Pittsburgh Bound!

Hello hello, everyone!

Sorry about the belated and succinct nature of this blog post, but I just started my new job so I'm working quite a lot of hours this week. (Rather tired.)

My latest episode of the Chronicles of Professor Jack Baling is officially out and available for purchase. Check it out here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008LMIFFG 

Also, some exciting news: I'm headed to Pittsburgh for the last weekend in August to see Jillian (my girlfriend)! I'm very excited.

That's all for now.

I'm back (although not better than ever)

Hello hello, my friends!

I didn't update last week as I was out of town for the 4th of July, where I had a very lovely time with my family up in Michigan. There was much swimming and riding on boats and watching of fireworks. Lots of fun all the way around.

Unfortunately, the cold/flu I picked up in Ireland--the one I thought I'd kicked--has returned with a vengeance. I have been to see the doctor, who says I don't have pneumonia and who's given me some antibiotics, so I hope to be up and kicking again soon.

My illness has not prevented me from working on getting Episode 4 published, though, so don't you worry. I am still trying to figure out the title, which is weird for me. Normally I'm pretty good at divining a title fairly quickly, but there's no phrase or line that's really jumped out to me for this one, nor an allusion that I can make. Then again, I have until Sunday, so there's still time to come up with one.

In other news, I have a girlfriend, which is very exciting. Her name is Jillian and she lives in Pittsburgh. She's also a writer, although what she writes isn't quite as out there as what I do, and she's pretty awesome. (She's also pretty.) We're in the same grad school program at Carlow University, so when we first started dating, it was in Ireland, which is awesome.

Speaking of Carlow, the due date for our integrative essays is quickly approaching. Essentially, we're supposed to pick a theme or topic that arose during the residency and then craft a coherent essay on it using disparate elements from the different lectures and workshops we had. It sounds complicated, and it kinda is, but this is the last one I have to do for the program, so I don't really care anymore. I've written mine, edited it, and I don't think I'm going to do another draft.

I have an episode of Professor Jack's chronicle to get published, after all.

Until next time, friends.

JFK is a Terrible Airport (and other news from my trip)

Hello hello, my internet chums!

I realize it's been a while since last I updated, but I do have a good excuse: I was out of the country, specifically, Ireland. And it was a grand ole time, let me tell you.

Actually, let me first tell you of the hellish time I had getting back before we move on to a description of my trip and news of Professor Jack Baling's next adventure.

So my flight back to the US of A from Dublin was no biggie. Flight was on time, we arrived a little earlier than I expected, cool beans. My final destination was Raleigh, North Carolina because that's where my folks live now. Originally, when I booked my ticket, I got one to Atlanta (by way of JFK) because I wasn't sure where we'd be living by the time I got back. When I found out it was Raleigh, I inquired  about changing the second leg of my return trip (JFK to Raleigh rather than JFK to Atlanta) but discovered it'd cost like $250, when I could just buy another plane ticket from Atlanta to Raleigh for a hundred dollars less, which I did. (That ended up being a mistake.)

Back to JFK: I arrive, get to my gate, no worries. Then I see that my plane has been delayed by two hours. I was a bit worried originally that I'd miss this connection as I had to take a shuttle over from the international terminal to this one, but this delay meant I had time to kill. Unfortunately, if I got into Atlanta at 8:15 and my flight to Raleigh was leaving at 8:30, that was a problem. But I had a solution!

I called the Delta helpline and the friendly gent there got me hooked up on a flight straight to Raleigh from JFK. Wonderful! The day before I left I'd been worried that I might have to get to Atlanta, get my bag from the carousel, check it again, go back through security and get to my gate, because of my separate reservations, but when I went to Dublin the lady there said she could send it straight through to Raleigh. Why go to Atlanta if I didn't need to? (I found out later that doing so would have allowed me to miss the oncoming stormfront, but then I found out there was a fire in one of their terminals, so that could have been bad too.)

Filled with good cheer, I headed to my new gate, got my new boarding pass, and waited for my plane. It was four something at that point and my flight was scheduled to leave at 6:35. I saw that we'd been delayed by a half hour, but I wasn't worried. I had my kindle and my iPod, so no problem. Then I saw Emily, a friend from Carlow and another resident of North Carolina, and found out she was on my flight as well. By that time, out flight had been delayed to 8 o'clock, but the clouds outside were getting awfully dark, and getting closer...

