Category: Boltblaster

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Boltblaster Losing Charity Novels Saving Max Thursday Things Writing

Quick November Update

Greetings, Loyal Readers!

Obviously, I’m not spending much time blogging, but I want to check in and update you on what I’ve been up to.

  • I’m still writing Boltblaster the Jason Cosmo prequel/spin-off about the early years of the wizard Mercury Boltblaster. I’ve long since given up announcing finish dates for this book, but I’m happy with the progress I’ve made so far.
  • My Thursday Things free weekly newsletter continues to delight scores of subscribers. Thursday Things is a weekly grab bag of interesting items I find online and off – with a bias toward the positive, inspiring, quirky, cool, and thought-provoking. (And no politics, except dog mayors. Because everyone loves dog mayors!) I’ve been writing a new edition every week for a little over a year now. Take a look at all past editions at the link — and sign up to get the next issue of Thursday Things delivered to your in-box.
  • I also have a couple of books in slow motion progress at Wattpad. These are stories I add a chapter to from time to time, usually when I’m stuck on my official current project, but still want to get some writing done, or when inspiration strikes. So fair warning — neither story is complete, nor is there any deadline for when they will be. That said, this week I added two new chapters to Losing Charity.
    • Losing Charity – a paranormal chick-lit comedy. Charity has a date from hell, gets stuck with a guardian devil she didn’t want, and her life goes off the rails from there.
    • Saving Max – Max is not having much better luck than Charity. Worse, really. He’s having a very strange week, involving a mysterious cat, disturbing dreams, awkward encounters with the opposite sex, wild dogs, and a sinister stranger. Among other things.
  • I’ve got a few other projects bubbling along, but I’ll save discussing those for next time!

As always, thanks for reading!

Dan McGirt

Categories
Boltblaster Deepfire Dirty Deeds Fiction Glass Darkly Jack Scarlet (Series) Jason Cosmo (Series) Novels Short Fiction Writing

Deepfire and Other Stories

Dan McGirt holds a copy of his book Hero WantedGreetings, Loyal Readers!

Oh, and Happy New Year! We’re well into 2017. I have not posted in a while. I thought I’d give you a quick update on what I’m up to. I have been plugging away on various projects, which I will bullet below.

New Year’s Resolutions

  • In 2016 I resolved write 7 novels, 3 novellas, and 1 short story, doubling my lifetime output. It was a grand goal, and one I fell far short of. Some of that was due to unforeseen personal matters – life keeps happening. Some was due to travel and other distractions. But I like the goal, so I’m renewing it for 2017! Because I’m crazy like that.

Short Story Review

  • One resolution I did achieve was writing a short story in 2016. In fact, I wrote two. Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond my control, neither story was published last year.
  • ‘The Red Hook Incident’, written for the Strange Arcana: The Stars Are Right anthology, sits in limbo, as the anthology was delayed until further notice. See my September 2016 post for more on that.
  • ‘Glass Darkly and the Skull in the Box’, also written for an anthology, is also in limbo. The anthology has seen production delays. Again, no firm publication date has been set.
  • You can see why I don’t usually write short stories.
  • I hope both these stories will be released at some point this year.
  • Meanwhile, I have a 2017 short story to write! Thinking ahead, I’ve already arranged to not get paid for it…

Novel Matters

  • The goal is again to write seven new books this year. Fortunately, I have several books already in progress. (It’s not that I didn’t write anything last year. I just didn’t finish any books.)
  • Jack Scarlet: Deepfire – my first full-length 21st century technopulp adventure thriller! I this very day finished a round of revisions on the manuscript. It will go into editing later this month, targeted for a Spring release.
  • Boltblaster – Long awaited, long delayed. The tale of Mercury Boltblaster’s early adventures, before he teamed up with Jason Cosmo to save the Eleven Kingdoms.  The story is plotted. The first few chapters are written. Lots of magic and mayhem to come! This should be the next book release.
  • Saving Max – This is a book I chip away at every so often between working on other things. I’ve got more than ten chapters written. You can read the first nine chapters of Saving Max at Wattpad. I don’t want to say much about this one yet – except to say things are not always as they seem!
  • Dirty Deeds – #4 in the Jason Cosmo fantasy adventure series. This will be the (fairly substantial) revision of the classic Jason Cosmo title Dirty Work. Aiming for a Fall release.
  • Threat of the Talon – A Rex Carson adventure. This is a revision and expansion of a six page handwritten story I wrote when I was 13. I dug it out of the Story Vault and it wasn’t bad! Rex Carson was my juvenile self’s Indiana Jones rip-off (with a swordcane, not a whip!) who had a harrowing adventure in the jungles of Peru (running from Hovaras, not Hovitos). Obviously, the story needed a little work. I’m treating my youthful effort as the first draft and have been quietly plugging away at a new treatment, while keeping as much of the original settings and characters as I can. It will be a fun story – again, no definite release date.
  • Two Books TBD – I’ve got a few other books in various stages of completion: A paranormal chick lit spoof. An Arthurian comedy. Another Jack Scarlet adventure. An adventure involving a group of 80s kids investigating supernatural doings that I swear I started before the producers of Stranger Things started high school! A few more. If I meet my goal, I’ll finish two of them this year, in addition to the titles listed above.

