Category: On Writing

Canadians Doing It Right

Posted on

I watched a two-part documentary about a video game recently. While how I choose to spend my time should be free of your judgment, a thing worth calling out is the repeated themes from the company involved. Digital Extremes are based in Canada. Throughout the videos where they talk about company hard times, the repeated messages are about how they can look after their people, and how they can sustain this long term. Success for them is measured in employing a couple hundred souls, making sure there’s a good work environment for them, and being able to sustain this. Communication between them and their fans was more important than having a lot of fans (quality over quantity). With all the recent megacorp news about companies losing data, or type-A management trying to use you like an ATM, it’s easy to lose sight Read More …

Getting it Wrong

Posted on

By that, I mean on purpose. Before we get started, I need to preface with a couple of points. These are tips for writers. If you’re a reader, this shit might give you a glimpse behind the curtain. Good or bad? I don’t know. We’ll discover that. Together. This is not a post about alternative facts or some other political bullshit. There is no excuse for not knowing your shit. This post is not about how to fudge things so you can get away without doing research. Let’s turn that handle, yo. Let me set a scene for you. You’re watching a cop procedural on Netflix. In the scene are the good guys on one side of a table, bad guys on the other (you decide if the cops are good or bad in this scenario – it doesn’t matter). There’s Read More …

The Power of Names

Posted on

Ever since I read Le Guin’s amazing A Wizard of Earthsea, I’ve been captivated by the idea of names having a kind of power. (Side note: if you haven’t read the Earthsea books, you’re missing out. I don’t use ‘amazing’ lightly; this is a series I re-read often. The writing is brilliant, the characters captivating, the stories both beautiful and poignant). Hobb has her own take on this with her Liveship books (also excellent). Same but different, you know? Worth your time (and I needed to look up ‘Fitz’ when I started on these books). Me, I’m pretty much a hack compared to those two. But I still want the names of my characters to have meaning. In my Tyche books, I named the crew with a purpose. Some of the characters were renamed from their originals (did you know, Hope used Read More …

Tyche’s Fury

Posted on

My original working title for Tyche’s Fury was, “Kohl’s Bad Day.” It all starts with a bad idea over saki. But hell. No epic story started with a salad, amirite? Someone wants to hire October Kohl. First mistake. Trypso is a below average world filled with below average people. October Kohl wants off the crust and away from the wannabe Yakuza there. When the crime syndicate contacts Kohl with an opportunity to be free of both them and Trypso, Kohl jumps at the opportunity. The job’s easy money: deliver a package to another planet. Get paid. Then grab a beer. When a rival gang gets his scent, Kohl must make an unlikely alliance with the captain of an ex-war heavy lifter. If they can’t get along, everyone’s dead for sure. If they manage not to kill each other, the prize is Read More …

WTAF, Another One?

Posted on

You got it. Pew! Pew! – A Fistful of Pews is out. You might remember my story Consensus appeared in Pew! Pew! 4. And you know what? Those suckers wanted me back for number 5. My story in PP5 is The Chadd, about Chad Foradel and Saveria Complex. You might remember Chad from Tyche’s Deceit (and Tyche’s Crown), a minor support act who is rescued from [SPOILERS] and ends up heading up the [SPOILERS]. Well, The Chadd takes place after Tyche’s Crown (and before the upcoming Tyche’s Demons…). Chad’s on a mission, and on that mission he meets the young pirate, Saveria Complex. Both Chad and Saveria return in Tyche’s Demons. If you want to find out how they met? Here’s your answer. A scream for help across the hard black, then silence. That was the start of Chad Forradel’s bad day. One minute he was checking out a planet of Read More …

Tyche’s Hope

Posted on

Half-way there! Tyche’s Hope ships your way today. Get it while the getting’s good. The ad said Job of a Lifetime! Triton Station is Hope’s new home. At twenty-two years old and already Guild Engineer First Class, she is asked to breathe life into the broken spans of Triton’s shipyards. The fall of the Empire brought opportunity for the underground. Triton is home to thousands, organized crime eating the space city like a cancer. They’ve snared Hope’s wife in their net. Hope must get Reiko free. But the cost of Reiko’s freedom might be everything Hope has worked so hard for. As the hungry and the powerful close in for the kill, Hope must find a way out. If she doesn’t, she’ll lose Reiko for good. Tyche’s Hope is the third novella in Richard Parry’s gripping Tyche Origins pentalogy. If you Read More …

The New Chic

Posted on

If I may, I’d like to skip some of my usual flavor to showcase some other people. I know. Weird for you? Weird for me too. These particular humans were of a smaller size than what I’m used to. I had the great honor and privilege of being asked by Maungaraki School to speak to a room of their junior writers. When I was a kid, I was one of the lippy ones. I spent too much time being kicked out of math class for taking the wrong line of inquiry, if you get me. I was curious, but in a narrow lane. I met these people yesterday, full to the brim with questions about everything. Some of the ideas for stories they had? They’ll blow your mind. Kids who are spies. A new take on epic fantasy that would make Read More …

Tyche’s Chosen

Posted on

The second Tyche Origins story, Tyche’s Chosen, is out today! Much excite. The smell of charred circuitry wasn’t a perfume Elspeth Roussel liked to wear. Helm of the Empire destroyer Nostradamus, El is the best at what she does. No one flies the big ships like she can. But Empire starships are dying in the hard black, the upstart Republic hammering them apart through sheer force of numbers. When the Nostradamus is sent on a suicide mission to destroy Republic shipyards, El’s courage under fire is tested. She needs to come up with a plan to save her ship, despite her captain’s desire to go down in a blaze of glory. If she manages victory, they might live to see another day. If she doesn’t, the Republic will climb closer to victory on the corpses of the Nostradamus’ crew. Tyche’s Chosen is Read More …

Something Wicked

Posted on

I’ve started work on Tyche’s Demons, the first of the Tyche’s Progeny series. Here’s a real, real, like fucking real rough start. First draft, usual caveats apply: this is brain to page, and the brain is based on a fifty-million year old design. Be kind. Something Wicked Five minutes. That’s all it took from we’re having a good time to we’re going to die, horribly. El entered the bridge, swagger dialed up to eleven, and gave her second a practiced glare. “Price. Report.” “Captain on the bridge.” Price, for his part no stranger to the Captain of the Skyguard wanting a little bridge time, stood from the command couch and slipped sideways into Tactical. “Captain Roussel, sir. We’re about to jump into Paloma. Still nothing on scan.” Not that nothing on scan was a surprise. The Troy floated in the hard black, somewhere Read More …

Tyche’s First

Posted on

Tyche’s First is out today! This was Big Huge Fun™ to write. I hope you dig it. Nathan Chevell has four hours to stop the fall of an empire. As Captain of the Emperor’s Black, it’s Nate’s job to protect the Ruler of all Humanity. But the discovery of an assassin close to the throne means Intelligencers, new agents who can read and control minds, are deemed better for the Emperor’s safety. With the Black ordered to stand down, terrorists strike the Palace. Nate still believes his job is to protect the Emperor, even if it means dying. He must discover the threat against the Emperor before it’s too late. If he doesn’t, the Empire will crumble. Tyche’s First is the beginning novella in Richard Parry’s gripping Tyche Origins pentalogy. If you like page-turning space opera with great dialogue and Read More …