Wordcount Wednesday

I'm just going to say this now: I hate the flu. Despise it. I got nailed with it twice this past week. It took me out of commission for two days and then again this past weekend. As a result, I've been having some trouble bouncing back. I still managed to do some writing, but again, not enough.

As of right now, Failstate #3 is at 53,087 words. That's only 4,180 more than last week. I'll have to step it up some more if I can.

Wordcount Wednesday

I'm going to keep this quick. Life has been conspiring against me lately when it comes to writing. Now it's flu. Grrrrr.

So right now, the third Failstate book is weighing in at 48,907 words, which means I added 12,242 words since the last time I checked in. Not good enough. I'll need to knuckle down and keep working.

Wordcount Wednesday

Remember that goal I set for myself last week? Where I said I hoped (as impossible as it might seem) to have Failstate #3 done by the end of April.

Yeah, I have a feeling that's not going to happen.

This past week, I did my best, I really did! But I was kind of stuck. I only was able to write 7,948 words this week. Granted, that is a little more than last week, but it's not going to be enough. My grand total is now at 36,665 words. Again, not too bad, but not good enough, especially since I finally introduced a character that should have been in the book 10,000 words ago.

Ah, well. That's what editing is for. All I can do is say, "Onward and upward!"

Let's talk Etzal'el!

That's Etzal'el in the back

One of my favorite new characters from Failstate: Legendswas Etzal'el. I had been looking forward to introducing him after dropping his name a few times in Failstate. It was a lot of fun including this character in a book finally. And I say "finally" because Etzal'el has been rattling around in the back of my head for a long time now.  As in, at least since about 2004.

And the reason? An old MMORPG called City of Heroes.

Back in 2004, Cryptic Studios released a game that allowed its players to create superheroes and then go into a massive city to fight crime. There were all sorts of different powers a person could have and myriad villains to defeat. It was a lot of fun.

I made at least half a dozen different heroes during the months that I played. A few were jokes (a gigantic purple man with a Vikings helmet called the Purple People Eater), one was intended for role playing (a hero called Tolkien who was based on a group of villains called the Trollkin), but three of them kind of stuck with me. First was a red-headed superhero girl named Jensina, who used fire attacks. Then there was Evangel (I think), a blond-haired bruiser who wore a white shirt with a bright red cross on it.

But my favorite of the bunch was Etzal'el, a creepy man who dressed in a black suit, wide-brimmed hat, and had glowing red eyes. He was a controller, designed to deal with large crowds of bad-guys. He wasn't the best in a straight up fight. Instead, he fought by creating illusions in people's minds. And he could also control the weather.

Yeah, don't ask.

So where did the name come from?  Well, when I was creating the character, I needed a name. I couldn't think of one, so I pulled out my copy of Character Naming Sourcebook and flipped to the Hebrew section.One name stood out: Betzalel, which means "In God's shadow." Well, I know enough Hebrew to know that the letter B in that name means "in." So I dropped it to make the character's name to roughly mean "God's shadow." I liked it.

Eventually, Etz became my primary character. I don't remember how far I managed to level him to, but I do remember earning him a cape at one point.

This past week, I went looking for my screenshots of Etz and the gang. Sadly, they've disappeared.

But here's the interesting thing. While I don't have the pics anymore, I remembered something about Etz, Evangel, and Jensina. Even though it wasn't necessary, I came up with a backstory for those three. Etz and Evangel were brothers. And they were both in love with Jensina.

Wait. A superhero with seemingly weak mental powers, his superstrong brother, who are both in love with the same girl? Where have I heard that before?

I guess maybe Failstate's been with me for a while too.

Don't forget to sign up for the Legends giveaway on Goodreads!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Failstate

by John W. Otte

Giveaway ends April 10, 2013.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

FFF Part IV --- Meet the Crew

If you're not sure what's going on, you can catch up on what's been happening in this found footage horror film I'm writing by reading the previous entries. Just a warning: they are in reverse order. Sorry.

WHERE WE LEFT OFF: Staci, a journalism student, has convinced her friend Leon to shoot a documentary about apparent political corruption in a small town called Garretsburg. They interviewed a girl named Lisa who lived in this town. Her dad ran for mayor and, when he started asking too many questions, their house caught on fire and burned to the ground.

WHERE WE PICK UP:

Leon has already turned on his camera and is filming Staci packing their stuff in the back of the van. He makes some comments about them going off on their grand adventure that causes Staci to smile and roll her eyes. Leon then looks around the parking lot.

"So where's Bethany? She is coming, right?" he asks.

"Don't worry about it. She said she needed some time away from campus, and she seemed really excited when I talked to her about it last night. I'm sure she'll be here any minute. Relax!" Staci says.

Sure enough, Bethany arrives. Bethany is a cute girl, dressed nicely, and has a bag slung over her shoulder. She smiles at Staci but then scowls at the camera. "Is that thing going to be going the whole time we're gone?"

