And Now For Something A Little Different

My talented partner, SB, is planning on running a tabletop game set in the World of Warcraft, and I've already made my character. I haven't played World of Warcraft: The Roleplaying Game in many, many years. It was my introduction to WoW, strangely enough, and the game that got me interested in checking out the MMO to see what it was all about and to explore the world that I was only imagining around a table. While I've played off and on since the days of the Burning Crusade expansion and the introduction of blood elves, it'll be nice to jump back into that world with more creative freedom than an MMO typically allows.

While we don't have a start date for the first game yet, I've started preparing for our eventual first session by writing up a short bio/intro for my character, Cynlan Dawnstrider. Inspired by the character vignettes that used to open every episode of Critical Role, I decided I was going to hit the highlights of who my character is and what major events shaped him into the character the other players will eventually meet. I've also decided to share that intro with you all below, along with an image of the character I'll be playing, generated from in-game assets with the help of Wowhead's dressing room feature.

Enjoy!

Like most blood elves, Cynlan was once a high elf born into a magister family - House Dawnstrider, to be exact - to parents who had mastered the magical arts. Unlike most blood elves, Cynlan had no talent for the arcane and quickly earned himself a place of ridicule in the family. He did, however, discover a knack for working with metal, and soon grew that talent into a skill for engineering. Little did he know just how valuable that pursuit would be once Arthas set his sights on Quel'Thalas on his path to becoming the Lich King.

His family dead and his home in ruins, Cynlan eagerly joined with the United Blood Elf Engineers' Union and pledged his services to their surviving ruler, Prince Kael'thas Sunstrider. In the process, he was swept up in an unfolding chain of events not of his making, events that severed the newly renamed blood elves' ties to the Alliance who wrongfully imprisoned them... events that allied them with Lady Vashj and Illidan Stormrage in Outland.

Ill-prepared to deal with the hardships of Outland and slowly falling under the sway of the fel energy needed to stave off a crippling mana addiction, Cynlan was desperate for a means to return home and regain some semblance of normality. He found the perfect opportunity as part of the unit that delivered a captured naaru to Silvermoon City as a source of power to curb their addiction. With the bulk of the city's reconstruction handled already, Cynlan languished without a purpose... until one day, the call went out to recruit for a new organization to protect the Quel'dorei from the forces of darkness: The Blood Knight Order.

Now having discovered an affinity for divine magic that rivals his parents' talent for its arcane counterpart, Cynlan Dawnstrider rose through the ranks, first becoming known as a dragon slayer, then becoming renown as a Champion of the Order. Augmenting his combat training with engineered wonders, Cynlan puts the "knight" in Blood Knight, and stands ready to protect his people from any evil that dares threaten them.

The End of an Era

For those who have been following my writer's journey for a while, you know that there have been a lot of roadblocks and pitfalls along the way. Distractions abound in the writer's life, not the least of which are earning an income. Add on a social life and a love life, and it can be a titanic effort to find time to write anything.

Then there's been my work with Comic Booked. It's a dream come true to be working for a comic book news site, a goal of mine since I read my first Wizard Magazine. But the joys of reading and writing about comic books has distracted me from other writing as well, and there comes a time when you have to reevaluate what you really want out of life. The things you do should support your passion and build your future, and if it's not serving either of those two necessities, it's time to move on.

So, it's time for me to move on from writing.

It's been fun writing and publishing short stories, even writing and rewriting my first novel, and I'm proud of my work for Comic Booked. But at the end of the day, the frustrations of being a writer far outweigh the benefits, especially from the financial end of things. Your work should be something you love with all your heart, and I haven't been doing that at all. It's time I fixed that.

From here on out, my writer's blog will be a musician's blog. I've had a passion for it since elementary school, learning multiple instruments and even conducting my own school band, but I gave it up after high school to pursue this pipe dream of making it as a professional writer. No more. I'm pulling out my old clarinet and dusting it off, and I'll be diving back into my musical pursuits with the goal of joining the L.A. Philharmonic. I hope you'll stick around for the ride.

I appreciate all the support you've given me as a writer, and I hope you'll continue supporting me as I rededicate myself to becoming a musical virtuoso.

Oh, and happy April Fool's Day!

Between the Lines - The Cell Phones

Here it is, the last "behind the scenes" look at my Everyday Divinities short stories! If you haven't read it yet, stop reading this and pick it up on either Kindle or Nook right this second! It's only $2, and you'll get to read some neat little fiction pieces that take place in the setting I've been building for my trilogy. Plus, the rest of this blog post will make much more sense after you've read it.

Ready? Here we go!

The Cell Phones

First off, I should say that this is my favorite of all of the short stories in Everyday Divinities. It's certainly the one I'm most proud of in the collection, which makes me wonder why I put it in the back of the collection instead of up front. I suppose I was trying to order them chronologically so new readers would experience them much like my blog readers have, only faster. Or maybe I just wanted to save the best for last. Yeah, I'll go with that.

