Projects in progress

Outlined, ready to go -- The Panda Sanction - the de la Vega Mysteries book 3, which will finally explore the origin of the world's favorite panda-man sidekick. This was set to be my next book, but it has been sidelined by another project.

That other project is a novel spun out of my story "Ink Calls to Ink," recently published on the Wily Writer's site. Tentatively titled Ink Calls to Ink, it follows the Steadfast Soldier and a fragmented group of Fictional Personae, such as Medea, Juliet Capulet, Don Quixote, Judas, King Arthur, Moll Flanders, and Galahad. I am in the outline process now, and have a first stab at my prologue.

The Situation in Mexico

I originally wrote the first Gato Loco novel, Greetings from Buena Rosa, as a reaction to the situation in the Juarez region of Mexico. I had heard about the rash of unsolved murders, and of a U.S. woman who had been tortured by local police into confessing for one of the murders. The levels of police corruption, coupled with (in my mind) an unconscionable number of deaths that were being ignored, did not sit easy with me.

I wanted, as many people living in the region must have wanted, a hero to come in and try and fix things. When it came time to write the first de la Vega Mystery, there was no doubt in my mind what it would involve. And while it was a good yarn, it largely ignored much of the real root of the problems there. My novel did not confront the real evils there...just a shadow of corruption and exploitation. The real problem was much worse. Much darker.

And it has only gone downhill from there.

Once The Panda Sanction is finished, I think it is only right to send Manuel and company back across the border for a multi-book arc.

Work on new projects begins

2009 is shaping up to be a busy year for me.

First on the list is The Panda Sanction, which I started the first chapter of last night. This will be the third in the de la Vega Mysteries series. While the first was pulp, the second was 70's exploitation, this will be a spy thriller of a sort. And Snowflake, the fan favorite sidekick, takes center stage as his origin is explored against a backdrop of international intrigue. I have two months blocked out to write the first draft, with time in March to finish up if needed.

In the meantime, The Protectorate Trilogy is moving forward. Chanson Noir has been edited and Cobalt City Blues should have the last of the edits applied by the end of the week. The necessary photography has been done, and the covers are in the hands of a very talented artist for assembly. I will be laying out the two books with help from someone who knows what they're doing, so they will look better than any book I've produced before. The ultimate goal -- releasing the first two books in the series two weeks before The Watchmen is set to release, when people are in the mood for some super-hero goodness.

Norwescon is here in Seattle on April 9-12th, and I will be attending with a cadre of fellow writers. When the madness from that dies down, I plan to start Tunnel, the second book in the Shadows of Architecture series, of which Bridge was the first. While this is happening, I plan on hunting for agents to represent the de la Vega Mysteries and the Shadow's trilogy to mainstream publishers. With any luck, I can have these projects tied up by June.

All in all, it's going to be an exciting five months. I'll keep you updated here, as always.

Death Plays an Accordion - complete

It's up. The final chapters of the raw Death Plays an Accordion.

Enjoy.

No idea what will go up there next!

Chapters 16-18 now posted

Where Harlan gets to be a detective, and Friday gets to be a hero.

Liking this novel more and more, the deeper I get into it. I'm really looking forward to finishing this one up, letting it simmer for a few months, and then rewriting to get out to a publisher.

On writing, process, and music

I've been asked before if I have certain music in mind when I write my novels. Usually this is asked by people who know what a music whore I am. And yes, I create playlists to help set the mood. In the case of Death Plays an Accordion, I actually put together a soundtrack which I can port around from machine to machine, or play on the home stereo and control with a remote when I'm in the kitchen -- much like Harlan Puchalik does in the novel.

Much of the music was selected because of it's association with the location - Tucson, Arizona. But not all. Yes, Calexico, particuarlly their brilliant album Feast of Wire is heavily represented. Some songs were just chosen because it felt like they fit. Of particular note, the Emmylou Harris song, "Michelangelo" was unknown to me until hearing Jason Webley play it in concert on November 2nd. I tracked it down afterwords, and added it to the list. I feel it belongs. You be the judge.

Crumble -- Calexico, off Feast of Wire
If Wishes Were Horses -- David Baerwald, off 13 Ways to Live
Whipping the Horse's Eyes -- Calexico, off Feast of Wire
Lament -- The Gourds, off gogitchyershinebox
Dub Latina -- Calexico, off Feast of Wire
Sunken Waltz -- Calexico, off Feast of Wire
Michelangelo -- Emmylou Harris, off Red Dirt Girl
The Book And The Canal -- Calexico, off Feast of Wire
Stray -- Calexico, off The Black Light
Lion's Jaws -- Neko Case, off Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
No Doze -- Calexico, off Feast of Wire
El Picador -- Calexico, off Hot Rail
Young Anymore -- David Baerwald, off Bedtime Stories
Fade -- Calexico, off Hot Rail
Cannonball -- Benjamin Costello, off his website, benjamincostello.com
Fox Confessor Brings the Flood -- Neko Case, off Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
Tres Avisos -- Calexico, off Hot Rail
Dance While the Sky Crashes Down -- Jason Webley, off Against the Night
Europa (Earth's Cry Heaven's Smile) -- Santana, off The Best of Carlos Santana

Gentlemn, start your typewriters!

