The Gem

Is it really a prequel if the book isn’t out yet?

I’m not sure, but that’s what I’m going to call it, because I like the word. Prequel. It sounds all Hollywood. Anyway, I have a short story called The Gem which is being serialized on Pathfinders homepage. It’s in four installments, and the first one is out now. New chapters will be released on Wednesdays.

The story itself takes place before the events of Firesoul, so don’t worry about spoilers. Go on, check it out– there’s magic, monsters, and a dead goat too!

Recent Deaths and the Permanance of Twitter

Unless you’ve been living under a rock (and if that’s the case, I’m sorry; it sounds quite uncomfortable), you know that the science fiction genre has lost two icons: Leonard Nimoy and Terry Pratchett.

Their last tweets–undoubtably written by assisstance or family members–are poignant and clever and endearing and give us, the fans, something to hang on to.

I have a feeling my last tweet–if twitter is around when I die, and I’m sort of hoping it’s not, because that means I’ve outlived the internet or at least twitter’s usefulness–will be something inane like: “kellyswails: I haven’t driven the car in two months and the first time out I hit a squirrel. #karmafail” or “kellyswails: Some motherfucker ate the last goddamn thin mint. I think I might be that motherfucker. I hate me, sometimes.”

It’s the difference between knowing the end is nigh or being suddenly ripped from the world. I don’t know which is better. I don’t know if there is a “better.”

Exercises and the Threat of Ideas

A forum thread about practice got me thinking about doing regular writing exercises again.

At one point, I was doing them weekly. But that was when I was planning a novel, and could tie the exercises into that planning process. Not much of what I wrote ended up in the draft, but they helped me work out the plot, develop the characters, and build the setting.

Doing exercises without a particular project in mind is tougher, since I have to pull character/plot/setting out of thin air, and that raises the threat of pesky Ideas coalescing and wanting to be written. I keep hoping the queue is long enough that they’ll move on to another writer, but so far they’ve proved pretty patient.

Still, I’ve got things I need to practice, so it might be worth the risk.