Jurassic Park IV: The Raptoring

 

I heard Jurassic Park IV is in production. Or at least being drafted into a script. And I can’t help but raise the question, what story could possibly be left to tell from the series?

 

They go to the island. Dinosaur mayhem ensues. Almost everybody survives. Cue John Williams.

 

I guess they could do something involving some other multibillionaire stealing the technology or cloning the dinosaurs on the island and opening their own Jurassic Park. Or maybe Dr. Grant gets back to his dig site and realizes he left his keys on the island.

 

“We have to go back!”

 

Or Jack, Kate, and Hurley end up on the wrong island after a plane crash.

 

Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for people running from dinosaurs. I just don’t see why they can’t do a butterfly effect type flick or something else original. Although I suppose if they were to go back to Jurassic Park, there is one story and character I’d like explored in further depth.

 

I’ll keep this short.

 

Just to point it out, we never actually did see Samual L. Jackson die in the first Jurassic Park. We know he lost his arm. But what if he survived the ordeal? What if he spends years on the island, outsmarting the dinosaurs? And although he tries to get help off the island, John Hammond hadn’t paid the phone bill and Samual Jackson couldn’t make an outgoing call because of it.

 

With only one arm, it takes him years to create a radio tower strong enough to send out a signal for help.

 

Of course when they receive the signal in Nevada, it’s up to Sam Neill, Jeff Goldblum, and the paleobotanist mysteriously recast as Kate Upton to head back and find him.

 

Obviously they arrive and are chased down my some sort of dinosaur or another, only to be saved by a one-armed Samual L. Jackson riding a triceratops and launching spears straight into the eyes of T-Rexes.

 

The kids, Tim and Lex return, and are eaten within the first six minutes.

 

Of course it’s a straight forward tale. The helicopter needs repair before they can escape. Sam Jackson convinces them to help him destroy the labs or take embryos off the island or something. Things don’t go according to his plans but they make their escape anyway. Except a bunch of compies and a dilophosaur screw with the wiring on the helicopter and cause it to explode.

 

One by one everybody slowly turns around and stares at Samual L. Jackson, only to see a velociraptor nuzzling his shoulder. “Oh, you mother fuckers thought you were going to escape this place? After leaving me for fifteen years?”

 

From then on, it’s an all out war between Jackson and Goldblum. Jackson with his dinosaur army. Goldblum armed only with witty one liners and chaos theory.

 

And who wins such a battle?

 

The audience. That’s who.

Writing Necromantica, part 1: Mornia

This is going to be the first in a series of a entries about my upcoming novel, Necromantica, in which I’ll be discussing anything and everything dealing with the story. Perhaps some mild spoilers will be included here or there. I’ll try to contain myself from blurting out all the best surprises. But having worked on the book for a year and a half now, I’m finding I have quite a lot to say about it. So much that I’ve been putting off these blogs for months because I could never quite decide on where to begin. But what better place than by introducing you to the protagonist?

For those of you who’ve seen the book cover in a previous entry, you’re probably already asking yourself who that foxy lady is on the cover. For those who haven’t seen it, here it is again:

As I said in that other entry, the cover design was by Christina Irwin, and if you’re interested in having her design your book cover, or have any other art design (also website and game design) needs, you can contact her at crissy.irwin1983@gmail.com. She also drew all of the other art I’ll be using in these “making of” entries. They had actually been for a storyboard assignment she had in school. So I’m sure she’d like me to point out how all of the remaining art is just a series of rough sketches for a class and don’t showcase all of her talents.

Seriously though, she’s awesome. And it’s actually because of her that not only this story exists, but the character Mornia as well.

How it all came about is pretty simple. It was September 2011 I think. We were coworkers and budding friends, getting to know each other mostly through text messages. And like I’ve said before in many entries, she’s been a regular source of inspiration ever since we met. To the point that I typically refer to her as my muse. Regular readers of the blog know what I’m talking about.

So to give a little background, all the way back then, she had been telling me about these dreams she’d been having. Epic, awesome, badass dreams. Usually in a fantasy, Dungeons & Dragons type setting, she was a thief one night. An assassin the next. In one dream she told me about, she was a necromancer who raised a dracolich and was riding it around, slaughtering off paladins and destroying the city. That’s a rough overview, but she’d tell me these little adventures through a series of text messages that came in little pieces at a time. Sometimes hours. I think one of them took two days to complete. And they were exciting, full of swashbuckling, monsters, death defying stunts, magic, and overall badassery.

…Yes, badassery is a word. I just scribbled it into my dictionary.