The inspiration for this story came from a dear friend of mine, Natalie, who posted on Facebook one day that she'd destroyed yet another phone. Naturally, I made an off-handed comment about how her cell phone body count should be one of my next short stories. Barely a week later, and it was so. The horrible history of her cell phone abuse is now immortalized in a short story, going back to her first phone and all the way up to that latest tragedy. And yes, I asked her for a history of each cell phone and why it had to be replaced, which she was more than happy to supply.

Character-wise, Sal got his name from a bastardization of the "cell" in "cellular phone." I know, it sounds like I ripped it straight out of a mafia movie, but I promise you that's not the case. B.B. Tana got her first initials from Blackberry, the brand of phone that Natalie ended up getting to replace her latest victim, and "Tana" came from... Huh. I'm not sure where Tana came from, actually. Probably a name I'd heard before and thought it'd fit nicely into a story. Sometimes it's not any deeper than that, really. The personalities were easy enough to nail down, with Sal as the grudgingly accommodating god of cell phones and Tana as the employee who's not afraid to call foul when the system doesn't work.

Speaking of which, this is the first time a god refuses to do his or her job in any of my stories. All of the others feature gods who dutifully do what they're told, even if their job stinks, but this one focuses on a goddess who not only refuses to do her job as the embodiment of an object, she threatens to unmake herself in the Great Void if she's forced to go along with it. The Great Void is a concept that took form in this story as the ultimate expression of destruction, the bane of any being who embodies something that was created in our world, and it quickly found its way into my trilogy since then as a fate worse than simply having a god's domain destroyed. Objects can be rebuilt, after all, and a god whose object was destroyed is essentially unemployed until a new object/job is assigned. But if a god is unmade, then both the object and the entity that embodies it is toast. Gone. Eradicated.

Understandably, a force that can kill an immortal is something of great dramatic use to me as a writer, especially in this setting.

We also get our first teasing glimpse of the other powers that operate in this setting. The gods of inanimate objects, or Inanimates, are the focus of these stories and my trilogy, but they're not the only pantheon around. The Animates who embody all living things are the other side of that divine coin, though their interaction with the Inanimates is limited. As for the Ephemerals, their power is much greater and much broader than either of the other pantheons. If the Inanimates and Animates are divine companies set up to administer every facet of the modern world, living or not, the Ephemerals are the parent company that owns and operates the other two.

Will we see these other pantheons in stories? That certainly would make a fine way to follow up a trilogy about the Inanimates, wouldn't it?

Finally, major props once again to Karuna Tanahashi for giving this story a little editorial TLC. She made some excellent suggestions, some of which were integrated into the finished product, and some of which were not. I choose my battles wisely when it comes to keeping certain elements in, and I think it paid off.

Got a question you'd like to ask about The Cell Phones story? Feel free to post it in the comments section below, and I'll answer it right on this very page!

Out With 2011, In With 2012!

I totally meant to write an elaborate blog post last night to wrap up 2011, but then I went out with a friend and came home to SWTOR. Bad blogger, no biscuit! But I will say this much, even though I'm not ending this year on the high note that I did last year, I still accomplished a lot this year:

I moved out of my apartment and into a house. I still have roommates (housemates), but it's a far better living situation than I was in before. I can now rest easy in a place that feels like home with people who don't make my skin crawl, and I feel like I'm one step closer to living on my own at last.

I had a great relationship that didn't last. I'm sad that it ended the way it did, but glad that I was able to share something wonderful with someone while it lasted. She helped me open my life up to things I'd been denying myself over the years, and for that, I'm very grateful. I wish her nothing but peace and joy.

I let my writing take flight in the public domain, first as staff writer for Comic Booked, then as a self-published author. My writing is now up on Kindle and Nook, which was a huge step for me in getting my fictional world out to a wider audience, and I look forward to watching that seed grow in the new year.

Finally, I survived a number of hardships thrown my way this year. Between losing my job, getting into an accident, and going through a break-up, there were times when the old me, the mid-20s me, would have thrown in the towel. But I persevered, and the challenges of this year have fueled my writing in unexpected ways.

2011 wasn't a horrible year. It held great promise, some of which delivered and some of which fell short, and built the foundation for what will surely be a successful 2012. Even so, I'm not sad to see this year pass. If I had to do it all over again, I don't think I'd change a thing. Well, I might have released Everyday Divinities a little earlier, but aside from that...

Now, let's hit the ground running in 2012 and make some magic happen before the world ends in December!

Everyday Divinities Is Available On Nook, Too!

Wow, is it Wednesday already? It seems like just yesterday I'd put my short story anthology up on Kindle, and now I have more wonderful news just in time for the holidays!

Everyday Divinities, a collection of 5 short stories originally released on this very blog, is now a digital book available on BOTH Amazon Kindle and the Barnes & Noble Nook!

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!



Man, this week has been so draining on me. It's hard maintaining so much excitement for so many days! I've always wanted to present my writing to a much larger audience, and now it's up in the two major e-reader stores. It's crazy!

