Welcome to another weekly installment of Woo Hoo Wednesday. Honestly, I love doing this. I have a tendency to be something of a stress bunny, so it's a fantastic idea for me to stop and take a minute to think about all the good things in my life.
The biggest woo hoo is that the end is in sight for Phoning It In! And by end, I mean the end of writing the manuscript. I'll still have edits ahead of me (and some parts of the manuscript are going to need a lot of overhauling), but it feels really, really good to be on the verge of getting another manuscript under my belt. I'm also very excited to send this one out into the world and see how it does.
Another woo hoo goes out to NaNoWriMo 2012. I'm really looking forward to working on the next book in the Fairytale Collection, and I'm just looking forward to NaNo in general. While I've been extremely fortunate to have found some great sources for networking with other authors, there's just something extra special about NaNoWriMo. I love feeling like I'm a part of something so big, and I love the kinship I feel with other participants. Writing can sometimes be a very solitary pursuit, so it rocks to have a whole month where I'm cheering on other authors, who are also cheering me on. I've got a few writing buddies already lined up, and I'm always on the lookout for more, so if you're participating and want someone to cheer you on, feel free to look me up. My username on the NaNoWriMo site is NCiacchella.
And now, a food related woo hoo. I did some shopping at Trader Joe's today and bought a box of their Pumpkin Pancake and Waffle mix. If you've never tried it, you should. It makes some crazy good pancakes. I was tempted to grab the box and hug it, but I thought that might make the other shoppers think I was kind of weird. I love the pumpkin time of year. Pumpkin ravioli, pumpkin pie, pumpkin spice lattes... I tell you, I cannot get enough of these things.
I also want to give a woo hoo to a couple of game-related Kickstarter projects.
The first is SHAKER: an RPG by Brenda Brathwaite & Tom Hall. Here's a synopsis of the project, from their Kickstarter page:
Shaker: An Old School RPG is a first-person perspective,
fantasy/sci-fi game set in a Bridge world between the future and the
very distant medieval past. Taking the role of operative James Connelly
(you may also customize your lead character), an employee of Shaker
Corporation, you are called upon to set right a deadly chain of events
that began millennia ago. You and your crew of 3 operatives will be
deployed to Antera, a medieval, fantasy world in the distant past.
There, under a feudal guise, you must unearth the very beginning of a
horrible chain of events and avert it, or the universe we know today
will cease to exist in a mere 100 years.
I know, right? How cool does that sound? And one of the things I really like about it is that the company working on the project, Loot Drop, is dedicated to remaining an indie company. Needless to say, I love indies. The project is about 21% funded as of this posting, and I hope more people will back it.
The other is Project Eternity by Obsidian Entertainment. Here's a description of that project, from the Kickstarter site:
Project Eternity
will take the central hero, memorable companions and the epic exploration of Baldur’s Gate, add in the fun, intense
combat and dungeon diving of Icewind Dale,
and tie it all together with the emotional writing and mature thematic
exploration of Planescape: Torment.
Combat uses a tactical real-time with pause system - positioning
your party and coordinating attacks and abilities is one of the keys to
success. The world map is dotted with unique locations and wilderness ripe for
exploration and questing. You’ll create your own character and collect
companions along the way – taking him or her not just through this story, but,
with your continued support, through future adventures. You will engage in
dialogues that are deep, and offer many choices to determine the fate of you
and your party. …and you'll experience a story that explores mature themes and
presents you with complex, difficult choices to shape how your story plays out.
We are excited at this chance to create something new, yet reminiscent
of those great games and we want you to be a part of it as well.
My husband, Jürgen, and I have been receiving e-mail updates about this game and they have some really ambitious ideas that I'm really excited to see implemented.
So why did he and I choose to back these? Well, what excites me about them is that they promise to be quite different from anything currently on the market. I'm an avid, lifelong gamer, and I've been really dismayed by how disappointing a lot of the recent RPGs have been. I wholeheartedly support indies who want to take risks and try making games that will elevate gaming. A really well-done RPG can make you feel like you've stepped right into the pages of the book, and it's tough for me to think of something I enjoy more than that.
Last, but certainly not least, an absolutely ginormous WOO HOO for this review of The Eye of the Beholder that Leonor posted on her blog. It is really exciting for me to get feedback from my readers, and nothing feels better than when a reader really connects with something I've written. I was seriously thrilled to see this, and I walked around on a cloud for the rest of the day.
That's it from me this week. Hopefully you're all having a fabulous week!
