Merry Christmas, Lone Wolf was an immense amount of fun to write, and once it was complete, I *knew* I had to get a scene from it illustrated. Thankfully Hufnaar was super amenable to a slightly faster than normal cadence, and he really did fantastic work on the piece. Details in it that clearly fit with my story, despite the fact that I didn't point them out. Either it was serendipity, or he went above and beyond and read my story, with an amazing attention to detail. And apparently the story resonated with folks, because it's my most fave'd/voted piece to date, even moreso than some of the artwork I've had commissioned! Though, I think that's a little bit of a networking effect kicking in. The folks who are following me are mostly for the stories, whereas you look at Hufnaar's page, and his version of the artwork has like 100+ faves (not that he doesn't deserve them, oh man, his art is so good!). But honestly, in the end, I wrote something that I thought I would like, and if folks happen to like it too, great :)

Still plugging away at Merge Conflict. It's slow work, I won't lie. I have a bunch of ideas rattling around my head, but I'm not sure I'm at a place where I can really dig deep into it. Rather, I keep having a Werewolf story bouncing around my brain instead, so I might pump that out and still poke and prod at my novel. My day job is, frankly, exhausting, and on top of that I run a D&D game, am a Raid Leader in WoW, and run a gaming blog, so my time is a bit... split. Completely my own doing, mind you.

I'll be back in Canada for Christmas, visiting the family. Might get some time to write, or read, but mostly just looking at family get-togethers. And then 2014! The Future!

So a happy holidays or Merry Christmas or whatever you celebrate, enjoy it :) And for good measure have a WoW-Parody about a giant dinosaur eating a WoW-raid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLUDpw92BQg

​I know I said this in my last journal, but I'm not dead and I am actively working on things. Super ultra important stuff came up (namely a whack of paperwork, medical examinations, etc. for my permanent residence application, yay for not getting deported!) that's kept my off-hours quite busy, and well, when your writing is but a hobby to be done in your off-time, it unfortunately has a lot to compete with. However, I have completed defining character arcs and character interactions for Merge Conflict, as well as a high level outline, and have 4 chapters of the low-level outline complete. I'm aiming to have 3 ~ 4 low-level outlines done a week for October, which by November should have me at 15 - 20 chapters outlined at a minimum. If I can eke out the time, perhaps I can have the outline complete for November and then spend NaNoWriMo pumping out half of Merge Conflict. We shall see.

In the meantime, I have commissions for more artwork from Merge on the way. Chris still remains to be fleshed out in art, and hopefully that comes in by the end of the month. I also have set up a scene from Merge Chapter 3 (Tests), which should be awesome that I'm really excited about, but again, that likely won't be done until mid-November at the earliest (you can't rush art!).

All in all, things are moving behind the scenes, but that's generally not visible so here we are.

So I'm still alive and kicking, but got a wee bit distracted between work and Tales of Xillia. Excellent game in the Tales series, though I've seen nearly all of the major plot devices from other Tales games in one manner or another. Combat as always is super fun, and the characters are way more engaging than in Tales of Graces. Also, as you can see in the header picture here: https://www.sofurry.com/view/578164, I managed to dress up my mercenary, Alvin, like an anthro dog, ears, sorta-muzzle, and tail :D And he's so cute XD

Anywho, I'm full steam ahead at this point on Merge Conflict planning, so expect more information on that Soon™.

So it's apparently been approximately a year since I started posting Merge (on FA). I've been digging into the outline for the sequel, Merge Conflict, but I doubt I'll have Chapter 1 ready for August 12th, which is the date I started this journey. Strangely enough, that's also the anniversary of when I moved to the US... huh, that's quite the coincidence. Anywho, rest assured I am working on stuff between work, running raids, travel, immigration paperwork, and so on! I keep myself pretty busy, but I think I'd go nuts if I didn't.