"Well, not always, but we are filming a documentary," Leon says.

Bethany interrupts him. "Because I"m really hoping for some privacy while we're gone."

Staci frowns. "Why?"

Bethany looks over her shoulder and a guy walks up to her and puts his arm around her waist. "I asked Ray to come with us."

The camera droops in Leon's hand. It shifts as he turns to face Staci. "Staci, a word."

They go off to one side. "I thought you said that Bethany broke up with Ray," Leon says.

"I thought she did too!" Staci replies. "Last I heard, anyway. They must have gotten back together yesterday or something."

Someone walks up to them. Leon angles the camera to reveal that it's Bethany. She fixes Leon with a toxic look and turns to Staci. "Look, Ray and I need this time away from campus. I want to rekindle the romance, y'know?"

"This isn't a vacation, Bethany," Staci says. "We're going to be doing some serious work while we're gone."

"Oh, I get that, but we're not going to be working the whole time, right? There will be some time for fun. That's what I'm hoping for. Ray won't get in the way of your little film thing, don't worry."

"We going or not?" Ray shouts.

Leon turns to see Ray toss his bag into the back of the van, along with Bethany's bag.

"I guess so," Leon says, his voice bitter.

Bethany scoots over to Ray and throws her arms around him.

"Look, I know this isn't what I promised," Staci said. "But look at it this way: Ray's a complete tool. Now Bethany can get to know you better and see what a great guy you are. Then you'll be there for her when things go south again."

"Great, so I can reserve my spot in the friend zone, huh?"

"C'mon, let's go."

The camera cuts to shots of the van driving along the highway, past farm fields and clumps of trees. Then it jump cuts to footage of Garretsburg, little snippets of sites we've already seen: the park, city hall. At one point, the van slows to a crawl next to a vacant lot. Staci reveals that this was where Lisa's house stood before the fire. There's no evidence that it was ever there. Leon wonders if they should go check out the property Lisa's dad wanted to buy. Staci decides not to because it's getting late.

Instead, they pull into the motel parking lot and Staci goes in to get their rooms. Leon and Ray have one, Staci and Bethany another. Leon puts his stuff in his room, only to hear a knock at the door. It's Staci. She's apparently been chased out of her room and needs a place to crash. Leon offers the other bed. Staci suggests they shut off the camera for the night, because their investigation starts in the morning.


So there we go. We have our four intrepid (and ultimately doomed) college kids. I'm trying to be a bit better about describing how I visualized a lot of this. As always, let me know what you think.

Wordcount Wednesday

Well, back at it then.

Last week, I finished up my edit pass through Numb, trying to find and eliminate some of my common "writing tells," the over- or poorly used phrases that pepper my works. Once that was done, I decided to take a little break. It was Holy Week, after all, and as a pastor, I had enough on my mind as it was.

But Easter is now done and past. I'm back on the Coke . . . er, the drink, that is. I hope that was obvious. And I'm feeling the itch. The itch to write about superheroes again. So I'm back onto Failstate #3. The last time I reported in three weeks ago, the new manuscript was at 22,248 words. After working on it for the past couple of days, it's up to 28,717 words, an addition of 6,469 words. Not too shabby for only two or three days' work.

So what's my plan from here on out? Well, I'd like to finish this monster in the next month. That leaves me about 27 days. I honestly don't think I'll be able to make it. I'd be surprised if I can. But I still might be able to. I'd have to write about 2,750 words a day, which is a bit high. I'll do my best to try, but I'm not going to be too disappointed if I can't do it.

In the meantime, have you entered my Goodreads giveaway?

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Failstate

by John W. Otte

Giveaway ends April 10, 2013.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Only 104 people have entered right now. That's still pretty good odds, and you've got a week left to enter. So get on it!

FFF Part III -- Something's Rotten in Garretsburg

Professor Veronica Weathers, after being told by the police that they couldn't investigate the disappearance of four college students without further evidence, headed to their last known location. In the little town of Garretsburg, she couldn't find anyone who would admit to seeing them, but she did find an empty suitcase in the local motel's dumpster. She also found a camera bag in the woods with a tag on it, identifying it as belonging to one of the students.

Veronica is back in her office and wants to document what she's found. She shows the camera she found, along with the portable hard drive. She reveals that there were dozens of videos taken around the time that Staci called her cell phone with her frantic voice mail. Veronica has uploaded all of the files onto the department server and she's going to start going through them...

We cut to the first entry and get our first look at Staci Fowler. She's around 20 years old, perky and nice looking. She's seated on a couch in a dorm room, one that obviously belongs to a guy. She smiles at the camera and teases someone she calls Leon about finally getting it working. Leon, who remains off camera, mocks her back.

