Dreams of Dark Angels
Latest News From Storm June 2010
I’m hard at work doing my favourite part of book creation – the interior design for the new Wraeththu Mythos story collection, edited by Wendy Darling and myself. All the stories and illustrations are in, and the only things left to be inserted are Brad Carpenter’s Introduction and an article from me about some of my inspirations for Wraeththu, dating back decades. Yes, I still have to nag a few authors for their bios (myself included!), but for the most part the book is finished. The book’s full title is ‘Paragenesis: Stories of the Dawn of Wraeththu’. It includes two stories of mine – one of them completely new. Well, I say *completely* but it was a very early piece I had knocking around, only about a quarter written. So I decided to finish it for this collection. It’s called ‘Pro Lucror’, which is Latin for ‘for the win’ and I expect most gamers reading this will get the reference there! It concerns a seminal moment in Uigenna history, when their leader is challenged, and in the resulting chaos some hara break away to form – knowingly or not – some of what will become the most influential tribes. The other story of mine in the book is ‘Paragenesis’. While this has been published before, Wendy and I thought it should be included in this collection, simply because it is *the* Wraeththu creation story.
Wendy has two stories in the book too: ‘Something’s Coming’ and ‘The First’. The rest of the line up, in alphabetical order of author, is Andy Bigwood’s ‘Specimen 16’; Christopher’s Coyle’s ‘A Sickle Blade’ and ‘You Can Never Go Back’; Suzanne Gabriel’s ‘The Dawn of Hope’; Gwyn Harper’s ‘The Burned Boy’; Fiona Lane’s ‘The Conservation of Momentum’; Maria Leel’s ‘Song of the Sulh’; Kristi Lee’s ‘The Rune-Throwing’ and Martina Luise Pachali’s ‘Building Immanion’.
We have several illustrations from Ruby for the book, who also designed the cover. Andy has illustrated his own story. The plan is to launch the book in September, and so far, all being well, it’s on schedule!
While I’m still working on two novel ideas not connected with Wraeththu, another project sort of popped up as I was poring through old stories of mine for the Mythos collection. I have quite a few Wraeththu stories and novellas which are only partly completed, and have decided I want to dust them off and polish them up. These include a story of when Cal and Seel become Wraeththu, which I’ve long wanted to finish off. I envisage bringing these out in another collection, but whether that is through Immanion Press or a bigger publisher rests on another publisher wanting to take it. Any developments will be posted here.
For those interested in the Deharan Magic system, a new online group has been set up where people can discuss their ideas and experiences. Moderated by Modraed, the address of Nayati Dehara is http://nayatidehara.socialgo.com/
As many will know, I have several times set up Yahoo groups and so on to pursue the creation and expansion of the Deharan system, but I simply lack the time to moderate them efficiently so things just go quiet. You need someone who’s active and prepared to keep things going! Mordraed wants to give it a go.
While I am not a moderator or co-ordinator of this group, I have signed up for it and will keep an eye on the posts, adding my thoughts when relevant.
June 7th, 2010
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So What’s in a Virtual World?
There has been much negative discussion about how virtual worlds – be they socially oriented ones like Second Life, or gaming oriented ones like World of Warcraft – suck people’s lives away, so therefore are a VERY BAD THING. I disagree with this view and want to add my bit to why I don’t think it’s so.
First, it has to be said that for the individual who lacks any kind of self discipline online worlds might well be a life-sink, but as an adjunct to a full and productive existence, I don’t think there is anything negative to say about them. One of the best things about these virtual worlds is how they have opened up social interaction. It’s now possible to have online friends all over the world, which about 10 years ago we’d never have thought possible.  Also, in MMO’s (that’s massive multiplayer online for the uninitiated) people are less likely to encounter the sort of creepiness that can invade other online venues. I’ve yet to read a story of weirdos using them to find young girls for disgusting purposes. Gamers on the whole are just into the game and if anyone tried the asl question, they’d just get laughed at. (If someone asked me that, mistakenly thinking I was a ‘young girl’, I’d just shoot back, ‘er… what’s your dps?’) I’m not so naive as to think MMOs are totally free of creeps and weirdos, but let’s just say it’s not so much of a problem.
I started my MMO experience about 5 years ago. Before that I’d played lots of computer games solo, but after I discovered the multi player online games, solo just seemed really… well… isolated. The fact is none of my non-gaming friends ever criticised the fact I’d play Civilisation or Heroes of Might and Magic until the small hours every night, but the minute I joined Guilds Wars, and subsequently World of Warcraft, it was suddenly a topic for negative comment. That’s interesting in itself. My gaming friends and I clearly feel guilty about our pleasures, otherwise we wouldn’t keep saying to one another, ‘so, how is this so bad in comparison to just going down the pub, paying inflated prices for drinks, surrounded by people we’d usually cross the street to avoid? Why is this worse than sitting in front of the TV all night watching rubbish?’ We shouldn’t even be asking ourselves those questions, but we do, because we’re made to feel we’re sad, geeky or inadequate for enjoying our online experience. I have online friends all over the place, and this has given me insight into different parts of the world. I wouldn’t have met these people going down town to the local pub or vegging out on the sofa in front of the TV.