Aside from all that good news, I also have an author page on Goodreads! And you can add Everyday Divinities to your Goodreads bookshelf! Can you believe it?! It's too awesome, and it makes me very excited every time I log into that site now. I'll be making use of its various features come January, so keep a watch for that in 2012.

I hope all of you have checked out the anthology, or are about to over the holidays. If you like it, recommend it to friends! If you REALLY like it and feel that $2 is not nearly enough for the extraordinary short stories you've read, or you want to see more stories in a second collection, I'd encourage you to vote with your wallet and use that wee little "Donate" button just to the right of The Everyday Divinities Project links. If you didn't like it... well, constructive feedback is always welcome and encouraged, and knowing what doesn't work for you is just as important as knowing what does. Leave your feedback in the comments below and let me know what I could do differently.

Also, if you'd like to see my digital anthology in another e-reader format, leave a comment below and I'll see what I can do. I'm no miracleworker, but I do want to make sure that everyone who wants to read my writing is able to, regardless of the device they use.

I think that about covers it for now. I'll keep you all posted on Everyday Divinities news, as well as my other projects. Enjoy the anthology, and happy holidays!

Everyday Divinities Is Available On Kindle!

It's here! The long awaited arrival of my short stories to the world of digital publishing!

Everyday Divinities, a collection of 5 short stories originally released on this very blog, is now a digital book on Amazon Kindle!

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!



I can't even begin to tell you the gauntlet of emotions that I've run since clicking that "Save and publish" button last night. This is the first time I've really put my writing out there to see if people are willing to pay money for it. It's new territory for me, which is exciting and scary and awesome and terrifying and joyous and... well, you get the picture. This is a BIG DEAL to me, and you, my loyal followers, are here to witness how crazy it will make me! Isn't that exciting?!

Now, let's talk a bit of business. This is only the tip of the digital iceberg for this mini-anthology. True to my word, I'll be converting this document into file types for use on other devices this weekend, starting with the Nook's "PubIt!" service. If there's a particular file type you'd like to see it in, post it in the comments section below and I'll see what I can do. I can't make any promises, especially if it's an obscure file type that my conversion software doesn't support, but I'll definitely make every effort to give my work the widest audience possible.

Speaking of which, those of you who know about such things will be happy to know that my anthology is completely DRM-free. I hate it when I can't transfer music or books to other devices easily, and as much as I'd appreciate the extra income, I won't make my loyal followers buy more than one copy of my work just so they can have it on multiple devices. Put it on your e-reader, your phone, your computer, even all of the above. If you like it, recommend it to friends! If you REALLY like it and feel that $2 is not nearly enough for the extraordinary stories you've read, or you want to see more stories in a second collection, I'd encourage you to vote with your wallet and use that nifty little "Donate" button up there in the upper right corner of my blog. If you didn't like it... well, I always encourage feedback, and knowing what doesn't work for you is just as important as knowing what does. Drop me a line and let me know what I could do differently.

I think that about covers it for now. I'll keep you all posted on my further plans to bring Everyday Divinities to new devices, as well as my other projects. Enjoy the anthology!

Between the Lines - The Desktop and Laptop Computers

The release of my short story anthology is imminent! To celebrate, I thought I'd give my loyal followers another peek behind the creative curtain with a new Between the Lines post. We'll skip past The Copier for reasons I'll go into at another time and go straight toward the second to last story in the collection...

The Desktop and Laptop Computers

To start, this story was created with a specific purpose: To give expression to my very judgmental feelings regarding a certain chain of eateries. I don't know if they're like this in every city they're in, but this particular bakery is about as trendy as it comes, which of course meant that I had to poke fun at it in writing. It used to be that I'd make fun of people in Starbucks for the collection of laptops occupying every table. Now my mockery has a new target. I can't come right out and give the eatery's name, of course. That would be A Bad Thing, and I'm not about to sabotage my writing career before it starts by getting sued for libel. I can, however, switch around a couple of letters to create a fictional eatery with a similar enough name that astute readers should be able to figure out what it is without me coming out and saying the actual name. If you got it, points to you! If you didn't, don't worry about it, you're not missing much.

Aside from riffing on this eatery and the people who patron the establishment, I've been meaning to delve into gods who are co-workers as well as friends, similar to what I did with the Television and the Remote Control story. I wanted to take them out of the work situation and put them in casual mode, so I set the story in a bit of "downtime" that the two gods might share in the course of their duties. After all, even the most dedicated of gods needs to forge connections to those of like minds to expand their influence. I had my setting and my discussion, now it came down to forging the voice of each god.

It made sense to make the laptop god, who naturally would be ranting about this eatery that his domain is taken into constantly, the younger and hipper of the two computers. Being so mobile, he would be more well-traveled than the desktop computer, so I made him sort of a free-spirited, jet-setting kind of character. His counterpart, the desktop computer, would be older and more reserved. The contrast was a natural one, which I emphasized by putting the desktop computer in a business suit, to reflect the sheer number of desktops used in a corporate setting. While I didn't go into detail in the laptop's attire, I pictured him as much more casual and relaxed in his clothing (despite his energetic rant).