"At least now I can get to work on my film studies final project," he says. "But now I have to come up with something to actually film." He zooms in on Staci. "Wanna make movies with me?"

Staci smirks but then says, "Actually, I have an idea about that. You know I have that big journalism project coming up, right? Why don't we team up and do a documentary?"

Leon makes a fake snoring sound. Staci picks up a pillow and throws it at Leon.

"Seriously, though, a documentary on what? Isn't your project supposed to be about politics?"

Staci nods. "Exactly. There's this girl in my econ class. The other day, she was telling me about some crazy stuff that happened in this town she lived in a while back. It sounded like the perfect thing to investigate. What do you say?"

"I don't know," Leon says. "I mean, yeah, I'm supposed to put together a movie, but a documentary? That sounds like a lot of work."

"Oh," Staci says. "That's too bad. Because you know, I asked Bethany to help us on the project and she seemed excited. Just think. The two of you would probably have to spend some time alone together."

"Oh, come on! That's not fighting fair, and you know it!"

Staci smiles. "So what do you say?"

Leon sighs. "Fine. What do we do first?"

"Let's go interview the girl from my econ class and get the story from her."

The footage cuts to another college-aged girl. We catch our first glimpse of Leon as he clips a microphone to her her shirt. Leon is also twenty years old, a little on the pudgy side and definitely average as far as looks are concerned. He then steps around behind the camera again.

Staci's voice comes from off camera. "Okay, Lisa, we're just going to talk about that story you told me in econ, okay?"

Lisa takes a deep breath and nods. She then starts to tell her story, with Staci interjecting questions from time to time:

"Several years ago, my family moved to this little town called Garretsburg. It seemed like a nice enough place at first, very friendly. You know, typical small town.

"My dad, he's an avid hiker and he couldn't find any trails or anything nearby. But there was this large wooded property  right outside of town. It was a couple of acres with some old rundown buildings in it. Dad thought that it would be perfect as a park. He had some money my gram left him, so he tried to track down the owners to see if they'd be willing to sell it.

"The weird thing is, no on in town seemed to know who the land belonged to. They all knew about it, but whenever Dad would ask about it, he got what he called the royal run-around. He finally found out that the land belonged to the city. He offered to buy it, but the mayor wouldn't even talk to him. When he tried to track down the records about the land, he found out that they had disappeared. Not only that, but the mayor was becoming really rude to him.

"So when the next election came around, Dad decided to run for mayor. But that wasn't easy. He said it was like everyone in city hall was against him. They lost his paperwork three different times. His lawn signs kept disappearing. The town newspaper kept misspelling his name.

"Then, when the election was held, the old mayor won in a landslide, which Dad thought was fishy. Sure, he knew he had an uphill battle, but based on what the newspaper reported, it sounded like no one voted for him at all. Dad thought maybe the election was rigged, and so he started making noise about contacting the state's Attorney General's office. That's when the sheriff stopped by and 'suggested' that Dad take it easy.

"Two nights later, our house burned down. Strange thing is, none of the smoke alarms went off. Dad took it as a sign that we should just forget about it and get out of town.

"So there you go. That's my story."

The camera swings around to Staci. "Sounds like there's something rotten in Garretsburg. I think we should go find out what."

Keep the comments coming. I know this was another "wall of text" scene, but it will get better. I hope. LOL!

The Extroverted Writer

In the interest of fairness, I'll just get this out of the way up front. Amanda Luedeke is my literary agent. She's a big part of the reason that I'm published and she's great at what she does. What makes her unique is that before she became a literary agent, she was a marketer, a subject that usually gets most authors tied up in knots. For a while now, Amanda has been doing regular posts on marketing at Chip MacGregor's blog. Well, now she's gathered all of that advice together in one easy-to-read place: The Extroverted Writer: An Author's Guide to Marketing and Building a Platform. It's a short book, easy to read, and easy to digest.

Amanda covers a diverse range of topics, like how to use Facebook or Twitter efficiently, what you should blog about, and what should be on a website. Unlike a lot of marketing books, this isn't just empty cheerleading, she gives practical advice with good suggestions on what to do.

If you're an author, either published or not-quite-there-yet, this is a good resource for you to have. I'm sure you'll get a lot out of it. Although you may not have the experience of hearing Amanda's voice in your head while you're reading it. LOL!

FFF Part II -- Retracing Staci's Steps

When we left off last, Professor Veronica Weathers had received a frantic voicemail message from one of her students, Staci Fowler. Staci had been on the trail of some sort of expose when she and several of her friends disappeared. The message made it sound like Staci was being hunted by someone in a town called Garretsburg.

We pick up with Veronica driving in her car. She has her video camera going on her dashboard. She explains that she tried calling the police to let them know what she had heard. Unfortunately, that turned out to be a dead end. The police contacted their counterparts in Garretsburg and were told that everything was fine. Without further evidence, they couldn't do anything.

