I’ve managed to update the blog’s layout with the new template designer.
This is a bit more what I had in mind originally, although the initial concept for the background was mist. However, I’ve got used to the deep blue and would probably keep this palette now even if I figured out how to do my own CSS.
Or so it would seem.
I’m rooting through my newsfeeds, at quarter to one in the morning (I don’t approve of my life much either) and find these:
Steve Pink To Direct Werewolves of Reseda: “Hangover meets… Teen Wolf?”
David Hayter to Direct Wolves.
No offence to Steve Pink, but comparisons to Teen Wolf are aiming pretty high. Still, Solid Snake is getting in on the action, too, with his Ron Spencer artwork.
Werewolves generally get a short order in films because they’re a lot more expensive to show than their undead buddies: the vampire, zombie and mummy. Over the last ten years, I can think of about half a dozen films with werewolves in them (Ginger Snaps, Dog Soldiers, Underworld I-III, Van Helsing and The Wolfman.) And the main draw in four of them is Kate Beckinsale. Consider how many vampire films have been made in the same time (two Blades, the Underworld series again, sequels to The Lost Boys, Twilight et al.) and those are just the ones that form part of a series!
I guess I just wanted to say I’m not jumping on any bandwagons here. I’ve got posts going back to January and this was all meant to be up and running for 2007 anyway.
My dude was a werewolf before it was cool. And he’s been to quiz night again…
I have to admit, Speed was a proficient and original thriller back in the day.
But it’s relevant now because next sub plot of Teratogenesis involves a pub quiz. This is the point where we take our protagonist out of his isolation and see how he fares with other people. This means we’ll be seeing an entirely different type of drama over the coming weeks.
Also, this is the first GLOSSOLALIA post to feature tags. I’ve considered using them for awhile, so this is very much an experiment to see whether they are worth it. I’ll be going back over previous posts and inserting them along the way.
And since Spring has finally sprung, I’ll be changing the theme of Teratogenesis, too. It’s seasonal, by the way.
Today, we come close to the end of the first cycle of Teratogenesis and I finally use “the W-word.”
I’ve mentioned before that Teratogenesis has been moving forward at a predetermined pace, and I don’t think it’s much of a giveaway now to say that it is a lunar cycle that is driving the story. Essentially, each entry was chosen at a random point between one day and just over a week. Where it fell on the lunar cycle determined the content of the post; and the events are occurring continuously, just because there has been no post, doesn’t mean nothing has happened!
Werewolf.
There I’ve said it, and I’ve finally said it in Teratogenesis, too. There have been some fairly obvious hints along the way, the dream being the most explicit, but I’ve deliberately avoided the use of that word. I almost used it last week when the dream subplot reached it’s climax, but left it conspicuously absent. Even now, given the context in which it’s used, there is still an element of doubt…
Almost half of you are reading this on a Macintosh.
As many of you are using Firefox as you are Internet Explorer. Two of you are using Chrome and Opera.
Almost half of everyone, perhaps the same half as are using a Mac, came from the excellent Confessions of a Reluctant Lodger, and some of you have come through The Guardian, some of you through Facebook (yes, that’s actually me.) Two people have come through my good friend Aaron’s blog. Ta.
How do I know this? Voodoo.
Well, perhaps not actual voodoo, but it’s the next best thing. It’s Google Analytics. I’m really surprised how much detail it returns, not that it identifies individual people (which brings me to the next issue) but it does everything else.
So that next issue: Thank you. Thanks for everyone who has visited, thanks for everyone who’s read anything I’ve written. I don’t know who you are specifically, but I want to thank you for taking the time to visit.
So, from Salford to Singapore, Sweden to South Africa and to the visitor from the lovely Raleigh, NC who only got excluded from that because I couldn’t think of two more opposite places than Salford and Singapore, thank you for visiting, you’re always welcome here.