I’ve had discussions with my friends concerning what is so satisfying about being a member of a virtual community. I’ll have to speak about World of Warcraft here, because that is my current other home. One of my friends in WoW once said that in these worlds people can set goals and achieve them, which often isn’t so easy in real life. This is good for self esteem, so obviously is a huge attraction. There is also the escapism aspect, it has to be admitted. We can’t ride dragons in real life, or have a perfect body or wield superpowers. And the landscape in these worlds is wondrous and fantastical, free of the depradations of humanity that surround us in real life. For many of my friends, getting home from a grinding day job and coming online is a relief. They have their guild mates greeting them and asking them to come play. They can stretch their wings and fly, if they so wish.  They can soar over majestic mountains and mysterious forests, with not a car park, industrial estate or shopping mall in sight. The world, in comparison to reality, is pristine – perhaps a world ours was once like.
One thing that really surprised me about WoW is the amount of creative people you find in there – musicians, artists and writers particularly. I don’t mean wannabes either, but established, successful individuals. Admittedly these are hidden within a morass of objectionable teenagers – argh how we wish for adults only realms! But on the whole my experience has been positive.
You read stories every day in papers and magazines about celebrities – whether A or Z list – being involved in some kind of online activity. The PM’s wife, for example, is renowned for her Twittering, while others like Lily Allen have turned away from it because they felt it engulfed their lives. Not being a fan of the gut-spilling aspect of online interaction, such as Twitter or Live Journal, I can’t really comment on that. I have Facebook and Myspace accounts, but neglect them. All I do is go on them sporadically and accept friends or else reply to personal messages I’ve received. I know that some people virtually live on such sites, but I don’t get the attraction of that so much. It just seems like so much verbal diahorrhea to me. Gaming is very different, but yes it does have its addictive aspects also.
There is always something to do – whether that’s levelling a character from 1-80, or paying attention to a character’s professions and levelling those. There are reputation grinds with certain factions to acquire, old content to revisit, or new content to explore. If you’re in a guild like ours who raid (that means taking on higher level dungeons with larger teams of players), there will be several nights a week devoted solely to that. Strategy plays a big part. No one can join an MMO and become an expert at it overnight. It literally takes years to learn everything, and then there is still something new to learn. Creating and evolving a character is a long and often complicated process, with many aspects to consider and balance. Logging on to a game like WoW, especially when you’re an officer in an active guild, can feel like logging on to your other life, your other job, your other responsibilities. People who take on such roles commit themselves to a large degree to making other players’ gaming lives more fulfilling. We are the people who organise events, get the most appropriate people for the task in the right place at the right time, and make sure the team has enough consumables to get them through difficult encounters. All the others have to do is turn up. Trying to herd 10 people, never mind 25, into a raid is never an easy job, especially so when the team members might be spread out through different time zones, have children to care for, or difficult working hours, and so on. But however much we might gripe occasionally about the woes of such a position, we still love it. When a team works together, pitting their ingenuity against the most difficult puzzles the game developers can dream up – that is, the raid bosses and their devastating abilities – and we finally win, it’s a huge high for everyone. It’s difficult to do, a sedentary sport but a sport all the same. Like I said, no one could join an MMO and be able to conquer these encounters without a long apprenticeship. To me, using your brain as part of your social life is a bonus. It’s rather a step up from a pub quiz.
April 23rd, 2010
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News from Storm for 2010
Just a few snippets of news for the New Year.
I’m still working through transforming my back catalogue into ebooks, and today uploaded seven more of them to smashwords.com. All these titles are on sale for only $5 each:
The Hienama
Student of Kyme
Hermetech
Burying the Shadow
Stalking Tender Prey
Scenting Hallowed Blood
Stealing Sacred Fire
As for new books, I’ve started work on a novel that will be an expansion of a short story I wrote called Where the Vampires Live, for a forthcoming collection edited by Ian Whates’ through Newcon Press. There aren’t any traditional vampires in it – as there wasn’t in Burying the Shadow – but the collection was vampire-themed, so there had to be some kind of link. Not quite sure what to call the novel yet; its working title is The Windwalkers, but that might change. The story has quite a fairy-tale feel to it, and I was really pleased with it when I’d finished it. I’ve had rather a break from writing, which I suspect was needed to refuel the creative batteries, but this year I will be delegating a lot of my editing work in order to get back to my own material.
I’ll be publishing Mytholumina, the next volume of my complete short story collection to coincide with my visit to the world horror convention, Brightonshock, in March. http://www.whc2010.org/ Other Immanion Press authors should be putting in appearances too, along with various members of our staff.
Wendy Darling and I are working on a Wraeththu Mythos short story collection, as some of you might already know. We’ve had submission in, and are ready to start the editing work. The book will be out some time this year, but as yet I can’t give a firm date for publication. More news when I get it.
Happy New Year to you all; hope 2010 is a time of hope and inspiration for everyone.
January 5th, 2010
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