5th Short Story Finished for the Year

Finally, I'm complete with my first iteration of 3 short stories. If you just started reading (and I know, I'm sporadic at best); then this was my plan:

Firstly, I would write three short stories, each one focusing on a different part of my writing style that I think I needed to develop.

1) Voice: I wanted to define the mood and overall disposition with which I executed my writing. My voice constantly changes, but has some core fundamental concepts that are 90% of the time, homogeneous in my writing. A friend who read a short story stated that it reminded her of Film Noir. I would like to think that my voice alternates between that, action-intensity, and epic description typical of High Fantasy.

2) Conflict Resolution: More of a technical aspect. I've become better acquainted with myself as a writer. I'm now able to develop a source-sheet for a project, to prevent me from going on tangent, while at the same time, not being restricted to whats down in the outline.

3) Theme: A big one. My work must pass-along a greater message. Something deeper than the text itself, appealing to emotion, deep intellect, or even something more. Very small target, but I think I'm getting there in  my own way.

Then, after this first series of three is complete, I would try to sum them up in one project:

4) A project that tries to combine all aspects of the first three short stories into one.

Following this; I would execute two more projects to tackle stylistic elements that can be attributed to any genre; although I would argue that the result would be a new genre or sub-genre. Both of these style elements are common in my chosen genre(s) [if it can be considered that I have one].

5) Satire. Using humor in my writing to make a social or political statement.

6) Dark. Unfortunately, far too much of my work ends up being 'dark' and my heroes find defeat easier than they do victory. If thats my standard, I shudder to think what my 'dark' is.

And finally, just a 7th project to wrap it all up.

7) Last Project. My choice. Just an open-ended project.

Now that I've finished project #3; I'm going to begin work on the Satire Piece, and maybe start sourcing for Project 4. However, I've had a concept sheet for a novel laid out for about 3 months now, and that is begging of my attention, so I may opt to start it, and work on projects 4, 6, and 7; when writer's block strikes.

Thanks for reading! Now I'm off to mail this to F&SF Magazine. Wish me luck

Updates

It seems the second half of winter is a bit of a slowing period for the company. Alot of people have returned to school, but Im still slowly but surely grinding forward to make things work. The biggest thing though, is that are budget is stretched entirely too thin.

Im still in the process of writing the novel. As I've stated many times, my goal is to be finished or close to finished by the end of March. Once again I still have the monumental task of shopping the manuscript around even after I finish it.

Given my current luck trying to get published, I'm wanting to make this manuscript as good as it can be. Though I know it is a numbers game.

Anyhow, if you want to support us, check out the website. Look at our comic and movie, maybe even buy something???

Thanks Yall

Crimson Star Entertainment

Crimson Star Updated




Okay, so finally added The Roman's sculptures to the main blog. After getting a second NATT from a magazine publisher for the same story; I've decided to release it online. Its $2.99, and will be sent to you as a PDF file. Its a very good story, but was far too niche to be acceptable in a magazine. However, I think the second story I sent out, will probably be accepted. Its much more artistic and much more personal.



To see some of Ed's Art, click here.

To buy my short story, click here.

The story itself is high fantasy, about a criminal waging a one-man war against an empire. But his reasons for doing so are not clear, as the investigator who arrives is further confused by his actions. Its a great beginning for a new series!

The setting is Eavton, the same as my Knight Spectre Comic, an agrarian nation of halflings and men headed by an all-powerful Emperor who shares divine lineage. A proto-typical "Righteous" nation, their society is well-structured and organized, to the extent of having huge social controls on their people. However, now, a new threat is growing in the North.

Like the idea? Read the short story. Soon I will be starting a novel and a sourcebook for the setting!
Here are some previews of his sculptures, for you guys to look at online.

Interesting, right?


Email me here if your interested in buying.

Civilization IV

In my quest to better understand Civilization IV, so that I could develope a mod for it, this weekend, I've been playing it, with a vengeance. Including, and especially, the Fall from Heaven Mod and Orbis Mods. If you are at all familiar with what I'm talking about, you already know.

Anyhow, hopefully by tonight, I will have made some more progress on the blooper reel, and by Wensday I hope to finish another 4k words for my novel. If not more so.

For more info on Civ:
Here