Anyway, one night I couldn’t sleep and randomly texted her as much. So she replied in me to just focus on a dream of her and I storming a castle.

That was it.

It didn’t help me sleep. In fact, it had the opposite effect. I ended up lying in bed, outlining this quick little story about two thieves sneaking into an evil king’s palace to steal some magical charm. An amulet. And just because she’d told me about a dream involving necromancy, I made one of the thieves a necromancer.

By the next morning, I decided it was too much to send in a text message, so I thought I’d write her a three to five page story detailing the events of the adventure. Sneaking along rooftops, avoiding the guards, making our way into the palace, and of course, some boss fight with the evil king.

So instead of writing a blog that week, I wrote three or four pages. And then quickly realized I was only a quarter of the way into the events I outlined. But I sent it to her anyway and said there would be more to follow.

This continued for about two weeks I think. In the end I’d sent her a fifteen to twenty page epic of her and I traversing the war torn capital of the Fortian empire. It wasn’t a serious work. I’d only meant to entertain her and indulge in her love of fantasy adventures. I personally don’t read much fantasy. At that point, just Lord of The Rings and the first of the Drizzt books. So I gave it my own little spin and packed it with our growing list of inside jokes. It was just a fun little distraction.

But when all was said and done, I had written twenty pages of this epic adventure. And although I was working on another novella, I began to reread my little fantasy tale and think about how I could develop it further.

For everybody wondering where the hell Roadside Attraction, book two is, I put it off to the side (mostly. The rough draft just needs an ending, which is outlined) to explore this tale.

It's gone from around 8000 words to nearly 50,000, and will likely pass that by the time I'm finished.

The main characters at that point were “you and I.” They didn’t even have names. They were just me and Crissy on one of her little dream adventures. So the first step was turning them into characters. You became Mornia… but after writing a few pages of third person I decided I sort of missed that intimate “you and I” element. It was something I’d never really read before. “I,” sure. Plenty of times over. Most of my fiction is in first person. “You” I could only reference back to those Choose Your Own Adventure” books I’d loved as a kid. Second person isn’t all that common of a thing. And when it’s used, it depends entirely on the reader to fill in the character. So I began to bubble and toil over the idea of writing a second person narrative in which the reader is assumed to fill in the identity of a very specific character.

This is how Mornia the necromancer was born. It’s still a first person narrative, as told by her sidekick, Lama (more on him later), but in any of his commentary about what Mornia does or says, he simply states it as though he’s telling you what you’re up to at the moment.

It’s a little experimental. With the few friends I’ve tested the story on, they all responded positively. One person said he never felt as though he was the character, but took “you” as the character and said he really enjoyed Mornia for who she is. Another person said she embodied Mornia and really enjoyed the second person aspect. She was able to see herself in the role and take on the Fortian kingdom. So with that bit of approval between friends, I stuck with it and filled out the character around that. I don’t know if that embodiment of the character depends entirely on whether or not it’s men or women reading the story, but it still develops a unique experience all around. Women want to be her and men can’t help but fall in love with her. Mornia is pushed through tragedy, moral conflicts, action, drama, and other stuff I can’t really get into until well after the book is published.

That said, let’s talk about the role you’ll be taking on. Again, Mornia was heavily inspired by my muse. And to discuss Crissy for a few minutes, at a glance, she’s this beautiful little twig of a goth girl. She looks like a fantasy character. Bright green eyes, dyed black hair flowing down her back. Her jewelry typically features snakes, dragons, black cats, and the like. And getting into the entire elf aspect, the character was influenced a lot by this one time her and I were on a walk around a park. The whole time, Crissy could name every single plant and bird. There was this little chick she thought was injured and immediately went to help it. She’s very much into nature. I’d say more of a farm girl than hippy type. She surrounds herself with plants and animals and puts all of her heart into them. And these were all qualities I wanted to embody the character with. For anybody who’s ever read fantasy, Mornia is very much a wood elf. Her people grew their homes by shaping trees over centuries. She can speak with tree spirits and dryads. She’s entirely attuned to her environment. Getting into the character’s background, she’s from a place called Hylorn, where her people were so much in touch with nature and the gods who provided it, that they began to understand they very fabric of life and death. She comes from a community where their magic is powerful enough to raise the recently deceased and give life where it would otherwise be impossible.

So the character lived this very free, spiritual, of the earth type life. She was growing into a priestess and had some harness over the magic of life. But there’s no adventure tale there. And I can promise you all, you don’t write a story called Necromantica without it being dark and full of tragedy. So it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that by the time the story begins, Mornia’s entire way of life has been robbed from her. Her people killed. Her village destroyed. Her means of strength are entirely gone. She’s left a broken, half trained priestess, coping with the loss of her entire world.

