Myth, the Universe, and Everything

I'd love to say that the reason I've not been posting here this week is because I'm getting such a tremendous amount of writing done on that novel I said I was starting. Unfortunately, no. I'm getting other exciting work done, though! I've just finished ten short scenes for an upcoming art book that Empty Room Studios is putting together. Andrew Schneider and I are serving right now as the two main writers for ERS, so the two of us have been writing a bunch of quick scenes from different genres, using first or third person, past or present tense. I even wrote one in the style of a Norse saga today, which was a real kick. The project will be in development for awhile, but I think it'll be great fun when it's out. (Andrew also worked on Allies and Adversaries on a bunch of the Chronicles of Ramlar characters.)

I've also got a couple of reference assignments and a gig writing a modular adventure for a campaign that isn't Living Kingdoms of Kalamar--which is a first for me. (This assignment also gives me the great pleasure of working with Shawn Merwin again, which is always a treat.) I submitted "Nomi's Wish" one last time to a competition in the UK, and we'll see how that goes. That's one piece I really just want to exist somewhere outside of me, so each time I send it out somewhere, I hope that's the place that becomes its new home.

Other than that, we've been watching a bunch of Star Wars around here; we picked up Star Wars awhile ago, then watched both Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi this week. Youtube has completely ruined moments in these movies for me (courtesy of, I believe, coffeeem), and if you don't want to have giggle moments at Vader's expense, don't watch this one, and certainly not this one. Really.

I'm also working on drumming up a few more interview opportunities for Cowboys and Aliens: Worlds at War on the net. If you'd like to promote us, let me know! We'll be announcing a contest on Monday, I believe, so check back both here and on the W@W site for more details!

As I'm currently working on an assignment for a new sourcebook for White Silver, I've returned to an old question of mine about character design in RPGs. If you're a member of a fantasy world's City Watch, what are the odds that somewhere along the line, you've had to take a level of rogue (or similar class, dependent on the RPG)? It seems that most of the investigative skills you need in order to solve crimes come right along with the more criminal-oriented classes. Do you go ahead and take the levels but either ignore the less lawful elements of those classes (or simply not invest in those skills)? Or do you buy skills that you need at a higher rate because you're not taking the other class?

The Kenzer Crew just designed a new class that has elements of an urban-style ranger in their new Kalamar Players Guide to the Sovereign Lands: the Watchman. It certainly has some really nifty elements for a d20 class that work well for lawmen (additional damage against criminals, the ability to use gather information to track), and has a high skill point ratio that makes it a good fit. Eberron Campaign Setting has the Master Inquisitive as a prestige class, which seems to come pretty naturally from a rogue or ranger background. Wizards of the Coast's Complete Warrior has the Justicar prestige class, which seems to come the most naturally from the fighter background. So I'm looking at those and trying to determine what elements they have that make for a good private investigator/constable/city watch sort of character. Then I'll have to see what kind of special abilities I can use from the Chronicles of Ramlar A/B system to make up a good city guard.

I imagine that part of this train of thought comes from having just finished the first of the Dresden Files, Storm Front, by Jim Butcher. The wizard-as-private-eye thing is great fantasy noir. It's right up there in my mind with other successful mixed-noir novels like Kiln People by David Brin. Excellent reading.

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In other news, Amazon has yet to make Into the Reach available. Also, you can only find it by typing in my name, or typing the title into Amazon's search box in quotes ("Into the Reach"). I am still working on this, but it's getting to the point where I'm tempted to recommend that people just buy it straight from the publisher's Web site. As soon as there's more news, I'll post it.

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Speaking of Into the Reach, I want to apologize to folks who watched the movie Hero before they read my novel. I just watched Hero for the first time this week, and toward the end, the subtitles are nearly an exact match for one of the things one of my characters says a couple of times. This completely spoiled a dramatic moment for my husband and me as we watched it, as I closed my eyes and shook my head, hoping that people wouldn't think I'd deliberately stolen from the movie.

So you heard it here first. I wrote all of Into the Reach and its sequel before watching the movie Hero. Any similarities are completely unintentional, although I thought the movie was quite good, and wouldn't mind being compared to it at all. I'm a sucker for wire-fu movies, particularly when they evoke wuxia literary tradition.

Currently Reading: Queen of the Amazons by Judith Tarr
Just finished: Sorcerers and Secretaries vol 1 (again), Once upon Stilettos by Shanna Swendson (again), and Storm Front by Jim Butcher
Currently Replaying: Knights of the Old Republic II, because I'm hoping to use their mechanic for a play-by-e-mail with a good friend.

Greetings everyone!

The Chronicles of Ramlar products are now available to purchase as an
Advance Order!

The Core Rulebook, 368 pages of goodness, is available in both softcover
($35.00) and hardcover ($39.95). You can place your advance order
through our online store. Now, if you are a playtester, please enter
your special code when ordering.

Verto Syzol's Legendaria Geographica and Into the Reach novel by
Alana Abbott are also available to order!

Check it out at our new store at http://www.sstone.org/ostore/catalog/

Here's the schedule and all the exciting things going on with White Silver at GenCon. (My name is about half-way into the list of people scheduled at the booth.) If you're going to be at GenCon, please stop by.

When I'm not at the White Silver booth, I expect to spend some time at the Kenzer and Company booth helping promote Living Kalamar. We are actually having four slots at GenCon, despite not being listed as "Living Kalamar." It's a new adaptation of a printed module, and should be much fun from what I've heard rumored. (I notably have not read it yet.) We may also be offering modules at the RPGA's "Midnight Madness" pick up games, if players are interested. More details to follow.

But now, the press release found in it's original form at White Silver Publishing's news page:

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