The Magical Puppy Store: Wagging Tails and More

Posted on July 8, 2019 by Charles Yallowitz

Cerberus FFXIV

Welcome to our grand reopening.  Had a bit of a rough period thanks to some gargantuan fleas, but we’re back in business.  Don’t worry about the big guy over there.  He’s all bark, no bite, and a little licking.  Seeing him in the window helps bring in some business since people always want dogs for protection.  We cover homes, castles, dungeons, ruins, islands, ships, graveyards, and any other place you might want one of our creations to act as a loyal guard.  Still, we also pride ourselves in making excellent companions for both adventuring and the home.  With the proper training, Timmy/Billy/Sven over there would be perfect with children.  Now, what are you looking for?

Adventuring companion and terrifying mount . . . Not an uncommon request, but I sense you have something else.  Yes, we possess the equipment and licensing to create a dog that transforms.  It will cost extra and take a month to complete unless you wish to do the training yourself.  We would have to work on both forms separately, including setting up command words.  It’s possible to do it on your own, but you really need to be an expert and there’s a risk of devouring if you aren’t careful.  Dogs may be pets now, but they are related to wolves.  To complete your offer, we will need to develop each form separately, so let’s start with your adventuring companion.

I’m sorry, but are you showing me a picture of a pug?  You want me to create one of those dogs and have it transform into something big enough for you to ride.  We’re up to two months now because it takes a lot of work to pack a large beast into a smaller one even with our more experienced designers.  Not saying it can’t be done, but it’s going to take time.  Do you want the pug to do anything else?  Chameleon abilities are useful as long as it stands still and doesn’t make a noise, which requires training.  I wouldn’t recommend any large energy attacks because they all have a kickback.  Imagine your dog blasting an enemy and sending itself flying back half a mile.  Iron skin would counter some of the damage, but that would slow it down.  Good idea on going for something smaller like a paralytic bite.  Hypnotic stare?  Sure, I’m curious to see how that would work with an animal that can’t give orders.

Now, a mount requires a lot of speed, strength, and stamina.  Dogs of all sizes are built for running, but they aren’t really designed for carrying a full-grown human.  This is why we only allow larger versions of our big breeds.  You will have to get used to riding it without a saddle in case you have to change and run quickly.  This is another reason training will take a long time since you want the animal to get used to it.  Yes, we can give you a two-headed dog with one being a Great Dane and the other an Akita.  Fur is up to you, so a shaggy body is possible.  Sorry, but we don’t supply wings for two-headed dogs because the muscle system gets too complicated.  It shortens the lifespan pretty severely.  Do you want any other special abilities from this book?  Sonic howl from both would be really powerful, especially if you have them go at the same time.  Sometimes keeping it simple will help.  I guess that is silly, so I’ll put on the icy aura that you’re staring at.  It won’t affect you for an hour, so keep an eye on the clock.

Is there anything else you want to do with your pet?  The main form will be the pug because that requires less energy.  The other way around means you will have to constantly feed your dog.  Now, what names are you thinking?  Jerry Renault III for the pug and Duchess for the two-headed.  Works for me.  Please browse our supply shop while I get the contracts ready.  We have some beautiful leashes and water bowls that just came in.  Thank you for your business.

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Some Summer Funnies

Posted on July 7, 2019 by Charles Yallowitz

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Goal Post: My Future Life as a Puddle

Posted on July 6, 2019 by Charles Yallowitz

Last week was the when I finally got to have some full days of the summer job. To everyone who thought I could get any writing in, you were GRAVELY mistaken.  I arrive around 7:20 in the morning when I don’t have my son and 8:00 when I do.  There are already kids there and the camp opens at 9.  They stay in the arcade, so have to get the other two game rooms ready and then make sure things move smoothly in the arcade.  By the time they leave for the morning stuff, I have to clean up the room, check all the tablets to see if any need to be charged, and make sure all the game systems are properly set up.  Kids enjoy changing the settings and one system needs to have the controllers repeatedly located if it’s left idle for too long.  I have to do these checks between every group and during the quiet periods.  I’m constantly on my feet.

Now, you might think I can keep a notebook nearby in case I have time.  Have you ever met a child?  My water jug gets moved around, a piece of paper that had some game passwords was stolen, and I’ve had to hide things that they’re not supposed to get to.  It’s summer break, so the kids are no longer interested in structure.  This makes the special events really hard to pull off.  I attempted the ‘Blindfolded Mario Kart’ on Tuesday and only one group really enjoyed it.  Another tried after shouting that they wanted Super Smash and gave up fast.  The other groups didn’t even get that far.  I’m supposed to do fun stuff with kids who only want to play the same things with no challenges.  I’ve had complaints about the NES and Super NES minis that we have because the games are ‘too hard’.  I’ve been trying to teach the kids how to play the older games and some are listening, but most stick to the PS4 and Switch.