What happens to a person with her sort of magical abilities after this enormous tragedy? Well, it shouldn’t be too much of a shock that she turns to the black arts. The magic she knew in her old life was to raise the dead. Although she was never quite powerful enough to get the magic all the way, she was still able to sense death and manipulate it to her will. The result of all her pain is that she can control the deceased and use them as zombie soldiers.

And believe me, she knows how to command herself some zombies.

Now, again, I never read all that much fantasy. One person who read the story told me specifically “Necromancers don’t work that way!” To which I basically replied, “Screw you! My necromancer works that way!” And that way being, as she possesses the bodies of the dead, she controls them like puppets. She sees what they see. Their every action is to their will. She becomes them. So I’m not just asking you to take on the role of her. You’re also taking control of an army of zombie minions. And as the story takes place over a decade, you’ll also experience it through multiple stages of her power’s growth.

And even without her dead hordes acting to her will, she’s still an able fighter/thief/assassin. I’ll get more into that when I write about Lama’s history and his role as the narrator and how that relationship works. For now, I’ll just say that for all of the combat and heist aspects, I more or less tried to imagine her as the Grim Reaper in a slinky dress.

Which by the way, she was originally in more of a hooded/thief-like ensemble. When Crissy drew the cover and put Mornia in that dress, I reworked the story to use it. She’s storming the castle in style, right down to her bladed heels. And has a sense of humor about it. Who goes to the palace, after all, in anything less than formal attire?

She’s one of my more fun characters write about. On the surface she can be fun and flirty, or quiet and reserved. There’s always the tragedy of her people with her, and the things she does to alleviate that agony are going on adventures, disguising herself, stealing, and taking on the soldiers of our evil kingdom. She’s a discontented heart; a perfect, blooming, black rose, planted alongside an erupting volcano. And as I finish up this novel, I’m greatly looking forward to sharing her adventure with you. There’s still some editing and such to be done, but Necromantica is coming soon. I’ll keep posting these entries discussing the characters and story’s development until it’s released, so keep checking back. Next time I think I’ll be discussing Lama, the murderous thief who’s going to accompany you along the way.

Keith and Harper in the morning

So I'm lying on the couch, studying my trigonometry flashcards before an exam, with one of the cats at my feet, purring away. I brush her back with my toe and she purrs a little louder. I look over my cards to see her and... The cat is totally staring at my crotch, isn't she? 

Also, you're totally staring at it too now, aren't you?

XBox One and PS4: Backward compatability on digital content?

Well the new systems are finally coming, and while I upgraded to the PS3 and XBox 360 as soon as they came out, I think I'm going to hold off for a while on both of these buggers.

Also, yes, the only reason I'm discussing this in my blog is because it gets me hitsI want to sell you books. These books:

    

 

Both of which are available on your Kindle and free Kindle apps on devices everywhere. And coming soon:

Anyways, that shameless advertising aside, my interest in both new systems was weighing somewhat heavily on one thing. Backwards compatibility.

I know. I know. Eventually we all stop playing our old games and move on to new ones. Out with the old. In with the new. If you like them so much, just keep your old systems and play them until they die.

...Until. They. Die.

Can you guys imagine if Apple said, "All the music you purchased on iTunes is incompatible with the new iPhone. Yes, the new phone is better designed, more powerful, and clearly an orgasmic celebration of cutting edge technology. But if you want to use it listen to all those Celine Dion albums you purchased from us for our previous model, you're just going to have to go fuck yourselves."

...No, I don't listen to Celine Dion.

Not to make a big fuss about it. I'm sure by the time the next-gen Uncharted or Batman game is released, I'll talk myself into purchasing one system or another. But as far as current gen goes, I'm on my fifth XBox 360. Granted, I only paid for the first and last one due to some excellent customer service in the face of a lemon of a product. But all that time, I've been purchasing content from their online stores. Add-ons and games. I'm one of the suckers who purchases all the costume packs and horse armor. So I've put a serious investment in getting the most out of my gaming systems. With the new XBox coming out, when this latest one dies I'm suddenly given the option: Do I give up the brand because clearly they make crap hardware? Do I purchase another 360 because, my god, there isn't enough Castle Crashers in the world to satisfy my appetite? Or do I say good-bye to the glory days of Castle Crashers and ummm... I don't know... Hexic(?) because the next gen is where it's at and despite my earlier purchases, I probably wasn't going to play them that much more anyway?

