The trend that began last week has continued through this week at work. I have two new co-workers and they’re still learning the ropes, so that means that I don’t have quite as much time as I would prefer in order to work on my short stories.

Chris Van Deelen is the author of the Skirmisher Publishing LLC sourcebook Creatures of the Tropical Wastes sourcebook and co-author of its Wisdom from the Wastelands game supplement.

The trend that began last week has continued through this week at work. I have two new co-workers and they’re still learning the ropes, so that means that I don’t have quite as much time as I would prefer in order to work on my short stories.

Still, I am pleased to say that I finished the first of SIX short stories that I was planning on writing to help promote my upcoming novel ‘Sword of Kos: Dark Inheritance’. It was the story I have mentioned a couple of times already called ‘Reunion’. It’s currently 8,800 words long and I’ll be doing a first round edit and have already done a couple of quick re-writes.

I’m really waffling however, if I am going to post this one right away or just hold off until after ‘Dark Inheritance’ is released. It really does contain a couple of serious spoilers for anyone who hasn’t read the actual novel yet.

Sadly I did absolutely zero work on the armor book. I really need to change this trend. At this rate I won’t be ready to submit this and the sister book robots until about this time next year at the rate I’m going. I really need to come up with a way to work on the weekend and evenings. I didn’t have too much trouble when it came to that while I was writing ‘Dark Inheritance’ but for some reason I can’t seem to get myself to work on it now.

Then again I think a lot of this has to do with spending quality time with my wife of 21 years. Just before we head to bed we have gotten into the habit of watching an episode or two of TV shows we like that I own on DVD. For example, we have finished the first two seasons of ‘Game of Thrones’ and I just picked up the third season earlier this week. Now that we are finished watching ‘Revolution’ we will get into the third season tonight. After that, I have a lot to choose from. ‘Last Resort’, ‘Continuum’, ‘Arrow’, and ‘Defiance’ just to name a few.

The good news is that with so many shows to watch I know that I will get plenty of inspiration for material to work on. That’s one of the reasons I read so much to begin with, and one of the benefits of spending the quality time with my soul-mate.

Several years back I was collecting the pre-painted miniatures produced by ‘Wizards of the Coast’. I kept purchasing the sets of minis as they were produced and ended up with several thousand miniatures. It goes without saying that I have plenty of mini’s now to use for any RPG that I wish to run.

A few years back I discovered the wonderful technology of the 3D printer. These devices have really come down in price over the past year or so and I’m seriously considering picking one up. I think it would be pretty cool to be able to ‘print’ out any type of miniature I would like to possess. The downside is of course that they wouldn’t be painted but it would be cool to not have to rely on various companies to produce specific mini’s or pay a king’s ransom for some ‘rare’ miniatures that you would love to use in your tabletop game.

I guess it all depends on how well my novel and upcoming sourcebooks end up selling. If I can make a few bucks, maybe I’ll treat myself to one of these nifty little devices.

Speaking of sourcebooks, I have to say that I was rather disappointed when I got an email the other day from my editor that he was unable to get the first of my two radiation issues to Michael Varhola on time for publication. As my readers already know I had mentioned that these two issues should have been 37 and 39 respectively, but now they’ll be 38 and 39.

That in on itself is not a real issue; it’s just that I ended up misleading my readers. And to make matters worse I even brought up the fact that this coming Tuesday (February 25^th) would have been the release date on the latest episode of D-Infinity live.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not blaming my editor! Greg’s a hell of a guy and has never let me down in the past with his wonderful work. I just wish I would have known about that before I pushed the issue.

But that’s life and what is life but a series of unexpected curve balls, right? Things like this always keep one on one’s toes. Lesson has been learned as well; don’t announce something before you know it’s going to happen!

I’ve mentioned before that I have written two zombie novels. I finished the first one back in 2011.  On Thursday I finished listening to John Ringo’s foray into the genre, a novel called ‘Under a Graveyard Sky’.

There are those who love his style of writing and others who despise it. He really concentrates on logistics and characterization. I’m of the former group who loves his work. So when I found out that he was writing a zombie survival novel, I was quite eager to get hold of it.

Near the end I groaned out loud. See I had a line in the second chapter of my first novel, I used a line that was homage to a movie I got a real kick out of watching a few years back. Now after listening to Mr. Ringo’s novel I have no choice but to go back and change the line, or just remove it entirely. It was the exact same line, nearly word for word, in his novel. So if and when my zombie novels ever get published, anyone reading it, and if they read Mr. Ringo’s novel, will claim that I stole it from him.

Sigh. 

But once again, life is like that. So be it.

Like many men out there I am a fan of beautiful women. I am also a fan of ‘ahem’ scantily clad beautiful women. I enjoy a well-drawn or painted image as much as the next guy and I am far from prudish, despite how old I am now.

But one thing that bugs me is this. Athletic women, especially those who train hard and often, lack the body fat required for big boobs. Many artists depict warrior women with massive breasts. And then you get the artists who make the breasts on their women obscenely large. I’ve seen pictures drawn with boobs so incredibly massive that they’re half again the size of the torso!

Ok we get it, you like boobs. But seriously you guys, here’s a thought… get out of your parents basement and go out and meet real live girls. Get into a relationship so that you might actually have a chance to see what real life boobs are like! You’ll quickly discover that women typically don’t like large breasts because it more often than not causes them back issues.

And yes, I realize that I’m the minority here when it comes to things like this. It’s just one of those silly quirks I have. When I was much younger even back then I had to shake my head at some of the images I saw. So maybe it’s not just because I’m older?

Meh, when it comes right down to it, this is not important. It’s just random thoughts from a vivid and fertile imagination.

Lastly here is a rough sketch of Viya if she was a full blown demon. I think Giorgio Alfonso Maesa did a wonderful job on it! Damn she’s hot!

Yes pun intended.

Until next week, peace!