My point here is that this job is one of constant movement and noise.  There is no moment for me to sit down and get my head together.  When I do get some silence, I need to clean things up or I’m too tired to think beyond planning for what’s coming.  By the time I get home, I’m drained and not getting very far.  Things aren’t going to ‘improve’ because next week is when I begin my work as a Pool Activity Leader.  This position means I stand in the sun and heat all day at the pool to make sure everyone is safe.  I can’t go into the water because I need the higher vantage point.  This is twice a week.  I’m going to be dead on my feet by the time the weekend turns up.

Keep in mind that I’m not saying I hate or dislike the job.  It’s more that it’s a lot busier than I expected.  I mean, I knew I’d be busy, but there are moments where I think I need a chair and a bullwhip to keep things in order.  Let me put it this way: I spend most of the day in a small room with 15-20 something kids screaming and yelling.  Also, I can’t take out my phone for anything.  Just a reminder about that for those who want to suggest using an app to take notes.

I had this plan to make this post more positive and exciting, but the 3 days of work were exhausting.  I barely managed to finish the September blog posts and I finished War of Nytefall: Eradication this morning.  Before anyone cheers, I planned on doing it last weekend, but things happened.  As it stands, I had to battle and piss off a few people to get this done with 4 days to work on it.  With no other days off until late August, I’m not going to be able to get anything else done.  Maybe some outlining if I can muster the strength, but it’s looking more like a Netflix and puzzles summer.  That’s being generous because I don’t really get out of work until 6 because of late pick-ups and I want to make sure the tablets are as charged as possible.  Means a lot dinner too.  Part of me is shouting to use the few weekends where my son is with his mom to edit the book, but I might save that for when he’s with her during the end of August.  I can work on a few other things like the fantasy advice tip notes and Sin stories . . . I really need to remember the series titles I come up with for that second one.

In non-writing and camp news, I just put in for Teaching Assistant Level III.  I hope to get it by the end of the summer, but I don’t know if that’s going to happen.  I need a year of experience as a TA, but I started in November.  So, I don’t really have an exact year, but we’ll see what happens.  My hope is that I’m contacted by a living person and can ask about getting a full teaching certificate.  I’ve developed a plan for this path.  My undergraduate degree is in English Writing Arts, so I was going to get a teaching degree in Literacy.  They match up and the latter falls under special education.  Since I feel that reading is an essential and dwindling skill, I really want to get involved with this.  I hope that I only need a few classes and tests here, but we’ll see what happens.

Beyond that, I can’t remember what else I wanted to talk about.  I’m making a list of November post topics since October is going to be Monster Maker and something with the War of Nytefall cast.  Right now, the topics are: Blogging (3 day theme), Homages, Retellings, Public Domain, and a week of Jung’s Archetypes.  That leaves me with 3 more days to cover.  More since I might need to do some teasers.  If I’m really lucky then maybe I can release Eradication in December like I planned.  Probably going to contact my cover artist about this near the end of July after my son’s birthday has passed.  Got too much on my plate as it is.

So, goals of the week?

  1. Avoid melting at the pool.
  2. Stay hydrated.
  3. Look over War of Nytefall: Ravenous outline while previous story is fresh in my mind.
  4. Finish watching Daredevil Season 3.
  5. Puzzles.
  6. Work on ideas for ‘So, You Wish to Write Fantasy?’ or whatever I’m calling it.
  7. For today: Cleaning!  Still have dusting and the bathroom to take care of.
  8. Eat better for energy and get decent sleep.
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Questions 3: The Bad Boy Topic Comes to an End

Posted on July 5, 2019 by Charles Yallowitz

Robin Hood and Marian

I was going to do a ‘Bad Boy Store’, but it wasn’t working out.  Didn’t hit the right notes and my own limitations on the topic proved problematic.  So, I dusted off the ‘Questions 3’ post even though I did something similar at the end of Monday’s post.  Figure it’s a nice time for audience interactions.  You can answer in a comment (you don’t have to copy/paste the question) or as a post on your own blog (please pingback), so let’s have some fun.

  1. Who is your favorite ‘Bad Boy’ from fiction?
  2. If you had to design a ‘Bad Boy’, what would be a necessity?
  3. Why do you think the ‘Bad Boy’ is so appealing to audiences?

Enjoy.