The names came to me easily enough. Since HP and Dell are two of the most widely used computer brands out there, it made sense to adapt them to my naming conventions. HP became the initials for Holland Parcell, and Dell became Dall. Parcell, incidentally, is a variation of a name found in my family, so my thanks go out to my cousin for marrying into a family name that I could use in a story!

Since I'm a big fan of MMOs, I couldn't help but bring them into a discussion between two computer gods. For curious parties, I used to roleplay on Sentinels server in World of Warcraft under the name Cynlan on Horde side, and these days I'll be active in Star Wars: The Old Republic as Jace Colton on the RP server Vrook Lamar. Feel free to say hi to me if you run into me in-game, but don't be too distressed if I don't get back to you right away. I may be in the middle of roleplay, or I could be in a boss fight.

Incidentally, if you have to ask what Dall meant by that comment of the other "good time" people use computers for, you're better off not knowing.

Finally, major props go out to Karuna Tanahashi for giving this story a critical eye and making some very sound editorial suggestions. It really made the difference in comparison to previous stories. Thank you, Karuna!

Got a question you'd like to ask about The Desktop and Laptop Computers story? Feel free to post it in the comments section below, and I'll answer it right on this very page!

Hectic Holidays

My posts typically become less and less frequent around the holidays, and for this I apologize (yet again). But hey, I have some very good reasons for not posting so much this time! In addition to the usual holiday madness, I'm working a new job and giving my anthology one final pass before it goes live on e-readers. I also have a TON of notes to sift through for my trilogy to kick it up to the next level, more behind the scenes stuff to post on the short stories (AKA bonus material for those who come across my anthology without knowing about my blog) and a host of other good things that I don't want to jinx by talking about them just yet. (Two words: Short film!)

With so much on my plate right now, this really is the season of giving! And soon, I'll be giving the world the gift of my imagination. It's coming sooner than you think!

Everyday Divinities Has A Cover!

OK, yes, it's been a long time coming, but I can confidently make this announcement at last:

MY ANTHOLOGY HAS A COVER!!!



That's right, Everyday Divinities has cover art at long last! We can thank Daniel Thayer for the image above, which will soon be on e-readers nationwide. Kudos for putting that together for me, Dan!

Now that there's cover art, I can move ahead with getting Everyday Divinities up as an e-book. Check back here soon for the big announcement!

NaNoWriMo: The Halfway Point

Today is Nov. 16th, roughly halfway through National Novel Writing Month. Time for a pep talk!



For those of you still participating in this event, way to go! You're already a cut above the rest by sticking with it this long, regardless of what your word count is right now. Those of you who started strong but gave up due to [insert excuse here], it's not too late! Put the boots on and launch back into that word count with renewed ferocity. And to the rest of you who never crossed the start line, it's not too late for you, either! You'll have twice the work ahead of you than most NaNoWriMo-ers, but it's not unheard of to make that 50,000 word goal in half the time.

The halfway point was hard for me. Sure, I had kept with the daily word count goals I had set for myself, but I was still only halfway there. Real life was already doing its best to derail my progress and the last half of the month would bring with it the additional complication of the Thanksgiving holiday. An already uphill battle for a guy who had previously only done 3-page short stories was going to be even more difficult.

I had every reason in the world to stop. My friends wanted to hang out with me again. Family wanted to spend time with me around the holiday. Work drained my energy during the day, leaving me running on fumes at night. And then there was that ever-present noise in my head, telling me that I wasn't good enough, I'm not a real writer, I should stop trying so hard and give up now.

You know what I did? I kept writing anyway.

My friends understood that I had a passion and needed to stoke that fire in me. Family had to sleep, and there was always that time late at night or early in the morning when they weren't awake yet and I could lay down some more words. At work, I would write on my lunch break and during my commute to and from the office. I stole every possible moment I could from the day to meet my daily goals, and I'll be damned if I was going to let the world keep me from crossing the finish line.

As for the noise in my head? It was always there, and always will be there. Self-doubt is nothing new to writers. Even the seasoned vets still hear that voice drilling doubt into their brain. The trick is to hear it without giving in to it. Recognize that voice, smile and nod at it, then go ahead and write anyway. If you have to, say aloud, "I will make it to 50,000 words." Make it your mantra. Don't worry about sounding crazy, everyone assumes writers are weird anyway.

You can do it. I know you can, and deep down, you know you can, too. Stick with it, you'll be glad you did.

See you at the finish line!

An Update & A Request!

It's time for another writing update, don't you think?

My anthology is almost ready for release into the wild! The formatting is done! I just want to go over it one last time to make sure it meets all the formatting requirements for ebook conversion, and I'll be doing that this weekend. It's so exciting to get something I've written ready for online publication. I can't wait for you all to see how snazzy it looks when it's not displayed on my blog!

There is, however, one major stumbling block for me in getting this anthology out the door, and it's a problem I've mentioned a couple of times before. I still have no cover image!



