Ninth Suture

Okay ladies n’ germs, I wanted to let you guys know that this coming month of June and through the first half of July updates for Eikasia will be very irregular.  Lemme say that again:

THIS COMING MONTH OF JUNE AND THROUGH THE FIRST HALF OF JULY, UPDATES FOR EIKASIA WILL BE VERY IRREGULAR.

Meaning–they will still happen!  But I won’t be able to hit my usual Friday update, and I may not even manage an update every week.  However, there WILL be updates!  During that time, my focus will shift to getting a bonus update or two done.  Why the sudden pseudo-hiatus?  Because–it’s SUMMER!  And I actually have a lot of plans and hopes and determinations to meet in my personal life that will take me away from the steady stream of writing I’ve been doing.  Consider it preemptive burnout recovery…or something. Ha ha!  The timing of this is a bit funny because we’re so soon to finishing In Sight, In Mind–but if you’ll recall, I mentioned I had a bit of a plot error souring things up.  Along with focusing on bonus updates, I’ll be trying to edit and tighten up the story a bit.  I’ve been doing that a lot recently, here and there, changing sentences and fixing old typos and rewriting certain portions (a major one was for Chapter 1.1 this week, where I chopped up the first sentence and added a new paragraph. For a story, this is like plastic surgery on a person’s face)

Basically, we’ve been chugging along at anything between 40-60 mph story-wise.  Now we’re going to grind down to 5-10 mph so that I can fix up the site and handle the backlog of stories I owe you wonderful bastards.  Once I begin Part 3 I’m going to be making a major ad push to encourage new readers to join in.  I’ll likely do something to try and enlist everyone’s help.  I’ve already chosen a name for Part 3, but I won’t tell you all yet.  It’s going to be a short one.  If I don’t let things run away from me, than it’ll be no longer than 6-7 chapters.

So there’s my announcement/FYI/please-don’t-stone-me-I-swear-I’m-still-going-to-be-writing message.

Take care everyone!  Chapter 17.3 shall be up soon.

So I was working on the website, adding some cool little things here and there.  Basically, I finally gave titles to Part 1 and Part 2 (meaning that new readers or those re-reading Eikasia now know when a story arc begins and ends.)  I also added some stuff to the main page or the “new readers” page, to help people navigate the site easier.  First, I added a list of direct links to where both Part 1: Tributaries and Part 2: In Sight, In Mind start.  Second, I added some navigational tips regarding the links at the bottom of each post and the drop down menus to be found in the sidebar.  Even if you’ve been reading since the beginning, the tips I put up might help you out, so give ‘em a looksee.  Another change I did to the website was in the categories.  I shifted Tobias Stories under Intermission as those are the only places we ever get to see them, and gave “The Wind and the Web” its own spot in the tree so that readers can find it easily.  I gave it a title just like I did the story arcs.

Why this sudden interest in adding these little fancy touches?  Why the change to organization, the concern for navigational ease?  Because Part 2 is nearing its end!  That’s right.  Which means a new story arc will soon begin, as well as yet another intermission, so I’m getting the website ready for it.  I’ve been at this for over a year now, and in four months I’ll have officially reached the two year mark.  I’ve been gradually figuring out the ins and outs of maintaining a website, and while I’m still working things out, I think Eikasia has come a LONG way from how it originally began!  (Imagine this:  no “new reader” page, no FAQs, no contact info, no post-to-post navigation links, no drop down menu, not even an RSS feed!  AHH!!  It was like the dark ages in 2008!)

And here’s the question that I’ve been wondering for ages–AGES I tell you.  Would you guys consider paying to see extra content for Eikasia?  And I’m not talking about something I scribbled during a coffee break at work.  I mean high quality stuff–stuff I have to PAY to get done, but would delight me eternally to do if I just knew it wouldn’t hurt my bank account so.  You see, I won’t make much money out of this at all, so while I have no idea for prices to set up, know that they wouldn’t be very high at all.

See, I’m talking about having 10-30 page comics done by some of the best artists on the web, I’m talking about sexy pin-ups that you can ogle at, and detailed maps to make the story that much more alive.  I’m talking about awesome animated shorts, beautiful wallpapers, and exclusive stories of 9000+ words…stories likely containing all the things I’d be afraid to post willy nilly in case my 13-year-old nephew reads it one day!  I’m talking about stuff you might actually want to pay for, be that one-time, or in a subscription so that you can have access to anything new I put out when it comes out.  The poll is available in Eikasia’s side bar.  Please let me know what you think!

