Alice Black: Blood Tribute – A Fate Solo Adventure Book

I’ve been busy, hence my lack of updates. Work on Vanagard has been going well, very soon it will be ready to be kickstarted. Dragon Trinity Crash is moving along, though Vanagard has taken priority. I’m also close to signing a contract for a small short story gig, I’ll post about it when it nears completion.

I have also released…

I’ve blogged about this before, and have even offered a free sample. It now finished and ready for purchase, just click here.

As for what it’s about:

You are Alice Black, feared feline space pirate and captain of the dreaded Manticore. For years you have plagued the spaceways trading slaughter for profit. You seek no approval from king or lord. Yet infamy has a price and your coffers are low. Without the necessary funds, your ship will fall into scrap, shadow ports will close their doors, you and your crew will be left helpless against the tender mercies of the Wolves. Your one chance at salvation lies in stealing tribute from a faded wolf house. However, your success will break a treaty and doom trillions to annihilation. Alice Black: Blood Tribute is a solo game and adventure in one book. All you need to play is this book, a pencil, some paper, and a few common dice.

Publishing it has been a dream come true for me. As a kid, I cut my teeth on Fighting Fantasy novels, I am very pleased to have my own adventure book. Evil Hat’s Fate RPG system is a godsend, I was able to tweak it to fit an RPG adventure book perfectly. Those who know Fate can start playing this novel right away. For those who don’t, the rules come with the book and are very easy to learn.

A big thanks to Xenotropos who did the art and layout, and Melanie Jacobs who edited the novel

So, if you like space pirates, adventure books, and other such shenanigans check this out.

I hope to write a sequel soon.

 

 

 

 

 

Dragon Trinity Crash – New Adventure Book, Will Be Working On Stand Alone Setting Book

Before I started writing Seith and Sword , and in between bits of Vanagard, I was plucking away at my 2nd Dragon Trinity Crash adventure book. Well, it turns out that I’ve had enough time to not only finish it; but also update the first one.

Therefore I proudly represent:

Dragon Trinity Crash Adventure Book 1: Call of Cakethulu

 

Click for Book

 

And proudly present:

Dragon Trinity Crash Adventure Book 2: Hamerkop Halfling Blues

 

 

Click for Book

 

As before the covers were drawn by the ever talented Gnaw.

Furthermore, I’ve talked it over with Olivia Hill and have decided to write out Dragon Trinity Crash as a stand-alone Fate supplement. Yes, it will still come out with the ADX Anthology, Olivia assures me that this will be released, however, I’d like to give DTC the attention it deserves, in that regard I’ll make my own book.

This book will be a pay what you want release, that way, those who bought the anthology will be able to acquire the PDF without paying anything more. It’ll have a healthy dash of setting information, the full rules, and plenty of sample aspects, stunts and spells. I hope to purchase more art from gNaw, and will put in as much as my wallet and bills will allow.

What’s the timeframe? I don’t know. I’ll be working on this in conjunction with Vanagard, however, Vanagard will get priority. That being said, I’ve impressed myself with the level of work I’ve been able to get done recently so this may get done soon.

I will keep you all informed.

Dragon Trinity Crash Solo Adventure Book 1 – Call of Cakethulu

So I’ve been busy.

Work on The Childe Hell progresses. I’ve outlined 43 chapters and have finished the first draft for  up to Chapter 4. It’s going slowly but steady.

While working on said novel I’ve also put together a solo adventure book; Dragon Trinity Crash: Call of Cakethulu. This is a labour of love and as such I’m providing it for free, you can find it here: DTC Book 1 Call of Cakethulu . However, in order to play, you’ll need to be familiar with Fate Accelerated. If you don’t have it you can get it easily enough via Evil Hat for a song, err well actually for pay what you’d like but you get the gist.

This book took me a month or three to write up and I’ve had a lot of fun doing it. So much so that I commissioned a cover for it from the spectactuar gNaw.  I think I’ll make more of them, so keep an eye on this blog for more DTC goodness.

In the meantime work on the ADX Anthology continues , once it’s finished you’ll be able to see a full Fate Core hack there.

 

 

 

December Update: Dark Crystal Author Quest and NaNo The Childe Hel

Sorry for the delay in posts, I’ve been incredibly busy.

Here’s what I’ve been up to:

Dark Crystal Author’s Quest

I found out about this in late September, so I thought I’d give it a shot. September was spent drawing up a plan for a full Dark Crystal novel. Then, in November, new information came up on the Dark Crystal Online Encyclopedia that blew a huge hole in my plans. Undaunted, (well actually VERY daunted) I picked apart my previous ideas for something that would fit. I have to admit, the rewritten plan is much better than my original so I went with that.

I spent most of October writing my submission. I can’t go over the details of it but what I will say is I’m proud of what I’ve wrought, it’s perhaps one of the best things I’ve ever written. If I get picked as one of the final five I’ll be over the moon. If not I’ll look into sharing what I wrote as fan fiction and move on.

Pick Chris’s novel, please? Make peace?

Speaking of which.

National Novel Writing Month

I completed this. I’ve always wanted to try NaNo so I pledged 2013 to it. I’m glad I did.

Some authors may scoff but I found this hard. I work full time 5 days a week, so to write 1667 words a day is roughly an hour and a half overtime every day with no days off. Furthermore I’m used to working form a detailed plan. All my recent projects are all fully mapped out on Xmind before I ever commit the first word to word processor. My Dark Crystal submission followed this path but I couldn’t do it for my NaNo novel. Why? Author’s Quest took my October so, when November came around I had minimal planning for NaNo. I had to write words, immediately, on the fly. Yikes!