Or as another example: I purchased several Final Fantasy games on the PlayStation Network Store. They were PS1 games available for $5-$10 and emulated for my enjoyment. On the PlayStation 4, when those games are inevitably made available because they're cash cows, will Sony honor my previous purchase and allow me to download those games again for free? Or because it's new hardware and probably some different little emulation trick, are they expecting another five or ten bucks? Because that's pretty sleazy. And it doesn't just go for older titles available on the current system. This generation we've all blown plenty of money on HD remasters of our favorites. Such as Shadow of the Colossus, which is a game that came out late in the last gen cycle. It wasn't even that long ago, and already many of us were willing to throw down another $20 to download it. Or pay $40 for the disc that included Ico. Anyway, these are games that I loved years ago, that I still love today, and that I want to be able to play for years and years. I want to be able to sit down with all my little nieces and nephews in ten or fifteen years, put in Shadow of the Colossus, and say, "All right. Check this shit." I refuse to believe people will be remaking and remastering this game over and over for years, making it HD-ier(?).

I know it's different technology, but blu-ray players still play DVDs and CDs. Surely Sony and Microsoft could've just designed their new products with their customers in mind. They easily could've said, "You've been supporting our companies for generations of hardware cycles, all of us enjoying a good thing. We want to make sure you can still get the most out of everything you've already invested in us. Yes! Of course you can still play all your old games on our new systems. Why would you even have to ask?"

Rather, the matter was handled by both companies in saying, "Nah." And then metaphorically shrugging and putting out their big ol' corporate cigars on our eyeballs.

...There's probably also a few teabagging jokes to include afterward.

Anyways, it's a crap decision. Both companies know it. We'll see how they handle the inevitable release of digital content. Something tells me we'll be pretty disappointed.

Necrocoverca

You guys want to see something amazing?

Are you ready for it?

Do you think you can handle it?

Because even if you can’t handle it, a good portion of it is probably already on your screen anyway. I really tried to draw out the suspense but realistically, yeah. There it is, for all the world to behold The book cover for Necromantica.

Go ahead. Drink it in!

I haven’t even finished editing the book and my wonderful, beautiful, incredibly talented Christina Irwin designed this piece of awesomeness for me.

I have to be honest guys, I’ve written this blog five times already and I keep deleting everything I type because the cover completely speaks for itself. I know I’ve mentioned the characters in several other entries, and I want to tell you everything there is to say about them, But for now I think I’ll settle down and just give you a quick introduction. You’ll be learning a lot more about them when the book is released. So everybody, let me introduce you to Lama Percour and Mornia De’Onyxia. Lama is a rogue murderer and thief with a penchant for throwing knives and short swords. His partner in crime, Mornia, is an elf priestess who lost her way after a great tragedy (ooooo, ominous!), leading her toward the dark magic of necromancy. And accompanying them both is a small troupe of Mornia’s undead soldiers.

But what adventure awaits these two misanthropes? If you look back to the previous blog entry, you’ll see a number of book descriptions I’m deciding between. Feel free to comment on them and this awesome, awesome cover. Which again was created by Christina Irwin. And as much as I would love to keep her art for myself, I would be doing her an incredible disservice. All of you indy writers out there should know she’s currently looking for clients. Beyond book covers, I highly recommend her for designing websites, logos, advertisements, and promotional materials galore. To discuss your artistic needs and her rates, here is her email address: crissy.irwin1983@gmail.com. Just mention my name and she’ll be happy to help.

…Or don’t. There’s no discount or anything for mentioning me. Just ask her if she can design something for you. That’s actually a lot more productive than my name. I don’t even know why I said that before about my name. But really, she’s the best. Shoot her an email. And keep checking back here for further Necromantica updates. There's a lot more coming leading up to the book's release.

Necromantica Book Descriptions

The following are all rough drafts of book descriptions I might use on Amazon and other sites once Necromantica is finished and ready for publication. I wasn’t sure of exactly how to describe the story, so I gave myself a bunch of options. Now I’m trying to narrow down the list and pick between a few. Of course, what’s the fun in making such decisions on my own? As none of you have read the book or have any idea as to what it’s about, I’d like all of you to look over my list of rough drafts here and decide on which of these sound the most intriguing. That is, which of these make you want to read the book the most? Please pick no more than two. Leave a comment in the section below, on my Facebook page, or in my email. Feel free to pick by number, throw out suggestions, or even write your own based on the information given through these options.

            Thank you kindly for the help. Keep checking my blog for further updates.

