Mirrorverse News
BREAKING NEWS: Cookie supplies worldwide are running short...
*sound of collapsing hacker*
...
...does anyone have a copy of either MS or GE that I may have sent out (eiter as PDF or word/doc/openoffice) format?
...I sort of need to replace most of my files. I've got MF & MH (and the first 15k of the young!Stef book), I've got dribs and drabs of other scenes sitting in out sent box and whatnot, but I don't think I actually have a full copy of MS anywhere else (Yes. My fault. I've already beat myself up for this.)
My computer...borked and they ************** **** ****************** ******ing formatted my drive without a data recovery. I've lost a...lot of stuff, but I'm trying to be chill, and just take stock of what I need to get to be back up and running.
On top of that, I've just basically been having a really shit week for reasons I'd rather not get into on the internets, and feeling really, really uninspired. I've been at the novella, but that's just in my notebook, haven't actually had the motivation to sit and type anything up (doesn't help that my computer was at the shop for a week, and it's not as easy to type on other people's computers).
I came close to quitting last night, just everything was piled up and I'd just had the aforementioned horrible week and I just wanted to toss it all away and not bother to write anymore (yeah, yeah, you've heard this all before, doesn't mean I didn't feel that way). But saying something like that is pointless because no matter how much I can say I'm quitting, and GIVING IT UP FOREVER and emoemoemoangstbullshit, I always come back. Sometimes it takes weeks (once it took eight months), but I always come back and write. And I'll always come back and write MV, I...just don't want to write anything else, so it's not like I'd give this up, then turn around and start working on some swords-and-sorcery thing. If I'm writing, I'm writing Stef, cookies, suits and guns. Or...Mags, Taylor, sexytime and guns. :P You know what I mean.
I wanted GE to be one big book, but I think I may end up splitting it in two. Maybe just stumble through to the midway point, then actually take an official hiatus or something, it wouldn't be complete, it'd be like the end of MF or MH, as in, you know there's a lot more to come, it's a cliffhanger in certain respects, but at the same time, it's resolved to the poin where you can stand to wait a little bit.
I think this may actually be the most words I've put into one thing in ages.
So yeah...would you like two Mags books instead of one? Or would you just be happy with knowing it's halfway through and you'll get the second half in X amount of time? It's sort of semantics, but important in this case. Or not. Sometimes it's the little things that count.
Book Announcement
I rarely do this ahead of time, so consider this a moment of madness, and take advantage of the spoilers contained within.
Gather around, dear readers, for I would like to discuss Book #5 with you.
Since Book #4 (which, at the moment, is called The Grey Edge), is mostly concerned with Mags, Taylor and the insanity that is Magnolia’s family, we will leave it aside in this conversation. Book #4 will be much like any other Mirrorfall book, same sort of tone you’re used to...albeit with more growling, and more cute loli dresses.
Book #5, on the other hand, represents a pretty major tonal shift, and it’s because of this that I want to bring it up now, ahead of time, so that you can have an idea of what to expect, and so that it doesn’t hit you like a tonne of bricks.
Firstly, a couple of minor spoilers for Mirrorshades – don’t turn away, none of this will ruin your enjoyment of the second half of the book. Basically, part of the second book contains yay-team-takes-a-field-trip-to-Russia! Basically, Grigori invites people back to visit his Agency, as a way of repaying the hospitality he received whilst in Brisbane. Among these invited back are Stef and Curt.
Yes, Curt. I know I reintroduced him back towards the start of the book and have done pretty much nothing with him since, but a) I didn’t want you to forget him b) I wanted to show the techies doing something other than playing WoW c) are you going to argue with a random appearance by Dorian? :P
He’s coming back in the second half, and going to get a lot more screen time. We’re going to learn a lot about him, and let him get quite a bit of character growth while we’re at it (yes, I can develop two characters in one book, at least I hope I can >_>).
Again, not saying much, but what I can say is, with Curt’s influence, Stef does quite a lot of growing up – and in ways she might not around other characters. By the end of the book, they come to know each other quite a lot better, and again, without giving too much away, some skin is shown, and some skin is touched. :P
Now, to Book #5 (which had a working title, but it doesn’t now, I’m in the process of deriving a new one for it). Between the end of MS and the beginning of #5, quite a significant amount of time has passed (a lot of which we will see in flashbacks, just to catch you up), some relationships have changed, some have grown stronger, and other things have been growing.
Just some things.
Like the baby in Stef’s belly.
Yeah, shut up, spoiler I know, but it’s going to be in the cover art, and as skinny as she is, she can’t exactly hide a pregnant belly, so you’re going to know as soon as that pic goes up, so I reserve my right to spoil it.
So, yay, baby. ^_^ (Girl if you’re interested, slotted to be named Lucy after the cutest daughter of Eve in Narnia, no middle named chosen as yet).
I said at the beginning that this is your warning for tonal shift, so wipe the O_O looks from your face, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
Seeing as with Stef’s weird mix of biology, it should be impossible for her to get pregnant by either human or agent, and since Curt isn’t hiding any faerie heritage, the decision to keep it was easy.
[Quick tangent - A guide to making babies in the MV:
An agent can impregnate a human.
An agent can be impregnated by a human.
Agent + Agent = no baby.
Stef + either = should be no baby, as she get hits by the agent-half of her biology. Also, she should be able to control whether or not she is fertile – just like how Grigori can control whether or not he’s shooting blanks {and the sex of the baby, but that’s another conversation for another time, if you’re interested}.
However, some very determined sperm and her still-existent human frailties = baby!]
This is where everything goes wrong.
First there’s the issue that she’s pregnant, which sort of makes her have to quit field work, and hang around with the techs a lot more. Not that they mind, it’s a new and shiny experience for them – including using force meters to work out how strong the baby is, and how good of a soccer player it’ll make.
There’s some Enforcer pressure to terminate the child, as Stef is already enough of a volatile experiment, but this is managed to be cooled. Let’s, however, say that she’s going to be lying on Jonesy’s table a lot, as he tries to figure out how much of a role the mirror is playing in this.
(And yes, to answer the obvious question, Curt did get his ass kicked by Ryan. Several times. They managed to make amends though, and can at manage civilities).
The one thing that tips the balance from okish to bad is Stef wanting to take some time off, yanno, like maternity leave. This makes tensions rise, everything get a lot harder, and causes a lot of fights. There are many reminders that she has exactly zero rights other than what they choose to give her, and that she’s already pushing her luck by carrying the child in the first place.
You know our little hacker girl though, she’s rather stubborn, and stands her ground, not letting anyone tell her different when she states that she IS going to take time off, and damn the consequences.
Curt proposes, and yes, it includes the word “thimble” as he’s gotten to know her well enough. (Yes, you’re allowed to d’awww). And this makes her decide that it’s time for them to take off right then and there. They pack and leave, amongst a lot more arguments.
They’re hounded, begged, demanded, bribed and threatened to make them return. Stef stays stubborn, much to her detriment, and just keeps repeating that they’ll be back after they have some time with the baby – she just wants a break to be, well, human for a while.
All of the leeway that it possible to give them is given, every scrap of personal time, every excuse as to why they’re not at work, and still none of the bribes or threats work.
So, unfortunately, the order comes down. You know the one. The one that proves that no-one leaves the Agency. The kill order.
The order is carried out in the middle of their wedding rehearsal. There are no civilian deaths, though there are a number of injuries – all of which dealt with.
One wrecked church, and terrified crowd later, the groom is dead, and the bride lays dying, unable to move as she watches the man who gave her everything take everything away with one more bullet.
The mirror saves her though – it takes years to repair the damage, and to wake her up. She has to crawl her way out of coffin, and out of an unmarked grave, but once she does, she’s ready for revenge.
(And there’s your tonal shift.
See Stef run.
See Stef take several dozen levels in badass.
See Stef wreak bloody vengeance on the world.)
I think I can spoil one line of dialogue. “I’ve killed a lot of people to get to this point. Most of them by accident.”
:P
So, I think, to entice you and make you scream for more, I’ll sum up Book #5 in two words: Ryan Dyin’.
Content?
Ok, a few of you are aware that I was up (mostly moping in the tribune box) pretty much half the night the other day because I was feeling, frankly horrible (and not the kind of Horrible that has a doctorate and a great singing voice).
Since then, I've mostly been a) lying down watching DVDs and b) trying to get my sleep pattern back to normal, so I haven't really been able to concentrate on either GE#4 (which will be Mags and Taylor talking for the first time since he tried to off Stef) or MS#41 (which will be Stef meeting Grigori) (see...if I give you minor spoilers, maybe it'll sate you for another couple of days).
Currently, it's 7.20am, and I've got to go out this afternoon (first of four days volunteering at pretty much the only sci-fi/pop culture convention that comes to Brisbane), so I'm going to be busy over the weekend.
I will endevour to get something up, but remember: please don't hurt me. -_-
Friday Blog Post
Making an attempt to find somewhere comfortable to write on my laptop. The bed is no good, doesn’t provide the right kind of support for extended periods of writing, hence why I’ve been slow at responding to comments and really only updating the tribune box. I suppose it would also help if I didn’t have a 17” computer.
Hang on. Moving. Back stairs aren’t comfortable.
Front stairs, this is more promising, even if my lappy is kind of rocking around. I can deal with that, I’ll just pretend I’m on a train, turn my music up louder and ignore it.
