Tag: other authors

Author Highlight: Graham Milne

~ Duth Olec ~ 2 Comments

Oh shoot I went out for a walk around the lake today and almost forgot about this, okay, okay, who’s next? This guy! Graham Milne, a guy who took his given name and made it into a pun for his weblogsite. Good for him! He is opinions and apparently Canadian. I don’t think I noticed that before, or more likely just glossed over it.

What has he done? According to his about me page, he’s written a novel, is working on a sequel, and has ideas for more, and is currently working on getting the first one published. But what actually puts him in a situation where I’m talking about and highlighting and throwing cabbages at him is that there is a full serial story that he wrote: Vintage: A Fantasy Serial. It’s also a pretty fancy serial. It is free to read, which means I read it, liked it, finished reading it, and am now going to talk about it a bit. Because it turns out free stuff captures my attention. It’s what I’m doing, after all. Although I think “free stuff captures my attention” can be applied to 90% of the human race.

Aside from his website, it’s also available on Wattpad. Though Graham I came across simply by wondering around the internet. There happens to be one chapter only on Wattpad though because it is rated euphemism! Taking place in the same world as the novels he’s working n, it follows a French-inspired country trying to cut off magic, and particularly the power of witches, which a government organization sees as a threat to their power. A high-ranked officer whose job is to root out these witches gets to know one and questions his choices, though, and, hey, wait, I didn’t summarize or describe the story in the last highlight.

It’s actually been like half a year since I read Vintage, so let me try to recall my thoughts on it. The story felt like it evolved naturally and nothing felt out of place. This is the case even when some characters returned without that originally planned. (Later on Graham had some reflections and mentioned how the story originally was meant to be only 4 or 5 parts long, and thus he hadn’t made an outline–instead he developed each part as he wrote and, because he posted them as he wrote, he couldn’t go back to tweak things and had to move forward.)

The characters work well together, even–or perhaps especially–the fellow with never more than two words to say. Perhaps the setting could be expanded some more, but with this being in a world that other stories are being written in, I can see that being easy enough.

There’s also French words. Last time I talked about a book with fabricated words and a glossary, now I’m discussing one with real words that nevertheless are French and therefore I have even less of a clue about them. So, um… snails? Yeah, I didn’t really research this part.

I’m looking forward to when he gets his books published, whenever that is, but for now he has Vintage up for free, and, in the end, that might actually be the most important criteria for me having a highlight post about someone! No, wait, awesome story is most important. Free helps, though. It means I have something immediate to point readers to. Anyway, next time I run out of people. Wait, maybe not quite yet…

Author Highlight: Winston Malone

~ Duth Olec ~ 4 Comments

Oh, hello! In less than a week the next Darmenzi chapter is up, but I’m not here to talk about me for once. I’ve recently been reading a lot (or at least several) authors and comics and such things I’ve come across on the internet. I’m still looking, too. I’ve decided that hey, just because I’m not known at all doesn’t mean I can’t bring up awareness of other great creators. Every Friday I’m going to have a post about author I’ve found on the internet. At least until I run out of authors, which will probably happen in a month. Then I’ll just have to expand to other creativors.

So who will I begin with? I thought about it and figured I’d go with the most recent novel I read, over on Wattpad. Honestly I’m not too fond of the website because I don’t consider the text editor very good (but then what website’s IS?) and it kind of slows my laptop, but it seems decent enough to find new stuff to read. (Okay so out of three things I’ve read only one kept my interest but still.)

That would be Winston Malone from Georgia, definitely the hub for sci-fi-fantasy?? Okay look sorry Southern US but you’re not what people think when– What? Yes, I’m in Indiana, why do you– Okay but that’s– Fine, I’ll move on.

So Mr. Malone here has created a novel for a series called Stormfallen. The first book, The Decrepit Forest, has a first draft up on Wattpad, and quite frankly I find it hard to believe that it’s the first draft. It’s pretty good! I mean, you know, not perfect, but certainly at least second-draft level. Then again when I write a first draft I hardly even try to make it good, that business is for draft 2-15. But still, it’s pretty good.

The Decrepit Forest is a pretty character-driven saga, with, if I recall, at least 6 characters given focus at one time or another, maybe 7, plus at least one more with a scene focus. It’s a world without humans (hey, kinda like mine), though there are the Lorrellan. Each character feels full and interesting. They all have a history, and it’s interesting to see them interact. But as there are many characters, there are also many monsters.

Along with the character-driven side, there’s a significant amount of action, too. The world is under attack by a variety of demons, and there’s also political strife and, well, just regular ol’ anger that leads to fisticuffs and there’s also a really big axe. It never overstays its welcome though and remains gripping.

There’s a lot of fabricated words, though, I’ll say that. It has its own glossary, even. Of course, it’s to be expected for an alien world, but just keep in mind you’ll probably want to check the glossary every so often.

Wattpad doesn’t say exactly when the story was completed but it looks like it was just several months ago judging by the timing of some comments? It looks like more is to come, and I can definitely see this going places. I recommend it (that’s the whole point of this post series, after all), and I’ll be watching. Now can someone tell me how to end a blog post? That will suffice? Okay!