Here we go!

My NaNoWriMo effort for 2008, Death Plays an Accordion, is now being posted in three chapter blocks.

Remember, this is all the raw chapters. Very little, pretty much none, went into the work you see there. This is a rare look into the first draft process.

I welcome comments, but I won't be going back and applying any edits you suggest until at least January. :)

This is projected to be a 25 chapter novel, and I'm thinking I might slip another chapter in as things get rolling. That makes for a total of 9 posts by the end of November.

Enjoy!
-Nate

As one adventure ends...

Yes, it took forever.

There were a few unavoidable delays with the epilogue that involved a dying computer, an editor on the move, and a change in momentum.

That said, the long awaited Epilogue for Chanson Noir is now live.

Starting Friday, November 7th, I will begin posting the raw chapters of "Death Plays an Accordion," the mystery novel I'm writing for National Novel Writing Month.

Let me repeat the important part. "...raw chapters..." What goes up on the site is a first draft, and will require a significant re-write and edit. But this gives my readers a look inside of the process, and allows my informal editors a chance to pass an eye over it and make suggestions.

Enjoy the mystery as it unfolds. "Death Plays an Accordion" will be a bit of departure for me -- a straight detective mystery, there will be no speculative fiction elements present.

Until next time!

Apologies for the delay

Chapter updates had taken a backseat to other projects for longer than I wanted. Chapters have been going up at a crazy pace this weekend, and the final epilogue should go up late tonight.

The entirety of the novel will remain posted until September 12th, at which point I'll pull down all but the first three preview chapters.

Chanson Noir will be put through a final brush-up edit while the cover is being finished. And then, on Friday, September 26th, I'll be taking it the Foolscap Convention in Redmond for pre-sell before the official release on September 30th.

And I'll post a preview of the cover here as soon as I have it in a few weeks.

Thanks for your patience.

Cobalt City - a visitor's guide

For those who wish a look into Cobalt City, I present a visitor’s guide. I apologize for the quality of the map. It is merely a reference copy that I’ve held onto for a while as I wrote the novels.

Lafayette Park - Think Central Park in a lot of ways. Real estate along the long north/south axis of the park are pricy. There is a memorial park/cemetery deep in the park, with graves dating back to the end of the Revolutionary War, its name honors the French who helped win the war.

Parkside, on the east edge, is expensive high rises. Think Park Avenue in New York.

Lafayette Park Boulevard on the west side has more exclusive condos and boutiques and a wide, tree-lined street.

Morrison is a bedroom community/neighborhood. Think of neighborhoods like Wallingford, Maple Leaf, or Magnolia (all in the Seattle area). Not hip, not happening, just kind of there. The exceptions are the sports venues located just off the highway just north of the dividing line between Morrison and Downtown. There are a Football and indoor arena which features Hockey and indoor soccer there.

Karlsburg, however, has old-school ethnic charm. It has a lot of characteristics of Ballard and even Levenworth (both from the Seattle area), to a degree. It's in the hills, so the streets are not generally straight, and tend to be a bit winding. The old buildings and rustic-ness becomes a bit more run down the further south you get. The bottom third is very low rent, and while not as bad as The Hollows, some people refer to that neighborhood as South Karl, Crack Hill, and now that Mister Grey has made it his personal business, Grey Hill.

The Hollows -- I think I might have listed it as the Hollow on the map...my bad. This used to be swamp and fen before it got filled in. It has missed the gentrification that has hit the rest of the city, and is run down buildings, liquor stores, gun shops, strip clubs, and seedy dives. The worst part of town, hands down.

Cannonade – This area used to be primarily military -- a place for to mount cannons to defend the harbor and the mouth of the river. The fortifications are still there, as are the many buildings built to support the military, though they've all been repurposed. A long walking park runs along the shore, above a heavily buttressed sea-wall. The neighborhood has elements of Freemont and SoHo funkieness, blended with Sand Point architectural elements in places (yes, another Seattle reference). This is the "Hip" neighborhood.

Quayside -- Working class, the majority of docks and freight hits here, making it a commercial and industrial hub. But it isn't without its nightlife. Gambling was legalized in Quayside in the fifties, and there are several casinos here, including the Forbidden Palace, run by a suspected gang leader (Donald Lo…he has had several run-ins with the Protectorate). This neighborhood has a mix of urban working class and urban nightlife. Very few people actually live here, commuting for work and play.

