Hi. That story 'Orbit' won First Place. Wrote another one for the Spring Fiction 2007 over at Battletech Universe, waiting to see how it goes.
In between? Well, I wrote a short story featuring Dillon and his Grandfather for a fellow doing a Fan TRO.
Gave criticism to David Bowen, an old friend of mine who had sent me what he'd done so far on his Fantasy RPG setting. He's supposed to publish soon and has been working on this for years. Unfortunately, what he has is manifestly unready for primetime. He did not think to research the behavior of rivers or weather or people in certain circumstances, and so I fear I shot a lot of holes in his work. Furthermore, there were a lot of writing errors.
I don't think he took it well. I haven't heard from him in a month, and frankly won't be suprised if he never calls again. But I will be sad. I liked him a lot.
My son 'gradumacated' from sixth grade with all the pomp the babysitters could manage. Even he didn't want to go. But his Momma is proud. I took him swimming as a reward, and stuffed him with Papa Murphy's before sending the little guy to bed.
Today Tru Life called. I think it's to offer me the job I interviewed for on Tuesday the 19th of June, 2007. I hope so. I am tired of the commute at Fire King, being Joe and Lyle's scratching post, and feeling like a useless schlub for the past three and a half years. I was and did so many things in the Navy before going to work for Jim. How could I have become such a useless fucking drone in that short a time?
Giving my two week's notice will be like lancing a boil. $180 a pay period for gas alone. Another $30 for the bridge toll. I make $12.50 an hour, and my last raise was in 2004. I know the drill. If I ask for a raise, he'll ask why. If I say I need more money, he'll ask why I don't just work more hours.
Well, for starters, I commute 75 miles to work and another 75 home. Second, I am not a 'member' at work, meaning I'm on the outside looking in, permanently. I will never be 'one of the guys', no matter how long I work there. Jim does not trust me.
Third, I spend an average of two hours to work, two and a half home each day of the week. My car started with 75000 on it, now it has 224000. The Navy kept me away from my family for years, and we put up with it because the pay was good, the benefits were good and retirement was good. I am tired of leaving early and coming home late. That's why I don't work more hours.
But more importantly, a raise indicates my increased value to the company. So far it hasn't even kept pace with the rise in the cost of living. I know when I am not wanted, and it's time to go. It's been time for two years, but I was afraid and foolish.
Not anymore.
Let Jim find some young man to do his fire extinguishers, his shot blasting and all the other sundry duties I perform in a work week. I'm not the guy he wants.
John turned in the first Part of his Shrek Story. We worked on it together, and even though the requirement is no longer there, he wants to see the rest of it written down. So we'll maybe hit that tomorrow night. Outline is already done.
I am now doing fluff text for another Fan TRO, the 3062. It really is well thought out, and the artwork is stellar. I am putting my best effort into it, and so far Vlad approves. He has offered me more fluff to work on after the present 'Mechs are done. I wish it paid, even a little, but every little bit helps me to hone my craft.
And gets the word out, hopefully.
See ya in a month.
Steve
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Saturday, March 03, 2007
Sorry for the Long wait...
No one comes here. That's the secret of the blogging universe, you know. The one thing they don't want you to know, the one thing that the MySpace zombies can't abide.
What is that secret?
Simply put, if you don't know lots of people already and are not willing to shamelessly use said friends to pimp yourself on the Internet, your Blog will never get a visit or a comment.
No. Seriously.
The average schlub doesn't use the search function to find other people who share his interests. Why? Because he or she often doesn't have any. Of course, the most recent generations feel no shame for having no hobbies. To them, watching TV is a hobby.
But I have a hobby, and hopefully I am improving at it.
So far, the contents of this Blog detail bits from a story called 'Anniversary'. It was eventually massaged into shape, published on Battletech Universe (Battletech Universe :: Index) in the Fan Fiction section, and read by most.
The second story was something called 'Traffic', and it won First Place in the Summer '06 Fiction Contest on the same website. Pretty good, but I am told by my friend Keith Mears that it is front-loaded by the narrator, and the details should be spread through the work as expressed by the characters themselves. As he told me, "Show, don't tell".
The third story was something called 'Orbit', submitted just in time for the Winter '06 Fiction Contest. As of right now, I have no idea if it placed, but I am busily working on the printout and expect to have a cleaned-up version ready soon.
By the by, 'Orbit' originally started as a flashback sequence by the main character in another story I am writing ("The Terrance County War"). Thank the Lord I didn't go with that idea. 'Orbit' ended up consuming about twenty four pages and 20,000 words. Devoting that kind of print space to a flashback is insane.
Of course, 'TTCW' itself is going to be rather long. The outline alone is about 14,000 words (actually less, now that I have removed that flashback sequence). It will take a while, and in the meantime, my craft improves on the smaller stories. But you would not believe the sense of relief when I finally typed the last words for 'Orbit'.
I am beginning to hate writing deadlines. But I suppose this is good for self-discipline.
Regards
Steve Satak
(Centurion13)
What is that secret?
