Roy's Blog

Pre-Order Shards Of The Glass Slipper!

2012-02-08T16:24:00.000-05:00

Excluisve!
Padwolf Publishing is offering a hardcopy, paypal pre order of Shards Of The Glass Slipper! As a special bonus, every pre-order will be autographed by the author! The book will be released on or about 3/16.

Click here to order!

Another great author blurb for Shards!

2011-12-21T10:41:00.003-05:00

"SHARDS OF THE GLASS SLIPPER is fantastic! I loved seeing beloved [fairy tale] characters used in new ways in this magnificent epic."

-Sarah Beth Durst, author of Into The Wild & Drink, Slay, love

Thanks Sarah!

The Shards Of the Glass Slipper section of my online store is Now open!

2011-12-07T23:38:00.000-05:00

The initial wave of products (right now just featuring the logo), is now open on my on line store! Check it out!

more to come... this is just rolling out the tip of the planned iceberg! Enjoy!

Shards the Album is out!

2011-12-05T20:55:00.000-05:00

The album is a 13 song concept album by Gene Pool Zombie, based on my upcoming novel Shards Of The Glass Slipper. It will be available to purchase at all upcoming book promotion appearances. Also available at CDbaby for a physical CD and MP3. Available on amazon.com for MP3 download and on iTunes of course! More venues on the way!

"Shards, the fourth album release by Gene Pool Zombie is an album based on the rich fantasy world created by Roy Mauritsen in his epic fairy tale novel, "Shards of the Glass Slipper". Mirroring the novel, the songs in this album portray the struggles, betrayals, burdens to bear, redemption and hope found in the story. Each song portrays a key character in the novel and is Gene Pool Zombie's interpretation of the drama that each character faces.

Just as in the novel, this album is epic in nature. It is structured in four distinct sections: Prologue, Journey, Warrior and Myth. Each song, both in its section and the album as a whole, is woven together with distinct motifs and compositional structures thereby creating a musical tapestry as rich as the story it accompanies. Gene Pool Zombie hopes that you find this album as exciting a journey as they had in creating it.

From the Author, Roy Mauritsen - "When Gene Pool Zombie first approached me for their fourth album they wanted to base it off my upcoming novel, I was honored to say the least. That, and a little curious as to how they would interpret this fairy tale themed story I wrote. Now, several months later, I'm listening to the final mastered tracks and I stand truly humbled. It's been an incredible journey in between, and I'm eternally grateful to have been part of the process. But moreso I'm proud that my novel will be forever associated with this incredible album from such talented and creative musicians (and all around great bunch of people). A sincere thank you for your magnificent efforts."

It's official- Shards Of The Glass Slipper: Queen Cinder is going to be published!!!!

2011-11-01T20:47:00.000-04:00

Contracts have been signed and I'm excited to announce... Shards Of The Glass Slipper: Queen Cinder is going to be published!!!! Many thanks to Patrick Thomas and Padwolf Publishing. We're in the home stretch of final edits- the book is expected to be out no later than March 2012, (but possibly earlier). The big advantage is that I get a lot of creative freedom with my book, including doing the book cover and interior layout! More details to come! It's gonna be an exciting year!

ANOTHER major announcement is coming!

2011-10-30T23:57:00.000-04:00

Stay tuned! It's a biggie!

MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT!

2011-10-22T17:52:00.000-04:00

Just completed!!! “Shards” is the fourth studio release from Gene Pool Zombie, and is a concept album over an hour in length. Features 13 original songs, including “Once Upon A Time”, “Goldenhair”, "Mirror, Mirror”, “Minstrel’s Gate” and “Words We Don’t Speak”. Album beautifully mastered by Hans DeKline, at Sound Bites Dog Studios, Culver City CA. CD art & design by Roy Mauritsen.
CD and digital album to be released next month... just in time for the holidays!

Premiering the album cover art for Shards, music inspired by the forthcoming novel, Shards Of The Glass Slipper.

check out the music inspired by Shards of the Glass Slipper!

2011-10-12T17:18:00.000-04:00

Check out the audio tracks in it's entirety from the upcoming album Shards by Gene Pool Zombie, based off of the book Shards of The Glass Slipper. The Cd will be released soon.

still waiting...

2011-08-19T20:59:00.000-04:00

the shards manuscript has been revised and sent, it's presently under review.... things look very promising....

MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT COMING SOON!

2011-07-19T08:22:00.000-04:00

stay tuned.... it's gonna be good. I can't say what it is exactly.. but if you've heard anything... well those are just rumors. :)

A real life author blurb for my book

2011-06-28T20:40:00.000-04:00

"The Brothers Grim meet The Lord Of The Rings In Roy Mauritsen's fairy tale epic Shards Of The Glass Slipper"- Patrick Thomas, author of the Murphy's Lore series.

Thanks Patrick!

Tales Of The Glass Slipper

2011-04-03T23:53:00.001-04:00

Tales of the Glass Slipper: The Retellings will be a collection of short stories that are based on the characters from "Shards". These will be based more on the origin fairy tales the characters are derived from, but as it is told through world of "Shards". Part fairy tale retellings, part "prequel" stories, and part character back story.
The characters developed for Shards of The Glass Slipper were specifically chosen from Fairy tales that lent themselves to the original story line in Shards. But they are still fairy tale characters and it was important to have those fairy tales be part of the history of each character. So the original fairy tale that each character is based from, is related to the character as they are now in Shards. The fairy tale of little red riding hood, did happen in the history of the character of Elizabeth, but that fairy tale had to be re imagined so as to be serviceable as Elizabeth's backstory. Tales of the Glass Slipper: The Retellings takes a look at each of those reimagined fairy tales.

Some of these fairy tale origins relate to Shards directly, namely Cinderella and Jack and the beanstalk, and are reserved for the main novels but others like Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel, The little Mermaid, Goldilocks and others all have stories to share in Tales of the Glass Slipper: The Retellings (Yes, "Tales" also refers to the fairy "Tale" aspect).

This is all a little ways off, but just wanted to get the word out that it'll be in the works!

Find out more about Shards on Facebook!

2011-01-20T10:34:00.003-05:00

See what's the latest buzz is Shards Of The Glass Slipper on Facebook.
here's your chance to interact meet other fans, and get the latest buzz on Shards Of The Glass Slipper.

check it out here and become a fan!

In Development! Concept album based on Shards Of The Glass Slipper

2011-01-16T08:26:00.006-05:00

This is exciting news! And sort of a continuation from the last post...
With their 3rd album in the can, Gene Pool Zombie considered their next album; wanting a departure from their last albums, They were looking to do a concept album and wanted to do it based on my book, Shards Of The Glass slipper!
I was blown away, flattered and honored all at the same time. The music I have heard from them has been great! They have developed at least 3 or 4 songs already!
There's still lots of work to be done but I can't wait to hear the final project.

