Swords of Kos, Mutant Future, and Why I've Been Gone So Long

It has been a very long time since I’ve sat down to write a blog. And as such, I believe that it’s well overdue and I should get off my lazy rear and remedy this situation.

Since my last blog, my life has undergone quite a few changes. Not bad mind you, just significant.

First and foremost is that I changed careers. I have been doing logistics now for over sixteen years and frankly, I’m tired of it. So I ended up taking a position as delivery driver for a new company.

Not making as much as I had been in my previous career, but already I find that I am a lot happier and being on the road for the company I work for is almost a "zen" like state for me. I’m so relaxed that I could nearly slip into a coma.

Mind you, it wasn’t that I was angry or unhappy with my life before, far from it. A man just needs a change of pace every so often.

Over the past nine months I had been concentrating on my novels. Up until the beginning of August I had been steadily working on the second novel in a zombie trilogy that I started a few years back. I was closing in on the end of the book, but I found that due to the extreme violence, bleakness and horror I was writing, it was really starting to have an effect on my emotions and my soul.

So as a result I made the decision to take a break from the novel and I was going to write a short story as a follow-up to my contribution to the Sword of Kos: Hekaton anthology.

It spiraled out of control!

I just kept working on it, and it quickly went from a short story to a novella to a full-blown novel. I finished the first draft about two weeks ago and have been doing edits and re-writes on it ever since.

This new novel is called Swords of Kos: Dark Inheritance and despite the title, it contains a lot of humor and light-hearted situations, although it does get rather dark near the end.

The book is also currently sitting at 91,000 words, and I figure by the time I’m done with the edits and writing some additional scenes I thought of, the book will end up breaking the 100K mark.

I’m very eager to get this out into the market and I do believe that it will fit perfectly into the campaign setting created by Skirmisher Publishing. 

Also, those who have read the stories presented in Hekaton will discover that I’ve added a few familiar characters in brief and some not-so-brief cameos. I couldn’t do that with all the characters’ since some were killed, left in limbo, or honestly I did not know how I could integrate them into the novel. 

The thing is, once I have finished the edits and re-writes, then it's editor Michael O. Varhola’s turn. He has to read it and make his suggestions. If I like them, I will make the changes, if not; I’ll file the suggestions away for future reference. 

Then I will work on the game side of the novel. I will be adding full stats for 3.5 and Pathfinder for the major characters in the novel, as well as some new magic items and maybe a little more. I might write up a location for the "Five Animals Monastery" as well. 

My biggest problem when it comes to writing is that I can really only concentrate on one project at a time. I need to write up several new issues of "Wisdom from the Wastelands" and get them off to be edited for publication, but I can’t take the time off from my current task. I’ve tried to do this in the past and failed. I figured that I would be able to work on my novel for a week or two, then switch over and write some material for Mutant Future. I never could follow through with that and one or the other, or worse yet BOTH projects suffered as a result. 

Bottom line is that once I have finished Dark Inheritance and I have sent it to Mike, I will get back to working on my Mutant Future projects, at least for a few months.

Some of the issues that you can expect to see from me in the future are as follows: Terror weapons, a new race issue, new drugs, a new way to handle artifact condition, two issues devoted to alternate radiation rules, and one dealing with benefits and hazards of biological agents found in the new mutated wild. That’ll cover my contribution to the e-zine quite handily for the next six-plus months.

What happened to many of my other projects, such as rules covering power-armor and robotic units, and the now near mythical Mutation books? They’re all still awaiting my attention, although when it comes to the mutation books, it’s all a matter of editing now. 

The major problem is that my life has a habit of interfering with my writing. Working, training, spending time with my family, enjoying the simple things like seeing movies, comedians and the expos … they all take away time from me in which I could have been quite creative. 

But I need those distractions. If I don’t have them, then my creativity flies straight out the window. Really it is quite the delicate balancing act. 

And let’s not forget Skirmisher’s new Bookforge! A lot of the authors and contributors to the company have been working quite diligently to get material uploaded to the site. There is still a lot of work to do, but sooner rather than later it’ll be finished and then we can start to add brand new material that is not currently in any of our publications. Something to really look forward to.

Anyhow, once I am finished with Dark Inheritance and the material I need to write up for my Wisdom from the Wastelands, I was hoping to get started on a Science Fiction novel that I’ve been thinking about for a couple of years now. I honestly don’t know if that will happen or not, because I’m already plotting out the sequel to Dark Inheritance and I have several short stories that I would like to write as companions to the novel.

And I really should consider working on some of the sourcebooks for Mutant Future that I have started and haven’t looked at since I returned from the Philippines back in late January.

Anyhow, that’s all for now folks. Peace!

PS: As an added bonus, I've included a piece of artwork that was used as a proof for the cover of the novel. I hope you enjoy!