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Astronauts, In Their Own Words

Posted on July 5, 2019 by Charles Yallowitz

Not sure I’d want to do this. The view and floating sound cool. The toe pain and sweat do not.

Nicholas C. Rossis's avatarNicholas C. Rossis

Space travel | From the blog of Nicholas C. Rossis, author of science fiction, the Pearseus epic fantasy series and children's book Peggy Whitson in the cupola of the International Space Station

I don’t know about you, but it’s been one of my childhood dreams to travel in space. As a big sci-fi fan, I’ve watched a ton of movies, read even more books, wrote a few of them, and spent countless hours wondering what it must be really like to fly in space.

The Washington Post recently posted a wonderful post, 50 astronauts, in their own words. Filled with quotes and anecdotes, it conveys the feeling of actually being in one of the shuttles or the ISS, looking down on Earth.

Also, it’s a great writing resource, especially if you’re into near-future hard science fiction. Add any of these gems into your stories and give your books an extra level of realism.

The bathroom breaks suck. So does getting sweaty.

Space travel | From the blog of Nicholas C. Rossis, author of science fiction, the Pearseus epic fantasy series and children's book Sandy Magnus washes her hair aboard the space shuttle Atlantis

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Derailing Bedlam: Derailing the Detour Part 1 #fiction #adventure #July4th

Posted on July 4, 2019 by Charles Yallowitz

As usual, here is your warning that this story has cursing, sex (not graphic), innuendo, and violence.  It’s my Rated-R action adventure called Derailing Bedlam.  This is the fourth outing (third official) for Cassidy and Lloyd, so feel free to click on one of the two covers to see how it started.  Each one is 99 cents!

Cover by Jon Hunsinger

Cover Art by Jon Hunsinger

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Continue reading →

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7 Tips to Writing a Bad Boy: As If I Know What I’m Doing

Posted on July 3, 2019 by Charles Yallowitz

White Collar

As I said on Monday, I’m not really sure of what I’m doing.  I’m seeing that I do watch a bunch of shows that have ‘Bad Boy’ protagonists.  There are a few themes that I’ve seen that enhance their rebellious nature.  Might as well share what feeble insights I’ve garnered here:

  1. There has to be some level of charm.  It can be intentional charisma like Neal Caffrey from ‘White Collar’ or animal attraction like Angel or Spike from ‘Buffy’.  This is what draws people to the character instead of them being the loner, hated outsider that has no business being involved in the action.  You need there to be a reason this anti-norm character is permitted to be a part of the story when they aren’t going along with the social program.
  2. Pretty sure you don’t always need to give them a motorcycle, leather jacket, and cigarette.  I mean, they’re not always an extra from ‘Grease’.  Just so happens that a lot of them are fans of that movie and lifestyle.  Probably wouldn’t work in a fantasy setting since I can see fireballs and dragon breath igniting their hair within seconds of their first ‘Bad Boy’ scoff.
  3. You can enhance the anti-norm appearance of your ‘Bad Boy’ by giving him a straight-laced foil.  This can be a friend, an enemy, or a respected rival.  This person will follow the rules and give lectures on how one should behave.  You can also add some judging in, but be careful if you want them to be a protagonist as well.  All of this makes it clear how different the ‘Bad Boy’ is because you see the other side of the coin.
  4. If you’re going to reveal why they are ‘Bad Boys’ then make sure it’s a good reason.  It can be rebelling against parents, a sense of loneliness, apathy towards their own reputation, and any number of legitimate behavior origins.  What doesn’t really work is them simply being this because it’s who they are.  It could be true, but it rings a little hollow, especially if the character grew up in the society that they stand apart from.  All this requires is one brief explanation too.
  5. There’s no reason that you can’t do a female version.  It would be a ‘Bad Girl’, but that has an odd ring to it.  Maybe because it’s a phrase you see more in erotica?  You also have a different hurdle to overcome because audiences judge ‘Bad Girls’ a lot harsher than ‘Bad Boys’.  For some reason, the former doesn’t seem to have that same level of risk and danger.  Not saying it doesn’t happen, but they are rarer.
  6. Be careful about slipping into the realm of creepy.  Sure, your ‘Bad Boy’ is older and the younger protagonists are interested in him.  Yet, he’s hanging around a high school and isn’t a student.  Best to either move him to another location or reduce the age to a more believable level.  That or you can have them be someone who was left back a grade or two.
  7. Work them as a character before adding the label.  Aiming directly for ‘Bad Boy’ can lead to cliches and misfiring.  See if you can have it come out naturally.  This can be accomplished by designing the world first to see where they can rebel without crossing certain lines.  If you aren’t much of a planner then just go with the flow and look for opportunities for the ‘Bad Boy’ to be bad.
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Writing Your Novel’s Blurb

Posted on July 3, 2019 by Charles Yallowitz

Staci Troilo's avatarStory Empire

Ciao, amici. We’re wrapping up the Story Bible series of posts today. If you missed one or more of the posts, you can find them, in order of post date, by clicking the following links:

Today, we’re discussing how to write the back-of-book blurb.

writing the blurb

You’re probably wondering why a blurb, which isn’t needed until you’re ready to publish, is something I include in a story bible, which I create before I start writing even the first book in the series.