Thanks guys!

Chesspieces art featured on album cover!

2011-01-16T08:15:00.003-05:00

Shortly before the new year, I was contacted bya band called Gene Pool Zombie They had come across my website while considering album covers for their album The Pawn. A few e-mail echanges later, and I had the honor of designing their 3rd album.

They have been a wonderful bunch of people, very talented muscians; and Iwill be collaborating with them again in the future.

new art coming soon!

2010-11-21T20:10:00.002-05:00

Should be pretty cool!
I will post it here and on Facebook!

Still kicking!

2010-10-27T15:01:00.003-04:00

It's been quiet these past couple of weeks as I try to interest agents and publishers to take on my manuscript. There has been some interest but which is promising, but the process is slow and so far no has ran with it.

It's probably because I don't have vampires in my story. Ah well.

it takes weeks/months and sometimes never to hear back from an agent sometimes sooner. I got a 24 hour no thanks reply, once.

I'm one reply away from closing the chapter on this process. Presuming the one agent left will decline, I will most likely get the ball rolling on doing it myself. I'm tired of wasting time trying to jump through other peoples' hoops in the declining book market. I will no doubt do a traditional hard copy.. but I am intrigued by the boom of e-readers.
Once this process rolls foward, the website will get overhauled.. and marketing can take place (YAY marketing!) Not only did I write the book, But I do have the resources and skills for design and marketing... so really, what am I waiting for?????

Part of this plan involves hitting up a lot more conventions when ready. Expect to hear more about that in 2011.

some early buzz

2010-08-08T17:55:00.001-04:00

There have only been 2 people so far that have had a chance to read the complete manuscript. Here's what one has said:
"Your gift of imagination is beyond belief and your talent for crafting a great story is fantastic. This book will do well. I have read enough fantasy/adventure to know a great one when I read it."

and here's another:
"In conclusion, I commend you on a really interesting, well-researched, entertaining and exciting story, Roy! I am coming away from this having really fallen in love with your characters..."

Join Shards of the Glass Slipper on Facebook!

2010-07-16T20:10:00.002-04:00

check it out on facebook!

The book trailer is online!

2010-06-28T13:14:00.001-04:00

Shards of the Glass Slipper promo trailer from Roy Mauritsen on Vimeo.

Promtional book trailer for upcoming fairy tale fantasy adventure epic novel. Not entirely hollywood quality, but a personal best.

working on shards book trailer

2010-05-12T23:38:00.004-04:00

putting together a "movie trailer" for Shards of the Glass Slipper. Alot of the art featured was doing in digital animation software, and scenes from that are being animated and rendered for the trailer. with music sound efects and titles. It's not hollywood/pixaror industrial light and magic quality, but it should be pretty good when it's done.

in other news. I'm going to try out some voice to text software...

Read the first 3 chapters of Shards of the Glass Slipper!

2010-04-17T14:34:00.001-04:00

Chapter samples! Read Here!

Shards Of The Glass Slipper is on FACEBOOK!

2010-04-12T16:47:00.000-04:00

Become a Fan!

Shards Of The Glass Slipper: Book II

2010-04-05T10:04:00.004-04:00

Shards2.txt is now a file on my desktop.

These past couple of months have been very difficult to work on finishing the manuscript for the first book. I'm smack dab in the middle of edits and rewrites in the round 2 phase... I'm all but convinced I will be self publishing this, reason being, I'm not interested in jumping through the usual publishing hoops, in this day and age. By self publishing, I mean small press may be an option as well. I can certainly handle the marketing aspect of it, whereas writers whom are much more "writery" than I am and in many cases and even many of them still have problems getting published. But these talented writers may not have the marketing and graphics skills that I have available to me. Whereas I might hire an editor to help get the novel(s) finished, so might the writer, be hiring an artist to do their website or their book cover. Both approaches may very well be more hands on, than what a publishing company will offer.

and it's more "mine" that way- and I like that.

When it comes time, i will be going to the conventions sitting at a table selling the books.. it just means I get to go to more conventions! and my Shards of the glass slipper book booth will be awesome, if my artshow display I've done is any indication. but I have the chops to push the book on the internet, and through e-readers and amazon etc. I will try and embrace more of the 1st century options than the dusty, this is how we always do it, traditional publish route. The more and more traditional publishing companies that are struggling nowadays, the less likely someone like me will have a chance to be published. plus, there's a great quote on a website i visit that say something like

Literature is an occupation in which you have to keep proving your talent to people who have none.

Jules Renard 1864 - 1910

Which also sounds like my career as a graphic artist. :)

and now initial work begins on the follow up story. As I've said from the start… this is a fairy tale EPIC. Shards was designed as a 3 book arc. Shards "book 1" only serves to setup the main story and character introductions. Shards "Book 2" gets into the bigger picture and epicness of it all.

So now I have to start jotting down notes, so I can keep up as I finish off book 1.

The tone for book 2 will be a lot darker and more gruesome. I will say that a secondary character introduced in book 1 is now the focus of book 2, however, the story structure will be as much set in the present of the story as it is telling two other stories from different time periods in sort of two different sets of flashbacks. The story from book 1 carries over almost without pause.

now begins a big push to get this going.

Chess Pieces at I-CON 29!

2010-02-16T15:49:00.001-05:00

I will be displaying my latest Chess Pieces artwork at I-CON 29 on march 26th at Stony Brook university.

stay tuned for more info!

new shards art

2010-01-24T23:14:00.002-05:00

whenever i find myself unispired or discouraged about writing, I have at least the ability to reinvigorate myself and get back in touch with my story. By revisiting it artistically, to get back in the mood so to speak. I have done some new art and will be doing some more stuff, just to brush off the shackles that have been holding me down as of late. I have some updated software I have been dying to use, and some needed computer hardware updates. so I'll see about posting some of those later.

I still have 4 olympic commercials to get off my desk for work this week, a new ad campaign that I have to spec out for work after that, and I'm in the hot seat for getting a bunch of stuff ready for I-CON 29.

the site was down

2010-01-22T14:05:00.005-05:00

...as I transfered info and stuff to new servers.. I had to wait for a while to make sure everything is still up. So we're on a whole new server and things should be good for a while.Work and I-Con has been keeping me busy of late... with I-CON expressing an interest in having me as a guest artist again. The jury is still out as far as I'm concerned. Editing on shards has taken a momentary pause through the holidays but I hope to return to that soon. I have 9 chapters tagged as "complete". And at this point, I'm inclined to self publish, as I don't think there much to be said for jumping through the usual hoops. I'll discuss that at another date. I am still willing to be convinced otherswise, though.

ultimately.... who cares?

editing, editing, editing

2009-10-27T19:30:00.002-04:00

round and round we go... Still editing on Shards. The fine-tooth comb of second round editing is being dragged over chapter's 8 & 9. Chapters 1-6 are in out to spec readers. I'm pulling together my notes, as I will be expanding the present storyline in Shards to continue the story another 100 or so pages.

errata...