The Oriental -- Wild Kat's headquarters, and the place where Simon "Mr. Grey" Floyd was killed and interred for 70 years. Still a matter of historic significance.

Starcom -- The headquarters of Stardust's business, his home, and his not-so-secret lair.

The Keep -- A blocky, sturdy building surrounded by a walled garden, it is six floors high with deep roots, and is tapered slightly towards the top. The design is deep grey granite in appearance, with copper-tinted glass fronts.

UCC - The University of Cobalt City, it is a big campus, similar to New York University. It has a separate biotech campus up in Morrison.

Monday already?

For those of you eager for Chapter 7, it is going up today...first thing when I get home from the salt mines. It should be live by 6pm Pacific time at the very latest, still very much a Monday update, but not as early as I would like.

Chapter 7 finds our heroes back at the Keep. The more science-minded types (Stardust, Worm Queen, and Knockabout) are trying to investigate the Mirror of Shadows while occult-oriented Mister Grey and Doctor Shadow try to wring information out of the captive Louis Malenfant.

I won't give away secrets, but I will hint that those who have been wondering about the "iteration" designation with each chapter are about to see your curiosity rewarded.

Science - it's good for you!

A high-ranking member of the fan-girl nation and loyal reader has just sent me some extensive notes on insects and their care and study. She got a bee in her bonnet and dug up some specifics that, had I done my homework earlier, should have added first time through.

I love when my writing makes people want to learn stuff!

So I'll be doing a chapter revision this weekend, and posting here when the reworked chapter goes live. Ah, the advantage of serializing content...the chance to make fixes before an expensive print run. :)

Chapter 5 now up

When I started this novel, I didn't have a particularly strong affinity for Marcus, the Huntsman. I knew he had an arc here. Things needed to be set up for the second novel, Cobalt City Blues, so more than most other characters in Chanson Noir, I knew there was an agenda here.

And I've always been drawn to the archers.

Yet, the character didn't spark for me. Not until Chapter 5.

Then I started laying out a bit of history -- not just his, but that of the mantle of Huntsman. I started to realize that he was unique among my other characters, in that while Simon was old, and Doctor Shadow was older still, Huntsman had the weight of tradition. And it was being carried by such a young man.

By the time the chips get cashed in at the end of the novel, he had become one of my favorite characters. And maybe I'll find time to do something more with him on another project.

Perhaps he needs to meet up with Gato Loco and Snowflake somewhere out on the road.

Only time will tell. In the meantime, I leave you with the unfolding tales of The Protectorate.

Chanson Noir lives!

Just the other day, I started publishing the chapters of my newest novel, Chanson Noir, in installments. Three chapters a week, posted on (or just before, as the case has been so far), Saturday, Monday, and Wednesday. So far, three chapters are up. At the end of the experience (September, at this point), I'll be taking most of the chapters off-line and publishing it through Lulu.com, just like I have the other Cobalt tales. I have talented people working on the covers to unify the series even as we speak.

It's all terribly exciting.

I'm curious what the reaction of readers might be. I start off with a prologue featuring Louis Malenfant -- the most unsavory character in the narrative at his most pathetic. That was a risk, I knew, but that prologue was the seed for this story. In many ways, he is one of the axis which this novel spins upon.

Monday is going to SUCK!

On the upside, I've made a HUGE dent in my screenplay for Zombre! for Script Frenzy. What is Script Frenzy, you may ask? Merely an insane desire to write an entire screenplay over the course of a month. Last time I did this, I made myself sick overworking myself and contributed heavily to the eventual demise of my second marriage. This time, however, I have two successful NaNoWriMo titles under my belt, and those are over twice the length of a full fledged screenplay, so the workload won't likely kill me. And, well, no marriage to ruin this time. :)

And I need to do something now that I've finished writing the most recent de la Vega mystery. Yes, Gato Loco fans...Ride Like the Devil is in the can. It is being read now by a secret cadre of discerning readers who are picking it apart prior to my edit in July. I expect to have a finished product available just in time for the holiday shopping season! But I digress...

Despite the distractions of the weekend (Hooray for Andrew and Cat making a baby, and BOOO! to the Seattle Mariners), I am about 1/4 of the way done with the script, and I still have a few hours left today to write. It's possible that I could be halfway done with it on Monday night at this rate. That would be, oh, the 4th? Yeah, I think I can get this baby turned around fast. What's more, it's pretty frickin' good, especially if you like the concept of a zombie western!

The downside?

Well, I got about 4 hours of sleep Friday night, took a nap on Saturday mid-day that threw off my sleep schedule, and then was up until 4 in the morning. It's about 7pm here now, and I already suspect that I'll have a horribly messed up internal clock by the time I get on the bus in 12 hrs time to go to work. I wonder if I can get an IV drip at Starbucks?

And for your enjoyment, the movie poster mock up for the project I'm working on!

