I just finished up three days at Minicon 58 in the Twin Cities. Set up my table, laid out my books, sat on some panels, and talked with other authors. Made some sales. Had some conversations.
Overall, it was a great weekend. Longer thoughts to follow.
Behold….my books!
My Table
My set up is pretty decent, as you can see from the picture. The table banner looks a lot better than that rolled up poster I used to have. I think putting the free pictures under the plastic sheet really helps keep them from moving around, and putting the business cards in card holders instead of spreading them out just keeps the table clear. It just looks more orderly than previous tables.
Talking with visitors is getting better. My elevator pitch for the two Renaissance Army books is okay, or at least I feel comfortable with it. I had to work through a few iterations of the Champion Bold pitch before I found one that felt right. I’ll probably practice some more before the next event.
There are a few things I’ll want to do in the future. for starters, I’m going to need to get something vertical to hold my books up, since I’m already going to have several more books once the supplements come in, and I’m going to be adding more titles in the future. Another idea I want to do is get some reviews off Amazon and Goodreads and put them up for people to read.
And, maybe, get some cool sci-fi videos for my picture display.
The Panels
I was on three panels at Minicon: Procrastination or Preparation, A Sense of Wonder in Sci-Fi, and Dealing with Writer’s Block.
I’m not going to bore you with details about each panel. They went well. I participated in discussions, responded to questions. I still felt like the junior member of the panels, but by most standards I probably am. It’s not like imposter syndrome is going to go away just because I want it to.
If I was to acknowledge one critique, I need to work on ending my response. More than once, I would say my bit, then sort of babble for a bit. What I need to do is say my thing, and the be done.
Readings
I was scheduled for one reading, I did two.
My individual reading was Friday afternoon, and no one came. Unfortunately, it was left off the schedule by accident, one of about half a dozen events that faced such a challenge. I don’t take it personally; it happens. I ended up sitting in my room reading my eBook for half an hour.
Later Friday night, I was approached by another author. he had assembled an Indie Author Reading Buffet; a handful of authors, reading for ten to fifteen minutes, but several of the authors had dropped out, and he was looking for readers. I had a copy of Champion Bold on the cloud, so I read as part of the group. Got at least one sale out of it.
From what I gather, this may be something we see more of in the future. Groups of authors reading in panels, rather than individuals sitting in rooms. I’m hoping that will mean more chances to read: a fantasy panel, a scifi panel, etc. We’ll see how they set it up next year.
Conclusion
Was it worth it? Absolutely. I made some sales of the new book, and had a lot of people ask about Book 3, which has to be my primary project for the rest of the year. I made some contacts and opened up some opportunities over the next few months that I want to take advantage of. There may be more announcements coming in the near future.
For now, I’m recovering from the con and prepping for the next projects. Looking forward to having at least one new title for next year.
The last book in Philippa Gregory’s historical fiction series covering the Wars of the Roses and the Tudors, the Other Queen is about the imprisonment of Mary, Queen of Scotts, between fall of 1568 and summer of 1572. It follows three characters: Mary and her two captors, George Talbot, the 6th Earl of Shrewsbury, and his wife, Bess of Hardwick. Each character is experiencing personal hardship in this story, watching their world fall apart in their own way.
Did I like this book? Hard to say. For most of it, yes. I liked that each character provided a unique view of the events. I felt compassion for each of them, though only one of them I felt came out (mostly) untainted at the end. But then it ended in a way that just killed my enjoyment: I’ll explain at the end of the post after a spoiler’s tag.
First, I want to discuss the characters.
Mary, Queen of Scotts
Image courtesy of Wikipedia
Mary, Queen of Scotts, is a prisoner of the English Crown. She has the claim to several thrones — including England’s — and is married or engaged to several suitors. She is eager to head back to Scotland and reclaim her birthright.
The character of Mary is a frustrating one. On the one hand, you understand her position completely. She does not believe she deserves to be there. Afterall, she is a crowned queen away from her throne, a mother away from her child. She believes she is divinely chosen to rule, and her confinement and the restrictions placed upon her are an insult. All that comes through.
But with that strong belief comes the conviction that she can lie and scheme to get what she wants without consequence. From her perspective, every action is warranted. So, the book is her plotting her escape and her revenge, or bemoaning the failure of whatever plot almost worked.
Mary gains sympathy because she’s a woman denied her right as a queen and her freedoms as a person. But she squanders it by arrogantly plotting. At the same time, what else can she do? She’s helpless, and fighting against being helpless, which brings us right back to sympathetic.
George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury
Image courtesy of Wikipedia
George Talbot is the nobleman selected by the English crown to hold Mary Queen of Scotts for a time. He is eager to do his duty to Queen Elizabeth, but as the story progresses, begins to find himself drawn more and more to Mary’s cause.
George is the second most frustrating character of the three.
He is an honorable man. When he was a judge as Queen Mary’s trial (before the start of the book) he judged her not guilty because the evidence was not sufficient, despite pressure to find her guilty just to be rid of her. He tries to do the right thing in a court where the right thing often changes as the whims of Queen Elizabeth and her senior advisor, William Cecil.
But when Mary comes into his household, he falls for her. As an honorable man, this tears as his soul. He wants to serve her, but he has a queen; he wants to love her, but he has a wife. George wants to believe the best of her, despite constant evidence that she plots and schemes.
This is where George fails. He’s an honorable man, but he refuses to navigate the world he lives in. Not that he can’t: he refuses.
George constantly hopes that the world will right itself and come into focus the way he wants it to. But he knows it won’t. He could take steps to protect Mary or Bess, but he doesn’t. He keeps hoping for a solution, but refuses to do anything to bring one about, because any solution he can bring about won’t be what he wants. in the end, he does one thing to mitigate the consequences of his action; I’ll discuss that in the next section.
Rich and politically powerful, but emotionally powerless.
Bess of Hardwick, Countess of Shrewsbury
Image courtesy of Wikipedia
Bess, wife of George, is the third character, and the only one who doesn’t lose me by the end of the book.
A lady of some means, Bess is on her fourth marriage, and has amassed a sizable amount of wealth in land and items to pass along to her children. She is a competent manager, balancing income and expenses in account books that she proudly knows back and forth. Bess has the character and confidence of a self-made woman.
