Stefan Gagne's Fiction Factory

25+ years of novels, games, and other creative fiascos.

Archives for July 2013

coa//012 is fashionably late

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It’s been a few weeks, but I’m vacationed, my health issues are GENERALLY back under control, and I’m ready to get back into the swing of things. Let’s get started.

coa//012 Begins

It’s a new story! Starring Grandma Scarlett! This is a direct response to the poll I ran at the close of vol//001, where many of you indicated a desire to see an entire story devoted to everybody’s favorite granny.

This’ll also afford me an opportunity to peel back the curtain on a few of the City’s grander mysteries. In fact, looking at my schedule, this is the ONLY chance I’ll get to make those reveals — things are going to be… a BIT hectic in vol//003, no real time for such revelations. For those of you wondering about the origin of the City, your time has come. Will come. In a week or three worth of writing, I mean.

vol//001 Cover Art

Behold, we have a book cover! The book itself will be launching in September. Kickstarter backers will get a copy according to their tier reward, other folks will be able to buy a copy from the website. It’s taken some time to get everything lined up and I appreciate your patience. (I’ll be revamping my process a bit for vol//002’s book.)

hiatus continues

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I hate to do this two weeks in a row, but I’ve been ridiculously busy this week — which is crazypants considering I’m actually on vacation. Packing in all the things I want to do with my week off AND drafting up and writing the next chapter of City of Angles is a bit implausible.

I’ll have something for you next week, on the 27th. Thanks for understanding. Life has been… odd lately.

create-a-thing challenge finale

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First, I’ve got a post up about the coa//011 finale, so check that out first. Then…

…I’m proud to show you the entries we got for the Create-a-Thing Challenge!

Final tally… a fanfic, a poem, a fanart, a collage, and a cosplay pic. High quality stuff, all of it. I’m debating making the fanfic canon, the poem’s oddly touching, the collage is a real-world physical object that was photographed (whoa, is this 2013?) and the cosplay’s nicely mixed with real parts and photoshop.

Excellent work, folks. I’ll have your stories and Steam games soon. Probably more than one of your Steam pics, given the small amount of entries.

That’s really the only downside here — I don’t think I have a large enough fanbase to support this kind of contest. Clearly I have passionate fans and the end result is simply smashing, so quality over quantity, but I think making this a yearly thing is out. Still, if at any point in the future you wanna submit a thing, feel free! I always welcome it.

I’ll be on hiatus from writing until the 20th. Meanwhile I may be regaling you with video game streaming or walkthroughs of my Minecraft world. Stay tuned.

coa//011 makes the straylight run

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Hey, folks. Stuff! Things! Let’s get started.

coa//011 New Scenes

Time for the final climactic confrontation and the aftermath that follows. I seem to be averaging one story every five weeks, and this is no different… although this was hard as heck to write, given Kelsey’s life is far more surreal and metaphysical than even Penelope’s. Crazypantstown. I’m curious what the reactions will be, given this is the closest to Sailor Nothing that I’ve written in years.

I’ll be skipping next week so I can rest a bit — and plan out the next two stories, which will be kinda bonkers. Yes, even bonkers compared to this. Vol//002 is kind of bonkers overall. Speaking of which…

vol//001 Is Movin’ Along

We’re still on track for a September release of the printed version of vol//001, as foretold in Kickstarter history. I wasn’t expecting to be halfway through vol//002 by the time vol//001 came out on paper, though… that’s a little awkward. I’ll be scheduling things a bit differently for future books, believe you me.

Create-a-Thing Challenge Is Pretty Much Over But Not Really

I’m still accepting entries through tonight, so if you wanna rush and throw something together, go ahead! There’s still time! And in fact, you can submit stuff any day of any week of any year… it’s not like I’ll turn down your creative work. It just won’t qualify for Prizes(tm). Not a huge problem.

I’ve got some AMAZING entries so far, and I’m thrilled to show them to you. The overall turnout is a bit low, though. I guess that’s to be expected given my small audience, so I doubt I’ll be launching another contest like this. But, as noted… I love fan work and would always welcome it.

The challenge entries will be posted tomorrow. Get ready!

Glory to Kraftghanistan

On a side note… I’ve got my own Minecraft server! It’s Vanilla/Survival (with a bank where you can trade junk for better stuff, so quasi-creative in that regard) and has a theme, namely an oppressive Orwellian state. Not really RP, just fun flavor. If you’d like to participate drop me an email with your Minecraft username to be whitelisted.

That’s all for this week. Next week I’ll be on break, and after that we’ll either be… hmm. Well, we’ll be on a strange journey with Grandma Scarlett, or we’ll be helping Milly and Lucas out of a jam. Which do you want to read more? Let me know!