So I was writing Chapter 16.3 (now available, btw) and something horrifying came to my attention.

I have a serious plot hole.

Now why am I pointing this out to you all?  Why aren’t I trying to sweep it under a rug?

Because at the pace I’m going, so close to finishing Part 2, with a backlog of bonus updates to do, I can’t really address this issue right away.  For now I have to let it be.

You see, the issue is simple, but important:  Graziano, Hakeem, and Arduino.

Yes!  That’s right.  If you’ve already read 16.3, then you’ll have noticed my sad attempt at mending the serious problem in characterization.  Graziano “forgot” to ask Hakeem what happened to Arduino.  The truth of it was, I forgot to make him remember, which leaves us with a poor explanation for the problem and a stupid resolution.  I’m pointing this out because I fully intend on fixing this once I finish Part 2, never mind that I still need to edit Part 1.  So if you read Part 2 again, or see some reference to a change I’ve made in the story, you’ll know why.  Now that I think on it, I’m surprised I didn’t mess up like this sooner.  But you guys are all good sports, right?  You all know that I’m basically posting up the first draft of the story for you all, so you knew this was bound to happen sooner or later, right?

So…yeah.  That was pretty much it.  Thanks for being so understanding! <3

Have a cookie!

So I don’t know if you guys remember, but I mentioned that I had been working up a glossary/lexicon page for you all, which included such information about Eikasia like:  geography, magic, species and races, religion, etc….  Well, I’m up to 3500 words or so!  That means I’m more than halfway done with it, so the moment it’s ready, I’ll have it up for you all.  This information will serve as a helpful tool for those of you who can’t be bothered to remember all the silly things Eikasia mentions throughout its story, and also a helpful crutch for your humble writer who also tends to forget this crap too.  :P

I’d also like to state…that you…as my readers…are quite spoiled!  That’s right.  SPOILED! Why?  Because recently I just did a little horn tooting to let family, friends, and friends of friends, know about Eikasia.  The result?  Eikasia has jumped to 67 fans on Facebook–and because I’m generous, I’ll give you guys those two additional bonus updates!  So after the March Bonus update, you have three more bonus chapters coming your way.  I’m spoiling you guys!  I really am!!  (but this speaks nothing of my speediness in GETTING you those chapters, ha ha)

That’s it for now, just wanted to let everyone know the good news!

This was totally my cat! (God rest his soul.)

Aren’t you guys glad the hiatus is over!?  I know I am.

So just a few things:  The March bonus update poll is done, and the winnah is…Elmiryn’s very first trip to Tiesmire! Remember she mentioned once to Nyx that she’d gone there for an escort mission in the past?  …And passed out trying to outdrink an Arktan (a bear person)?  Well this next update will be about that trip and the rest of what happened during her stay there (because of course, there’s always more!)

Also, for Facebook users only, I’ll be opening up a poll on the discussion board for the April bonus update.  Eikasia reached 40 fans on Facebook, so this one is for you guys!  I’ll try and think up some new topics, but don’t kill me if I recycle some old ones!

This month is going to be a little race against time as I try to finish a project before April 1st, because you see, I’m going out of the country for two weeks…so yeah.  Sorry.  That’s another hiatus.  o_o;;  But it’s a short one!  And I promise to try and write something in the meantime.

Lastly…I’m a Mac user now!  I got an iMac 21.5-inch and I’m in love with it.  My Acer laptop bit the dust a month ago, so I was hurting for some tech of my own.  Now I gots it!

Okay folks, that’s all.  Everyone take care of yourselves.

Till next time!

Hello everyone!

I imagine it was an unpleasant surprise when I announced Eikasia was in hiatus. I apologize for that. I was beginning to feel burned out from writing, and unrelated events didn’t help with matters. I anticipated the need for a break in November–but I thought I could finish up Chapter 13, plus the two bonus stories I owed you all. I was wrong. It’s my fault, stretching myself too thin when I knew I was about to give out. I’ll try and be more up front about it in the future. I’m not so much guilty about taking a break, just at how it came about so abruptly. That wasn’t fair to all of you, and showed a lack of professionalism. (despite my doing this all for free–it’s the principle of the thing!)

So if you’ve been following my occasional updates on Twitter I HAVE been working on Eikasia, but in different ways. First of all, I’ve been working up a lexicon explaining the different schools of magic and the different races found in Eikasia. (it’s at a total of 2723 words) I’ve also been trying to do a color map of the world and the continents. (Though those files were lost–I’ll explain in a moment…) And of course, I’ve been working slowly but surely on Chapter 14.1 (at 2206 words) and the Nyx Bonus Chapter that you guys earned from the review marathon. (still to be 4000 words, I remember! It’s currently up to 1459 words) After that bonus story is posted, I’ll have the poll for the next bonus story ready.