2009-09-28T15:34:00.004-04:00

Dragoncon was a commercial and critical success (I got an award), and I've gotten some great e-mails from attendees. Of course after leaving for a week there's stuff waiting for my attention when I got back... overall between getting my art show ready for dragoncon, including getting the new online store ( except another update of products soon including offering Shards Artwork!) and taken care of "real life" business upon my return, It's been about a month since I've been able to focus my attention on the rewrite. While at the convention though I took a formatted version of the story and combed through some rewrite notes with my trusted creative collaborator of many years. We took a lot of notes.

I'd like to give a shout out to fellow kindred spirit Darin Kennedy who's working hard on trying to get published with an urban fantasy story that draws upon the game and subject of Chess. We've exchanged some e-mails after dragon*con and i did a quick book cover mock up for him; I wish him all the best!

The light at the end of my desk is there. Now over the convention hump, and things settling down I can begin to focus my attention on the edit aspect my story. Now that I only have 900 things on my desk it's much more manageable than having a 1,000 things. The editing aspect is nothing short of lonely, demoralizing, draining and daunting, at least for me. But I press on.

So.. I promise more progress on the book. That said, Marketing for I-con 29 is starting up....

It's never a matter of biting off more than one can chew, it's a matter of always being hungry.

New Online Store Featuring chesspieces Art

2009-08-21T22:50:00.003-04:00

I've relaunched my On Line store with new artwork. Mainly focusing on selling art prints, I will continue to add more products to what is there now ( Featuring chesspieces) But in the future I am planning on also incorporating my artwork from "shards of The Glass Slipper" as well as other art projects AND some of my photography.

Enjoy!
Visit the new Store!

moving my art is very moving.

2009-08-17T21:54:00.005-04:00

Sure, I've done the traditional 2d drawing and painting stuff. and in recent years, I've been doing my more popular art in 3d. I finally have a computer that can keep up with me a little bit and now, for the first time ever, I can go back to my 3d files and...

Animate them.

The pictures that were once static images now race across the screen. Not as an image slideshow. Non moving clouds frozen in time now glide across the skies, casting shadows that crawl along my landscapes. I'm not saying I'm some sort of animating genius, far from, but it's satisfying to send the viewer along as the camera flies around, exploring a world once limited tobeing seen from only one side. The animations I am doing will be for a video I will be running at my art display at dragon con over the course of 4 days and well over 30,000 people.
Here's a sample of the work so far:

New chesspieces in the works

2009-07-16T00:15:00.004-04:00

After a year long hiatus from Chesspieces, new work is being done to premiere at Dragon*con.
Shortly before that, the chesspiecess website will be revamped and updated along with the store. Some images are brand new, while others are an opportunity to update previous concepts.
Overall, 11 pieces- brand new printing for display, will show at dragon*con, along with a video slideshow.
With a new computer full of crunch power and the abilty to network render images it's become a lot easier to work on the more complex chess scenes I envision.

rewrites

2009-05-17T11:19:00.002-04:00

In case any one was curious- I'm still working on rewrites for the book. I am taking my time with this. I'm on Chapter 15 actually. Finding the time and focus to work has been somewhat scattered these days, and Chapter 14 took along to go through.
And This time around it does take a little more paying attention. Going back through the first part of the story, I have to add or correct things that were intially written, and fold in elements that may have become apparent in later chapters, but now need to be referenced or at least kept in mind. The rewrite I find more time consuming than the actual writing aspect.
Once i completed the first draft, I can now attack the whole thing with the overall knowledge of how things acrually turned out, rather than writing based on a basic story outline.

It's alot of fun to now go back and fill in the gaps.
Also what this is helping to generate is notes for the follow up story.

Also As I continue to work on this I am still debating whether to try the traditional publishing route or just go straight to "Self Publish" I've read all the stories about how "gone with the wind and Carrie were rejected a hundred times. Of writers, resubmitting their own award winning published novels, only to be rejected. It seems to me as prestigious as it may be perhaps I don't have to go down that route.
the main appeal for me is I would have 100% control over marketing. which through a publishing house one doesn't always get.
But I don't know really, I'm on the fence about it for now. There a acouple of places I will be sending out to soon, and there are other agents/publishers who will only considered a finished manuscript.

Dragon*con 2009

2009-04-30T16:42:00.003-04:00

Hi all-

I've been accepted into the Dragon*Con art show this year. This year I will be showcasing a new "Series II" for my Chesspieces art series. I already have a couple from the new series and I'd like to add about 5-6 or more new ones.I'm pretty excited about showing at Dragon*Con again last time was alot of fun. my Friend Pete is joining me this year and it should make for a great time.

anyways, art needs to get created- the chess pieces section of the website will undoubtedly get revamped and I need to revisit an on line store again. Then there prints to get made and a display to consider. It would be as extensive as the shards display- but I would like to incorporate some video for chesspieces. Also I'd like to create a calendar for chesspieces that I can maybe sell at dragon-con.

back to it

2009-04-11T16:32:00.002-04:00

With I-CON 28 over with I have some breathing room, and I intend to focus on two things. Chess Pieces at the Dragon*Con Art show. ( Going back to dragon*Con!!!!)
And Getting Shards published. I chatted with author Patrick Thomas at I-CON for a little bit and it was rather inspring. So time to get back to it.

photo calendar error

2009-03-04T11:48:00.002-05:00

Hi All.

been very busy on my end focusing on I-Con 28, sorry for lack of posts.

I wanted to give a heads up to anyone who may have gotten one of my photo calendar's. There were errors in the 2009 template I used for the holiday list.

Sorry for any confusion.

The chesspieces shop has closed

2009-01-26T17:09:00.002-05:00

I've closed my online shop at Cafe' press for chesspiecess merchandise.
For now.
I may reopen it once I've launched new promotion for chesspieces.
Thanks to all that have visited and purchased.

Some new art Updated

2009-01-11T20:09:00.007-05:00

Revisions continue on Shards of the Glass Slipper. There's a big 3 ring binder with the whole story printed out; I'm making notes and marking changes. Presently, my revisions are up to chapter 10 I will hope to get 3 to 5 more chapters done this week.

In the meantime, I hope to further keep myself motivated with some new Shards related artwork. The Snow White character and the Goldenhair character are personal favorites when it comes to the artwork, so I started there. They are my go-to girls. These latest promos ( there will be more) is my attempt to evoke the fairy tale character in Shards by more of a portrait shots rather than full body, and through tones of color.

resolutions

2009-01-01T01:04:00.002-05:00

Happy 2009 to everyone! Good health, good luck and much success in all of your endeavors!

