Hola

I don't update the personal blog much these days because I'm busy elsewhere, but I will from time to time...although there may come a time in 2010 when I transfer everything over to a different place as things expand.

So, since the last update, I signed a contract for a science fiction MMORPG out of Dubai. The outline they sent me was pretty awesome, and I had an hour long interview over the phone with the head honcho regarding mechanics, outlines, story concepts, and otherwise. Basically, I'm taking the ideas he laid out in outline form and giving them a 6-12k word background story that weaves together all the elements into a short story that he is going to give to an animation team to create an intro movie that they will use to shop for additional funding.

It's a start up. Even if it doesn't go anywhere, at least it's another fiction sale, and to be honest....it paid better than Asimov's or Analog would have paid, which are the two highest-paying sci-fi magazine markets in the world. So it's a few different birds with one stone.

However...I have to say this: after all my years of MMORPGing, the concepts their team has for mechanics and story are extremely unique. I've never seen anything like what they have on paper, and while it's true there is a difference between what's on paper and what can be programmed into a game, they absolutely sold me on the concept from the first 15 minutes of the phone conversation. I truly believe that this is a game that could very well establish a healthy niche for itself based purely upon its uniqueness and its breaking away from the traditional way things have been done for the past decade. I cannot give away too much because of the NDA, but suffice to say...you haven't seen anything like it, not in any game ever created to-date. It's 100% original, 100% badass, and 100% applicable to all styles of gamer...hardcore to casual.

So that's pretty badass :)

What else? Hmm. Already mentioned selling another short story. Ah, yes! After some deliberation, I've decided to front the money for a startup of my own. 2009 was a good enough year that Evy and I have a little bit of extra money, and I'm using that to expand the business. One of the things I'll be doing in 2010 is paying for advertising for Complete Writing Solutions. I'm going to get a logo created for the website, and then I'm going to fork out a grand or so for a marketing campaign. Not much to start, but it's what I'm willing to put out at this point in time.

I still have an e-book I want to launch in January...but this sci-fi project took over for the last part of December, because it's just so damn cool :) So, hopefully that e-book will be done by the end of January. It ties into a little project that I'm going to do for the month writing for a content site to prove just how profitable it can be, while keeping an eye on global awareness.

Another thing I'm doing is starting an e-zine. I've already been in contact with a couple of editors, and I'm slowly building upon some concepts I have. It's still in the planning stages at the moment, but I'll be working on the website in my spare time during January, and launching sometime during the first month. When I say launch, I say "opening for business" and taking submissions for stories. It will be fantasy and science fiction-themed, or rather...speculative fiction. It will be 100% digital; that is, no print format. At least not to start. A major issue in the spec-fic markets today is every time you send something out, you have to wait 4-6 months to hear back from editors as to whether or not they want your story or not. Our plan is to cut that down to a month at most. We won't be dealing with the post office in any way, shape, or form. Everything will be done 100% digitally. The plan is to start small, and build up from there. I'm fronting the money for the venture, and the overall goal is that it won't be a profit venture to start, but more of an expiriment to see how many copies we can sell. If we sell enough copies to turn a profit, we'll put out a second issue, and so on and so forth.

I have some very passionate people on board so far, and I'll be keeping an eye out for more in the coming weeks. Ultimately, it's starting out as a passion project with a fairly small budget, and the first issue will be a simple test to see whether or not it's profitable. If it isn't, I'm only out a small amount of cash, but if it works...then we can head into a round 2.

Not much more than that at present. I'm still doing the research into pricing, marketing, and otherwise.

That's it for my Christmas post. I probably won't post here again until after Christmas and the New Year, so for all the readers...Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, and I hope you have a great 2010!