Terminator: Back to the Fan Fiction

It’s been a year and still there is no real progress on this awesome Fan Fiction idea. I started plotting out a story to match the video and was eventually overwhelmed by the complexity of my story and then by other projects throughout the year.

This is still a project I really want to write up, and I’ve been thinking about it a lot. So I decided this year, I will set goals for it, like I am doing for all my other projects. I spent the second half of 2012 rewiring my writing brain to work more strategically and still retain my creativity. Most of that will probably rarely reflect in my blog posts, outside of the Weapons & Warriors posts,  because I usually just ramble a lot.

I skipped Nanowrimo (National November Writing Month) in 2012 because I was neck deep in edits for Devil Dog and Welcome to My Imagination, I still am. I spent a lot of 2012 in the editing phase because I was learning new techniques for writing to help me complete a book without having to rewrite it ten times. While I’m mastering these new techniques I am going to use them to set up a schedule to write out the Terminator vs. Back to the Future story.

Book Recommendation: Shift

I absolutely love this series and I'm very excited that Matt Merrick takes himself seriously as a writer. After publishing Exiled and then seeing the critiques about a couple of typos, he gave Shift double the attention. Replacing his original editor and then adding a second copy editor, along with an army of beta readers, Merrick has outdone himself. Not only is the writing improved but the advanced editing is obvious and has made Shift one of the few books I would place out there as a must read for anyone who loves action and adventure fantasies. Here is my review for Goodreads, that will soon be on Amazon. Happy reading everyone. I'll be back Monday with a new weapons weekly about the Aztec culture. Have a great weekend.

Shift by M.R. Merrick

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


If you loved Exiled, you'll absolutely love Shift. This sequel to the action packed adventure Exiled takes you on another journey through dimensions and battling demons. Chase and company try to not only save the universe, but find out the truth about themselves. Merrick's writing has improved a great deal since Exiled, it's phenomenal actually. Not only has he improved his editing by far, and Exiled wasn't that badly done, but his ability to make the characters even more real has grown. The self searching and character development in this story was very well done. As expected, the story is stuffed cover to cover with adventure, drama, action, a little romance and comedy tossed in to leave no dull moments anywhere. I can't wait for the next in the series. As all serial endings, it leaves it open for another face off another day, but at the same time closes the chapter on the events of the plot. I loved this book. Someday someone in Hollywood needs to see this series, it would make awesome action movies.



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Fan-Fiction Terminator vs Back to the Future

The time is drawing near. I’m still fixing some plot holes and organizing the story, but the “Terminator vs. Back to the Future” fan-fiction project is getting closer to being written. I’m going to aim for starting the first chapter this summer, so it’s still a ways out. The video that was done up by How It Should Have Ended Team is pretty much what the story is about. John Connor wants to kill Doc Emmit Brown so that the machines can never uncover and use his time traveling technology. I’ll go into more detail on the basic storyline at the end of this post.

Weapons & Warriors: The Ninja, The Truth of the Shinobi

Art by Steven DeVon Jones

They were once known as the Shinobi, but just saying the word Ninja usually makes people conjure images of ghostlike black clothed figures sneaking around and killing people without ever being seen. Believe it or not, that is the Hollywood ninja. The true Ninja is shrouded in mystery plenty enough by their own myths and legends that Hollywood has virtually deluded their existence to being magicians with weapons and martial arts. In reality, most ninja started out as farmers and labors. They made their weapons from the tools they used and learned martial arts from monks that had been influenced by Chinese refuges from generations before.

The victim of a real ninja probably looked right into the Ninja’s eyes as he died. More often than not, the Ninja would be so inconspicuous that they could waltz right up to their target and kill him without anyone realizing what was happening until he had already slipped away. They didn’t wear black pajamas. They wore what everyone else in the room was wearing. Blending in like a covert spy. Essentially, that’s what a Ninja really was, a spy who had been trained in sabotage, espionage, and assassination as well as combat.

Samurai were usually the enemies of the Ninja, and Samurai despised the Ninja who did not honor the Bushido code. A Samurai had to face his enemy and state his intentions before fighting honorably, even on a battlefield. A Ninja had no such limitations and because of this, Samurai were often known to hire local Ninja to sow chaos with their enemies and gain the edge without actually getting their own hands dirty and hurting their own honor.

Writer Ramblings: Drums of War, er Gaming

“The sounds of the drums echo through my head on the waves of memories as I dream of war. I hear the battle cries around me and the roars of dragons as they fill the skies and rain their fire down on everything beneath them. We mount our wyvern, drakes and brooms and fly up to face the monstrosities that threaten the world. Fearless and proud, our nations unite under one banner. Thousands will perish, but nobody is worried about that, we all return with another life to rise up and battle again. The endless sky of leathery wings must be defeated or all will be lost. And when we are done with the invaders, we will return our attention to the weak Alliance who hate our Horde.”

I wrote this once while playing a game that I love very much. Since I’ve began writing in all of my spare time, I’ve deactivated my account and moved on, but recently I saw a trailer for an upcoming expansion to the game and I’ve began dreaming about it all over again. I played it for years and I even managed a couple of guilds. My favorite till this day was called Red Steel, and believe it or not, it had nothing to do with Russian tanks. The name came from a classic D&D module for a location on the world of Mystara which had a unique resource that was like a fine red dust, but if processed, it could be made as hard as steel and could take on magical properties.



Wrtier Ramblings: Nanawrimo!

Believe it or not, that title is not a typo.