Three reasons.

One, your blurb covers only the most important and most marketable parts of your story. Keeping that in mind as you write will enable you to stay focused on what the most crucial parts of your story are.

Two, when you have a series, you want all your blurbs to follow the same format. That’s easiest…

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Teaser Tuesday: Meet Quail the . . . He’s Down Again! #fantasy #adventure

Posted on July 2, 2019 by Charles Yallowitz

Cover Art by Jason Pedersen

The strangest thing is that I seem to have only done one Teaser Tuesday for Legends of Windemere: Path of the Traitors.  I guess I had put the tradition on hold and forgot to bring it back.  Looking through it, a reason might be because it was littered with spoilers about the flanking books, but I’m still shocked that I couldn’t find anything.  I’m making up for it with a big chunk that involves Trinity, Fizzle, Timoran, and a new character by the name of Quail.  Enjoy!

Continue reading →

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Does Everyone Really Love a Bad Boy?

Posted on July 1, 2019 by Charles Yallowitz

A while back, somebody suggested I write a few posts on the ‘Bad Boy’ concept.  I agreed thinking it shouldn’t be too hard.  Now, I’m sitting here trying to figure out what I was thinking.  Seriously, this feels like it’s outside of my ballpark because ‘Bad Boy’s in my mind don’t really appear outside of romances and dramas.  Then again, I’m using a very narrow definition.  Let me try to enhance it by some stream of consciousness writing.

The ‘Bad Boy’ is a male character who stands against societal behavior norms in some fashion.  It can be the clothes they wear, the food they eat, how they talk, or any number of things that make them an outcast.  Yet, they aren’t like your ‘nerd’ and ‘introvert’ outcasts because there’s a sense of ‘coolness’ about them.  Some are even rather social, especially if you include charismatic villains such as Loki and Joker.  I mean, these two have actual fandoms that root for them to win.  Those are extreme, so most of your ‘Bad Boys’ will be your rebel/mysterious stranger types.  You really drive them home when someone is trying to change their ways, which is why you see them so often in romances and teen dramas.  It’s definitely more attitude-driven than anything else.

I never really got into this concept, but I think I can get an idea of why they have so much appeal to audiences and other characters.  Physiologically, there is an adrenaline rush from interacting with a ‘Bad Boy’.  They tend to have this aura of danger or risk because of that anti-norm activity/description.  It’s naughty to be interested in them since you don’t know what will happen.  This feeds a psychological desire to break a rut and shake up your own world.  A person can’t stay the same if they interact with this potential catalyst for change.  This might be why there are times where it seems the attraction is more to what the ‘Bad Boy’ stands for than who or what they are.  It also goes contrary to the attempt to tame him and bring him closer to the norms.  This is where the concept tends to lose me, but I don’t think I’m the target audience for these guys.

As an author, I can see how this is a difficult character to work with.  You want them to be attractive to the other protagonists and the audience, so having them be bad to the point of asshole is a mistake.  Yet, you can’t have them be too nice and approachable since you need that risk factor.  Creating an explanation for their behavior helps since a tragic background or a misunderstanding can add a dimension of understanding.  The trick is to get to that point without losing the audience.  Hit it too soon and you ruin the ‘Bad Boy’ image long before the climax.  Too late and he comes off as an antagonist with a desperate attempt by the author to redeem him.  So, how can you handle this without falling into either trap?

I really don’t have any clear idea.  Perhaps the best thing to do is to write the character as he is in your head and let the cards fall where they may.  ‘Bad Boys’ that are designed specifically for that category come off as forced and shallow.  The dynamic rebels and anti-social guys tend to be very human.  They’re simply different from everyone else and treated as such.  Establishing the society at first helps because one reader might see a ‘Bad Boy’ while another sees a regular person and a third sees a villain.  You really have to prevent pre-existing beliefs on how humans should act from taking the forefront if you want a widely accepted ‘Bad Boy’.  Heck, you need this for any character, but it’s really true for those that go against norms.

What do you think about the ‘Bad Boy’ archetype?  Ever try to write?  Did you accidentally write one?

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