NEWS and NOTES: October 29, 2012

Greetings Fellow Readers.

Welcome to another edition of 'NEWS and NOTES'. Happy Hurricane Day ! ;) all joking aside, I have some very sad NEWS to bring up.

NEWS:

Due to the hurricane, 'Arcana Magi Memorial Vol. 3' Chapter 5 will be pushed to Friday November 9, which in turn pushes 'Arcana Magi Pure Vol. 2' to November 16, and there will be no Weekly Rants this week.

However, 'Shell' will still be free this Halloween as planned, everything is set, so get your copy this Wednesday.

- Friday November 9, 2012 at 8:00 PM EST** on Fictionaut:  'Arcana Magi Memorial Vol. 3 - Chapter 4'

Sora struggles to fight back and Azure is about to do something unthinkable to save her.

Check it out this Friday.

'Arcana Magi Memorial' Dates:

Friday, November 2, 2012 at 8:00 PM EST - Chapter 5**

- Starting Friday, November 16, 2012** on Fictionaut: 'Arcana Magi Pure Vol. 2'

Mayumi and Emi are back, and they're about to learn what their new found life will bring.

Friday, November 16, 2012 ay 8:00 PM EST - Chapter 1**
Friday, November 23, 2012 ay 8:00 PM EST - Chapter 2**
Friday, November 30, 2012 ay 8:00 PM EST - Chapter 3**
Friday, December 7, 2012 ay 8:00 PM EST - Chapter 4**
Friday, December 14, 2012 ay 8:00 PM EST - Chapter 5**

- October 31, 2012 on Kindle: 'Shell' Free Halloween Day.

Get your copy of 'Shell' for free on Kindle and learn about the horror that is to come later in 'The Geolyth Equation' as featured on 'Duality of Horror'

- This Holiday season on Kindle: Free 'Shell' Days. Get your chance to add 'Shell' to your booklist for FREE on these following days.


Black Friday - November 23, 2012
Friday - December 7, 2012
Friday - December 14, 2012
Friday - December 21, 2012

Make sure to grab a copy for you and your book reading family and friends.


- Wednesday's between 8:00 PM EST and 9:00 PM EST on Blogspot - The Weekly Rants. Check out info, thoughts, and behind the scenes look on all writings and project by H-M Brown.

** Dates and times are subject to change pending any scheduling conflicts.

NOTES:

- No NOTES Today.

That's all for NEWS and NOTES today.

Until next time,
See ya.

NEWS and NOTES: October 26, 2012

Greetings Fellow Readers.

Welcome to another edition of 'NEWS and NOTES'.

NEWS:

- This Friday at 8:00 PM EST** on Fictionaut:  'Arcana Magi Memorial Vol. 3 - Chapter 4'

Sora struggles to fight back and Azure is about to do something unthinkable to save her.

Check it out this Friday.

'Arcana Magi Memorial' Dates:

Friday, November 2, 2012 at 8:00 PM EST - Chapter 5**

- Starting Friday, November 9, 2012** on Fictionaut: 'Arcana Magi Pure Vol. 2'

Mayumi and Emi are back, and they're about to learn what their new found life will bring.

Friday, November 9, 2012 ay 8:00 PM EST - Chapter 1**
Friday, November 16, 2012 ay 8:00 PM EST - Chapter 2**
Friday, November 23, 2012 ay 8:00 PM EST - Chapter 3**
Friday, November 30, 2012 ay 8:00 PM EST - Chapter 4**
Friday, December 7, 2012 ay 8:00 PM EST - Chapter 5**

- October 31, 2012 on Kindle: 'Shell' Free Halloween Day.

Get your copy of 'Shell' for free on Kindle and learn about the horror that is to come later in 'The Geolyth Equation' as featured on 'Duality of Horror'

- This Holiday season on Kindle: Free 'Shell' Days. Get your chance to add 'Shell' to your booklist for FREE on these following days.


Black Friday - November 23, 2012
Friday - December 7, 2012
Friday - December 14, 2012
Friday - December 21, 2012

Make sure to grab a copy for you and your book reading family and friends.


- Wednesday's between 8:00 PM EST and 9:00 PM EST on Blogspot - The Weekly Rants. Check out info, thoughts, and behind the scenes look on all writings and project by H-M Brown.

** Dates and times are subject to change pending any scheduling conflicts.

NOTES:

- No NOTES Today.

That's all for NEWS and NOTES today.

Until next time,
See ya.

Weekly Rants: October 24, 2012

Greetings Fellow Readers! Welcome to another round of random rants. This is going to be a short rant tonight.

-On 'Arcana Magi Memorial'-

I notice that my narrative writing is overwhelmed by character dialog. It isn't very well balanced even for character development. I am hoping though that the character interactions is strong enough to compensate the lack of narrative. Heck, I'm hoping that they are all well developed after this. But Volume 3, should end I guess you could say the character arc, establishing Azure, Sora and Ciel, their background and who they are. Volume 4 next year will see the trio on nice little adventure. No reason I shouldn't go that direction especially establishing some protagonists in these 3 Volumes, that I can revisit and expand on.

-Thoughts on Writing-

Sorry no Thoughts on Writing this week. What I want to do next week, is copy and paste some of the thoughts I wrote on writing over the summer on Facebook. I want to bring them all over to here in more unified and easy to read pages. I will try to stretch it out for a few weeks.

- Yeah this was pretty much all I have to rant about for this week. I look forward to sharing my thought on writing next week.

Until next time...

See ya.

NEWS and NOTES: October 22, 2012

Greetings Fellow Readers.

Welcome to another edition of 'NEWS and NOTES'.

NEWS:

- This Friday at 8:00 PM EST** on Fictionaut:  'Arcana Magi Memorial Vol. 3 - Chapter 4'

Sora and Azure are about to learn the truth from the mysterious intruder.

Check it out this Friday.

'Arcana Magi Memorial' Dates:

Friday, November 2, 2012 at 8:00 PM EST - Chapter 5**

- Starting Friday, November 9, 2012** on Fictionaut: 'Arcana Magi Pure Vol. 2'

Mayumi and Emi are back, and they're about to learn what their new found life will bring.

Friday, November 9, 2012 ay 8:00 PM EST - Chapter 1**
Friday, November 16, 2012 ay 8:00 PM EST - Chapter 2**
Friday, November 23, 2012 ay 8:00 PM EST - Chapter 3**
Friday, November 30, 2012 ay 8:00 PM EST - Chapter 4**
Friday, December 7, 2012 ay 8:00 PM EST - Chapter 5**

- October 31, 2012 on Kindle: 'Shell' Free Halloween Day.

Get your copy of 'Shell' for free on Kindle and learn about the horror that is to come in 'The Geolyth Equatio' as featured on 'Duality of Horror'

- This Holiday season on Kindle: Free 'Shell' Days. Get your chance to add 'Shell' to your booklist for FREE on these following days.


Black Friday - November 23, 2012
Friday - December 7, 2012
Friday - December 14, 2012
Friday - December 21, 2012

Make sure to grab a copy for you and your book reading family and friends.


- Wednesday's between 8:00 PM EST and 9:00 PM EST on Blogspot - The Weekly Rants. Check out info, thoughts, and behind the scenes look on all writings and project by H-M Brown

** Dates and times are subject to change pending any scheduling conflicts.

NOTES:

- No NOTES Today.

That's all for NEWS and NOTES today.

Until next time,
See ya.

NEWS and NOTES: October 19, 2012

Greetings Fellow Readers.

Welcome to another edition of 'NEWS and NOTES'. It's story night. get ready for another exciting adventure.

NEWS:

- Tonight on Fictionaut:  'Arcana Magi Memorial Vol. 3 - Chapter 3'

As Sora's problems continues, Azure talks to Ciel about herself and Sora.

Click on the Sidebar link to check it out.

