headshot of Alana
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Read Alana's short fiction on the Web: “The Valley” at The Edge of Propinquity, “Nomi's Wish” at Coyote Wild, and “No Matter How You Hide Her” at Baeg Tobar.

Steampunk Musha Explorer's Guide: Free!

05/12/2012 10:14 PM

As part of the Kickstarter project for the new Steampunk Musha RPG, the gang at Fat Goblin Games has released The Steampunk Musha Explorer's Guide for free over at RPG Now. It's text I recognize very well from the original edition of the game -- some city descriptions, some mythology, and the Tale of Yu that I posted here just the other day! Best yet, it's free. So if you've been at all interested in Steampunk Musha, this is your chance to check it out. It's got some great art in it, as well!



The Kickstarter campaign has passed the first incentive mark and is on its way toward the next one. My favorite incentive (before getting to the part where I'd be writing more fiction!) is at the $6000 mark: the Juunishi-p'o race unlock. These guys were my favorite back in the original game, and I hope they can be included in the new version! You can find out more (and help launch the project) at Kickstarter!

And don't forget to enter yesterday's drawing to win Jennifer Estep's new novel!

Guest Blog: Jennifer Estep (an excerpt)

05/11/2012 02:09 PM

I big welcome back to Jennifer Estep! Jennifer's Mythos Academy series is continuing with Dark Frost, which releases on May 29. As the first stop on her blog tour, we've got an excerpt from that book -- she'll post an additional excerpt on May 23rd at Young Adult Book Reviews, so check it out!

Jennifer's also offered a US ONLY giveaway of a print copy of Dark Frost. To enter, make a comment below; you can earn an extra entry if you tweet a link to this post and tell us about it in the comments. Posts and tweets must be in by midnight EST on Monday May 14. We'll announce the winner on Tuesday the 15th. And now, without further ado, here's Jennifer!



--

“Is Logan here with you?” I couldn’t keep the hope out of my voice.

Nickamedes had opened his mouth when a voice interrupted him.

“Right here, Gypsy girl.” A low voice sent chills down my spine.

My heart pounding, I slowly turned around. Logan Quinn stood behind me.

Thick, wavy, ink black hair, intense ice blue eyes, a confident smile. My breath caught in my throat as I looked at Logan, and my heart sped up, beating with such force that I was sure he could hear it.

Logan wore jeans and a dark blue sweater topped by a black leather jacket. The clothes were designer, of course, since the Spartan was just as rich as all the other academy kids. But even if he’d been dressed in rags, I still would have noticed the lean strength of his body and his broad, muscled shoulders. Yeah, Logan totally rocked the bad-boy look, and he had the man-whore reputation to match. One of the rumors that kept going around the academy was that Logan signed the mattresses of every girl he slept with, just so he could keep track of them all.

I’d never quite figured out if the rumors were true or not, or how Logan would even manage to do that in the first place. Sure, I’d touched the Spartan and flashed on him with my psychometry, but I’d mostly seen his fighting skills, since that’s what Logan had been thinking about and what I had needed to tap into at the time. I didn’t know how many girls Logan had dated, but the rumors didn’t matter that much to me because the Spartan was just a really, really great guy. Smart, strong, funny, charming, caring. Then, of course, there was the whole saving-my-life-multiple-times thing. Kind of hard not to like a guy when he kept get you from getting killed by Reapers and eaten by Nemean prowlers.

Logan’s eyes dropped to my throat and the necklace I wore there—the one he’d given me before school had let out for Christmas. Six silver strands wrapped around my throat, creating the necklace, while the diamond-tipped points joined together to form a simple, yet elegant snowflake in the center of the strands. The beautiful necklace looked like something a goddess would wear. I thought it was far too pretty and delicate for me, but I loved it just the same.

“You’re wearing the necklace,” the Spartan said in a low voice.

“Every day since you gave it to me,” I said. “I hardly ever take it off.”