When Mary is sent to their household. Bess sees the danger. As a queen, Mary expects a certain lifestyle that the hosts must pay for. The monthly allowance from Queen Elizabeth’s government is not nearly enough, nor is it consistently paid. Instead, they must drain their accounts and mortgage their lands to pay for the queen’s mini-court. All of which endangers the wealth Bess wants to leave to her children.
Bess is the opposite of George: she is realistic where he is idealistic. She does not expect to be paid. She is also an agent of William Cecil, Elizabeth’s most trusted advisor, and informs on Mary’s activities to the crown.
Why is Bess the only character who doesn’t lose me by the end of the book? Probably because she’s the only one who’s story isn’t dominated by their character flaw. Mary loses me because she’s too self-centered; George because he’s too idealistic and naive. But Bess knows she’s in danger and does her best, hoping to endure until she can survive or thrive.
She does survive, but only because George takes a step to separate their fortunes. This is what I alluded to last section; the one thing George does to mitigate the consequences of his actions, and it’s for Bess, not for himself. He gives her back the lands and fortunes she had at the time of their marriage, in exchange for her forgiving the debts he owes her. She comes out none the richer for her marriage, but she still retains everything she wanted to pass along to her children.
Not perfect, but the better of the three characters.
Spoiler – My Annoyance
Now we get to the spoiler ending bit. If you don’t want to know, don’t read beyond this.
Now.
Okay.
For real this time.
Here we go.
The book is primarily set between Autumn 1568 and June 1572. Within that nearly four-year period, Mary sees her rises and falls, George falls in love and falls out of favor, and Bess has to divorce her husband in her mind if not by law. Sounds good, right?
The last chapter is set fifteen years later. Bess hears about the execution of Mary, and spends several pages considering the last fifteen years. how Mary entrapped and involved those around her in her schemes and how many of them paid with her. How her husband became so attached to Mary that he wept at her execution. And how Bess worked hard to distance herself from both and protect herself.
Makes sense, doesn’t it? Why not? What better way is there to cover fifteen years of events? I agree.
So why does it bother me?
Because it is set up as just another chapter. As a reader, I found it jarring to go from weekly or monthly advances to more than a decade without warning. It pulled me from the flow of reading to sit back and figure out what was happening.
Now, it is true that the chapters all start with dates on them. And yes, if I was paying more attention to the dates maybe I wouldn’t have found it all the more jarring. But perfect readers are rare, and I can’t fathom why you wouldn’t label this last chapter the epilogue, or put a break page with a ‘fifteen years later’ announcement. Anything to keep the reader informed.
Completely jarring.
Conclusion
I’m glad I read this book. The characters were well written. Their flaws are front and center and truly debilitating, even fatal, to their well being. The end was jarring, but not enough to put me off or re-reading it.
What’s truly memorable is that this is the last book in the series. I’m now done with it. I’ll probably do a reflection blog post on the series at some point. But for now, I’ll just appreciate finishing the series.
March was a good month. I finished the Champion Bold revisions. The paperbacks are sitting at home. The hardcovers are on their way. The supplement second round of proofs are sitting on my table waiting for revisions. I had my first event of the year, getting people interested in my new book and having people ask about book 3 of Sasha’s series.
It was a good month.
Projects
Finishing Champion Bold has been big. Not only do I feel better about getting a project done, but I’m ready and eager to tackle the next ones. and with the BPRG system, I believe I can get them done quicker and to the table faster than the last few books.
I still have to finish the supplements. The books have a number of minor adjustments to make to some images and formatting, but they do need to be done before I can say ‘complete!’ So, I’ll get them done.
Oncethis project is done, then I’ll focus on the next two projects: Book 3 of Sasha’s story (The Colonel Lieutenant) and the sequel to Champion Bold (titled Champion Impact). There are other projects I have in development that I’m not giving up on, but those are the two big ones.
April goals
Sasha 3: Re-game and re-write the big campaign
ChamImp: Finish plotting process
ChamImp: Get forms out to backers
Other projects: Knock 10 things off to-do list
Books
Angel Fire East (eBook; Fiction)
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (Non-Fiction)
Idiot’s Guide to Game Theory (Research)
War and Peace (Audiobook; Fiction)
Image courtesy of Amazon
To my frustration, I did not finish any books this month. I made good progress in both Angel Fire East and Sapiens. Also, I re-started Game Theory at my new reading desk station in my new place. War and Peace is my new free audiobook/podcast at work. the 10-15 minute runtime per chapter work for those short time periods just before lunch.
What’s really bad is this puts me at four books read for the year so far. My goal is 36, so I should be at nine. I’m five books behind schedule. I’ll need to pick up the pace a bit.
Oh, darn. I need to read more. How terrible. (End sarcasm.)
April Goals
Finish Angel Fire East
Finish Sapiens
Finish Idiot’s Guide to Game Theory
Start and finish one fiction book.
Start and finish one non-fiction book.
Movies and Shows
Image courtesy of Wikipedia
Shazam: Fury of the Gods
Pacific Rim: Uprising
New Mutants
Marvel: What If? (Season 2)
Knocked a good number of things off my watch list this month, and yes, most of them were so I could watch them on the fixit podcast I listen to. But honestly, none of them were as bad as I thought they would be.
They weren’t great, and I see why they didn’t take off, but they weren’t terrible. This is going to be quick and short.
Shazam: Fury of the Gods had a decent underlying story. But it suffered from spending too much time with the superhero characters and not enough time with the children.
Pacific Rim: Uprising had an odd plot: it kind of made sense, but it didn’t quite feel right. The rest of it was a lot of the right parts that did not fit together well enough to make a good movie.
New Mutants was probably the closest to a good movie of the three, and the one I most wanted to be good. But there were too many ‘good idea, but they didn’t think it through’ plot holes. Which is a shame, because it wasted Maisie Williams, Anya Taylor Joy and Charlie Heaton.
Finally, Marvel: What If? Season 2. Nine episodes of alternative Marvel histories that wrap up with an overall narrative. All of the episodes were good. And I want to give a particular shout out to Episode 6, with the dialogue almost entirely in Mohawk and Spanish.
