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Month: November 2011

Thank-you, Ms.McCaffrey

Post Views: 2,101 Today, after a scant 85 years in this life, Anne McCaffery has moved on to the next stage in our existence.  I’m not here to discuss or debate what that might be.  I’m here to talk about me, 30 years ago. 30 years ago was when I first got Dragon Riders of Pern, as a gift from my Mother.  I hated it.  The first chapter defied me;  jargon, a lack of action, and characters I didn’t know doing things I didn’t understand.  But, something about it got me to pick it up again, about three months later.  I still hated it.  And again, three months later, I still hated it. And then suddenly I was halfway through the book in a single weekend, with my…

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Commentary about writing “A Bloodier Rose”

Post Views: 184 Writing the second book in The Sauder Diaries has been more of a challenge than writing the first in may ways. With the first book, a certain amount of the text is there to educate the reader about the world… it is a discovery process.  Both Hans and the reader are new to the world of airship piracy, and thus as Hans learns, so does the reader. With the second book, the reader is understood to already know something about the world and the characters.  So the second book is much more ‘dense’ in its character development and its action. Its sort of making me stand on my toes to reach high enough as a story teller.  But, I think that is a good thing.

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It started with a complaint, an argument and two pretty girls

Post Views: 256 One question I’ve been asked is where the entire idea for The Sauder Diaries came from.  I was meeting a friend of mine from Vancouver for a few days in Ottawa in the late summer of 2010.  We  wanted to hang out and catch up while were both there on business.  She was into Steampunk and was complaining lightly that there was a complete absence of “Good Steampunk Fiction”.  Particularly, she noted that a certain amount of Victorian fiction was episodic, being published in periodicals of the day.  Very few, if anyone, was taking that line.  We talked a great deal, and she bought me a copy of Abney Park’s Aether Shanties album. Once I was home, I listened to the music a lot and…

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A comment about history

Post Views: 164 “History only repeats itself if we fail to listen the first time” — Anon Today is a day dedicated to learning the lessons of the past.  The world of 2011 is no more safe or secure a place than the world of 1911 or 1811.  It’s just different.  The Good Guys have changed, the Bad Guys have changed, but in the end, we are left with a public debt of thanks to the men and women of our Armed Forces who volunteer to put themselves in harm’s way to ensure that we, as Canadians, have a country that is worth living in. So at 11am today, take a minute and say thank you to a Veteran.  It is the least we can do.

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Book 2 in the works

Post Views: 122 I am currently working on the second book detailing the adventures of Hans and his friends, titled “A Bloodier Rose”.    Just for fun, it is part of National Novel Writing Month.  It’s hard to do, but I’m having fun trying to keep up. After returning to the life of an Airship Pirate in the summer of 1888, Hans is immediately embroiled with the rest of the crew of the Bloody Rose in an international game of cloak and and dagger. They race against time to America and back, trying to stay one step ahead of the agents of the Russian Empire as they pursue a weapon capable of changing the course of history! I received so much positive feedback from my first installment of “The Sauder…

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I can’t decide… maybe you can help?

Post Views: 230 So I’m trying to figure out which graphic I like best for the header of the Split Horizons site.   A bit of fun with GIMP has yielded four that aren’t bad.  I’ve got them in rotation right now…  leave comments and tell me which one you either like a lot or really don’t enjoy.  Thanks! Let me know if you like or dislike the: webstandard-logo brass-plate-logo frozen-logo nova-logo

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Getting started around here

Post Views: 136 … so blog life is here.  The idea is to start talking about who I am in a personal space of my own.  I’m a busy chap, running a company and trying to get published.  Drop by and see what I have to say from time to time.  Hopefully you’ll like what I do here.

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