Logan smiled at me, and it was like the sun had erupted from a sky full of storm clouds. For a moment everything was just—perfect.

Then Nickamedes cleared his throat, popping the bubble of happiness I’d been about to float away on. A sour expression twisted the librarian’s face as he looked back and forth between his nephew and me.

“Well, if you’ll excuse me, the museum’s closing soon, and I need to make sure the staff is ready to start packing up the items for transport back to the academy in the morning.”

Nickamedes pivoted on his wingtips and strode out of the weapons room without another word. I sighed. Yeah, I might not be the most dedicated worker, but I always felt like there was another reason that Nickamedes hated me. He’d pretty much disliked me on sight, and I had no idea why.

I put the librarian and his bad attitude out of mind and focused on Logan. He’d texted me a few times over the holiday break, but I’d still missed him like crazy—especially since I had no idea what was going on between us. Not too long ago, we’d shared what I thought was the kiss to end all kisses, but he hadn’t exactly declared his love for me in the meantime—or even asked me out on a real date. Instead, we’d been in this weird holding pattern for weeks—one that I was determined to end.

I drew in a breath, ready to ask Logan how his winter break had been and what was going to happen between us now. “Logan, I—”

Shouts and screams ripped through the air, drowning out my words.

I froze, wondering if I’d only imagined the harsh, jarring sounds. Why would someone be shouting in the museum? A second later, more screams sounded, followed by several loud crashes and the heavy thump-thump-thump of footsteps.

Logan and I looked at each other, then bolted for the door. Daphne and Carson had also heard the screams, and they raced along right behind us.

“Stop! Stop! Stop!” Daphne hissed.

She managed to grab my arm and the back of Logan’s leather jacket just before the Spartan sprinted out of the room. With her great Valkyrie strength, she was easily able to yank both of us back.

“You don’t know what’s going on—or who might be out there,” Daphne warned.

Logan glared at her, but after a moment, he reluctantly nodded. I did the same, and Daphne loosened her grip on us. Together in a tight knot, the four of us crept up to the doorway and peeked through to the other side.

BIO INFO:

Jennifer Estep is a New York Times bestselling author. Jennifer writes the Mythos Academy young adult urban fantasy series for Kensington. Dark Frost, the third book, will be released on May 29. Touch of Frost and Kiss of Frost are the other books in the series. Visit www.jenniferestep.com for excerpts and more information about her books.

Avengers: The Musical (possible spoiler, but I doubt it)

05/11/2012 02:48 AM

Okay, not really. But for the Browncoats out there, remember that convention panel where someone suggested that Joss do a Firefly musical and Summer Glau totally lit up before someone else on the panel shot it down? When Max Gladstone pitched Avengers as an opera, that was the very first thing I thought of.

Max's entry compares the use of music in a Mozart opera to the use of combat in a superhero movie with hysterical results. As you can see here:

The battles throughout the movie never pit the same group of characters against one another twice, and are careful to pit all the characters against one another at least once, even when (as in the Iron Man-Thor fight scene) the fight makes little sense in context. We don’t care, watching, because we want to see these characters, with these specific styles, fight–in the same way that even if there’s no real reason for the bass and soprano to be singing together, we won’t frown at an excellently-composed duet. In fact, it’s these duets that show us the true quality of our characters, and illuminate the tensions between them–tensions which simmer under the surface when they’re in the same room and can’t use violence and action to communicate.


If you've not seen Avengers yet (unlike some ungodly proportion of us who saw it opening weekend and sent Joss Whedon skyrocketing into household namedom), you should. It's not a perfect movie, but it is awesomely good fun, and it may be the best superhero movie since The Incredibles (which still tops my chart, followed by Iron Man -- the Dark Knight movies have actually been a little too deep for my full enjoyment and endorsement, though I fully acknowledge that they're quality films). I'll have to see it again to be sure; this time I'll be ready for that quintessential Joss Whedon moment where someone gets impaled (yes, I knew it was going to happen, and I should very well known who it would be who got impaled, because it so perfectly fit Joss's pattern, but I didn't, and I cursed the name of Whedon right there in the theater) and won't be pulled out of the story by its occurrence. But if it's anything like The Muppets, I'll like it more each time I see it.