April Goals
Watch one Best Picture winner (3 left)
Watch two of four remaining Fix-It titles
Finish one started TV title
Start new TV show
Games
Image courtesy of Wikipedia
Baldur’s Gate 3
Space Marine 2
Madden 25
Football Club 25
Started two new games this month. One, Football Club 25, it one I got for me and my roommate to play against each other alongside Madden 25. Football and football. What a treat.
I also started Space Marine 2. I wanted a game that was fun and didn’t require a lot of thinking and planning. Just get in, shoot and fight. And nothing says simple shoot and fight like a Warhammer 40K game.
April Goals
Advance to next chapter of BG 3
Advance to next chapter of AC Odessey
Advance to next chapter of RDR 2
What’s Coming Up
I’ve got a convention coming up Easter weekend; I’m excited because I’ll have my new books ready for it. At least, the paperback copies. The hardcover copies are on their way.
I’m also planning a book launch party in May. I don’t know dates yet, but I will post when I know.
Logical Lou and Creative Cal enjoy a leisurely morning after working hard to finish a book.
Right now, it is Sunday morning. I’m sitting in my normal coffee shop with a cup of coffee and a box of homemade cinnamon sugar donut holes. It’s lightly raining outside. The paperback copies of Champion Bold are sitting on my dining room table; the hardcovers are on order. The supplement proofs (round 2) are on their way. I have nothing I have to do this Sunday morning. So, I’m going to reflect.
Champion Bold will be my first book in six years. I’m hoping my next book, either The Colonel Lieutenant (Sasha book 3) or Champion Impact (the sequel to Champion Bold), or perhaps some other project, will be published next year. Maybe, more than one. But if I’m going to do that, I need to be faster and more efficient at my writing and my editing.
So, in this post, I’m going to write down some lessons I’ve learned from this process. Some of this may be obvious, and some of this may be things I’ve touched on in past blog posts. But I mean to assemble all these little bits in one post that I can reference as I’m working on future projects. This is particularly true with the graphic intensive supplement books, which were quite a new experience for me to deal with.
And now, the lessons. In no particular order:
Do the world building first
I’m already doing a whole blog series on why this is important and the PBRG process I’ve developed for projects. But working on the supplement books for Champion Bold, there were several instances where I added stuff that could have been great in the book, if I had built it before hand. But it would have been too much to shoehorn it in afterwards. Build first, write second.
Check and proof constantly
Scrivener doesn’t have a great spell and edit checking program, not like Word or other dedicated text programs. And a lot of time at the end of Champion Bold was spent spell checking and edit proofing. Processing chapters earlier through Word would have saved time at the end.
Add words to the dictionary
You can reset the dictionary of a Word editor pretty easily. This is helpful when your science fiction story includes alien names that count as over two thousand spelling errors. It’s a lot easier to catch that you mixed up reasonably and responsibility when you’re not wading through 500+ uses of the word Bendradi.
Use page breaks to control the flow
Converting a document from word to PDF really messes with the layout. Particularly in the supplement books. What looked nice in word, with two pages per section, was suddenly all over the place. Using page breaks to control the flow of the document is necessary.
Put images in front of text
I found this out almost by accident. Unless the image is surrounded by text, put it ‘in front of text’, which gives you a lot more flexibility in controlling where it goes. This is particularly helpful with full-page images; I could have the heading information in the back and covered with the image. Worked out really well.
Print color pages before proofs
The biggest surprise with the first supplement proofs was how much darker everything was on page. Wasn’t noticeable with my first printed books because the the images weren’t too important (the Renaissance Calling backer book) or were in black and white (Templar Scholar). But when you’re printing pictures of spaceships against starfields, it matters. Print in color to see how different a printed picture is against what shows up on a bright monitor.
More time for proofing PDFs
One thing I did well this round that I learned from earlier books was to spend time proofing the printed proofs. But I could definitely improve on spending time proofing the PDF proof that KDP offers. It might save time, or at least a round of physical printing.
Highlight the word ‘said’
I did this late in the project and it was good, but a mind-numbing process. I did a search for the word ‘said’, then clicked next. Wherever I found sequences of the word appearing many times in a short amount of time, I fixed it. I chose different words, or removed or changed dialogue so it didn’t need a word. It felt better afterwards. I only wish I had done it sooner, and by chapter, instead of with the entire document at once.
Put the publishing date a long ways out
When you’re setting up the publishing date in KPD or Ingram Spark, put it a long ways out, months away. Unless you have a deadline coming up (and if you do, by all means pay attention to it), there’s no reason to give yourself an artificial one.
Work on all editions of the book simultaneously
Don’t do the hardcover, then the paperback, then the eBook. If there’s one minor change between one edition an another, that can be really frustrating to let through, or to fix. Do all editions at the same time, and fix them all at the same time.
And so on…
With Champion Bold finished and the supplement either done or one short revamp away from completion, I’m ready to move onto the next project (or projects, given how my mind works). This weekend was a nice, relaxing reset from the harsh editing of the last month, and it’ll be good to get back into writing and creating. And I believe the next project will go smoother, both in the writing and the publishing, thanks to lessons learned, written down, and not forgotten.
This section covers anything where I’m building a background. This can range from a few important dates in the history of a city to a three-page biography of the main character to a ten-page report on the migrations of orcish tribes across a continent.
Why Write Histories
Writing a history provides several benefits. The first is consistency. If I know the year of a big cultural event, I can make sure it’s the same year every time it comes up. Same thing with the name of the school the characters attended, the name of the hero of centuries past, etc.
Second, characters and groups within the story will make decision, and those decision will often be influence by their histories. A nation will be wary of neighbor with a history of raiding nearby cities for plunder. A character who biography includes travel to a city will react differently than one who has never been there before.
What does the Story Need?
I start with the same question: what does this story need?
Logical Lou likes his lists
Through the PBRG process and looking at the Outline, I will have a good starting list of nations, cities, regions and people to work on. I don’t need to add every minor character or location to the list, but it should not be a small list.