So now, Veronica took it upon herself to dig up that evidence. She's heading to Garretsburg with a camera of her own to see what she can find. Maybe she'll be able to find something that will get the police to act.

Next we see small snippets of her arrival in Garretsburg. It's a small town, a population of about 4,000. There are deep woods outside the town, a brick church near the downtown, a few pleasant parks. There's only one motel to speak of. Veronica goes there first. While filming, she goes to the front desk with a picture of Staci. She asks the attendant if Staci stayed at the motel. The clerk barely glances at the picture but informs Veronica that no one has stayed at the motel recently. Veronica presses the clerk, but she insists that Veronica leave.

Veronica does, but she goes around to the back of the motel and finds a dumpster. She sets the camera aside and sifts through some of the trash. She quickly finds what she's looking for, namely a bag with a tag that has Staci's name on it. The contents of the bag are missing.

Vernoica sets out with her camera into Garretsburg. She shows Staci's picture to some folks in the local diner and asks if they've seen Staci or her friends. Everyone claims to have not seen them, but there's an underlying tension to the townsfolk. It's clear that they don't appreciate this outsider asking questions. When Veronica goes out to a local park to ask some of the mothers gathered at the playground, she spots the sheriff's car parked a block away and it's clear that she's being watched.

Most of the mothers at the playground ignore her, but one little boy seems ready to help. He claims to have seen Staci and her friends and says that they got themselves into trouble. When Veronica asks where they went, the boy claims to not know but says that if she goes out of town and finds the "bad place," she might find what she's looking for. One of the mom's shouts and the boy runs away, along with the rest of the kids.

Veronica gets in her car and drives to the edge of town in the direction the boy pointed. She finds a dense woods and goes in, wondering aloud how she's going to find this "bad place." But then, she spots something in the underbrush. She brushes away some dirt and dead leaves and discovers it's a camera bag. The tag marks it as belonging to Leon Johnson, one of the missing college students. She opens it and discovers that the videocamera is in there, along with a portable hard drive. She pulls it out of the ground and gets back in her car. She drops the camera on the dash, revealing that the sheriff is right behind her. She throws her car into drive and roars away. The sheriff follows her for a while until she manages to lose him on the freeway. She wonders what she'll find when she gets the camera back to her office.

So what will she find? Come back next Friday to see what Leon's camera reveals.

Oh, and thanks for the comments! I like the fact that people are thinking about how this could be filmed best. I'll be honest, I really don't think this will ever get put on film. I don't have the technical know-how to do so. But I'll be even more honest and say that I briefly considered starting something on Kickstarter. LOL!

Wordcount Wednesday

As I announced last week, I've taken a break from Failstate #3. Instead, I've spent the last week sifting through my old friend Numb, cleaning up the text so we can hopefully do some advance reader copies. It's been interesting revisiting this one. It took me a while to get going, but I think I've done pretty good. As of right now, I've made it through 153 pages out of 330. Not too bad.

Hopefully I'll have this one done in the next few days. Then it's back to Failstate #3's first draft.

And now I have to get off the computer and get some sleep. I seem to be coming down with some sort of cold and that's not good, especially since the Failstate: Legends launch party is this Saturday. Even if you can't be there in person, there are details in the Facebook invite about how you can join us via Ustream.

Good night, all.

Let's Talk Title!

As I promised last week, I'll share the story of where Failstate: Legends's title came from. It's a tale that's filled with mystery, heartbreak, and a little salsa.

Okay, not really. But it was a stumper for a long time.

See, I hate titles. Either I have an idea right away for a book or story's title or I have no idea what to call it. That latter was the case for Legends when I first got started. I kept working on it, hoping that at some point, a word or phrase would magically fall into my lap. That didn't happen. For a long time, when I was discussing this book with my wife, it was simply known as "Failstate #2." Not the most inspiring of titles.

Eventually what I did was sit down one night and write down every name that occurred to me. No judgment on quality, just different possible titles. I knew I wanted it to be "Failstate-colon-something-or-other." So I came up with a list of about a dozen titles or so.

Then I went to my colleagues at Marcher Lord Press. I shared a back-cover copy of the book, along with my list of possible after-the-colon subtitles. A bunch of the titles got rejected outright, including a few that I really liked (I don't remember what they were, so I guess it was a good thing in the long run).

The one we landed on was "Legends," partially because Failstate is striving to establish his own legend, and also because . . . well. Hmmmmm. How to do this without spoilers? Let's just say that he encounters some living legends along the way.

So there we go. It's not the most exciting of stories, but that's where the title came from.

If you have any questions for me, be sure to leave them in the comments. Otherwise, I'll be stuck trying to come up with questions on my own. And we wouldn't want that.

FFF Part 1 -- Staci's Gone Missing

Time to start writing my really bad found footage horror movie. I don't have a title for this. I have no idea where this is going. I don't know how long this series might last. But that's not going to stop me.