'Arcana Magi Memorial' Dates:


Friday, October 26, 2012 at 8:00 PM EST - Chapter 4**
Friday, November 2, 2012 at 8:00 PM EST - Chapter 5**

'Arcana Magi Pure Vol. 2' - Starting Friday, November 9, 2012**

- This Holiday season on Kindle: Free 'Shell' Days. Get your chance to add 'Shell' to your booklist for FREE on these following days.

Halloween - October 31, 2012
Black Friday - November 23, 2012
Friday - December 7, 2012
Friday - December 14, 2012
Friday - December 21, 2012

Make sure to grab a copy for you and your book reading family and friends.


- Wednesday's between 8:00 PM EST and 9:00 PM EST on Blogspot - The Weekly Rants. Check out info, thoughts, and behind the scenes look on all writings and project by H-M Brown

** Dates and times are subject to change pending any scheduling conflicts.

NOTES:

- No NOTES Today.

That's all for NEWS and NOTES today.

Until next time,
See ya.

Weekly Rants: October 17, 2012

Greetings Fellow Readers! Welcome to another of weekly ranting. Are you enjoying 'Arcana Magi Memorial Vol. 3'? Good... good... Well I got one quick thing to talk about so let's get started.


-The Writer's Thoughts-

'Using ***'

Many of you may have noticed in recent works and those published on Kindle that I am using *** in between paragraphs creating a separation. Well this was born out of posting stories on Fictionaut. You see one of the problems I had writing there is that I write very big stories, not very short stories. You may have noticed the Flash Fiction set at around 500 to 700 words is normal practice there. It's not exactly my style because I like to write, a lot. What ended up happening was that writings would come off as an overwhelming wall of text with no page breaks to it. So as I tried to figure a way to make things easier, I ended up using this *** in between paragraphs. Eventually the web designers of Fictionaut made *** automatically separate the text further, which was a good thing.

So what does this have to with writing?

Well I learned that I could actually make my writing stronger using *** to separate scenes within a chapter. It's now becoming a standard form of writing for me. You see each chapter is now broken up into scenes where I can focus on 1 setting, play it out with beginning, middle and end, then use *** to separate the paragraphs and go into another scene. Each scene is like a mini-story within the story itself. It's self contained, creates pacing, and gives the reader and ease to take their time and take a break. Each scene will vary in length though I try to keep them at a one page minimum to allow development and growth of both story and character. I really like this method I am doing because it also eases my mind when I want to type and not feel blocked or stunted when I try to write.

Also it make it easy to change scenes between characters and be in other characters point of view. Their thoughts and actions added to the over all situation.

Keep in mind that this 'Scene Writing Method' has to do something. Something has to be happening in this scene and not be irrelevant to story. Their must be a purpose and not padded. I also feel it shouldn't serve as a platform to creating a centralize and separate B Plot irrelevant to the story. Unlike Screenplays, there are no time constraints, and you could fully flesh out the stories main plot, and its relevant sub-plot without skipping a beat.

I look forward to expanding this technique and make my stories more exciting and enjoyable for all readers out there.

So this concludes my latest rant. I thank you all for listening. Please join me on Facebook at 'The Written Works of H-M Brown'. The link is right there in the sidebar at the bottom where you can share your thoughts and post up up your comments.

Until next time...

See ya!

NEWS and NOTES: October 15, 2012

Greetings Fellow Readers.

Welcome to another edition of 'NEWS and NOTES'. New York Comic Con is over and I can't wait for next year, but for now, there is more stories to tell this week.

NEWS:

- This Friday at 8:00 PM EST on Fictionaut:  'Arcana Magi Memorial Vol. 3 - Chapter 3'

As Sora's problems continues, Azure talks to Ciel about herself and Sora.

Click on the Sidebar link to check it out.

'Arcana Magi Memorial' Dates:


Friday, October 26, 2012 at 8:00 PM EST - Chapter 4**
Friday, November 2, 2012 at 8:00 PM EST - Chapter 5**

'Arcana Magi Pure Vol. 2' - Starting Friday, November 9, 2012**

- This Holiday season on Kindle: Free 'Shell' Days. Get your chance to add 'Shell' to your booklist for FREE on these following days.

