These questions came from [link] who will put them up on her blog sometime next week.

Q 1) What is the title of your book?

Lowther and Deardon: Tainted Gold

Q 2) What genre(s) does your book fall under (or land near really!)  

Swords and sorcery, with a bit of hard boiled street crime thrown in, and near the end some Mission: Impossible style trickery.

Q 3) What actors would you choose to play the characters in the film version of your book (should you ever, ever get that honour really)  

Hmmm.  Tough one.  I'm not that big on Hollywood.  Maybe Clancy Brown for Lowther?  Deardon could be some moderately funny comic actor.  Tasha could be played by the person who gave me these questions, haha!  Xarius....again, tough one.  That redhead guy from CSI Miami, maybe, if he grew his hair out.  Kusari....maybe Yee Jee Tso.  No idea on the various baddies.

Q 4) What is the main outline for your book? (Alexandria calls it a pitch as a synopsis includes spoilers and I hate spoilers!)  

From the book's own sale page (buy it!) [link]  : The city of Lanteius is divided between three rival nations. A grim mercenary and a cynical bard are thrust into an investigation to uncover a conspiracy that threatens the balance of power. Swords and sorcery, magic and crime, intrigue and betrayal.

Q 5) Will your book be Indie published, self published or represented by an agency and sold to a traditional publisher?  

It's being sold by online publisher lulu.com

Q 6) How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?  

The first draft?  Four to five months between me and my co-writer Dan Jordan.  Rewrites took longer; reformatting it for Lulu was a real hurdle.  Were it not for that last, it might have been out months earlier.  But I also wouldn't have tweaked it as much.  So it's a trade off.

Q 7) What other books in this genre would you compare yours to?

The collected short stories of Hawke and Fisher come close, with a a dash of Conan the Barbarian.

Q 8) Who or what inspired you to write this book?

We heard about the kid who wrote Eragon, and how it got turned into a movie.  Basically, we said "Why not us?"

Q 9) What else about the book might pique the readers attention?

The cynical cleverness, the references, the Mission: Impossible style trickery near the end of the book, the epilogues that help flesh out the world and hint at the next book!



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By [link]

"Hey -- back in Port Angeles til tomorrow, so I thought I'd shoot you off an email about the book.

Very enjoyable! Loved the world you created -- and the appendix was fascinating reading. Which, I believe, I've never before said about a book I've read. Usually, I barely skim them, but this one sucked me in. Great detail, and well thought through.

The political/social structure in the story gave it fascinating depth. And I suspect, when Jatina reads it, she's going to enjoy that the most.  That's what always makes or breaks a book for Jatina.

The last chapter was perfect. Short, but perfectly so. I do hope you plan another book in the series -- you can't stop after that!

I also want to say that one of the things I liked best was how much it felt like I'd fallen into a Baldur's Gate world. That might sound strange, but it's true. The atmosphere left me melancholy for the game. Now I must find my disks and try to install it on the new machine.

Anyway, you have a least one guaranteed sale in your pocket already for book two. So write on!"

Remember, you can buy the book at: [link]



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Lowther and Deardon: Tainted Gold
by Jay McIntyre and Dan Jordan
[link]

Go buy it!!



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Well, there are a number of reasons I haven't but I am now VERY close to getting the novel done, and might be working on something else too (grins at a certain other dA person who shall remain nameless).  Wish me luck.

I haven't given up, especially on Terra (I will always wubs Terra) but actual work in the real world that might get published comes first.



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A rather amusing webcomic about supervillainy.  I've written fanfic pieces for it twice, which you can find in my journal.  The webcomic itself is here: [link]



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I have just closed the door on my last ex.  Email blocked, dA blocked, Twitter blocked.  

I should've have done it before.  I should have done it after I met her in the flesh.  I never should have dated her in the first place.

She was the last.

There will not be another.

And that is for the best.

[link]

I could say a whole lot of other things here, but I won't.  It's done.



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I'm a third party guy, and the guy I voted for got more votes than anybody thought he would, certainly more than I thought he would.  If anybody really cares/wants to know, I'll pass on the details.  But that is not the point of this.

Rather.....let's say you're a big Vegas odds maker.  I mean, you've got a rep for making successful predictions, right?  That's how you make your money, or at least part of your money.  And during the summer, you make 3 predictions about the election.  Let's say.....you predict who Romney's running mate will be, you predict that Eric Holder will be fired as a result of the "Fast and Furious" scandal before the summer is over, and you predict the results of the election itself.

Now let's say....you bombed all 3 of those predictions.  And as a result, one of the people who followed your predictions points this out to you.  Now they don't say "you suck" or that "You should stop predicting".  Rather they say, "Maybe. just maybe, you need to take a step back and re-analyze your skills as an oddsmaker.  Somewhere along the line, your lost your way."

If that happens?  You don't bite that person's head off.

Just sayin.



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Here we go again.  Don't think we're gonna be as lucky as we were with Irene last year.  Power/internet may be out for a couple days.





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From the smallest theoretical particle to the Universe itself.....


[link]



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PLEASE READ, THIS IS IMPORTANT!

Rumor has it there's a hacker on dA, hacking people and blocking our friends to make them block us! You'll then be banned from dA.