I've accomplished my 2008 resolutions. First it was to complete my novel. Done.
and on the last day of 2008 (after some holiday procrastinations) I mailed out my first book proposal ( This was one of my other 2008 resolutions)!!!!!!

My 2009 resoution (one of many) is now to get Shards published in some fashion. I will hit the ground running on Jan 1 as I focus on tightening up and polishing my manuscript etc. I hope to also break ground on the follow up novel.

Happy New Year!

New year's resolution #1- Get Shards published!

2008-12-13T22:00:00.006-05:00

With the holidays winding down I'm able to start getting my eye back on the ball. The ball being gettting Shards published. Or self published... For Christmas I got a book written by a friend of mine, She is an excellent writer who self published via Lulu. The print quality of the book is commendable, though I've heard mixed things about Lulu and self publishing/vanity books. Still I'd like to consider it as another option after I rack up a few more rejection letters. (JK Rowling was rejected 10 times for Harry Potter.) Self publishing isn't as daunting to me as it might be to others; I'm a professional graphic artist, I can do layout and design covers etc. and market it without it looking like an amatuer attempt out of MS publisher. I'd almost prefer to do it myself- I can do that part, as writing is out of my comfort zone, It's not something I'm confident with yet so the process of dealing with the real world of publishing and "official rejection" scares the crap outta me. Still, letting somebody else do all of the work and paying me for it has some appeal. So I will try the traditional means first. I'd rather try and fail- doing something like this and never trying is just about the same as why bother to start at all.

I did go to the SFWA meeting and it was very nice but it did seem a little clique-like and I was rather itimidated by it all. I went with my friend from I-CON who deals with getting authors for the convention and he knew a lot of those people. Meeting new people and breaking into cliques is not my strong point. Never has been.

here's where I am with stuff:

I've gotten my first "not interested" for Shards. It wasn't their thing. I expect alot more of these.
I will be sending out 1 maybe 2 more submissions by the end of the year.
I am in the process of aquiring a big fat list O'Agents to pitch to in '09.
Chapter 4&5 are in edit/revision process.

sample chapters 1, 2 & 3 available! UPDATED

2008-11-24T16:16:00.009-05:00

I Have reposted the chapter samples. Hopefully these will work better. The only platform I have limited access to test on is Mac. So if you are a mac user and the chapters samples are coming through a little funky for you,sorry- and please let me know.

If you are reading this site directly from roymauritsen.com- click on chapter sample button on the left.(or link listed below...) If you are here through a blog click the link below:

READ THE FIRST 3 CHAPTERS!

Enjoy and let me know what you think!!!!
Happy Thanksgiving!

SFWA NYC reception

2008-11-17T22:08:00.002-05:00

I will be attending the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America reception on Nov. 24th. It's a wonderful opportunity extended to me by the SFWA president. It will I hope, provide me with exposure and insight to further my goal of getting Shards of the Glass Slipper published. I will be bringing business cards!

More Exciting news UPDATED!

2008-11-14T12:45:00.004-05:00

As many of you may know already, I've involved myself in the "behind the scenes" of I-CON. Contributing my graphic design and artistic talents. It's been fantastic so far serving as the creative design director for the corporate end of the organization.
but Now I'm proud to announce I've been promoted to Vice Chairman of Event Marketing
Those are some important sounding words. Essentially though, it puts me in charge of marketing for a sci-fi convention that I've been attending for over twenty four years! i'll be doing design and layout, posters, program books, graphics etc. for I-Con. I have a strong graphics and printing background that I've already have bringing to the table and now it's just more official. I've been happy to contribute and the response has been great and the I-con crew have been wonderful to work with.
so if you're Going to i-con this year, let me know what you think of the program book!

more sample Chapters coming soon

2008-11-14T12:40:00.002-05:00

I will be releasing the last sample chapters to the website; and then the first 3 chapters will be available to read on-line. I will hopefully be updating the interface for reading as well. Wish me luck on that part.

Shards of the Glass Slipper Has Been Completed!

2008-11-08T23:18:00.006-05:00

The Story is finished. I've reached the end. For now at least.
I have a begining.
A middle.
And finally...

An End.
Tentatively.
25 chapters. Approx. 440 pages (at least for now). The page count won't be final until the darn thing is printed but it gives a pretty good idea.
It's a milestone to be celebrated and I will at least give myself a pat on the back.

This isn't to say I'm entirely done you know. As I've said all along to the grammar hounds- you can't spell check what hasn't been written. Now I can "spell check".

The canvas once was primed and blank. The sketching is done, light and shadow have been blocked out, brush strokes applied. Colors added. Now it is time to go in with a thin brush- add the highlights, the finishing details. Let it dry and varnish it. soon I will sign my name to it and hang it up on the wall for the world to see.
Some of this process has already been started. Chapter 2 & 3 are at the editor getting "real world polished" for intent to submit for publication.
There already been some beta readers in the works. Multiple balls are in the air in a coordinated dance of multitasking manuscript goodness.
Neat.

Now it is time to go back and start combing through, and it's also revisions rereading and rewrites. This of course is to be expected. But now I can spell check and start fixing things. This will go faster now the story is finished. Scenes that need to be updated to reflect changes I've written in later on. There are parts with a big note in red that reads " FILL OUT THIS SCENE" There aren't many of those as there were and as I go along I'm sure I will add little details and things... padding it out a little-there's always room.

The ending was rather interesting and frankly surprised me considerably with how "tip of the iceberg" this story truly is. I didn't realize who the villian really was until the very last chapter. And the cool part about it was my characters dictated it to me. I had to go back to the characters other scenes and realized that character had been doing it all along! I think it's a sign you're on the right track when the ending even surprises the author. "Didn't see that one coming". But as far as I can tell- it works well.
I've described Shards of the Glass Slipper as being a Fairy Tale Epic and there is plenty left to continue the Epic. After all there are plenty of fairy tales to consider and plenty of backstory to gleen. And that will happen, mostly because I want to see how the WHOLE thing ends.
Anyways I'm kind of numb about it. It hasn't hit me really, that I've reached end of story.

It's been rather a long time coming and the journey has been very solitary and an introspective one. Afterall it comes down to me typing a way on a keyboard. Support has come from some unlikliest people, which I found to be a wonderful surprise.

backstories

2008-11-06T09:35:00.004-05:00

I'm taking my time finishing the novel, some would argue I'm taking alot of time; But I'm at the end, and I'm sure it's never easy to write the end. So I guess I'm being a little cautious as well- there are 5,000 an ending can go.
I am hoping to have chapters 2&3 polished as well ( by a very capable and professional editor). I hope to post those to the site as well, but more importantly with 3 polished chapters I can now start to send out actual submissions and have a complete manuscript to offer.

