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The Stars Align 7 Years Later

Killing Time - Horror E-Rag™ Issue 3-4 is available now. It seemed like technical issues were going to seriously mess up the release, but I pushed through, worked a lot of extra hours, and the issue is ready for you. I even managed to do it with several hours to spare before my usual early link to the sale's page. If you didn't know I post to Twitter (@batteredspleen) when the issue is available in the wee hours of Friday morning before I head off to bed. This issue has a doozy of an entry for Sun Cycle with "Twilight's Promise". We're with Jake again and just to warn you, prepare to be floored. Also... bow chick-a bow bow! On a separate but related note, before you even get to that, in "Dare Try 2" it's bodice-ripping time with Mabel. Rounding out the fiction in this article is "Firehouse" about the difficulties a policeman has with an empty house through the years.

The poem in this issue may potentially cause some confusion. The title of the poem is hidden because I placed it at the end of the poem. The cover reads "Hidden Title" and the Table of Contents only elaborates with "Hidden Title (at the Bottom)" so to find out you have to read it. This issue's "Ghostly Illumination #4" is all about the massive imagination of Clive Barker. The "Letter From the Editor" is something of a special one that has always stuck with me. In fact it was kind of the genesis of WraithStop™ in many ways, before I ever started that site. Then there is the "Sommatoria #4". What to say about it this time... Well, you won't believe your eyes. That's the run down. Run on over and buy a copy. Issue 3-5 will be landing on May 20th.

• Tags: Clive Barker, Ghostly Illumination™, horror, Killing Time - Horror E-Rag™, necromancy, romance, Sommatoria, Sun Cycle, Twitter, WraithStop™.

Take the On Ramp to On Dark Rhoads

Tomorrow it's time to hit the road with On Dark Rhoads™. I'm very excited for it. At the same time I am a bit leery. No one is going to be floored by the first entry. It is not the sort of thing that can begin with a big bang. There's a tease for sure, and I hope with all of the talking up the project I have done people will follow it, even subscribe to the feed for it. I may even set up an emailing list for it, but that is something that at this point I would be doing manually as far as sending out the emails. As discussed previously I have set up the comment engine to include acceptance of a commenting agreement, which essentially gives me the right to use people's comments as I wish, including using it in commercial product without any financial compensation to the commenter or even acknowledgement--though I will endeavour to give people credit if their comment was something new I had not thought of already. It's not ideal, but otherwise commenting would not be allowed.

I have a lot of secondary and background coding work yet to before the site goes operational tomorrow so I'll cut this short. I do want to give you a heads up that there will be a special R.G. Male's Dark Corners on Wednesday April 20th. Yes, that's only two days before the release of Killing Time - Horror E-Rag Issue 3-4™. See you again then, and hopefully tomorrow on the road.

• Tags: blogging, horror, Joshua Rhoads, Killing Time - Horror E-Rag™, On Dark Rhoads™, R.G. Male's Dark Corners.

Gearing Up for the Rhoad

Last time on Inchoate Ascendant™... "I have to come up with the initial name and create graphics for" what will later be the Umbral Intentions™ blog. Well I have done it and it is now hereby dubbed "On Dark Rhoads". This project is very exciting, and with the schedule I have adopted, somewhat difficult. I already dug a little into writing at cross purposes for the blog over at R.G. Male's Dark Corners in "It's Not What They Think, Josh". It has spoilers so I won't repeat it here except to say it seems like more than twice the work to instil double meanings and tell two stories at the same time with the same details. Then in the Dark Corners I moved onto "Don't Wear Us Out, Josh"--with fewer of the same spoilers--about pacing the blog. In that discussion I touched on the idea of using real-time streams to tell parts of the story for greater immediacy and tension. A perfect example of this would be Drew Daywalt's Queen Mary tweets and the subsequent video.

There is something different in the planning of this blog. I intend to include comments. First, some of the comments will be from other character in the story. That's the easy part. Since this is a part of the creation process and the advanced marketing for the RPG I intend to include excerpts from the blog into This Mental Eventide™ and this might include comments added to the blog. That will require adding to my planned caveats that this blog is fiction. The addition will add the requirement that all rights to the comments become my property to be used as it or adapted, as I desire, into This Mental Eventide. This isn't any different than the requirements when posting on an RPG site's forum or creating derivate works based on their products. What is different though is some people may want to relate their real experiences to the blog--even if they are clear the blog is fake itself--and that feels kind of like taking advantage.

The problem, and this is why so many other places just don't allow such interactions is you as an author come into contact with an idea from someone else and somewhere along the line you forget you heard it elsewhere and think it is your idea. Or worse you have already come up with something similar independently--I see that all the time. Either way I can only put up proper warnings and, intrusive or not, make it exceedingly clear they are giving the idea to me. It's either that or keep the comment door closed totally. Just for reference, I should actually institute such a warning and agreement here at Inchoate Ascendant. It is less imperative here because I don't expect plot detail suggestions only broad ideas and methods or comments intended as advice.

• Tags: blogging, caveats, derivation, Inchoate Ascendant™, Joshua Rhoads, On Dark Rhoads™, pace, R.G. Male's Dark Corners, role-playing games, spoilers, This Mental Eventide™.

Don't Jump the Gun, Pants Kicker

If you've looked at the Dead Days Calendar™ on Battered Spleen Productions main page for April you will notice that there are blog updates scheduled for Saturdays later in the month. I figured if I didn't announce it then it might well be June before I launched the new fiction blog. There is one difficulty though. The blog will be called Umbral Intentions™ as I've previous said. However, that should not be the initial name of the blog. The events that will cause it to become the blog of umbral intentions does not happen for quite some number of entries in the timeline I have planned out. Between now and the first posting I have to come up with the initial name and create graphics for it. It's a bit of a shame. I have such a nice visual set up for the Umbral Intentions name.

The name and initial tone of the blog need to be very indicative and telling of what kind of person Joshua Rhoads is. This is a little bit hard at this point because I have not decided on his profession yet. The character is still pretty inchoate at this point. The indications I have regarding his character relate to his dealings with other people he mentions, and with the secret he is hiding, but plans to reveal to the world through his blog. That secret is seriously colouring his perceptions of a lot of things, and with good reason. As the creator I have to see past how that is tainting his demeanour, his perceptions of the world, and his relationships. The name of the blog should not be very telling of his secret either because that would be a poor way to keep a secret until he is comfortable with exposing it to the entire online world. Decisions. Decisions.

• Tags: Battered Spleen Productions™, blogging, character (quality), Dead Days Calendar™, Joshua Rhoads, secrets, taint, Umbral Intentions™.