It's a sad thing to see an ebook with no cover image. It makes me feel like it isn't a real book, just something that was cobbled together and hastily slapped onto an ereader. I want to deliver a quality product to the people, hence all the time I've invested in making sure it's as ready as it can possibly be before I put it out there, and it's obvious to me now that I can't do this alone.

I turn to you, loyal followers, to help me find a cover image! If you've read the short stories of The Everyday Divinities Project, you already know that it focuses on inanimate objects and the secret lives they live under our very noses. They're tales that highlight the objects that surround us everyday that we take for granted so often. If you're not familiar with them, or you want to brush up on your Everyday Divinities lore, links to the project are on the right hand side.

So here's the deal: If you're a photographer, artist, photoshopper or other visual artist, send me a picture that you feel best places inanimate objects on the pedestal they so rightly deserve! The image must be your own creation - no stealing someone else's copyrighted or watermarked work. Please don't add your own watermark to the image, I'll give credit for the cover in the opening pages of the book. The picture must be in either JPEG or TIFF format, with dimensions of at least 500 by 800 pixels and a maximum of 2000 pixels on the longest side, and saved at 72 dots per inch (DPI) for optimal web viewing. Ideally, the image will have a height/width ratio of 1.6 and display beautifully in RGB color mode so your work will shine on an ereader.

The image that I feel best captures the essence of The Everyday Divinities Project will be used as the cover for my book, and its creator will get credit for the cover image in the book itself!

All entries must be sent in to robertlemoyne[at]gmail[dot]com by midnight on Friday, November 4th and the winner will be announced on this blog by Monday.

Good luck to all my artistically inclined followers! I can't wait to see what kind of images you all come up with!

Edit: Due to being under the weather and preparing for a convention this weekend, I'm extending the contest through the weekend to midnight on Monday, Nov. 7th. Enjoy the weekend!

Quick Take on DC Comics/Barnes & Noble

For those who aren't up to date on recent comics news, Barnes & Noble is taking 100 graphic novels off their shelves nationwide because DC Comics has given the Amazon Kindle exclusive digital rights to those books for the next 4 months.

Personally, I don't think DC or B&N are thinking this through very well. Publishers should not be playing favorites when it comes to getting their content out, all it does is hurt their customers. Likewise, if you're a store in competition with another retail outlet, the last thing you want to do is give your customers a reason to go to your competitor to get the products they want. DC Comics has declared that they're sticking to their guns, and it looks like Barnes & Noble is doing the same with their response. Both sides look like spoiled children in all this who don't want to share their toys or play nice with the other kids.

As for me? Don't think that just because I'm formatting my short story anthology for Kindle self-publishing, I'm going to ignore all the other epub formats. Kindle is by far the trickiest part of formatting something for digital distribution, in my limited experience, so I want to leap that hurdle first. After that, formatting to the other digital book types will be a snap.

Rest easy, Nook and iPad fans! I've got your back!

Coming Soon to a Kindle Near You

...And this time, I mean it!

After a sizable delay, my Everyday Divinities anthology is finally getting formatted! It's a tedious process of going through the Kindle self-publishing checklist to make sure everything conforms to their standards for proper conversion, but it's going to be so worth it to see my writing on a Kindle. I even downloaded the Kindle app to my phone so I can make sure it displays properly on any device!

"Wait, what about those of us who don't have a Kindle?" Don't worry, the Kindle formatting is a stepping stone to converting it into any ebook format. My goal is to have my anthology available on this blog in all of the major format types so you can read Everyday Divinities on any device you own. Ebooks for all!

I'll give you more updates as I move through the process, including an announcement once it's available for purchase later this month. This is so exciting for me as a writer, I can't wait to share my first ebook with you!

Between the Lines - The Coffee Machines

It's been a while since I've written one of these, so I thought it was well past time for another entry in the Between the Lines series! This time, we'll take a look at the third short story of The Everyday Divnities Project...

The Coffee Machines

First off, let me give the last of the three-part apology carried through this series thus far. Much like "The TV and the Remote Control" and "The Alarm Clock" stories, this one was self-edited, and I have a hard time being objective about my work. I can proofread my own stuff, but it takes an editor who is not so attached to the characters or the themes to make the tough decisions regarding the voice of the characters and the economy of words. If you can't tell, I tend to be verbose, and I have this deep-seated need for ALL OF THE WORDS to go into my stories. Fortunately, this behavior is being corrected.

I kept with the previous mission statement for these short stories and focused on the gods within the inanimate objects as opposed to the humans who used them. Unlike those previous stories, there are no humans at all in this tale. They're referenced, absolutely, but they don't show up as actual characters in the story. I felt that the past two stories had eased people into the concept of a hidden world of inanimate objects and the divinities that made them work, allowing me to delve deeper into the world of the Inanimates without using people as the bridge to cross into that setting. In fact, the last two short stories I'd written are set up in a similar way, with the narrative set fully in their world from start to finish instead of our own.

The absence of humans in this story is balanced by putting two divinities in a very human situation, that of a job review. Even teenagers can relate to the tedium of a performance review at whatever mundane job they've taken on to make some money. I know I could! At the same time, it humanizes the characters by putting these all-powerful gods in a very mundane scene and gives some insight into how the Inanimates hierarchy works. How does one move up the ladder in this modern-day pantheon? Well, now you know.