As I ponder the best way to finish the story, it comes down to a backstory of a particular character. One of the many interesting things about writing Shards Of The Glass Slipper is the background of the characters. They are are all based in fairy tales. So there's some built in familarity, however the nature of my story is that much of the fairy tales we as readers are familar with, is really only the character background at the least.
When I started to develop this story i did a lot of research of many of the origins and symbolism of the various fairy tale characters. Trying to incorprate and stay true to fairy tale, but also to shine that light through my story "filter". This would help translate a familar child's fairy tale into the world of Shards of the Glass Slipper. Many of these these tales are woven into the creation of my characters and it has helped to generate a lot of the back story I use to fall back on when writing scenes or characters. , Often I will refer back to the backstory and even consider back to the origins of the actual fairy tale the character is based on.
As their fairy tale is part of their history it affects how those charters are driven in the present. Though the back story of each character does incorpate their fairy tale, I also must keep in my that I have to translate (faithfully)that fairy tale into the Shards world, then consider the character in question how they would have grown into the characters that will tell my story.
if it doesn't make all that much sense to you, don't worry it does to me.

I keep a timeline of characters. The control to the back story would be Cinderella, my main bad guy er... gal. I have gone through and as best as I could determine what age the characters are based on their fairy tale and keep in postion my with my events. Based on that I can figure out the approximate age certain charaters are at the beigning of my story and even when certain fairy tale back stories happen against others. For example I know Little miss muffet wasn't even born when Hansel and Gretel encoutered their first witch. This isn't based on a historical timeline remember, just my story timeline.

I have a back story for Jack (beanstalk) he's been an important character but really kind of in the background except towards the end, when Jack comes into the spotlight ( which I actually didn't expect, and I blame it entirely on a particular character.. you know who you are.) And his back story is the underlying backbone of events known as the beanstalk war.
So I've been pondering Jack and the beanstalk and Jack's back story.

what would posess a person to climb a beanstalk?

2008-10-31T19:56:00.003-04:00

I mean really. That's a heck of a lot of beanstalk to climb. Then again what would posess a person to "spiderman" up the side of a building with a perfectly good set of stairs on the inside?
hmmmm....

Oh and Happy Halloween!

Passed the 400th page.

2008-10-18T16:54:00.005-04:00

Sorry if the posts have been a little thin as of late, it's only becauseI 've been busy with the day to day and really nothing terribly exciting with that. Also I've been finishing my novel. Yes, that's right- finishing. Completing something that I started. If getting published is the Gold Medal to strive for, right now I'm at "Personal Best". I gotta say, this is a good feeling.
I am at the tail end of the 23rd chapter. There are only two chapters remaining to be written; it's an estimated 30 or so pages left.
not much further now...The end is in sight!
:)

i'll post again soon when i'm finished.

bronx zoo photos

2008-10-06T22:23:00.004-04:00

Did the semi-biannual or something trip to the bronx zoo this weekend. I wanted to practice with my new canon 40D. The weather was cloudy with a chance of iffy. Anyway-got there closer to noon than the usual 10 am opening and the weather wasn't great for most of the day. So the day felt a little rushed and the photos perhaps a little half hearted. Many of the animals weren't too cooperative. I go there alot for pictures and this time I was looking for something new. Most of the animals I've seen already and have plenty of pictures of. Alot of the challenge is the low lighting of the enclosures, shooting through glass and the fact that to get really, really interesting shots requires a zoom lens as many of the animals are quite far away. my longest zoom lens is slow in poor light, which means blurred pictures of animals that never hold their stance long enough, or pictures that are too dark, due to lack of light , or grainy due to higher iso. I try not to use the flash either because it's either not allowed or I try to challenge myself to get natural light shots. plus i don't want the typical snapshot type pics everyone else was taking.
There are a lot of nice cameras and nice telephoto lenses walking around the zoo. and when I get my big telephoto lens (hopefully this christmas.)I'll be going back to the bronx zoo.
Here are some of the pictures:

A-Ha Ha! This is funny!

2008-10-06T22:04:00.004-04:00

Here's something funny.

We'll my computer's is back from the shop. New Motherboard. New Power Supply. New Hard drive. Doesn't quite work as well as it used to for some reason. can't put my finger on it. it's just not.. right.
Plus-I don't trust it. It's has betrayed me. and now there's this weirdness, like that awkward- y'know like dating someone from work and then getting dumped by them but still have to go work the next day with your ex.
It's that kind of akwardness.

I plugged the old hard drive back in and it worked. so I didn't really miss too much. I have 2 500gb hard drives sitting around. And an external case for internal SATA drives.
Slowly I'll build my other computer.
But for now everything is back to sqaure 1. yay.

Computer woes continue...

2008-09-12T14:58:00.002-04:00

I tried Geek Squad. Never again. Never. Again. I'm only doing this because the computer is under warranty, which expires first week in october. Talk about cutting close. Better it happened now than I suppose 2 days after the warranty expires.

I had to wait a week but for my patience they installed a new 500 gb hard drive.

They ran a diagnostic and that was the problem- boot disk failure. Same problem I told them it was a week prior.

But when they hooked up the new drive... Same error.

After waiting a week for their "diagnostic" to determine what I already knew; suddenly now they figure out it's either a faulty SATA controller or motherboard.

What the frack happened to my computer?!? Yes, Michelle. HP does suck.

Truth be told, it ran fine for the past 3 years, and I use it extensively.

Now It would have be sent out again ( Which i don't think they ever did in the first place. They only determined motherboard problem 10 minutes after I called them on the day they told me my computer would be ready. Hmmm.)

I took it to the best buy near my house. They were far more receptive and helpful than the Best Buy in Levittown.

The good news all of this is under warranty. So free motherboard, free hard drive. Hopefully by October. Can't really complain.

I removed all my other stuff, the old hard drive, various PCI card from the back etc. And said go ahead.

I'm without a computer for the next couple of WEEKS! Yikes!

I managed to boot up an older computer (about 8 years old I'm guessin') and this will be a temporary fix for a while. I took more memory and other parts and beefed it up a little bit. It now has 512 mb of pc133 memory- Yah! Any body have another 512mb pc133 memory chip I can borrow????

I just have to install some basic software and I should be okay for a bit.

But it runs better than the laptop I've been using.

Perhaps later I can add this and the HP to my render farm!

I've got to get back to work. This is killing me.

I've written the frying pan. Now It's time to write the fire.

2008-09-09T22:57:00.005-04:00

"The Queen's guards were a little unsure about how to handle the glowing, sword-wielding Fairy God Mother, Fae Gaia. "

-Shards of the Glass Slipper, Chapter 22

I just took a break finishing chapter 22. Phew. What a ride!
This is the chapter. Remember all of those other posts where I said the stuff i've been writing is starting to come together???

That's Chapter 22.

