Words of Advice from an Old Geezer

I got to thinking yesterday evening - while wincing at the pain in my back as I got out of my car - that I'm starting to sound like the Old Guy With Advice these days every time I talk to someone younger than me. See, being sick a couple weeks ago is nothing new, but dealing with the subsequent recovery period that inevitably follows is getting harder every year. So I find myself wishing I was 20 again, and telling everyone who is that they should enjoy it while they can.

Okay, so I mean it in the best possible way, but I'm still starting to give out advice to these young whippersnappers even when they don't want it. After all, when I was 20 I didn't really appreciate that I could bounce back from an injury or illness, or stay up 16 hours playing AD&D and then get right back to it the next day without batting an eye. But these days, at 41, it's just getting harder and harder to recover from those sorts of things.

It's not like I walked to school ten miles in the snow uphill both ways, but I really need to stop telling stories about "when I was young." After all, by the time I hit 60 I'm sure I'll be remembering these day fondly. So if I can get over this lingering bronchitis, I really need to get back to being insanely productive before I actually am 60!

Status Report
As for what's up in general, GURPS SWAT has gone to the printer, so it should be out in early December, barring any glitches. Looks like GURPS WWII: All the King's Men has been bumped to January and GURPS All Star Jam 2004 has been moved to February. Nothing very unusual about the moves; seems to happen all the time in this biz.

The Hogshead releases are lined up, and What Went Down is slated for release in December or January, looks like. Ghost Ship is about half written, and the final draft is due December 25; no problem there.

I've been relatively unproductive the last week or so, trying to recover from this cold and catch up on the non-writing stuff I neglected during the horrific September and October writing crunch. Probably get back to novel writing soon and hopefully get one of two (or both) done before other writing contracts sneak up on me.

Meantime, let me tell you about how things were when I was young...

Orycon Wrapup

I had fully intended on providing an "Orycon: Day Two" post as soon as I returned from the con, but only managed to crawl into bed and recuperate for the last couple days. I suppose it was pushing myself through two days of the con that inspired my cold to come back full force; either that or I caught something else over the weekend. Suffice to say that Sunday I didn't even leave the house at all, let alone go back for Day Three.

That said, it was a good convention. The gaming was a little light this year compared to last. I may have to email Rodney or Aaron or someone and ask if that's really true or if it was just my imagination. I hardly spent any time in the non-gaming areas of the con (Orycon is a general Sci-Fi con), so I can't really comment on the attendance in general. Nevertheless, it was still a fun convention.

The SWAT game went good on Saturday afternoon. The team went up against Muslim separatists out of Indonesia and managed to rescue the British ambassador's wife in time to allow a peace conference to go on unhindered. I had three repeat players (out of seven), and actually played with a full group of seven instead of the usual five or six. Don't get me wrong, I usually have 7+ players signing up, I just generally don't run all of them. I did, however, have seven characters ready to go, so I went ahead and ran the game with seven players. Seems a good time was had by all.

So the con's over, I'm recovering - despite my cold - and it's time to get back to work. I'll be wrapping up Ghost Ship soon and turning my attention to finishing up a novel shortly. Will keep you all posted.

Orycon: Day One

Just finished the first day of Orycon 25. Got through the day in one piece, and even managed to do both panels without losing my voice. Ran into several old friends and got to do a bit of gaming to boot. And best of all - contrary to my typical Dragonflight experiences - I'm ready to hit the sack and it's only 1:30 a.m.

Tomorrow I'll be sitting in on a game of GURPS Stargate (no, it's not a book; don't look for it at your local game store) and then running what will probably be the last of the GURPS SWAT sessions for a while. I like the game, but will probably be pushing some new pre-release game at the next con or two. Might even get back to running Cliffhangers one of these days if I have time.

More later; must sleep.

