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What Did You Create This Week?

It's all about you this week!  I want you to tell me what you're working on, even if it isn't part of the "23 in '13" Challenge.  But first, I have a recommendation for you...

Myke Cole is a Military Fantasy novelist.  "What's that," you ask?  It's what happens when a Dungeons & Dragons nerd does 3 tours in Iraq and then gets signed to a 3 book deal with Random House. 

Control Point, the first book in the Shadow Ops series, is described as "Black Hawk Down meets The X-Men" and was one of my favorite novels of 2012.  Book 2, due in February, is already receiving stellar reviews. 

Myke's a good friend.  I think you'll dig his books.  Find out more about him here:  MykeCole.com

Back to you!

What did you create this week? 

Are you writing short stories or songs?  Are you painting landscapes or drawing comics?  Are you blogging or podcasting?  I want to know!

Tell me what you're creating in the comments below.  Feel free to link to your site.

Have a great week!
John

82 comments:

  1. I've been trying to push myself to draw every day(which hasn't happened) and recently I started a pokemon-related drawing challenge and so far I've created just over half a dozen drawings of pokemon, several of which I'm super proud of even though I feel my drawings are far from impressive.

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    1. That's awesome James! I'd love to see them. Are you going to post them on your blog, or Facebook? Please send me the link.

      Keep it up.

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  2. Um... I wrote (or rather finished writing) a Moshi Monsters book.

    The other project I'm currently working on is protected by an NDA, but it's proving to be a lot of fun!

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    1. Cool! Will you be posting this anywhere Jonathan? Good luck with your NDA project too!

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  3. First off, thanks for the first song this year. I haven't listened to it yet, but only because I'm still working out how to effectively switch between tablet, laptop and ipod when my tablet is an android. I did listen to some of your older stuff last week though.

    I'm making progress through my goal to read 23 excellent books this year, nearing the halfway point in Heir of Novron by Michael J. Sullivan. I made a list of books I want to read in 2013, and Myke Cole's two books are on it. I can't wait.

    In novel edits, I reached the 60% mark, which is exciting considering how laborious my 1% a day is.

    Keep up the great work, John! Good luck on your drawing challenge James. My brother in law likes to draw pokemon type stuff, I'll show him your site if you post your drawings there.

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    1. Thanks Tim!

      Cool. I have that Michael J. Sullivan book. Looking forward to reading it. I'm almost finished with Rothfuss' A WISE MAN'S FEAR, which I'm loving, but it's looooooong.

      Good luck on the novel edits!

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  4. I am about halfway done with a short story about a girl who gets the ability to read minds but things quickly go off the rails. I started out thinking it was going to be a quick write, but then i started getting all these ideas and suddenly everything was more complex but like 1000% better. It took me about four tries to find the right frame to tell the story, but i am really excited that this is shaping up to be different than any other story like this that i have read--or that i have written.

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  5. Just this morning, I finished the first draft of a steampunk novella that will be the prequel to my steampunk/dieselpunk crossover thriller, Crazy Taylor.

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    1. Sweet! Will you be publishing this at some point Anthony?

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  6. Fabulous that everyone is keeping up with it! Kudos all around Tim, Jonathan, James... :-)

    I've been painting, but as part of the day job, I haven't gotten further in my series' goal yet. My goals seem to be morphing into "get a real job" mode... (lol). I gave up on my book for a bit, but drat it all, it keeps coming back to haunt me, so I'm trying to find a way to work it into my day job so I can keep working on it before it drives me crazy. 23 "chapters". I MUST do 23 "chapters". All right that's it. That is my absolute goal. Allons-y...! :-)

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  7. What did I create?

    I finished up a map I whipped up in Campaign Cartographer Three.