Write the same warning in your journal to protect not only yourself but everyone! Here's another warning: If I'm being a jerk, saying stuff like "Shut up," "Get lost", or "I don't want to see you on my page anymore", that's not really me. That's the hacker.

Write all of this down in your journal too!

Please do this, it's for the safety of everyone!

Forward this message before someone gets hurt!



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'I can't imagine that if there was anybody of even average intelligence at DC, that they wouldn't have ever wanted to bring out a load of substandard prequels and sequels. But, I think that they were probably having enormous pressure placed upon them by Warner Bros. to produce something. When I originally said that I would not be giving my permission to a raft of prequels, DC immediately announced that they were going to do an exciting relaunch to all of their classic characters--which, I suppose, was their "plan B." They were being pressured, presumably by Warner Bros., to produce something to justify their existence. The Watchmen thing didn't look like it was going to work, so they attempted to do something radical and new with their existing characters--like, change their costumes a little bit and start all the numbering from one. I guess that "plan B" can't have worked out that well--or at least, not as well as they were hoping. So, it's back--reluctantly, I suspect--to "plan A."'

Whole interview here: [link] much thanks to



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....besides journal rants.  Yeah.

The main reason is I'm writing non-dA things.  Some are fanfics for other sites, some are for actual print zines, and one is a collaborative attempt at an actual novel.  I do mean to write more stuff here....eventually.

But my Dragon Age and Mass Effect fics are unfortunate casualties.  I will still do Terra stuff--I'll always do Terra stuff--but if you were watching me for my Dragon Age and/or Mass Effect works, that's pretty much toast.  

So what will I be doing here, as time allows?  Well Terra, obviously.  Almost definitely some Doctor Who and Star Wars stuff; as with Terra, adjusting the continuity of each to suit myself.  I also eventually wanna do another fic featuring Lilly, who is not my character, but whose continuing video adventures continue here: [link] YouTube's new layout sucks!!!)

Anyway, I would like to say I'll get something posted here before year's end, but I can't promise that.

So who all is still watching me, anyhow?



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As usual others say it better than I:

[link]

and

[link]

and

[link]



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Recently had a poll about the DC reboot, and a lively debate went along with it.  Here, has, in their own blog, shown better than anyone else has yet what exactly is wrong with the reboot.  The commentary on continuity is particularly inspiring; but the view on what has been done to some of the female Titans is also very relevant.

[link]



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Let's review, shall we? I've gotten along this long without a cell phone because of the expense, and because I don't need one. On your advice, I am getting one that is pay per use. I agreed to do this. I just said it would take a little while.

Because I was not specifically ready when you got back from the shore, you get all whiny and hang up on me. Even though I assured you I would do it, just not yet.

So today you leave a message on my answering machine snidely suggesting that maybe "I'll have it by Christmas."

You know what I want for Christmas, dad?

It isn't money. It isn't a cell phone, it isn't a gift of any tangible nature. It's one of two things.

One, for you to be a man, a father worth mentioning by that title.

Or failing that, Two: FOR YOU TO SHUT THE HELL UP.



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At the time I was living in Montgomery county, which is the northeastern neighbor to Chester county, where I live now. I was working two different jobs in the nearest mall. I bicycled up the hill to work, and at an intersection, the van next to me had their windows down, and I heard radio chatter about "a plane hitting a tower." I assumed that there had been an accident at an airport, with a plane hitting a tower or something like that.

So I get to the first job, a video arcade (remember them? God I feel old) and opened up. My first customer of the day told me about the attacks, and my reaction was "WHAT?!?"

Most of the morning was spent listening to the radio about the attacks. In the afternoon I went to my second job, a pharmacy/convenience store, and the mall was closing down around us. The boss was shouting down the phone to the corporate HQ in Rhode Island that the mall was closing and there were no customers. It took him about 20 minutes to convince them to let us go. Clueless idiots.

This being Pennsylvania, there was a lot of coverage of Flight 93's heroic sacrifice, and there was some speculation at the time that the plane was meant to hit Three Mile Island, a nuclear plant.

When I got home, there were lots of emails from a list I was on then, everybody checking in. "Oh my god, what happened to so and so?" that sort of thing. I still have most of them.

---

I don't have money to spare these days. But when I did, I gave to the flight 93 memorial.

---

Beyond the above, I'm not going to comment on the hows or whys or whats of that day, let alone the political arguments.  Instead, I'll talk about the passing of time.  Of how it has become history, for good or ill.

About the fact that, for anyone who was too young to understand when it happened, to the people born on that day or after, that it will never have the same impact as it did for those of us who experienced it.  It will just be another thing in the history books, or perhaps the historical websites and downloads.  

Ten years since then.  Sometimes it seems like a lifetime.  Sometimes it seems like forever ago.  Other times that world, that pre 9/11 world, is so close I can touch it. A world forever lost.

The world keeps moving on.  Keeps on turning....and I grow old.



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The outer bands of rain have arrived here in Pennsylvania; we're almost certain to lose power.  Wish me luck, and see you on the other side.  Gulp.



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Here's part of why.

[link]

Don't be fooled by the "reboot".  They're still butchering characters.  The reboot itself was a form of butchering, and it won't stop there.  Once the dust settles, the rot will set in again.  The people in charge before the reboot are still in charge after the reboot.

Don't be fooled.



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Arresting people....for making links?!??

[link]



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The awesome blog of

is here!  [link]



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