Five Things on a Friday: Skyscrapers, Checks & Balances, and a Butt

I’m out of the hospital and ready to go!

If you were wondering, no, I definitely do not recommend “flesh-eating antibiotic-resistant bacterial infection brought on by spider bite” as a way to miss a week of work.  My advice is to just suck it  up and use a week’s vacation.  The folks at Bridgeport Hospital were great, but honestly, I hope I never have to go back.

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1.  College football 2014 preview: 5 predictions (SILive.Com)

“The SEC still has the best league in college football. But the best teams this year may be Oregon and Florida State.”

Duke Wallace Foghorn IV & Rainmaker

Duke Wallace Foghorn IV
Duke Wallace is a lithe, athletic man in his early thirties.  Though not a professional adventurer, he is trained to use the sword, the lance, the dueling blade (rapier), and the longbow, and he is reputed to be the finest horseman in the entire Kingdom of the Western Isles.  Before Wallace III’s untimely death, the current Duke Wallace commanded the Blueblood Regiment of the Royal Heavy Cavalry Brigade.  He saw action in several skirmishes in the hinterlands north of Wanderhaven as well as one major deployment to coastal Frankonia where he fought Sentralian forces from the Legion of the Red Lord.  By all accounts, Wallace handled himself well at every turn.
The duke typically hunts astride his warhorse Thunderclap wearing loose green combat leathers (studded leather armor) with either a longbow or a spear.  For a military campaign, however, he will wear the breastplate from the Foghorn House Platemail (breastplate +1), and he will carry a tower shield alongside his full wartime armament.  This includes a lance, longbow and quiver with 40 arrows, dueling blade +1, dagger, and his House Sword, Rainmaker.  

This Weekend in College Football

My buddy Henry and I were talking college football this weekend, and I got all excited.  There are a lot of games this weekend, and quite a few of them either look like they might be good or hold some interest for me personally.

This list isn't all-encompassing, but it is the games I think are worth at least a glance.  A Google Drive version of the list is here, which includes TV Channel information, or you can find the complete list at ESPN.Go.Com.

Wanderhaven & the Ten "Honest Houses"

Wanderhaven is the capital city and primary port of the Kingdom of the Western Isles, which is itself a sub-continental archipelago northeast of the continent of Sentralia.  The city was founded in ancient days by continental traders seeking a safe port from storms on their way to what were once far-flung destinations around the rest of the continent.  Wanderhaven has a large natural harbor called Great Island Bay, and in time what was once a way-station became a trading metropolis.  

Legend has it that life in the city was once lawless, brutal, and deadly.  Before the founding of the city proper, pirates operated freely in the hinterlands of the Isles, plaguing honest merchants and making travel along the future Kingdom’s best trade routes dangerous in the extreme.  The ten Honest Houses put a stop to that by banding together to incorporate the city, establish the rule of law, and -- eventually -- found the Kingdom of the Western Isles.  

Peace and prosperity have reigned ever since.

Wanderhaven Sourcebook: The Fire-Breathing Elephant

My daughter Emma drew me a picture while I was in the hospital.  Now that I'm out, I feel like that picture needs stats*.

The Fire-Breathing Elephant
Huge Magical Beast, Unaligned

The Fire-Breathing Elephant

Five Things on a Friday: Looks Like I'm Gonna Live

1.  I got bit by a spider, but it didn't make me a superhero.

It happened last Friday.  I'd just gotten on the train for home after a really nice ride up from my office on my bike.  I sat down on the floor because the train was full, felt the bite, but didn't think much of it at the time.

Sketch in my Notebook (Part 12): Lost in New York (Part 2)

This is the second half of Chapter 9, which began last week.  To catch up on the whole story, check out the Sketch in My Notebook tab.

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The Return of Dr. Necropolis
Chapter 9: Lost in New York (Part 2)

He looked around, but there was nothing close at hand.  They hadn’t tied him to the stretcher—that was a blessing—but he was still shivering, though less now than before.  The shivers were more intermittent than uncontrolled, enough to remind him that his escape had nearly cost him is life but not enough to stop him doing something when the time came.  

He hoped.

Naomi's Story: Prelude to The Stone of Kings

I started writing this story for a friend of mine.  Well, not really for her, per se, but inspired by her life.  I took my usual process and applied it to somebody else's life with what I personally thought were interesting results.

Alas, I ultimately decided to take the story in a completely different direction, and that's why I'm sharing it now.  I happen to know that this particular piece isn't going anywhere.

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Naomi's Story

“They’re moving into position, Naomi.”

She looked up.  Tiberius stood in the doorway to her command tent looking concerned.  He held his helmet under his arm, but his shield was already set in place on his arm, and once he set his helmet and drew his gladius, he would be ready for battle.

“How long?” she asked.

“Half an hour?  Maybe more, if the gods look upon us with favor.”

“Do the gods ever look upon us with favor, Tiberius?”

He smiled, and it set his whole face alight.  “They did me, once.”

Saturday Reading Room: Dealing with Rejection

I got my first rejection letter (email) yesterday, and I'm embarrassingly happy about it.

Sally: She said no, right?

Me: Yeah.

Sally: So why are you so happy?  Just because she read your work?

Me: Exactly!  I already knew my book's not for everyone.  She gave it a chance.  She's allowed to not like it.  This way, at least I know she looked at it.  That's all I wanted.

Five Things on a Friday: When Superheroes Attack!

It's been a crazy, crazy week, and not always in a good way.  Let's get to it.

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1. When Superheroes Attack NYPD Tells Tourists to Call 9-1-1, Not Batman (Slate)

The effort by the NYPD comes after costumed characters have come under scrutiny for bad behavior of all sorts…

Looking for Hope

I've been Googling YA Genre Fantasy agents and publishers this morning, and what I've learned is that there's a whole industry out there dedicated to helping would-be authors find agents and publishers. It's sad. Not that folks want to tell their stories but that there are so many people trying to tell their stories that a whole industry has sprung up around them to try to make a buck off their desperation to be heard.  A week's subscription to one of the sites that hosts a searchable index of agents is $24.99.  To get access for a year, it's $399.  Prices to attend various "meet folks in the industry" events can be much more, and there are a raft of services beyond that to help you get your manuscript into shape--or even just figure out if it is at all commercial!

"I love it when a plan comes together..."

I'm reading The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith, and I've just realized that almost every writer I've ever read skips over the hero's plan right at the end of the book. This is presumably because the plan's going to work, and they want you to be surprised at the way the book ends.

Sketch in my Notebook (Part 11): Lost in New York (Part 1)

I was all set to start working on Naomi's story (working title "The Stone of Kings", although I guarantee that's not what the final story will be called), but then I started feeling bad.  Poor Bob Ben (aka Robin) has been waiting patiently for the next part of Dr. Necropolis for months now, and I keep telling her that it's the next thing I'm gonna work on, and then something else comes up, and it's just not.

That is not the way that stories get finished.

I've had this next bit of the story outlined for months.  It's really long and involved, though, so I've been putting off the actual writing.  I can only get away with that because I have the outline in hand and can therefore theoretically come back later...

Anyway, I spent part of my vacation outlining "The Stone of Kings", meaning that I can now put that off for awhile.  It probably needs to happen anyway since it'll doubtless do me some good to get my head out of Wanderhaven for a few months.