tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34512353937966513052024-03-20T20:10:23.940-07:00Imaginary FriendThe current projects, upcoming releases, and occasional thoughts of Aaron Bradford Starr.Aaron Bradford Starrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04916348665504480918noreply@blogger.comBlogger46125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3451235393796651305.post-52894999291261272732015-06-29T03:00:00.000-07:002015-06-29T03:00:14.217-07:00Queen of Cinders Trilogy Complete
I'm pleased to announce that the long-simmering first drafts of the Queen of Cinders trilogy are now all complete. Emphasis on first drafts!
As I come to grips with having such a big project reach such an important milestone, it occurred to me what a strange journey this has been. I pre-planned this project pretty carefully, but wasn't too surprised that the plan was often Aaron Bradford Starrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04916348665504480918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3451235393796651305.post-26385950857332450492015-05-13T04:19:00.001-07:002015-09-03T11:50:32.106-07:00A Good Question
My daughter AgentT and I were talking on the way home from her school.
"If you had to choose," she asked, "which would you pick? Would you want everyone to like you, or have superpowers?"
My first instinct was to go with having people like me but I hesitated. It was a much better question than it appeared at first glance. Be an accepted member of the group, or stand apart Aaron Bradford Starrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04916348665504480918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3451235393796651305.post-33893448338522826452015-04-10T15:11:00.003-07:002015-04-10T15:13:24.042-07:00I The Jury: Cinderella
The Charges: Unwanted corporate
navel-gazing evoking a long-dead Golden Age, shot-by-shot remake,
evidence of creative bankruptcy.
The Verdict: Not Guilty!
The Findings: This movie snuck up on
me. Suddenly, there was this new version of Cinderella coming out,
which was no surprise, lately. But another Cinderella by Disney?
The company that made the definitive version decades ago? Aaron Bradford Starrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04916348665504480918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3451235393796651305.post-79178831835944545682015-02-03T01:46:00.000-08:002015-02-03T01:50:34.209-08:00Welcome back, writing time!
After a five-month stint of doing cover paintings, I'm back in the writing saddle here in my new digs in Durham, England. Yeah, that England!
After such a protracted lapse, I expected to have a few days of warming up before being able to drop back into the story. I was pleasantly surprised when that didn't prove necessary. So, if all goes well, I can get Book 3 of Queen of Aaron Bradford Starrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04916348665504480918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3451235393796651305.post-3465533555257055752015-01-08T07:54:00.000-08:002015-01-11T21:27:12.890-08:00Maps of Fantasy worlds
This is a large-scale map of my fantasy setting, Malduan, the home of Gloren Avericci and Yr Neh. When I was younger, I used to love the maps that were commonly in the front of many fantasy novels. They allowed me to really stay grounded in the setting as the characters moved over the landscape. When done well, and used well, maps can add a lot to a story by keeping the Aaron Bradford Starrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04916348665504480918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3451235393796651305.post-70836490545649602922015-01-01T07:06:00.001-08:002015-01-11T21:29:10.482-08:00A soft spot for 2015With the champagne corks mounded high on every side, I'd like to get my Goals post out of the way. Posting it is, after all, my first goal of every year.
Given my dismal failure to meet goals in 2014 up to a point where I could cross them off my list so they could actually get counted, I'm going to do a lot more tracking of what the heck else I'm doing that isn't on-task. So, to Aaron Bradford Starrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04916348665504480918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3451235393796651305.post-47990531393914438462014-12-29T08:02:00.001-08:002014-12-30T07:14:24.471-08:00A firm handshake to 2014 as I show it the doorWell, here we are again. The end of the year. As usual, I want to review what I did, and what I thought I would do. This is usually a painful process.
If I were to simply tally up my goals (10), and compare to my successes in meeting those goals (2), I would look like a loser. So I'm not going to do that.
Instead, I'm going to justify my lack of progress on a Aaron Bradford Starrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04916348665504480918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3451235393796651305.post-973065496589930632014-09-29T08:22:00.002-07:002014-12-30T17:00:12.328-08:00Emergent Narratives: Why I Wait So Long To Edit, -or- My Toast Looks Like Jesus
Years ago, Matt, a friend of mine, and
I would play lots of games, and in them we'd have adventures far
beyond what was actually present in the rules. One game that stands
out in my memory was The Arkham Horror, a game based on the writings
of H.P. Lovecraft. In this game, the players became investigators in
the small fictional town of Arkham, which was the focus for an
transdimensional Aaron Bradford Starrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04916348665504480918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3451235393796651305.post-56346035143269293552014-09-19T08:22:00.000-07:002014-09-19T08:22:21.313-07:00Five Stars released!