Much thanks to Hawk for the review he posted on Web Fiction Guide! That was very encouraging to see. I’ve added the 15 points to the point pool–which, I don’t know if you guys have noticed, I’ve been updating faithfully whenever someone does something to earn more points–despite the hiatus.

I’ve also got some crappy news. My laptop bit the dust. It may have been a virus, or a hardware issue (I’ve started suspecting the former). I haven’t got the moolah to fix it, and it happened at a silly time. I was beginning to contemplate buying a new desktop computer, but at this rate, do I opt for a cheap entry level laptop or suffer a long drought till I can get the new one? I’m not sure… Fortunately, my files were backed up before this happened, so my important notes for Eikasia were not lost. What I didn’t back up were the color maps I had completed of Eikasia’s world. I’ll have to start from scratch. But that isn’t all so bad I guess, is it?

I don’t know how much longer this hiatus will go on. I’m trying to get my mental health in order. Currently I’m focusing on work, school, and exercise. Suikoden 3 has also swallowed my soul. But as I’ve said before, I’ve been making sure to work on Eikasia now and again, to keep the iron hot, so I’ll be getting back to the weekly schedule eventually. If the weekly updates prove to be too much upon my return, I may start out with just bi-monthly updates, but that’s just a possibility.

So I hope everyone is taking care of themselves! If you need something to read during the hiatus, I have some weblit to suggest:

“Above Ground” by A.M. Harte (Dark Adventure Fantasy; Best Fiction Nominee for the Rose and Bay Awards 2010)

“The City of Roses” by Kip Manley (Urban Fantasy)

“Strange Little Band” by Nancy Brauer and Vanessa Brooks (Science Fiction with a lil’ Romance)

“Addergoogle” by Lyn Thorne-Alder (Contemporary Fantasy in a school setting)

OR!  If you can entertain the idea of fanfiction, and have played either Final Fantasy 7 or 8, I recommend:

“Fire and Ice” by altol (Final Fantasy 8;  Dark Romantic adventure, with Quistis and Seifer as the main characters;  one of my most favorite writers!  Greatly inspired the style and voice in my writing.)

“Vagrants Rhapsody” by…um.  Me. (Final Fantasy 7;  Eikasia’s awkward younger step-sister.  As it’s the last story I worked on, it has alot of the same style and voice as Eikasia does.  Also a lesbian romance. Main characters are Tifa and Yuffie.)

OR!  If you’re willing to go out and get the books, I also recommend reading these paperbacks:

“Neverwhere” by Neil Gaiman (Dark Fantasy)

“Kitty and the Midnight Hour” by Carrie Vaughn (Urban Fantasy.  Believe me, the title is tongue-in-cheek.  The writing is actually quite good, and the protagonist grows on you.  Oddly enough, this is one of the major inspirations for Eikasia)

“Rubyfruit Jungle” by Rita Mae Brown (A bildungsroman–or coming-of-age tale–about a beautiful tough and funny lesbian from the south, and the challenges she faces in the 70′s.)

I hope some of those recommendations work for you!  Be sure to keep on an eye on my twitter updates.  Until next time, everyone.

So the bonus point goal of 100 points has been reached–with points to spare! This means you guys get yet another bonus update from me, at a minimum of 2,000 words. The extra points will be rolled over to the next point count, and we’ll start over as soon as a poll can be decided.

As I haven’t finished my LAST bonus update yet, I haven’t come up with a new poll. So for this week, I’ll give you all a chance to send me in your requests for Bonus Update topics. You can post them here, direct message/@reply me on Twitter, e-mail me, or post them on Facebook. I’ll take the best of those requests and put them in a new poll to be displayed in Eikasia’s sidebar. If no one gets back to me in time with suitable topics, I’ll just recycle some of the old choices from previous polls.

You guys can ask for whatever you can think of. Wanna know more about a particular character? How a certain magic discipline works? About a certain region, city, or sentient species? The mythology of Eikasia’s world?

Request a topic, and you can find out! I stop taking requests by Sunday (January 3rd) at midnight!

I got a new audio player for the site because I was getting tired of things not working right.  But if I’ve done that, surely I have something new to share with you all?