What I’ve Been Reading In: April (plus a look at an angry suitcase)

~ Duth Olec ~ Leave a comment

That’s right, it’s time for another look at what I’ve been rea- What? You want to know what I’ve been recently writing?

Yyyeah, I’ve been working on stuff, but for my next novel, I’ve still got people looking it over for me. I want it to be the best it can be, and I definitely want it read beforehand–I do some weird things in it and want to make sure it’s not too out there. Rest assured, though, I am always working on things; none of these things will ever directly make me any money, but you will be able to see them someday when they’re ready.

*sits down and plays video games for several hours*

Oh, right, the stuff I’ve read. Well, April was a time for Discworld, as I finally read the next book in the series, Eric. But not just Eric, the illustrated Eric. The illustrations are all very nice (a great deal nicer than the rather mundane covers the Harper Collins versions use), but I’m a writer so let’s get to the story. It was all right, maybe a little disjointed, but was fun. I’d actually read the play Doctor Faustus for a class in college, so I had some background in it that. And in going over it in my head, I seem to remember one small part in particular, a sort of inversion to the grandfather paradox wherein Rincewind remarks that time travel only seemed appealing in order to kill your own grandfather.

Anyway, while on the subject of a Rincewind story, which means The Luggage can’t be too far behind, something occurred to me about The Luggage while reading this story: it’s an overpowered character. But the kicker here is, The Luggage just doesn’t care. Not in a “life is meaningless” sense, but in a “i don’t care if this IS a physical impossibility, I’M GONNA DO IT” sense.

Most of the time badly-written overpowered characters–you know, like Mary Sues–make a point to show this power, and beats everybody with grace and style and- bu- ju- ih- gh- just, The Luggage just doesn’t care. It’ll just mow over people like they’re ants. Most people in online role plays (oh boy, time to confuse a bunch of people!), if they are called out for god-modding, would stop and complain that they aren’t god-modding. The Luggage would basically just shrug (despite having no shoulders) and then eat them, with no regard for “rules” or “common decency” or “code of conduct” or “logic”.

And that’s why it’s amazing. Because it just doesn’t care. It’s just angry.

Also why it can turn a chimera into pudding (see: Sourcery)

Moving on, the next Discworld book is Moving Pictures, which I would probably rank actually as one of my favorites. The story was interesting, though the backstory may have been a little hazy (yet at the same time a little obvious), and characters were fun. I always like good characters, and Victor’s carefree-until-he’s-at-risk-of-getting-a-care-at-which-point-he-cares-vastly-about-getting-back-to-being-carefree attitude was interesting. I also liked Gaspode’s rough snark contrasted with reluctant loyalty. Clearly he is a diamond in the rough. Or quartz in the alley. I dunno.

And finally, we come to Reaper Man. I like the character of Death. He’s strangely spontaneous, though I suppose death can happen at any time, so spontaneity wouldn’t be too far out of character. The thing about Reaper Man though is, I would say it’s an okay story, but really it’s an okay two stories. There are two different stories going on here. Both of them have the same root cause, but they don’t really cross at any point. One story seemed to have a rather abrupt climax with a hazy conclusion, the most of it before and the ending was pretty good, while the other sort of comes out of left field with no prior suggestion of it. So it was a little confusing there. Can’t say it’s one I particularly like, but I guess you win some, you lose some.

So what’s next? Well, it turns out the next Discworld novel is not one my library has. Whoops. They have the ebook version, but my stance on that stands at that being the cheap version. But that’s okay; I was wanting to try and read some books by independent authors; you know, people basically in the same circumstance I am, except maybe a little more well-known because let’s face it no one is less-known than I am. So I might look into that. Also maybe read Machine of Death, whiiich my library does have. I came up with my own idea regarding the machine of death recently, actually, so clearly I must read the two collections involving it to make sure the idea hasn’t been used.

That’s it for now, see you in another month probably!

Recent Readings: Whenever I Get to it Edition?

~ Duth Olec ~ Leave a comment

I’m bad at doing things like this. I actually made a Goodreads profile some time ago, added some books I’d read (mostly the ones I wrote about in my last Recent Readings), and then couldn’t get myself to add all the other stuff sitting on my mini-bookcase. I might get around to it eventually, who knows? Regardless, this is even more work. It involves writing about other writing. Writing!

There’s not a whole lot to report on, actually, though. I guess first I’ll mention Fox’s Bride by A.E. Marling; I mentioned his first book, Brood of Bones, in the previous RailRoad, and since then I bought and read what I’m going to assume works as a sequel, since it features the same protagonist. Once again it has the sort of mystery feel to it, but less so than the first.

I have to say, though, a character who starts out seeming important ends up dwindling in importance until he’s almost forgotten… almost. Inannis the thief has a rather important role in the first half but then appears in something like one scene in the second half. It just seems like a weird shift in this character’s role, and he just sort of disappears from events. I guess it makes sense, but it’s still seems jarring, and I’m still not entirely sure what his whole deal was. Plus that one scene in the second half doesn’t give any insight on what happens after and seems kind of out of place. Apparently there’s a bonus epilogue scene with him you can get online, but leaving something like that available outside of the book? Who would do that? What’s that? A message from my future self saying I do that all the time with minor characters? Well then.