So let's get started!

Our untitled movie opens with news footage talking about how a professor and four students have gone missing from New Belton University. Professor Howard Erickson holds a press conference, explaining that he thinks his colleague, journalism professor Veronica Weathers, and the students were victims of foul play. He claims that he has evidence of this. When the local police chief is asked about this evidence, he dismisses it as a hoax.

Cut to an interview with Professor Erickson. He explains that he received an odd e-mail one evening from Weathers, claiming that she had uploaded some video footage into the department server and that it had to do with four New Belton students who had missed classes for several days. Erickson said he retrieved the footage and it disturbed him enough that he called the police. Now that the police have dismissed his concerns, he's put the footage together as best he could and now he's releasing it to the public in hopes that someone will be able to shed some light on what happened.

We cut to an image of Veronica Weathers. She's a nice looking middle aged woman. She's obviously set up a camera to record herself talking. She explains that she's a journalism professor at New Belton. She goes on to talk about how she's concerned about one of her students, a young lady named Staci Fowler. Staci is a promising student with aspirations for being a political reporter. Several weeks ago, Staci approached Weathers, asking for advice on how to do a big expose. Staci didn't go into details at the time, but she claimed to be on the trail of a story that could help make her mark before she's even graduated from college. Weathers says that she humored Staci at the time but thought that her student was exaggerating.

Then Staci and three of her friends left campus. Several days later, Weathers received an ominous voice mail message from Staci. Weathers pulls out her phone and plays the message for the camera.

At first, we don't hear anything, just rustling and what might be heavy breathing. But then, we hear the gasps and sobs of a young woman crying. "Dr. Weathers? It's Staci. We went to Garretsburg anyway, and now . . . I don't know what happened. Cynthia is dead and . . ." A burst of static drowns out her words. When they come back, she's crying harder. "We should never have come here. The sheriff is in on it." Another burst of static. "He's after me now and I don't know if---"

The line goes dead. Weathers explains that she looked it up on the map. Garretsburg is a small community to the north of New Belton, so she's planning on going up there to see what she can find out.

Want to know what Weathers finds in Garretsburg? Come back next week to see. And if you like what you're reading, be sure to let folks know what I'm up to. The more the merrier.

Wordcount Wednesday

Ever have one of those days? I've been having one of those days for the last three months or so. Okay, so that's a bit pessimistic. At the least, it's been one of those weeks. Unfortunately, I had a hard time getting it out of first when it came to writing. As a result, I didn't get a lot added to Failstate #3.

As of right now, Failstate #3 weighs in at 22,248 words, meaning I added 4,980 words over the past week.That may seem like a lot, but I think most of that was added at a writing retreat I was at today.

And, truth be told, I'm not sure if I'll be able to add that much in the coming weeks either. I realized I need to start work on an old story, the one that prompted me to start Wordcount Wednesday in the first place. It's been almost four years since I started it, but Numb is going to be published by Marcher Lord Press this fall. Thing is, I (hopefully) have grown a bit since I wrote that, so at the prompting of my publisher, I'm going to do a sweep through it to see if I can polish it up even more.

So Failstate #3 might be put on hold for a few days so I can do that edit sweep. But once that's done, I'm intending to crack down and get #3 finished.

Let's Talk Legends!

Last week, I announced the release of Failstate: Legends, the sequel to my debut novel. I also promised that I would tell some stories about the writing of this book and answer any questions that you might have. Well, a question arrived from my website's e-mail from Christina:

The question is: Zombies?
I'm not too certain about having things like that in my books.I Mean, reanimated brain-eating corpses? that is something that makes me more than a bit uncomfortable. Especially in christian fiction.
What are your thoughts on paranormal (Namely Zombies) in christian speculative fiction?

Thanks for the question, Christina!

Actually, it's funny. This wasn't my first idea for a sequel for Failstate. I tossed around a few ideas with Jeff Gerke, the phenomenal publisher of Marcher Lord Press, and Amanda Luedeke, my excellent agent. It was Amanda who first suggested the zombies and, I'll admit, I was a little hesitant. I mean, zombies are hot right now, as evidenced by the popularity of The Walking Dead, Warm Bodies (both as a book and in the recent movie that I haven't seen yet), World War Z (again, both as a book and a movie that no one has seen yet), plus video games that I've played like Plants vs. Zombies and Left 4 Dead 2. I could keep going, but you get the idea. Zombies are hot right now.

I think part of my initial hesitation on this was that I didn't want to be seen as trend-following. That's never a good idea for authors, especially since by the time most writers hop on board the bandwagon, it's moved on to something different. But the more I talked with Amanda, the more I liked the idea. I started playing with how it might all play out for Failstate and what it could mean for the series. And I came to love the idea.