I did it though and it was worth while. I used a very general idea as my guide and just wrote free from for 30 days. At one point I got stuck with doubt and confusion but I powered through that and eventually reached 50’058 words.

The key was to always stay a little ahead. I clocked around 1800 words a day. This meant, on the rare occasion where I was pulled forcefully away form my writing desk, I never fell behind because my ‘word credit’ was still good. On the other hand, if I had let myself fall behind, it would have been far harder to catch up. So the lesson is; if you need to do x words a day aim for x+.

I have to admit, this method has been rewarding. My characters and plot have developed in ways I could have never imagined. Oh, I’ll still plan the snot out of my 2^nd draft buuut I’ll have a wonderful 1^st draft to work from.

I’m actually not done my novel but that’s okay. NaNo has given me a sense of how far I can push myself when I really need to. I’m going to complete it. Furthermore, I’ve pledged myself at least 1000 words a day knowing that 30’000 compared to 50’000 is easy.

What I will be up to?

The Childe Hel

My NaNo novel is about the Norse Goddess Hel. Not much is written about her. All that is known is:

• Odin threw her into the underworld to gain dominion over it.
• She’s a badass, everyone’s scared of her.
• When Baldur goes to her domain it’s she who dictates to the Aesir the strict conditions for his return. The conditions are not met so Baulder says.

However, there’s no story, that I could find, on how she comes to power in the underword. When she’s tossed down there she’s a little kid. Therefore, I thought that a neat story would be how she fairs. This novel is about her growing up in the underworld.

When you were a kid you got Santa. I got the frozen wastes of Nifilheim.

It’s going to be a dark high fantasy about loyalty, family, love and war. At 50’058 words it’s about a third of the way through. Over this next month or three I’m going to finish the first daft and hammer out a solid second draft. Expect updates on it unless…

My Dark Crystal Novel (pretty please)

If I win Author’s Quest then my Dark Crystal novel will be my #1 priority period. If that happens you’ll here about it, trust me. 🙂

I’ll be orbiting the moon with delight.

ADX Anthology: Dragon Trinity Crash

David’s got my final draft of this. I’m waiting for him to release it to the backers before I share all the freebies I wrote about it. If you’re a fan of Slayers and/or Fate you’ll love this.

Space Pirate Alice Black: Blood Tribute

I’ve been pestering Jenny Xenotropos whose doing the art and layout. Truth is she’s super busy with commissions and Christmas stuff. She plans to get back on SPAB in January. Once she’s done I’ll be self publishing this on LuLu and/or RPG Drive Thru. More on this as it happens.

Knights of the Hidden Sun

Still shelved I’m afraid. So many new things have come up that I haven’t had a chance to take what Malcolm left me and finish the final draft. That being said…

I will finish this. My plan is, once I’ve written the 2^nd draft of The Childe Hel, Hidden Sun will get the lion’s share of my attention. That is unless I win Author’s Quest. I don’t think anyone will blame me for choosing the next Dark Crystal novel over it. Regardless, I will finish Hidden Sun, one way or another, eventually.

And thaaat’s me.

I’ll update again sometime in January.

Dragon Trinity Crash – Secret of NIMH – Knights Of The Hidden Sun – Update

So it turns out that the ADX kickstarter was a resounding success!

Thank you internet!

Dragon Trinity Crash will be part of the anthology as will a TON of other settings. Go the kickstarter to check them out.

Given all this I’ll be super busy. Here’s what I’ll be working on:

1. My first priority is to get DTC to David. No updates until that happens.
2. After DTC is submitted I’m going to add a whole mess of sample spells, sample characters, sample monsters and flash fiction to this blog. Why? Cause I’m that passionate about it. 😀
3. After this I’m going to publish my Fate Secret of NIMH rules here. I promised a player at Phantasm this and I will deliver.
4. After that Knights of the Hidden Sun will get my full attention until it goes to the editors.

Outside of this plan is Space Pirate Alice Black: Blood Tribute. That’s because I don’t need to work on it. Xenotropos is on art and layout. Once that’s done Blood Tribute will be ready for market without me doing anything.

And that’s my plan.

Expect DTC updates soon.

For Your Perusal – A Sample From Space Pirate Alice Black, Blood Tribute

I’ve done all I can for my first solo-adventure book, Space Pirate Alice Black, Blood Tribute. It’s gone through the editor, the Amazing Mel, and currently the Incomparable Xenotropos is finishing up the Art and Layout. I’d be lost without these ladies.

As it stands I am proud to present a sample of my book. This is just a snippet of what I will eventually sell on Lu Lu, Indi Press or wherever.

Note: This sample is not indicative of the final layout. Think of it as a slice of a rough draft. The final book will be much longer and more polished.

Note II: I’d consider this book mature due to violence and alcohol use. However, there’s nothing pornographic in it. PG 13 I suppose.

As for what’s involved, Blood Tribute is a story where you play a feline space pirate who chooses to steal a particular treasure, how you go about it will determine the fate of trillions. The adventure’s meant to be a dark, high-action, Space Opera where your choices will lead to failure or one of four victories. It’s not merely a ‘go to this page’ sort of solo-adventure, you also use dice for extra zing. Specifically you use Evil Hat’s  open game license Fate system. Go visit them, look at their Kick Starters, invest and buy their stuff, they’re awesome.

If you have feedback please comment, I’d love to hear from you.