The other books I’ve been reading lately–aside from some rereading–is finishing A Series of Unfortunate Events, after having read the first four in the last Rest&Relaxation. The series certainly picks up; the first, about, six or so books could be seen to all follow a very similar structure, but then it starts to change as mysteries open up and then fold over themselves. And, of course, throughout the dark themes and confusing puzzles, the writing is always very silly, though in a serious manner. It’s all treated seriously, no matter how silly it is. Repeating yourself in a looping sentence only to end it by revealing it as a distraction to hide a letter in the narration? Amazing, I say!

Funnily enough, the series also leaves a lot of open-ended stuff, to make note back to Inannis, from Fox’s Bride, but in the case of this series the things left behind are given attention. The unexplained details are left in a shroud. (I read that the last book had some criticism in leaving so many unsolved mysteries. If you want mysteries solved, then never ever read The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster. NEVER.

That’s what I’ve been reading lately. As for what I’ve been writing, still working on that… lots of planning…

Updates, Forthcoming Site Addition, Peer Reviews!!

~ Duth Olec ~ Leave a comment

What have I been doing the past month? Well, with almost 40% of my time now taken up by taking calls from people looking for health insurance…

I’ve been writing the end of the novel I started with NaNoWriMo in November. Almost 85,000 words total puts it at the longest work I’ve ever written. Now to set it aside until probably Darmenzi comes out, so let’s jump back and talk about that.

As of now I’m having Darmenzi looked over by a couple people. In some places this is referred to as “beta reading” but that sounds kinda weird. Regardless, it’s out of my hands for a month or two but hey, are any writers reading this? Got anything you want someone to look at? I’m someone! Or so I tell myself in the mirror every day. While making stupid faces at myself.

But yeah, since I have a book I need looking over, if anyone out there who might happen to read this is in the same situation, I have some time and a book. I haven’t the slightest clue if any writers pay attention to this place (or if anyone in general), but I thought I’d throw it out there just in case! Note that if anyone does take up the offer, the only genre I can fit it in is something regarding humor, adventure, and some mix of fantasy and science fiction. I’m up for just about whatever but would probably be most helpful with something regarding those, um, genres? Yeah, let’s go with that word.

Okay, one more thing, let’s jump back again to Slubes. On Friday I’ll be adding something to the site related to it. It’s not huge, and it already exists, but it’s a thing that’s not on the site yet and probably should have been but whatever, I’m getting to it…

Recent Readings: and by Recent, I Mean…

~ Duth Olec ~ Leave a comment

First, I didn’t give up on having a new post every few days–I just realized it’s a stupid thing to hold myself too. Why force myself to come up with something that wouldn’t be very good and thus worth it? So I’ll just make a post when something comes up. Did I mention I got back to revising my next book? Anyway, I wrote all this… over a month ago, I think, and was just waiting to finish the last of the books I bought a month or two ago before I posted it.

So back in the days of my youth I didn’t read very much. Then I became a writer and realized “oh ,carp, I should start reading more!” So, I did. One summer I read the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series. I need to read them again, since I never read the one written after Douglas Adams’ death. So I won’t be saying anything on them. Instead, I’ll go back to last fall.

Bwobwobluwobwoblu time warp sounds

One Month Later: The Liebster Award, finally

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Liebster. In German it means darling. Wait, no, sweetheart. Wait, I mean, what article does it start with? Die? Der? Das? Wait, wait, let me start over.

Liebster. In English it means “that’s not how you spell lobster you nimrod”. You know what, never mind. It means interview for the purposes of this seafood. Post. Blaarg.

So over a month ago my good friend Phil Schipper tagged me with this Liebster Award, wherein I discuss the number 11 a lot for some reason. Now, like the last of these tag-interview-things I did, I still dunno anybody, so if anybody wants a tag, just ask! Don’t be shy! Eat a pie!

So, to start, I’m supposed to list 11 random facts ‘bout myself.

Weeell…

“The Coming-Up Bigger-Than-a-Breadbox Thingamajiggy” Blog Hop

~ Duth Olec ~ 1 Comment

I mean The Next Big Thing. *insert harp music here* BLAARG HARP

Apparently I was tagged to do an interview thing and… then tagged to do another interview thing. I wanted to wait until I had more solid information on when Slubes could possibly come out, but because of my fear of commitment this probably won’t happen until I’d be able to have released it three days earlier. I can announce that I’ve formatted the file for the physical copy though, so things are progressing! I will once again remark that if there are still errors I will haaaate myself.

So, here’s a secret: I really like answering questions and doing stuff like this. It may go on a bit long. I was tagged by Landphil over here, and—wait. I need to tag people, don’t I? Uhh. Does that involve going out into the wild and tranquilizing something? Because I don’t even like going outside the front door. Do you know how much not-air-conditioning is out there??

Okay look I don’t even know anybody. I’m just gonna deal with this at the end because IT’S QUESTION TIME Endless Interview →