... I am having trouble with iMovie (which I produce the videos for the rewards with). It keeps insisting that there's trouble with permissions or else the disk is full, and shuts down. Neither of these things is true and I'm going to have to dive deeper to figure out what's suddenly got it messed up. I have all the audio recorded, though. Should I just go to posting audio files (and if so where and in what format)?
The Star Ocean franchise of video games has managed enduring popularity, originally from Enix games and later from the fusion of Squaresoft and Enix, Square-Enix (sometimes whimisically called Squeenix). Of the series, I like Star Ocean 2 (The Second Story) and Star Ocean 3: Till the End of Time best. Star Ocean 3, in particular, had not only a very interesting story (especially towards the end) but some truly excellent music, of which its opening theme, "The Dawn of Wisdom", is my f...
2019-01-13 19:55:52 +0000 UTC View Post
The two Fantastic Four movies in 2005 and 2007 were, in my opinion, well done, except for the glaring and inexplicable failure to understand how to depict Doctor Doom that severely damaged both movies (the second slightly less than the first, since Doom was the primary adversary in the first movie). They also included some excellent music, of which the Silver Surfer's theme was one of the best.
I often compose soundtracks when I write, and one of the keys for me really gr...
2019-01-06 20:12:48 +0000 UTC View Post
I collect, as one might guess from other things I've mentioned, a lot of soundtracks. This includes trailer music, such as produced by companies like Immediate Music and Two Steps from Hell. Some of these are very good, inspirational pieces.
"Super Strength" is one that wasn't just inspirational, it wrote its own scene, when I was writing my Oz-based novel Polychrome. The main "mortal world" protagonist, Erik Medon, had gained as one of his companions Zenga, daughter of P...
2019-01-04 01:53:17 +0000 UTC View Post
As I've mentioned before, often I write scenes inspired by and to the background of a particular piece of music. Perhaps nowhere was this more absolutely true than in the scene in Grand Central Arena that I call "DuQuesne's Awakening", in which DuQuesne and Carl Edlund are cornered by Maizas of the Molothos and his troops. DuQuesne is told he will assist the Molothos in gaining entry to their Sphere, or the Molothos will kill Carl... as painfully as possible.
Trapped with...
2019-01-02 02:50:24 +0000 UTC View PostWe continue with my posting of part of the oldest remaining drafts of _Demons of the Past_, this from the later-completely-cut first part of the story, "Born of Ice", which is Sasham Varan's early experiences which introduced him to Jearsen, Canta, and a few others.
One obvious missing element from this old draft, of course, is Taelin Mel'Tasne. It wasn't until later drafts that I realized I was missing a point of view and a connection to key elements of the setting (which, in this part...
2019-01-02 01:56:00 +0000 UTC View PostAnd that also means a new month of rewards for my Patrons!
Welcome several new Patrons -- I hope you enjoy the various rewards you now have access to. As I have said many times before, do not hesitate to contact me with comments or suggestions. If I don't get any, I'll assume whatever I'm doing works!
2019-01-02 01:49:08 +0000 UTC View Post
We continue this irregular series of public posts with "Monkey King Released" from the soundtrack of The Forbidden Kingdom.
The Forbidden Kingdom, a Westernized movie based on The Journey West, is perhaps best known for its spectacular martial-arts battle between the two great stars of Hong Kong Action flicks, Jackie Chan and Jet Li. I enjoyed the movie -- it was well done with some excellent action and a deeper plot than might have been expec...
2018-12-28 01:13:28 +0000 UTC View PostOr at least I think so, and if I missed one I expect someone will let me know!
I've also started prep for next month's rewards.
All of you who celebrate at this time of year, have a wonderful set of holidays. For the rest of you, still have a fine last few days of this particular calendar year!
2018-12-23 20:18:09 +0000 UTC View PostWhile all of you are already helping (and I don't expect more money from you), I have a number of serious financial issues which have led to me setting up a GoFundMe account here:
https://www.gofundme.com/bail-out-the-sinking-ship&rcid=r01-154517616179-4c3e5a155112456a&pc=ot_co_campmgmt_w
If any of you feel so incline...
2018-12-19 02:19:23 +0000 UTC View PostI see we have a couple new Patrons, so welcome to the Patreon! I hope you enjoy the little rewards I can provide. Thank you for your support (and of course another big thank-you to all of you who've been here a while)!
And as always, please feel free to message me about any suggestions, issues you encounter, etc.
2018-12-18 15:24:50 +0000 UTC View PostWe continue our look at one of the early drafts of Demons of the Past, specifically a draft that started decades earlier than the final draft.
In this particular section, we see a sequence which remains intact (in a general sense) as part of Varan's background: how he ended up making peace with Remin Canta, and how he first encountered Veshdar Morno.
Details, of course, changed quite a bit.
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iii.
"T...
2018-12-07 03:13:56 +0000 UTC View PostAnd so it's time to start giving out presen^H^H^H^H^H^HPatron rewards, probably starting tonight!
May you all have happy holidays (if you have a holiday this month) and if not, just have a great month!
2018-12-06 12:24:40 +0000 UTC View Post
Princess Holy Aura is my Mahou shoujo senshi (Magical Girl Warrior) novel. It draws from a number of mahou shoujo series, as well as other related sentail/shonen series, but two are by far the largest influences: Sailor Moon, which codified the modern magical girl warrior series and is certainly the best-known of the genre, and Puella Magi Madoka Magica. The latter is one of the most notorious deconstructions of the genre, one that starts out looking ...
