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Thursday, August 27, 2009
Friday, July 31, 2009
Monday, May 11, 2009
Tobias on hold, starting new project
Hey all. It's been quite some time since I've posted non-Daily Toreador/gaming related stuff here.
Part of that has been because I've spent most of my writing time advancing my video game industry "cred." This has been going surprisingly well in some ways, as I've developed solid relationships with PR people at companies like Nintendo (free Wii? Why yes, thank you. I'll be happy to review Animal Crossing on that). This helps in part because it's a much more guaranteed way to make money than fiction is. Writing about video games - even in a freelance capacity - may be something I always do. Who knows?
But another reason I've focused on writing about games has been me being discouraged with my fiction work.
Long story short, I'm hereby placing the Talebearer Trilogy on hold for now due to quality assurance issues.
I appreciate all of my readers and and reviewers that have been with me through that project. Rest assured that I have learned a LOT from your comments and concerns.
To those of you who did really enjoy what the story had been so far (thank GOD there were at least a few of you. It was really encouraging to have people genuinely enjoy the story even when I was having doubts about it), rest assured: I WILL return to Tobias and his story in the future. It's a tale that is very much important to me, and I probably won't rest until it's published or until I die. That said, it may be quite a bit different than it was when you read it - but this is a good thing. Parts of it were horribly, horribly cliched, and I want to move away from that. The Talebearer story is one that I believe is unique in the end, and has a lot of potential... But it wasn't fulfilling that potential in its current form.
So it's time to put it in the drawer for awhile and revisit it at a later date.
In the meantime, I've got another, single novel project that has been on my mind for some time. The current plan is to write at least a rough draft of the entire thing - start to mind-bending finish - before the end of the summer. Whether that's a realistic goal or not remains to be seen, but it's a goal nonetheless. And I work best under pressure and deadlines (I can't tell you how many thousands of words were written literally the night before a story/paper has been due... and earned me an 'A').
I'll no doubt welcome test-readers for this project like I did with Talebearer, but not for some time. I think all the time I spent talking about Tobias made me grow weary of him, in some ways, so I'm going to stay quite about this new book. At least for now.
While writing this novel I will also be trying to get some freelance stuff published as a game journalist (I need money somewhere) and maybe pen a short story or two. We'll see.
Prayers are, as always, extremely welcome. If you're not of the praying persuasion, then moral support works too. It's easy to get discouraged when I walk into Barnes & Noble and see hundreds of fantasy and young adult novels that my work might be buried under whenever published.
I'll try to keep people posted as the summer progresses - via Twitter if nothing else (username Sargus). It's much easier to spout 140 characters of an update saying "Working on Chapter 7!" than it is to type up one of these blogs.
So again, thanks for all the support from you guys. I hope I continue to have it moving forward.
This is the way it was meant to be.
- Britton
Monday, April 27, 2009
Tuesday, April 07, 2009
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Friday, February 27, 2009
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Friday, February 06, 2009
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Jingle Music for Dummies
Giant Bomb brought this atrocity to my attention this afternoon, and now I'm bringing it to yours:
I want to know two things about this product:
1) Why would I want a house full of people singing 24/7, and how did Wayne Brady have enough illegitimate children to make such spontaneous song creation possible?
2) Who the hell wants to buy glow in the dark towells?
Now, let's conside the possibilities of Songsmith! Let's take a song like, say, "Runnin' With the Devil." Just the vocals, mind you.
The result is this.
Run in fear, musical mortals, for the end has come.
::EDIT:: This guy evidently enjoyed Songsmith... Maybe a bit too much.
Monday, December 08, 2008
It came from where?
I just got this e-mail from Capcom's PR department:
It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. www.residentevil.com/kijuju It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju. It came from Kijuju.
And on and on for like 50+ more times.
I like this, though. It brings to mind a bit the days of early Resident Evil yore. "Today I see Steve. He have ugly face so I kill him. Tasty."
