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Written by Paul
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Sunday, 16 June 2013 23:20 |
It occurred to me towards the end of the book that I had four female pirate captains, five if you count Zenobia, and when I realized that I knew I HAD to do an all-girl orgy scene. I generally eschew scenes that are all one gender or another, but this time I felt like adding even one guy would be a weird kind of tokenism - like, it's not really sex unless there's a dick in it, which is so not what I wanted it to be about. This one includes two of our guest stars, who signed up for walk-ons and got a bit more than they bargained for. I wanted to get Zenobia's pterodactyl wrangler in there too, but I already had five people to deal with and I didn't want this to get too out of hand. So: I hope Captains Rain and Kalli are not offended at being included in the grope-fest.
We are at 39.6%, with literally just $12 more to make it to 40% even, but then there's just $312 more to make it to 50%, and with 18 days left that would be fantastic. Head on over and donate! Or if you already have, spread the link around and help us get the word out!
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Written by Paul
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Thursday, 13 June 2013 22:18 |
So that's it, the last chapter. This marks the end of the posting of Queen of the Sky Frontier. Next week will be bonus scenes, and then after a short break we will commence with Throne of the Depths. All the while I will still be working on Imperial Blood because damn, that is an awesome story and I feel a tremendous drive to get it right.
Ending a story is harder than beginning it, because while openings are hard, you know if you screwed it up and you can fix it pretty fast. Once you get to an ending you have kind of painted yourself into the corner, and changing course at a late point can be hard, if not impossible. I plan extensively beforehand, but the end of a novel remains somewhat fluid if you are an author who cares about getting to the emotional truth of a story. Sometimes what seems easy in an outline simply will not play on the page when you actually get to it. Sometimes no matter what you do a certain moment or dynamic will not work, and so you have to leave some wiggle room for yourself, and not lock things in too tightly. I'm great at action choreography, but emotional choreography is still something I'm learning on.
All that is to say that I hope you like the final chapter. This book is a middle chapter, and so it's impossible to sew up all the elements into a nice neat package. But the story needs to come to an emotional resting point. Azrael's story, and its intertwining with Eden's, has to come to something we can take as an ending for now. Let's see... Throne of the Depths will run until the end of October. Imperial Blood will be from November until February or so. Then it will be Masks & Madams from March through June, so I'll likely be starting on The Graveyard of Empires right around this time next year. Then I'll have written a steampunk airship pirate wild west porn trilogy - I don't think anyone else can say that.
And don't forget we're still flogging the Throne of the Depths campaign, because all of this is based on us being able to pay bills while we do all this crap. So go donate!
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Written by Paul
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Tuesday, 11 June 2013 21:53 |
The secret to good villains is that they are very like the hero. This has been pointed out many times, and is not news. Sometimes it's not obvious how they are alike. Batman and the Joker seem to be complete opposites, except that they are both broken people. They each had something bad happen to them, and it broke them fundamentally. The difference is we know what broke Batman, we don't know what broke the Joker, and that's what makes him the bad guy. We can't sympathize with him because he's not humanized.
But a lot of villains are humanized, and we feel for them, recognizing that they are people with the potential for greatness, with fine qualities and superior ability, but emotionally they are broken. Many times the real failure of villains is that they cannot forgive. At the moment when another human being might hold out their hand, the villain spits on you. Thus, in a narrative your heroes will often feel a closeness with the bad guys. They are not so different, after all. Police comment on this often - how the people who understand them best are either other cops, or criminals.
So there often comes a moment when the hero puts out their hand. "I know you've been hurt," they say. "But we don't have to do this. It doesn't have to end this way." And then the question becomes: what will the answer be? That, to me, is the difference between doing evil, and being evil - given a chance - an honest chance - would the character turn aside, and stop?
We've had no donations today. So if you're waiting for a good time to join Throne of the Depths, now would be good.
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