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Jess Hartley is one of the friendlier people I have met in on my online travels.  She is also quite talented as a game writer.   Her work on games like Changeling: The Lost is worthy of note.   She is trying out a new project now.  One which I am curious to see the results of.   Patronage may sound like something out of the middle ages and it is.   It has seen a resurgence of late in the table top gaming community, though.

Wolfgang Bauer introduced the Open Design project a few years ago.   In that, people interested in the work on a particular gaming project could contribute money during the creation process.   They would get a copy of the work before other folks and get some input into the product.   In gaming this made a lot of sense.  People got the products they wanted and the writers got the money they needed during the process of creating it.

Enter Jess.   I am not sure if she is the first, but it is the first time I have heard of the concept being applied to fiction.   So Jess has the Shattered Glass Project. This is a project where in she is writing a story.  People can contribute during the writing process to help her out while she writes it.  Being a writer you often putting in a lot of work for payment later…maybe.  A lot of that is not even related to how good a writer you are.  Publishers, editors, marketing departments, and agents all  take a slice.  This leaves the author often on the poor side of the equation.  Rarely do people who are fans, pay the author directly for their work.   Patronage changes that and that is essentially what Jess is trying.   She wants to see if people are willing to do this.   I think it is a cool idea and I am telling folks about it.

What is the story of Shattered Glass about?   Well here is a quote from her site.

What is The Shattered Glass Project?

The Shattered Glass Project is many things. It’s an experiment. It’s a work of fiction. It’s a solution. It’s a piece of art. And it’s your chance to be directly involved in my work.

Why “Shattered Glass?”

Shattered Glass is the splintering of reality that happens when a person realizes that the world is not quite as they believed it to be. It is destruction, from which both damage and opportunity may arise. It speaks of magic mirrors and ice queens, of vandalized store windows and shattered windshields. It’s the fragile nature of everything precious, and the value both of protecting that which we hold dear and knowing when to move on to something else when what we love is no longer good for us.

Is this a Changeling story?

While Shattered Glass is an original work, and is not directly related to or set in the same world as Changeling: The Lost or the World of Darkness (both which are property of White Wolf Games), although it will be written with many of the same themes and inspirations in mind.

Admit it, that sounds cool doesn’t it?

go check out http://www.jesshartley.com/ and look at what she has going on.

So I am recovering.

I am recovering from November first off.  It was long month.  Work was more than a little bit hectic.  I did NaNoWriMo and completed it on top of going home for the holidays for a full week. All in in all an exhausting month.  Lets not talk about the exhaustion that comes with family.   4 small children will run me ragged on any day.  Luckily family drama was more subdued than perhaps some past years.

On the first of December I got sick and I am only beginning to recover from that.  So it is time to stop worrying about recovering and worrying about what to do going forward.  I have proven to myself I can put out a fair amount of content when I set my mind too it.  Even with the many distractions of November I managed to meet a not insubstantial goal.  Whats next?

Well the what comes next is the part I am not sure on.   I have a novel that I have been working on for a long time that needs to be finished.  I have the Nano novel which needs to be cleaned up and basicly rewritten and then there is my podcast.   I have not put out new content on my podcast for a while.   And last but not least is this here blog.   I need to be updating it more often and more than the youtube videop that caught my interest that day.

I am going to to get back in writing something every day or baring that, recording.  It wont be War and Peace. Hell, it probably wont even be always interesting.  What it will be is me putting words to page or voice to microphone. I will write either 500 words a day at least or will record something.  The recording will be for my podcast feed or one of my voice acting roles.  Dont be surprised if you end up with some odd ramblings in the podcast feed as a result.

Why is this important?

Finishing NaNoWriMo was great deal of fun.  I also got a story accepted into the Tales of the Children Anthology.  What I am discovering is I like the feeling of getting creative things done.   It is addictive and fun. I want to keep getting that feeling.

While I do so love my tv shows and listening to the various podcasts I listen too, I like the feeling of being creative a little more.  It is a drug I don’t mind getting addicted too. This is not to say i wont listen to my fave podcasts or watch my TV shows or play my games.  It just means I will do that AFTER I set aside time for the creative endeavors.   I know it is a crazy idea, but it just might work.

Whatever the case you will likely see more posts from in the near future.  Try not to be too startled.

Now as the wind is howling and I mean quite literally, I should wrap this up.

Night kids.

I will share one of my favorite bits of Lovecraftian humor. Elder Sign!