Chapter 12 Completed!
Characters – 54 / 62 Characters – 87% Done
Construction – 27 / 41 Constructions – 66% Done
Art – 134 / 220 Pages – 61% Done
Production Total – 67% Done
Estimated Completion Date: September 2nd, 2010
Chapter 12 Completed!
Characters – 54 / 62 Characters – 87% Done
Construction – 27 / 41 Constructions – 66% Done
Art – 134 / 220 Pages – 61% Done
Production Total – 67% Done
Estimated Completion Date: September 2nd, 2010
I have completed Chapter Seven.
Characters – 52 / 62 Characters – 84% Done
Construction – 23 / 41 Constructions – 56% Done
Art – 73 / 217 Pages – 34% Done
Production Total – 46% Done
Estimated Completion Date: October 30th, 2011
I have completed page 50 of Brotherhood of the Black Flag, Volume One: Flag in Flames.
I also discovered that the equation I was using to calculate my progress was flawed, so I fixed it, programmed the new improved version into the Black Flag Home Page and I am pleased to announce that according to the new improved equation, Black Flag production is no longer behind… in fact, in this latest flurry of page production, I seem to have got about a month ahead. Yay!
My writing website stats are up in general, and most notably include over two hundred views for the Black Flag character info page (which I won’t give a url for because it’s a supplemental page to the character list page, and if you jump to it directly without saying which character you want info on, it comes up blank).
There is a reason why my site stats might take a jump in the past few days, (I suddenly became more active on Baen’s Bar and the site url is in my sig) but none I can think of why that one page would get so many more than its fair share of those hits.
My current theory is that the Black Flag character page just got hit by a load of bots that my stat program did not recognize as bots, and the conjunction of the high views of that page with improved ‘repeat visitors’ and ‘time spent per visit’ stats is just a coincidence.It would be nicer to think that several people were so curious about the Black Flag characters that they wanted a closer look at every single one, and then went and told their friends, who also took a closer look at every single one, etc, but until I find some more supporting evidence for that one, I think the bot theory is winning the plausibility stakes. 🙁
Actually I've been working on two songs for Black Flag, but the second one hasn't been transcribed or added to my music site yet.
But anyway, Silver now has a theme song. Here is a midi of the melody and the lyrics are
SILVER'S THEME
(from the Brotherhood of the Black Flag)
One light, in the darkness —
One face, in the void —
One star I've been seeking,
One fate — I can't avoid.
I never thought that you could be my own
That spark that shone, oh, so brightly
But when you fell
Into my hands
My secret hopes rose to smite me.
Burn, burn, it won't matter
Scorch me, sear me, I don't care
Pain is better than emptiness —
It lets me know you're there.
(One light, one light, one light….)
I always knew that I could not have you
My acts demand retribution
Just walk away
My life's no loss
I've no regret, no confusion
For…
One light, in the darkness —
One heart learned to beat —
One love I have tasted,
One fate — I go to meet.
Copyright © 2006 Michelle Bottorff
I have issues with promising not to do things in my writing. For one thing, I do not have this strange instinctive horror for anything that might possibly smell of a cliche… as far as I can tell all my favorite books are stuffed full of cliches.
Secondly, I hate to limit my options like that.
So I had been mostly ignoring the meme going around until I ran into Kate Elliot's 11 things in fantasy/sf that I don’t promise not to use or keep using in my writing
And so, suddenly inspired, here are…
11 Cliches which I have used in my writing because I think that it's no fair that I should miss out on them just because they have been done before…
1: Space Pirates — Yum! (I've given mine an entire universe to play in. See Black Flag)
2: Galactic Empires — I just have a thing for imperial courts. I don't know why I should do without just because I'm working in an interstellar environment.
3: Most beautiful women — I'm perfectly willing to hand out this title to any face that can launch a thousand ships, and I don't care that the greeks got there first. (Large chunks of the plot of the Song of Asolde series revolve around the fact that the protagonist's sister is famously beautiful. See Racciman's World)
4: Protagonists with magic powers — I generally, but not always, favor quirky over brute strength, but what's the point of writing a fantasy if nobody gets to use magic? (See Dark Moon Light)
5: Elves and dragons — There is no excuse for this, but I don't care. They're just cool, okay?
6: Melodramatic names — I couldn't do space pirates without them. Not only are the names of the Brotherhood of the Black Flag melodramatic, but nearly all of them are pirated. It seemed appropriate.
7: Vanished Alien “progenitors” — I wanted an excuse for some pretty unlikely worlds. So sue me. (See Cultivator Universe)
8: Orphans — My characters' parents keep wanting to step in and save the day; they seem to think its their job, or something. Killing some of those parents off before the story starts prevents this from getting out of hand.
9: Items of Power — I'm a techie. I need my toys.
10: Characters with titles — Lords and Ladies, Princes and Princesses, Captains and Admirals… I like to work with characters who are making decisions that effect many more lives than just their own. It adds yet another layer of complications to everything.
11: Guys risking life and limb for the girls they love — I enjoy this situation far too much to leave it alone. I let the girls do some rescuing too, of course, but only because I don't want them to get bored and go on strike.