Creating the list is one thing; staying focused is another. I was a history major, and I love going off on creative historical tangents while I’m world building. Do I need to work out the name of every ship in a fleet from 300 years ago? Or every monarch for a nation that’s existed for a thousand years? No, but part of me really wants to.
What does the entry need?
For each entry on the list, I think about what I need to build for it. And I don’t just mean in terms of length. I mean what topics do I need to focus on when I’m building the history or biography. Do I need to focus on political events of the city? The character’s education as they grew up? Having more info is great, but I want to ensure that I hit the important points while I’m doing my work, otherwise all it it’s for nothing.
Simple or Complicated
How simple or complicated any particular note has to be is pretty much a judgment call, based on my evaluation of the story and the topic in question. Where possible, I try to err on the side of ‘too much’ information, so that I have it and don’t need it.
Truth, Myth and Interpretation
This is something I actually have a hard time doing, because as a historian I kept researching to find the truth, so building incorrect history into the preparations can be difficult for me. But it’s something I have to incorporate into the prepared history. It could be due to the distance in the past, or because of conflicting stories, or deliberate misinformation. But not everyone has an interest in preserving the truth. And that should be reflected in the history.
Histories in Theory – Building the History
Once I have my to-do list, it’s time to get to work.
I’ve found the best way to approach histories is with a mixture of spreadsheets and word documents. The spreadsheets are great for timelines, where I can re-order and use filters to assist in the listing process. Especially when I’m doing myths, rumors and multiple interpretations, extra columns come in handy.
Writing histories: world building in 4D.
The word docs are for short reports or even short stories on the topics I need to expand on. Again, I want to have prepared more than I’ll need.
Historical Research
Preparing any history is going to involve some amount of research. It could be the average length of a renaissance lord’s reign, or the development of a certain technology, but I expect to take a lot of notes.
And I mean take notes. I can’t begin to tell you how many times I looked something up and incorporated it into my draft, and then couldn’t find the resource later. Oops, I hope I got it right the first time.
What I’ve started doing is having folders of screen shots, PDFs of articles or word docs of notes regarding specific things I’ve had to look up. Many of my scrivinr projects have link pages, so I can keep track of important and helpful websites, or the notes copied and pasted into the project itself.
But Michael, isn’t Research the next step? We are still in the world building phase.
Yes, but I mentioned that the steps are all intertwined. Research is part of working through each other step, as much as working through each step creates more topics to research.
Research, then record what you find, so you don’t have to research again.
Drawing on Real History
Researching historical parallels and characters is helpful, no doubt. But it’s important to remind yourself that you’re building a new thing, so it does not have to follow historical precedence exactly.
For example, if you’re building the history of an empire similar to ancient Rome, it doesn’t have to follow Rome exactly. Maybe it remained a republic, or maybe it never was. It doesn’t have to fall and splinter.
Same thing with characters. A character who is a great statesman does not have to follow the same biography of Abraham Lincoln or Winston Churchill. The research is meant to provide ideas for how life shapes the individual into who they need to be for the story.
Histories in Practice – The General of the Pen
Okay, so let’s take a look at what sort of histories I’ll prepare for the General of the Pen. I’m not going to worry about the history of the entire world. I’m going to build a timeline for the continent and the valley, and then some biographies of some of the major characters.
Overview and Influence
The nature of the story is analogous to the French Revolution in many aspects, so my focus is on cultural and political aspects. Social incidents are also common, and as I want the technological level to be further along the 19th Century, I’ll add a few notes about how long-ago trains, telegraphs and rifles artillery was invented and incorporated.
History of the Continent
This history is not going to be too detailed, otherwise I’d be recording events covering thousands of years of history, across hundreds of thousands of square miles for even a small-ish sized continent. My goal is to establish a few years of important events in the cultural and political development.
Let’s start in the stone age: there were tribes and city-states of several different cultures, whose names are unimportant. Then came the bronze age and two civilizations started to dominate on opposite ends of the continent: the Germanic peoples of the northwest (whom we’ll call the Nerweier), and the Latin peoples of the southeast (whom we’ll call the Soreran).
Ancient History
The two civilizations developed their influence, slowly dominating the people of the continent through military, political, social or economic power. By the Iron Age, certain city-states had developed into two great Empires, the Konigsen Empire of the northwest and the Ferran Empire of the southwest. The two met and clashed across the continent several times, but were unable to conquer each other due to a number of factors: terrain, size of the armies, and simple technological limitations.
And let’s not forget another important aspect of building histories: developing the calendar for the world. How do they measure days, months and years? How do they name them?
The Ferran capital was destroyed by invaders from the south, which left their provinces to act as independent nations for a time. Konigsen took advantage to secure a superior position and remained dominant for several generations, but was rent by several civil wars that kept it from conquering the entire continent.
Modern History
Several of the Ferran successor states grew to be regional powers in their own right. One of them, the southwestern power of Sur-Marais, developed into an empire. Its initial wealth came from gold mines and domination of some trade routes. Savvy political maneuvering and military decisions by the Sur-Marais leadership won it hegemony over much of the continent.
Within the last few years, something has happened that has begun to alienate the other states. Perhaps it is an internal event to Sur-Marais. Perhaps it is increased education or cultural development within the successor states. But something has happened that now, a big war is expected between the dominant power and the smaller states of the continent.
Dates
Events
~3,000 years ago
Nerweier and Soreran Cultures rise to prominence
~1,500 years ago
Empires of Konigson and Ferran form
800 years ago
Ferran capital destroyed
400 – 500 years ago
Konigson civil wars
300 – 350 years ago
Rise of Sur-Marais
History of the Valley
With the history of the continent prepared, I can focus on the valley where the story is going to take place. Here I can add start with the base timeline of the continent and then add some valley specific events.
The valley of the story (The Valley of the Sky, or Valle del Cielo) is a long valley high in the mountains of Campilesia. Campilesia was one of the earliest provinces of the Ferran Empire: it resisted for a few generations but then became ‘civilized’. Northern warriors raided several times over the centuries, but never conquered the valley.
When the Ferran Empire fractured, Campilesia came under the control of the local governor, whose family ruled as petty kings for several generations before a trio of brothers split the kingdom into even smaller states. Over another century, Campilesia existed as a disorganized series of city and regional powers, none strong enough to conquer another.