A few weeks ago, now, the Five Stars anthology was released by Rampant Loon Press. This is a collection of, yes, five stories that the editorial powers-that-be thought summed up the entire mission statement of Stupefying Stories, and thus need to be highlighted.
Oh, and looky here! Is that First Impressions leading the charge to glory?
Yes. Yes it is. Woot!
Oh, and Aaron Bradford Starrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04916348665504480918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3451235393796651305.post-63767778745799716592014-06-24T12:06:00.000-07:002014-07-28T08:51:38.922-07:00Sports, games, and simulation: Quiddich Professional League enters Alpha testing
I'm still alpha-testing my new boardgame, Quiddich: Professional League, which is part of my game series based on the writings of J.K. Rowling. Since this is part of a series, I felt it needed to keep at a complexity level close to the others. This, as it turned out, was a naive hope. Quiddich is just too nuanced, and needed more rules than I usually like to model it.
In Aaron Bradford Starrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04916348665504480918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3451235393796651305.post-41961441195792537402014-04-30T10:39:00.004-07:002014-04-30T10:55:37.870-07:00The Downward Spiral
There comes a point in every story where the end begins. The threads have all been woven or cut, and those remaining must be tied off. For completed work, this is the final buildup toward the climax. For short stories, this is the end of the initial setup. Short stories begin poised to end.
I call this moment of no return the Downward Spiral.
There's simply no turning Aaron Bradford Starrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04916348665504480918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3451235393796651305.post-44722728035927353772014-02-02T07:31:00.001-08:002014-02-11T08:40:51.358-08:00Identity Confusion
Today
we've got guest musings from Dean C. Rich, the maestro of The Write Time blog. Besides being the man who scored the most
sought-after blog name, he also the author of Seven Silver
Swords, a project he has been polishing to a mirror finish for some
time now (nudge, nudge...). Look upon his works, ye mighty, and
feel just a wee bit inspired.
Aaron Bradford Starrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04916348665504480918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3451235393796651305.post-46293821066506127492014-01-28T10:58:00.002-08:002014-01-29T06:02:09.519-08:00Recurring Themes
To get 2014 started in style, we have a guest post by the mighty Joyce Alton, the creator and overlord of the Yesternight's Voyage blog. Go there, and marvel!
Aaron asked a couple of simple but poignant questions:
Looking at your work as a whole, do you see any recurring themes or imagery?
What does that suggest to you about yourself?
So I pulledAaron Bradford Starrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04916348665504480918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3451235393796651305.post-58743033792863323592014-01-22T08:48:00.001-08:002014-01-22T08:48:36.370-08:00Welcome, toddler 2014!Wow, baby new year is already potty-trained, and I'm still reeling from New Year's Eve celebrations. Well, this year is going to be a mixed bag of writing, editing, and publishing. I've re-jiggered my goals for this year to be more in line with the amount of time I actually spend doing stuff in a year. Somehow, I only work on my own stuff about 300 hours a year, which is only Aaron Bradford Starrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04916348665504480918noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3451235393796651305.post-52927446798697072512013-12-24T14:10:00.000-08:002013-12-24T14:10:28.148-08:00Queen of Cinders, Book Two Complete
Though overdue, I'm happy to announce that the second book in my current work-in-progress, Queen of Cinders, was finished in mid November, and I immediately launched into writing the third and final volume. My plan is to finish the entire trilogy, and then do editing runs on all three books at once.
So, how did writing this second book (Widow) compare to writing the first (named, for Aaron Bradford Starrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04916348665504480918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3451235393796651305.post-36778063215892678992013-08-31T12:02:00.003-07:002013-08-31T12:03:36.907-07:00Spotlight's on You: A.G. CarpenterThis short story, highlighted in the very first Stupefying Stories Showcase feature, shows how to do SF right. Man, this is creepy stuff. Hats off to A.G. Carpenter for crafting this small gem.Aaron Bradford Starrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04916348665504480918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3451235393796651305.post-20275228979513116942013-06-07T17:34:00.001-07:002013-06-09T18:50:10.426-07:00For the Love of a Grenitschee
The cover story for the maiden voyage of Stupefying Stories in a print edition is Mark Keigley's For The Love Of A Grenitschee, and I was asked to do a cover painting for it. The story itself is rather fun and straight forward, and I quickly had images come to mind for it.