I’m just so used to being able to sit at a desk and write that it’s uncomfortable for me to sit anywhere else and write. I managed to do DoaDG on the train, but that was mainly out of desperation because I wasn’t pumping out any content at the time. I miss writing. I want to write about the shark. I want to get back on track so this stupid book I say stupid book, but it’s been the most fun to write so far, all the little intrigues, and actually getting to introduce Reynolds – something I figured I would have to wait ages to do. Not to mention Grigori. You haven’t gotten to see why I love him yet, since as much of a contrast as he is to Taylor, you still haven’t seen him at his most fun. :)
Ideally, this book needs to be finished by June, that’ll keep me on track for two books a year, which is what I’m aiming for – yeah, yeah, I know I started MS in November, so technically it’ll be eight months, not six, but we’ll ignore that for the sake of the author not going insane.
Two books a year, this is my goal. I think it’s fairly reasonable. Especially considering that when I need to, I can sit and pump out a 3000 word chapter in two hours (seriously, ask Bufi, she listened to me do word counts over MSN for the last couple of chapters...which were mainly written because she wouldn’t stop prodding me *hands over cookies*).
Since I actually wrote about this elsewhere on the internet today, I thought I’d actually give you guys a good idea of what the future holds for the MV. Yeah, yeah, I know I’ve listed the first seven titles a few times. This is a little bit more.
Also, something a lot of you don’t know is that I’m going to separate the MV into arcs of seven books (think, like, seasons of a TV show), this lets me plan for like, kick-ass (>_> you know what I mean) season finales.
This list isn’t necessarily to inspire wild mass guessing, just to tease the future, and to show that yeah, I might not be writing over these few weeks, but that doesn’t mean that I stop thinking about the MV at any point. -_-
Arc 1
Mirrorfall – DONE!
Mirrorheart – DONE!
Mirrorshades – in progress.
The Grey Edge – Book about Mags and her family.
Mirrorcrash – aliens? In your MV, it’s more likely than you think. (yeah, shuddup, I know we had one in first books).
Mirrorshards – All about Merlin.
Mirrorworld – Mirror magic gets used on a big scale.
Arc 2 (titles have not been set for most of these, so numbers will be used instead).
8 – Dealing with the fallout of MW.
9 - We meet Mags’ brother Bennefree.
10 – A member of the Agency’s family comes under threat.
11 - Book regarding Mags and Taylor.
12 – We meet Curt’s family.
13 - Book regarding Merlin and Jonesy – may involve a court known as The Carnival, best described as the unholy fusion of the Lost and the Mad.
14 – There’s a new member of the Agency.
Arc 3 (this is where my planning begins to be a little incomplete).
15 – Taylor has to learn to deal with the Agency’s new addition.
16 -
17 – Explanation of what happened to Reynolds.
18 -
19 -
20 – War stories Pt.1
21 – War stories Pt. 2
Arc 4 (yeah, sue me, I only know one book for this one)
22 – Caper book involving a cat burglar and a theft. Is going to be a lot of fun.
That’s the main canon stuff, outside of that, there are so many side novels I’ve got planned. They include, but aren’t limited to:
Young Stef Novel – I actually have like 15k of this done, but it got abandoned back when all the trouble at work started last year, plus seriously...you try writing first-person perspective of a 12-year-old, it gets hard. -_-
The Enders – I’d talk more about this one, but it won’t make any sense until after MC. Let’s just say it’s my excuse to write a Doctor Who-style story.
(oooh, I manged to clear a spot in the kitchen, it’ll only work while for a little while but at least I’m not getting bitten by bugs any more).
Marriage in Madchester – not actual title, not working title, just accurate. It’s about Madhe’s son, and it’s going to be a bit of an experiment for me...more when I’m actually closer to writing it.
The Little Mermaid – again, not actual/working title, just accurate. It’s the girl!love mermaid story I mentioned a...few months ago? I suppose it’s not too much of a spoiler to say it contains Milla and Billy (yeah, I know they were in it for like two chapters, but I can’t help really liking those two...need an excuse to write more of them, maybe make them part of the regular secondary cast, no idea how, I’m just rambling to myself right now. :P).
Evacuee – this will probably just be a novella, it’s the story of how Dorian came to adopt Jonowoi. It may incorporate more of Dorian’s history, if it does that, it might not be such a small novella. Only time’s gonna tell with this one.
Bastion – basically, my love letter to the 80s fantasy that I grew up on. There is a complete version of this running around, albeit a graphic novel script (was trying to get this done as a GN, but that project fell apart). Needs a rewrite though, as a lot of the MV elements have changed since it was first written. And, fun fact, this was actually the first story written in the current MV – well, what became the current MV, all the major players were in place, even if this was at a time when I was considering scrapping writing about the Agency, since I was still at the stage where I hatedhatedhated Stef. -_- Also, I want to expand on a couple of plot elements rather thoroughly.
I’ve got a quartet of comic fantasy novels I want to write, but I’ve been cautious about including them in the MV, so I haven’t sat down and thought about the logistics of it. Though, do tell me if the phrase “bumbling fairy godfather” appeals to you. :P Mainly included in this list for my own satisfaction, since I haven’t thought about them in ages. -_-
(OM NOM NOM dinner – pie, chips and coke...just what I feel like. Ouch, hiccups.)
There’s a few more floating around, but these are the main ones.
I will also say that there is a slim chance that Marriage in Madchester may be promoted to a main-canon book, but it will depend on a few things, so it’s staying in this section for now.
To other stuff.
Regarding the site, there may be a few times in the next few weeks where it will look weird or be displaying the “down for maintenance” message, don’t worry, this is normal, cause I’ll be messing around with stuff, finishing off stuff I should have done, but didn’t due to stuff. -_- It’s all for the good of the site, so in the words of Douglas Adams: Don’t Panic.
The sneaky thing I’m working on is still sneaky. You’ll know it when you see it. ^_^
One of the improvements will be me finally, finally, finally getting around to selling badges again – so dig out your wallets and/or PayPal accounts because Require: Cookie badges will be available soon. :)
(I’ve only got like 12-15 designs at the moment, this will be rapidly expanded once I actually get set back up, since I found my list of ideas for new badges).
(Specific quotes from characters can be requested if you want, I’ll work to accommodate).
T-shirts, however, are probably still another couple of months away, sorry. Gives me more time to work on designs though, so that’s good. :D
(Peacocks make the weirdest noises, seriously, I need to include this in the MV somehow. How do I know this? There’s a wild one that lives in the area. Yeah, a wild peacock, it’s kind of awesome.)
Now, the other thing that’s been weighing on my mind since the “camping out for opening night” comment is the idea of a MV movie. Yeah, yeah, I get the 150-million Mirrorfall movie fantasy sometimes (though seriously, I’m trying to work out how they’d streamline the plot so it would work as a movie, and if they would try and condense MF, MH and MS into one movie, or what...cause I’m not sure MF quite works as a movie on its own, considering that it ends with the heroine – sorry, protagonist – dead).
This, however, is probably I won’t get to see until I’m in my 50s or something, so it’s not my focus. Somewhere in my 10-year-plan (no, I don’t really have one of those, maybe I should), I want to get a video camera and start making MV shorts – probably start out with something really simple, like doing visual Birdybirdy updates, maybe partner with a garage band and do a music vid with MV content, move up to doing 5, 10 and 20-minute shorts, that kind of thing.
Cause, you see, if you have work under your belt, you can quite often get free money from the government to make movies. Yeah, the Aussie film industry kind of sucks, but so long as I’m here...which is probably going to be forever (unless someone does carry out her kidnapping threat), I may as well inject it with some MV awesomeness.
Thing is: I have an idea for what MV movie I’d like to make. It’s something I know I could make on a fairly shoestring budget – there’s like five locations, four main characters, a few secondaries, and only a few SFX shots (some are extended, but honestly, I’ve already figured out how to do those, and could probably mock then up right now if I had the right software).
Run, flee, escape, it’s a love story. And...if you’ve noticed Ryan’s dead girlfriend, Mags’ unhealthy obsessive love and the like, you’ll have probably figured out I write kind of weird love stories. :P Well, this one is slightly more traditional – boy meets girl, except boy is an Ashreader and girl is undergoing psychiatric treatments. >_>
So yeah, if in ten years, I get around to making a MV movie, can I count on you guys to be behind it, even if it doesn’t star our favourite hacker girl?
And don’t pick on me for writing a 1500+ word blog entry instead of a chapter, I’m going to go try and write about the shark, but I’m sort of distracted, so writing this is easier. Plus, isn’t it nice to know I’m not dead?
Our room is progressing nicely, I will post pics when it’s finished. :) By this time next week, should be settled down there.
Ok, fine, I have a first line for the next chapter, I may be able to write something.
Personal opinion: do you ship Mags/Taylor or Mags/Grigori?
Also: what screen resolution do you tend to use?
Also: the master document for MS is officially over 50,000 words – I kind of get the feeling this is going to be the longest book yet, since we’re not even at the halfway point yet.
Well, this chapter has hit 1000 words, and isn’t finished yet, so I don’t have to feel bad if I release it tonight, as it least it’s a sort of reasonable size. *goes back to writing it*
Hmm...a question for you all...
Not that I'm asking for empty praise (though I'll take that too :P), but out of genuine curiosity, I'm wondering what it is that draws you back to MV week after week (we'll pretend we're on a weekly schedule, yanno, like we're supposed to be...supposedly...some semblance of order will be regained after I've finished moving).