For those who are wondering, the character of Taryn is an amalgamation of every boss I've ever worked for in my life, but the name has no relation to any of them whatsoever. Maybe you see a little bit of your supervisor or manager in Taryn, maybe not, but little pieces of each of my bosses over the years is represented somewhere in the story. (And no, I won't name which traits are from which boss!) As for Mr. Caulfie, whose name is a very obvious pun on the Mr. Coffee coffeemakers, I'll be honest and say that he's very much based on me in those situations.

My favorite part, though, is the employee record on Mr. C. These are all actual scenarios that I incorporated into the story, some that I'd seen firsthand and some that were relayed to me by others. I had a boss who used her coffee machine to brew tea, and there actually is a Mrs. Tea teamaker (made by the Mr. Coffee company) that has unfortunately been discontinued. Water leaking out onto the counter has been a fairly common problem I've noticed in office coffee machines in the various offices I've worked at, too. And the quote that Taryn gives from the file comes directly from my own mother, who was having problems with her own coffee machine. I'm pleased to report that it has since been fixed and brews amazing coffee once more without spilling a drop.

Incidentally, the goddess of coffee that Taryn will be working for is a prominent character in my trilogy. Does that mean that Taryn will show up in the course of that story? Only time will tell!

Got a question you'd like to ask about The Coffee Machines story? Feel free to post it in the comments section below, and I'll answer it right on this very page!

Tell The Truth Tuesday

It's that time again!

Yes, it's Tuesday morning, and it's about time I turned out another Tell The Truth Tuesday. So, by the numbers:

1. Speak Out With Your Geek Out was a fun event, and I'm glad I got to take part in it. I've always tried to display my geekitude in positive ways to show that it's not as scary as some people make it out to be, and I'm glad so many others felt the same way. It was a busy week for me, though, so I didn't get to delve into as much detail as I wanted to for my three posts last week. Then again, maybe that's a good thing. I could write an entire book on my geeky life, rife with more pop culture references than any two Tarantino films.

2. Did you know I was once asked to help create a horror movie that would feature RPGs? It's true! The players of the game would have been killed off through the movie by the villain/GM, and while character death is not foreign to gaming, I was not about to help facilitate the demonizing of the gaming community by working on that kind of project. I do, however, have a script in my head for a film that would put RPGs firmly in the fantasy action/adventure category. Maybe one day I'll put it down on paper...

3. ...But first, I should finish my trilogy. I must admit, the past few months have been hard on my creativity, and the next month isn't looking too much better. Sometimes, you need to take care of business to allow that creative energy to flow freely. Once I'm back on track, then I'll be able to rededicate myself to finishing my trilogy once and for all!

4. My anthology is almost ready to be digitally released to the wild! Just as I haven't had much time lately to dedicate to my trilogy, I haven't had time to get it formatted properly or to get a decent cover to my short story collection. Rest assured, though, it's coming!

5. My readership has gone up! Thanks to my Comic Booked reviews and the "Speak Geek" event, there's been a pleasant increase of readers on my blog, and I'm very grateful for the new page hits. Welcome, new people! I hope you enjoy what you read here and stick around for a while, there's plenty to get you caught up in the archives.

6. Star Wars was re-re-rereleased (again) this past week. I have not bought it. I probably won't buy it until the DVDs I have are no longer viewable, and by then, we'll have the entire series in 3-D for a re-re-re-rerelease. Sheesh!

7. I link to some of my Comic Booked articles here, but not all of them. While I like giving you all an easy way to see what else I'm writing when I'm not on this blog, I don't know if you really want to read all of my press releases, or my write-ups of comic book movie-related sightings, or even my reviews of comic books. But then, I've never asked you, my loyal readers, what you think of that content. Do you want to see more of it, and if so, how much? Would you rather I not link to it at all here? Let your voice be heard in the comment section below!

8. On a related note to the above question, are there any writing topics you'd like me to focus on for future posts? I try to give a little of everything and pass on information that might be useful or insightful to writing and being a writer, but the worst part is writing in a vacuum. Feedback is always welcome, and greatly prized by writers of all stripes! Just put it in the comment section below!

9. I love autumn because of the Pumpkin Spice Latte. I hate autumn because the changing season screws with my head, both mentally and allergy-wise. When is Daylight Savings Time over? I can never remember...

10. I almost forgot! I have a Tumblr account now, where I put all of the geekiness that I refrain from bombarding you with here. You can check it out at the link here, but be warned, it's pretty crazy geeky!

And on that note, I think I'll call it here. Until next time, loyal followers!

Tell the Truth Tuesday

I’ve been pretty busy this past week. Not so much with the Comic Booked articles, though I’ve been doing that, too, but generally trying to keep an income flowing in. Also, spending time with my beloved, who is celebrating a birthday this week. (Everyone say “Happy birthday, Loki!” in the comments below!) But with everything that’s been going on, I didn’t want you to think I’m only going to be linking to my Comic Booked articles on my blog. So, let’s take it by the numbers, shall we?