RE5 is defintely (obviously) on the "Games to watch in 2009" list. A write-up of said list should appear in one of the first issues of the DT next semester, so look out for that.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
The Worst Story Never Told
About an hour ago, while packing up for my trip back to Lubbock, I felt something. Something ancient and mystical, calling me.
"Child," it said to me. "Grown one, wisened one, keeper of stories and teller of tales." It used many names and titles.
I turned toward the call, my eyes resting on a small cabinet beside my bed.
"Open me, find me, release me," it implored. Who am I to disobey such a call?
Inside, admist several folders, binders, notebooks and GameBoy game manuals, a thin, manilla envelope shone brightly in the darkness.
Inside that envelope, I found a single page... of the worst piece of fiction ever created.
(Yes, Young Inklings, that's counting certain stories about talking snakes and detective stories that take place in the future.)
I know not when this page was created - it had to have been 1st, 2nd, or 3rd grade - or the full extent on the evils it could unleash on the world, but regardless, I submit it to you now for your personal enjoyment. It is raw, unedited, and unfinished. The beginning to what I just KNEW was going to be an epic.
Even then, I apparently dreamed big. Foolish young writer.
What I may find funniest is that for some reason I gave this story an ESRB rating (you know, the folks that rate video games with stuff like, "M for Mature") of "Kids To Adults," which came before the now-standard "E for Everyone." Why a book would have been rated by the ESRB I have no idea, but I felt it important to specify what age this story was appropriate for, I guess.
So without further ado, I present to you the unedited Page 1 of "The Game."
-----------------------------------------------------------
The Game
Kids To Adults
Book One
CHAPTER ONE
It was a very peaceful day at Kimberlin Academy. Three kids Matt,Britton,and Shawn,best friends were in the most boring class ever. MATH! " Now your homwork is W9 all stars. and mult. chart 5 times 2-12s." " I can't wait till schools out." Britton said. " Oh! Time for lunch class." Mrs.Clayton said." Thank goodnes. Mathew said." Today is so boring,next we are pobly going to watch BALTO! Lunch wasn't much fun either. Ok silent lunch. If one more thing bad happens i'm gonna scream! Ok mr. Nararater I'm taking over. Hi I'm Britton peele. I did scream, I got detention for it but I did it. At home I got my nintendo power magazine! I started a club called GAME BROS. we are gonna make nintendo games. I guess that's what caused it. Somehow we were chosen to guard this super computer thing from this guy named the king of electronics.We were told that if the computer was destroyed the king could destroy the world! I took the job.
It's not an easy job.Most of the time the king makes it like the level of a game.Thats why this story is called the game.Here is my computer Acer.
Hello reader,analyzing Misson Status!
MISSON STATUS:
Destroy all enemy spacecraft in range.
Destroy main reacter core.
Destroy king.
Survive.
WARNING!WARNING!WARNING!
DANGER ZONE!!!!!!!!!!!!
Area contains unknown liformes including DEADLY robots.
Thanks Ace, Your a big help.Now back to the story.It's a descent were doing and we need tools.Acer send them to us.Acer is voice actavated!Now about the princes,PRINCES ASPEN and her crew!A deadly old freind who went mentle.The wako in the Danger Zone!
ENEMY LIST:
Aspen:VERY DANGEROUS
Erika:Dangerous
Emily:Super puny
King:ULTRA DANGEROUS
Amber:puny
AND TOO MANY MORE TO NAME!
Thanks Ace!
Acer has a best freind name Mac.Matt's computer.
He helps a lot too!
We have suits for the game also.Got that?
Enough about what we have and the bad guys lets get back to the story.Anyway,every night we have these nightmars and have to survive.This story is about our first adventure!
[NOTE: Here I later scribbled down with a pen:]THE DREAM STARTS NOW!
CHAPTER 2
The Begining
"Is it over! "Matt said after a hard battle with Erika. "Yeah, I
-------------------------------------------------
And there, unfortunately, is where the page ends. Subsequent pages (I use the plural, even though I'm thinking there was only ever one other page) are unfortunately missing, lost forever in the void of bad fiction, which is likely for the best.