With the rise of the Sur-Marais, Campilesia fell into line, the petty nobles and monarchs succumbing to the hegemony of the rising power. They remained unorganized politically, but culturally connected. With submission came stability and prosperity, and eventually the rise of political movements who question their submission to Sur-Marais. And these groups are prepared to take advantage of the chaos.
History of the Characters
Looking back at Post 4: Planning and Plotting in Practice, we have a list of various characters that we expect to find in the story. For each character I know we’ll need, I want to prepare at least a basic background, something that include their upbringing and experiences that lead them to this point of the story.
Gerhard Van Rumm:A mid-level general, late thirties or early forties, who fought in the Konigsen armies. He is on leave and is in Campilesia for his health. I will work out his educational background and some campaign honors, and maybe some personal events that will make him inclined to help an independence movement.
Alonso de Mendoza: A man of some wealth and experience and unlimited energy. He is a friend of Gerhard, and wants his experience and expertise for the rebellion. He has led a blessed life and is the sort of charismatic leader we all love to hate. I will work out his life story, filled with adventures, close calls, multiple love interests, and a growing demand for the independence of Campilesia.
Joel Villarreal: A man of limited wealth, self-educated and determined. He does not appreciate Gerhard; he wants to Campilesia completely independent, without outside help, thank you very much. He is the sort of naive firebrand that revolutions are built on. His background will involve a lot of heartbreak and conflict with the authorities. Despite this, he does love his country.
Mara Carmen Capitan: A merchant’s daughter of wealth but not of noble blood. She is the love interest of Gerhard. She is educated, but I haven’t figured out how I want her romance with Gerhard to go. So her background will be fairly neutral at this point. A lot of events, but not much in the way of substance.
How does this change the story?
Building the history of the world and the biographies of the characters influences the story. Don’t believe me? Let’s consider General of the Pen.
Creative Cal considers the consequences
Before this post, Gerhard Van Rumm was just a foreign officer who was in the area and became part of the rebellion. Now he’s from a military tradition whose lineage goes back centuries if not millennia. His friend is now a nobleman — or close to it — who does things that are rarely if ever unsuccessful. His detractor is a man who works for the people: we as readers will question is he’s as altruistic as he claims, or if he has ulterior motives. And his love interest has a name and a bit of a background, though much of her story is being left alone for now.
And their world now has names and histories attached. The local people have a strong cultural cohesion but not a political one; they’ll have to build that themselves. Similar stories are playing out in other regions, as the upper political turmoil of the greater empire is being removed and the nations are forced to fend for themselves.
Questioning the story
And now, this beings me to something that happens often during world building: when an idea forms that could make the story better, but changes it drastically.
In the original idea for General of the Pen, the southern empire (Sur-Marais) was the big bad, and over the course of the series would be the threat that the protagonists must fight. As the Campilesians form their politics and their armies and fight back, Sur-Marais sends bigger and bigger armies to reinforce their rule. The Campilesia and other former provinces of Sur-Marais combine to oppose the empire in a coalition.
But what if that wasn’t the case? What if we followed a different story?
What if the former provinces face off against each other? Campilesia doesn’t have to worry about Sur-Marais, but about their neighbors to every other direction. Why would they trust their neighbors anymore than they would trust their former overlords? Wouldn’t it make sense for Campilesia to seize that important city or strategic pass and then send diplomatic representatives? Realpolitics come first, right?
Or, I could mix the two. Sur-Marais is the threat, and the Coalition is forming. But the Coalition is rocky, and realpolitics is making things difficult.
The fact is that I don’t have to make a choice right now. I can plot a few options and prepare some possibilities, but we’re still world building. I’ve got time to consider options. I’ll make a decision at some point. But not now.
Conclusion
Building the histories of the places, groups and people of a story creates consistency. It also fleshes out those places, groups and people by giving them more background, which gives their decisions and actions greater context.
Both of these benefits assist me as a writer. Being consistent in the first draft simplifies the revision process. And knowing backgrounds for decision making can assist in getting through writer’s block or plot decisions.
Hopefully, I’ve managed to explain my history world building thoughts without losing too many of you. Can you see where I could easily be distracted with fun story ideas and tangents?
Next up is the post on building Institutions and Organizations and how — and why — I need to do that ahead of time. Until next time.
February was filled with proofing the novel and filling out the supplements, and relaxing where I could with shows and movies.
Projects
For starters, I’ve got all five proof copies ordered and on their way: the hardcover and paperback editions for Champion Bold, and the three paperback supplements: Catalogue of Aliens, Encyclopedia Galactica, and Ship Recognition Guide.
When I wasn’t proofing and editing, I was working on other projects. Sasha’s Book 3, The Colonel Lieutenant, is the next big project, currently undergoing a major re-write. Other ones I want to focus on are the Champion Bold sequel, Champion Impact, and the fantasy novel, Orcfyre. Some minor projects I’m picking at are my American Civil War novelette series and some other science fiction and fantasy ideas I’m kicking around.
March Goals
Approve the proofs for publishing
Sasha Book 3: Finish Current Act Re-write
Sasha Book 3: Big End-Battle 2nd Wargame
Orcfyre: Act Re-distribution and outline
Other: Knock 10 things off my to-do lists.
Publish two blog posts.
Books
The Other Queen (Fiction)
The Best School in the World: West Point 1833-1866 (Non-Fiction)
Angel Fire East (eBook; Fiction)
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (Non-Fiction)
Image courtesy of Amazon
I actually managed to finish a pair of books this month, putting me only two books behind where I want to be right now. Not bad progress.
The first book was The Other Queen, the fifteen and last of Philippa Gregory’s historical fiction series. This one follows a period of time in Mary, Queen of Scott’s, life under incarceration, with her and her jailers as the characters. I’m working on the book report now, so I don’t want to say too much. Except that now with that done, I can do one of my other big reading projects.
I also finished The Best School in the World: West Point 1833-1866, a non-fiction book on West Point prior to and during the American Civil War. This one was research for several different projects of mine; I wanted to know what sort of curriculum West Point cadets went through, and how it differed from other contemporary European schools. I got a lot of good information from this book.