1) Working for Comic Booked is exactly what it is, work. I used to go to events and talk to comic book creators as a fan, now I’m doing it both as a fan and as a professional. I talk to people and pull together information for an article, then go home and write it all up in MS Word. Then I edit the piece, maybe even have someone look it over for me if I’m lucky and have the time. I log into WordPress and copy over everything I’ve written, adding in links and uploading images to flesh it out and appease the SEO requirements, along with tags, article title, description of article, etc. Then I submit the article for the editors to review for publication on the site. All in all, it’s pretty involved and not nearly as simple as writing up a little piece and sending it in.

2) Though it may be work, writing for Comic Booked is an excellent learning experience. I didn’t even know what SEO was until I started working for them. Getting trained in how to put together an article for them has helped my own writing significantly (specifically in terms of my own blog), and I’m sure there’s still more to learn.

3) I don’t work in a vacuum. There are other members of Team Comic Booked out here, like Nicole Sixx and Cousin Matt, and they’re good people. I’ve covered three events now with Nicole, and I’ll likely cover more with her as time passes. Cousin Matt, it should be noted, is the Comic Booked forums guru, and a fellow gamer!

4) As awesome as it is to write about comics and comic-related events for Comic Booked, they’re not paying my bills. No, I’m picking up every odd job I can to make ends meet, and I’ve been hired as a consultant for two people who own their own businesses this past month. I’ve also been working my organizational magic for a law office, and I’m hoping to get steady office work again soon. Gotta find a steady gig again so I can afford to write, right?

5) In other writing news, I haven’t forgotten about my trilogy or my anthology, it just got pushed back a bit in the wake of everything else happening in my life. More news on this soon, I promise!

6) Captain America was a much better movie than I thought it would be. Tommy Lee Jones is awesome in it, and Chris Evans really sells Cap as more than just an overgrown boy scout. Hugo Weaving did an excellent Red Skull, even if the role was pretty two-dimensional. Very much looking forward to The Avengers, and if you haven’t seen Cap yet, stay for the awesome after-credits sequence!

7) I’m seeing Cowboys vs. Aliens today, which I’m totally hyped about. C’mon, you have James Bond and Indiana Jones in a western version of the alien invasion movie! What’s not to love?!

8) I got Jim Butcher’s new Dresden Files novel, Ghost Story, and blew through it in record time. I maintain that each Dresden book is better than the last, and this one is no exception. Wow. Very powerful story.

9) The completion of Ghost Story means I can get back to the next Percy Jackson book on my list, The Titan’s Curse. So far, it’s pretty entertaining, and I really like this series. It’s no Harry Potter, but that’s not a bad thing.

10) I’m very hungry, and I should probably get my day started. Lots to do, so it’s time to get to it! …Right after I eat.

Tell the Truth Tuesday

It’s that time again! Let’s cut to the chase, shall we?

1. All of the stories for my anthology are edited! Yay! I’ve compiled them all into one document, along with an introduction, and I’m working on the formatting now.

2. My goal is to make my anthology available across the board, from Kindle to Nook and everything in-between, and I have a program to help me with the conversion process, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to accomplish this right off the bat. Anyone know Calibre well enough to give me some pointers? Also, I'm likely going to make a PDF version available for those who want to make their own dead tree edition. More on this another time.

3. Nutella ice cream is epically delicious. This needs to be mass-marketed so I can have it all summer.

4. My Star Tours review is officially my most-viewed page! If you haven’t read it yet, check it out here. And if you have, check it out again because I put up a link to some video I made of my in-line experience!

5. Colorado is a great place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there. I like my SoCal weather way too much.

6. Thor was more fun than I was expecting. There are a lot of big summer movies coming out, and this one was a strong start to the season. I can’t wait to see The Avengers movie coming out next year! (On a side note, I really need to start making some good money so I can see all these movies coming out.)

7. Game of Thrones is seriously my favorite show on TV right now. I rarely watch TV, but I make it a habit to see this one every week, even inviting friends and family over to catch the show with me. There are only 3 episodes left to the first season as of this writing, but I’m sure HBO will run a marathon of all the episodes once the season wraps, and it should be on DVD by the end of the year. If you have the means, I highly recommend catching this series from the beginning.

8. My beloved’s dad let me borrow Anathem, which I was very excited about because I love Snow Crash and I’ve been looking forward to exploring more of Neal Stephenson’s writing. I’m ashamed to say that, since borrowing it last month, I’ve read a total of 5 pages of the book. The thing is MASSIVE, and I have a hard time getting through large books like that because the size always turns me off from picking it up. I feel like it’s a massive undertaking to read it, like I’m about to face down an army of a thousand pages. I suppose I just need to bite the bullet and just knock ‘em out, one page at a time.

9. I need a new day job. Badly.

10. I need a new apartment, too. Fortunately, I have a room lined up so I can get out of my current place, but I need a new apartment, STAT. A new job would help here, too.