    Visible here:

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/jvstin/8398759324/

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    1. Looks really cool Paul! Will you be making 23 maps this year? :-)

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    2. I am thinking 23 "projects". Could be maps, photographic expeditions, whatever. 23 Creative Projects. (Book reviews do NOT count)

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  8. I started writing the third of the Accidental Sorcerers stories. This is a series of YA fantasy novellas about two young apprentice sorcerers and their clumsy mentor. The life of a sorcerer is supposed to be sedate in this age, but adventure comes looking for them at every turn. One of the apprentices is the sorcerer's daughter, and that rather complicates the love aspect. ;-) I launched the first story this week, and the second is about ready for beta.

    I also participate in #FridayFlash most weeks. My story this week, Sacrifice, is about the logical way of avoiding being a virgin sacrifice. Judging from pageviews and comments, It's one of the most popular I've done in a while.

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    1. Excellent Larry!

      Are you publishing these stories?

      Good luck with them and your flash fiction.

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  9. Well, I wrote some really bad Star Trek Haikus.
    http://www.wired.com/geekmom/2013/01/23-in-13-challenge/

    Then I wrote an introspective song called Mystics and Mothers, and put it up on YouTube 10 minutes after I wrote it, which means I should probably go back an edit it, but there it is. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeQViCSHk5o

    And this morning I wrote/drew three comics, one of which I will upload to GeekMom next week. This is the one I'm most proud of because I have never drawn a comic. I am not an artist, but hey, stick figures do the trick.

    Thanks for the push!

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    1. Watched the video for "Mystics & Mothers" and it sounds great! Love the vibe and your voice.

      Looking forward to reading your comics next week on GeekMom!

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  10. This week I finished covers for three books, finished interior layouts for two more, formatted two others, outlined a short story for the next ReDeus anthology, made arrangements to be in two upcoming anthologies, set up plans to write a series of short stories, and worked on the second Dread Remora novel. It was a slow week. :)

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    1. :-)

      Awesome! May we all have weeks as slow as you.

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  11. Wrote over 7,000 words for my novel so far this year. The novel is me taking Norse mythology off-track and putting it dead-center in a space opera setting with dimensional travel, body possessions, rebirth, and galactic empires mixed in. Been quite fun so far!

    Did a few book reviews too.

    Started on a new fantasy project last night, which I'm pantsing at the moment.

    Nothing really focused :-)

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    1. Congrats Abhinav! That awesome. Good luck with all of your projects.

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  12. Finished editing and posted my pictures from Christmas.

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  13. Still plodding along editing my 2012 nanowrimo novel and posting it in serial form on my blog. I finished episode #4 this week so it'll post on Tuesday. Also, I was thinking about writing some tie-in flash stories about individual characters in the series, mainly the super hero 'Knitizen Kane', so I'll probably work on that today as well.:)

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  14. Cool! Shoot me an e-mail or a tweet when the next serial is published so I can tweet it out.

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  15. Well, aside from creating some unintentional chaos at home (don't ask), I bottled my first batch of beer and started a second batch fermenting. I also got together with my current music partner and jammed for a few hours.

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    1. Sweet!

      I miss jamming. I don't really get the opportunity to play with other people too often these days. I miss getting into the basement with a bass player and drummer and just ripping. Good times.

      Good luck with the brewing. Wish you lived closer so I can sample some. :-)

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  16. I started making a trailer to re-boot/relaunch issue #1 of my fully painted vampire comic, BloodDreams, which is now available on ComiXology. Once that's set, I should be poised & ready to try to finish Issue #2 off this week, and get Issue #3 on the drawing table.

    I also did a quick commission BatGirl painting, painted some illustrations for BullSpec Magazine, did a painting of my friend's cat for his birthday, and animated a baseball batter!

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    1. Fantastic! Your artwork looks wonderful. I love the ComiXology app. I'll definitely look up your book.

      Do you know Sam from BullSpec? Great guy. Has been on the Functional Nerds Podcast with me.

      Best of luck with all of your work.