March Goals
Finish two fiction title
Finish one non-fiction title
Finish one research titles
Movies and Shows
Image courtesy of Wikipedia
Skeleton Crew
Oppenheimer
Shazam!
I made an effort to make time for movies and shows this month, and I knocked three titles off my list.
First, Oppenheimer, the biopic about the doctor who helped develop the a-bomb and then fell to post-war politics. I really likes this one, from the casting to the politics to the explanation of the physics. At no point did I feel like the movie was talking down to me, and that’s the least you can ask for when a movie is getting into atomic physics and red-scare politics.
Then there was Shazam, the superhero movie. I’ll be honest, the only reason I chose this one was because the sequel is on my fixit podcast and I want to see that before I listen to the podcast. But I actually really liked this one. It was funny, and exciting. Just adult enough to appreciate, without being too adult to not believe there are children involved. I’m glad I watched this one.
I also finished Star Wars: Skeleton Crew. I had a rough start to this one because I had to warm up to the children, but halfway through I came to appreciate them (and they had grown enough for me to like them). My final grade was going to depend on how the show wrapped up, and it ended really well. The kid’s space adventure gave them the skills and experience needed to win. Huzzah! Good show.
March Goals
Finish one started show
Start one new show
Watch one Best Picture Winner
Watch one other movie
Games
Baldur’s Gate 3
Madden 2025
Nothing much to say on the gaming front. I’m enjoying Baldur’s Gate 3 when I have time to play it. Haven’t touched any of my other games in a long time. My RPG characters are all still alive. The game I run is still going strong.
March Goals
Advance to next chapter of Baldur’s Gate 3
Advance story of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
Advance story of Red Dead Redemption 2
What’s Next
I have two events on the books.
First is the Literary Libations event on Saturday, March 22nd, at noon. I’ll be there with a number of other local authors, selling my books and trying not to buy more. I’ll also be doing a reading of some sort. See details here.
Image from the event Facebook page.
I also have a table at Minicon 58, April 18 – 20, 2025, at the Doubletree Hilton in Bloomington. I’ll be there all three days with a table. I applied to be on some panels; we’ll see what I get assigned. Details here.
Where did January go? I swear we just started the month a week ago, and we’re already done? Wow. At least I managed to get some things done this month.
Projects
I’ve got physical proofs of Champion Bold, and I’m reading through them to find last-draft corrections. Most of these are formatting errors: missing punctuation, or lengths of text that need to be italicized. Maybe one in five corrections is style, something that makes less sense to me now that I’ve had several weeks stepped back from the project. (For all you writers out there, this is why I recommend putting in several week breaks in the process: when you come back to the project, these things stand out all the more.)
Paperback and hardcover (author’s photo)
I’m almost done with the supplement books. I’ve got all the artwork assembled; some of it I need to finish processing to add to the book. There are a few articles I need to complete, and a few pages where I want to add additional images or world-expanding text boxes to fill blank spaces.
Recently, I pulled out Book 3 and I’ve been writing in that again. I processed some of the things that bugged me in my previous draft and I’m working those into this draft. My editor has a copy of what I’ve done so far, and I’m looking forward to her feedback.
I’ve picked at some other projects last month. I looked at my fantasy draft and worked out some fixes that I’m starting to incorporate. I’m doing world building for some other projects, lots of histories, organizational building, or crafting magic and philosophical systems. The type of things where you work on it for a bit, take a step back, then return and delete half your work and keep at it.
February Goals
Finish review of Champion Bold
Order Proofs of Supplement Books
Continue work on Book 3
Knock items off other project to-do list
Books
Image from Amazon page
Angel Fire East (eBook; Fiction)
The Best School in the World: West Point 1833-1866 (Non-fiction)
The Other Queen (Fiction)
Sapiens: A brief History of Humankind (Non-fiction)
Hannibal (Audibook; Non-fiction)
A Burton House Christmas (Fiction)
January was a bit odd reading-wise, because I ended up starting a lot more books than I meant to. Mostly this was due to library returns forcing me to discontinue reading before I had finished some books and reminding me to start the other library books before they became due. So, I’m actively reading through four books simultaneously. Which feels like a bit much, now that I’m no longer reading on the bus every day.
I did finish A Burton House Christmas, a small side-book in the Burton House Saga. It was an interesting aside book from the main narrative: six of the characters each tell a Christmas story, either a real experience of theirs or a fictional tale they wrote themselves. Each story has a different flavor and feel, but each feels like a Christmas story. A nice experience I didn’t get to until after the holiday season.
February Goals
Finish two fiction titles
Finish one non-fiction title
Finish one research title
Movies / Shows
Image from Amazon
Skeleton Crew
Tenet
Star Wars Visions Season 1
I made an effort in January to watch more new things, even if it was just one episode when I got home from work before I got lost on the computer screens. It helped.
Star Wars Visions is a show where each episode is a different story, animated by a different studio, giving it a different style and flare. Some of the episodes I really liked, feeling like old Samurai movies or anime films. Others felt more like the sort of anime shows I never got into as a teenager: I’m glad I watched them, but I don’t feel the need to see them again.
I watched one movie last month: Tenet, the time-warping movie from Christopher Nolan. This movie was not as bad as I’d heard, but it wasn’t great. There were a lot of things I liked about it, but it seemed to get into it’s own science a lot without explaining it enough to the audience. There was enough that didn’t make sense to me to disrupt my enjoyment. I’m glad I watched it, and I’d probably watch it again, but it’s not amongst my favorite movies.
February Goals
Finish two season of TV
Finish two movies
Games
Not much to add on this front. I’m playing through the same games I was last month. I just haven’t sat down and concentrated on any one game to knock it out. I’m sure I could if I wanted to, but that’s a lot of time, and I’ve got a lot of other projects I’d rather be working on. That being said, I’ll make an effort in February to make progress on my games. Maybe I’ll get in a streak and knock one out.
What’s Next
I have two events in the next few months.
March 22nd I’ll be at Lift Bridge Brewery in Stillwater. It’s a short, six hour event with several other authors. I’m hoping to have my book ready be then.
