Change is in the Air....

....and I'm getting a big ol' whiff of it. I'll try to have some blogs go up this week, but with this... newness... and the Austin Game Developer's Conference, they'll be short little things.

Thanks for being patient, readers.

Putting Pen to Paper

Writing is a blessing and a curse. Once you've begun the process, it's hard to stop. I've been writing most of my life, and now I have the privilege of putting my thoughts in front of thousands of eyes every day. However, there have been times - like the last few weeks - where putting the pen onto the paper (or the hands onto the keyboard) is excruciatingly difficult.

Yes, I know that I'm always doing writing over at TenTonHammer.com or here on Exploring New Worlds, but that's really on a different level than what is required of a fiction author. For me, writing fiction requires an amount of immersion that's difficult to keep up with distractions. I want to be able to smell, taste, touch, hear and see everything that's going on in the world(s) around me. If I'm not able to achieve that level of concentration - and it often gets easier the deeper I get into a book - I won't be able to draw up the sort of imagery needed to convey my story to the readers.

But the world is full of distractions. Work, kids, football season, yard work, all of that tends to jump in the way of our/my time with my prose. For several years I let it dominate my actions, until I finally said enough. Last November I stuck my head down and went to work and came out with a manuscript. It was ugly, but I did it again.

It's easy to take a sigh of relief, but I'm really trying not to let my guard down this round. I want to continue pushing the envelope. I want to create more worlds. There are places out there (in my imagination) that need exploring.

So even though it pains me to sit there and stew in front of my keyboard for hours, I'm going to do it until something worthwhile pops out.

Vampires? Again? Really?

I must be ahead of the curve. I've been a fan of vampires (but a bigger fan of werewolves) since I first read Bunnicula in elementary school. It's strange to me that it's taken so long for the vampire myth to really become a mainstream (and highly profitable) phenomenon. Yes, there was Buffy the Vampire Slayer and all of her offshoots, Anne Rice's novels, a good chunk of anime devoted to vampires, and the White Wolf RPGs; but the current cultural obsession with both Twilight and True Blood seems a bit dated.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the current vampire stories (even the glittery kind) and I think they add a nice twist to the mix... but can't anyone think of something fresher than vampires? Maybe it's just me, but I feel like vampires have been done to death. Dracula, Angel, Lestat, Edward, Bill, Alucard, Selene, Count Orlok, Blade, Schrek.... the list of popular vampires goes on and on and on.

So why do we - as readers - keep going back to this well to drink our fill? We have to be oversaturated at this point, right? I mean, we couldn't handle another vampire filled romp... could we?

It seems that we certainly can, and we will. The vampire myth continues to thrive in our culture (maybe because we see so much of the vampires in ourselves?) and there doesn't seem to be any turning back.

But I'd love to see a more adventurous take on the blood suckers if we're going to continue down this road. In my opinion, True Blood has much more novel than Twilight, but each has its fair share of unoriginality. Why can't we tell a vampire story that really explores a facet of these creatures we haven't seen?

Thankfully, I'm not going to try to shoulder that monumental task, but I'd love to see someone try and succeed. We need some new blood to go alone with our True Blood. If anyone has a suggestion for a quality vampire story that isn't full of the same old rhetoric, please clue me in so I can enjoy it with you.

Waiting is the Hardest Part

Patience is a virtue. At least that's what my parents always told me as I paced around them at the grocery store. Unfortunately, I've spent the last four years working in an industry that supports the habits of an individual that was once diagnosed with attention deficit disorder.

With that in mind, welcome to my blog cheesily dubbed "Exploring New Worlds." This is the venue where I'll be talking about my trials and tribulations as an aspiring novelist, a video game critic, and a father. If we haven't had the pleasure of meeting in person, I truly hope we'll have that chance. We can talk about our goals, our dreams, and our passions.

And thus it's my passion for writing that has lead to my attempt to regain any shred of patience I can find. While the video gaming world whirls around me, my attempts at finding an agent (or publisher) for my novel have reached the Great Wall of Waiting (not to be confused with the Great Wall of China, but equally as impressive and sturdy).

Don't get me wrong, I've been remarkably lucky at finding people willing to read my manuscript - or portions of it - but the waiting has become increasingly difficult. Every day I obsessively refresh my Gmail inbox like some sort of crazed F5 maniac, hoping for that eventual confirmation of "you don't suck...we actually like you."

This dilemma has reminded me of what my wife and I went through during the last few weeks of our first pregnancy. At any given moment, we thought she was going to pop, but the due date came and went without any explosions. Two weeks later, the baby finally came... right before we were scheduled to induce.

I imagine that's what this process will be like. Once I finally give up, someone will like what they see and sign me up. Or at least, that's what I hope.

Side Note of the Day: I can't wait to belt out the tunes in Beatles Rock Band. I'm hoping for my first ever vocal 100%.