Feel free to spout your crackpot theories about what you'll think will happen. I love hearing what folks think will happen next, even when they're wrong. :D

Hey folks! Back from my vacation, and oh man, it was so good! PAX Aus was awesome, and so was Australia and Hawaii! But now I am sick, and oh so tired because sleep is all wonky. BUT! I have most of the final part of Foxfyre complete, just need to finish it off and touch it up, and we'll be good to go, so expect that in the next week or so :) And now to catch up on all of my mails, etc.

Guys, guys, guys, I found my muse! She was hiding at the bar, behind the Mai Tais and Blue Hawaiians. Might need to heavily edit the chapter later, though...

So I never did get to part 4 of Foxfyre before I left on vacation, so now I'm in beautiful sunny (and omg humid/hot) Hawaii beating the heat. The days are filled with walking, sand, and swimming, but the nights for the most part are just me in my room taking it easy, so I may actually be working on my story over my vacation. Also, the flight to Australia afterwards will be arduous and long, so I'm actually working on the outline for Merge Conflict. So many ideas! Anywho, hopefully I'll have Foxfyre finished up by next week, but no promises there if my vacation turns out to be more awesome than initially expected!

So first of all, if you've never seen Strip Search, I highly recommend it. A reality web series about the next big webcomic artist run by Penny Arcade, and it's really like a reality tv show where everyone is nice. The first part of the finale just aired, and I really want all the artists to win. Seriously. Go here: http://penny-arcade.com/strip-search. It's been highly entertaining and OMG I need to know. The cliffhanger finale is killing me!

Also, my bad for slacking on my writing. I know it's been 3 weeks rather than my customary 2, but I kinda decided to make a run through the Mass Effect series (because Kaiden and Man-Shep need lovin') and I completed all three games in just over 3 weeks. But this weekend I'm working on Foxfyre. I plan on making Foxfyre a three-parter, so hopefully part 2 should be up early next week, and part 3 should be complete before I leave on my vacation.

Speaking of which I'm going to PAX Australia in July! So I'll be in Hawaii for a few days early July, then Sydney for a few days bumming around and seeing the sights, and then Melbourne for PAX Aus. The long flights as well as a little downtime in a foreign country might allow me to get some planning done on Merge Conflict. We'll see how that looks. But I'll be gone from the 6th of July through the 23rd, so expect no updates during that period at all (hence why I want Foxfyre done before I leave).

Anywho, that's where I'm at :) Be on the lookout!

Completing Merge is an awesome feeling for me. It was by far the biggest project I've undertaken, at nearly 100k words. I've never done NaNoWriMo or anything of the sort, and my early forays were more short stories, or at best novellas. Like 12 years ago I was actively posting works on the Pokémaster forums (which is apparently still going, holy cow), and I finished a Pokémon medieval fanfiction novella of about 20k words and a short story of 6k words, and another Pokémon/Cardcaptor Sakura crossover fic of about 20k words (though never finished that one). The writing in those projects was terrible, though. Too much telling, not enough showing, and ye gads, the sentence structure and pacing was awful.

Then a while later I took some creative writing classes in college, and that helped a fair bit. Learning a lot more about meter, diction, flow, and more of the technical skills helped immensely, but there was still a little je ne sais quoi missing from my style. I started Merge a decade ago around that time, too. Got about ten chapters in and then stopped. Ten years later I got back into writing, and decided, dammit, I'm going to finish Merge. I liked the concepts, but I rewrote it as a furry piece, as well as applying my more mature self to the work. Even though I wasn't actively writing fiction for those ten years, I'm amazed at how much my style had changed in that time just by getting older, wiser, and more mature. Well, older, perhaps :)

To be fair, looking at the first chapters of Merge and my last few chapters, it's clear that I've improved still since starting the project 8 months ago. Which kinda rankles me, because consistency... or lack thereof. But whatever, it's internet published for free, not going to stress over it too much. Just hopefully I can apply the lessons I've learned and tools I've found to continue improving.

Anywho, future projects! My previous journal asked folks if there were specific characters from Merge they'd like to learn more about, and I've gotten Axel's history and Laura's job as primary points of interest, so perhaps I'll write a couple short stories there eventually. In the meantime I've been playing around with a magic cyberpunk-esque dystopian future. Probably just another short story, but if I like the characters or the setting enough, maybe a series of shorts may be in order. At least I'll have some free time this weekend to finish it off. Also probably a couple more erotica/smut pieces in the future too, because those are fun :)

And that's where I'm at! Basically, expect more stuff soonish!

The last chapter of Merge is written and in editing (a week earlier than normal, yay!). It's a bit bittersweet, because I have loved writing the story, and I'll be honest, the chapter is a bit of a downer to end the first book on. But that's correct, there are more books after to come! I'm in the midst of planning out the story of the second volume, but it'll be a few months before I actually start writing that book in earnest. There's a few one-offs I want to do that have nothing to do with the Merge universe, but perhaps I'll write a couple short stories around some of the characters from their past to tide us all over in the meantime.

But here's a question to my watchers. Were there any characters you wanted to hear more about their past? A specific incident that was hinted at in Merge, or just more about your favorite character in general?

So my 30th birthday was a roaring success. Nothing quite says wacky hijinks like playing Cards Against Humanity with your coworkers, your parents, and your other groups of friends all at once. It was... interesting.

With that out of the way, Chapter 23 is indeed on the way. I'm hoping to have it ready for final editing by tomorrow night, and posted by Tuesday. We'll see if I can keep to that! But for now, here's a little preview:

---

Hopping to the left, Matt felt the heat of two fireballs narrowly miss his head. Another icicle flew from his paw and another imp dissolved into nothingness. The sprinklers finally kicked in, dousing the remnants of the great wooden double doors of the pub with water. Barely missing the husky, another fiery projectile blasted the wet floor beside him and caused the spray from the impact to burn his legs. Yelping, Matt fell onto his back, away from the scalding steam.

Chris tried not to put much weight on his injured leg. Dancing on one hoof, however, was difficult. Still, the moose gave the barl’gura a run for his money. A left jab, followed by a right hook and another left jab as he hopped to the side. None of the hits were solid, but Chris had taken Rhisanth’s advice to heart. There were no other combatants, and he needn’t -- couldn’t -- fear that he would hurt one of his friends. So even a glancing blow was enough to cause the demonic orangutan to roar in defiance, if not pain. Despite that, the demon still managed to rake its claws over Chris’ new jacket. More blood seeped out, blending with the color of the fabric. He knew he couldn’t take much more punishment.

30.

No, not chapter 30, but I'm turning 30 this weekend! I'm throwing a huge bash so unfortunately I may have inadvertently taken a week off as far writing Merge is concerned. Chapter 23 is planned and roughed out, but needs actual writing and editing still, and with 3 full days of partying, plus crazy work hours, plus planning, etc. I find myself a tad short on time. So I ask forgiveness for a late chapter, but I do hope to get more of it done this week if I can to put it up early next week. Assuming I'm not nursing the mother of all hangovers by Monday :P Anywho, onto a new decade, woo woo!

Chapter 22 is complete and in editing. It ended up being about 50% longer than most of the chapters in this section so far, but it should hopefully be suitably epic. We're closing in on the end, so hang on to your hats. I hope to have it posted either Monday or Tuesday :)

So PAX East was aaaaaaawwwwwesssssome! And long and tiring. And work is still insane. BUT, I am working on Chapter 22, and it'll be exciting and fun! That is all :D

So as you can see, Chapter 21 has been posted. Short, but pretty damn intense. It honestly kinda wrote itself, which I take to be a good thing. In the end, the characters are what's important, and if I've done my job shaping them correctly, then their personalities should make the outcomes of encounters pretty easy to write. Only a few more chapters left of Merge! Then onto the next book in the series (though I may take a bit of a break to outline the next one). But given the rate of chapters right now, we're still talking ending in mid-May to June kinda deal.

But I'm pretty excited as Merge comes to a climax (sadly, not that kind of a climax, but that reminds me, I want to write more one-off stories like Happy New Year, Lone Wolf (http://www.furaffinity.net/view/9610799/), which incidentally is my most popular piece of work... of 2 pieces of work XD), and either everyone will be like aw yeah, crazy awesome, or y'all will be so mad with me. Or both >.>. Or maybe ambivalent, who knows? Either way, I'm mostly excited about actually finishing a novel-length piece of work. I've never written a piece this long before. Heck, we're up to 83273 words so far, which is the low end of average for novel length according to the internet. That might be more writing than I've done on all my other works combined in my life. It's been awesome fun so far, though, and I don't plan on stopping!

Still have two more pieces of character artwork. Kael is in progress currently, but I need a commisioner for Chris, the moose. If you're interested in drawing Chris, I can pay cash monies for such a drawing. Message me!

Next weekend I'll be in Boston for PAX East, so I probably won't get much time to work on my story, but I'll be conventioning, yay!

Chapter 20 is finished and still needs editing, and chapter 21 is on its way. Again, sorry for the lengthy time between chapters, work is still nutty busy, leaving me pretty well mentally useless during the week. I was going to get writing done yesterday, but then an opportunity to go to Emerald City Comic Con came up and I did that instead >.> It was fun enough, but I think I'm bigger on gaming conventions than comic conventions. One day I may get to a furry convention, we'll see about that.

Either way, expect an update sooooon. It focuses a bit more on Axel, so that'll be fun! Also, I've got a couple more commissioned pieces of artwork out there, so hopefully those come in soon too! I'm really excited about them!

I'm still alive, and still working on my writing. A bit tough between 70+ hours a week at work, but hopefully by the end of this weekend I'll have something at least ready for editing, if not posted. But it's always interesting exploring when someone thinks something is a good idea, but it turns out to be a really bad one.

So Chapter 18 is posted! As mentioned in a comment at the end of the post, this is the end of "Book 2", bringing us to a small time shift and the final few chapters of this novel. Apparently Chapters 00 - 18 come to a total of about 75k words! I expect we'll be in the range of 100k - 110k (7ish chapters depending on length) by the time we're done Merge. Then on to planning the next novel in the series! Though I might take a short break to write more one-offs like Happy New Year, Lone Wolf as fun exercises. And perhaps run through the entire book as a whole and apply new editing techniques I've picked up, though I don't expect that to change the book significantly, just make scenes flow better, etc.

Also, you may have noticed arts! I've been commissioning some artists, and the work has turned out wonderfully! To go with the arts we have some short biographies of characters, as well. We have Matt Lancaster by  ninjav, of course, the very first piece of art I ever commissioned. We also have Laura Moretti by  nyne, and both Kazar and Axel Stephenson by  dark-razvan. Saving up a little cash and hopefully we'll get Chris, Kael, Jay and Rhisanth done soonish too! Kael's a bit tougher to find an artist for because 1) kangaroo and 2) fat.

Anywho, enjoy! I know I am!

 Kumorifox1982 suggested on my previous journal that perhaps I should just post the scene I was concerned about, assuming it had no spoilers, and see what people thought. Basically, I was concerned it came off as awkward or too preachy. It's certainly well within the characters' motivations, though, so that much I'm confident on. Anywho, below is scene as it currently stands. Is it okay? Is it strange? Is it confusing? Does it suck? Don't hold back!

---

Kael stared at his computer screen as he clicked through article after article. The world's largest particle accelerator; a politician caught being indiscreet with a mistress; mass hallucinations and their potential causes. The kangaroo wasn't really digging that deep into the material, however. He was too busy arguing with himself.

'Matt's been gone for a while, and I still haven't tried to talk to Dias. But the last time I talked to the dude, I ended up with my mind hidden away while he ran around in my body. But Matt said if I was careful, I could keep that from happening again.'

A knock at the door broke his train of thought. "Come in, dude!"

The door opened inward and revealed Axel in his jeans and t-shirt. After walking in and shutting the door, the german shepherd leaned against the wall with his arms crossed. Kael thought the fur was rather intimidating, despite his constantly friendly demeanor.

"I came to check up on Matt, but I guess he's not here, eh? So how's the kangaroo friend doing?"

Kael rolled his eyes at the mention of the nickname. "I'm fine, thanks, man. But hey, while you're here I have a question."
"Shoot."

