Nethermore

We haven’t gone anywhere! Honest!

My webhost had a few problems this morning (even their own website was down), so on their behalf, I apologize for the downtime. I don’t know what caused it, but the host was very quick in getting things back up. Kudos to them!

Now back to our regularly scheduled yurt.

I’ve been to a lot of Chinese restaurants in the past few weeks, and I am increasingly disappointed with the fortune cookies. The fortunes are downright stupid. It’s hard to find any that are interesting or entertaining.

I went with some friends to a wedding reception a few weeks ago. There on the snack table were two baskets of fortune cookies, and the cookies in one of the baskets were half-dipped in chocolate. I had about three of these. My friends, however, continued to eat the cookies–chocolatized or not–in search of a decent fortune. None of them were memorable in the least.

This is a national problem.

I went to Idaho this weekend for my Grandpa’s Eightieth birthday party, where we all piled into a Chinese restaurant. Again, the fortunes were lame. Mine said: “You deserve a promotion!” and that’s exactly what my brother’s fortune said as well. So I turned it over and wrote, “The Monkey of Light is next in line for the throne. You are him.” Not great, but an improvement.

The next most common fortune we got at dinner was something like: “You are admired by all because of your good looks and desirable personality.” A fortune should be full of wisdom or speculation, not a statement of fact.

I opened the next fortune cookie. “A letter of great importance may reach you any day now.” I don’t get many letters, and since it calls it a “letter,” I don’t think emails count. I did, however, receive a package today, as the bass amp I ordered came in. But that’s a package, not a letter.

Th only conclusion I could com to is that th fortun was rfrring to th lttr ” ” sinc that is th lttr that is missing from my computr kyboard. I hop that lttr coms soon bcaus it’s making it hard to writ Nthrmor, which is why th progrss bar is not updatd for th wknd.

The best fortune I’ve received this month said, “Write your own story. Don’t let others write it for you.”

I think we need legislation against stupid fortune cookies. There are people out there who have proven that they can write some great fortunes. Or maybe I’m just going to wrong restaurants.

PS. This one was my favorite.

I’ve failed to mention another reason why I’ll finish Nethermore by the end of July. In August I’ll be going to the World Science Fiction Convention in Los Angeles. And for those of you who don’t know, conventions (cons) aren’t just for those who want to dress up, although plenty of people do and have a grand old time. Many of the Pros (writers and publishers) make it to one or more cons each year, and this is a great place to meet them.

I go because I love the publishing industry and the fandom that surrounds science fiction and fantasy. I always meet great people and have a great time at these things. And it gives me something to do with my days off besides driving to Idaho, which normally doesn’t involve dressing up in any way (unless I’m up there for a wedding).

Last year I went to NasFic in Seattle (since WorldCon was in Glasgow–I know, I know, Stewart! didn’t go to Glasgow? Blame a petty blood feud with a neighboring clan), and I also went to the World Fantasy Convention in Madison, Wisconsin.

I met editors, agents, and writers and had a chance to spend time with all of them. And who knows, you may hit it off well with an editor or agent and get the chance to send him or her a manuscript. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any books done last year. This is a big no-no: don’t pitch a book to an editor or agent if the book isn’t done.

But this year, I’ll have a book done by the time I go. With that under my belt, I can try to find information about agents and editors who are currently aquiring manuscripts. With luck, the editors or agents will be at the con, and with some more luck, maybe I’ll be able to find and talk to them for a few minutes.

Last year, I met several authors who have later asked me to help them out with graphic design. I’ll post some of what I’ve done for them when I get the artwork section up and running. But here are a few buttons I made for Tobias S. Buckell. And he even mentioned me in his blog!

Dinner with my agent and Brandon Sanderson, and Isaac Stewart. Isaac is a friend of Brandon’s and a great graphic designer. Brandon had his first novel out from Tor not too long ago, and he and I are Joshua’s two 20-something year old clients. Brandon was a lot of fun, and had lots of ideas, some of which I’ll poach The food was incredible, including cheesecake sitting on an elaborate syrup design.

I should add that in addition to being able to spell my name correctly, Toby is a great guy, an awesome storyteller, and a real benefit to the science fiction community.

I’ll defintely be at WorldCon and World Fantasy this year, in addition to the smaller, local cons that I try to get to. Cons are a great source of information (panels), networking (writers and editors), and like-minded friends. I give them two thumbs up and a side of hagis!

The other day an acquaintance of mine found out that I’m writing a novel, and he asked me where I get my ideas. After some deliberation, I’ve decided to let the secret out.

This website is the template I’m using for Nethermore.

