Daimon's Lair

No, unlike my father-in-law, I'm not talking about 'little green men'. The possibility of intelligent life in the universe is real but I have extreme doubts as to whether we'll encounter it anytime in the remote future. As to the question of whether we have already, well, conspiracy theories are not one of my interests.

I'm talking about using aliens in fiction, something I'm having fun with in my story. And I'm increasingly realizing that the alien race which is influencing me the most are the 'Ancients' or 'Lantians' from the Stargate TV shows. Almost identical to humans, they are mysterious, hyper-technological, and essentially a fallen society. Yet their ruins abound throughout the fictional Milky Way and Pegasus Galaxies.

Those of you reading this blog may or may not be aware I'm also a fairly avid fiction writer and have been since the tail end of grade school. Nothing published (of course) but I enjoy it. Right now one of my wrists has been really bothering me--especially when it comes to typing--so I've allowed my routine to collapse.

Granted, physical limitations are one thing, but I need to get back in the swing of things. So here's the first of what will (hopefully) be a series of regular updates on the progress of my writing. Currently my main work in progress (WIP) is a backstory chapter where Azriah Shepard (the central character of my novel) meets Katerina Jensen, an important if minor character in his history. Here's kind of what she looks like:



I know, that probably doesn't sound terribly interesting. I'm never sure how much plot to reveal on a public forum like this. Don't want to screw myself over once I finally get to a point where I can submit for publication.

Do any of you find it difficult to maintain a writing schedule? Sometimes my wrist is in enough discomfort despite me resting it that I decide: "what the hell, let's write!" Then it becomes more a question of three kids distracting me :P

Would small excerpts be something worth posting? That could reveal plot and character progression without revealing too much (I'm thinking single paragraphs or something).

This is going to be a truncated update because, well, this is the only thing I've been playing all week:

That isn't to say I haven't thought about playing other games. But I really haven't. #2 on my priority list would have to be Uncharted 2, but I honestly haven't touched it since the last update.

I'm 25 hours in (so the game says--it's hard to believe I've sunk that much time into it already) and I'm enjoying it immensely. The music, combat, and storyline are all excellent. It seems that I've exhausted the backstory-related conversation options of Morrighan already, which is kind of disappointing. One of BioWare's weaknesses has been that they make these really interesting characters, but just partway through the game you run out of things to say to them. I was hoping DA would be different. And it may yet. More options may be triggered by plot progression--we'll see.

Most of the week's playtime has been spent in Orzammar, the Dwarven city. Certain things I expected, like the geomtric architecture, but most I did not. Again I have to dispute the criticism DA received for its 'unoriginal' high fantasy setting. The intricacies of Dwarven politics and, heck, the fact that they were interesting to me at all speaks volumes. Because honestly, dwarves usually bore the crap out of me.

Check out this cool pic:
Cool place and I'm not even done yet. There's a decent chunk of the main storyline left (or so I've surmised), and hopefully even more areas of the 'Deep Roads' (the underground roads and cities that the dwarves have lost to the Darkspawn over the centuries) will open up. The whole exploration of ruins takes on another level (no pun intended) when it's underground.

The only other thing that's been spinning in my drives this weeks is: