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Endings are Hard!

9/29/2014

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Choreographing the climax of this story is like planning a ballet. Or the Normandy invasion. Who shoots whom, who dies of snakebite or spontaneous combustion or a frying pan to the head. How to get the main character out alive, since she has to say the line that incorporates the story's title.

I have charts.
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The Horrible Middle

9/25/2014

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I had to quit reading an indie book the other day because, despite finding a few narrative difficulties in the beginning, I wanted to know what happened to the main characters next. Then, in the middle, the writing went from workmanlike but readable to concrete-feet awful. Too bad. The premise was interesting.

But, fortunately, I downloaded Night Watch when it was on sale a few months ago and it's fantastic (even in translation, which is always hit or miss). And the book I read before the middle-slumped indie was Half a King by Joe Abercrombie, which was so good I'm still jealous. I enthusiastically recommend both!
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Bear Arms

9/11/2014

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SCHOOL LOCKDOWN

It's blackberry season here in the PNW, and a local bear has been enjoying the juicy morsels growing near the west side of the elementary school playground. My youngest described the culprit as "small, cute, and fuzzy." No positive identification has yet been made, but this character has apparently been hanging around the school for the past week or two. The kids had a "modified lockdown" (a.k.a. indoor recess) and no harm befell either hominids or ursidae.

Fortunately, despite its constitutional right, the bear was not armed.
<rimshot>
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Inspiration Trail

9/8/2014

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Long walks with Tesla (and the official photographer, Adventure Boyfriend) shake all sorts of ideas loose, like the ending for my current short WIP, Return of the Devi, and an idea for structure for a back-burner WIP (The Face Thief).

Good thing today's overcast and cool, so I have an incentive to sit down and write all these good ideas!
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Plot: Does Misery Make the Best Motivation?

9/5/2014

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Working on my story for the upcoming anthology Awakened: Modern with Hal Greenberg and Dark Quest Books (working title, Return of the Devis). The first half is pretty grim. I'd better pull out some seriously awesome ass-kickery to make up for the suffering I'm inflicting on these characters.
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Two Things I Learned from PAX

9/3/2014

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Two things I learned from PAX

Working at the MCG booth at PAX has made me realize two things:

- Demo games are incredibly popular, and the best way to show people how good your game is. I need to learn to GM so I can help run games at events.

- I need to step up my cosplay game. I saw a few people with some pretty amazing structured costumes, and it made me ambitious. Time to do some research!

OK, maybe #1 is more important in a <<real world>> kind of way, but come on! Without cosplay, a convention's just work.
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    Torah Cottrill

    I read. I write. And sometimes I talk about it.

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