It is not known whether or not we ever completed our "misson." Or why on earth I thought it would be a good idea to name my hated enemies after all the girls me and my friends had crushes on. Or why our "first adventure" begins immediately after a battle. Or whether Aspen was a princess or several princes fused together to form a... woman?
So many questions unanswered... This was the beginning of a deep plot, guys.
I do seem to recall that the backstory for the "King" involved him being a teenager that was playing an arcade game one day when lightning struck the machine and zapped him into "The Game," where he created the nightmare world that we had to fight in.
So epic, man.
I kind of want to rewrite this, you know, to see if I've improved at all.
If I find any other old pieces of crap, maybe I'll share them as well. But unfortunately I think most of my other old writing was only saved electronically, and was lost in various computer transitions.
That may actually be a good thing.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Friday, November 21, 2008
The Soldier, the Lady, and the Ally
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've realized lately that I've gotten WAY off track with my fiction writing. I could blame a lot of thigs for this, not the least of which being school, but the truth is that you should make time for the things you care about... I should have been making more time for this.
So to start getting back on track, I've been "exercising," as it were. Flexing my writing muscles by writing completely random scenes and such. I'd rather make sure I'm warmed up and back in full form before I start back into heavy "Tobias" writing, or pump out a short story idea that I've been pretty excited about lately.
So this is kinda the first bit of random writing I've been doing. More may come, depending on whether or not I end up happy with the results. I have a lot of scenes bouncing around in my head that simply dont belong to any known narrative (this is why much of my random crap doesn't have things such as names for the characters), so I may just type them up and see what happens.
----------------------------
The soldier sat as still and silent as he could, not daring to make a sound. He risked a glance behind him and saw her chest moving rhythmically up and down as she breathed deep.
He smiled. She was asleep. Finally.
A sleep too deep for dreams. Or nightmares.
He sighed and turned back to the task at hand. It had been some time since the magic had fully shown itself to him. Fully allowed him to take control. But he had felt something now, he was sure of it.
Something had nudged him. Letting him know it was still there, wanting to help.
He closed his eyes, concentrating. Find the strand… He let his mind flow over the room, picking, probing, searching… Not even entirely sure what he was looking for, only that it was calling him.
He jumped when he felt his mind brush against something in the air in front of him. In that instant, his concentration was broken and he lost… whatever it was. He nearly cursed, but didn’t want to risk waking the girl
He took a few deep breaths before trying again. It was easier this time, knowing where to look. He sent his mind out like fingers, their tips delicately examining every molecule in front of his face. Frisking the very fabric of the universe to find the magic that called to him.
The fingers caught again. Something rough, out of place.
He was excited – it had been so long – but he stayed focused. He sent the fingers of his mind forward just a little, pushing against the invisible wall they had found.
It wouldn’t budge. He couldn’t feel even the slightest give to his force.
He narrowed his eyes and concentrated again. This used to be so much easier.
Find the strand… he told himself.
Ever so slowly, he felt along the invisible wall. He could tell that it wasn’t one solid piece, but rather more like something was woven. Woven into the air itself. Not physical, but magical. Supernatural. The kind of thing angels are made of.
He grasped at the fabric.
Found the strand.
And pulled.
A sudden burst of light nearly blinded his eyes, but it lasted no more than a second. He quickly turned to the girl behind him, but she still slept soundly. Beautifully oblivious to the world as her body healed itself.
He breathed a sigh of relief before grinning to himself. Though somewhat neglected in recent weeks, his power was still there. He could still light up the darkness, at least, and his other skills were surely still accessible as well. It was harder than it used to be, but he would improve again.
It would just take time.
He quickly jotted down a message to the girl, letting her know of the breakthrough. He didn’t want to wake her now, and couldn’t stay until morning.
There was too much to do.
Satisfied, he rose slowly and walked over to her sleeping figure. He brushed a single hair out of her face before gently kissing her forehead. She moved ever so slightly toward him, but didn’t wake.
He left her room silently – thankful he wasn’t wearing noisy, heavy armor – and shut her door slowly behind him.