I’ve gone and done it! I signed up for the Nanawrimo for 2011. I have no idea really what that all is other than a writing marathon, but I figure it’s a great excuse to knock out the first half of another book. Since I can’t start the writing for it till November, that rules out the horror I was going to work on, I’m still in research phase for the Back to the Future Terminator crossover fan fiction I’m planning and I’m already 12,000 words into the fantasy. So I don’t feel comfortable writing any of those for my Nanowrimo.

Lucky for me, I already have an outline set up for another project. I’ll be done with my polishing on Devil Dog pretty soon and it will be sent out to editors and beta readers this month. I’m very excited and nervous at the same time. My baby is growing up already.

So the big question is what am I going to write if I’m already going to be pretty deep into the co-written horror, the fantasy is already started and Devil Dog will be in the hands of strangers? The only real solution is Devil Dog 2! Why not, the outline is written and I have concepts and plots designed for a full seven book series. I might as well start getting the sequel drafted.

50,000 words in a month! I am very excited to attempt this and somehow my wife is ok with it. So here I come. Bring it on November because I will write you down.

Book Recommendation: Flash Gold

It's been a rough week for me, and I was intending to write up a post that was a bit emotional about the topic of love and how it affects people and makes them do really strange things, but it ended up being a sad rambling of thoughts. Instead, I am going to treat you with one of the novella's I've read recently and really enjoyed. I don't know how Lindsay Buroker is able to capture the magic of character development, but every book I've read is full of lovable colorful characters. Tonight I share my favorite of her books called Flash Gold. It's a steampunk western style setting and the hero is a woman engineer with a big secret. I won't say too much because I'd hate to spoil it, but you won't be disappointed if you love adventure and action. The characters just come to life and the usual Buroker humor is even crammed into the story. If you're looking for a quick adventure and some laughs, this is the novella for you.

Flash Gold by Lindsay Buroker
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is my kind of story. My only complaint, it wasn't long enough. I really fell in love with the characters almost instantly. Awesome steampunk engineering, and the story never slows. I will be impatiently waiting for another book, another adventure.

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And if you have read it already or you do read it and love it as much as I did, the sequel "Hunted [The Flash Gold Chronicles]"is already out. I'm still in the first quarter of it and I'm already enjoying it as it picks up where Flash Gold left off.



Weapons Weekly will return Monday with a special Spartan finale addition. Holiday or not, Writers don't take vacations. See you Monday!

Book Recommendation: A Fistful of Fire

I am not a book reviewer, but I enjoy writing reviews here and there when something actually moves me emotionally either for good or bad. I enjoyed reading this book and I just wanted to share my experience with you guys. This is also one of my earliest Indie book experiences and I have to admit, I actually enjoyed it more than the last couple of big house books I had read before trying Indies.

A Fistful of Fire by Misti Wolanski

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is probably the most different classic fantasy story I've ever read. It has the most unlikely hero and the story keeps on pace and is light hearted and humorous throughout, and at the same time keeps a serious undertone, knowing the protagonist will eventually have to face her past. I was a little confused at the beginning of the story, with the background opening and the references towards the protagonists past, but since reading the book and before writing this review, I have accepted it as something else unique and interesting about how the story unfolds. Confusing as it may be for the reader, imagine how it is for the protagonist, which the story is entirely told in her point of view. The reader just gets to ride the waves of doubts and fears that the poor girl has at what she knows she must eventually do. The only thing that held me back from a five star review is the ending. It wasn’t terrible by any means, but I was a little let down on the way things panned out as the prophecy fulfilled. It wasn’t a bad ending; it’s just that I wanted more out of it (call me greedy). I will be impatiently waiting for the next book of the series. One of the best things of the story is the characters. They are not only all very unique and different from each other; they are colorful mysteries the protagonist must also work out as the story goes.



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Goblins: They just don't get enough credit

I finished reading a wonderful middle grade book called Goblin Brothers Adventures by Lindsay Buroker. If you have young kids it is an entertaining read, good kid humor. I'll be reading the short stories to my daughter. After finishing it, I got to thinking about goblins. And I've been thinking a lot.

There is a ton of stuff out there about goblins. Role playing games, video games, movies, etc. For years, I was a dungeon master for D&D and the only thing I ever considered them to be was fodder for my players to mow down for easy prizes and experience. Only a threat when the odds were twenty to one. I mean think about it. Generally not very smart, they’re the size of a hobbit, usually lighter and their ugly and green and lack hygiene.

Several years ago, Blizzard started their Warcraft games and their second installment included Goblin engineer units that blew themselves up, and everything near them. That was kind of a new concept to me anyway. Goblins smart enough to be dangerous, but still stupid enough to get themselves killed, why didn't I think of that? Oh yeah, I was stuck in that world of goblin fodder still. Even the video game company, Blizzard, caught on with the idea of expanding on goblin by including them as a playable race for World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. Since I happen to have a subscription, I tried them out. I admit, I was never a goblin lover till then.

Then I read Lindsay's book and it's about a couple of goblins who are not only smarter than your average goblin, but smarter than a lot of the humans they encounter. And all they ever want to be are heroes. Another concept I really never considered! Goblin Heroes? What an amazing idea, even other characters in her book are shocked by such a crazy notion. The world needs more Goblin heroes, people. Can’t wait for your next goblin book Lindsay! Heck, I might have to write one myself one of these days.

I also know of another author I follow on twitter that has written about goblins, but I haven't read his book yet. It's on my to do list. I am now a goblin fan for life.

Tell me what you think about goblins roles in fantasy.