Is it the 'verse itself, and the weird stuff it contains, the story, the characters, or what?
*runs off to pack more boxes*
May 16 - The State of Things
Thought I'd update everybody on my plans, since in the last week you've really only had the one update from me.
Today, I'm going to aim at getting a Stef short finished (it's almost done, I just abandoned it before it was completed). I'll work on rewriting the Andrea short in the near future, and the rest will be placed on the backburner for a while so that I don't rush them and so that they can actually be the size I want them to be (as both "Agent Mike and his Somewhat Epic Quest for Breakfast" and "The Wizard in the White Coupé" both have the potential to be 10-20k novellas, and I don't want to push them out as 5k shorts).
As to the RAs, I think what I'll be doing is finishing up the first story (which won't be introducing everyone, as a large number of you ran from the Agency as soon as you were free), and set up things in an open-ended way that will be perfect for RP if you want to do that - I'll be setting up another sub-forum as an area to play.
To Birdy...I think at this point, the best thing for me to do would be to take what I have down (or leave it archived here, but not updating), take it, and write it as a side-novel (or novella), as the current format isn't really going to allow for me to tell the story as it needs to be told (there will, of course, be more diary entries in the finished product, but there are sections that cannot be told as diary entries). So yeah...sorry for that. -_- Just be content in the knowledge that me writing Birdy last year helped to keep me sane enough until I had the proper time to work on MH, so it served its purpose, and now just needs to be reworked into a longer work.
Doing all this will let me concentrate on just writing on book at a time (which, for the moment, seems to be what I'm best at, and trust me, when it comes towards the end of GE, you are going to appreciate my ability to concentrate and do crazy updating. Again.).
[Side note: I brought up at a writers meet I went to on Friday that I had done 15 chapters in a week - which I think is how many I did, it was somewhere around there - and I got some of the strangest looks...]
Outside the writing side of things: I've started a wikia, so we can finally start having an organised base of information. And I'll be working on the store over the next few weeks as well. :) (Store name is still being decided, so if you have any ideas, feel free to list them).
Mirrorblog
Stuff!
#14
Hi...
Figured it's been a while since there's been anything on the front page, so I'd update:
*I feel like crap, sick with some sort of flu
*Have...no inclination to work on story at the moment, try and write, and nothing comes out. I'm still thinking plenty (still mostly about #13 godsdammit), but it's not translating into work.
*Still looking at/applying for somewhere to live, which is taking up a lot of my free time (run out during my lunch break, cram one in on the way home, spend entire Saturdays running around Brisbane)
*Been working on the RP stuff in the forums. It's still in the beginning stages, though if you're looking at making a fairy or recruit character, there's probably enough info to work with at the moment (adding more, and filling out the others as I get time).
I have an idea for the plot...going to flesh it out a bit more (at least the set up), and then we can just run wild with it. :D
Content and stuffs...
So, since we seem to be talking about the future (ebooks and whatnot), it's probably a good enough time to be talking about what else we want to be doing.
Read on...
The Facebook page - exists, but doesn't really update that much, would you guys like it if it was more active? Are there certain types of content you'd like to see on there? (EG, random character quotes that I haven't been able to place in a book, etc).
The Podiobook version - this is going to happen this year, I know most of you guys like the text version, that isn't going to disappear, and will always be way ahead of the audio version, but I think we can tap into a whole new audience if there's a version people can listen to at work/on a train/etc, etc.
The RP - now, I know I started to set up the forum for this, but then got distracted (my brain has been focused on movemovemovemove for a while now, and it's finally starting to unwind). If this is something you guys want to go, then I think I've got a story in mind (at least the beginning of one, what happens isn't up to me [Oh, so you mean it's like every other MV story then? Oh, shut up. You're the one typing this. ...shut up.]
Regular release date - this is going to be a lot easier to pull off now that I've moved. I don't like the idea of a schedule, because I don't like disappointing you, but if we aim for say, once a week updates on Fridays, is that something you'd like? (Not this Friday, it'd start from next Friday).
Reviews - I know it probably gets annoying with me asking every so often for this, but reviews do bring readers (especially when they sit on the front page of WebFictionGuide for a few days, it gives us visibility). It doesn't take long, and it would be a big boost (thanks to those of you who have done it).
Mirrorblog #1 - ART!
I so wish I could show you the full-size copy of this, however since it would be an unreasonably huge to be on the front page, you'll just have to wait for it in poster-form. :P
It's so pretty...
Mirrorblog #12 - The Review
Death Most Definite by Trent Jamieson
A Review
[Major spoilers]
Let’s start with something simple. This is the blurb, grabbed from Amazon:
Steven de Selby has a hangover. Bright lights, loud noise, and lots of exercise are the last thing he wants. But that's exactly what he gets when someone starts shooting at him.
Steven is no stranger to death-Mr. D's his boss after all-but when a dead girl saves him from sharing her fate, he finds himself on the wrong end of the barrel. His job is to guide the restless dead to the underworld but now his clients are his own colleagues, friends, and family.
Mr. D's gone missing and with no one in charge, the dead start to rise, the living are hunted, and the whole city teeters on the brink of a regional apocalypse-unless Steven can shake his hangover, not fall for the dead girl, and find out what happened to his boss- that is, Death himself.
TL;DR – corporate grim reapers in Brisbane.
I found out about this book because of a writer’s group that I’ve attended on occasion (work generally interferes, but I stay on the mailing list). Mister Jamieson (feel free to say that with the Agent Smith inflection, I know I do :P) was attending as a guest, and his site and books were linked.
Intrigued, I clicked through and found out about the Death Works series.
And then, in all honesty, I got quite mopey. I mean, here’s this dude infringing on my territory (I mean, dude, who bothers to write about Brisbane? - I imagine Jim Butcher’s fairly territorial about Chicago [pure conjecture and personal head canon, no citation]). And urban fantasy in Brisbane no less, I mean, that’s my thing. -_- My argument and justification was essentially that people only care about the first, not those that come after, and anything that comes after will be compared to whoever got there first, or seen as being inspired/ripping them off/whatever.
Pretty quickly, though, I was convinced that I was being stupid, and I started to have some hope. I mean, his guys wear suits, my guys wear suits, crossover fic time! :P (Yeah, yeah, completely incompatible mythologies surrounding death, but that’s what non-canon and crack!fic are for).
I went and shelled out $20 for it.
I knew from page one I was in for pain.
This is probably going to come down to being a pet peeve of mine, so I’ll get it out of the way straight away. Brisbane gets name-dropped so, so, so many times that it gets annoying. I started to keep track, but I stopped sometime after 30-35. There can be genuine reasons for repeatedly name-dropping a location, but this didn’t feel like that. It felt like it was being a small annoying fairy on your shoulder going “Brisbane! You’re in Brisbane mate! Remember, you’re in Brisbane! Brisbane, Brisbane, Brisbane!”. We get it already.
That, and the Wintergarden is name-dropped in the first line.
I’ll tangent for a second to say this: I’m not entirely sure who Mister Jamieson’s audience is – not in terms of the UF demographic, but if he wrote this for local audiences, or intended to try and write for a global audience.
He uses Australian phrasing – CBD stuck out to me, that’s not really writing it for the wider audience, and a lot of the slang is going to have people reaching for their nearest search engine or Aussie translator.
However, by the same token, he uses an incredible level of detail that’s like...the really, really boring version of a two-percent joke. He tells us what streets intersect with what, and the like. If you’re a local, you already know your way around the city, if you’re not...to be crass, you aren’t going to give a fuck. All you need to know is that Mister de Shelby is on the run, or turning a corner, you don’t need to know what streets meet, intersect or run parallel, it just makes the information given fuzzy.
I mean, imagine the footchase from Mirrorheart – where Ryan goes after the howler – would that have been improved at all if you knew he was running down Brunswick St, over Wickham, across rooftops to Ann St etc, etc? No, that’s all extraneous information compared to what’s important – the emotion of the sequence.
What would have been far less annoying would have been include a map in the front matter – that way, the same information could have been kept, if he wanted to go into that detail, but having the map there would give the necessary context for the wider audience, instead of trying to imagine it or pop onto Google Maps themselves.
And, seriously, if you’re going to give this insane level of detail...don’t mess things up. At one point, they pass the brewery at Milton. This is well-known landmark in Brisbane. Mister Jamieson refer to it as the Fourex Brewery. XXXX is the kind of beer the brewery makes. This is not what the brewery is called. It is either the Castlemaine Perkins brewery (company) or Milton Brewery (has this above the entrance). It’s genuinely annoying to have the level of detail elsewhere, but have something like this messed up – and I’m saying this as someone who doesn’t even drink, so it’s not like I’m trying to protect a beloved company or something.
And none of this...none of this compares to the fact that I didn’t give a damn about the characters.
It’s essentially action from the get-go, and this works for some characters. It doesn’t work here. Steven’s whole family dies, all his co-workers, yanno, pretty much his entire life turns to shit. Oh, and his little dog too. I. Don’t. Care. I have no emotional investment in this character.
I’m very easy. It doesn’t take very much for me to take an interest in a character, or find something that encourages me to read more. Here, there was nothing. Steven seemed to be nothing more than a function to move the plot along – yes, this is what a character does, but he didn’t seem to be anything more than that. If we’re at a point where a Firefly reference couldn’t redeem him for me, then it’s pretty dire.