Chapter 22 should be called " The Fan", because this is the chapter getting hit by all sorts of... stuff.

This is where the characters that I developed so long ago now click into place- this is the begining of the payoff. This is where that odd character story line that's been woven throughout the book, finally emerges and and brings the whole thing an added level of meaning. That one obscure paragraph several chapters back now applies and makes more sense.
It's that kind of chapter. Even characters that had such a minor role have stepped up and to my surprise, they've had something to say. Like my character General Dendroba , another character has suddenly sprung from the expansive backstory of Shards of the Glass Slipper, to emerge as a late game player.

There still alittle more to write though. But if I have a couple of more uninterupted days like the one I just had, then I can finally, finally complete my manuscript! There's a light at the end of the tunnel, I can tell it's not a train... and I'm putting mysunglasses on!

canon 40d at the Hampton Classic

2008-09-06T13:16:00.011-04:00

I got a chance to play with my new canon 40D at the hampton classic. Wow.

First off it has a 6.5 frame burst rate so it's like a machine gun taking pictures. This also meant it can easily take a lot of pictures and my 2 gb card that can hold almost 500 hi-res images was quickly reduced to under 200 pictures in less than 2 hours of horse jumping. Also it handles the higher ISO much better than the old Digital Rebel. Which means I can capture action and motion in freeze frame better (among other things) and have less noise/grain.

The image above is from the far side of the course. I have a 300mm zoom lens that worked really well with it. I was able to get a lot of great pictures from the 17th row in bleachers. (This was the first year I was told I couldn't stand at the wall by secuirty. For at least the last 4 years I've been going this was never a problem. Harumph! I say. I think it's because the "official" photographers want the exclusives. They claimed I was" blocking" a walkway that was so wide you could drive a golf cart through it and still not hit me. Not only that, I made sure I was standing in an area the wasn't visually blocking anyone either. Harumph!)

Click to enlarge.

update on the computer and stuff

2008-09-06T12:10:00.004-04:00

Well the good news about my computer crash is it was still under warranty. So I have the geek squad looking into it and most likely will get a new hard drive installed. the bad news.. I won't get the computer back for a week. In the interim however I'm using a laptop and have hooked h up whatever normal stuf I can.. a real monitor, my mouse, a cd burner etc. I have a very old laptop, it's not a lot of ram and not a very hefty processor. But i can at least write and check e-mail etc. Graphics work is pretty much not an option on the laptop.

But i'm gonna build another computer. And when i get the "off the shelf" computer that betrayed me, back, it will be relgated to server-tude. Render server. Print server. A shell of what it was. I've already started to order parts for the new one. 4 gigs of RAM, and a top of the line Intel QUAD core processor. Off course my buddy Lou is helping me out. This will really blow away anything I've ever done when it comes to render power for the 3d stuff.

in the meantime I can at least write with my little laptop, So after alittle delay, I can get back to finishing Shards. I went over the first 5 chapters with my beta reader. It was not actually as bad as I thought it would. He brought some good ideas observations and when I go into revisions I will impliment. But so far I think the story is on the right track. The Beta reader now has the rest of the story so far.

I almost go through withdrawls without a computer. It's pent up creative energy. I get cranky, depressed, the shakes. ( not really) but I do a lot on the computer and not having one around is not the godsend that some one think it might be.
"well, without a computer maybe Roy will finally get out and do something outside." I think my dad is still waiting for me to do something real with my life and this whole whole computer art thing is a phase. Hey I mow the lawn!
I've been writing and drawing and doing stuff on the computer for easily twenty years. With programs like Photoshop and Bryce 3d I've always had available on my computer since 1995 So to not have these things available even for a week ( when i'm not on a planned vacation that is.) is sheer torture.
There's work to be done. Websites to be updated ( sorry Kevin) and a lot of stuff to do for I-Con that will just have to wait abit.

BOOT DISK FAILURE

2008-08-31T08:11:00.003-04:00

***DON'T WORRY- I'VE ALREADY RECOVERED SOFTWARE PERTAINING TO MY VARIOUS PROJECTS. SHARDS, I-CON, WEBSITES, PHOTOS, POSER FILES, VUE FILES ETC. ARE SAFE****

Frack.

This is what greeted me first thing Sautrday morning. Boot Disk failure. My hard drive finally had a nervous breakdown. It's not surprising, I do a lot of work with my computer and it is in near constant use. Poor thing.
I bought an off the shelf computer, an HP, about three years ago. Normally I build my own, but money was tight and anything was an improvement from my previous computer (which was a custom build).
So... Boot disk failure? It was a Seagate hard drive. I've had a bad experience with Seagate drives I don't particularly like them. It came with the HP, and I thought, well maybe Seagate got better. Nope.

I spent the better part of saturday up to my elbows in my computer. I've purchased WD 500GB drive it's eco friendly with variable speed (yes they actually promote an internal hard drive as being "eco-friendly") That and 10% off at Best Buy is also wallet friendly. And for someone not planning on spending a bunch of money suddenly-it's good. I've made my carbon footprint that much smaller, by getting a hard drive that can cruise at 54,000rpm when it needs to and kick in to 72,000RPM for the heavy stuff. Because that will really work to stop global warming.
I also own a full verison of Windows XP. ( I'm still not sold on Vista.) The plan- install new hard drive and install XP. Then access the boot drive failure disk to retrive all the stuff that didn't make it to the next back up. I know I can acces the bad drive I've already hooked up to another computer and rescued files with it. I know how to install a hard drive and an OS.

Didn't work. I come to find out that HP requires you to install its software ( in the form of recovery discs.) in order for its hardware to recognize a new hard drive. No getting around it.
Now I have a vague recollection of making the recovery discs but this was three years ago and I could not find them. It was after all, three years ago, and never needed to use since. Placing them in a safe place means forgetting where you put them after rearranging your office at least twice. So... I had to order them (for a nominal fee of course) from HP. INconvienently this all transpires over the course of a holiday weekend to further my annoyance and delay. They claim it's to combat piracy, which i can understand. but it's an annoyance to legitimate customers like me and really turns me off of their product. I won't buy hp again. Did it once. I'm done with.
It's going to take along time to get back up to speed. There's lots of files to get back once everything is up and running and a lot of software to install.

I'll get the HP up and running again but I'm thinking I may now start building a custom one.
Then I'll transition to the new one (on my own terms.) The benefit then is a meaty secondary computer will make an excellent network render for my 3d projects. It's called a render farm and a linked computer on a render farm is called a cow or a bull. So HP shall become my cow and lanquish as a slave, shunned and pariahed, with no other acknowledgement from me except when i need it to service my renders. A fitting fate for my boot disk failed HP.

I still Believe in Bigfoot

2008-08-19T15:55:00.002-04:00

Just not so much in People.