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    2. Hey, thanks! :D

      I was quite pleased to finally get the book up at ComiXolgy. And yes, I know Sam! I did a cover for BullSpec a while ago when I was living in the RTP area, as well as a few interior illustrations more recently. He's awesome. I should check out that podcast! I need to be a more functional nerd. :D

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  17. I've started a new story in my 750words.com account (I've already finished one that I'll get online eventually). It's almost private; only one friend is reading it as it goes.

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  18. Finished a short story and sent it out. Disparaging writers of the world, unite! :)

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  19. Been working like a fiend on my blog. I've produced several posts this week and have several lined up for the future weeks. I hope I can keep up the productivity, since it's a great exercise in forcing myself to create things, photograph them, and write about them.

    Thanks for the inspiration to keep it going! My bare minimum goal is 1 post per week, but I am secretly shooting for two :)

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  20. Hi, John, I've been working on the WorldsWithoutEnd.com Women of Genre Fiction Reading Challenge and have been for weeks. The challenge goal is to read 12 women authors, who are new to you, in 12 months and write 12 reviews. We have 141 readers signed up so far and they're keeping us busy adding new authors and books to the site. We've got 36 reviews already and expect to end up with over 500 by the end of the year. Wish us luck!

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  21. Finished inking more pages of a comic I'm working on. Gonna put it online in a couple of months, but I want to make a kind of buffer so if I get behind for a week or two, I can still update. Planning ahead, haha

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    1. Excellent! Took a look at your portfolio and it looks great! Please keep me posted on your progress.

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    2. Thanks, and will do (although progress might be slow)

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  22. I just created a bunch of questions for Stump A Trek Nerd on The Morning Stream.

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  23. Well I had a fairly slow week on my personal projects, had to put in extra hours at work. However I did manage to move the revision of a few short stories forward, and jot down a couple ideas for a few more. I also wrote up and posted a few short comic reviews for my "Sunday Comics" blog series http://laith.wordpress.com/2013/01/20/sunday-comics-issue-2-classics-in-ink-and-paint/

    As to my "23" I'm hoping to get 23 books reviewed, not counting comics where I'm at 5 already written (6 posted) this year.

    I'm also shooting for 23 short stories completed and submitted.

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    1. That's fantastic Laith!

      Best of luck your stories and reviews.

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  24. Recorded and published the first episode of my new podcast "The Kids Music Marketing Internet Radio Show" http://tinyurl.com/b7j4wfr, working on ep. 2. Did 5 "Mad Music Marketing Minute" microcasts http://tinyurl.com/a7h4s6b and 5 Short Silly Songs of the Day http://shoutomatic.com/mr-billy . Booking gigs and stuff. Good week.

    It's really awesome that you are inspiring so many folks to get moving!

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    1. Listened to that. Awesome job Billy.

      Good luck with the gig booking. That's my least favorite part of what we do.

      Thanks man.

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  25. I'm making some rice pudding. Does that coun?

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    1. Is it artistic Rice Pudding? :-)

      Seriously though, cooking is an art to me.

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  26. I made a flow chart to choose English pronouns, which unexpectedly ended up Zork-themed. :) http://angelastic.com/2013/01/21/nine-of-clubs-it-is-pitch-black-i-need-to-know-which-english-pronoun-to-use/

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  27. Finished chapter 1 in my blog series about our relationship with the Earth and posted it this morning. This is my 23in13 project (should we all use #23in13 for Twitter references? Anyway, it's up at http://www.brenda-cooper.com/2013/01/22/backing-into-eden-chapter-1-we-are-responsible

    About 750 words -- this will be a series of linked essays that go from 500 to 1,000 words.

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    1. Thank you for sharing Brenda. I think it would be great if everyone used the #23in13 hashtag.

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  28. Wrote an outline for a novelette. Hammered my way through a rough draft of another. Tweaked a rejected short story. Saw a short story finally make its way to publication.

    Oh, and I tinkered with GIMP (Photoshop for poor people).