(And in the same conversation the dead girl postulates that without Mickey Mouse we wouldn’t have any manga or anime. Sigh. Osamu Tezuka was influenced by Disney, but it’s just stupid to say that without Mickey we wouldn’t have anything, especially considering he wasn’t the only influence. I know it’s a character saying that, but it’s the kind of thing that people would repeat as truth.)
The guy never mourns for his parents. Shock, I can understand. Busy saving-the-world/running-for-your-life, I understand. But even after that...it seems to be a case of “I understand death, I deal with it everyday, I know where they’ve gone, and I accept it”. Acceptance is great, but dude, you seem to have a good relationship with your parents, and you’re never going to see them again, could you maybe give me a hint that you’re feeling that.
Just because you understand death doesn’t mean that never seeing those people again doesn’t hurt. Ryan’s chatted with Death a bunch of times, that doesn’t mean that if I killed Stef off for reals it would hurt any less.
And then there’s Lissa.
She’s the dead-girl love interest. She’s introduced in the first line. By page three, Steven wants to kiss her. I won’t disparage their relationship, instead I’ll just say this: It’s an action-movie romance. There’s a man. There’s a woman. There’s a level of sexual attraction. They go through action set pieces. They live happily ever after.
(And now I want to write an action book with lesbians. ...I wonder if I can turn the mermaid book into an action story. I think I can. Cool.)
And now I’d like to touch on sex.
They perform a binding ceremony to keep the dead girl around – to stop one of the bad guys from pomping her (ie, reaping her). In order to do this, Steven has a wank and they use the result in order to complete said ceremony. There’s blood magic in this book, no problem with that, that makes sense. This, however, doesn’t.
Semen, for the purposes of this ceremony is said to be more powerful than blood. Maybe it’s my inner scientist...but that’s just stupid. There’s no real explanation given. Semen gives life, sure, but not by itself. Sperm contains half a strand of DNA, can’t do anything by itself, and doesn’t contain all the other miscellaneous elements that blood does...so why is it more powerful exactly?
Steven and Lissa have sex later in the book. The orgasm is described as “an epiphany of fire”. Insert your own joke about there being a cream for that at your convenience.
There’s essentially a zombie apocalypse. Ok, not quite, but the city is described as being virtually deserted. My question essentially boils down to: where is the Agent Clarke of this ‘verse?
Unless I blocked it out, there seems to be attention paid to the PR/cover stories/anything that would stop the population at large from finding out about the pomps and their pompery. This is a major problem for me, because...unless you’ve got a ‘verse that openly has a broken masquerade, it’s kind of important to deal with how you stop the normals from stumbling across this kind of stuff.
Blah blah, Steven saves the day, gets the girl, gets to be in charge of the Brisbane office. His biggest worry? What to serve at the G8 for reapers.
I finished the book. I closed the book. I threw it across the room.
I have never, ever thrown a book across a room. I have a massive respect for books, no matter their state, condition or content. Ok, I mean, don’t expect me to treat Mein Kampf or Twilight with respect, but yeah, never done that do a book before.
I was disappointed, because it could have been excellent. This review is entirely personal, I’m not an objective source to say whether or not it’s good, but from my point of view...it could have been so much better.
It could have been the replacement for people who miss Dead Like Me. It could have given me another UF filled with people in suits to read. I could have been interested enough to stick through it and see what another writer does with my city.
But I don’t think I’ll waste my time or money.
I thought I had an adversary, I thought I had someone to be worried about. I don’t. Mister Jamieson has the second Death Works book just out, and the third early next year, then (according to his blog), he’ll be taking a break to work on another project, then maybe come back for #4 and #5.
Don’t worry Brisbane, I’ll continue to treat you well. I’ll expose your weird parts, your wonderful parts, the entrances to fairyland and the number of things Stef can walk into whilst talking about cookies.
Mister Jamieson, if you’re reading this, I’ll give you this: I’ll stay out of George St, if you stay out of Queen St. You touch Queen St, and there’ll be naked Parker orgies in front of Number Four. And they are very limber.
...and the whole book is written in first person, present tense. *shudder*
Mirrorblog #13 - December 28th
Hope everyone had a great...whatever you celebrate (if anything) over the past few days/weeks/will be celebrating shortly. If nothing else, Happy Cookiemas!
I'm not predicting that there's going to be anything approaching regular content for a little while. Probably something like a month more. I know we've had dry stretches like that before, but I wanted to explain why.
Matthew and I have to move. As in, pack, find a place and leave. We're looking at being somewhere new within a month, sooner if we can. I'm putting in one application tomorrow, and looking at more places this week.
Things where we're living right now...I'm not going into detail, but it just isn't feasible for us to stay anymore.
It's not all doom and gloom though. Though it's going to be tight-but-manageable judging by the rent prices, there's a tonne of advantages to this move.
We're looking at Spring Hill, a suburb which is right in the city...like, maybe ten minutes walk from the mall, less probably.
This means:
a) It'll be a five minute walk to work for me, for the rest of my contract, and since I assume that almost every job I'll have for the foreseeable future will be in the city, short walks/commutes for all of them.
a.2) This means so much more time at home, rather than 1.5-2hr commutes every day.
b) Be out from a stressful situation that prevents me from writing on far too many of an occasion.
c) I'll be living in Brisbane, so...I'm going to be surrounded by inspiration all day, everyday. (Key example, I went to lunch the other day and the electronic ad boards were messed up/glitching (no, not that kind) and it looked like a PCR screen/genetic sequencing test. I'm totally recycling that for a tech department story.
d) Be close to the huge, cheap cinema (cheapest chain in Brisbane has control of an Imax screen and the tickets are like...$6.50 or something, better than $15ish for a normal-sized screen).
e) AND OTHER STUFF
It'll be a good start to the new year, this, combined with the fact that I'm really enjoying my new contract means I think 2011 is gonna be good. :D
For now...forgive the service interruption, and in a few weeks everything will be back to its usual, abnormal routine.
If you want to help out, there are a few ways:
a) Write some fanfic so people don't have cookie withdrawals
b) Tell people what else you're reading :D
c) Sacrifice some baked goods on an alter in the hope that I get the packing done on time (about to take the bookcases.
d) Clicky the PayPal link if you want to contribute the move monetarily.
e) General good thoughts are good, because the idea of trying to pack, find a place and move in the space of a few weeks is kind of...really O_O O_O O_O
Mirrorblog #2 - A Very MV Morning
Well, point one...had a very good day at my new job. :D (Not the new one I told you about, that one didn't work out, this is the new!new job, and I likey.
Turned up very early due to not being quite sure if I was in the right place (turns out my hunch was right), then decided to go have some food to clam my new!job jitters. Ended up in the Hungry Jacks in the mall because it was a) close, b) open and c) not trying to charge me $5.95 for a breakfast muffin.
So this is MV thingy #1, since it was the one where Stef and Curt nommed during MS. Thingy #2 was I was sitting at the front so I could see the exact spot where I thought up the title GE, and whilst I was nomming "Love and Sex and Magic" came on, very appropriate for the book I'm writing. :P
Speaking of which...started on the new chapter. Ooooooooooooooooooohhhhhh boy (/Sam Beckett). If you hated Magpie now, you are going to have more reason to hate her. (Well, I think so anyway, she's got a couple of veryveryvery cold lines. One which is so deliciously evil - again, my opinion, YMMV).
Mirrorblog #3 - End of the Week - Quick Update
Had a good week at work - I've got another day Monday, not sure about after that, but I'm enjoying it...so :D
To important stuff: I've started on the next chapter, but haven't gotten very far into it. And I've started on what will either be a Stef novelette or novella (depending on how inspired I get with it).
Mirrorblog #4 - Updates and Changes
No, I didn't write anything today. Sorry. Busy...and I don't have a title for this novella-thingy, and I need a title before I upload it. >_>
Next, I've made changes to both MS and GE - I've pulled the "crossover" chapters out of GE and placed them into MS where they fit in sequence (after chapter 39) - mainly because, it's less confusing, and the way I had it now really wasn't necessary. In the original plan, there were going to be a lot more crossover chapters, but my plans rarely go according to plan, so I've bent to the will of reality. :P This means that GE is now six chapters shorter and MS six chapters longer.
Next: forum RP - it would be cool to get one of these going. The two choices would be a serious-type story, same sort of plotlines that can happen in canon, compared to RA plots which can involve requring Taylor's outfit into interesting colours. :P
Also probably worthy of note is that in the sensible!RP you're more likely to be playing a recruit or a non-human/half-human character of about Mags' power level, whereas the RA!RP you're fine to be a random agent. :D
That's it for now. :)
Mirrorblog #5 - This week in writing...
Ok, so I got a whole bunch more pages of Stef Mimosa Vs. The World done, and I will be transcribing one this weekend.
I also got the strangest need to write out some pages for a book I won't be writing for...oh so long. It was going to be mid-teens, now it may be late-teens (and I think the book numbering that we've got at the moment may change a little, thanks to some decisions that have been made).
This really isn't anything new for me, I mean, you've seen it firsthand when I wrote out the entire plot of that book I'm never gonna write (so will heavily recycle). But me, with my brain, always gets plot bunnies that need to be cared for or cooked in stew when I'm thinking about future books...and all I can say is "ooooooh boy". Seriously. It's become...not something entirely different (*glares at GE*), but just gotten a lot better, and will be one of those WHAM-stuff-changes books.
