Archives for December 2013

Everybody’s a product of their cultural environment. No such thing as an original idea, merely unique repurposing of ideas you’ve already been exposed to. Sometimes this is obvious, other times not.

For instance, when I needed a name for a black woman running a shadowy government agency allegedly on the side of good but with questionable ethics, I pulled “Amanda Walker,” because it was a pretty cool sounding name with strength and resolve behind it.

Except… what I didn’t recall until today is that DC comics beat me to that, with Amanda Waller, a black woman running a shadowy government agency allegedly on the side of good but with questionable ethics. Um. Whoops. It’s not exactly identical but it’s too close for comfort and with the publication of vol//002 approaching now is the time to change it.

So, from now on, she’s Miranda Walker. Close enough that it should be readily recognizable by long term fans, and hey, it’s got the added pun value of “one who walks the line between justice and vigilantism.” I’ll be updating the site accordingly soon.

I liken the writing process to doing a very, very slow boil in your kitchen. You set things up, wander away, think a bit, check back, maybe add a few ingredients you thought of, wander away, brush the dog, do a crossword, get an idea, wander back, change the ingredients around, get distracted, trim the hedges, come back, few more ingredients, final check, DONE IT’S DINNER TIME GO GO GO

I can create stunning metaphors like that because I am a writer. I write good.

I’ve had this week off from work, as is my custom during my Birthday Week(tm) each year. (Turning 38 now. Ugh. I hate becoming an old bastard.) Largely I spent it shuffling around doing random hobbies, sometimes using my time well, sometimes wasting it all on YouTube or Twitch. But… in the background, bit by bit, I’ve been putting together the outline for City of Angles //016 and even vol//003. I could be eating dinner or pooping dinner and I’ll get an idea, which I go write down (once I am done eating and/or pooping) and little by little, it comes together.

TL;DR no new story content this week but boy howdy are you in for a tale next week.

Meant in a literal and figurative sense, I suppose. The puzzle in question is a metaphor for how tricky this chapter was to piece together, trying to click various elements into place and needing to swap them in and out until I found juuuust the right arrangement. And literal, in that this puzzle does not actually exist and I’m just telling a story about it. That’s some next level author stuff right there, that is.

In short, coa//015 is now draft complete and you should go read it. In the end it came together exactly how it needed to come together, even though the process of getting there was mildly insane and involved a lot of false starts and deleted scenes.

Speaking of deleted scenes, let’s talk about the upcoming vol//002 book. I’ve decided that instead of chapter by chapter brief notes about the writing process, this time around I’ll go in-depth into how this chapter came about and include copies of those missing scenes. Those of you who drop coin on the book will get to read what Could Have Been. Neat, huh? And look how pretty the book cover is; I just added this to the media gallery. That’ll look nice alongside your copy of vol//001.

Next week MIGHT have no story content; I want to get the chapters to date of vol//002 in good shape for publication. Less delay before the book goes out the door, the better. Just warnin’ ya.

Lastly, my sister drew fanart of one of this chapter’s wackier gags which you should look at.

Got a curious little update for y’all this week. Here are some new scenes for //015… and also revisions to older scenes.

It’s not quite as long as I wanted… my life has been a bit nuts lately (see also: the Holiday Hell Corridor). Durn it, I wanna focus on my writing more. I have some vacation time coming up, which should help with that.

The major thing to point out this time around is that I’ve revised an early scene in //015, to change the overall plot. Remember Ronnie, who needed a gun? Yeah, he’s gone. In his place is a celeb who’s organizing a food drive. Now, Polk’s keen on snacks rather than shooties. It seems minor on the surface, but as you read into the actually-new scenes, it’s major.

Reason for the change is that as I was writing this story, I became far more interested in the stuff that was planned to be “side material”… the Wei Sisters, the situation with Annabell, and the grocery store. My original plot, which concerned a hidden cache of assault rifles, didn’t feel nearly as emotionally important as focusing on the characters we know and love. Why give Gus and Marcy and everyone short shrift, then dump their plot threads to focus on something else? Move them into the center.

But fear not… my plan is to take some scenes you hadn’t even seen yet and publish them in the vol//002 book as “Lost Scenes.” I have some other lost scenes I’ll be including too, like an alternate opening to Inside Man. These print/ebook only bonus bits should prove an interesting peek behind the curtain.

So, with that in place, I bring you moar //015. Current plan is to conclude it next week… and then it’s on to the Echo Chamber, the final step in Echo’s apocalyptic plan to wipe out the City of Angles. Will Penelope find a way to save the day? The answer may surprise you.