But I know, Christina, that that doesn't completely answer your question. I guess my answer is, why not?

That may sound flippant, and I don't mean for it to. But Christian speculative fiction in recent years has been pushing the envelope a little in regards to the subjects that we're willing to portray and explore. For example, a few years ago, it would have been taboo to portray dragons as anything other than harbingers of evil, especially given the role a dragon plays in the book of Revelation. But then Bryan Davis and Donita K. Paul wrote books that had dragons as the heroes and it worked. The same could be said for magic. Given the hue and outcry among some circles at the Harry Potter books, you'd think that Christians should never do anything with magic. But again, some Christian authors have woven magical systems into their books and made them work well.

And really, the concept of zombies is actually pretty Biblical, if you think about it. And I'm not talking about resurrection stories, like the widow of Nain's son or the saints who were raised on Good Friday. Instead, I'm talking about the on-going zombie apocalypse that we have going on around us right now. If we take Ephesians 2:1-4 and Colossians 2:13 seriously, then those who are without Christ are dead. And yet they still get up, walk around, and go about their business like they're alive. You could say that we're surrounded by zombies in need of new life right now. Not only that, but if you take John 10:28 seriously, then that means that there are people who are physically dead and yet still alive. Both of those situations sound a little like zombies to me. All of these ideas are explored in two very excellent books, Night of the Living Dead Christian by Matt Mikalatos and Undead: Revived, Resuscitated, and Reborn by Clay Morgan.

So ultimately, I'd say that using zombies, if done from a Biblical perspective (which I've tried to do; I leave it to my readers to tell me how well I've done), is fair game. So long as we don't compromise the message of the Gospel, that Jesus is the one who gives us true life that cannot end, we're good.

Christina also had one other question:

And when is your Failstate mini novella coming out? It will be out in paperback right?

I am still working on getting the mini-novella out. There are some final details to be hammered out, but once those are taken care of, it'll be out as an ebook via Amazon. I believe that eventually it might be available as a paperback, because I think that Amazon is doing print-on-demand for their Kindle books, but I don't know for sure.

So there we go! Next week, I'll talk about where the title came from. That is, unless someone wants to hijack the discussion with a question!

But before I go, two bits of business. First of all, I'm holding a Failstate: Legends Giveaway on Goodreads that will end on my birthday. That's right, it'll be my birthday, but you could be the one getting the present!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Failstate

by John W. Otte

Giveaway ends April 10, 2013.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Pretty good odds so far.

Also, in two weeks, I'll be having a launch party for the book. If you're in the Twin Cities area, I'd love to see you there! But even if you're not, you can participate via Ustream. We'll be broadcasting it live!

So see you all later, and happy reading!

Freaky Fun Friday

This past Tuesday, I made a promise on my Facebook author page. To wit:

Well, I kept my promise about resurrecting Wordcount Wednesdays, so now I have one more promise to keep. Welcome to Freaky Fun Friday, a miniseries that will officially start next Friday and continue until . . . well, until I run out of what I want to do with it. I have no idea how this is going to work.

Maybe I should back up and explain what I'm up to here.

When I was in college, I tried my hand at writing screenplays. I wrote a grand total of three. One was a knock off of The Boys from Brazil, where a creepy cult cloned their dead founder not once but twice (and the second time, turned her into a girl. Don't ask. It made sense at the time). The second was a mash up of "Romeo and Juliet" and Enemy Mine (out of the three, this one is the one I'm still proud of). The third was an abysmal romantic "comedy" about an angel sent to date a guy and make him more of a catch for women. Seriously.

Anyway, I eventually returned to the world of "serious literature," i.e. stories of superheroes fighting zombies, because I figured I didn't know the first thing about selling a screenplay, let alone filming one. But that doesn't mean that my brain has given up on coming up with movie ideas.

It happens every now and then. Not often, but recently, I've been beset by ideas for a new movie.

More specifically, a horror movie.

This really surprises me. I'm not a fan of horror usually. I'm a little squeamish when it comes to slasher stuff. But I do make an exception for a certain kind of horror movie: found footage movies.

I don't know why, but for some reason, I love movies that pretend to be footage from real events. My younger brother and I once had a great deal of fun dissecting a made-for-TV movie called Alien Abduction: Incident in Lake County. I'm probably one of the few people who actually enjoyed The Blair Witch Project, even if the ending did make it impossible for me to enter my own basement for a week. I've watched the Paranormal Activity movies and I especially loved Trollhunter (seriously, go watch that movie now!) and Chronicle (which, granted, wasn't a horror movie).

Anyway, the point is, for the past couple of weeks, I've had the idea for a found footage horror movie rattling around in my brain. And here's the thing, folks. While I've written three screenplays, I have no idea how to write a found footage one. Even if I did, I still don't have any idea how to produce it (although I'll admit I briefly toyed with the idea of taking it to Kickstarter to see what would happen). But I can't seem to exorcise this idea.