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  29. Fantastic! All good stuff there. Where will the short story be published?

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  30. I wrote a flash, added a little to a novel, started a new short story, read a bunch of flash, finished reading The Happiness Project, and submitted a couple of short stories to different markets. Which all sounds a lot more productive than it felt.

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    1. That's the way it goes sometimes. That all sounds great.

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  31. I sold a short story, and finished a long overdue manuscript. And now I've started a new short for another anthology, one I actually pitched to the publisher.

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    1. Congrats on selling the short story! Where will it appear when it's published. Good luck with the new story.

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  32. It'll appear in a Dreamspinner Press compilation. And maybe I should say the manuscript I finished was under a contract. I mean, there's a chance the publisher could tell me they really didn't want a fantasy more akin to a bad acid trip than anything else, but I like to think they knew what they were in for when they signed for a book on spec. I'm nothing if not weird.

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  33. I'm working on my Library of Alexandria inspired novel - in the outlining and character profiling phase. Finding "Scavenger" was a great boost to my writing soundtrack playlist. Thanks! And thanks for being interested in the creative process! Good luck with your 23 in 13 project. I know it's inspired my hubby too.

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    1. That's excellent! Good luck with your writing and I'm delighted to hear that my music was able to help in some small way.

      What is your husband working on?

      Have a great week!

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    2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    3. My husband is Mark, at Central Battery Musicworks who replies below. :D

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  34. Song #2 of 23 in '13: Only an Idea

    http://centralbatterymusicworks.blogspot.com/2013/01/23-in-13-song-2-only-idea.html

    I've been spending time with my new Roland XV-5080, trying to get it fully integrated with Logic. So, it seemed natural to try and make a composition using only the Roland (a switch for me, as I've always been soft synths and real instruments). It wasn't a limitation, but it was a lot of fun!

    Also, Scavenger is a great track...moody and atmospheric, excellent. The bouzouki sounds great (and has long been on my list of instruments I wish to acquire!)

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    1. Cool! I had a Roland JV-1010 that I used with Pro-Tools back in the day. I lot of those sounds appeared on my first album years ago.

      Glad you like the new piece. Bouzouki is really fun, especially if you can play a bit of mandolin.

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    2. The JV-1010 looks like a nice little box! My own (limited) Pro Tools experience was "back in the day" as well, on MacOS 8.6 or so. I don't miss those days.

      That's partially why I want a bouzouki...I play mandolin and celtic banjo, so it'd be a "pick up and play" sort of arrangement :D

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    3. I actually used Pro Tools on an old PC. When looking to upgrade, I got so frustrated and confused with what type of computer that I needed, I switched to a Mac running Logic. Best technical decision I ever made.

      You'll have fun with bouzouki. Technically, mine is an octave mandolin because all of the doubled strings are unison. An Irish Bouzouki would have a longer scale neck with some of the string being an octave above, like a 12-string guitar. Looking back, I wish I bought that type of instrument, but at the time I was interested in playing Irish fiddle tunes on it, and the shorter scale neck made that easier.

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  35. I kept track on my calendar this week so I could remember what I did! I made a bracelet (for myself this time), did an interview about my jewelry business, edited an old short story for the new edition of my short-story collection, and spent a few hours typing & editing stuff I wrote longhand during my Computer Apocalypse. Still have a lot of typing to do!

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  36. Started out slow, but song #1 is done! Not sure what to call it yet..."Disposable Dreams" is the current working title.

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    1. Excellent! Will you be posting this song any time soon?

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  37. Wow it is awesome to see how people have been busy! Well I got a second short story done, very much a rough, but done nonetheless. Inspired by a Flash Fiction prompt that fit into my 'world'. "Time For Nothing" - a story about nothing. But about everything. All depends on your point of view. :-) www.rabidhorse.com/artblog/

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    1. Agreed. Glad to hear you finished your short story. Good luck with everything!

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