A long time ago I moved my blog to http://yourothermind.com/ so there won't be any more content here.

Just thought you should know.

SFCrowsnest has put up a favorable review for a "A Ragman's Vow", you can find it here:
http://www.sfcrowsnest.com/articles/books/2009/nz13477.php


http://yourothermind.com/publish

I only finished one story this year, what with moving, Dragon Age and a second child I found little time for writing. I'm taking a lot of time off in 2009 so I'm going to see if I can increase my productivity back to what it was in 2007.

In 2008, I:

• Sold and saw in print: 'A Ragman's Vow' (On Spec, Summer 2008)


• Added 'The End of the Road' to  AnthologyBuilder (originally published in Not One Of Us)


• Sold "From the Sea" to On Spec (perhaps for publication in 2009)?


• A couple stories being held for additional consideration, fingers crossed!

Plus for kicks, my abridged writing history (skipped the middle years), as generated by my writing organizer Keeper.

 

Year	1991	1993	2007	2008	2009
Submissions	1	3	70	46	3
Acceptances	0	0	1	1	1
Rejections, Total	1	3	67	32	0
Rejections, Form	1	3	45	28	0
Rejections, Positive	0	0	22	4	0
No response or Other	0	0	2	13	2

And my work-effort, also generated from Keeper (new feature, not yet released... I only finished implementing it in December, so it is only showing one month of work):

Year	2008
Minutes	690
Words	5941
Finished	1
Retired	1
Added	24
Submissions	6

http://yourothermind.com/publish

Okay I've moved the site from yourothermind.com/publish to yourothermind.com. The /publish part was just for testing and it took me a while to figure out how to change it.

Let me know if anything seems broken.

http://yourothermind.com/publish

I've just finished making my Aurora Award nominations for the best Canadian fiction of 2008. This is open to all Canadians... nominations can be made here http://www.prix-aurora-awards.ca/English/AwardProcess/nominationForm.php and a list of eligible work here http://www.canadiansf.com/node/24

Please put your nominations in!

http://yourothermind.com/publish

Added a new video for Keeper - the writer's organizer. This video demonstrates the simple steps required to rename a page you've added to your idea notebook (or to change it into another page type).

You can view all of the Keeper help videos on the main Keeper details page or just this new video directly by clicking here.

http://yourothermind.com/publish

If you haven't played Sonic Chronicles yet, I encourage you to give it a try.

Although I work at BioWare I was not involved with the development of Sonic Chronicles at all. So assume me completely unbiased. The second disclaimer is that I'm not really a fan of the Sonics character at all, so I'm addressing the game as a game, not part of the "sonic universe".

It is fun and there's little like it on the Nintendo DS. You get to explore beautifully drawn backgrounds, collecting items and companions. The story is quirky, interesting and well written. The target audience is for children and the games does a great job of catering to that audience, but I think there's enough depth for older players.

 

The Story

I'm not yet finished this... I have to fight for control fo the DS with my wife and kids but I'm liking the story so far. The dialog is streamlined but still allows for some flexibility (and humor!) in the conversation choices. While some will find the story/conversation  too simple (especially when compared against the more mature titles BioWare puts out) I think it works well considering that its a DS game. The simplicity is important with a game you'll be picking up and putting down often, sometimes with long lapses between play sessions.

The Combat System

I enjoy the turn based combat, its fun and though simple, I feel I am making valid (and important) decisions in battle. I know I'm showing my age but what I do dislike about it is the action system, where I have to press points flashing across the screen quickly. I'm not very good at that.

I really like it that I do get defeated in battle and have to reload a save and come back to it. This tactical decision making is important to have satisfying combat. Nothing wrong with making the player think occasionally.

Overall

Sonic Chronicles is definitely a solid game to add to your library of DS titles.  The review scores might be low, but many of them were were written by BioWare fans who wanted a more mature title and not the kid's game that Sonic was designed to be. There's expectations for BioWare to make a certain type of game and while Sonic has elements (strong gameplay, choice-based dialog, engaging story) it should not to be compared with Baldur's Gate, Knights of the Old Republic, or Mass Effect. Apples and orange, eh?

Had this title been developed by another developer, it would have scored higher.

http://yourothermind.com/publish

I stumbled upon AnthologyBuilder the other day. They hold an archive of stories and the buyer can "build their own anthology". I haven't chosen which stories I want yet, but if you want to read about someone else's experience with it, you can do so here.  It sounds like the final product is quite professional.

Also, I decided to submit my story, "The End of the Road" (previously published in Not One of Us). It was accepted and now anyone who might want to read it can include it in their own custom anthology.

http://yourothermind.com/publish

Issue: The list "jumps" or is reordered when I change the reply date on a submission

Solution: This is intentional. The list is sorted by reply date so if you change the reply date of a submission that would make it need to appear elsewhere in the list, it will move there.  That way the submission list ensures that the "most recent" submissions are always displayed at the bottom of the list.

http://yourothermind.com/publish

Problem: I added a link to a note in Keeper and no "underlined link" appeared.

Solution: There's currently an issue where any link added to the FIRST line of a note don't appear properly. For now work around this by avoiding adding links to the first line of a note.

http://yourothermind.com/publish