2018-11-25 19:26:26 +0000 UTC View PostThanksgiving itself is too hectic to allow me to sit down and compose thoughts well, so you get this one today! It's public so that everyone can see what I say to you, my Patrons!
I have many things to be thankful for in my life (and, like all of us, some things not so much). Many of these are the same as other people's: my family is together and, some chronic issues aside, reasonably healthy. I have a home, and good food, and friends. These aren't trivial, either.
<...
... I'll be doing the Read Me Something reading this week and that means they could be up this week or beginning of next week.
We have started a new month, so I'm doing the rewards. I've had some serious family issues the last few weeks but they should not interfere with giving you all the rewards.
I apparently failed to post the last part of Demons Revolution in the Early Access, so that's going up this month, even though it's now technically not early. Sorry!
2018-11-07 01:39:42 +0000 UTC View PostLast month's chapter introduced us to a much older (circa 1988-1990) version of Sasham Varan, and set much earlier than the beginning of the final draft. The general outline of events in this section did in fact happen in the final version, and are alluded to a few times in the trilogy.
Still, there were already a lot of differences visible. Not only was Varan younger, he was also much less confident and touchier, though his basic personality was roughly the same. Dior (not Diorre) Jears...
2018-11-07 01:22:28 +0000 UTC View PostThe link for SurveyMonkey turned into a link to one of the Read Me Something rewards. I've fixed it but obviously a lot of people probably already clicked on it and got puzzled.
Here's the REAL link For the Arenaverse RPG survey.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZQDZVP8
2018-10-20 21:36:06 +0000 UTC View Post... I've also made a *completely* public poll at SurveyMonkey on the question of who wants to see an Arenaverse RPG. Please go and click through the one question!
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZQDZVP8
2018-10-19 11:25:57 +0000 UTC View PostI'm trying to gauge interest in an Arenaverse-based roleplaying game (tabletop, not videogame, just to be clear). It is my belief that there's a pretty large percentage of gamers in my readership. So show me! How interested are people in such a thing? Answer in the poll below!
(this is a public poll so anyone can participate!)
(there will likely be a follow-up poll)
2018-10-16 14:24:26 +0000 UTC View PostEbook version is here: https://www.amazon.com/Demons-Past-REVOLUTION-Ryk-Spoor-ebook/dp/B07J3KF2FS
Paperback version here: https://www.amazon.com/Demons-Past-REVOLUTION-Ryk-Spoor/dp/1948818132
The first volume, Demons of the Past: REVELATION, is available...
2018-10-11 13:46:37 +0000 UTC View PostAs discussed in prior posts, unlike many of my works Demons of the Past went through a lot of drafts and revisions, more than any other story of mine.
One of the largest changes overall was in just where the story STARTED. The first section of Demons of the Past: REVELATION, the first volume, is titled "Baptism of Fire"... but that was not where the book originally started, for the first section was then called Born of Ice.
Well, technically, tha...
2018-10-10 01:46:08 +0000 UTC View PostIt took some work, but now I've posted all the rewards for the month!
As always, don't hesitate to ping me with any questions or suggestions!
2018-09-23 19:36:26 +0000 UTC View Post... and I just finished recording the audio for the Read Me Something rewards, so I will be able to post those up, as I promised, pretty soon (probably Sunday? If not, next Tuesday). Sorry again about the delay!
2018-09-21 02:06:01 +0000 UTC View PostBoundary was the first full-length novel Eric and I collaborated on. As such, it's unsurprising that there were some significant changes from one draft to another. Some of these were included in the Second Edition of Boundary.
However, the following couple of chapters -- the original ending of Boundary -- were not, and they're certainly different enough to be well worth seeing and comparing to the published version!
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â...
2018-09-19 01:38:36 +0000 UTC View Post... and everything WILL be posted this month that's supposed to be. I've just lost two weekends this month (last week and this one) to other events that don't let me write or work on related stuff. This weekend it's Albacon, the local SF convention, and I'm a guest with a lot of program items.
Next month won't be like that.
Still, I will be posting all the rewards, though the Read Me Something ones will probably come toward the end of the month.
2018-09-14 02:02:48 +0000 UTC View PostI'll start posting rewards mostly next week!
2018-09-07 00:59:41 +0000 UTC View Post
"Super Atragon" is one of Japan's most famous SF titles, in its live-action incarnations often connected to the Toho Kaiju universe; Atragon of the title is a multimodal submarine/battleship of fantastic power. This particular theme is the final piece of the soundtrack and is the main theme of the ship itself.
It is, therefore, unsurprising that it also represents a ship in my writing: in this case, Zounin-Ginjou, the immense battleship that is the flagship of the Liberated...
2018-08-31 01:48:27 +0000 UTC View Post
Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis is an amusing Japanese RPG for the Playstation 2 and PSP, which both my son Chris and I found very enjoyable. For the most part its music is similar to others in the related Atelier series, but there are a few pieces that stand out. And standing not merely out, but utterly above and beyond all others, is this piece, Stigmata, played in the final boss battle.
Within the game, this piece gave the battle vastly more gravitas than the ordinary ani...
2018-08-29 02:19:31 +0000 UTC View Post