Stories from Camp #Nanowrimo

August is here. We're back from Camp #Nanowrimo. Overall, I consider camp a success. I wrote over 35,000 words in the upcoming Dime Store Novel, Louisiana Snowflake. John wrote 7800 words in the Dime Store Novel with a working title of The Reaper.

Where does Louisiana Snowflake fit in the series? It takes place in 1905. It's the story where the worlds of Mama Cats, Dylan Worth, and Duncan O'Malley begin to converge. We recommend that you read the following books before you read Louisiana Snowflake:

• Rips in the Weave
• The Desert Rose
• From the Gator's Mouth
• Angels in Hell's Kitchen
• Striking Angels (due out in October)

When will Louisiana Snowflake be released? The story takes place in winter, so a winter release is appropriate. Our goal is to release it in December -- just in time for a last minute Christmas gift.

Here is a short excerpt from Louisiana Snowflake.

In the Ice Realm

Faltor lay on his belly, letting the soft snow tickle his tummy. The cold didn’t bother him anymore, not after all these eons. He scratched at the snow drift and watched it sift gently down to cover the streets of New York. A child stuck out her tongue to catch a flake. She laughed and turned in circles, trying to catch another. Her mother laughed too and leaned down to kiss her on the top of her head. Their laughter makes it bearable.

When he had mastered the ice crystals so long ago, he took his time crafting each snowflake, making sure it was unique before he sent it sailing down to earth. Before long, he realized it didn’t matter. Snow was magical to children and even some adults.  Now he created heaps of snow, shaving it with his claws from the huge crystals that made up his prison. There was a time when he wondered if he could shave enough of the crystal away that he could break free and find Shyla. He didn’t like to think back on old days and how he lost Shyla, and so he didn’t. Instead, he focused on the laughter and the children.

Sometimes he would get so excited by their laughter that he would romp through the snow, sending more snow sailing down to earth than he intended. Occasionally, a wind would catch his snow, sending it swirling and drifting in dangerous gusts. He knew that was the doing of his son Khrou-ach, the reason for their banishment. At those times, he could hardly believe that he had once loved his willful child, even supported him in the beginning.

Faltor put the thought out of his head and gently pawed at the snow drift, sending down a little more snow to gently cover the cobblestones of Hell’s Kitchen. Three boys ran and slid on the snow, letting out joyous whoops of laughter. Their joy filled Faltor’s heart and he began to run through the drifts, sending snow sailing up around him and falling at a faster pace toward the laughing boys.

Our August newsletter will be sent out this week and will include a longer excerpt from Louisiana Snowflake. If you have not signed up, take a moment to sign up now if you'd like to read more.

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Where does The Reaper fit into the series? John took a leap forward. The Reaper takes place some time after High Rollers. It's a story that features Regan Worth. It's really in its infancy, so there is no release date set. However, John is having fun writing in Regan's persona. Usually that's my job.

Was Camp worth it? Definitely. Not only do we have two new stories well underway, we also met some new people who also have wonderful stories to tell around the campfire.

A Fateful Call of Cthulhu Campaign

This morning I've been thinking of how our Dime Store Novel series began. Its genesis was insidious and its gestation long and sometimes painful. But that night in 2003 (or thereabouts) when it was conceived will live on, not only in the stories that eventually grew from the planted seed, but also in the minds of the gamers who sat around the table in the basement at Jester's Cards and Stuff while John spun a tale that drew us in and made some go insane. 

Well...not actually insane. You see, we were playing Call of Cthulhu a role-playing game created by Chaosium, based on the works of H. P. Lovecraft. In Call of Cthulhu, you have plenty of chances to die and even more opportunity to go insane because as the horrors of the world are revealed, you need to make a sanity check. And believe me, John filled the campaign with plenty of horrors.

Toledo Cats

I played a character named Toledo Cats, a Jamaican herbalist who had some ability with magic. I also had a black shapeshifting cat named Voodoo.

Our friend Tony played a detective named Hanover Fist. Yes, it was Tony who came up with the name, so anyone who thinks Swampy was cruel to name him that can blame Tony. It was not Swampy's fault at all. In fact, Swampy would not even get the breath of life until several years later.

Hanover Fist

One of the younger players, who was new to horror and easily unnerved, played a cub reporter named Tyler.

A couple other players played thugs -- essentially hired guns. O'Malley made his debut appearance too, but from the grave. He didn't have much of a back story yet and he certainly didn't have a wife and daughter. But he did have a strong enough friendship with Hanover to compel him to call from the grave. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

O'Malley

The story started with Hanover driving his old black sedan to investigate strange happenings at a house in New Orleans. Toledo, who had been his friend since childhood, flagged him down and told him to take Voodoo. Hanover didn't know Voodoo's powers, and in fact had never liked the cat, but he took her anyway because he knew Toledo had a way of knowing things.

Tyler flagged Hanover down and convinced him to let him tag along on the investigation, against Hanover's better judgment. The thugs met him there. So did Toledo. She appeared by his side just as he stepped out of the car. Tony and I rolled spot and we both saw a young black girl touch an oak tree and then disappear. The air was still, but the rocker on the porch moved back and forth. We both made our sanity checks. Tyler was not so lucky.

He tried the door and it was locked, so he started shooting it. Eventually, we got inside. By this time the thugs had joined us. The phone on the counter rang. Hanover answered it. The caller said, "Hanover?"

Hanover recognized the voice as his friend O'Malley, who had been put in the ground some months earlier. "O'Malley?" Sanity check. Tony's dice were lucky.

"The answer lies below and danger above." Click. Dial tone.

We went to the kitchen to find a door to the root cellar. We were looking for answers, not danger, right? The thugs went upstairs -- ready for a fight. Inside the kitchen, Toledo and Hanover missed their spot checks and were allowed to proceed to the root cellar. Tyler was not so lucky. He sees men at the kitchen table playing cards. One man holds the deadman's hand.

Deadman's Hand -- Aces and Eights

Unfortunately, his face was also missing. Sanity check for Tyler. Again he missed it. Tyler is seriously starting to lose it. He smells something cooking and looks on the stove. Guess what's in the pot. The man's face. Sanity check. He has only a few sanity points left. He looks up. The ceiling fan is spinning. It gets faster and faster until it chops his head off...well, he thinks it does. It's all just a hallucination, right? Well, Tyler won't find out for quite sometime. He sits out the rest of the game, blubbering away, not knowing if he's alive or dead.

Meanwhile, the thugs battle ghosts upstairs and Hanover, Toledo, and Voodoo battle the priest causing all the trouble in the basement.  Funny thing, I don't remember much about the specifics of the battle. The thing we thought had tentacles, but then it's Lovecraft, so that's to be expected. And, of course, we won the fight. Otherwise, the characters would not have lived on to go on more adventures and eventually spark the idea of a book series. But that's a story for later. For now, I'll leave you with a quote from H.P. Lovecraft:

It was from the artists and poets that the pertinent answers came, and I know that panic would have broken loose had they been able to compare notes.

Stop Motion Animation Book Trailers

Earlier we blogged about creating some stop motion animations. We have created two more since that time. Both feature a character from Dime Store Novel named Whiskey Joe. The first was a screen test that shows him playing harmonica and dancing a bit of a riff. It's very short, but it will give you an idea of what how he can move.



The second tells a little love story that may or may not appear in one of the future Dime Store Novels. This animation is a little longer and uses a mix of Claymation and paper animation. It was really a challenge to work with the scale of the characters.



We had so much fun creating these animations that we have decided to create some book trailers using Whiskey Joe as the spokesperson for the series. Look for the first one sometime this summer.