Steve’s Update 3/9/2014

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Another busy week and recovering from the illness.  Be careful folks, wash your hands, and if you get sick do not freaking go into work – or anywhere else.

  • So the next book is still in editing, and I found some uncaught formatting standardization errors.  I think I got them all but it took hours of work.  So the next print is make or break, if there’s anything bad it could throw me off by a week or so.  Fortunately, the issues really are bits and tweaks – the content is fine (after looking over the book constantly for two days I found maybe 3 issues of content, and that was odd phrasings or a weird capitalization).
  • As noted the next book is a ways off, and I haven’t decided what it is.  But I definitely want to wrap up and bundle the Way With Worlds posts so I can give people a nice “handbook” of my work.  I ASSUME it’ll be after I’m done, but if it appears that my mojo is really going and I’ll be doing this more than a year, well . . . maybe two books . . .
  • We’ve got more content coming at MuseHack so be sure to sign in!  I haven’t had many interviews laterly, so Mondays may be intermittent, but we’ve got one new writer on communities, and I’ve auditioned another that’s going to bring a really unique view on math, education, and statistics to geekery!
  • The illness kicked me right off my Seventh Sanctum plans since the next generator moved down the hierarchy there.  I have some humorous/more fun ones to try that I may do since they’re easier.

And that’s it here.  Let me know how you’re doing!

- Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, publishes books on career and culture at http://www.informotron.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at http://www.stevensavage.com/.

 

Update 3/4/2014

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Well I was sick most of last week so there’s not much else to say.

Hopefully the next proof of the book is the last so I can consider it formatted, then I can set everything up for the final big release!  I do plan to do an online release party when I have time, so stay tuned.

Until then, back at it . . .

- Steven Savage

Breaking Gotham

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I like the idea of Gotham: really a young Jim Gordon who’s life intersects with future superheroes (Batman in the form of a bereaved Bruce Wayne) and super villains (everyone else).  The basic idea is intriguing, though the implementation would be challenging, and the initial script sounds pretty dismal.  Also I wonder how long it could be done legitimately without running out of ideas or going in circles.

Besides, we’ve done a lot with the heroes.  So let me suggest we take a tip from the success of Breaking Bad and do a show about the villains, how they came to be, and how they end up.

Yes villains.  Plural.

Imagine a series of interlinked tales as we explore the lives of several villains as they come to be, interact, plot, and scheme.  As they come into their own, they’re haunted by The Batman, who is almost never seen on screen, but is a shadowy presence haunting them.  In a way, Batman would almost be like the stalking killer in a horror movie, a shadowy presence tormenting them and pushing them – and only later do you remember these are thieves, madmen, and murderers.

Over time they start to team up, a sort of loose alliance, filled with with friendships and rivalries, romance and unrequited love, and of course disturbing psychological problems and backstabbing.  Schemes and criminal plans start, goals are pursued . . .

Then The Batman starts winning.  Slowly, and surely one of the villains after the other are taken to Arkham or otherwise lost.  Slowly their numbers dwindle, their nerves fray, betrayal, accusation, and brutal violence set in.

Finally there’s only one left.  The Joker, alone, sitting in a room, abandoned by his henchmen, Harley Quinn in prison, petting one of his hyenas.  Then there’s the sound of a man walking into the room, and his shadow is like that of a bat.  The Joker, tired, beaten, exhausted, looks up, smiles, and simply asks “What took you so long?”

Series ends.

- Steven Savage

Oh We Can’t Make THAT Movie

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There’s so many geeky properties coming out in film and TV and games that when someone says “oh, that won’t work as a movie” or something it sounds weird.  For the gods’s sake Peter Dinklage is THE fantasy hero and Marvel is giving us an uplifted Racoon with a machine gun who rides a sentient tree.  Make no assumptions (except that Peter Dinklage is an incredible talent).

So in honor of an “un-adaptable” geek movie let me add this intro as how I’d do this particular property . . .

 

Some of us stand guard over the gates of Hell.

For some people they seem something horrible and all their ideas of reality break and they have to do something. Others they get recruited because some of us know they can take it. People like me, well, it’s a family business.

I deal with things no one wants to talk about, things we can’t talk about, echoes in the dark and things out of horror novels. My dad did it for decades, paid the price, and got out. My grandfather, well, he’s why my dad and I do what we do, because he didn’t ask for it, but he did his duty when the time came.

It goes back to World War II. Bad times and horrible things, but so much more horrible than most people know. People talk about it a bit, but not much, but around the edges the stories leak out; dark technology, corpse-eating creatures on the battlefields, human sacrifice, and far more. My grandfather stumbled into it by accident, which is a family trait to be fair.

So he started to solve things. He got good at solving things even if it required shooting people or things that were once people between the eyes, which was admittedly his preferred method. He and some of his mates, they got sent after things that didn’t wear a helmet or carry a gun, or whose uniform was a human face. Most of his old gang is gone now, and those that are alive, it does’t seem very natural.

It was hard on him. Hard on them. It took its toll. Until he met The Angel.

He talks about The Angel now and then, but only to a few of us. Hope and someone to fight with. Something that made him believe. Someone who was there in the midst of it all, all the blood and the terror and the wrongness.

The Angel is what kept him sane. Kept him alive. The Angel helped him and others, so many others, slam shut the gates of Hell.

That was decades ago. Grampa is gone and the notes people knew about confiscated and people would like to forget. Dad didn’t forget. I didn’t.

Only now . . .

See The Angel had a daughter. She’s here now. Somethings going to go wrong, something bad is happening.