Ever have a date that wound up like this?

Maybe I should start bringing my guitar with me when I take girls to dinner.

I didn’t want to write last night. I didn’t want to do anything. I was four chapters into the book and already hating everything about it. Most novelists don’t feel this way about their books until three quarters of the way through. I felt like I must be doing something wrong.

And maybe I am. But I won’t know until the book is done. If I don’t finish it, there’s no way to know if how I’m writing it will work, and if I don’t finish it I won’t be able to go back and fix anything. If I don’t finish it, I won’t learn anything, and I won’t ever be able to make a living as a writer.

I wrestled with my mind, trying to pull myself together enough to stick it out and finish the book. Or at least give it a go for one more night. If I had written the book five years ago, I wouldn’t be in the situation I’m in right now. There’s a good possibility that I would be published by now and possibly even doing well enough to support myself.

Then I told myself that I can’t begrudge the lost time. It’s not coming back, but I can learn from it. I can start now and stay steady now as if today were that day five years ago when I wished that I’d started.

Now is the time.

If I don’t push through today and stay consistent and true to my writing goals, then tomorrow will have exactly the same problems as today.

I won’t have grown. I won’t have moved on. I won’t have accomplished my goals. I still won’t have a yurt.

And I’ll be five years older, looking back on a day much like today when I could have pulled myself together and continued forward.

I refuse to have to look back on today with the words, “I wish I had” running like a digital marquee through my head.

Now is the time.

I’ve noticed that the weekend is when my writing goals break down. I’ve never been one to dislike weekends, but when I’m in writing mode—as I am right now—lack of consistent schedule is my biggest enemy.

The weekend throws off my groove. I’ve set aside the hours between nine and midnight to write every night. But when Friday and Saturday roll around, those are the prime hours to be out with friends. So I’m trying to balance the whole writing thing right now, and I’m not sure how to do it. I don’t want to lose friends, but I can’t lose sight of my July 31st deadline either.

Another thing that’s throwing a monkey wrench at me is having a consistent spot where I where I do the writing thing. Last night I decided to write at home because I was all out of clean laundry and needed to do something about it. I was fine until people started coming home. Because of the interruptions, I was only able to write 900 words, well short of my daily goal of 2000 words.

Consistent schedule. Consistent spot for writing. That spot may very well end up being my car. I drive a 1997 Pontiac Bonneville, and the thing is built for giants. Now I’ll just have to check my parking spot at the apartment and see if there’s an electrical outlet nearby. Or just make sure that the computer and the iPod are all charged up prior to writing.

Still messing with the look of the page. Don’t be surprised if you arrive and it looks totally different, like I-15.

Had my brother add a new background this weekend. Kind of looks like a flannel blanket to me. Anyway, it’s the traditional Royal Stewart Tartan, so it fits in with the whole “Stewart!” theme.

What do you all think? Should it stay or should it go?

I have this strange fascination with yurts. It all started at the end of last year when I was thinking about helping my dad build a mother-in-law apartment at my parents’ house in Idaho. I looked into building plans and the costs of such a project and decided that a yurt would be the way to go.

Dad wasn’t thrilled with the idea. But he didn’t have to be. The seed had been planted, and now I’m a yurt man. I like the idea of having some place where I can retreat away from the world. I want a yurt, even if it’s a yurt in the back yard.

I would outfit it with solar panels to power my laptop, and I could live off the grid and write novels in my yurt. I could even get a ChillSack and have all the comforts of home and all the comforts of a yurt.

Or maybe I’ll just open a restaurant.

Putting the finishing touches on a chapter where one of the main characters learns how to use a “palmloader.” I’m a little leary of adding a substitute for guns in a fantasy novel. I’ve heard that so-called “western fantasies” don’t do all that well because fantasy readers want swords, not guns. If they wanted guns, they’d be reading crime novels.

I hope I’ve been able to hit a nice balance between using projectile weapons–not necessarily a gun–and also appeasing the sword-fanatics by creating the palmloaders, which are so wildly inaccurate that a soldier better be less than twenty feet from a target and also carry a sword as well in case he misses. This somewhat reminds me of the rifles from the Thirty-Years War in Europe. Some of these rifles were so large and unweildy that they were most often carried by two soldiers and had a pole beneath it for stabilizing it when it was time to aim. Another interesting thing about these rifles was that they were just as likely to blow up those using it as it was to shoot in the intended direction.

Not a job I’d want, being assingned to test out prototype guns in the 17th century. I’ve tried to add a little bit of this inaccuracy and unpredictability into the palmloaders, which incidentally, are powered by magic and not gunpowder.