Amid the hectic nonsense that I inflict upon my own life, I’ve found a bit of respite in music. Some of these tracks reminded me of characters in Eikasia, so I thought I’d do something fun… You see Tite Kubo, creator of Bleach, had special songs for each of his characters–their “favorite” songs, so to speak.  In this case, none of MY characters would reasonably be listening to any of these songs I’m about to share, but the concept is mostly the same.

These aren’t the last word, at all.  They don’t catch the characters as a whole, but capture aspects of them in sound.  They give voice to personal fears, experiences, desires, and aspects of their personality.  Once again, this is me toying around with the idea of a “dream soundtrack”, but in a much more focused way.

Best that you see how this works.  It’ll be four tracks to each.  Naturally, we’ll start with Elle.

Elmiryn

Nyx

Quincy

Hakeem

Lethia

Some of these might get you scratching your heads–whether you think the genre is odd, or the lyrics are confusing, or the mood seems off…but believe me.  They fit.  Some of these songs might take time to be understood in full.  I can’t wait for next year!

So I hope you guys liked my peace offering!  Some of these songs (if you’ve been reading Eikasia the whole year) you’ll recognize from old playlists I’ve made.  I tried including new things…but hey.  When the shoe fits…

EDIT: And I figured I shouldn’t be a bitch and leave you all hanging, because I really have no idea when this next update will be done. (I know it sounds bad–because I SHOULD know this–but I’m not sure if I’m going to resume Chapter 13 or start Chapter 14…which is why I keep saying “the next update”) So here’s a small preview, because I haven’t done one in a while.  Remember, it’s subject to change:

Paulo sighed. Elmiryn watched him with arms crossed over her chest. The boy stopped behind Nyx, who had gone to where she had left her bag sitting near the rock wall. She knelt on the ground, apparently rifling through her belongings.

“Ah…” The boy glanced behind him. Elmiryn raised an eyebrow, lips puckered. Graziano waved for him to go on. Paulo turned back with shoulders visibly sagged. “Thank you…for doing that. You don’t know us, but…this telescope is very important.”

Nyx stood and turned around. “I didn’t do it because I like you. Or even for your father.” She held up her hand. Elmiryn came forward, spurred by curiosity to see what the girl had in her palm. As she neared, she saw that it was a ring. “This belonged to my dead brother. I thought about how I’d feel if I were to lose this…it isn’t…it isn’t who he was. I’m not holding him in my palm right now. But it’s a piece of a better time in my life. I didn’t want to be responsible for you losing a better time in your life.”

Nyx sat down, and Argos came trotting to sit next to her. She looked up at Paulo, who had turned his head away. “I’m enough of a blight just existing. I won’t let myself soil things further.”

Elmiryn frowned, eyes on the slim girl with wild dark hair and tawny eyes that gazed up in resignation. Paulo muttered something, perhaps another thank you, before trudging back to his scultone.

“Nyx…you little fool,” Elmiryn thought.

And of course, I can’t leave without some holiday something to give you guys, SO…

Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays!!

I felt bad that I’ve only been posting art on Facebook, so I decided to spread the lovin’ a bit more…but hey–if you guys wanna see more concept art you should totally become a fan on Facebook!

And yes!  The review marathon is done…so what have you guys earned?  A bonus update at a minimum of 4000 words!  Thank you to those who reviewed.  The bonus poll is closed, and the winner was option #2, “Nyx’s time as a spy for the resistance”.  You guys will recall that in Chapter 9, Nyx mentioned she did some cloak and dagger stuff for an anti-war faction.  The bonus update will be exploring that in detail.  Expect it sometime next week.

So…Did you get what you wanted?

So this week is my last week for Fall Semester.  I have ten pages of writing due, and a math test to prepare for.  This weekend was a bit hectic, but not in the way I meant it to be.  It’s my own fault, really–but that’s why I’ve been away from my computer since Friday morning.  I’m working on Chapter 13.2 (it’s at 3656 words so far) and as soon as it’s done, it’ll be up.  I know it’s been a while since I’ve done a chapter preview, but I’m not sure what I can offer up this time around.  It all feels likely to be chopped off, depending on the direction I decide to take.

But hey, I see that we have some reviews up on WebFictionGuide.com!  So far the word count is up to 4000 for the December 14th bonus update. (Quick note: I’m not saying that the bonus will be posted that day–that’s just when the poll ends)

As I said before, end of the year madness–it really sets in around this time.  After the holidays though, I should be better about updating right on Fridays.

You’ll be hearing from me again soon!  Thanks for your patience, as always.