Simply put, if you don't know lots of people already and are not willing to shamelessly use said friends to pimp yourself on the Internet, your Blog will never get a visit or a comment.
No. Seriously.
The average schlub doesn't use the search function to find other people who share his interests. Why? Because he or she often doesn't have any. Of course, the most recent generations feel no shame for having no hobbies. To them, watching TV is a hobby.
But I have a hobby, and hopefully I am improving at it.
So far, the contents of this Blog detail bits from a story called 'Anniversary'. It was eventually massaged into shape, published on Battletech Universe (Battletech Universe :: Index) in the Fan Fiction section, and read by most.
The second story was something called 'Traffic', and it won First Place in the Summer '06 Fiction Contest on the same website. Pretty good, but I am told by my friend Keith Mears that it is front-loaded by the narrator, and the details should be spread through the work as expressed by the characters themselves. As he told me, "Show, don't tell".
The third story was something called 'Orbit', submitted just in time for the Winter '06 Fiction Contest. As of right now, I have no idea if it placed, but I am busily working on the printout and expect to have a cleaned-up version ready soon.
By the by, 'Orbit' originally started as a flashback sequence by the main character in another story I am writing ("The Terrance County War"). Thank the Lord I didn't go with that idea. 'Orbit' ended up consuming about twenty four pages and 20,000 words. Devoting that kind of print space to a flashback is insane.
Of course, 'TTCW' itself is going to be rather long. The outline alone is about 14,000 words (actually less, now that I have removed that flashback sequence). It will take a while, and in the meantime, my craft improves on the smaller stories. But you would not believe the sense of relief when I finally typed the last words for 'Orbit'.
I am beginning to hate writing deadlines. But I suppose this is good for self-discipline.
Regards
Steve Satak
(Centurion13)
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Upcoming Changes
I know that no one besides me reads this thing. But allow me to flatter myself. Hell, no one else does.
That said, the posts to this blog are going to undergo a bit of convulsion in the next week. See, I am going to get to the end of the Interludes, tease them, tweak them, and then repost the entire bunch, one after the other. They will be in order, but these comments probably won't make any sense.
I am still planning to write about our monthly game. Chris Snider, the local FanPro Commando, doesn't seem too interested in having me post his GameStorm report here. I will do what I can to talk him into an expurgated version of what he will send to FanPro, I guess. He just doesn't seem all that interested in getting the word out, but what the hell, right? I get what I get.
Ta. Post a comment or something. This place has echoes, and it gives me the jibblies.
Steve
That said, the posts to this blog are going to undergo a bit of convulsion in the next week. See, I am going to get to the end of the Interludes, tease them, tweak them, and then repost the entire bunch, one after the other. They will be in order, but these comments probably won't make any sense.
I am still planning to write about our monthly game. Chris Snider, the local FanPro Commando, doesn't seem too interested in having me post his GameStorm report here. I will do what I can to talk him into an expurgated version of what he will send to FanPro, I guess. He just doesn't seem all that interested in getting the word out, but what the hell, right? I get what I get.
Ta. Post a comment or something. This place has echoes, and it gives me the jibblies.
Steve
Sunday, March 12, 2006
Font Sizes Being a Pain..
For anyone actually reading this, I apologise for the shifting font sizes. I really haven't been successful with the text editor - it appears to be wonky as hell. And I don't have time to go in, pull apart the HTML, and fix it that way.
I will figure something out, eventually.
Steve
I will figure something out, eventually.
Steve
Friday, March 10, 2006
The First Post of this Blog
Wow. How refreshingly original.
But this *is* the first post.
Okay. This blog is going to be about Battletech, and anything else ancillary, like the rest of my life. But the posts will mostly be about Classic Battletech.
Warning: There will be what is generally referred to as 'fan fiction', or fanfic, in here. I personally don't care for ninety percent of Classic Battletech fanfiction - most of it is so poorly written, it makes me squirm with embarrassment. Worse, it makes me want to sit down, critique the offending POS, and send it off to the author with an offer to proofread and edit any of his future work.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not anal-retentive. I like taking a healthy dump as much as the next guy. As for being a sort of verbal 'neat freak', one look at my garage would disabuse anyone of that notion. But some - no, most of what I read in the fanfic sections is pure wish-fulfillment, fantasies generated by frustrated gamers who just can't get past the original games egomaniacal bent. Again, don't get me wrong.
I like revenge fantasies as much as the next guy, but power corrupts, ya know? Even fantasy power. And one of the most annoying aspects - not the worst, because the corruption is the worst - one of the most annoying aspects is that revenge fantasies tend to - well, repeat themselves. Over and over and over. So much of fanfic writing - hell, many of the original paperbacks written for the Battletech game - are about rampaging egos smashing into each other over intersteller distances for what amounts to chickenshit.
"My honor, my tradition, my religeous faith." Meanwhile, the little guy gets the crap stomped out of him, while Our Hero strides about fearlessly in his Battlemech, perpetuating the Clan/Inner Sphere version of the Royal Hissyfit. What about the little guy's family, his hopes and dreams? Or does not being a Archon mean you don't really count?
