Richard Parry: writer, liar, superhero
I killed a major character today. It’s not (spoilers? I mean, it’s not like my books don’t have a body count that is legion) the only one that drops in Night’s Fall, but I tend to hit a bit of a funk afterwards because I want all the good guys to live forever. Unfortunately, that’s shit storytelling, so if it’s plausible that someone dies, well. Now, I’ll go drink myself to sleep.
I don’t normally go in for war simulators, but I’ve been playing some Black Ops III. It’s quite good. Despite that ringing endorsement, which you can read in various flavours on other sites that are qualified to write video game reviews, what I’m enjoying is the characterisations of the female version of the protagonist. In case you don’t know, the game now allows you to be either a dude or a chick, and the script is the same. This means that the characters appear equally strong, confidant, pro-grade people who can wage war in a dystopian future against other humans and robots and the fucking CIA. I really like this. It’s this kind of messaging that needs to be out there — for my specifics on research, I’m playing the campaign as the female protagonist, and it works. I am Read More …
…you hit yourself in the face with an Olympic bar doing shoulder presses. This week will have a … slightly reduced writing cadence. I’m doing a bit of a work-related rodeo, a few speaking gigs, presentations, and other things. It’s good timing, truth be told: as I’m doing the “big finale” in Night’s Fall, this gives me a good slice of time to re-order (or re-confirm) my thoughts and take a good sprint to the finish. On other news, I’ve been called a cunt in the nicest possible way. Yeah, I try. Or am trying, one of the two.
You ever heard dubstep violin? Didn’t think so. Check this out. A friend linked it to me this morning. What I think is interesting here is not that there’s someone that’s successful doing “indie stuff, and fuck the man,” but rather that there are two things missing from the conversation. Publishers provide a useful service — marking, production, etc. The problem is, they think they are gatekeepers. This is one of the reasons driving the schism between the two — but I don’t think it has to be that way. I think there’s room in the conversation for people who want to buy or produce indie and publishers both, if only both sides mature a little. These success stories are non-repeatable. If they were, then everyone would have a #1 seller on Amazon. There isn’t a programmatical way to attack Read More …
Danny jumped out of a helicopter today. Without a parachute. Night’s Fall is making its slow sprint (?) to the end. All houses are in order. The opponents are lined up. It is time for the final showdown. Knowing me, this will still take 30,000 words, but it’ll be a lot of fun, because, you know, werewolves.
Not dying is a life priority of mine. I’ve been trying to get back into doing some exercise around the edges of work and so on. The time available where exercise is most likely to be done is first thing — nothing can interfere with a workout if your day hasn’t really started yet. Sure, I’d experimented with after work, and during lunchtime, and even wishing, but none of those really work — there’s always some Very Important Thing that shits all over any concerted attempt to weaponise Outlook Calendar against this. Problem is, as you get older, getting up at dawn’s crack to exercise is harder. And harder. And harder. Whatever, that’s the kind of thing a quitter would say. I’ve been trying some body hacks with some success. What I did: Start getting up earlier. Inject something light Read More …
I remember playing video games back in the day. Sure, there were good experiences, lots of shinies — for the time — and new experiences to be uncovered. One of those experiences was — excitement! — computers began to have the horsepower for decent sound. Digitised voices, and then movies, made their way into video games. This was not good. Well, it wasn’t universally good. You’d maybe get the intern on deck, doing God’s work at a developer, voicing a key role. Or someone’s uncle, or child, or whatever. These were the voices that started to get into games, and not all of it was sex and candy, you know? As games got bigger, and turned into more robust products, we started to see some pretty impressive talent come to voice the stories we love. Nolan North, of course. His brother Read More …
I’m upgrading Scrivener. This could be a beautiful thing, or it could eat my manuscript. And on that note, I’m off to make backups of my backups.
I don’t think Night’s Fall has enough villains. So: today, I made some more. I’m having fun with this, it’s not every day you get to exercise your supervillain fantasies. Book’s about 72,000 words long now, and I figure I’m … about 2/3 the way there. Nothing like the last third being stocked with epic boss fights and witty dialogue.
The slow decay of my physical form cannot be arrested by Earth technology. Usually this is an excellent opportunity to get some loot into my life; every birthday, I come up with a list of stuff to pad out my meagre earthly existence. This year’s been funny though: with my recent bout of introspection and continuing evolution into intrisic vs. extrinsic rewards, I find that there’s little stuff I want. Let’s not even get started on need. Don’t you worry. I’ve risen to the challenge and come up with a few choice items, but what I’ve found is that the things I’m trending towards wanting are … less stuff. The list of loot demands are trending towards things that provide experiences and nothing that looks like a consumer electronic or toy or widget. It reminds me a little of my Read More …