Credit where it is due

Cobalt City Blues has a huge cast of characters. Keeping them distinct and individual was no small task, but it was made easier by my gifted collaborators who, in fact, created many of the characters which populate Cobalt City. Their creativity inspired my own creativity, driving me to give these characters voice. I could not have written this novel without them. So in all fairness to everyone involved, and as thanks for allowing me to give voice to their ideas, thus populating the city with individuals that you would want to read about, I present what I would like to name the creator roll call.

Wild Kat / Katherine Wilde – Kathleen Crowder
Knockabout / Edirin Okoloko – Andrew Warren
Worm Queen / Anna Lyta – Catherine Warren
Stardust / Jaccob Stevens (and his family) – Karl “Ed” Johnson
Doctor Shadow – Sean Mordaga
Velvet – Jennifer Fermon
Archon – Ian Hamilton
Gallows – Sean Hamilton


Thank you for making Cobalt City a much richer place to live.

Some novel developments

So there are a few changes going on at this site. First off, this is no longer your destination for new chapters of Cobalt City Blues. Yes, I am still publishing it, but I have taken the liberty of creating another site which is a lot more...accessable. Vist it at the above listed link.

This page will go back to it's original purpose, including original content and behind the scenes production diaries, etc. For that reason, I will no longer be pimping my novel HERE, but I will provide for your reading enjoyment the short story that started it all, Masks - a de la Vega Mystery

On the subject of Gato Loco and Manuel de la Vega, I am entering into editing on Greetings from Buena Rosa, the nanowrimo experiment from last November. For that reason, I have removed most of the chapters previously posted and enjoyed by you here. Rest assured, they will be back at some point, even better than the hastily scribbled hackery displayed before. A full edit shouldn't take me too long, with the ultimate goal, an actual print version I hope to have available here and through a third party vendor to be named later. I have left up the first several chapters of Buena Rosa for new readers, but they will be altered in the editing process...be warned.

Old readers, thank you for your support.

New readers, buckle up and enjoy the ride!

Cobalt City Part Four

It's back. Another installment in the weekly saga of Cobalt City Blues!

In which Wild Kat goes on a date and in which her date is made an offer he can't refuse, by someone else entirely.

Yeah, it's a bit early for Valentine's Day, but these things happen. The romantic subplot of the super-hero everyone is talking about kicks off this chapter. And the seeds for Cobalt City's salvation are planted here as well. Don't let the mushy stuff fool you. Hell is coming right around the corner, and nothing will be the same when it gets there. A can't miss installment in four-color style, all for two lonely quarters with the insanely simple magic of Bitpass!

Part Four - Chapters Six and Seven

Enjoy.

Cobalt City Blues Part Three

In which Voodoo Jazz pianist Mister Grey sees a familar face in the crowd. And Doctor Shadow takes rookies Archon and Gallows on a magical mystery tour to meet the King in Yellow.

The wheels are turning, major players are revealed, and the mysterious Augustus Dei is lurking just behind the veil waiting to make his sinster plan known.

Download the latest installment in the super-hero epic like no other, Cobalt City Blues for the sacrifice of two slim quarters. Why, that's only the cost of a phone call! You can't even buy a comic book for fifty cents anymore!

Cobalt City Blues Part Three

Enjoy!

-Nathan, the Tatterdamelion

Oozing into 2006

First off, I would like to highly reccomend Goldschlager mixed with Jones Green Apple Soda.

Secondly, I generally HATE New Years. An unfortunate experience on the ill fated night six years ago tainted what was otherwise a fairly innocent holiday. Now, it is difficult for me to just distance myself and have fun. Even though I was spending the evening with most of my best friends in Seattle, I still was plodding towards it as if it were a cramped bamboo cage at the end of a long march.

But, surprise surprise, it was great. Much fun was had, if not by all, at least by me. I engaged James (expert in China studies and history) and John (expert in economics and politics) in a lively discussion about China's emergenance as a global trade power in the last 30 or so years. Yes, to many of you, this may sound dry, but the time just flew by. And it was only one of the many fascinating conversations the evening held in store. By the time the calendar page flipped over, it seemed as if no time had passed at all. In the end, we ended up outliving our hosts endurance and spilled back out onto the streets and then home.

I was reminded of how fortunate I am to have such an amazing group of smart, compassionate, funny, insightful, and just flat out great friends. New Years was a smash, and all that remains is to brush the beer residue from the teeth and turn in.

New Year's Resolution?

"I resolve to break old patterns."

James, also a counsellor and youth minister, advised that in order to break old patterns, it is usually required to, at least in part, reinvent yourself. So if that's what needs to be done, that's what needs to be done. I think possibly, as of now, I will be black. Very, very pale, of course, but black. Yeah, that might be harder than it sounds now. I shall have to consider this in the morning with a somewhat clearer head.

-Nate