Outside, the soldier was unsurprised to see his ally keeping watch over the area, his back to the lady’s room as he stood at the balcony, gazing thoughtfully up at the stars.
“Still awake?” the soldier asked.
“Aye,” the ally replied simply, not yet looking at him. “As always.”
“Why aren’t you home?”
“I get lonely.”
The soldier nodded to himself. He understood. “Any news?”
The ally finally looked down as he sighed. “My front of the war fares poorly. We’re losing a lot of good men.”
The soldier frowned. “But you’ll break through.”
“Of course we will. We have to. But it’s hard to be happy about the situation.”
Again, the soldier understood.
The ally glanced at the girl’s door, then back to the soldier. “How is she?”
“She’ll be fine. She just needs to rest.”
The ally nodded and looked back toward the moonlit horizon. “I’m glad.”
The soldier sighed. “I know I haven’t been there for the others as much as I used to, and for that I--”
The ally cut him off. “Do you still serve our Lord?”
“Yes, of course.”
“And can you still use magic?”
That, of course, had just been reconfirmed. “Yes.”
“And will you still devote time to this war, knowing your role and playing it to the best of your ability?”
“For as long as I’m able.”
The ally looked at the soldier and gave a soft smile. “Then you’ve done nothing wrong, and have no need to apologize.”
“But I’ve been so focused on my own problems,” the soldier started. “Everything seems to be falling apart, more and more as each day passes. And sometimes I feel like my mistakes are just making it worse.”
“A hero isn’t someone who doesn’t fall… It’s someone who’s able to get back up again. In defeat, they don’t look down, but up.” The ally walked toward the soldier and put a hand on his shoulder. “We’ve all stumbled lately, my friend. The world wants to break us more and more, and it feels like our world is falling apart as a result. But you and I? We keep getting up again.” He lowered his hand back down to his side. “And as long as you vow to continue doing that, you’re still a hero in my book.”
The soldier smiled. “And you in mine.”
They stood together on the balcony, enjoying the peaceful night sky.
As they stood, another warrior, beaten and bloody, came riding up to the city gates. He sat straight and proud on his mount, stronger having been through battle.
“Our bard returns,” the soldier commented, cheerful to see another comrade again.
His ally nodded, but still wore a somber expression. “Yes, but there are still so many that are drifting, and many more still that could serve so well, if only they would enlist! In these days I wonder… Can we really succeed? Are we really strong enough?”
“We have to be,” the soldier replied. “The dark is rising, yes. What will come will come. But this is the way it was meant to be.”
The ally chuckled. “That old creed…”
“It’s true.”
“I know.”
The soldier looked back toward the girl’s door, as if staring at it would let him see that she was still alright.
The ally followed his gaze and said, “Don’t worry. You’ll protect her if she needs it.” Then he grinned. “This is the way it was meant to be.”
“Touché.”
“We’ll make it, my friend. We’ll win in the end.”
The soldier nodded. “We’ll go together.”
They looked back toward the horizon as a new day dawned, ready and waiting for the things that would come.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Saturday, November 15, 2008
First Footage of Jake Gyllenhaal as the Prince of Persia
Entertainment Tonight scored a first look at Disney's upcoming video adaptation "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time" starring Jake Gyllenhaal, due out in 2010.
I've been keeping a bit of an eye on it, because as far as movie adaptations goes, this one COULD maybe have potential... I know that's said a lot, and that most of us wish that the Peter Jackson produced "Halo" film was still moving forward, but alas...
Movie producing megastar Jerry Bruckheimer is helming this one. He also produced the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, and interestingly, he's expressed that he wants "Prince of Persia" to be kinda the same... Only in Persia.
Despite making a somewhat weird choice in casting Gyllenhaal rather than a REAL Persian (and believe it or not, a legitimate Persian prince is an actor that was rumored to be getting the role), but maybe, just maybe, he'll work out.
Unfortunately, this video shows little of the movie other than plenty of opportunities for women everywhere to swoon over Jake's newly ripped physique.
Vid is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOIDMKVwF8E
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