Then, Easter weekend, I have a table at Minicon, Friday through Sunday. I’m looking forward to that event as well.
And I should have a book launch party for Champion Bold. I’ll let you know when that is,
One of my biggest challengers as a writer — or as a creator in general — is having too many projects on my project list. Sure, I know the two or three most important ones, but for a lot of the extra ones I had a hard time tracking them. Thus, [art of this whole revision process includes coming up with a way of prioritizing my projects.
What did I do before?
For several years, I’ve been prioritizing my projects as ‘Primary’, ‘Secondary’ and ‘Tertiary’. But this process wasn’t working.
As I said above, I could easily choose what my primary projects were, but I had a hard time differentiating between secondary and tertiary projects. For another, I really didn’t have a clear idea of what made a secondary project separate from a tertiary; or for that matter, from a primary project.
I could never settle on a list I liked. I ended up with too many primary projects, or too manty secondary. The tertiary list had projects that I was actively working on and projects I barely ever thought about. Were they all tertiary projects? But the ones I was working on couldn’t be secondary projects, they weren’t that important, or they weren’t far enough along.
No, I needed something new.
Defining the Levels
The first thing I needed to do was establish what each level was.
When I sat down to define my levels, I thought I would get away with three. But it became clear to me pretty quickly that I needed more, especially for the lower-level projects. I had to differentiate between what was just an idea, versus what was an idea in progress, versus what was a story in progress.
I eventually settled on five project levels. Starting at the lowest.
Quinary Projects are ideas I have that would be cool to write, or they’re far enough down the series line that I haven’t done any real work on them. They’re just some ideas, maybe some brainstorming or notes, lists of research books to read at some point. The fifth Sasha Small book and the historical dramatization of Winfield Scott’s life are examples of quinary projects.
Quaternary Projects are projects where I’m developing the broad strokes. I have a core that I like (some characters, or a setting, or a story), but I don’t have enough to start writing. I need to work out the big strokes, so that can build the details through the PBRG process. My science fantasy adventure story (project ‘Resurrection’) and the sequel to Champion Bold (titled Champion Impact) are both quaternary projects.
Tertiary Projects are projects that I’m running through the PBRG process. I’m building the world, researching the topics, and gaming the wars. I’ve probably written more than a few scenes for the stories, if only to scratch that creative itch. My civil war historical series and my collection of Renaissance Army short stories are examples of tertiary projects.
Secondary Projects are projects where I’m trying to get a Rough or Alpha draft written and revised to the point that I believe it is ready to publish. This could take a few rounds, so it’s not as easy as just writing a draft. Right now, I only have one secondary project: Orcfyre, my fantasy novel I just can’t get right.
Primary Projects are projects where I’m revising Beta and Final drafts for publishing. They’re also projects that are continuations of currently published books. Champion Bold is a primary project because its about to be published; The Colonel Lieutenant should technically be a secondary project, but as its the next book in my main series, I’m bumping it up to primary.
How do I process my projects?
I start with the five categories.
I take each project and sort them into the categories. This requires me to take an honest look at each project and ask some questions:
Where am I at with the project?
What do I need to do with the project?
How important is the project to me?
Unsurprisingly, once I take an honest look at my project list, I come to the conclusion that most of my projects are quaternary projects: no matter how much writing I’ve done or not done, the project needs a significant amount of world building to progress. I can write scenes, but I should avoid major draft writing until I’ve answered some big questions and have a good outline ready.
And that’s a good thing. The whole point of this process (both the PBRG and the Prioritization) is to make my work more efficient. to stop writing things before I’m ready to write them. And having stories where I don’t know the ending, or where I don’t know the McGuffin, or where I don’t know the characters: those are stories I shouldn’t be writing.
Rules for advancement
Which is a good time to bring up another aspect of this process: how do I decide when to advance a project from one tier to another?
From Quinary to Quaternary is pretty simple: I just take ‘that would be a cool idea’ and start working on it. I want to get it to the point that I can run it through the PBRG process. So, I take the idea, I get the Grand Overview, answering the big questions about the story and where its going.
Quaternary to Tertiary means I’ve got a story and an outline, and now I’m running it through the PBRG process. I (P)lot the story, then (B)uild the world, (R)esearch the topics and (G)ame the scenarios.
Tertiary to Secondary means I’m writing the rough and alpha drafts. I want to get a draft ready for other readers to read it and get me feedback.
And Secondary to Primary means I’m working to get the draft ready for publication.
Imperfect System
Now this isn’t a perfect division. Some of the projects on my list are sitting higher than they should because they’re part of a series I want to focus on, or because they’re dear to my heart. But that’s part of a personal system like this. I have to accept some oddities in order to make it work.
How does this help?
You’re not wrong. Once you get past the primary projects, what does it matter how the rest are organized?
I don’t know what to say. It just does.
I’m not kidding. Once I got this organization figured out and I organized I projects, my worry dropped. I had them in their place and I wasn’t going to forget about them. Each one is on my master to-do list, sorted into their priority group. Each one has several bullet points attached, listing characters, ideas or plot points I need to work out before I can progress the project to the next level. I stopped making list after list of projects, trying to get it right, because I did it.
I got it right.
Conclusion
From a vague and disorganized system that wasn’t working and was actually distracting me, I built a new system that works. I can track my projects, incorporate new ones, and feel confident that I’m not going to forget anything important.
I’m glad I got this reorganization complete. Since I finished this process, I’ve been able to focus on the important part of creativity: writing stories that people enjoy, and enjoying the creative process myself. I’m not making and remaking lists of projects. I’m creating.
December was a busy month, between moving, book work, and the holidays. I had to start adjusting to my new schedule, which is having a big impact on my reading and project work (see below). And while I was moving, I added lists of items I own but have never read or watched, giving me more lists to deal with. Yay, lists.
Projects
With my new schedule, I have more time at the coffee shop in the morning to write and work on projects. At my new house my office is dedicated to projects. So, I anticipate getting a lot done at the new place.
I am at the point where I can order physical proofs of Champion Bold, and start prepping the eBooks. This is not difficult, but it does require me to sit down and do it. *
I’m finishing up the supplement books, and I should be ordering copies of those soon as well. I have to finish a few bits of artwork and make sure there isn’t a lot of blank space, then I can pull the trigger on those.