Then Emily informed me that our flight had been canceled, which has never happened to me before, so I had to figure out what I was going to do. Calling the helpline I discovered that all flights to Raleigh from JFK, La Guardia or Newark were already booked up for that day and the next, so I’d have to leave on Sunday (this was on a Friday). Finding that unacceptable, I turned to Emily who’d been able to book a flight to Charlotte for the next evening. Since that was at least the right state, I checked with my folks to see if they could pick me up form my new destination, but by the time I called to get myself on that flight, it too was all booked up.

Faced with being stuck in New York for two nights, my dad (a veteran traveler) gave me a plan: book my flight for Sunday morning, then go to a hotel for the night, return to the airport with Emily the following day and do my best to get on any stand-by list available. Then, if I struck out completely, I still had that flight on Sunday.

So I did, splitting a car with Emily to a nice Sheraton in Brooklyn. The next morning I checked my phone to see that I could check in for my flight the following day, but it wouldn’t let me, saying there was some kind of error. When I checked on a hotel computer I saw that one of the eight Delta people I’d spoken to on the phone the day before hadn’t been able to figure out that despite what my ticket said, Atlanta was NOT my final destination. Thus, I was scheduled to leave JFK at 6:15 for Atlanta on Sunday, as well as leave JFK for Raleigh at 8:30. The computer, knowing that the previously-described situation was just silly, refused to let me do that.

So I called the helpline. Again. They fixed me up, and not only that, I was able to get myself on a flight leaving direct to Raleigh that evening (after sitting on hold for like fifteen minutes).

My day at the airport was spent ensconced in a comfy chair within sight of my gate, right next to the bathrooms, water fountains and a bank of power outlets for my various gadgets, so it was fairly comfortable, all things considered, but I was tired and just wanted to be home.

When I finally boarded my little plane (we had to gate check our bigger carry on and the German flight attendant lady moved us around for weight distribution) and we got into the air, I let out a sigh of relief. My double plus ungood trip home was finally over.

In comparison, my time in Ireland was friggin’ sweet. I saw about every touristy thing in Dublin before school started, and then we went to a bunch of stuff as a group, including several plays, a literary pub crawl, and a book festival. Good times.

As far as Jack Baling is concerned, I am working on getting his next episode edited, but I’m not sure it’ll be ready by the end of the month. (Leaving the country upset my writing schedule a bit more than I anticipated.) Thus, I’m thinking the new publication date for the Chronicles will be on the 15th of each month. I’ll keep you informed if anything changes, though.

As always, thanks for reading.

One week left

Welp, I've come to this, my final week in Georgia.

I've spent a lot of time in this state, on a number of occasions, and it's a place I consider my home. I hope to move back here one day, maybe to the Athens area, I'm not sure, but that won't be for a while. No, I'll have to drink in my time here while I'm still here to do so.

In one week, I will be boarding a plane with my boon companion, Rylan Wade, and set off for a journey to the Emerald Isle of Ireland. I'm quite looking forward to the trip. Rylan and I, while best of friends for the past decade, have never been on a trip together, so I think that'll be fun (as long as Rylan doesn't get us involved in some sort of shenanigans where we wake up the next morning with a sheep in the room and no memory of how it got there...so yeah, pretty fun overall).

I just did the majority of my packing for the trip, and sort of for North Carolina as well, because if my folks don't find us a house while I'm in Eire, I'll be coming back to our temporary living quarters with whatever clothes I bring with me, plus some I'll set aside before I go.

Also coming up this week: the third episode of the Chronicles of Professor Jack Baling! (Very exciting.) There's some neat mad science in this one, although that really gets ramped up in episodes four and five. (So stay tuned!) And, before we head to Ireland, Rylan and I are going to continue our annual tradition of going to the Georgia Renaissance Festival, always a delightful experience. There's steak on a steak, magicians, jugglers, comedians, axe throwing, my getting freaked out by chickens, the pirate auction, all sorts of good stuff. Plus, this year, since we're going on the final weekend, we'll be going during Free Student weekend. (I.e. student ID = 1 free admission.)

Well, I've done my story editing today but I'm still crafting my pair of prototype decks to take to Ireland so that I can continue play-testing my card game.

Hope your day has been as good as mine (if not better,)

Colin

Whoops!

Hello hello, my internet friends,

Sorry about the belated blog post. I was in Athens yesterday helping my cousin move (and by "helping" I mean "watch as the movers bring in boxes, unload a few of them, then fall asleep on the couch for a few hours") so by the time I got home I was quite tired. Combine that with the fact that I needed to get up at 5AM this morning for work and I decided it'd be best for everyone if I just posted today.

So here we are.