1. “For you, my darling Mornia, I offer a token and countless sacrifice. From the life that was stolen from you, to the one you granted me, I swear I will stop at nothing until you’ve been the given peace you deserve.”

2. Two thousand years ago the city of Dromn was lost to the savage orc army. We all know the tale of how the Great King Stolzel lead the final stand, driving the orcs into oblivion at the sacrifice of not only himself, but the kingdom as well. But of the few men who survived, some reports claimed to have spotted the evil necromancer, Mornia De’Onyxia, sneaking into the palace during the battle. Widely speculated and often dismissed as fantastic lies, here at last is the truth of The Battle of Dromn.

3. Legend tells of an amulet that grasps within its form the very essence of power itself. Bound to siphon the energies of the world, it bestows its keeper with an infinite well of strength. In the hands of a healer, it can cure all but fatal wounds. In the hands of a bard, his songs will influence the minds and hearts of the people. And in the hands of a summoner, the moon gods themselves will lend favor to the keeper’s will. The amulet may be used to achieve the impossible, restore the world, and give hope to where there was none before. But in the wrong hands, in the hands of blackened hearts and vile necromancers, this world and all others will surely fall into ruin and death.

4. “Hear ye hear ye! By his holy command, The Great King Stolzel calls upon the presence of all sworn soldiers and able bodied men to fortify the great city of Dromn in this dark time of orc invasion. For the black menace approaches unyielding, claiming the lives of all those who stand against it unsupported. Only united in Dromn may we together outlast our enemy. Only united may we withstand this evil. Resound the word and gather all swords to the heart of the kingdom. By the grace of the gods, there we shall find our salvation. There, we will have our victory!”

5. War and death have swept across the nation of Fortia. What began as a skirmish on the outskirts of the kingdom spiraled out of control into a full on orc invasion. With the cities of Fortia falling and countless lives lost, King Stolzel has called upon all of his remaining soldiers to gather in the holy city of Dromn for one last stand. Amongst the many soldiers and encroaching orc hordes, two thieves have arrived, plotting to steal the king’s greatest of riches while the world collapses around them.

6. Wanted, dead or alive by order of King Stolzel: Monria De’Onyxia of the  Hylorn wood elves and Lama Percour, AKA: the fish thief of Luna Falls. Crimes include murder, theft, conspiracy, arson, rebellion, assault, faithlessness against the gods, witchcraft, and necromancy. Ninety thousand gold pieces each. Citizens are advised: Do not attempt capture single handed.

7. In the highest tower of the great castle in Dromn, King Stolzel has placed the rarest and most magical treasures from throughout the world. Fortified by the entire city of Dromn and protected by the most elite soldiers of the Fortian army, only a complete fool would attempt a heist. But when the entire kingdom is ravaged by an orc invasion, two thieves conspire to do the impossible.

Thank you again for the help, everybody! Any and all feedback is appreciated. Also, to help geek everybody up for the book's nearing release, check out these awesome Necromantica coffee mugs from Zazzle. One features the complete 1080 wallpaper from above. The other is of the wave dragon, one of the many creatures and foes Lama and Mornia will be facing in their coming adventure. Click on either mug to get one of your very own.

The Wave Dragon Mug by Blenmans

In regards to the illusion(?) of choice

 

Here’s one for all you late night philosophers out there.

 

We’re all familiar with the concept of parallel realities, right? Every time you make a decision, an alternate reality is created in which the choice you didn’t make occurs and the consequences of that action play out.

 

Think of life like a set equation.

 

Life – Y = 42X

 

X and Y are just the variables. Did you wear black or red today? Did you decide on the GM or the Ford? Marry, fuck, or kill? All those decisions. Except X isn’t just your decisions. It’s the decisions made by everybody, all the time.

 

So X and Y are these massive functions with an assortment of functions within them. And every single function, or every decision every one of us makes causes a whole new parallel reality to form. And each of those realities spawn off trillions upon trillions of other realities.

 

The experience of life and the outcomes of our decisions become infinite with possibility.

 

My question:

 

What happens when humanity dies off? Or when the sun novas?

 

No matter what we do, and no matter how many infinite possibilities are exponentially growing every day, ultimately there is only one outcome.

 

Everything ends.

 

So do you guys suppose the last man standing in every reality will be the same person?

 

Or as the equation of endless possibilities reaches its answer, will all the realities come crashing back into one another, reemerging back into a singular truth?

 

When all of reality forms back together will it feel like waking up from a dream within a dream within a dream?

 

Will we perceive it happening or will it be as seemingly invisible and irrelevant as the consequences of decisions we never made?