Novella Matters

  • Somewhere in there, I have to write three novellas too! We’ll talk about those later.

That’s what I’m up to right now, and my road map for the year on the writing front. Thanks for reading!

Best regards,

Dan McGirt

 

Categories
Boltblaster Deepfire Jason Cosmo (Series) Jason Cosmo Non-Trilogy Magicka: The Ninth Element Novels Short Fiction Uncategorized Writing

Happy Spring! What I’m working on this season.

Greetings, Loyal Readers!

We’re well into 2016 and I’ve yet to post here, so it’s well past time to give you a peek at my writing plans for 2016. Back in January I made two writing-related new year’s resolutions, which I’ll share below.

My 2016 Writer Resolutions:

1: Double my career output (which would require I publish a minimum of 7 novels, 3 novellas, and 1 short story this year)

2: Be meaner to my protagonists. I admit it – I’m a big softie when it comes to my characters. I hate to do anything too terrible to them … I hate to see them suffer, I always give them an out from impossible situations, the good guys always win in the end with only cosmetic consequences. But this year, no more Mr. Niceguy…

I actually think the second resolution will be harder to keep! I freely admit I prefer stories with happy endings, the good guys winning, evil-doers being punished, and all that hokey stuff. That probably won’t change, barring some radical shift in my world view.

But I can do a better job of putting my characters through the wringer along the way. I have a hard time doing truly awful things to them … but deep down I know that making things tougher for Jason Cosmo and my other protags makes for a wilder, more thrilling, more compelling, more gripping story for you, my Loyal Readers. So I’ll do my best to go full Job on them this year.

Regarding the first resolution, I have to date published seven novels (three in the original Jason Cosmo series, three in the new rebooted series and one media tie-in novel), three novellas (Rainy Daze, Sarah Palin:Vampire Hunter, and One Night in Zanfar) and one short story (Beginner’s Luck). ((I’m not counting the Jason Cosmo Omnibus or a couple of Jack Scarlet mini-tales that are really no more than single scene vignettes.))

As a 2016 writing challenge I want to double my lifetime published output before December 31. That means putting out at least seven novels, three novellas, and one short story. This will require unprecedented focus and dedication to getting the words done (as I am sometimes easily distracted by shiny objects) but I’m up for it!

What will those titles be? I am currently writing Deepfire, the first book-length Jack Scarlet 21st century technopulp adventure tale. Next will be Boltblaster, the long-awaited tale of Jason Cosmo’s wizard friend Mercury Boltblaster. Also on the list is Dirty Deeds, book 4 of the Jason Cosmo fantasy adventure series. That accounts for three of seven novels. I’ve not yet decided what the other four will be.

On the novella side, I’ll write another Jason Cosmo Tale, similar to Rainy Daze. The other two novellas are TBD.

I already have the short story covered – I submitted a story to a forthcoming anthology. If it is accepted, it will be published as part of the collection later this year. If not, I’ll release it myself. Either way, I can check off the short story category!

That’s the plan. Stay tuned for updates!

What are your reading or writing or other creative resolutions for 2016 – and how is it coming along so far?

Best regards,

Dan McGirt

 

Categories
Boltblaster Fiction Games Jason Cosmo (Series) Knights of Pen & Paper 2 Royal Crush

Knights of Pen and Paper 2 is ready to play

Knights of Pen & Paper 2 logoGreetings, Loyal Reader!