Some news on the card game front: I have successfully play-tested my prototypes a few time and am pleased with the results. It feels like a real game, it's fun, and any time you get to say to someone, "Oh, well, it ended in a tie because he died after I sent my robotic flying velociraptor after him, which destroyed his armor, opening up an opportunity for me to set him on fire with my flamethrower, whose lingering damage killed him at the end of the round, but I was insane at the time, so my head exploded," is friggin' awesome in my book.

I am having some issues with the structure, whether it should play more like Magic: The Gathering or Pokemon TCG, but that's the point of play-testing, to iron out those wrinkles.

In other news, I am moving to North Carolina next month. As you may or may not know, I'm living with my folks while I'm in grad school. Since my dad got a new job in North Carolina (the Raleigh area) that means I'm coming along for the ride. I'm in two minds about moving. On the one had, I have to leave behind the friends I've have here, as well as my job (my manager's really cool), and change is always a little scary. On the other hand, I've moved over a dozen times in my life. It's something I'm not thrilled about, but am used to. Plus, it'll be a new adventure! Maybe things will be even better there. Maybe my book will take off and I'll become the next J. K. Rowling.

 Who knows? (OK, maybe not, but still.) I'm optimistic overall. As someone wise once said, "You cannot change the direction the wind is blowing, but you can adjust your sails."

As Jack Sparrow said, "Bring me that horizon."

It's alive! IT'S (almost) ALIVE!

Mwuhahahaha! AHAHAHAHA!
...
Ahem. Excuse me. I've just been working so hard on all my mad scientist projects that I'm a little bit stuck in character. And yes, that's right, I did say project(s). For one thing, I'm working on getting some Professor Jack Baling merchandise ready, which is very exciting. Shirts, stickers, coffee mugs, the works. I have some of the designs already, now I'm just trying to finagle with the price so that I'm not charging upwards of $40 for a single t-shirt. I'll give more info on that when I have it.

I've also been putting a lot of time and effort into a collectible card game that's set in the same world as my novel. It's similar to Pokemon or Magic: The Gathering, in that it's played with two players, each one has a deck of cards and uses creatures and weapons to beat the snot out of each other. Unlike those games, however, there's a bit more to it than that.

First off, these are *mad* scientists, after all, so they are less than stable. As such, the rolling of a die is involved in a number of ways, adding a bit of randomness to the proceedings.

Secondly, each player has a Sanity meter which decreases whenever powerful abilities are used. Go all the way down to 0 and grow temporarily powerful. Go for more than one round in this state, however, and you lose.

Finally, there are random encounter cards that get played each turn, much like Monopoly or Life. These affect both players, positively or negatively, so be careful. What helps you might also help your opponent, and harming them can bring harm down on you.

All in all, I have quite a few plates spinning right now, but once my Automatic Plate Spinning Robot is finished, it should be smooth sailing.

Inspiration (and a plea to the scientific community)

A short entry today, friends, but I remembered to update today, so I'm happy about that.

Recently, I had a conversation with a friend on the nature of inspiration. She, also a writer, explained that she gets ideas for characters all the time, but suffers from a dearth of plots. I, on the other hand, get ideas for...if not "plots" exactly, then story seeds. They can be triggered by anything. The other day I was driving to work in the early morning and was thinking about how empty the world was, especially since the area I was driving through at the exact moment in time was bordered on one side by fields and woods. "What if," I imagined, "someone was driving in a similar situation but in a more remote area, and then some great big beastie ran out in front of them and into the woods?"

Would the person stop? Would they crash? What if they made it to work safely, but couldn't help wonder about whatever it was that they saw? What if they got to the end of the day and stopped at that spot on their way home? What if they saw something to indicate that they weren't imagining it, something that made it clear the beastie wasn't normal? Etc.

That's just how my brain works. I get ideas all the time. Unfortunately, I do not get time all the time. I have as much per day as everybody else, and there's no way that I can create during all of it. I can't even focus hard enough to make the best use out of my free time. And that really sucks, because I have so many awesome ideas, but I can't work on all of them simultaneously or I'd make such little progression in each one that it'd take forever to get any individual one of them finished. So that means I have to go the opposite way and shelve them for later, make a list of projects I'm interested in, pursue each one on the list until the item in question is complete, and then move on.

But when I get an idea I'm really excited about I can create a lot of content in a short period of time. That level of excitement doesn't last for very long. The question then becomes: "Is it more efficient to take breaks from a current project to take advantage of a new one if doing so will delay completion of the current project?"

I'm not sure I have an answer, either. I tend to do what I've just described, although I haven't missed a structured deadline yet. Still, how much more work could I get done if I didn't have to sleep?

Scientists! Get working on that. Papa's got some worlds to write.