Halloween - October 31, 2012
Black Friday - November 23, 2012
Friday - December 7, 2012
Friday - December 14, 2012
Friday - December 21, 2012

Make sure to grab a copy for you and your book reading family and friends.


- Wednesday's between 8:00 PM EST and 9:00 PM EST on Blogspot - The Weekly Rants. Check out info, thoughts, and behind the scenes look on all writings and project by H-M Brown

** Dates and times are subject to change pending any scheduling conflicts.

NOTES:

- No NOTES Today.

That's all for NEWS and NOTES today.

Until next time,
See ya.

NEWS and NOTES: October 11, 2012

Greetings Fellow Readers.

Welcome to another edition of 'NEWS and NOTES'. It's posting day. Get ready for more exciting stuff.

NEWS:

- Tonight on Fictionaut:  'Arcana Magi Memorial Vol. 3 - Chapter 2'

Sora tells Azure what she wanted to say, but that isn't the only situation she is about to face.

Click on the Sidebar link to check it out.

'Arcana Magi Memorial' Dates:

Friday, October 19, 2012 at 8:00 PM EST - Chapter 3**
Friday, October 26, 2012 at 8:00 PM EST - Chapter 4**
Friday, November 2, 2012 at 8:00 PM EST - Chapter 5**

'Arcana Magi Pure Vol. 2' - Starting Friday, November 9, 2012**

- This Holiday season on Kindle: Free 'Shell' Days. Get your chance to add 'Shell' to your booklist for FREE on these following days.

Halloween - October 31, 2012
Black Friday - November 23, 2012
Friday - December 7, 2012
Friday - December 14, 2012
Friday - December 21, 2012

Make sure to grab a copy for you and your book reading family and friends.

- Tomorrow and all weekend long: I will be roaming the halls of New York Comic Con once again. If you want to say Hi, don't hesitate to wave if you see me.

- Wednesday's between 8:00 PM EST and 9:00 PM EST on Blogspot - The Weekly Rants. Check out info, thoughts, and behind the scenes look on all writings and project by H-M Brown

** Dates and times are subject to change pending any scheduling conflicts.

NOTES:

- No NOTES Today.

That's all for NEWS and NOTES today.

Until next time,
See ya.

Weekly Rants: October 10, 2012

Greetings Fellow Readers! Welcome to another of random ranting. This week I will be continuing my discussion on Foreshadowing.

- Foreshadowing Part 2 -

Okay we got the basic idea of how Foreshadowing works in storytelling, now how does one use it? Well technically from my personal writing experience, it works two ways...

Naturally and Artificially

There is a difference that you the writer will realize when putting words to paper. It is very quite obvious.

When it is done Naturally, you would not realize the Foreshadow until your 2nd draft, when you read through the story to look for the good stuff and bad stuff to remove. You'll spot the connection of what a character said or what the narrative conveyed later in the story that actually works. Naturally is not bad, it just happens through no fault of your own and is not bad writing. It's when you start making decision on what to do with that will determine good writing or bad writing. You might surprise yourself at how effective it was executed, or you may find it to be too soon to point out. They can be hard decisions to make because you want your story to work, or they can be easy decisions because you can see the obvious flaw in the Foreshadow. This is where you would find yourself more a surgeon than a writer because sometimes, removing a sentence or dialog could change the entire context and complexity of your story and what you wanted to convey to your reader is lost. Sometimes it may work.

When Foreshadowing is done Artificially, it's usually premeditated, to use a strong. You the writer KNOWS what you want in your story and what you want to Foreshadow because you believe it can impact the story and draw the reader in. Unlike Naturally where you had no plans, here you have to be savvy, know what your talking, and understand the direction your going. Foreshadowing is a double edged sword, you are giving a clue, through narrative or dialog, of what could be later in the story. This is where you have to be at your utmost subtle. Foreshadowing could cause you to lead your reader by the nose or you could mislead them with a red herring. You have treat Artificial Foreshadowing like souffle.