With all that said, I am going to post occasional fan fiction. But with an important difference. I will actually attempt to tell a story you will want to read.
But I am getting ahead of things. Off to write a bit of the story.
Oh. What's it about? Well, I noticed that Ironwind Metals is actually manufacturing miniatures for the Forestrymech. My first thought was "What the hell for? They don't even get use in the game for which they were originally designed! (Mechwarrior: Dark Age)".
Then I asked myself "what possible concantenation of circumstances could result in some poor bastard actually piloting one of these things into battle?"
That's when I began to put some serious thought into the following questions:
"WHY would anyone pilot something like this into battle? What possible advantages, outside of combat tables skewed in its favor, could persuade someone to play it? If Battlemechs truly existed, if there were such things as small fusion reactors and manufactured muscle fibres, and a plausible explanation for how they worked, what would a Battlemech's real-world advantages be?"
It occured to me that I knew enough of the game by now, I could actually write a scenario which addressed such an encounter. It had to be common, because there are a lot of miniatures out there, waiting to be played. It had to be believeable, because something has to replace the ego boost you normally got from piloting REAL battlemechs, and you weren't going to be beating up any large tanks with this thing. And finally, it had to be about something or someone for whom the average gamer or reader might, conceiveably, give a damn.
And of course, such a scenario requires a little written introduction, a snippet of writing which explains the scenario, and (if the writer knows what he is doing) get the reader's blood moving a bit at the same time.
And now I am up to at least three or four pages of introduction. At least as long as the planned scenario, and likely to get longer. Alas and alack, the tail may end up wagging the dog. But then, that's for you to decide.
Regards,
Steve
But this *is* the first post.
Okay. This blog is going to be about Battletech, and anything else ancillary, like the rest of my life. But the posts will mostly be about Classic Battletech.
Warning: There will be what is generally referred to as 'fan fiction', or fanfic, in here. I personally don't care for ninety percent of Classic Battletech fanfiction - most of it is so poorly written, it makes me squirm with embarrassment. Worse, it makes me want to sit down, critique the offending POS, and send it off to the author with an offer to proofread and edit any of his future work.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not anal-retentive. I like taking a healthy dump as much as the next guy. As for being a sort of verbal 'neat freak', one look at my garage would disabuse anyone of that notion. But some - no, most of what I read in the fanfic sections is pure wish-fulfillment, fantasies generated by frustrated gamers who just can't get past the original games egomaniacal bent. Again, don't get me wrong.
I like revenge fantasies as much as the next guy, but power corrupts, ya know? Even fantasy power. And one of the most annoying aspects - not the worst, because the corruption is the worst - one of the most annoying aspects is that revenge fantasies tend to - well, repeat themselves. Over and over and over. So much of fanfic writing - hell, many of the original paperbacks written for the Battletech game - are about rampaging egos smashing into each other over intersteller distances for what amounts to chickenshit.
"My honor, my tradition, my religeous faith." Meanwhile, the little guy gets the crap stomped out of him, while Our Hero strides about fearlessly in his Battlemech, perpetuating the Clan/Inner Sphere version of the Royal Hissyfit. What about the little guy's family, his hopes and dreams? Or does not being a Archon mean you don't really count?
With all that said, I am going to post occasional fan fiction. But with an important difference. I will actually attempt to tell a story you will want to read.
But I am getting ahead of things. Off to write a bit of the story.
Oh. What's it about? Well, I noticed that Ironwind Metals is actually manufacturing miniatures for the Forestrymech. My first thought was "What the hell for? They don't even get use in the game for which they were originally designed! (Mechwarrior: Dark Age)".
Then I asked myself "what possible concantenation of circumstances could result in some poor bastard actually piloting one of these things into battle?"
That's when I began to put some serious thought into the following questions:
"WHY would anyone pilot something like this into battle? What possible advantages, outside of combat tables skewed in its favor, could persuade someone to play it? If Battlemechs truly existed, if there were such things as small fusion reactors and manufactured muscle fibres, and a plausible explanation for how they worked, what would a Battlemech's real-world advantages be?"
It occured to me that I knew enough of the game by now, I could actually write a scenario which addressed such an encounter. It had to be common, because there are a lot of miniatures out there, waiting to be played. It had to be believeable, because something has to replace the ego boost you normally got from piloting REAL battlemechs, and you weren't going to be beating up any large tanks with this thing. And finally, it had to be about something or someone for whom the average gamer or reader might, conceiveably, give a damn.
And of course, such a scenario requires a little written introduction, a snippet of writing which explains the scenario, and (if the writer knows what he is doing) get the reader's blood moving a bit at the same time.
And now I am up to at least three or four pages of introduction. At least as long as the planned scenario, and likely to get longer. Alas and alack, the tail may end up wagging the dog. But then, that's for you to decide.
Regards,
Steve
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