"Well," Kael spun in his seat so he was facing the standing shepherd squarely, "I noticed you wear a cross. I saw you playing with the necklace yesterday at the park."

Axel tugged on the silver chain to reveal a small cross. Flipping it about in a tawny paw, Axel shrugged. "Yeah? And?"

"How do you deal with being religious and practicing magic? Witchcraft?"

"Oh, that's it?" Axel stepped forward and sat on Matt's bed. He flicked his ears at the kangaroo as he continued, "To me it's about faith, rather than the rules. Religions have so many rules than no fur could follow them all, no matter how hard he tried."

Kael stared at his long feet, wiggling the toes against the short-pile carpet before answering. "Plenty of terrible things have been done in the name of religion, like the Crusades, or hating on the gays."

"And plenty good. Helpin' the poor, or the directionless. Medieval science had a huge boost by churches, too. But all of that, the good 'n bad, was done by furs, not my God or yours."

The kangaroo snorted and shook his head. "Funny, Dias said almost the exact same thing."

"I knew you had to be thinkin' about that Dias guy." Axel leaned back on his elbows and grinned at the 'roo. "You think he's a god?"

"Is there a difference? The dude might as well be one. At least, Laura figures so. I don't know."

"Sure there's a difference. Maybe he's as fallible as the rest of us, with his own motives."

"I'm a physicist, or at least studying to become one. I never figured I'd suddenly be talking philosophy and faith."

Axel sat up again and reached across the tiny room to put a paw on Kael's shoulder. "I feel like learnin' magic for the greater good to help furs is the right thing to do. There's nothin' for me to deal with as long as I'm doing the right thing, 'cause then I'm being true to my faith."

"Yeah, but then how do I know that I'm doing the right thing?" Kael pushed off the german shepherd's paw and began to pace the short room.

"That's a hard question to answer. For me, my parents and church taught me that as long as I'm helpin' others without hurtin' them, then it must be the right thing to do. Pretty simple, but it's worked so far." Axel's brown eyes were staring straight at the worried 'roo. "Do you think you did the right thing with Dias?"

"It saved Laura, Matt, and Chris, so probably. But it still doesn't feel right." Kael ran his claws through his black hair, pulling at it as he agonized. "Feels strange knowing this dude has so much power over what I do and who I am."

"So do your family and friends, or even the government. Why is addin' God to that list so different?"

"Yeah, but I can disown my parents, or tell my friends to screw off. Or I can break the law or tell the government to shove off. Might be consequences, but I've got that choice."

Axel shrugged. "And that's no different from my faith. I could ignore my faith, but I need to be prepared for the consequences of that. We've all got that choice."

The kangaroo looked at the cop for a few moments. The german shepherd was resolute in his faith, and Kael thought he was a good fur. A smile still gracing his brown muzzle, the shepherd cocked his head at Kael as the silence dragged on.

"I've never thought of it that way. At least, it was never taught to me that way. I mean, I wasn't ready to trust Dias when he told me all the same stuff you're telling me now, but it makes sense. I still control my own destiny, and my own choices. That having faith, or following a faith doesn't mean I have to lose who I am, or be doomed to be a sheep."

Axel nodded. "Yup."

"Dude, you've helped me a lot. Thanks for the chat, man. Perhaps I've been approaching this thing all wrong." Kael plopped onto his own bed, across from the shepherd.

"Hey, happy to help!" Axel pointed behind the younger fur at one of his posters. A buff golden retriever in bulky metallic combat armor smiled back at the pair from the wall. "So, Furs of War 3 any good?"

---

Okay, have at it!

So when writing Merge, I have multiple outlines of varying levels of detail. I have the overarching "Where did we start, where do we want to end? And what's the big points along the way?" for the three books, which is really like a sentence or two for each point. Then I have an outline which just gives a quick one sentence overview of chapters which goes to the end, and finally a much more detailed outline for each chapter, written 4 or 5 chapters ahead of where I am currently.