I'm also getting the urge to write more young!Mags flashbacks...not that GE is abandoned, just on hiatus, cause it's easier to not concentrate on what I'm doing and auto-write SMvs.TW than write GE.
Plus, thanks to a minor plot development in SMvs.TW, I'm going to get to use two of my favourite lines that I've come up with for Curt - ones I thought I was going to have to wait aaaaaages to put in. :D
Mirrorblog #9
Haven't done a state of things for a while, thought I'd spit my thoughts out to the internet. :P
After I finish writing this up, I'm going to work on the next chapter of GE (haven't been in the mood for transcription of SM vs. TW - god that needs a new name, suggestions welcome!). Unless I get distracted, it'll be a continuation of the last chapter (more Clarke!). Also sometime in the next few chapters of GE, I want to do another flashback (yay more cute young!Mags).
It looks like the new site is working out well (I've said it before, but I do like it a lot more than the old, dark theme, I think this one fits the overall mood of the MV more :D).
If you haven't already, sign up via the coffee cup or via email, that way, you'll get the random updates whenever I get around to them - I'm not even going to try and attempt to make a schedule, things only go badly when I try that.
My contract at work has finished up (was temping), so I'll have a bit of time before getting a new position, so in-between interviews, should definitely mean more chapters. ^_^
Now to something that's been on my mind for a while: It's about GE - I know there are some of you who aren't digging that it's a Mags & Taylor book, rather than a Ryan & Stef book.
[Tangent: I've been noticing over the last couple of days that I always write them out like that, I get some sort of hitch in my brain when I try and write Taylor & Mags or Stef & Ryan, my brain's decided there's an order to things, and I have no say in the matter. Joy.]
I also know it's a lot darker than we're used to. -_-
To address both of these points: The dark is going to GTFO, it's not staying there for the whole book. I don't think it's too much of a spoiler to say that the ass-kicking will return.
But between now and then, you'll get distracted by the O_O bit of plot I figured out the other day. Sometimes I hate being sensible and thinking about the implications of things and acting logically within the rules I've set up. *kicks a rock*
I am, however, going to have a lot of fun with this, and it changes...a lot, I think it's safe to say a lot. Not as much as the second half of the book, but still a lot. :D
Ok, the second point, the focus of the book.
From the beginning, Mirrorfall was going to be an ensemble series - it sort of annoys me that most (I'd say nearly all) of the other UF serieseses out there focus specifically on their hero.
(Strike one: Stef ain't no hero < /cheapshot>).
I mean, you look at reviews or at Goodreads, and you'll see UF books listed as "The Sue Storm series" or "The Lois Lane chronicles" or "Book Four of Princess Leia" kind of thing, as if their precious MC is the be-all and end-all of their work.
Full disclosure: I did decide this way back when I thought Stef was an inherently unlikeable/unlovable character and I felt like it would be good to be able to shift the focus around. She evolved, and I think it's fair to say you lot like her, at least a little. <3
The point remains though, that I didn't want to be stuck operating from the one perspective - Stef's point of view is hardly fair and balanced, and things happen when she's not around, or not alive (as evidenced by MH :P).
I mean, say GE didn't exist, and we'd skipped straight to #5, we'd be knee-deep in alien refugees and a villain I can't wait to introduce, and we'd find out about Mags and Taylor's boinking as something incidental (it wouldn't be a case of Pairing the Spares, but it would be something that wouldn't be focused on at all - and would be primarily the purview of the fans, if this were a normal series/show/whatnot).
Fsck that. Seriously.
I want to show you these characters in all their fucked-up glory, to get new perspectives on them, show you what they're thinking, and make it more balanced (and/or show that two opposing perspectives can be right - Taylor is both a monster and a terribly broken man, neither of these cancel out each other, but they do round him out).
Stef's our main character, no way to deny that, and if I had to strip out everything out, Stef and Ryan is what I'd keep, because it's the heart of the series, but that doesn't mean that the other characters aren't just as good/interesting/worthy of their own books.
TL;DR: my series and I do my own thing, I'll leave other authors to follow the tropes. :D
[Tangent on that: I'm so glad the main dynamic in the series isn't a boinking one, I think it sets us apart even more. :D]
And finally, things you can do to help!
*Vote for us weekly (linky on the right sidebar), just a few more votes and we'll be in the top five, and it shouldn't be too hard to maintain that position.
*If you've got the time, pop a review over at http://webfictionguide.com/listings/the-mirrorverse/ - if we get enough attention, might get another editor review (which would be shiny, as Donna's review was based of MF1.0 >_<
*Cherry pick some quotes, so I can add them to the banner (I've got a few more to make up, but there's a difference between what the author likes, and what people like...).
Mirrorblog - #10
Ok, been weighing the pros and cons of this the last couple of days and it looks like I will be splitting GE into two books - I'm going to wait a couple more days to make the final, final decision (can be influenced by feedback), but I think it's the best way to go.
The shift in tone between the two halves of GE is enough justification to split it into two - the focus of each is different, different tone, different pace, different section of the story.
I know I've said that it feels like on big complete work, and that I didn't want to split it up, but as we're nearing the middle (nearing, mind you, we're still like 20-ish chapters away from either the middle of the book or the end of GE), I'm sensing more and more that it would be better to split it.
I can't really go into detail about it, nor can I get you to vote on potential titles (grrr), but yeah...there's definitely a shift.
Really, you could look at MF/MH/MS as one massive, massive book that's just split into three. They all work together, they all work separately, I think the same thing applies here.
Hence...I think GE should be split into GE & GC/CoBF/whatever I decide on.
Also, just to screw with things a bit more, I might be changing up the order of the next couple of books. For the sake of easy, pretend that GE is still just one book. I'm thinking of switching #5 (aliens, evil god and action) with #6 (Merlin-centric book) so that we get a Merlin & Jonesy book next when we're done with the Mags/Taylor stuff. Also would like opinions about this. :D
Mirrorblog - #6
Six weeks without a chapter of GE, and no chapter of SMvsTW on the weekend, I wouldn't blame you for some murder-death-kill thoughts sent in my direction.
The sum total of the situation is as follows:
I still have no computer. My laptop is RIP with very little chance of a resurrection. This is sad, for a multitude of reasons, not least of which is NO FREAKING COMPUTER to use, and the fact that River was the computer that I really started the MV on - wanting to get used to typing on a laptop was when I sat down and wrote the Stef-meets-Dorian chapter, pretty much without any prior thought, and I got a new direction to go. Pretty much didn't look back after that.
I'm still working - this contract goes until the end of October at the least, but I'm still getting used to working full time again, I mean, I'm doing fine at work, but I have no drive to write when I get home at night (aside from the fact that it means kicking Matthew off his computer in order to have somewhere to write).
I'm still writing the novella on the train to and from work, but since I'm working so close to home now, I'm not getting much done (I'm probably two...maybe three chapters ahead). I will make an effort to transcribe one when I get a chance. Plus, it's a lot of fun, it's seriously a lot of fun.
Perched on a borrowed computer is really not where I want to be writing GE, hence the extended hiatus on that - I need a real writing space to be able to focus on that (plus, we're heading into dark territory for that, so it's not as easy to write as the "you're an idiot, ma'am" dynamic of the novella.
I've got another computer on lay-by - I should be able to pick that up either this week or next, it's a desktop this time, secondhand, but in good condition, and desktops are a lot easier to upgrade than a laptop.
Plus, as of the end of last week, we officially have real internet. No more little wireless dongles for us, we've got broadband, and plenty of it. It's not as fast as it was at the old house, but I'm not complaning, it's better than shelling out $50 for 4gig.
Now, to the novella. The title was cute, and it did amuse me, but it's not going to stay - I'll keep one chapter as SMvsTW as my little Scott Pilgrim tribute. It needs a new title, which I'll be thinking on, and suggestions are welcome.
I have plans for this story. Plans outside of, like, the plot and finishing it sometime or other.
I want to use this as kind of a MV primer - I want this to be the book/pdf/cd/email I toss at people when they want to get an idea of what I'm writing/what's so great about some skinny chick in a suit/whatever. It'll be a jumping-on point for a lot of people, and I'm cool with that, they can then go back and read MF/MH/MS at their leisure, but I want it to stand on its own enough that people don't feel like they have to read through three books in order to jump on (it can be daunting for some people). It's kind of like how you can watche Serenity without having seen Firefly, but then you can go back and watch Firefly and get a deeper understanding of what's going on, get more of the jokes, etc.
And when it's done, finished, edited, expanded and got some art, it's going to be our first printed book, and I'm going to be tossing it at a bunch of reviewers, so we can get some more reviews, some more buzz and some more readers. :D
The MV is going to be big, and that's still my promise, even if I do stay working for the next five, ten or fifteen years, putting out a chapter a week, I've slowed down content production, but the scope of the 'verse hasn't dimished.
My mic is on its way, so the podcast will go into production this year - it won't replace the text content, it will be in addition to (especially as it'll take a while to catch up to where we are). I know there wasn't a lot of interest in this the last couple of times it was brought up, but I think it's a good way to draw in a new audience, plus podcasts are cool, as is the music I've picked so far. ^_^
Doing this also lets me do minor edits to the chapters to edit for flow...or add two/three pages of content as needed (I'm still catching lines of dialogue and stuff where people don't seem quite in character - mostly the first half of MF - so I'm getting to fix these things so Jonesy sounds like Jonesy and Ryan sounds like Ryan, rather than a guys who sort of sound like themselves).
