Update: The Loss of Few Projects

      Hello everyone.

      It's been a while since I've been on here: I took an unannounced hiatus over my heaviest work period, and a break for the holidays of course. 

      Aside from the general business of the season, some things have happened over that period which have really thrown a wrench in my gears.  The biggest being the loss of my writing partner.  Some of you may have already gotten the news: I've been slowly pushing it out over my other media as I shut down the associated stories.  Fortunately, there are only two which are unsalvageable (Little Brother Big Brother Stories and the whole Error 404 mess) but there are very few of my projects that haven't been effected by this in some way.

      It has been difficult sorting everything out and getting back into the swing of things, but I've managed to sweep up most of the collateral at this point.  I'll be picking up Concerning Bycatch again very soon as well as starting two more original projects: Aunt Lira's Stuffy and the Counseling Club series.  I hope to actually publish at least one of those by the end of the year. I have a few other big projects in the tank as well, but it's too early to announce them properly.  I'll post another update when they become more relevant.

      Thank you everyone for your patience, I hope to be on the ball again in short order.

~Snow

Rambles: Character Test Runs

      Anybody who writes fiction knows a bit about building characters.

      Every writer has their own flare to the process: some start with a name, others with appearances; I tend to start with occupation, or role in the story, myself.

      Whatever you choose to start with, though, the process of development is more or less the same. You take your new creation, you name them, you get attached to them.  You poke them and prod them and ask them all manner of funny questions until they finally grow a personality.  Once you're done with the preliminaries you turn your new friend (or enemy as the case may be) lose on a story, and you watch them.

     No amount of boardroom chatting can really round out a character.  They have their place, and a very important one, but if you really want your character to turn into a someone you have to let them lose. You need to see how they do things; how they interact with other characters and handle situations that get thrown at them.  Actual 'in world' experience is the best way to make a character feel like a real, living thing.

      That does tends to create problems though.