Well, it has been a while, hasn't it?

I was planning on getting Arcadian Gate out the door on May 1st; although I hadn't posted anything here (something I'm bad about, I admit) I've been sending character profiles through the fiction feed in preparation.

That was about the time everything happened, all in March.

* AGC, of course, kept me busy
* I have the Byzantine Game (a D&D 3.5 game based on Procopius' Anekdota) to prepare for from time to time (and even if it's a game, it still takes time and effort).
* The GutterSkypes (a skype-based RPG group) meet every couple of weeks.
* I'm sure there is other stuff I'm forgetting.
* And the crux of it all: an actual paying writing project which I'll elaborate on when I can, other than mentioning it currently involves my favorite opera cycle and the zombie of Otto Skorzeny.


Even with my cohosts helping to lift some of the AGC pressure, I've had little to spare for Gate, and with that May 1st deadline I set for myself... well, let's just say I had an unofficial inquiry at work about my stress level.

I still want to write the thing, but I really need to cut back. Fortunately, I just sent in the first revision of the Paying Project, so that's a little bit off my back. Sadly, though, there appears to be no way I'll have something in satisfactory shape to podcast on May 1st (and yes, I did consider ignoring the current conventional wisdom and attempting to podcast as I wrote once I caught up with where I am.) The simple fact is I want at least one edit pass at the manuscript before I let it into the wild.

So... if it works out, it works out, but I'm not setting another deadline just yet; I've already broken what, three?  Rest assured, though, that I will finish this book if it kills me (in which case I will dictate it to someone via Ouija board to make sure it gets podcast just like I planned...)

I'm doing it now.

Not only have I posted my reading of Arcadian Gate's first two chapters, but I've posted a promo as well.  The promo, at least for the moment, requires a trip to the site, but the episode is in the feed (and in that little player, wherever it is on my profile page).

As of now, there is no possibility of wimping out. I've got to do this, or... well, I don't know, get popped into a magical hell dimension or something.  And given what I'm sure can be considered poor accents, for the most part, I shall eventually seek out help in that regard.  Yeah, full cast audio, folks.

If you check out the chapters, please let me know what you think, and if you really, really dig it, pass it along. I'm hoping to drum up interest in the project while I spend the rest of 2008 getting it finished and polished. And if you think you might dig being a voice, let me know that too, and I'll let you know when I'm ready for auditions.

I'm back from HyperiCon, where I sat on two podcasting panels and a gaming panel, attended many writing panels (and an idea crushing panel about quantum teleportation, but that's just as well I guess -- quantum mechanics are still incredibly fun), and got accidentally listed in the filmmaking track..

Unfortunately I had to leave fairly early Saturday night.  Next year, I'm planning to be there for the whole thing, especially since they're hosting DeepSouthCon, as well.  But I got rushed as hell, and I apologize if I missed people.

Hopefully, I'll actually have a useful budget next year, too...

I posted the Zahhak story before I left Louisville, to little feedback as yet.  My subscribers seem to have doubled, though, if I am to believe Feedburner (note to readers, this doesn't mean much yet, so don't crack out the champagne yet. )  I've got a few other short story ideas floating around, but I need to make a little more progress on Arcadian Gate before that happens.

I cross-posted the story to the AGC feed, and so we begin.

It's at mark-kinney.info if you want to look at the page or whatever.  If you listen to the story, I'd love pointers to improve my reading; I know that's probably still so-so at the moment, and want to improve for Arcadian Gate.

I tracked down the de-esser in Audition, so maybe I can post the file after all.

Well, okay, it's going up after midnight.

I've been listening to Mark Yoshimoto Nemcoff's Shadow Falls: Badlands.  While I got sort of a "Dawson's Creek"-meets-Steven King vibe off of Shadow Falls Season One, Badlands takes it to a new level... and it turns out that Nemcoff was essentially writing the thing as he went along.  That's still a bit beyond what I want to try, but it does give me timing hope.

Tomorrow, I go see Prince Caspian.

On the one hand, it would be nice to have something to go ahead and post on the fiction feed that is actually, well, fiction.

But my reading of the Vegas After Midnight story came out a little rough, I think.  I've got a version ready to go, depending on how rough I decided it got.  If recording time weren't so precious, I'd just trash it and go again.  It makes me wonder how feasible recording something of novel length is really going to be.

I bought a domain.  I made a so-so looking banner proclaiming "4th Quarter 2008" for launch, which gives me enough leeway, I think.  If I'm really lucky, I'll record two or three things for the feed tonight, one of which is an actual story.

June 2nd, after work, I resume writing.

...for fleshing out Arcadian Gate.

You see, as I was going through the five written chapters, I was realizing that even with the expansion that would certainly go into chapter one, and probably the others, once I started revising them, I was likely to run very short.

In my head, though, while packing, moving, unpacking, and building my new abode, I was able to think about things, and a whole subplot I was prepared to completely gloss over stepped forward and said "hey, you need to pay some attention here!"

And in all fairness, I did.  I mean, there is a huge crystal statue of a hero lost trying to re-banish magic a year and a half before, and it's implicated in the continuing presence of magic now, regardless of this... yeah, that's a little important, probably.

I know I can't keep putting this off.  I need to start podcasting the story early fourth quarter of 08.  Well, I don't need to, but I want to.  The time I've had to take away, though... it hasn't been unproductive, and I think the story will end up being a little better than it would have been otherwise.  And not just for Arcadian Gate, but for the whole prospective trilogy.

...for all the Birthday wishes yesterday.  After work that day, I needed them!

But thus far, material goods that have turned  up (mostly converted from gift cards, don't you know)...

Scott Sigler's Infected
Harry Turtledove's The Grapple
The Onion's Our Dumb World: Atlas of the Planet Earth
The Starships of the Galaxy sourcebook for the new Star Wars RPG

and there is also an O'Charley's gift card, and I saw Iron Man today.

And hopefully sometime this week I get back to writing...

So, I've been gone for a  while.  Something about moving.

I've moved for the second time in six months, and am still in the process of unpacking, although more permanently this time.  In the process, I missed the local SF convention (ConGlomeration) but got a visit from the SO.  So that's not all bad.

I'm way, way behind on the novel.  I've gotten some advice telling me I need not try to zip it out before July, but I still want to aim at, maybe October.

Monday...