friday stuff

I have a bit of a busy day ahead, so this will be short and random.

Music note: Listening to "Run Run Run" by Phoenix, which is probably my favorite song of theirs.

Moving on. Had to share.

Story update: I’m still working on plotting the second steampunk novel, currently titled The Chroniker Legacy. I have  a little under thirty scenes plotted. Most of them are the really big scenes, but I’m starting to get the in between scenes down. I just hope that this one turns out as good as or better than the first book. That’s every writer’s hope, I’m sure. It did make me feel better to look back on the original outline for The Clockwork Giant. Most boring and vague outline ever. You wouldn’t expect that my novel would be interesting reading the outline. That gives me hope for this one. I hope to work on it a bit today before going shopping.

Life update: I’ve been sick all week, and now I’m in recovery mode. I sound like a pubescent boy right now with my wavering sick voice. Went shopping yesterday at our new Ross store, bought an awesome scarf and a purple cardigan. Today, going to TJMaxx to try to find another cardigan and maybe some jeans, and then I’m going to the NWA Craft Fair with a handful of friends. So that will be fun. I can get ideas for decorating my house. And then, this Sunday, our D&D party is doing our first ever weekend session! We’ll be able to play longer than 2-3 hours. We might actually get something accomplished. I’m really looking forward to that.

Hogglepot isn’t doing as well as I would like. If we don’t start getting more submissions, I’ll have to scale down the publication to bi-weekly. Though, I will probably refer to it as being published every fortnight, because that’s cooler. I really don’t want to cancel the publication after only a year of doing it. So, if you have any science fiction (yes, we accept that now) or fantasy short stories, send them my way. You can read the submission guidelines on the website.

In other news, four weeks until Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim releases, and at that point, you won’t see much of me. I’ll be slaying dragons and doing thiefy things. Being awesome. The usual.

Musing for the week:  a few bloggers are talking about series vs. standalone books. I prefer reading series that are meant to be series. Like the Percy Jackson and Harry Potter novels. But, I prefer writing standalone novels. I know, I’m breaking that with the steampunk series, but most of my other ideas are standalone. I’m not going to stretch any one of those into three books just because. The Chroniker City series is made of multiple books because it will take that many books to tell the story I want to tell. I think a lot of writers lately have been pressured into writing trilogies or series by their publishers, and as a result, the books aren’t as good as they could be. I don’t know the politics behind GRRM’s A Song of Ice and Fire, but the first three books were AMAZING. The fourth book… not so much. And from what I understand the fifth book is just as bad as the fourth. Whether he was pressured into writing more books or not, I’m not taking the time to look it up. But I know that there are supposed to be seven total. The middle books may just be a setup for the last two, but that’s not what books should be. And a lot of trilogies and series suffer from the saggy middles. And I think it loses the writer fans. I'd rather avoid that.

So, what do you think of series vs. standalone novels? Which do you prefer to read? To write?