Goldkin's Journal: Musings of the Shiny Lizard

Originally published at AesTerra. You can comment here or there.

It’s infrequent that I write long posts. After all, I’ve been captured by that Twitter thing.

However, due to a certain event occurring every November, I find myself waxing long past eloquence. Damn you, Chris Baty!

Indeed, this post has less to do with objects of the citrus persuasion (though there are certainly a few in it!), and more about my NaNoWriMo buffer. Latifolia optional.


So, what have I been writing about?

• A few short stories regarding magic and computer science, especially where the two cross. While this may only appeal to the nerds among us, imagine a world where the Internet as we know it never came about by conventional means. Instead, it was discovered that particles could be manipulated at a basic level with enough directed thought and applied phlebotinum. Soon, it was discovered that these actions could be automated and magically constructed, completely rewriting the fundamental laws of computation.
  
  It seemed like a good idea at the time.


• Stories of virtual reality, building upon my extensive experience with Second Life (I refuse to indicate that with a trademark). Virtual reality has the ability to show us our best and worst traits as we cast ourselves through the looking glass. Indeed, this has already borne itself out in shared simulations like SL, which form the bulk of my reference material.


• Because there must always be dragons, I’ve started a fantasy epic that relates loosely to Baxil’s own TTU mythos. This quickly gave way to a spec for mixing virtual reality with avatars that aren’t necessarily human, and ways to implement magic in such a way that others can freely build upon it without delving into the technical details.
  
  Werewolves hurling fireballs as Clinton cracks down on therian policy, all in a neat little MMO shared reality? You’d better believe it.


• Interactive fiction. It is my sworn duty as a game developer to write IF. It’s also lots of fun.


• And of course, lots and lots (and lots) of notes on how I intend to employ myself again.* It’s cheating, but I feel it’s warranted as I try to make quota. Everybody’s doing it!

As with every NaNo sprint I attempt, my writing is less about completing a novel in a month and more about writing speculative fiction.

Does any of this seem interesting to you?

—
* At the time of this writing, I’m between interviews at Microsoft and Google. I’m also in the midst of a temporary move to the Pacific Northwest that I intend to make permanent. All this, and I’m writing 50,000 words in a month.

I never said I was sane. You’re just jealous the voices speak to me and not you.