And when I do this, when it's edited for the last time, and recorded - and therefore locked in, we'll call it the final cut, I will swear that I'm happy with it, and then we'll have copies available for sale. :)
So yeah, forgive the lack of content, but you're in my thoughts.
Mirrorblog - Quick Update
Ok, so looks like I've finally got that funky Grey Edge numbering problem sorted out - went through and manually renumbered them all.
And for those who haven't read the comments on the last update - let me know some of your favourite MV quotes, and they'll go up on the cycling banner above. :D
Mirrorblog - Random Thought
Been reading a bunch about urban fantasy in general lately, tropes, examples, reviews...dunno, felt in a research mode. (And I'll be doing a book review on here sometime in the next couple of weeks and that's going to be...we'll use the word "fun" for now).
We all know Stef isn't a typical UF heroine...and we love her for that. But I think I figured out what her tagline/catchphrase/whatnot would be if she were one of those normal, leather-clad, sexy UF protagonists. I think it would be something like:
"I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth, I was reborn with a silver heart in my chest."
You know it's true. :P
Once More With Cookies
Oh, right, I should explain why Chapter One is sitting up the top of the front page...
It's the first of the rewrite chapters. These aren't going to appear as quickly as regular updates (yeah, yeah, shut up, I'm going to really try and get a new chapter out today...look, I just opened up GE#50 and wrote another paragraph), but they will appear.
For those of you who suffered through the last rewrite, this isn't like that. My first priority is new content, everything be damned. The rewrites are just what I'm going to do when I can't convince my brain to work on new content, or I need a break from writing Angelpie sexytiem.
Why am I doing this? Simple. It needs to be done. There are still problems with MF that minor edits won't fix, still
detail that is missing, and little things that should have been introduced that haven't (I mean, guys, did you ever
wonder what the actual command to require something away is? That'll get covered).
It's also a matter of getting people into character. There are still too many scenes in MF where people feel either OOC or just...beta version of their personality actually is. It's a book that suffers from me getting comfortable writing my characters at a later point, or taking too long to grok onto how to write someone. Ryan, if you believe it, took me far longer to find a voice for than Taylor did.
That's Mirrorfall.
Mirrorheart on the other hand...no prisoners. Really, no prisoners. That's a book that needs to be picked up, shaken apart, and put back together as an actual book. It's never felt...finished, or like it lives up to what I wanted it to be.
Mirrorshades - Wrap Up
Ok, so it's done and finished.
I may do a couple of bonus chapters, there's two scenes which I want to do (one I probably need to, the other's just a bit of fun).
For now, questions, have you got any? Did I leave anything hanging that you need wrapped up? Any bits of explaination that didn't make it in? Ask, and you'll get answers, unless it's a spoiler for a future book. :P
Mirrorverse GURPS - We're Doing RPGs now.
I am pleased to announce that we are now constructing a ruleset for a Mirrorverse suppliment book for the GURPS roleplaying game system!
what will be included:
-An in depth look at the Mirrorverse setting!
-New Advantages, Perks, Disadvantages, Quirks, Skills, Spells, and Equipment!
-Several Fae races, and of course, Agents available to use for your player characters!
-Example Scenarios including your favorite characters from MV as NPCs!
-Anything else we can come up with!
Some Information on GURPS:
GURPS is a roleplaying game system, like Dungeons and Dragons, designed to be adaptable to any setting, described as a "universal" roleplaying system, while still retaining the same core rules.
This means that using the GURPS system, it is very simple to make new source material, which just WORKS. The rules are really simple, and the character creation works off points; you spent points on attributes, both positive, and negative(these give minus points, effectively refunding you for more good stuff).
There is a lite version of the rules that you can check out for free here: http://e23.sjgames.com/item.html?id=SJG31-0004
Production of the Rule Set
I will be taking a slightly laid back lead role in this; It's Stormy's 'verse, and I can't really do more than craft it into a useable ruleset, a task that is actually pretty easy, as it fits right in.
But, anyone who has any experience in roleplaying games, D&D, GURPS, Shadowrun, heck, even with no experience, let me know, and you can help design the stuff that goes in here.
It isn't as hard as it sounds, and the end product will be wonderfully awesome.
What You Can Do With It
The whole idea would be that you, the readers of Mirrorverse, would be able to create your own recruits, agents, solstice-douchebags, and play out scenarios and campaigns set in the world.
More Info soon, when I can think of it. :P
New and Shiny!
(Written yesterday, didn't get a chance to upload it last night).
10.45am
Today, in just over an hour, I'm going to be the proud owner of a netbook. Not a big achievement in and of itself, they're small, they're cheap and you can easily afford one if you don't have too many financial burdens. I'm not getting one because they're cute (even though they are), I'm getting one to increase my productivity - something I've been feeling very uneasy about since I dropped back to a once-a-week schedule with Mirrorfall. Yes, the episodes are longer. Yes, they're much better written than the original version (not being arrogant, based on the simple fact that my chapters now contain actual description instead of being something more akin to fleshed out comic scripts. And yes, it's finally a schedule I can actually keep to.
That being said, I feel like I'm being a bit of a cheat, so I've been looking into options for more content, and I've hit on the original format - remember the days of 500 words/day everyday? Now, I can't go back to doing that with Mirrorfall, as the longer-form chapters don't really lend themselves to being chopped into bite-size pieces; but doing something that's designed to be that short, now, maybe I can do that.
So, Monday, I wrote the first 2000 words of "Diary of a Dead Girl: The Mystery of My Murder" - yes, I know it's a long title, I'll work on that. I then chopped the 2000 words into 4, 500-ish word chapters, and with a bit of tweaking it definitely could work. Especially, due to the rather unique syntax, it would be hard to read long sections of it all at once. (No, I'm not pulling a Nat and doing something like "23 is a magical number", it's not anywhere near that hard to read. I'm also considering doing this as a podcast, or possibly both. I might upload a sample episode and let people decide.
Yestday, I wrote the first 2500 words of "d34th_ang3l hates you" - a pre-Agency story about Stef, but on consideration this will probably be better left until after the first arc of Mirrorfall.
*Time update 11:29am*
Half an hour until lunch, and until I run through the city (ashamedly keeping my eyes wide open for people in suits and magpie-girls). Now, the thing about getting the netbook, and the thing about productivity…yesterday and today, with the constraints of being at work, and only being able to write when I was at home/had a spare minute I managed to get 2000 & 2500 words done. Today, on the day I'm looking to improve that productivity by being able to write on the train and at lunch…I haven't written anything. Seriously, zilch except for this rambling entry. I know it's not irony, it's the other thing that people always mistake for irony. All I can think about is how cool it's going to be (technically it's the first computer I've bought for myself), and how I'm going to geek it up with stickers and decals and all that good stuff. So, basically, I'm a scatterbrain who can't be trusted. >_>
Of porn, and other wonderful things.
I love Google Analytics, it brings much joy into my day. It also teaches me many strange and wonderful things.
Such as...the most common search term that leads people here is "nudity cookies". I'm deadly serious right now. Nudity cookies.
I'm stuck halfway between thinking that it is possibly the strangest thing I've heard all week (and this is a week where I cannot get the phrase "Stef-skin rug" out of my head) and the most awesome thing I've heard all week.
Also, for those of you who didn't respond last time, I want your screen resolution. It's getting closer to when this will be relevant. It will benefit you, so post...tell me...you won't regret it.
Ok so...
Update: Ok, so yesterday, I finished off the main storyline, doesn't include flashbacks, just the main thread, and got it up to 79 chapters long. With flashbacks, the total is probably going to be about 90. I say this with the caveat that it's me, and that it's this book, and nothing goes to plan, so no promises about getting these exact numbers, but at least there's a plan. :D
Ok, yes, I know you haven't had a new chapter in a few days. There is a reason for this, and I'm about to explain.
GE has gone through so, so, so, so, so many changes since it was first put into order, from being a love-triangle book, to one involving a haunted house, to book 3.5, to a novella, etc, etc. However, since it took shape, I've had very firm ideas about what was to happen.
...but then Mags and Taylor had to go and boink.
They weren't supposed to, but they did anyway. I mean, I know it made perfect sense for their character arcs, and it was awesome, it was the right time, and it felt good...but still, it ruined my plan. It wasn't supposed to happen for like...another 15 chapters or something, actually...that was when the confession was supposed to happen, the boinking wasn't supposed to happen until basically the end of the book.
But they boinked, and everything got ruined.
So I've basically been left floundering trying to figure out what goes where, how things work together, and what the implications of having the sexytiem at this point in the book is. Needless to say, although it sounds like a lot of author whinging, it's actually really hard.
And in the process of working everything out, I was having a conversation with someone who shall remain anonymous and...codenamed "Little Owl" for our convenience >_> brought up an idea that is in the works to happen around...the end of Arc 2, yanno, books and books and books from now.
However, I went and sat, and thought, and decided to go for it. I can't tell you what it is, but it's...massive.
And that in turn, means that GE is going to be massive. I mean, I can safely imagine it's going to reach 80 chapters (subject to it going awry and things going off-spec again), but I think that's what I'm going to be aiming for.
So yeah...it's, in all probability, going to be bigger than MS, possibly significantly bigger.
