don’t. Quite.
I hand-wrote about two pages of notes yesterday. That’s something for a pantser such as myself. Still, with all the RealWorld things I had to do about the house today, at least I was able to lay down a few words for Act I.
Retro Follow-up
My four ‘Retro’ posts seemed to generate some interest and it made me recall a TV Tropes page that a fan, from southern England, made of my visual novel some time ago. He did yeoman’s work in covering all four stories and all possible endings!
Spoilers abound – especially with the hidden text – but I think it’s a wonderful review of my first foray into writing.
‘Friend & Ally’
If you’d care to chime in on what you want to see as my next novel’s cover, please drop in and vote. I very much value y’all’s opinion.
Retro 4/4
What do you get when you take CS Lewis’s ‘That Hideous Strength’ and cross it with… well… me?
You get Shadowlands. Where quasi-human janissaries serve those dithering-fallen angels who could not make up their damned minds.
What happens if one of your overpowered agents wakes up… and turns on you?
Again, this is all here and there… take the walk to the pharmacy door of OTChi Kocchi.
Retro 3/4
When I embarked upon the mission of a visual novel, the very first thing I saw was based around the song (NOT the video) of Ultravox’s ‘Vienna.’ It’s Atti’s Good End… if you can make it. Good luck; military widows are a bag of broken glass. They deserve our respect and comfort, but peace can only come from God through themselves.
The hardest thing I’ve ever written.
Retro: 2/4
Magical girls are tough to write and tough to read. What’s going on at the grocery with Rimu?
Retro: 1/4
I’m seeing more of Act I of N2. But, this morning, via the Anime Group on Gab.ai, I saw something that called to mind my very first literary (and coding) work: the visual novel, OTChi Kocchi. Originally developed in Japan, they are very popular in Asia; typically, they took an idea developed in the West (‘choose your own adventure’) and married it to emergent computing technology. Often mischaracterized as ‘dating-sims,’ with pornography, that a bit like saying that because of the nudes, everything in the Louvre and Vatican should be burnt.
It is not a normal thing for me: reminiscing. In fact, usually, I hate it. Like any old aristocrat, I revel in the images and stories of my family, stretching back hundreds of years, but personally? Feh.
But, this really isn’t personal… like my trad novels, my visual novel – with the amazing illustrations of Will Deonne – is a four-part novel where the reader determines the end of each story. If there are choices, that means it is a kind of game. If it is a game, then it must be possible to lose. Will made me older to that.
Having said all that to say this: in quick succession tonight, I’m posting something that’s never been seen before… the raw background stories of the four main characters that the player/protagonist encounters in OTChi Kocchi. The writing is raw and often half in Python Code, but shouldn’t glimpses behind the curtain be unsettling?
OK Prelude 1/4: Aoi
machciv 