FP 1.4 :: Toys
Draft Begins
A spot of harmless fun, a spot of tragedy, and a lot of harrowing unpleasantness.
Other stuff worth note this week:
Stefan Gagne's Fiction Factory
25+ years of novels, games, and other creative fiascos.
FP 1.4 :: Toys
Draft Begins
A spot of harmless fun, a spot of tragedy, and a lot of harrowing unpleasantness.
Other stuff worth note this week:
I’ve been trying to predict how long the first Floating Point book will be. Print-on-demand publishing can be a bit harsh about price points when you write a huge book, so there’s always this tug-of-war between the creative needs of the work and the desire to make something fans will be able to afford.
You don’t want to compromise the writing, but if you can do without a weak chapter idea or a subplot that doesn’t really add anything, the savings can be directly financial. For example, in FP1.5 (I’m quite ahead of you guys at this point) I had originally planned on a series of four encounters, but realized today that I only really needed three. Condensing my incredibly verbose words is something I need to learn, and I can start by trimming fat where I find it. But only fat. Never meat.
Anyway, here are the numbers on all my books, for the curious. I ran the numbers and figured, why not blogpost them? Could be fun.
The longest by far is Unreal Estate, and that’s one reason I hesitated for years to publish it. It’s HUGE and breaking it into two books would’ve made things even worse. But now it’s out, and while profit margins aren’t great on it, at least fans who have been waiting this long for it can get a copy. I care about that more than the money.
Anachronauts books were shorter overall, but there were more of them — including a collection of side stories I’m going to be releasing in Kindle format one day. (It’d be prohibitively expensive to release them in print.) City of Angles were beefy volumes, thanks to the bonus stories and robust notes.
As for Floating Point… I’m on track to be on par with City of Angles for the first volume. So, I’d say I’m in the sweet spot. I’d love for it to be shorter but not at the expense of the work itself.
This Friday we’ll be starting FP1.4. Dark times ahead, folks. Dark times.
You asked for it. You craved it. You broke into my house and tied me up and demanded it at gunpoint. Now, it’s finally arrived.
Unreal Estate, my classic 2003 sci-fi romantic comedy, is now available in book form!
This is a whopper of a book; 465 pages packed with every single word you know and love from the original. Grab a physical copy to stick on your shelf and admire, or take it on the run with an eBook… no interwebs required!
Thanks for your patience, this one has been a long time coming. Hope you enjoy it!
Hey, folks. In lieu of a story update for Floating Point this week, as I’m on break, I thought I’d highlight a creative project I’m simply adoring — Let’s Quip, an iOS/Android game which has just been released.
The concept’s simple. Two people go into a match, each armed with a random word from a list of 2000 words, and are forced to fight to the death debate that their word is better than the other. Apples vs. Oranges? Which is superior? You’ve got 250 characters to make your case. Afterwards the player base as a whole will vote to determine who won the debate.
Of course, logical debate isn’t the point. Writing jokes is the point. It’s a comedic debating game, and the funnier of the two answers is the one that’s going to kick the most butt in the voting arena. If you make the voter laugh harder, you’ll win dat vote.
Monetizationwise, it’s splendidly fair. The game’s free, and there are NO in app purchases whatsoever. Instead, when you’re given a word, you have the option to watch a basic short video ad. Doing so lets you pick from three different words, allowing more flexibility. Don’t want to argue for “Matisse” or “Victoria Falls?” Watch or blatantly ignore a quick ad and then you could pick between “Bacon,” or “Split-Level Ranch,” or “Unlimited Power.” (Obviously you should pick unlimited power. It’s Unlimited. POWER.)
The end result of all this? A great game for those with sharpened wits rather than sharpened reflexes, and highly, HIGHLY recommended. I’ve been having an absolute blast with it in beta for the past year, and I can’t wait to see the user pool grow now that it’s officially released.
Are there down sides? I gotta be fair, no matter how much of a fanboy I am. The UI could use a little less clunk, but the game is so delicious that I don’t particularly care. I am concerned what will happen when the Internet as a whole gets their hands on this, but there are reporting functions to knock trolls and racists out of the game; as Town of Salem proves you really need to be dedicated to that cause (and ToS kinda isn’t) but I feel Fire Hose is dedicated enough to stay on top of it. They’re good folks and dedicated to keeping their playspace fun for everyone.
Overall I’d say this game is absolutely splendid by design, has a promising future, and is just the ticket for folks looking for a more cerebral gaming experience. Whether you’re just keen to read a bunch of jokes and vote on them each day or write your own jokes, get Let’s Quip for your handheld distraction machine. It will not disappoint.
Tune in next week for the first part of Floating Point chapter 1.4, in which we have harmless fun and a whole lot of feels.
FP 1.3 :: Feel
Draft Complete
A question of methodology is raised, deception is deployed, and a child is rescued from bondage.
Other stuff worth note:
Pull up a chair, folks, it’s EDITING TIME!
I’ve made a number of edits to the chapters of Floating Point, to set up some plotlines and Chekov’s Guns, and to redirect a few plots I already had in play. Since you’re draft readers and I want to make sure you’re kept up to date, here’s the changelog.
(And a bunch of things in 1.4, but you haven’t read 1.4 yet, so we’ll not discuss those.)
Just a bunch of random things, right? Well… kinda. There’s a lot coming down the pipe where these items are quite vital. Which means by highlighting them here it’s like hanging a giant neon sign over them reading PLOT POINT! but that’s the cost of doing business with a shifting draft.
Thanks for your patience. This Friday we’ll see the final scenes of 1.3. The next week I’ll be taking off, so readers have time to catch up, maybe check out anachronauts or City of Angles too. I do hope to have some blog content up that day, regardless… something special. Stay tuned.
FP 1.3 :: Feel
Draft Continues
The mind/body conflict becomes a matter of life/death, toys are played with uncomfortably, and Spark enters the void.
Don’t forget, the City of Angles vol//003: Lucidity book is also available!
Once 1.3 is complete next week we’ll be taking a week’s hiatus to allow readers to catch up a bit, and to give the author some time to prepare another chapter.
The circle is complete. City of Angles vol//003 is now available for sale as a print book and ebook.
What do you get for your money? All the stories from the website for vol//003, PLUS extensive author’s notes about the development of each chapter, PLUS an epilogue story taking place 12 years in the future and starring Riley Jones-Smith. Yep, Dave and Kelsey’s daughter. Want to know how the City of Angles multiverse truly ends? You’ll want this book.
But wait, there’s more!
Floating Point 1.3 is also starting! The saga of Netwerk continues with corporate greed, malicious software, and questions of what constitutes justice. With two full chapters under our belt it’s a great time to get in on this cyberpunk adventure series, while it’s still in the hipster phase where you can say you were into it before it was cool. (I mean, I think it’s cool. It’s cool, right? Oh god please say it’s cool)
Thank you so much to all my readers. These are important milestones, and your ongoing support is keeping me going. If you can, back the Patreon; if not, you can still help by spreading the word. Let’s show the world the spirit of independent creativity!