Finally got something done

Finally got around to creating the “preview pages” page to link all the stuff I’ll present as I work on the new site. This leaves that section of the index page open to also potentially link new stories when I release them.

:: Crosses Fingers ::

There’s nothing new as far as previews, but all the previews will be linked from that one page from now on.

I have more images on hand for new pages — courtesy of RejectReality. Just need to make new pages to use them on *laugh*

I’ve also opened up both Lowborn and Sisters of the Mists in recent days, reading back through existing chapters in preparation to work on them again.

The more I think about it, the more I’m convinced that I’m going to have to edit the last couple of published chapters of SOTM to get the story rolling correctly again. I just haven’t shown enough of the “bad guys” part of the plot. That needs to be in there, and I don’t think I can put it in the unpublished chapters completely and keep the flow smooth.

I could be wrong, though. It’ll be up to when I really knuckle down to determine that.

Likewise, I have some ideas floating around for Les Lumens stories. I really need to be thinking about the next story in the “Of the Wood” series, since I’ve put one of those out for every Earth Day, even when I was barely writing at all. I’d like to keep that tradition up.

We’ll see how my motivation goes today. I might just get some more done on the website. Writing isn’t likely today. I think it best if I not try that until I’m on vacation and I have the whole house to myself with no distractions. Once I’m rolling, I might just be able to keep the momentum up.

Speaking of vacation: I’m going to power down the computer and do some maintainence ( blowing out the dust, new power strip, etc. ) and that will be the perfect opportunity to also boot up the old computer to transfer over my programming stuff from it. That’s what I really need to get the site updates rolling.

At this point, I need to start creating the databases that will let me add information to the website from an admin panel. For that, I need all my old programming stuff to refresh my memory. I’ll do a few tests — and perhaps previews — using dummy information entered into the new database manually, and then start coding the admin panel to actually enter stuff into the database to use.

Off next week

Well, I’m on vacation next week, so we’ll see how it goes. I’m feeling touches of motivation again, but that’s no guarantee. I’ll at least have the days free with no distractions, which I can’t seem to deal with and write at the same time any more.

And Happy New Year

Think I might just start back in with “Lowborn” in the next couple of days. I’m feeling the writing bug, and I have a week’s vacation coming up in a week or so.

If I haven’t already mentioned it, I’m going to put “Barren Harvest” up on a shelf and save it for next Halloween. It’s simply too tied to the season to post at any other time. At least I’ll have a story pretty much ready to go immediately when the time rolls around.

For now though, it’s back to Final Fantasy 9. It’s a nice change of pace from the convuluted story and complete ass mechanics of 8, which I just played for the first time. I skipped it quite on purpose, and I’m glad I never bothered until it was bargain bin price ( and played it on an emulator for save states )

9 is a little too cartoonish in visual style for the darkness in a lot of the story, but it was nice to have one last episode hearkening back to the old superior fantasy stories before shifting fully into the emo protagonists with virtually nothing resembling a high fantasy world that the series seems to have pissed off towards.

As I’ve said before: RPGs were the genesis of my PnP fantasy world, and that’s the genesis of my writing. Going back to my roots seems to wake me back up and give me the will to write again.

Here’s hoping that it works again, and that nothing comes up to slap me down to the ground again any time soon if it does.

Merry Christmas

Or insert whatever greeting you want in there. It’s always been Christmas to me, so that’s what I ‘say’.

Yep, I’m still vegetating. Starting to feel better and have story ideas float around again, so we’ll see what happens.

What I’m up to

Well, the last time I hit a low point like this, just vegetating on video games was what pulled me out of it, and actually inspired a lot of writing ( some of which still isn’t published because I’m not releasing any brand new stories until they’re complete )

So, rather than fighting it, I’m just jumping straight into the games. Games, comics and the like were what originally inspired my PnP role-playing game, and that’s the inspiration for the world/characters in my fantasy stories as Dark. It’s sort of a full circle thing. I have to go back to the beginning and begin the circle again before I can get back to a place where I feel motivated again.

I’ve already had a few flashes of feeling good, but not enough just yet. It will eventually reach a point where I can’t contain all the ideas and such floating around in my head, and that’s when I should go on another writing binge. Here’s to hoping that nothing comes along as bad as this time to beat me down again.

Beat Castlevania Symphony of the Night again in a single day — even with grinding for the Crissagrim. Beat Final Fantasy I on Dawn of Souls, and I’m working on II now. Even though they’re much easier than the original NES versions, I consider them excellent, and a great deal of fun to play. The experience is very much from what I consider the epitome of Final Fantasy, which is IV and VI — yet still has all the nostalgia of the original games as well.

Anyway, that’s how I’m trying to get my groove back. Hey, at least this easy to use blog lets me update without hassle, so I won’t be completely silent because I can’t be bothered to do minimal html work to add a news item to the website 🙂

Off to bed. Long days at work hasn’t been helping my forward momentum.