Outside of Natural Foreshadow, what is the best way to approach Artificial Foreshadow? For starters be subtle. Use symbolism in narrative, or have a character see something ordinary like a dog playing ball with a kid and his single father. When using dialog, just have a character make an off the cuff joke, or point out something common knowledge.

On a final note, Foreshadowing is a very powerful tool in writing. There is I believe an art to Foreshadowing, because when done right, the story can become very poetic and very poignant. The scenes, characters and situations that Foreshadowing affects can become very memorable, and even classic. Like an artist who has to carefully place that one streak of color to give the painting its meaning, Foreshadowing has to be placed in certain parts of your story to give what your saying some meaning, and it truly will look like a work of art. However, it can also be your downfall as a writer if used poorly or at the wrong time. You can lose the trust of your reader. Your story can become predictable and very obvious that nothing your narrative or dialog does will keep the readers interested.

Well this concludes my thoughts on Foreshadowing. It is a remarkable tool of writing and should not be overlook in fiction storytelling.

I thank you all for joining.

Until Next Time...
See ya

NEWS and NOTES: October 8, 2012

Greetings Fellow Readers.

Welcome to another edition of 'NEWS and NOTES'. How about that first chapter? Dramatic eh? Well get ready for more this week.

NEWS:

- This Thursday at 8:00 PM EST on Fictionaut:  'Arcana Magi Memorial Vol. 3 - Chapter 2'

Sora tells Azure what she wanted to say, but that isn't the only situation she is about to face.

Check it out this Thursday on Fictionaut.

'Arcana Magi Memorial' Dates:

Friday, October 19, 2012 at 8:00 PM EST - Chapter 3**
Friday, October 26, 2012 at 8:00 PM EST - Chapter 4**
Friday, November 2, 2012 at 8:00 PM EST - Chapter 5**

'Arcana Magi Pure Vol. 2' - Starting Friday, November 9, 2012**

- This Holiday season on Kindle: Free 'Shell' Days. Get your chance to add 'Shell' to your booklist for FREE on these following days.

Halloween - October 31, 2012
Black Friday - November 23, 2012
Friday - December 7, 2012
Friday - December 14, 2012
Friday - December 21, 2012

Make sure to grab a copy for you and your book reading family and friends.

- This Weekend from October 12 - 14: I will be roaming the halls of New York Comic Con once again. If you want to say Hi, don't hesitate to wave if you see me.

- Wednesday's between 8:00 PM EST and 9:00 PM EST on Blogspot - The Weekly Rants. Check out info, thoughts, and behind the scenes look on all writings and project by H-M Brown

** Dates and times are subject to change pending any scheduling conflicts.

NOTES:

- No NOTES Today.

That's all for NEWS and NOTES today.

Until next time,
See ya.

NEWS and NOTES: October 5, 2012

Greetings Fellow Readers.

Welcome to another edition of 'NEWS and NOTES'.

NEWS:

- Now posted on Fictionaut:  'Arcana Magi Memorial Vol. 3 - Chapter 1'

Sora has decided to tell Azure something she had been keeping from her since the day they met, but she was about learn something from Azure that she never imagined and it's just the start.

Click on the sidebar link to check it out.

'Arcana Magi Memorial' Dates:
Thursday, October 11, 2012 at 8:00 PM EST - Chapter 2**
Friday, October 19, 2012 at 8:00 PM EST - Chapter 3**
Friday, October 26, 2012 at 8:00 PM EST - Chapter 4**
Friday, November 2, 2012 at 8:00 PM EST - Chapter 5**

'Arcana Magi Pure Vol. 2' - Starting Friday, November 9, 2012**

- This Holiday season on Kindle: Free 'Shell' Days. Get your chance to add 'Shell' to your booklist for FREE on these following days.

Halloween - October 31, 2012
Black Friday - November 23, 2012
Friday - December 7, 2012
Friday - December 14, 2012
Friday - December 21, 2012

Make sure to grab a copy for you and your book reading family and friends.

- This October 12 - 14: I will be roaming the halls of New York Comic Con once again. If you want to say Hi, don't hesitate to wave if you see me.

