writing – Chronicler's Note:

Out of Season

December 28, 2017December 28, 2017 Chronicler2 Comments

Walking home on this post-Christmas pre-New Year’s December day, I saw:

in the bare branches of a shrub – a tiny scarecrow made of twine and fabric on a slender wooden stick, something you might use as a whimsical accent in a fall container garden

crushed in the road – a neon purple plastic spider ring like children buy for a quarter from the toy vending machines in the department store lobby around Halloween

Why did these creatures choose this day of all days to come creeping out of whatever under-baseboard secret kingdom obsolete holiday decorations dwell in? Perhaps some myopic felt Easter bunny stuck its head out of a hidden burrow, mistook the glitter of Christmas lights for the twinkling of stars, and sounded the all-clear – “Christmas is over! Come out! Come out!”

I felt sorry for the poor things, the way I feel when I see the crocuses pushing up their heads during those rare warm spells in February. “Shhhh, go back to sleep. Winter isn’t over yet.”

The Dragon of Iletupa

November 30, 2017January 29, 2018 ChroniclerLeave a comment

Is it wrong to start designing the cover art before you write the book? I hope not. These are pen-and-ink studies for the cover art of The Dragon of Iletupa, the next novel I’m working on. The first one began as studies of dragon scales and then turned into an odd little street scene with characters taking their colorful balloons for a walk. This in turn inspired a limerick entitled ‘The Droll Encounter.’

The other two managed to come out looking like dragons. Progress!

While taking his balloons for a stroll / Professor Lanyard encountered a troll / A White-Crested Rail and a belligerent snail / Under circumstances unusually droll.

cover art study 2 cover art study 3

The Butcher’s Bill, Installment One

November 15, 2014November 15, 2014 Chronicler2 Comments

One of the principal joys of being an author is killing your characters in imaginative ways. Don’t believe me? Try it.

For your amusement (and my own) I have assembled a table of the various gruesome ways characters have met their deaths in the work I have published so far. I’ll build new tables as I work on other projects, and publish them here from time to time, perhaps with a running total.

You will notice Perilous Jack’s name many times. The Perilous Adventures of Jack the Dragonslayer are Choose Your Own Adventure®-style stories, in which there are numerous ways for him to meet a bitter ending. Since all the action is directed by the reader, the squeamish or guilt-prone are advised to proceed with caution!

Enjoy!

Continue reading “The Butcher’s Bill, Installment One” →

Keeping it all Straight in My Head (Part 4)

September 28, 2014August 9, 2014 ChroniclerLeave a comment

When I tell people how many projects I’m working on, their usual first response is “How do you keep all that straight in your head?”

Simple: I don’t. That’s what technology is for! I use Word, Access, Excel, Visio, OneNote, Notepad, and the Snipping Tool constantly to keep myself organized.

The gallery below has screenshots of a few of my organizational techniques. How about you? How do you keep your writing and artwork organized?

Keeping it all Straight in My Head (Part 3)

September 14, 2014August 9, 2014 ChroniclerLeave a comment

When I tell people how many projects I’m working on, their usual first response is “How do you keep all that straight in your head?”

Simple: I don’t. That’s what technology is for! I use Word, Access, Excel, Visio, OneNote, Notepad, and the Snipping Tool constantly to keep myself organized.

The gallery below has screenshots of a few of my organizational techniques. How about you? How do you keep your writing and artwork organized?

Keeping it all Straight in My Head (Part 2)

August 17, 2014August 9, 2014 ChroniclerLeave a comment

When I tell people how many projects I’m working on, their usual first response is “How do you keep all that straight in your head?”

Simple: I don’t. That’s what technology is for! I use Word, Access, Excel, Visio, OneNote, Notepad, and the Snipping Tool constantly to keep myself organized.

The gallery below has screenshots of a few of my organizational techniques. How about you? How do you keep your writing and artwork organized?

The Concubine’s Spy: A Preview

July 27, 2014August 1, 2014 ChroniclerLeave a comment

Here’s a sample from The Concubine’s Spy, part one of A Lord of Five, the next volume in the trilogy The Furnishings of Baba Yaga’s Hut. You can buy the first book, A Lord of Three at Lulu.com

Dr. Erasmus Lammergeyer strode the sewers of Mydmos at a furious clip, the crisp lines and regular motions of his long skinny legs resembling the opening and closing of a tailor’s shears. He muttered to himself animatedly, gesturing at the empty air with long fingers, from time to time dashing his unruly hedge of silver hair back from his eyes with an unconscious, irritable gesture. The awful stink of the sewer and the unsavory shifting of the shadows washed unremarked through his senses; his mind was too occupied to notice. His scholar’s robe, now somewhat fouled since he’d absentmindedly stepped off the path a few turns ago, snapped smartly in the wind created by his swift passing. Yet it was not the urgency of his errand that fired his movements, it was the excitement engendered by his newest acquisition.

Continue reading “The Concubine’s Spy: A Preview” →

Keeping it all Straight in My Head (Part 1)

July 12, 2014July 15, 2014 ChroniclerLeave a comment

When I tell people how many projects I’m working on, their usual first response is “How do you keep all that straight in your head?”

Simple: I don’t. That’s what technology is for! I use Word, Access, Excel, Visio, OneNote, Notepad, and the Snipping Tool constantly to keep myself organized.

The gallery below has screenshots of a few of my organizational techniques. How about you? How do you keep your writing and artwork organized?

How’s the Writing Going?

June 7, 2014July 15, 2014 ChroniclerLeave a comment

People ask me this all the time, and I never really know what to say. Usually I say either ‘good’ or ‘slow’, and leave it at that. But it dawned on me the other day that since I track my own progress (more because I’m an Excel nerd than anything), I always have an easy answer to that question at my fingertips. So here it is, broken down by project, with grand totals at the bottom. I’ll keep you updated. 😉

Continue reading “How’s the Writing Going?” →