I'm curently writing out chapter-by-chapter summaries, trying to get an idea of where I'm going with this. I'm currently up to chapter 47, will be doing more tonight, and a bunch more tomorrow.
However, it does mean that what I've written of the next chapter is valid, so when I feel up to writing again, I've got about a 1000 head-start on what I need to do.
I may, however, get a little sidetracked on Friday (2nd) by various birthday-related stuff, but I'll try and see what I can do.
Regarding Birdy...
I probably should have put this up before I posted five chapters, but I'm not exactly one for preparation (see the previous post where I rightly claimed that I was a scatterbrain).
Putting this story up is due to a couple of things - my lack of satisfaction due to being only able to reliably post one chapter of Mirrorfall a week (real life and full-time job being what it is, I don't want to promise more than that), and also, I miss the days when I was putting up 500 words/day and having a constant flow of content.
...it's also really because I don't think it's easy to read more than 500 words of Birdy-speak at a time.
I also don't promise that I'll stick to this format, as I *know* for a fact that some of the chapters I want to write won't work like this.
Now, regarding Birdy, for those you who read through the second arc of Mirrorfall (before all the old content got taken down), you might remember Birdy from her couple of appearances.
She's, as established multiple times over these few chapters I've put up, a zombie. Now, zombies in all of their George Romero glory don't really exist in the Mirrorfall 'verse, we don't get hordes of ravaging undead, we don't send recruits to old churches to deal with the undead. They just...don't happen.
The trashmaids are one exception, because they're more like a sidestep than anything else, they're not just reanimated corpses, they're evolved animated corpses, and they're mostly due to magical fallout (like the things that evolve around the Unseen University), and their grip on reality is so fragile that they could easily be categorised as follies (like Ashreaders, Story Thieves, bits of dream and bits of nightmare).
So that's the explanation, so enjoy and go AWWWW and EWWWW as appropriate. >_>
Regarding Mirrorshades
Yeah, yeah, I haven't done a chapter in a few days. Sorry. IRL intervened. -_-
However, what you say to this will affect how I write the next chapter. Are you guys ok with the shorter chapters, like the last few have been (~1000 words), or would you prefer me to go back to the longer format (~1500+).
I don't really mind either way, though I'm sort of leaning toward the longer chapters, but I want to know how you feel. While it's possible that I could squeeze out a more of the shorter chapters in a shorter span, I don't want to continue with them if you're feeling that you aren't getting value for money (...you know what I mean).
The one advantage that the shorter chapters have is that I might throw in scenes that I otherwise wouldn't have like, Taylor going to see Reynolds, in all honesty I could have left that out (and extended the scene between him and Ryan), but it adds a little something extra (I only went for it, because I knew I was going for a short chapter, if that makes sense).
I dunno, you guys tell me. :)
Some morning cute for you all...
Done by Matthew's friend and fellow WoW-player Meida, who can be found over here. Go check out her stuff, the rest of it is just as adorable. :D
State of Stormy.
Warning: TL;DR and TMI ahead.
By this point, you are probably well and truly wondering "where the fsck is #13 from the Round Robin". You will have checked the page and realised that it is in fact my turn to write it, so your thoughts have turned to "hey come on Stormy, get your ass moving" and sending evil little thoughts and potato peelers in my general direction. I'd like to apologise for not having written it, and for not having apologised for not writing it earlier.
I've tried to write it. I have a fairly good idea of what's going in it. I even know who Death was having dinner with. I just can't write it. I've sat there with an open word document trying to put fingers to keyboard and freezing up, unable to do anything, before I'll go distract myself by watching stuff online, thinking happy slashy thoughts (Grigori/Taylor ^_^) or playing WoW.
And yeah, I know you're thinking "Oi, Stormy, we've heard all this crap before." Well, no, this is a different kind of thing. The last time I said stuff like this it was because I was jobless and was trying to recover from the fact that my job had nearly sent me insane.
This is different. Christmas always makes things different.
I think I hate Christmas. It has nothing to do with the event itself, it's not because I'm one of those die-hard people who hate it because it's all commercialised or anything like that. It's because it makes me think of what I've lost, and that becomes a much larger part of the holiday period than realising what I have.
Christmas was always the best time of year for me, right from the time I was little. We would always have a big family day (even as small as my family was, there was never more than like a dozen people total) where we'd all come together and the best of times.
When my mum died, everything changed, everything fell apart. We didn't have big Christmas any more. And to make it worse, because of her death, and some extenuating circumstances, I was living with one relative, my brother with another. I loved my little brother so much, I'd helped raise him, and I would have done anything for him. When we got separated, we just started to grow apart, I tried everything I could, but it didn't work.
He grew up, too quickly, and fell in with the wrong kind of friends. Yanno, booze, smokes, drugs, all that kind of stuff.
How is this relevant? Well, we went to see him on Christmas eve. Note that holiday-spirit-wise, I was barely holding it together, and had planned a low-key day to deal with that, make a roast lunch, but make no big deal out of, and basically spend the day playing WoW with Matthew, then cuddling up to watch The Guild (so happened, so that was good at least).
He wasn't even there when we turned up, so we just said hihi to my relative (let's call her...Catherine), and one of my cousins who was randomly there, then my brother turns up, wishes me a Merry Christmas and gives me a hug, while smelling of booze. I go to hang out with him in his room, and he falls over cause he's so wasted, but makes no big deal of it. He has a cigarette or two while we chat about what we've been up to, go join the grown-ups for a while, talk with them, then disappear back off to his room when they start talking about...I think they were complaining about one of the local politicians, it was something uninteresting.
We start chatting about metal, and while questioning me about what bands I like, he lifts up his bong from under his bed, lits it, inhales, then goes back talking about the conversation. I stumble over my conversation about Sabbath, break into O_O and quickly start talking about how Ozzy was awesome at Blizzcon (while seriously trying to shift myself the hell out of there). He agrees on several points, lits it up again, then puts it back under his bed.
I'll reiterate.
My little brother. Did pot. Right in front of me.
Goodbye Christmas spirit, I'm cutting off your life support.
I really that was the last little thing I needed to burn me out. I am *so* fucking depressed right now. I mean, I know should man up and just write a bit of Christmas fluff, cause that's all it was supposed to be, but I can't. I just fucking can't.
Stuff and Things
I am not absent without reason, so I thought I'd talk, instead of just appearing to post once a week, and disappearing again.
I've been job hunting for a while now, no real bites for weeks, but then things started to turn around a bit. A few week ago, I went for a job interview - told a few of you about this one, there was a meet & greet night (with yummy snacks), where you could go talk to the staff, and they could get to know you a bit. It was a really cool company, and for once, it seemed like the myriad of almost-useless skills I'd acquired would actually be of use. I felt like I had a real shot at this one (especially as the staff there seemed to like me, liked my skillset, WPM, whatnot).
Never heard one word back. Not even a form "sorry you were unsuccessful" email. After a few days, I sent in an email, asking if they'd filled the position. No response.
I got really down about this. I don't exactly have the most impresive resume, mainly because I went into study straight after finishing school, and the qualifications (Stormy the scientist!) I have aren't related to the kind of job I'm trying to get now (there's no point in being able to PCR DNA when you're trying to get an admin job).
(And before you ask, I've kind of ditched the idea of going into science as a career, it was awesome to study, but I don't think it's something I want to dedicate my life to. You guys all know what I want to dedicate my life to).
Since then, I've had a couple of phone interviews, a couple of IRL interviews (one this week, which I also thought I did well at, but was unsuccessful). -_-
About the only step forward I've made is getting signed up with a temping agency (this was yesterday) - I mean, there's worse things to be in life than Donna Noble. :P But they'd already filled their needs for the week (not surprising, given that my interview was Friday afternoon), but they'll keep an eye out for anything that matches.
I'm really, like RAWR to get a job because we need to move. It's been ok here, but things are sort of getting a little strained (family-wise), so moving out will be a good, er, move for all. Plus we've picked a really nice area to move to.
Somewhere in there (when I was feeling down about not getting the job as described at the top), I started playing WoW again. Yeah, yeah, sue me, but it's comfortable, familar, and easy to get lost in when IRL is sucking hard.
But then there's the thing where I'm pretty sure I sold my soul at the crossroads at some point.
I can be a good writer, or I can enjoy other things. It's probably the way I'm wired wrong, but I just can't split my focus between writing and...anything else. It's the same reason I have real trouble sitting down and reading books (though I did finish Dresden #2, grabbed that for my birthday). When I'm reading, I'm tending to be thinking "YOU SHOULD BE WRITING YOU SHOULD BE WRITING YOU SHOULD BE WRITING HOLY FUCK I NEED TO DO AT LEAST FIFTY BOOKS AND KEEP GOING HOW ARE YOU GOING TO DO THAT UNLESS YOU WRITE YOU SHOULD BE WRITING" kind of thing, maybe not that bad, but it does guilt me a bit, and take the enjoyment out of it.
TV, however, is an odd exception. I can enjoy TV as much as I want and still write. (Huh, I need to go rent Deadwood S3 today, neeeed more SWEDGIN).
Same with gaming. I can play WoW or I can write. I just can't...moderate. I mean, I banged out a chapter last night, but that was more because I'd been thinking all damn day that I needed to get a chapter out (I hate seeing the "days since last chapter" thing get up too high.
Plus, for a while there, I seriously was just working on the chapter summaries. (Of which the latest chapter was not one, so +1 to the number). I've still got to fine-tune the end of the flashbacks, but I've got plenty of time to see how that works out. That, and I think the next chapter is also unplanned, but...should e good. Weird, maybe, but good.