I mentioned in the last post, that I’m having trouble generating traffic for both this blog and Teratogenesis. Generally, I’m using word of mouth / Facebook and linking back to this blog on every profile I have. But it just isn’t enough.
I’m considering other forms of promotion, but I’m having to weigh the outlay such an effort would require compared to it’s reach. So far, Teratogenesis is a pure profit project, there are no costs to consider and I’d like to keep it that way.
The first reason is, obviously, financial; it is much more likely to generate a profit without being hampered by the cost of marketing. Secondly, I like the idea of creating something out of virtually nothing. The only revenue stream from Teratogenesis are the links to the MP3s, I didn’t want to put ads on to a page and risk the audience’s suspension of disbelief (although there is something of a disclaimer in there so people don’t panic about… But I go too far, too soon.) Thirdly, I appreciate that it is not Twilight and is unlikely to have a broad audience.
I’m not especially interested in making money out of this. I’d like to, and I don’t intend to hamstring myself, but I want my writing to have value in and of itself; it has to stand on it’s own value first and any commercial concerns come far down on this list.
But currently, there is little in the way of an audience, and this is particularly demoralising. Still, I’m not writing for you, I do this for myself because I have to. Writing is something I’ve always done, apart from in the darkest days of my life, and something I always will do. The trick is going to be reaching the people who will enjoy my writing. And it’s proving elusive.
The second month of Teratogenesis is over and the plot is finally moving forward. It should be fairly apparent what the situation is by now, but it will get considerably clearer over the next few months.
Other little details are beginning to appear too, shedding light on our unreliable narrator. It’s been interesting to develop so deliberately vague a character. He hasn’t revealed his name, his age, background or profession, although clues are emerging.
It’s quite intriguing to work on as, although each entry is only around 500 words, it is a long form piece so I can slow down the pacing I would normally use for a short story. There isn’t the need to get the big reveal in before the conclusion, I can build and foreshadow a little more in each chapter. But there is the constraint of only putting up one screen of text… To spare your eyes.
It should be obvious by now that there is a pattern and what is causing it. What shouldn’t be obvious yet is what is actually happening to our protagonist…
I always like to open with a Lovecraft reference.
But the reason I’ve picked this particular quote is that could aptly describe what is happening on The Xaeromancer Project.
Between Teratogenesis and the search for paying work, I’ve not had the opportunity to post anything new on there. The effort of driving traffic both to this blog and Teratogenesis has been a lot more complicated than I thought. Suffice to say, I now know more about RSS and optimization and what not than I did last year.
So, given that The Xaeromancer Project “can eternal lie,” it will just have to take a bit of a back seat for a few “stranger aeons.” I do have plans for it:
Well, the first month of Teratogenesis is all up and this means we are one thirteenth of the way through what will be a year long project.
Yes, I know. I’m not over Christmas yet either.
“One thirteenth.” That’s a bit deliberately mysterious, isn’t it?
So far, not much has happened but given that the story is resolving in real time, it’s to be expected.
The original idea was to write something character driven and this eventually developed into little windows into a parallel world. There was then another two attempts at plotting the year through first a 2008 diary and then a 2009, before I gave up and used a spreadsheet.
I’ll make another blog entry at the end of phase 2, where I’ll explain a little about what is driving the story and why the form is important.
Today marks the start of my first major project of the new year, indeed, new decade.
Not only will the Xaeromancer Project page be regularly updated throughout the year, but I have embarked on an interesting long term project.
Teratogenesis is a web log written in character and will describe the life of its protagonist over the course of a year. Without giving too much away, the main theme of the piece will be of a sense of dread that manages to pervade every aspect of the narrator’s life. It will elapse in “real time” over the course of the year, starting today.
You can find it here: T E R A T O G E N E S I S
Be sure to subscribe to both the Teratogenesis RSS feed and the Glossalia RSS to stay up to date, as Teratogenesis will update according to its own “in-world” schedule and this blog will update as and when new content goes up.