An Update

2008-08-09T15:13:00.002-04:00

Most of August so far has been dealing with medical concerns with my wife, shortly thereafter me being in throes of a nasty cold. Which put me couchbound for the past two days. So I haven't been able to progress much on the writing. Despite being sick I do manage to check my e-mail and even fine tune some things on Chapter 21. But the ability to sit upright, focus and think is a fleeting moment at best. My wife is better and when I'm over this cold, I will continue to finish up Shards. Chapters 2 through 5 are out to a trusted beta reader, which is good news.

Roy's Top 10 Writing Process Tips

2008-07-30T07:38:00.004-04:00

After a couple of conversations with people and some discussions about writing. I began to think about the various things I do to help along in writing my novel. I wanted to share my take on some of the things I do to help my writing process. Here's some insightful suggestions that I use myself. These may not work for everyone, but they do work for me. No one example is directed at any particular person; so without further adieu... and in no particular order:

No Video Games. I do not have any games installed on my computer. There's no temptation to reach over and click, getting sucked into wasting two or four hours playing around in someone's else's story. I avoid all the MMPORPG games and I've never played freecell or any of those types of games either. Those are incredibly mind numbing to me. I'd rather find something else to do. I'm not saying I don't play video games, My wife and I play LEGO indiana jones on the PS2. It's in the other room and since she and I play Co-Op, we only play when her and I have time together, so it has limits in time and location, and we get to have some fun together.

Limited TV. By this I mean I don't have tivo full of " gotta watch my shows". I don't have a tivo. There might some things I'd say "ohh- I'd like to see that" ( usually it's on Discovery Channel during Shark Week) But I don't have my week planned out for me by unfunny sitcoms, reality TV or dimeadozen cop shows. I don't watch sports at all. So with all of this elimnated, It does free up a lot of time for other things.

Keep a reasonable schedule. Even on the weekends I try to get up early enough. It's the most creative time for me it's quiet and I try to untilize it. Obviously I'm not a robot, But if i get up at 7 am on saturday, like I do during the work week., I'll use that quiet, creative time to focus and write.

Writing Accessible. I don't bury my writing in a maze of sub folders. I keep the writing open, minimzed if I'm working on other stuff, and full screen when I walk away, so that it's in my face the next time I sit down.

Do something with it every day. Even if it's just a changing some wording. It's still progress.

Keep inspiration around. As an artist I can visually create characters and make logos and other things to realize my story so even if i can't work on directly I can keep thinking about it. I listen to music when I write. Some of my best ideas are developed in the shower, or at night before bed. ( which usually leadsto me jumping up and rushing to the computer to make notes of some brilliant revelation I had, which upon review in the morning makes little to no sense.) Movie posters or keep pictures of your dream cast around when project is made into a hollywood blockbuster ( indulging in a little day dreaming never hurts either.) I keep a couple of my favorite books around relating to the story, that I will stop and flip through. Dragonlance and Alice in wonderland, usually.

Write notes- I have simple TXT file I keep right on my desktop that I type scenes notes and reminders. If I have an idea at work I'll jot it or I will e-mail it to myself if I can.

Write about writing it. uh.. kinda like I'm doing now.

Don't listen to critics. By this I mean the nay sayers. Constructive, professionalism critisms of course you should listen to. But in the end it's your project. Reagardless if it's your bar buddies or Stephen King giving you insight, in the end it's your project and Stephen King might have some good ideas, but he's not vested in your story like you are. I would imagine Stephen King might have a little bit moe on target comments though, than your weekly bowling team. Still, you never know. You have every right to pick and choose what you feel is best for your story. You're the one that is doing it- not the naysayers. They are not vesting thier time and energy into it. Most time people will try and knock you down to make them feel better or criticize just because their opinion has been asked. People tend to mistake eliciting feedback for "fishing for compliments", and then any feedback you might get may be skewed by resentment. So as a general rule... I don't listen to people who go.. " oh, you're writing a novel.. we'll make sure you lead character does this." or "take it from me don't even bother, you'll never get published." Well they might be right, but it's your choice not theirs. When Iask for feedback on something, It's the fact that I'm asking that person in the first place, is really meant as a compliment. but often, people will give feedback and be insulted when it's not incorporated. Which I think is a common misunderstanding. Typically, I ignore that sort of stuff though. Why give power to the people who tell you can't do it? When they're not doing anything themselves. The best information is the drive to prove some jerk they are wrong. Instead show them you can do it. And then do it which leads us to number 10...

If you start it, finish it. If you take yourself professionally, seriously then other people will too. It will come back to you and you will be professional and serious about it. But the other part to this is- Esteem. It's always satisfying to finish a project you start. It's a measure of yourself. Certainly push your comfort zone a little, but know your limits or it'll back fire and you'll have a lot of half started failures and no esteem. Pick a small project plan it out and make it happen. Be careful of what you commit to, but when you do commit. do so fully and finish it. Even if it sucks, see it through to the end. why? Because you commited to it. It's about intergrity.
Be aware of what you choose to do with your time. There may be times when you don't feel like writing or working on your project, which is fine, but be aware of it. I say to myself "well I could surf the web for a little while.. or I could write". Then usually, if you're doing it right, guilt kicks in and you'll be writing. But also by establishing you are choosing one thing over another, you are also reminding yourself to write even if you don't , and showing yourself when you are or are not. If you find yourself choosing to do everything but write, then get back to it!

Yes I know.. this top ten list goes to eleven. Thank you Captain Obvious.

just a quick update

2008-07-28T08:02:00.003-04:00

Alot of my writing this weekend was actually filling in or expanding scenes in chapter 19 & 21. Chapters 19 & 21 are complete after one last review. Chapter 20 still needs further development I have to wrap my head around a few things in order to write it.
And then it's onward to Chapter 22. Which would be considered the part where Cinderella meets her Fairy God Mother. I mean Shards of the Glass Slipper is about fairy tales so of course, you knew this would happen.

At Chapter 23 the final act of my story begins.
There's not that much left, except to write it. And these are the scenes I've been waiting to write since almost when I started the story. I can't wait to see what happens!

I'm hoping to get Shards finished soon, for a variety of reasons, one is so I can get to creating some new art. I'm itching to play with some new toys I got.

The Count So Far...

2008-07-13T09:11:00.004-04:00

For those of you keeping score at home, here's the latest...

Shards of The Glass Slipper Manuscript to date:

72,514 (Approx. word count.) typically 80k-90k is average novel.
353 pages (Approx. page count) to compare- Dragonlance: DoAT is about 450 pages.

Of course my numbers are all approximate until it hits the bookshelves.

Amazingly enough, it seems I still have about 100 pages left, on average this would be about 5 chapters. I'm working on chap. 21 right now (Actually chapters 19, 20 & 21).