And for the past three days, when I wasn't out at job interviews, I've basically been watching them (thankfully resolved) clusterfuck that was the Blizzard/RealID debacle.
My plan for today is: play WoW for a bit (gnomey on a sparklepony, awesome). Eat breakfast. Paint a wall. Sundry housework. And this evening, hopefully write.
(And to my editors/betas/typo farmers, don't think that your work is unappreciated, I'm really, really grateful, and...probably going to implement something that's going to make your lives easier, but give me a bit to fine tune that).
The Strangest Thing Happened Today...
...no, it wasn't that I saw Death, that was a month ago.
I got a review on a six-and-a-half-year-old fanfic. I mean, I know these things happen, but it was so strange to get something reviewed that's so old, so crappy, and yet such a part of my life that I can't bear to take it down. It's just really made me sit down and think about where I've come from, and where I'm going.
I've said it before and I'll say it before: everything you know as Mirrorfall began life as Matrix fanfic. 6.5 years ago, I sat down and wrote a story about this hacker chick named Stef going to meet Morpheus, but ending up joining the agents. It was quickly written, it was crappy, and by the gods it was angsty (ok, maybe not the first one, but some of the ones that followed were just dripping the angst that goes along with being a teenage fanfic writer).
The review itself wasn't great, it was actually rather negative, blaming me for not doing my research (the fic was written at the time when there was one movie and a couple of comics, no extended media to study from) and to bitch about the fact that I had a girl OC in a fic. Girl OCs are just a thing that happen, given that most fanfic writers are female, female OCs happen.
[I am a completely unrelated link, do not follow me.]
Stef, in her original incarnation was just a response to all the other female!OCs I was seeing at the time, who mainly existed to be overt Mary-Sues or get into Smith's pants (a lot at the same time). I wanted a character that could hang around the agents without the PWP element.
I just love going back and looking at the old fic to see how much things have changed (I mean, after I get past the point where I want to claw my eyes out because of how badly it was written). It's mostly the leaps and bounds that Stef has taken as a character, and that's not arrogant-author-speak, that's just the truth.
Old Stef - well, for starters, actually looked like a girl, was short, but properly proportioned, none of this "is sleeping with Stef lolicon?" business. Old!Stef was also, um, what's the word...oh, right, competent.
I love new!Stef, I really do, but she is far from competent. The three times she's actually managed to shoot someone, they'd been at point-blank range and not in much a position to get away (caught by surprise or distracted). I love her dearly, but she is honestly this four-year-old who will get cranky and go for a nap. Old!Stef was this kick-ass action girl who could plan, think and fight (also helped that she could do those kick-ass Matrix jumps/kicks/flips).
[There's a scene where Stef is doing the "get over the wall" test and imagines running, jumping and flipping over the wall...that actually happened in the fanfic version (sans the "being crowned ruler of the 'verse" part)].
Old!Stef was mature, sarcastic and though she angsted a bit about the nature of what she was, she managed to score herself a boyfriend, get laid and have little white-picket fences dreams. New!Stef runs screaming at the thought of any of that.
This isn't about anything in particular...just musing out loud about our dear not-dead little hacker girl.
I dunno, how many of you would actually read Mirrorfall if Stef was like Old!Stef? Or is there something about our asexual, nigh-androgynous, childfree, childish hacker girl that draws you in?
The Wiki
Ok, I know I put a link on here somewhere, but I thought I would make it more obvious.
Come, read, edit, give us a hand (thus far, I think MacDitch has done more work than me on this thing *hands over cookies*). There's a big ol' MV to be written about, and any bit of help is appreciated - fill in a profile, make a stub for a character that isn't covered yet, whatever you'd like to do.
I've done a bit of work today, but at the moment I'm busying myself writing some author notes, which while not important, might still be of some interest. :P
The Word-of-Link Campaign
Proposal
For 15 Points, I will write you a MV story.
Ok, the other day, we had 207 guests on the site – this was pretty awesome, unfortunately, the majority of them were spambots/robots/whatnot, not actual people joining in on the fun. Having 207 (real) guests on a regular basis would be sort of awesome, so to that end, it’s time we started doing a little advertising, and not just me buying Project Wonderful ads.
But since I’m asking you to take time our your day and help me out, we’ve decided to implement a rewards system, one that rewards you, and by extension, the rest of the crazies here.
Earn fifteen points (explained below), and I’ll write a short story of your choice. Now...there are some restrictions on this, obviously. Examples of things I won’t accept as requests:
*Write me the last chapter of MS/GE/MC/MR/MW.
*Write me a summary of MC/MR/MW.
*Explain X – where X is a spoilery plot-point that will be covered in great detail later.
Example of things I WILL write:
*...pretty much anything else.
I won’t write out-and-out erotica, so X-rated Taylor/Grigori fic is out, though if you wanted some hot flashbacks, I could do that.
I’m happy to write about any of the secondary cast (e.g. MORE HUMMER STORIES or “What’s Death like on a normal day?” or “Does Madhe go shopping”) anything like that, or any of the main cast, if it isn’t something I’ve already covered (don’t want you feeling cheated).
I WILL write crack if that’s what you want, but go reread the first few RA chapters before requesting crack, I have a specific style of doing weird stuff...and that’s basically to write as close to canon as I can so that the weird elements stick out more. (And yes, I will be writing more RA stuff, I promise).
If you can’t think of something specific, just pick a favorite department (tech/field/combat) or a character, and I’ll go nuts from there.
Any questions, ask below.
How to Earn Points
5 Points – Posting a review on Web Fiction Guide (http://www.webfictionguide.com)
5 Points – Posting a review on Muse’s Success (http://www.muses-success.info)
(Yes, you can copy-and-paste reviews, but they must be of a decent length, not one or two sentences).
1 Point – linking us on a forum
1 Point – linking us on Facebook/MySpace/other social networking space
(Linking policy: don’t just spam the link. Link us somewhere that you’re active, or at least, not someone with five posts or under, and please put it in an appropriate place).
1 Point – getting someone to follow the Facebook page
1 Point – getting someone to join the site
+1 Point if they make a post in the people forum
(People policy: don’t just grab a random friend, have it be someone who at least has the potential to be interested in what we do. :) )
Other Points – I’m trying to make this simple, but if there’s something blindingly obvious that you feel I’ve left out, you can suggest it below).
But Stormy, can’t I just buy your love (and story)?
Sure, there’s a donation box right there on the left. $2 a point sounds fair (since it’s so much easier to do the stuff above), and any money raised, as always, will go towards site costs, and advertising (primarily advertising).
Hey, wait a second, isn’t “One day Stef ate a cookie” a complete story? What exactly am I getting?
For your 15 points, you are guaranteed a story of at least 1000 words. Some will be longer, of course, depending on what the content is/how I’m feeling that day/if I like the character, but what you’re working for is a guaranteed 1000 words.
What if I get extra points?
It depends on you. You can work towards another complete story, you can buy the points to earn another story, or you can add your points onto the current story. Say you wind up with 18 points, because you linked us in a bunch of places, or more of your friends joined our Facebook than you expected, you can add those extra three points onto your existing story, and buy another 300 words.
Basically 1 extra point = 100 extra words.
However, you can’t be clever, and work up a whole bunch of points and demand your 1000 words + 20 extra points worth of words in the same story, to get yourself a 3000-word story. I will make this face at you: -_- and be cranky. Also, you will end up with characters called The Honourable Sir Alan the Ferocious, Slayer of King Fend and Defender of the One Truth, who are called by their fu name and title set each time they appear.
Plus, depending on the story, it might reach 3000 words anyway, it just depends on my brain.
When do I get my story?
After you earn your points, and after I write it. All stories will be written, none will be artificially pushed back to make room for other stuff, though they may not necessarily get written in the order they were requested (again, because some days I feel like writing A, while other days I feel like writing B, hence at the moment why you’re getting MS and GE at random intervals).
How will you know what I do?
Elementary, you’re going to report it here. Link to where you’ve linked us, or name those you’ve inspired to joining the FB/site, and your points will be marked down.
Update for Monday
Ok, here we go, just a short one:
My birthday made me a bit lazy, so I haven't started writing again, the next chapter is about half-written, so once I'm in the mood, it'll be a quick-fix.
This morning, I've written the summaries for the majority of the flashbacks, I'll be finishing up those this afternoon.
GE may very well hit 100 (planned) chapters after all. I'm a little O_O about that.
Question of the day: You guys...trust me right?
>_>
<_<
>_>
Just...got something I'm going to add to the end of #7 and it's going to change things a lot. A lot. Then again, so is GE, so I guess I'll have a test run.
Where the updates are...
...they're currently still in my head because me and Matthew are in the middle of moving - technically, we're moved, as in we're living at the new place, but we're still going to be fairly transitory for the next couple of weeks while our new room is, er, built and we get a new net connection.
At the moment we're stuck sharing my adorable little netbook, and I'm sorting boxes and stuff, so I won't have that much time for writing...of course, having said this, I'm almost positive that I will squirrel away a few hours and end up posting a chapter sooner rather than later.
What I can tell you: the next chapter will contain a shark.
Also...Glitch #3, I think I just figured out how to make it awesomely freaky, though you will have to be the judge of that.
You want to know future MV plans?
Well, basically...