Orycon Cometh

I'll be in Portland, Oregon tomorrow and Saturday, as a guest at the science fiction convention, Orycon 25. I have a couple panels to do on Friday, and will be running the last pre-release GURPS SWAT session on Saturday at 3:00. Although Orycon is three days, I won't be there Sunday.

I'm still recovering from The Cold That Never Ends, and I've barely got my voice, but if you're in the area and planning on going to the convention, be sure and look me up. I promise not to cough on you.

Ghost Ship Delayed

Hogshead Publishing has moved the release date for Fright Night: Ghost Ship to after the GAMA trade show (a large gaming industry show held next March). They've moved the first draft date from this weekend (November 16) to December 25. Can't say I'm unhappy; my cold has made it tough to get the book to really shine. This'll give me plenty of time to get it into great shape.

Tarzan - Thumbs Down

Okay, I promised I'd get back to you all on the issue of whether the WB's new Tarzan series was worth keeping. Turns out that Lucy Lawless is surprisingly good, but even she can't save the show from bad plotlines, stilted dialogue, sudden (and annoying) spasms of modern-music-over-angst-ridden-faces, and worst of all: horrific acting on the part of Tarzan himself. Admitedly, Travis Fimmel moves like he's part ape, but unfortunately he acts like it as well.

The fight scenes held my interest for a few episodes, and some are still stylish and cool to watch. But when Tarzan jumped onto the hood of a car, punched through the windshield and grabbed a guy, then pulled him back onto the hood, I'd had enough. Apparently being raised in the jungle by apes makes you not only inhumanly strong but impervious to damage - not a single cut on our hero, despite glass flying everywhere. Maybe the front window of that car was made of 1/16" think candy glass instead of thick tempered windshield glass.

Hmph. Car manufacturers these days.

Final word? Tape the shows, watch the fight scenes for their coolness, and fast forward the rest. If you want to watch Lucy Lawless in her new role, go for it.

But when the sappy romantic music swells up in the middle of the show - as it does many times - don't say I didn't warn you.

Achoo!

Short post today, just so nobody thinks I fell off the face of the earth. Caught a nasty cold earlier this week, been very incommunicado for the last few days. Finally thinking about getting out of the house today for the first time in forever.

I hate being sick.

More later, when the cold medicine doesn't have me half-asleep at the keyboard...

NaNoWriMo No Mo

First, apologies for the five-day delay in updating. Blogger was down, I lost a very long (and witty) post I tried to put up mid-week, and then I couldn't log into my account for days. Needless to say, I'm a bit annoyed, but it's working now. I think.

As for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) coming up, I've decided that the restrictions imposed by NaNoWriMo - specifically, the "you can't work on an already existing novel - are too restrictive for my tastes.

The idea behind NaNoWriMo is to write an entire novel in a month. Well, that's fine and good for someone looking to just crank out 50,000 words. It seems that the web site is loaded with folks that are determined to write 50k in a month, regardless of quality or salability. Well, I have news for 'em: writing 50,000 words in a month isn't tough. I've done it several times. Writing 50,000 words of publishable material is the key, and also something I've done several times.

So I'm not looking for a web site gimmick to help me write 50,000 words in a novel. I'm looking to write a novel that I'm proud of, that folks will want to read, and that a publisher will want to buy. I'm happy to use NaNoWriMo to help me get focused on fiction again and something to remind me of what I like to write, but I don't need to be constrained and reigned in from being creative, just because of someone's opinion of how to write a novel.

So the spirit of NaNoWriMo is a good one, but the rules are a bit too contrived and restrictive. I'd rather get back to work on one of my two half-finished novels, and get something in print, rather than worry about living up to someone's relatively unhelpful rules and restrictions and end up with another half-written novel sitting around.

Okay, so I won't get to put the nifty logo on my web site. But I'd rather put another book cover up instead.

That said, I'll spend the next 10 days writing Ghost Ship - wrote 2,700 words today - and then get to work on finishing a novel by November 30. Or at least writing 50,000 words for a reason.