One main problem with these, however, was that, in order to be true to the story, most of them would have to Aaron Bradford Starrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04916348665504480918noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3451235393796651305.post-29247258492016954362013-05-04T07:59:00.000-07:002013-05-05T18:52:41.197-07:00I the Jury: Oblivion
The Charges: Derivative plot devices, Uneven pacing, Tom Cruise
The Verdict: Guilty as charged, but released for good behavior after time served.
The Finding: Science fiction works very well with small casts. Usually, stories with very tight casting are good vehicles for intimate character studies, and SF gives this formula twists by the nature of the Aaron Bradford Starrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04916348665504480918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3451235393796651305.post-48223593668021082192013-04-04T18:52:00.001-07:002013-04-07T14:13:21.933-07:00This Page is Half Empty: The Five Horsemen of Literary Apocalypse
This was originally posted on the Black Gate Magazine site on Wednesday, May 18th, 2011.
Right now, as I type this -- and as you read it -- I’ve got a new manuscript half done. For a writer, this is sort of like me saying that at this very moment I’m not wearing anything under all of my clothing. Well, duh, these people are saying, while trying not to involuntarily imagine Aaron Bradford Starrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04916348665504480918noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3451235393796651305.post-84695825601715112822013-03-29T19:26:00.002-07:002013-03-29T19:32:41.008-07:00The Sealord's Successor, Part Two
Some reviews are in for Part Two of The Sealord's Successor (Part One is here), and they seem pretty positive. This is something of a relief, to me, not so much because I'm on the fence about the story itself, but because of the torturous route its creation took.
Before I wrote Part 2 of this story, the most trouble I had ever ecperienced in getting a story offAaron Bradford Starrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04916348665504480918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3451235393796651305.post-46934104529846345012013-03-20T12:08:00.002-07:002013-03-29T19:02:51.344-07:00I the Jury: Snow White and the Huntsman
The Charges: Kristen Stewart’s acting; CGI for its own sake; Poor storytelling
The Verdict: Guilty as charged!
The Ruling: Fairy tale re-imaginings are all the rage at the moment (as my own current project will attest), and what makes them usually such weak tea is the fact that they expect the audience’s knowledge of the tale to do the heavy lifting. Very little Aaron Bradford Starrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04916348665504480918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3451235393796651305.post-13892932480391909282013-03-04T20:19:00.004-08:002013-03-20T08:31:00.283-07:00The Sealord's Successor, Part One
The Sealord's Successor has gone live over at Black Gate Magazine.
This was the second story that featured Gloren and Yr Neh. It was my first story using the same protagonists from another tale, and I wanted it to have a different feel to it. I brought in the services of Aven Penworthy, the young chronicler that Gloren meets in The Daughter's Dowry. Even while writing that Aaron Bradford Starrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04916348665504480918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3451235393796651305.post-64232315846223273012013-02-16T07:40:00.002-08:002013-02-16T07:40:55.529-08:00Copyright and the Public Good
With the trend in recent decades being toward perpetual copyright protection, what will become of the idea of the public domain?
Traditionally, copyright holders lost their copyright after some number of years after death. Their works reverted to the public, to be used and owned in common. Over time, this has given us a rich shared cultural base of literature, and all writers, noAaron Bradford Starrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04916348665504480918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3451235393796651305.post-80176472407818461232013-02-03T08:02:00.000-08:002013-03-20T12:30:29.580-07:00Writing Uncomfortable Scenes
Our latest guest blogger is the infamous Eli Ashpence, author of “Genocide to Genesis”. This is the first in line on my "read on a tablet" list. Yeah, there really is such a list. Regular readers of this blog are advised to follow my lead on this one! The Uncomfortable Circle is created by the enigmatic Xeth at Xeth.com.
When I first started writing, I was Aaron Bradford Starrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04916348665504480918noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3451235393796651305.post-55783788306086280592013-01-25T12:58:00.001-08:002013-01-25T13:01:15.381-08:00Coming in for a Landing
Today writer and editor T.J. Loveless ruminates on when pantsing it just isn't cutting it, and how to get the benefits of an outline even when you don't, can't or are morally against outlines. T.J.'s cat-filled, heavily padded web lair can be found here.
~Standing at the
podium~
Hello, my name is T.J. And...I'm a Pantser.
There are two types of writers. The Outliners who Aaron Bradford Starrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04916348665504480918noreply@blogger.com1