As for Sasha book 3, I spent some time going through what I wrote during my NANOWRIMO re-write challenge and wrote some act synopsis for the rest of the book. It turned out to be a good exercise; I’m more confident I can finish the book off shortly and get that prepped for editing.
I have other projects in the work, and now that I’m done moving, I’m eager to get to work on them.
January Goals
Approve physical copies of Champion Bold.
Get physical proofs of supplement books.
2025 plan for Sasha Book 3
Project plans and lists
Books
Image courtesy of Amazon
Fire and Blood (Fiction; Finished)
Fool Moon (Audiobook; Fiction; Finished)
Sapiens (Non-Fiction; Restarted)
One downside to moving is that I’m no longer taking the bus to work; so I’m losing out on a lot of reading time. I have to find time to reach a chapter or two each day; as such I’ve started considering my books as a ‘bedside book’ or my ‘backpack book’. Not only that, but I have a list of over 100-titles that I own but have never read; I want to work on getting that down to less than 100 books, and eventually zero.
On the plus side, my long walk from parking to work means I can start getting through my audiobooks.
I finished two books in December. Fire and Blood is a fictional history of the Game of Thrones universe, and it was a fascinating read. It really explained a good portion of the Targaryen family history in Westeros. It only got so far, and I wonder if there’s a second one coming. It did inspire me to consider similar projects of my own.
I also finished Fool Moon, the second Dresden Files book. It was quite the story, and I enjoy the universe and the rules of magic that the characters use. What did surprise me is that I guessed the end of the book about halfway through, but only because it was the only explanation that was left given what we knew. But I thought ‘that can’t be it’ and pushed it out of my mind. I guess the lesson as a writer it: if you need the reader to be unsure of who did it, make sure they have several suspects.
January Goals
Finish one fiction book
Finish one non-fiction book
Start one research book
Movies and Shows
Image courtesy of Wikipedia
Star Trek Lower Decks Season 5
Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire
I watched the last episode of Lower Decks. I enjoyed it. It was not everything I expected, but it hit all the high points it had to. I’m sad to see it go, but I appreciate that it needed to end before it got too old.
The one movie I watched last month was Rebel Moon Part One, which was a Zach Snyder movie released on Netflix. I’d heard it was a pretty rough movie, but I watched the director’s cut which seemed to address a lot of the issues with the story telling. Even so, it wasn’t great. Don’t get me wrong, it was fun, and it had a lot going for it. But there were plenty of scenes that seemed to exist just for their own sake, and background info that we were missing. I would watch it again, but I understand why a lot of people wouldn’t watch it.
January Goals
Complete one season of TV
Watch one movie
Games
Baldur’s Gate 3
Madden 2025
Warhammer 40K: Armageddon
Not much to add for the gaming section. I worked through some more Baldur’s Gate 3, played some Madden 2025, and beat another mission of 40K Armageddon. I do want to play more, but I want to play better. And I need to keep my projects going.
January Goals
Continue RDR2 or AC: Odessey
Continue Baldur’s Gate 3
Finish W40K Armageddon
What’s Next?
Focus on getting books ready for publishing, and advancing projects. I’m signing up for 2025 conventions. I should be at Minicon this year, and I should have a launch party for Champion Bold sometime this spring. I’ll let you know the dates soon.
As we close out 2024, I look back and consider the year. How did I do? Where did I succeed? Where did I fall short?
This review is not about recrimination or blame; it is about acknowledging what I did well and what I did not and approaching the next year with a sense of how I can improve.
Projects
I am on the verge of publishing my next book, delayed only because of my last-minute move, which was time consuming and exhausting. Champion Bold is almost ready; I’m at the point where I’m calculating the book cost so I can assign ISBNs and then orders proof copies. The supplement books are right behind them.
I am about a third of the way through the re-write of Renaissance Army Book 3, The Colonel Lieutenant. This is my next big project after I finish Champion Bold. I’ve got other projects I’m working on as secondary or tertiary projects, each of which I’ve picked at sometime during the year. None of which I’d really announce as a primary project at this time.
My other big project work is how I’ve been revising my writing process. There’s a whole blog series I’m working on, but essentially I’m doing as much world building and planning as I can, to cut down on post-draft corrections. The idea is to make writing an easier and quicker process.
Books
By my count, I finished 27 books in 2024, both reading and listening. These were heavily weighted towards fiction (22 out of 27). Short of my goal of 36 books, but still a good showing.
2025 is going to be a little more difficult because I’m losing my bus rides, which is where I do most of my reading. Instead, I’m going to have to find time elsewhere to sit down and read.
Also, as part of my move, I made a list of all the books I own that I haven’t read and came out to more than a hundred. So clearly in 2025, I’m going to want to whittle that number down.
Movies and Shows
I watched a surprisingly little amount of new content this year. I only knocked 10 movies and about 15 seasons of TV shows off my watch list. That’s not great. Part of the issue is that I no long have new stuff playing while I’m writing or playing computer games; I try to sit down and watch it fully. Which is hard to do, because I have so many other things to do. I did get into reactor videos, which has also influenced my watching habits.
I want to knock more things off my to -watch list, and part of doing that is going to be doing some minor world building and brain storming while I’m watching new things. I might also incorporate one new episode of a show as my ‘you just got home spend half an hour relaxing’ routine. Whatever I can do to knock things off my watch list faster than they get on there.
Games
I played a fair number of games this year, but I didn’t really finish a whole lot of them. I did end a couple, but many of the games I was playing through at the start of the year I’m still playing through at the end. That’s not good. These are great stories to play through and I need to focus on finishing them and moving on to new ones.
So, I’ll be spending more time playing video games now that I’m done moving. Enough time that I can make progress on the games, but not enough that I fall behind on my projects.
For 2025
For 2025, now that I’m in a new place and I’ve got space to spread out (and I’ve shed a lot of excess crap) I’m looking forward to hitting the ground running. With a revised writing process, and 100 ISBN’s purchased, I’ve got room to write and create. I want to be efficient in knocking things off my lists, and with some effort I think I can be.