- Wednesday's between 8:00 PM EST and 9:00 PM EST on Blogspot - The Weekly Rants. Check out info, thoughts, and behind the scenes look on all writings and project by H-M Brown

** Dates and times are subject to change pending any scheduling conflicts.

NOTES:

- No NOTES Today.

That's all for NEWS and NOTES today.

Until next time,
See ya.

Weekly Rants: October 3, 2012

Greetings Fellow Readers! Welcome to another of random ranting. Tonight I want to talk more about writing. I would like to talk about Foreshadowing.

-On Foreshadowing-

This is actually something I love and culminated from and unpublished work I made a decade ago that got my attention. One of the things that have disappointed me is that I have not found much essays, books on writing, or any talk about this. I found some brief blogs about it, but nothing comprehensive. Nothing talking about the technique or applying that technique in writing. And it's such a shame because this is a very powerful tool to have in your disposal and it really is fun for both writer and reader.

IF... DONE... RIGHT...

Let's start with the basic question. What is Foreshadowing?

The general consensus among writers is simply throwing in subtle hints or clues that predicts an event that will happen later in the story but are easily dismissed or guessed by the reader.

A good example is Jaws. When Hooper, Quint, and Brody prepared to go out to sea to fight the shark. There were scuba tanks loading up and Quint says: "Yeah, that's real fine expensive gear you brought out here, Mr. Hooper. 'Course I don't know what that bastard shark's gonna do with it, might eat it I suppose." Now keep in mind that during this scene, Quint said this as joke, a mockery of sorts. Nobody was to think about this, the audience or the characters in the story. It was just a conversation of three men getting ready to fight a shark. And low and behold at the end... at scuba tank is in Jaws mouth and guess what Brody did?

This actually a fine example of doing good Foreshadowing. The hint was placed in a casual conversation, and dropped in as joke from character to another. Very subtle.

Now mind you that, and to be fair, not everyone in the audience or readers for that matter, are dedicating their reading time looking for these hints and clues. Their just trying to enjoy the movie or story and that's all right. There also times when it could look like an overreach because writers didn't see the foreshadow they made or even sought to make a foreshadow. It can happen.

However, writer this is something that should be learned and understood by writers, because a really good foreshadow are the ones that casual readers and casual audiences will pick up, get the idea, and then get hit with hammer of shock. Just look the Sixth Sense.

Next week I will continue my thoughts on Foreshadowing and get into the meat of how this thing ticks. Hopefully what I say will make some sense.


Until next time...
See ya.

NEWS and NOTES: October 1, 2012

Greetings Fellow Readers.

Welcome to another edition of 'NEWS and NOTES'.  This is a big week. Are you all excited?

NEWS:

- This Friday, October 5, 2012** on Fictionaut:  'Arcana Magi Memorial Vol. 3 - Chapter 1'

Sora has decided to tell Azure something she had been keeping from her since the day they met, but she was about learn something from Azure that she never imagined and it's just the start.

Thursday, October 11, 2012 - Chapter 2**
Friday, October 19, 2012 - Chapter 3**
Friday, October 26, 2012 - Chapter 4**
Friday, November 2, 2012 - Chapter 5**

'Arcana Magi Pure Vol. 2' - Starting Friday, November 9, 2012**

- This Holiday season on Kindle: Free 'Shell' Days. Get your chance to add 'Shell' to your booklist for FREE on these following days.

Halloween - October 31, 2012
Black Friday - November 23, 2012
Friday - December 7, 2012
Friday - December 14, 2012
Friday - December 21, 2012

Make sure to grab a copy for you and your book reading family and friends.

- This October 12 - 14: I will be roaming the halls of New York Comic Con once again. If you want to say Hi, don't hesitate to wave if you see me.

- Wednesday's between 8:00 PM EST and 9:00 PM EST on Blogspot - The Weekly Rants. Check out info, thoughts, and behind the scenes look on all writings and project by H-M Brown

** Dates are subject to change pending any scheduling conflicts.

NOTES:

- No NOTES Today.

That's all for NEWS and NOTES today.

Until next time,
See ya.