May 2007
Hi everyone,
It's been a busy month, as you can tell by the late newsletter. I apologize. I've been doing lots of writing, but mostly creating a new training manual for work. I finished it yesterday, so the heat is off and I can focus on my novels.
In other, better, news, I decided to take a stab at creating a computer game. Someone in "the Biz" said that the most useful thing I could do is to create a campaign for Neverwinter Nights 2 (http://www.atari.com/nwn2/), a Dungeons and Dragons role playing game. The game comes with a powerful toolset, so I can create a unique adventure and then distribute it to other players. As you might guess, I'm making an adventure that is heavy on story, and the story will be similar to the Zook Terpin stories.
I'm learning the toolset now, and at the same time, I'm creating the story line. You play a junior partner in a private detective business in a big fantasy city. Your boss finally lets you take a case that doesn't involve tracking down lost pets for the crazy cat lady down the street, so you are eager to do well. Your job, investigate a night supervisor at a clockwork factory who is suspected of stealing the technology. Needless to say the case isn't as simple as it sounds. You can see the cast of characters for Chapter 1 here: http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=502128126&size=l
All in all, it should be a few hours worth of gameplay, and the plot is about 1/4 of what I usually have for a novel. We'll see though. It could turn out to be a lot longer than I anticipate. I guess that's why I'm doing this.
As I work on the game, I'm also finishing a new section for A Clockwork Murder. When that is done, I'll be doing a blitz to query lots of agents. Gotta get my butt in gear!
Have a fun spring,
--Todd