Nethermore

Arrived from California around 2:00 am this morning. It’s been a crazy week and a great convention. California was a wonderful place to hold WorldCon, what with the temperate weather and cool attractions. Some of my favorite things weren’t even at the Convention. For example, Downtown Disney has the Lego Store that I went to twice. The second time, I spent an hour building rockets from their bins of Legos that you can buy. It was like being a kid again. I almost took off on Saturday to find the Legoland attraction that is somewhere around there.

The convention was fun too. There was a nice variety of people and panels. I’ll post more about the happenings of this when I’m actually able to unpack everything.

I’ll be gone to the World Science Fiction Convention this week and probably won’t get back to the computer to make any entries. But I’ll post on Monday (if not before) a report of the happenings.

You may have noticed that the progress bar hasn’t been moving for awhile. Well, it’s not because I haven’t been writing. This last week I’ve actually been getting back into the book. However, it’s all written on my NEC MobilePro, which I bought used several years ago for less than a hundred bucks.

MobilePros are great for getting things down quickly. It’s been a life saver at the doctor’s office or just about anywhere I’ve had to sit around waiting. The instant On feature is great since I don’t have to wait for the thing to boot up just to slap down a few sentences. And if you have another computer, you can transfer the files (in MS Pocket Word) over to your Laptop or Desktop for further editing. Pocket Word doesn’t have a word count feature. It’s basically just a text editor, which is really the only downside to the MobilePro, beside its small screen.

It’s an awesome little device, especially with the full keyboard. I’d never buy one of them new, but one can get these things used for a fairly good price (less than a hundred bucks) off eBay.

Brandon invited me to sign books with him for his book signings in Pocatello and Idaho Falls this last weekend. So I took Friday off from work and spent the day at the Pocatello Waldenbooks, where Ryan (the manager) and his staff were very friendly and accommodating.

It was a ton of fun to get to talk to Brandon’s fans and have them ask me to sign their maps. Having two people at the signing was nice, too, because while one of us was talking, the other could snag interested people and hold their attention long enough sometimes to get them to buy books.

We spent Saturday afternoon at the Idaho Falls Barnes and Noble. Julie, the marketing manager, rolled out the red carpet and got us drinks, kept the display stocked, and even called three local television stations in to do interviews.

Both signings were very successful from a book-selling standpoint, and what’s more, I’m recharged and motivated to finish my own book to get me closer to the day when it won’t be just the artwork that I’m signing, but the book as well.

I’ve been preparing to get my artwork up and ready for the official release of Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn, so today’s post will be short.

People are enjoying Cloning Clyde. This guy has already posted some fan art for it in the form of a one-panel comic. Pretty cool.

I’ll be back tomorrow with a link to the first Mistborn gallery, which will include the interior artwork used in the book.

Cory Doctorow, proponent for free media and the internet (and a talented science fiction author) has written an interesting commentary called Science Fiction is the Only Literature People Care Enough About to Steal on the Internet for Locus Magazine.

In other news, I’ve got my mind cleared up on some things that were crowding out the novel. That happens to me sometimes, but usually not for very long. And after this week, the insane holidays and busy-ness will be at an end for a little while. I’m housesitting for some friends and will have their place to retreat to for the next week, and I’m hoping to get back on track with Nethermore starting then.

I’ll also try get some more interesting blog posts up, too, in order to make up for the past few weeks.

Yesterday was the first time I’ve missed posting during a weekday. Sure, it was a holiday, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t working on the website. I finally got one of the galleries up and going!

Just click on the Portfolio link at the top of the page and go from there.

Check back! I’ll be updating and adding to the galleries as I often as I get a chance to.

I’m tired of the fry sauce color of the blog, so expect an updated design by Monday. I hope to have some of the galleries up and working by that time as well. I’m changing to a left-side sidebar format with a little more open space for the actual writing. The site will thereafter be based upon the Fluidity WordPress theme by Kaushal Sheth.

Spent some time with a friend last night who is into astral projection, metaphysics, and lucid dreaming. The conversation got my mind to racing about how to solidify some of the dream interactions that take place in Nethermore.

It’s been quite the busy week what with the deadline for Writers of the Future being today and all the other stuff that’s been going on. Guess I should hold my breath a little longer. An even busier week is coming up.

—”Stewart!”

The weekends are getting busier around here. Normally I haven’t been able to get much writing done during them because of outside projects that I’ve been trying to get finishined. Fortunately, I’m getting close to the end of them, and after that, I’ll only be taking on a project here and there instead of en masse.

One of the projects I’ve been working on is taking some of the artwork that I did for the upcoming Mistborn: the Final Empire fantasy novel by Brandon Sanderson and turn them into t-shirt designs. Here’s the first shot at converting one of the chapter heading symbols into t-shirt artwork.

In writing news, I’m one scene away from finishing Part One of Nethermore. It’s been harder for me to concentrate on writing at home lately, so this week I’m headed back to the University in the evenings so I can keep myself focused during the time I’ve set aside to work on the book.

This week will have nethermore.com’s usually assortment of writing discussion and weirdness. A reader sent in a review for the movie Nacho Libre that I will be posting tomorrow. He signed the email simply “Chalupo.”

In other news, Ctrl Zed has been practicing on Saturdays for our next album. We’ve nailed down five or six songs already and will be getting the others down in the next few weeks prior to recording them. We’re looking forward to another multiple-platinum record here, so stay tuned.

I’ve already mentioned that weekends throw off my groove. Holiday weekends do it doubly so. I wanted to be at 60k by the end of yesterday, but it doesn’t work that well for me when everybody’s home in a tiny apartment. I needed somewhere to go over the holiday if I was going to get any good writing done.

Evenings during the week are great because everybody is settling down from a long day of work or school. On weekends everybody’s up and doing things, and since I’m the only one who spends his spare time writing instead of having fun—yes, I’ve been a party pooper lately—it’s hard to find somewhere to go.

I also saw X-Men 3 on Friday. Good for a popcorn movie, but the director/writers missed a lot of opportunities to make the story very meaningful.

For those of you who have seen the movie, check out the link below to Eric James Stone’s list of how the climax could have been changed to make the movie more powerful. It’s helpful, too, as a writer to see how things could have been plotted differently to make a better story. Caution, this link contains spoilers!

I think I saw this one a few years ago when I couldn’t find anything else to rent.

In other news, I’m back on track for the book after taking two days off to evaluate where I’m at. It was a great idea to spend the time looking at the characters and plot. I’m revitalized on the story and characters and ready to go for another 50k before I’ll evaluate things again.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!