One quick announcement -- tune in tomorrow for an excerpt from Jennifer Estep! Her new Mythos Academy book is out at the end of the month, and you can read the first in a series of blog tour excerpts right here!

Musha Kickstarted! (Now for bonus material?)

05/10/2012 03:49 AM

The Steampunk Musha RPG kickstarter has funded! Hurrah! It still has more than two weeks left and is within $200 of making the next goal. You can still become a backer here.

As promised, here's some flavor text from the original game. I hope you enjoy this excerpt!




--

The Tale of Yu

All these things took place in a time before time was measured, before the gods knew their own names. The great Celestial Dragons, whose names man may not speak, existed in a place that had no form, a place so shapeless that no thoughts could contain it, and not even the Dragons considered its existence. It is said they went on for uncountable moments in their way, knowing things that the Dragons know, doing things that the Dragons do. Perhaps eons passed, but the truth of this is lost to men. What is known is this: the great Celestial Dragons decided that the formless place should have some form, that its lifelessness should be filled with breath. So they breathed in the shapeless place and breathed out the one called Yu.

The Celestial Dragons spoke their thoughts to Yu, and Yu acquiesced to their requests, taking upon himself the task of giving shape to that which had none, breathing life where there had been no breath. But as he watched the universe form, watched the stars begin to swirl, watched his patterns grow and begin to follow his own will without being restrained, he grew selfish. Why should he share the universe he had created? All the Celestial Dragons had given him was breath; he had given the universe his thoughts, given it the shape he would never himself have. And so, having no form himself, he surrounded the universe and hid it from the Celestial Dragons. He watched it grow and change, taking joy from the life that started inside of him, allowing it to shape him as he shaped it.

The Celestial Dragons remembered the task they had given Yu, and though perhaps ages passed before they thought of him, they eventually returned to ask him where he had placed the universe. As Yu watched the Celestial Dragons and watched the universe inside of him, he realized he had done something dishonorable by keeping it a secret. He confessed his horrible act, and the Celestial Dragons explained that in order to regain his honor, he would have to cut the universe out of himself. Yu quickly sliced himself in half and the universe burst from him, and the Celestial Dragons were amazed at what he had created.

But Yu felt he had not done enough to regain his honor and continued to cut himself into pieces. As he cut, his pieces were given form. Where the universe had been now became his bowels, which he spilled onto a small world. His innards poured into an ocean, and his flesh covered them to create an island. His arms and legs became the island’s mountains, and his hair became trees and grass. As he watched his form become part of one of his worlds, he cried with joy, and these tears became the rivers which led to the sea. But the pain was great, and Yu could not hold back a scream of pain, and this scream, too, took form, and from it came the seven thunder gods who still mimic his cry. And after he screamed, he retched blood, expelling the greed and dishonor that had made him hide the universe, and this became the oni. On his back came fleas and lice, which became our ancestors, and from his last thoughts, the gods were formed to rule over the land. With Yu’s last breath, the four great winds began to blow.

The Celestial Dragons were pleased with Yu’s sacrifice, and so they sent other spirits to experience the land, to which they gave the name Rosuto-Shima. They took Yu’s eyes and set them above the world, so that Yu might watch over what he had made. In this way, they explained, he would be able to prevent his children from committing the dishonor that Yu himself had committed. And so it remains; the first eye, the sun, watches over the joy and happiness of mankind, seeing only the bright hours of celebration. The second eye, the moon, only sees the darkness of men, and is witness to the greed and selfishness that caused Yu such great dishonor. But though Yu’s second eye only sees darkness, it shines, hoping that its light will guide men toward lives of honor and away from his previous actions, the corruption of Rosuto-Shima.