So that's what I'm doing. Over the next few weeks, on Fridays, I'll be telling you the story of this found footage idea. A lot of it is extremely rough. Big chunks of it are completely nonexistent right now. I've got a beginning, some scraps of stuff for the middle, and an ending. But I need to share this so it'll leave me alone.

Buckle in, folks. I can't promise that it'll be scary, but I'm willing to bet it might be a little fun. See you next week for the first installment of this still untitled found footage horror film.

Wordcount Wednesday

Don't call it a comeback!

Or do, I guess. It's time to resurrect an old standard here at the Least Read Blog. It's time for me to resurrect Wordcount Wednesday, mostly because I need a good kick in my rear to keep me writing. So every week, come back here and see how far I'm making it in my current work-in-progress.

So what's that new project? Why, Failstate #3. The working title is "Failstate: Reflections," but it might change to "Failstate: Refractions" at some point. I'm still mulling that over.

As of right now, Failstate: Reflections is weighing in at 17,268 words. Hopefully that number will grow every week. If it doesn't, I hereby give you permission to yell at me.

Failstate: Legends is here!

I know I've gone mostly silent on my blog. For some reason, I seem to have migrated my attention over to my Facebook page. I'll still do book reviews, game reviews, and so on, but I do a lot of my ruminating over there.

But today, I'm proud to announce that my second novel, Failstate: Legends, was officially released by Marcher Lord Press. Well, it was released yesterday.

Here's the backcover copy, in case you're curious:

A young superhero.

A legend reborn.

And a whole mess of zombies.

Failstate (a.k.a., Robin Laughlin) thought his life would get easier after he’d earned his superhero license. But now a legendary superhero has returned from the dead…along with a horde of shambling horrors who want to eat his brains.

New Chayton’s other licensed heroes are indisposed, meaning that the whole weight of protecting the city has fallen on Failstate. And nobody thinks he’s up to the challenge. At least he has help from his older brother, Gauntlet, and his best friend, Veritas. Or does he?

As if the zombie apocalypse weren’t enough, complicating things are not one but two beautiful girls vying for Failstate/Robin’s affections—and his own powers are doing something…interesting.

In the superhero business, interesting is bad.

Legends walk the streets of New Chayton. If Failstate can somehow survive the next few weeks, he could become one of them.

Or, if you're more of a visual person, here's a book trailer I put together about a week ago:



As of right now, if you want a print copy of the book, you can order it direct from the publisher. You can also find the ebook on Kindle , the Nook, and the Kobo.

But let's have some fun also. Over the next few weeks, I'll be telling little stories about writing this one and I'll answer anyone's questions about this story or the series. Got a question about Failstate and his world? Ask it in the comments. Then come back next Saturday for the answer!

Advice for Star Wars 7

Normally I don't pay attention to business news. I've got no mind for economics and unless it directly or indirectly impacts me, I'll only skim the business section of Google News. For example, when I see news about publishing companies merging, I'll see who bought who and maybe read analyses of what that might do for me. But then I forget about it a short time later.

But today's news? Well, that got my attention. It's not every day that you see Disney spend $4 billion to purchase Lucasfilm. That means that any future Star Wars projects will come with mouse ears attached.

In some ways, this shouldn't surprise us. At least, it didn't totally surprise me. Not the price tag, certainly. George Lucas has created quite the little empire for himself. And the fact that Disney did the buying doesn't surprise me much either. If you've been to Epcot Center recently, you've seen the theme rides and the dance parties that feature Darth Vader boogie-ing down and accepting the fealty of little girls. So there was a pre-existing relationship there. Given the fact that Disney also has bought Marvel, and that leads to some interesting possibilities in the future. Marvel vs. Star Wars fighting games, anyone? Or maybe Darth Vader and Wolverine will cameo in Epic Mickey 3.

But what caught my eye was the little factoid in there that "Star Wars 7," whatever that will be, is targeted to be released in 2015.

To quote one Dr. Sam Beckett, "Oh, boy." Or, perhaps a bit more appropriate, "I've got a bad feeling about this."

My initial reaction was one of revulsion. Yes, Episode III finally, sort of got it right, but that's only because the bar had been set so low. George Lucas lost his ways, seduced by the dark side of digital effects, focusing on that over and above such mundane details as, oh, I don't know, storytelling, characterization, and so on. And while I've heard that the Clone Wars animated series is pretty good, I've been glad that we wouldn't see any further assaults on my childhood memories.

But then I noticed this little nugget in the middle of the stories, a quote from George Lucas himself:

“For the past 35 years, one of my greatest pleasures has been to see Star Wars passed from one generation to the next,” said George Lucas, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Lucasfilm. “It’s now time for me to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of filmmakers.”

So wait . . . this new movie would be one without George Lucas in direct control?

Interesting.