It's good to take these measurements along the way, to see how far I've come and better gauge what's left. Going back to my outline and notes it seems there still a lot that needs to happen in these last 100 pages. To tell the story, I may push it further by another 50 pages *ack!* I've already trimmed some of the minor story details. We'll just have to see how this plays out.

What I might do is spend some time and take what I've written so far, warts and all, and do a "mock up". Format the page (similar to the chapter 1 sample) add drop caps, indents, illustrations, fonts etc. I already have the cover made. It might serve as a nice change of pace, and perhaps as inspiration as well.

That's latest, what do you all think? Please post comments!

FEED YOUR BLOG!

2008-07-07T16:19:00.003-04:00

As this website continues to grow, I've added some RSS feed capability ( located to the right.)

Please let me know if this works okay. Thank you for your interest and support! (You all know who you are.)

Some Cool Wonderland News

2008-07-07T15:40:00.006-04:00

Not exactly related to my Shards of the Glass Slipper novel, Fairy tales are none the less popular (and public domain). I'm very curious about an upcoming comic book series called " Beyond Wonderland". Again this seems to rely on the typical " fairy tale and modern world crossover" and might seem even more similar to another recent novel called " The Looking Glass Wars." I just want to put this up here, before I get a flood of e-mails telling me about this, as an uh-oh.. look what somebody else is doing ( Yes I know about Fables, too. I'll read it someday when I'm done writing my own story). And thanks to everyone who's looking out for me. I'll point out that despite this, the overall concept of Shards of the Glass Slipper, still very different and I have not seen it's equal, yet. I'm a big fan of Alice in wonderland ( Also- Tim Burton is making a live action/motion capture version of Alice in Wonderland, which starts filming this month. That's should prove interesting.) All of this is exciting because it further inspires me that Shards of the Glass Slipper has the potential to be very popular as well. There's obvious demand to continue to explore these fairy tales.

You can see more (it's at the bottom of the page ) if you click here...

time out for an inspiring video

2008-07-06T22:00:00.002-04:00

this is one of those things that I gotta share!

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

them's the breaks

2008-07-02T16:37:00.005-04:00

Chapter breaks. As I'm writing the the third act of Shards. I had completed writing a chapter except for the last scene. As that scene played out I then realized I had to go back and add another scene and some dialogue. This now forced me into splitting the chapter elsewhere, as it would have been too long a chapter ( I try to keep them between 20-30 pages each) otherwise. Now it feels like the story isn't progressing toward the end, so much as it's getting more deeply involved, fleshing out what's already there.. I've read that some authors prefer to just write the whole thing first and then break the chapters. When I outlined my novel, I had a rough idea where I wanted story breaks and chapters starts etc. Sometimes it's good, other times, like now, it can be a bit of a pain.

Sometimes when in the middle of writing a scene I'll get this great idea for another scene, then it's a matter of figuring out the ramafications of including or not including this new scene. So I will ponder and go down each "choose my own adventure" path to see how best it will serve or hinder other various story aspects. I'll consider what other characters may be affected. Sometimes I've ejected these ideas. Sometimes, I've gone back and included them later on in the story.

All of this is compounded due to the fact that it is the final act of the story.

The other night I actually had to wake up, jump from the bed and turning on the computer like some mad scientist flipping switches in his secret laboratory. I have a TXT file I keep on my desktop where I keep all of my shards notes and ideas. And this last on turned out to be a doozy of an idea.

But I'm still trying to figure out how it affects things down the road.

I'm getting excited as I'm finally getting to the climax of several story arcs, and then I can start the final act of the story.

I can't tell you how close I am to being finished. The scenes I've been envisioning for over a year I'm finally starting to write!

Once I iron out some of these chapter breaks.

ON THE HORIZON

2008-06-22T14:56:00.003-04:00

I write best on an early weekend morning. I'm writing Shards on my lunch break also.. That is when I have the time to take lunch breaks. Also working on the story on the drive to work, in the shower, the two hours it takes me to fall asleeps at night... etc. Work projects have been taking up some time and energy too. And I've also been enjoying developing some graphics and designs and even just idea generating for next year's I-CON convention. It's been very exciting to be able to contribute to a convention that I've been going to for 24 years. And it's going to require a lot of art and alot of my expertise as a graphic designer. It's good to stretch the creative muscles with subject matter I don't get to play with at work that often.

But I'm still writing. I'm very comfortable with the main characters and their personalities are starting to really come into focus. Even though I'm writing it, I'm still amazed how much my characters fairy tale origins come into play in the smallest details and how everything seems to click into place.
I miss Poser and Vue though. I'm stockpiling files for these two programs, as I will have to roll into art creation mode as I do plan on doing all new art for the Art Show this year.
I'll probably be using these programs to do art for I-CON as well. ( which will be a nice change from a chess piece or a fairy tale as the subject matter.)
I may go with a more sci-fi theme this year. Give shards ( and my setup crew)a break. Artwise, I have some great designs on the table for new art for Shards.
I really can't wait to go and explore and develop some new stuff in poser and vue, to see what I can come up with next! Take my tools and talents to another level. We'll see what I end up with by next year's show.

So I'm trying to juggle all of this. Not to mention mowing the lawn and stuff and the days where I'm just too burnt out. In a way I'm glad Battlestar Galactica is over for the year. That's an hour less TV I'm obligated to watch. I think the only show I watch now regularly is Ghost Hunters. and GHI doesn't start till july 9th. So I got some time. I really try not to watch alot of TV. Of course it's the summer time so there's other stuff as well, cooking, mandatory pool time, socializing and movies.
So far I've been okay with it all and I'm still having fun with it!

about chapter 1

2008-06-16T11:30:00.002-04:00

I wanted to get a feel for how the pages might be formated in more of a finished book form.

Things like fancy ornate drop caps at the chapters will come later, and no for the posting of the sample chapter I did not do any indenting. So there's still some final formatting

But I wanted to give people something to read!

Hopefully I'll get some positive feedback.

I was trying to find a suitable format that will let people read samples but keeping some security issues in place, and not have Word docs and pdf's floating around. So the process i have now I hope works okay. Ideally I was looking into page turning type interfaces but these proved elusive. Maybe later. Obviously if you are not up to date with flash and other software you might have problems with the site. On my computer everything works perfect.

I appreciate any feedback regarding chapter 1 and /or the site! Thanks in advance.

This website has been updated!-Finally!

2008-06-15T01:01:00.004-04:00

It was time for an overhaul. While maintaining a blog format, I wanted a more focused and comprehensive website to deliver my "Shards of The Glass Slipper" project. I've included a NEW video trailer. The First Chapter and an image gallery! I hope to have some great feedback as This new format evolves. So, let me know what you all think!

revamping the website

2008-04-12T19:25:00.003-04:00

I will be overhauling Roymauritsen.com soon and this will become the new format for the blog aspect of the website.