-1.0 Hours till Launch

What does one do on a sleepless Wednesday night a few hours before NaNoWriMo begins?

Why make book covers desktop pictures of course!

So! Which of the fonts I shamelessly found on dafont.com do ya'll like? And while you're ogling at the incredible job I did of putting a text box on a black background I'll go catch a few hours sleep before November sucks me in!

Meet Ash Skarslard

When Ash Skarslard ran away to join the circus in Chicago, he knew it would change his life forever. What he didn't know was how much it would. Realizing he was deathly afraid of tigers was only the beginning.
When an accident on the main track sends the Tyrus Bros circus train on a five hour detour, they are forced to stop in Arskone to refill their coal. But the train will never leave. As the train slows to a stop at the sleepy station, hell itself erupts around them, swallowing performers and animals alike. And the creatures of darkness have plans for all of them.

Twisted and warped into his own greatest fear, Ash became one of them, no longer alive, not quite dead, eaten and hollowed out by his terror and anger. Terror at what he had become, anger at the ones who had done it to him. Terror at their retaliation, anger at the ones who had caused it all in the first place; those praying folk across the tracks.

Light fades, sundown comes; the time to strike is now

Slip across the battlelines; assassin on the prowl

Darkness will reign, chaos clutches deep

The price for life is steep

Meet Chase Forthen

*First of all, let me apologize for the apparent youth of the characters in the drawings. Apparently I can't draw age very well yet. Assume, for the present, that these were vignettes taken when they were a few years younger.

Meet Chase Forthen, a young man who had to grow up far too quickly when his hometown of Arskone became a battleground overnight. The son of the town's preacher, both his parents were killed in the first attacks, leaving Chase with the responsibility of caring for the hundred or so souls who had come to his father's chapel every Sunday. And doing so meant taking the fight to the enemy. 

For these attackers were not men of flesh and blood, but far darker things of the night and of death; foul things sent from the very bowels of hell. 

Against this undead menace Chase and the men of Arskone rose up, quickly learning the ways of a war where a blade might give more protection than a gun, and a prayer more power than a calvary charge. They became shadehunters, warriors against the night, and very real defenders of their faith and homes.

As the war drew on, quickly turning into a stalemate along the front lines of the old railroad tracks, Chase became known for his skill, fortitude, and unshaken trust in his God. But something was coming, something that would shake the already upside down Arskone to its very core, and Chase along with it. For God never forsakes His children, yet never stops teaching them. And the son of the preacher still has much to learn.

Night falls, the specters rise; the war beings once again

Hope fades, darkness sighs; who can see the end?

Stand fast, hold your ground; let them not win this night!

Be strong, listen to the sound; dawn will bring the light!

For Reals

Well, since I forgot to add the link TO my NaNo page last post, (containing the plot synopsis and characters), I'll just stop being lazy and actually do a post on that here.

So... the synopsis:

Railway-

When Ash Skarslard is saved by the shadehunter sent to hunt him down, he begins the strangest of friendships with the young Chase Forthen. Suddenly fighting on the opposite side of the war, he is faced with questions and decisions that will change his life forever. A shadow war rages around the railroad town of Arskone, and the clash of light and dark has never been so clear; except for the one scruffy weretiger who doesn't know on which side of the rails he stands.

And the link to me on the Nanowrimo site, in case any of you actually do want to buddy me, or just check my stats :)

Also, character profiles (being me making things up on the spot), to follow!

November? Ah!!

NaNoWriMo? Ah, yes, that lovely part of the year where I write like a maniac. I love November! And...



IT'S ONLY TWO WEEKS AWAY!! AIEE, I'M NOT READY!!

AHH!

*frantic running around my 10x10 room, hopping over the bed every three steps*

Wait...
I do have something...

Combine:

Just-for-fun 3d model of anachronistic town....

Doodling-in-class character sketch...

Selected parts of a never-completed short story...

Potential Halloween costume...

That normal NaNo craziness...

And Viola!

I give you Railway*; my pretty much totally unplanned, steampunk/fantasy adventure I shall embark on a little over a fortnight.

We shall see how it goes. :) Some time ago I would have frowned at myself for doing something this crazy... but I'm in college now.

Just kidding.

See, the first time I did NaNo, I had a pretty good plan, and stuck fairly well to it. The next year I whipped up a magnificent plan that was even better than the last... and scrapped it three days in for a insistent idea involving an abandoned circus, a talking tiger, fighting robots, a bunch of 'gifted' ex-convicts who battled those fighting robots in death matches every night, and a completely normal young man called Alen.

The story that came out was one of the best I had ever written.

So I've since come to discard many of my beliefs in doing things 'by the book' (pun very much intended) when it comes to writing. In many cases, letting the book write itself (especially in those cases where you're not allowing yourself to forget about it) is the best possible option. At least for me :).

So there's my two bits of wisdom tacked on to a unorthodox NaNo 'announcement'. Hope it makes you smile. Or at least quirk an eyebrow.

Anyways, if you're looking for "mo' info", head over to my NaNo page and check out whatever I happen to have up! And while you're there, buddy up with me! I enjoy seeing how good my friends are doing! (or bad >:) he he)

Now then.... to make up some sort of cover without photoshop....



*If you've been around a while, you might have seen the title Railway pop up elsewhere here; it was a placeholder for that short story I mentioned above. I really liked the title, but didn't have a story it fit with. Now I do. :)

Home again

"Home again, I'm home again, Rose"

Southern back roads and a beautiful sunset... It don't get much better.

eensy weensy 2.0

Or "No fingers were harmed in the making of this blog post."

That's roughly 40 ft tall at 1"=100'