And that is how all these things came to be.
–Collected Writings of Quan Hong

Links

05/05/2012 06:00 PM

These links have been keeping tabs open in my browser until I wrote about them, so here's me clearing off my desktop:





Agency Model

05/03/2012 07:49 PM

Discussion on yesterday's post has been fun -- I need to go reply -- and thus I wanted to follow up just a little bit with some thoughts on the currently-under-fire agency model. To begin: writer buddy Max Gladstone (you can preorder his book here) confirmed that ebook royalty percentage is higher, but that doesn't mean that the royalty payout is higher; there's much complicated math involved in that equation (as the series of emails in our thread has shown). That thread led me to cite a figure [info]jeff_duntemann has offered before (once here in the comments on my blog) -- he estimates that ebooks cost half as much to produce as print books, and thus should cost consumers half as much. Based on the figures my writer friend was throwing out there, I wonder if this is truer for smaller publishers: big publishers have a lot more overhead, just by nature of having much larger staffing, needing a greater number of people supporting that staff, warehousing, etc., etc. Looking for Jeff's breakdown (which I did not find -- Jeff, if you're reading this and you've done a breakdown, we'd love to see it!), I stumbled on a few more recent entries of Jeff's defending the Agency Model.

You may have noticed that I've not had much to say in favor of the Agency Model, so that Jeff -- who has a better grasp of how the industry works than almost anyone I know -- was supporting it made me stop and take a look at his points. And here's what I discovered: I have been looking at the Agency Model issue first as a consumer, and second from the perspective of an e-book only retailer. As a consumer, it may not be super convenient for me to have to go poking around for different prices at different places, but if I bargain shop at several stores, I know I'm getting the best deal. I used to do that a lot pre-Agency Model. When the Agency Model came on the scene, I largely stopped shopping at Books on Board and Kobo Books, because most of the titles I'd been buying from them were now on the Agency Model, so I might as well buy them from Barnes and Noble and get them delivered wirelessly to my nook.



(I still shop at DriveThru Fiction, where my own books are sold, for a different niche of books. Fictionwise, Smashwords, and Bookview Cafe still had the kind of self-published stuff -- usually short stories or backlist titles from writers I knew had content there -- that they remained worth checking, but for different content than I'd purchase at B&N anyway.)

So, the Agency model drove me away from non-chain e-book retailers on the Web. It made it impossible for me to use coupons or to receive incentives from retailers -- something I've become accustomed to as a book buyer even at indie bricks and mortar stores over the years. Customer loyalty initiatives no longer worked for e-books for a large enough percentage of what I was buying that I quit shopping around.

Worse yet, the Agency Model didn't actually seem good for the publishers! My writer buddy reminded me of this post from Nathan Bransford from back in March 2011 about how Agency pricing works, which shows that publishers often make less money on Agency Model books. So it was looking to me like this: the consumer loses because the prices are higher and they get no incentives. The indie e-book retailers lose, because customers like me stop bothering to shop there. The publishers lose because they make less money per sale.

But hold the phone. Jeff (whose latest book, published by his publishing house, you can buy here) points out that the big publishers make less money per sale. Once you take out some of the risk factors (like print run size), publishers that publish e-books, either exclusively or as the majority of their business, have an incredible opportunity with the Agency Model. He writes: "An online ebook store’s capacity is essentially unlimited, and any number of publishers can play. If there are a million publishers and 999,900 of them sell products at lower prices than you do, your control of pricing is less than it was in the era when it was tough to get your books into stores and a relatively few large publishers dominated the market."

Scott Turow laments the potential loss of the Agency Model for its probable impact on bricks and mortar bookstores -- and it turns out that places like Barnes and Noble have done really well under the Agency Model, so even my preferred chain will be impacted if the DoJ does win the suit against Apple, Macmillan, and Penguin. So there are additional factors I'd not been considering in my previous assessment of the Agency Model.

As for now, however, I'm back to shopping around for good prices on ebooks. If you have a favorite indie ebook etailer I haven't mentioned already, I'm always up for a new place to price check!