It's been great as far as keeping me on track and preventing me from writing myself into a corner, but I've still hit a little snag (really, it's not a big snag). Theme, and how to apply it. Each set of 2 - 3 characters has a theme that crops up over time as a way to guide their interaction to go along with their history and personality. Some of the themes are easier to deal with because, well, "Write What You Know", right? Self-confidence vs. failure or success, communication issues, ambition.

But the other side of the coin is that writing is a fantastic way to explore themes and ideas that you personally might never actually buy into. Exploring the concept through your characters and giving the idea a fair shake. Of course you have to be really careful about keeping your own viewpoint separate from your characters', because they aren't really supposed to be extensions of yourself. At least, that's something I prefer to avoid. If you put too much of your own viewpoint into the exploration, you run the risk of preaching to your audience. On the flip side, you can end up preaching for the exact opposite of your viewpoint if you take that to the extreme. The trick is to create something that flows naturally, and works as a natural extension of the characters, in their voice and within their reason.

Which is all just a really long-winded way of saying I'm not sure I'm happy with one of my scenes. I've re-written it as a whole three times now, and I wonder if I should just cut it entirely, divvy up the points explored across other scenes over the remainder of the book, or something else entirely...it's actually pretty hard to tell if I'm coming across as preachy rather than natural. I suppose the easiest way to be sure is just axe the scene entirely and see if the story still stands, and if so then I probably didn't really need the scene in the first place.

Anywho, editing Chapter 18 is coming slowly because of existential scene angst. Just figured maybe thinking out loud might help me make a decision.

My writing style has matured a lot over the past few years. Some of it has just come with age or just reading enough books, I guess, since I pretty much gave up on it for nearly a decade, but some of it has come from actual work. Re-reading professional books with an eye out for techniques such as sentence structure, dialogue, etc. has been super useful, as well as reading some of the more professional-like work here in the furry community. But I still have plenty to learn, and some times there's still nothing better than good ol' studying. So when I stumbled upon what's effectively a modern-era fiction style guide, I jumped at the chance to read it. Turns out it was pretty handy. Now, I don't necessarily agree with every last bit of advice in it, but a lot of it makes sense, and they provide lots of comparisons and examples of how things read if you apply their advice. I've already applied it to my editing pass of Chapter 17 of Merge and it reads a lot better. I may as an exercise go back and redo a random chapter and see how it turns out. If it really does read a lot better, then perhaps once I've finished Book 1 (oh, yes, Merge is the start of a planned trilogy. Never really mentioned that did I. Apparently I decided to go big or go home), I'll go back with new knowledge and redo it all. Again :D

As far as the style guide goes, the book is called "Self Editing for Fiction Writers, Second Edition" by Renni Browne and Dave King. I got it for like $9 off Amazon for my Kindle app, and already I think it was totally worth the investment as far as my writing goes.

Not dead yet! Took a little diversion to write "Happy New Year, Lone Wolf" as something a little different from Merge, and it was a fun exercise, for sure. Given the source material, helloooo nurse. Chapter 16 is looong, however. About 7000 words or so for the explicit version, so the editing process is a bit slow given it's twice as long as most of my other chapters. But it has some fun interactions between the characters. Jay and Chris; Laura and Kael; Matt and Jay; Axel with the group as a whole; Matt as the burgeoning leader of a group of his friends. I'm hoping to have it posted by Friday night, we'll see how that goes.

Thanks to  darkgoose and  dazen_cobalt for putting together a reference sheet and icon respectively. I'm super excited to finally not be a can of paintbrushes XD

Quick update, I have 14 almost ready. Wanted to rework it a bit first though. I'll be traveling on Friday, visiting family for the holidays. I plan on having it posted before then. Still trying to decide if I want to flesh out an old/new character it introduces and/or split it between two chapters. Decisions decisions!

And here we are, another week, another chapter! A little sooner than I expected, but hey, I'll take extra time to write, it's fun. Interestingly enough I didn't do NaNoWriMo in any sort of official fashion, but I still managed to write about 23,000 words through the month of November (all for Merge!). Maybe next year I'll take the plunge and actually go for 50k in a month.