And that about covers it for this Tell the Truth Tuesday. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to help my gorgeous girlfriend make a half-elf ranger for tonight’s D&D game….

Levelling Up My Epub Skill

While I gear up for my tour a long time ago (this Friday), in a galaxy far, far away (in Disneyland), I'm working hard to get my anthology finished and ready to go online. All but one story is edited now, with appropriate changes made, and I'll be doing the second pass on my introduction today or tomorrow. This is really happening!

Meanwhile, I'm exploring Calibre with the intention of transforming .pdf files into .epub and .mobi for my grand scheme. My guinea pig in this effort is a revised and abridged version of the World of Warcraft blood elf paladin roleplay guide I wrote a couple years back, Chivalry & the Blood Knight Order. Seeing as how it's still racking up the hits on WoWFiction.net and spreading across such WoW sites as Sentinels Wiki and various server and guild forums, fans of my work might be interested in having my piece of community roleplay writing as an ebook. I still have a lot of work to do, mostly with the preservation of formatting between file types, but I'm making progress!

I'd also like to have a cover image done for the anthology, to make it look as professional as possible, but it's not a tragedy if I can't figure that part out. The important thing is getting my writing out to you, loyal followers, and to the world at large.

That's where things stand at the moment. I'll keep you updated on my progress here, and as always, you can make your inquiries in the comments section below. Thank you all for your support and encouragement through this grand ebook adventure!

I Surrender!

So, I'm finally on Goodreads. I know, it took me long enough, but allow me to offer an explanation as to why I was so resistant for so long.

As surprising as it may seem for a technologically savvy guy like me, it takes me damn near forever to get with the program. I was just getting on MySpace when everyone was switching to Facebook as the social network of choice. I only got on LinkedIn and Twitter last year, and those were work-related decisions. If it seems like I'm consistently behind the curve when it comes to what all the cool kids are doing online, it's because I really am.

Goodreads was no exception. I know a few authors on there whose blogs I read and whose work I respect, and I think to myself: "Self, you can't even keep track of your blog in a timely manner, how do you think you're going to have time to give reviews of all those books you've read, too?" Then I started this crusade to self-publish a small anthology of my short stories, and took a closer look at all the avenues available to me as a means of promoting my anthology. I have my loyal followers here on my blog, and on Facebook and Twitter, but I want to reach people who might not know me or my work.

Thus, I finally started listening to the people telling me I should be on Goodreads and actually made an account for myself.

My profile is still young, but it'll grow as I get to know the site better and load up on books I've read. I also look forward to upgrading it to an author account once my anthology is up on Kindle! I just hope I can keep up with this AND all the other sites I'm juggling AND do my rewrite AND...

Oh, before I forget, here's my profile so you can hunt me down and see what I'm reading and what I've read!

R. B. LeMoyne's Favorites




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An Exciting Announcement

Since the effort is underway, I feel confident in finally making this announcement and keeping myself accountable here. The rumors are true: I'm currently working on getting The Everyday Divinities Project short stories to your e-reader of choice!

Now that I've made that bold declaration, let me give you the story behind it.

I'd always had it in my mind to take the short stories here on my blog and package them in one convenient and easy to read file format. I imagined all of them collected on one .pdf with a great layout and design, made available here to anyone who wanted it. The problem I had with that, however, is the same problem I have with theatrical releases of TV shows like The Simpsons and The X-Files: Why would I want to pay money for something that I could get for free?

The answer, of course, is that you'll be getting something better than what you'd get for free. Granted, that's another bold statement coming from me, but hear me out.

While I'm still going to pursue the traditional publishing route with my trilogy after I iron out its kinks, I want to get the ball rolling with my fictional world. I want to start putting The Everyday Divinities Project out there where everyone can find it, not just those who stumble across my site. And I want to make it as accessible as possible to as many people as possible. The divinities demand it, and who am I to deny them their request?

To make this possible, I'm broadening the scope beyond just a .pdf release on my blog. I'm looking into the .mobi format for Kindle, maybe even a spot in the new Kindle Singles if the finished product meets their submission guidelines. I'm looking into the .epub format for other e-readers like the Nook, because I hate monopolies and I believe in the literary equivalent of wide theatrical release over limited engagements. That's not a guarantee that it'll be available in all of those formats, but I'm definitely putting in my research. And yes, I'm still looking into putting an easy to print .pdf up here, too, for those who want a dead tree edition.

Whatever the format, you'll get an anthology of my short stories, all under The Everyday Divinities Project umbrella. Well, almost all of my short stories. The Copier won't be in there because I have other plans for that particular tale. The other five will definitely be included, though. More than that, my previously unedited stories are getting the spit and polish treatment right now so they'll be print-worthy. That's right, three of the five stories in this anthology may actually be notably different in the final product! Add in an introduction to the anthology, some honest to goodness layout and maybe even a spectacular cover, and you'll have a fine piece of e-publishing from yours truly.

I should get back to it, though. Break is over, and there's still much work to be done before an actual release date is announced!