Further reading reveals that Lucas has turned over control of Star Wars to a lady named Kathleen Kennedy, and that he's shared ideas and plotlines and all that with her, that he will serve as a creative consultant for the future movies (yes, there will be more than just #7).

Initial feeling of worry returning.

Now I've been a Star Wars fan for a long time. Some of my earliest memories are of watching the original trilogy with my family to the point that we had them all memorized. I've read many of the novels. And I've played a lot of the videogames too. I've been a loyal connoisseur for decades now. And even though I doubt that Ms. Kennedy will ever stumble across this, my humble corner of the Interwebz, I do have some advice for her about what to do with Star Wars 7, which I'll share with you now:

1) Don't make them sequels. Or, to be more specific, respect the Extended Universe. A lot of authors have spent a lot of time telling the story where Return of the Jedi left off. The Empire fell and rose again. Memorable characters, such as Talon Karrde, Corran Horn, and Mara Jade, have trod the galactic stage and left an indelible imprint on it. And the main characters have been through a lot too. They've gotten married, had kids, lost kids and spouses. One of them even died (although I won't say which one). While I know that the books and such aren't probably "official canon," it would be a shame to slash-and-burn all of it. So if Star Wars 7 is indeed a sequel, set it in the far future. Avoid the Skywalker clan and their related associates. Tell us a new story set in the same universe and leave the EU to the fans.

2) Bring in some ringers. It's great that Lucas has given you his thoughts and ideas and I would never suggest you jettison them. But maybe hire in some folks with proven track records when it comes to telling Star Wars stories. Have Timothy Zahn take a pass at Lucas's ideas. Hire Michael Stackpole to flesh out the stories. Bring Drew Karpyshyn in, especially if these movies are set in the Old Republic period. There are plenty of talented writers who know this universe who could be used to help get this project off the ground and make it a classic. Speaking of which . . .

3) Don't confuse flash for substance. I think one of the chief problems with the prequels was the fact that so much of it was focused on the visual effects. Don't get me wrong, the effects were awesome and made the movies a lot of fun. But it was clear that Lucas's focus was on the sizzle, not the steak. The story is full of plotholes (which are fun to exploit at times), the characters are lackluster, and overall its disappointing. Make sure that whoever writes the script an craft a good story. Make sure whoever sits in the director's chair can say more than just, "Faster, more intense." Definitely don't get rid of the visual effects. Just use them to support the story, not overwhelm it.

4) Whatever you do . . . don't include Gungans, midichlorians, or characters from the original trilogy as children. That's just a bad idea all around.

But hey, what do I know? It's just a thought.

Let's Cast Failstate!

One of the funny things that's happened since Failstate was published was that a rumor somehow got started that I had a movie deal in the works. I'm not sure how that got started, but several people (who don't know each other) have asked me about it. I suspect it might have something to do with the starred review that Publishers Weekly gave me back when the novel first released. The last lines of that review were:

Otte has a TV show full of sequel possibilities; here’s hoping.

And maybe that got twisted into "John has a movie deal in the works?" I don't know. That'd be awesome, but it hasn't happened yet. Hollywood, if you want to talk movie or TV deal, call me! Or my agent, actually.

Anyway. Earlier today, I spotted a blog post by author Rachel Coker (of whom I am intensely jealous; she was first published when she was 16. Although, come to think of it, the stuff that I was writing when I was 16 was garbage, so it's probably better I waited an additional 20 years to figure out what I was doing). Rachel mused about who she would cast in a movie adaptation of her book. I haven't read Interrupted yet (although it is in one of my to-be-read baskets and high on the list), so I can't comment on her choices one way or the other. But that got me to thinking.

What if, by some bizarre stroke of divine intervention, someone did want to make a big budget version of Failstate? Who would I want to play the roles?

And the more I thought about it, the more I realized . . . I have no idea.

Seriously. I suppose part of the problem is that I'm not up on teenage actors (or actors who can pass for teenagers). Or it could be a fault of my writing craft.

But still, it's fun to dream, so I'm inviting you to dream with me. Let's cast a hypothetical Failstate movie! If you've read the books, who do you think should play the characters?

Before we get started, let's establish one quick rule: the people you cast have to be actors who can play the role today. No "time machine" casting. As awesome as it would be to go back in time so we can cast a teenage Nathan Fillion as Failstate, the laws of physics blah blah blah.

So who do you see in those roles? Let me know!

What Can Videogames Teach Us About Backstory?

So earlier this week, I was a presenter at the NextGen Writer's Conference, an on-line conference for teenage writers. It was an absolute blast! Rather than just write a post, though, I decided to go all high-tech and do a video. And here it is:



This won't be the last videogame/writing related video you'll see from me, though. I have a few more ideas and, at future conferences, I'll be presenting more of them. And I'll always be sure to share in this little corner of the Web as well.