It has been a while since I have posted and I have been up to many things. Today I want to mention my most recent project that you can get your hands on: the Paradox Interactive game Knights of Pen & Paper 2. Per the publisher, “Knights of Pen & Paper 2 is a turn-based, retro style, pixel-art adventure full of danger, intrigue, death, and saving throws!”

Knights of Pen & Paper 2 — or KoPP2 to friends — is part tongue-in-cheek parody of tabletop fantasy role-playing games and part interactive simulation game simulating tabletop RPGs. You, the player, control a group of in-game RPG players and the player characters they are playing as they go on an epic quest to save the world of Paperos from disaster.

It’s all very meta, but all you really need to know is that it is a funny and fun game you can play on your smartphone or tablet, or via Steam. And that there are flying monkeys.

I had the opportunity to be a story editor and additional writer on this project. To be clear, my role in the overall making of the game was fairly limited. I worked with the smart, talented and very creative team at Kyy Games to help them kick around story ideas and I also got to suggest a few jokes and script a few of the smaller episodes (or “quests” in the lingo of the game) myself. I won’t say which ones, because that would not at all be in the spirit of a collaborative project. The final game is the result of a lot of hard work by a lot of people, most of whom were not me.

This was my first experience working in the realm of “interactive games” (or what I still tend to call “video games” because I am older than Pong). I learned a lot about the game-making process…and learned there is a lot I don’t know. It is always fun to get a glimpse “behind the scenes”.

I especially enjoyed the collaborative aspect, kicking ideas back and forth with the writers and producers and Kyy and Paradox, and riffing off of each other to tell the story and combining our imaginations to create an entertaining experience for the players. Being part of a creative team is a very different experience than writing a novel, where it is all on me. It was also different trying to think in terms of an interactive story, where player choices affect what happens next, and within the confines of a game environment where visuals are a big part of the player experience and text/dialogue is in many ways secondary. I had to stretch a little and it was fun!

That said, I’m not giving up on novels. I have one completed book floating around in editorial limbo right now, I am currently getting the next Jason Cosmo novel, Royal Crush, ready to release this summer and I’m gearing up to write the long-awaited Boltblaster after that. More on all that soon. For now … take a look at Knight of Pen & Paper 2 and let me know what you think! Available in your favorite app store now.

Best regards,

Dan McGirt

Categories
Boltblaster Fiction Jason Cosmo (Series) Writing

My Really Big Announcement

Greetings, Loyal Reader!

Dan McGirt holds a copy of his book Hero WantedI’ll get right to it: by the end of June I will leave my current job and will be, henceforth, a full-time author and publisher.

This is a momentous move I have long wanted to make, long planned for, and which is long overdue.

For me, the implications are many (including a possible increase in my consumption of ramen noodles ((Or maybe not!))) but I want to discuss what it means for you, Loyal Reader!

The short version is this: barring some tragic reversal of Greek myth proportions, I will soon be writing more stories, writing them faster, and getting them out to Loyal Readers sooner.

For fans of Jason Cosmo, this means no more multi-year waits between books. It means I also can write the various short stories and mini-novels I have sketched out that will expand the Cosmoverse and explore the characters who inhabit it.

It means, at long last … BOLTBLASTER!

Beyond Jason Cosmo, there are other books that have been bubbling in my head for many a year, such as my Jack Scarlet series of modern technopulp adventures, a comical series focused on supernatural investigations, an over-the-top space opera (with ray guns!), and more. Much more.

I aim to write them all!

Not all at once, mind you! But I’ve got so many projects on the back burner it’s a fire hazard. I need to write these stories just to free up some space in my brain, if nothing else. (It beats trepanation. ((I need that like I need another hole in my head.)))

You know how frustrating it is waiting for a story to continue … be it waiting for the next issue of a comic, the next book in a series, or next week’s episode of your favorite show. It is just as frustrating having an imagination full of tales to tell, and no time to tell them. So I very much look forward to publishing more stories more often for more readers to enjoy.

There you have it — my Really Big Announcement! (Sure, it may be bigger for me than for you …) I’m excited to take this leap. You don’t have to jump off the cliff with me — but I hope you will pull up a chair and enjoy the show. Whether I fly high or crash and burn, it’s sure to be entertaining!

Best regards,

Dan McGirt

PS: I discuss in more detail what this means for the Jason Cosmo series at JasonCosmo.com.