It’s time for me to take my turn guarding the gates of Hell.

I always knew this would happen since I saw those notes in my dad’s terrible latin, all on a very poor photo.

Angeli. The Angel. Miraculum Mulier. The Wonder Woman.

Time to find her. Time to do my duty.

Steven Ezekiel Trevor III, 2014

Unfilmable? Nah.  Some people need to have the courage to do it right.

- Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, publishes books on career and culture at http://www.informotron.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at http://www.stevensavage.com/.

Update 2/23/2014

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Well wish I had more to report, but last week, despite the vacation, became a real time sucker.  So what’s been up?

  • The Next Book formatting is almost done or is close.  It looks really good, but I want to be careful as it’s nearly 300 pages – and I want to look over the ebooks as well.  Still aiming end of March.
  • Crossroads Alpha‘s recruiting drive went well.  If you want to write for any of the sites, let me know!  Be sure to visit, we just added Psycho Drive In!
  • I really have not done much with Seventh Sanctum because of my schedule, but am still kicking around some new generator ideas – I really want to get to something with plot twists or writing prompts, but we’ll see.  Also thanks to “Guardians of the Galaxy” I am thinking of silly generators for Bad Ass Animals like Rocket Raccoon (“Howitzer Hyena! Bomb Budgie!”) or SF hero titles like Star Lord (“Planet Protector!  Galaxy Queen!”) – though that might be useful.

On top of this I’m also working to finish a certification.  So yeah, it’s a bit nuts, but I think I’m seeing light at the end of the tunnel.

 

Update 2/16/2014

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So what’s up with me?

  • I’ve got my next book in all formats – ePub, Kindle, PDF, and Print.  I’ll need to wait for the print versions to be validated by the POD engine and then review a copy of it – and I’m sure I’ll give the other formats another look over out of sheer paranoia.
  • Crossroads Alpha added a new alliance member, Psycho Drive In!  Check it out!
  • I’m looking at a potential contributor for MuseHack, and have a first submission to review for The Codex at Seventh Sanctum.
  • Busy working on my ITIL certification.  By the way, if you work in IT services?  Check this certification out – very worth it.

- Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, publishes books on career and culture at http://www.informotron.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at http://www.stevensavage.com/.

 

Update 2/9/2014

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Hello everyone, hope you’re all doing well.  What’s up with me?

  • I am now formatting the book.  I am never sure how long this is going to take since between tool updates, lessons learned, and my different kinds of book it’s a tad unpredictable.  I’m hopefully going to finish by Monday next week so I can get a test print early.  But we’ll see.
  • You saw the new Magic Guild Generator, so now after a break, I’ll decide what’s next to do.
  • We are recruiting at Crossroads Alpha. Stay tuned for more to come from that side . . .
  • I’m lining up some more speaking events, but still haven’t finalized my spring/summer schedule.  I actually should get to that shouldn’t I?
  • I do need to do more here on my site.  I got a lot of cooking I want to post, some actual relevant things about me, so we’ll see.  I’m definitely going BACK to my old method of consolidating writing time.

That’s all for me – what about you?

- Steven Savage

 

Update 1/28/2014

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This one is a bit late, as I have been busy at work, speaking at AODSF, then getting sick.  So yeah, a bit crazy.

  • The book is in the last editing stage.  So this weekend is the last run through then I start formatting for  . . . all the different formats.  Not as easy as it sounds because no matter what, Print, PDF, Nook/ePub, and Kindle are all different.
  • Got some more cooking notes coming.  I have a new stage of my curry experiments and a new sauce.  And a side dish.  But seriously, whatever I caught at AODSF is sticking around.
  • I am now delaying my next book – whatever it is – for a quarter so I can settle a lot of other things I’m doing – crossroads Alpha, getting new writers, etc.
  • The next generator for Seventh Sanctum is delayed because of the above.  But it’s close to done.

- Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, publishes books on career and culture at http://www.informotron.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at http://www.stevensavage.com/.

Curry Diary 1/21/2014: Milestone Curry #5

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Been cooking my last curry variant for awhile, and it’s good enough to consider another Milestone.  So here’s the summary of my experiments – I wanted to remake it a few times, and after remaking it so often without tweaking it it was like “yeah, that’s pretty good!”

So here’s the full recipe!
Continue reading →

Steve’s Update 1/19/2014

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Hello everyone.  What’s up?  Well . . . too much.

  • Post Crossroads Alpha I’ve been posting on my sites about what we’re doing, which takes a surprising amount of time.
  • Editing the next book of course, which got a wee bit behind.  I’m trying to read it backwards and that is an amazing way to edit work, but it takes time.  It just catches a lot.  This is going to be good – but definitely won’t be out in March.
  • Working on a new generator at Seventh Sanctum, to make magical guilds.  The initial request was more specific based off of an anime called Fairy Tail, but the list of guilds there inspired me to make this broader.  It’s also another generator that’s making me look closer at language.
  • Work of course.  I don’t think I’ve even had time to game on Steam or anything except for a few minutes.
  • Resume coaching.  Just did a rough draft resume for a client.
  • Preparing for AODSF.

You get the idea.

Now one important thing on my next book.  I’m going to take a book writing a few months both to relax and still work on that theme – geek charities/citizenship/causes isn’t quite coming together for me yet.  I also am seriously thinking of rolling up past works in more accessible formats like I did to create some of my eBooks, or just make them more accessible.  So consider my next plans still brewing, but no start – or stop – date yet.

- Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, publishes books on career and culture at http://www.informotron.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at http://www.stevensavage.com/.