Andron.CA

Dark designs, dangerous schemes…

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I want to give people a little peek behind the scenes and update them on some of the writing projects I’m currently working on.

Writing Projects – The Black Skull

Earlier this year, I had released my first short novel, The Black Skull: Accused. This was a lot of fun to write, letting me combine 1930s era masked vigilantes with some high octane run and gun type action. The Black Skull has been a character that’s been with me for years, and I’m really happy to be able to share him with readers.

I’ve been busy writing a follow-up novel to accused. This one, called Madman, takes the Black Skull and puts him up against a terrifying serial killer hell-bent on turning New York City into his own personal slaughterhouse. I’ve completed the outline on the book, and currently have the first couple of chapters complete. It’s going to take a bit more time to get it done, but speaking for myself, it’s going to be well worth the wait. Madman isn’t going to be your typical superhero/pulp hero book. Instead, expect elements of horror mixed in with the same action that is in Accused. Expect this book out in the early part of next year. Based on the outline, Madman is going to be several times longer than Accused and is currently budgeted at 90,000 words.

Writing for an Animated Webseries

Side-by-side with Madman, I’m developing a pilot for a web series that blends modern espionage, counter-terrorism, and superheroes in some rather…unusual…ways. I’m about halfway done the initial script, and expect to have it completed by Halloween. Production is going to start in December, with the pilot being released by late spring.

The rise in computer power and GPU-based renderers, such as Otoy’s Octane, make it very possible to do Pixar level animation on your home computer. I want to make this particular episode look as good as some of the highest quality animation that we’ve seen in television or film. Keep watching for still images and animations as we start getting closer to production and you can judge for yourselves.

National Novel Writing Month

Finally, I decided to take my first swing at NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). As if I didn’t have enough stuff on my plate already, I’m going to turn myself into a cyber-hermit for the next month as I try to hit the target of 50,000 words in the first draft of a brand-new project. For those unfamiliar with NaNoWriMo, it’s a form of self-challenge writing competition where there participants all try to writing 50,000 words in a single month.

I’ve talked in the past about trying to manage the flow of ideas. For some people, myself especially, we are cursed with an abundance of ideas and a sheer lack of time to deal with them. In order to help filter out some of the ideas that flow towards me like water from a fire hose, I’ve taken to simply outlining ideas and then putting them away into an archive to let them gel. The ones that still compel me after a year or so are the ones that have that X factor that can give me the momentum to take them from raw concept to finished story in the hundreds of hours it takes to refine and finalize them. Sometimes though, ideas hit you with the force of a tidal wave and they knock you over. That’s what happened to me with the idea for national novel writing month. I’m currently working on the outline for this and racing the clock to get the outline done by the end of this month. Wish me luck.

If I manage to hit my 50,000 word target for November, I expect it’s still going to take at least another 30,000 words to complete, and several months to refine and make it ready for publication. Expect to have this book released this coming summer.

Keep checking back for more information.

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Breaking Radio Silence…

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It’s been a bit quiet here on Andron.ca for the past month. April has been a remarkably productive period for me.

In the past month, I have completed a short novel, created two pieces of cover art, and completed a motion capture collection.  So yeah, productive’s the right word.

I’m going to talk a little bit more about the novel later on as we get closer to release, but it’s enough to say that I was able to put this together very quickly. I got started doing the plotting on it in mid-January, and then proceeded to write fairly regularly over the next month and a half. The last month and change has consisted of doing revisions and tweaking of the novel to get it ready for release. I also wanted to make sure that I left enough time for the novel to sit so I could give it an effective proofreading before doing the final release.

Now, it becomes a matter of putting together the website and other promotional materials and going through an entire preflight checklist of all of the various details that have to be ready prior to the book’s release. It’s been a very interesting project to work on, and I’m looking forward to finally getting it out into the public’s hands.

So, what’s next?

I have a second novel that has been completely plotted, and I’m already starting to work on it. I’ve also taken on a larger project, which is scripting a web series. The multi-episode web series is going to be a challenge to write, simply because of the combination of structure and length. The outline for the the web series should be completed completed within the next two weeks, and the script itself done ideally by the end of June. Then, I can start taking a look at various production options.

As part of the development process, I’m going to be making regular posts on the blog describing the progress of each stage of this web series. I’m not going to talk about the subject matter of the series, at least not yet. Ideas can be delicate things, and they can lose their luster if they’re shared among too many people.

Besides, I have often found that simply having the idea isn’t enough. You have to get it to a prototype stage before you can start really working it and discovering its true potential. Once you have it in a concrete form, no matter how rough, the idea acquires substance at that point. Then, and only then, are you able to start polishing it until it shines.

Also, when you have it in a concrete form, that gives you credibility when you show it  to others for their help in taking the idea to the next stage. While there are people who are able to excite others just on the strength of their oratory and ephemeral ideas, I’m not one of them.  Like I’ve written in the past, ideas can be like drinking from a firehose. They can come all at once and flow down the drain just as quickly. Managing that creative flow is a sign of real professionalism.

In my next post on this, I’ll talk about the scope of the project. That will give you an idea of the challenge that awaits over the next couple of weeks.

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Writing a script for an animated webseriesDark designs, dangerous schemes… Getting Started

A World of Media

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Welcome to andron.ca. We will be looking at a world of media and how technology has made it possible for anyone to create their own books, movies, games, and much more.

I’ve been involved in media creation for far longer than I want to admit, and I’m especially excited by the possibilities offered by this brave new world. We will be talking about the works that I’m creating, and also about the methods. So, if you’re interested in science fiction, adventure, pulp, fantasy, fantasy, gaming, or what could be classed as “genre” media, or in how they are made, then stick around.

This is going to be fun.

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