For those of you not paying attention, I just placed a poll on the Battle King's page, feedback will help greatly!  For those of you who WERE paying attention, THANK YOU for the feedback on the Phoenix King!  Wow, so far, the Phoenix King is a bit of a hit (in this wonderful little fantasy world).  A little feedback goes a long way in the development of the next kings, and the first expansion of Battle Kings.  However, as the title of this post suggests, there has been a change to the King of Clubs.  Upon extensive review and evaluation, the King of Clubs' Always in Effect ability has been slightly adjusted and now reads as follows: +1 to Shield per domino on this card. Gain an additional +1 if the domino is a spell. This means that the King of Clubs will gain +2 to his shield value per double domino on his banner card, and +1 for every other domino.  This seemingly minor adjustment (is there such a thing in Battle Kings?) effectively strengthens the King of Clubs beyond a 1-on-1 match with the King of Diamonds, which, since Clubs is destined to go last in every game, added up to a necessary and fair modifier.  Fans of Diamonds (wow there are a lot of you), and of course Hearts and Spades, don't fret too much... there are, after-all, only seven spells in the Bonejar, and no king can begin the game with a spell on their banner card.

For those of you who don't understand a thing I said after the word "follows", you should probably go check out the Battle Kings page and get a glimpse of what you're missing!  

Oh, just one more thing.  The next king going up (for FREE) is called the Cobra King...  Let your imaginations run wild and remember...

HAVE FUN!

~AJ

School has begun again; to some, (parents) it is often a time to enjoy a little quiet time.  For others, it is a time to run all over the place trying to keep up with the extra curricular activities.  Me, I like to sit back and reminisce about my childhood days and wonder how I made it through in one piece.  Sometimes I spent more energy trying to get out of work so I could go outside and play than I would have, had I just done the work.  Looking forward to the weekends and dreading Sunday nights became an ingrained emotional part of existence.  I would stay up as late as I could on Friday nights (often playing AD&D in my brothers room with so many friends the Fire Marshall would have fainted), and then wake up as early as I could on Saturday mornings to watch Voltron, GI Joe, and Transformers before my dad woke up and flipped it to wrestling or those black and white Shirley Temple movies.  If it rained during the summer on Saturday (which happened frequently in Largo, Florida's hurricane seasons), my brother, my sister (and sometimes one or both of my parents) and I would sit down and play a tabletop (board) game together.  I learned to play poker, Parcheesi, Sorry, Monopoly, Life, Chutes and Ladders... man, you name it, we played it at one point or another.  Are those days gone now?  Do people still have marathon game-playing weekends over long, holiday weekends?  Do parents and children still sit down to play games and interact with each other using nothing but their imaginations and some game rules/pieces to entertain, engage and enjoy each other?  Well, the game industry is HUGE nowadays, so the answer must be a resounding YES... right?   In my search to be "discovered" as a game designer, I have learned that the industry is very difficult to break into, more difficult than say... publishing a book even.   So, someone has to be playing those games, right?  I haven't decided yet if the boom is good or bad.  On one level, game sales are at an all time high.  But who plays them?  Many game stores have long tables set up for people to come in and play, and spend, and play some more.  This is great for business, but... has it become a competitive sport?  The Trading Card Game (TCG: think Magic: The Gathering) genre has huge tournaments for rewards (money, prestige, etc.) and game stores set up artist signings, conventions and events where people of similar interests can gather together.  Ignoring the fear of shooting myself in the foot here... I suppose my big question is this.  Are the parents and siblings still growing tighter as a family over game nights and/or rainy days?  I hope so.  Those big conventions are fun.  Sometimes they can be a little overwhelming.  Perhaps you're okay with waiting in line for anywhere from a few hours to a few days, and it is worth it to you, but I hope the days of family time aren't lost.  When was the last time you played a game with your kids/friends/parents/brothers/sisters?  Do YOU have a game you can break out and play by candlelight when the power goes out?

Let the writing begin.  Recently I have begun re-attacking several projects that have been on the burner for far too long.  Book two to the Racial War Saga is back in the light as well as the expansion for Battle Kings.  Additionally, I have begun formulating new works, such as my little sci-fi dip into a potential energy source for future generations - I am a generator mechanic after all and my life revolved around power production for twenty years in the service - so, if you want a quick read, head over to my new Hubpage and leave a comment to let me know what you think.  With that being said, I'm also working on a new style of writing while working on a little story I have called "Interview with Traveler".  Very little description, mostly dialogue.  This is something totally new for me, but I've discovered that as I flex my little writing muscles, I enjoy doing things... differently (than what I'm accustomed to)... as you'll see in the Hubpage as well.  At any rate, I'm still trying to decide if I should go ahead and post what I have thus far for the Traveler story, so if you're interested in a dialogue-focused sci-fi-esque story, let me know, i'll post what I have for free and you can check it out.  Always remember... HAVE FUN!

Do you have an idea for writing a short story, novel, poem or play?  Whenever I meet someone new, and they find out that I wrote a book, the first thing they say is invariably "I have this great idea for a book", or "I have a million dollar idea, if only someone would make it", or "I always wanted to write a book".  

I have a few knee-jerk responses that I give when people ask how to do it and the answer is: Work it.  Don't keep WANTING to write it, sit down and write it.  The first version is going to suck, just know that, be comfortable with that and then re-attack it, rewrite it, revise it, perfect it.  Mold your baby so that you're happy with it.  I made a mistake with the first book, one that I'm still struggling with, and that is that it wasn't the perfect creation, it wasn't exactly what I wanted.  I'm happy with it, I'm proud of it, but it isn't perfect.  Other authors tell me not to worry about it, people always screw up their first one, and eventually, after say 3 or 4 books, they go back and fix the first one.  This conundrum has been twisting around in my head since the first review of Awakenings, and has truly seized my hands.  I wrote most of the sequel to Awakenings shortly after, even during the publishing process of Awakenings, but locked up when the reviews came back less than stellar.  I self-published Awakenings through Authorhouse in 2009, and I will be re-publishing it through Fantastic Journeys Publishing when I finish perfecting it.  This could take another year, or it could take three months.  The trick is MAKING the time to just sit down, and WORK IT.

In the spirit of giving (it is August afterall...), I've uploaded two pdf files to a new little area I call the "Hidden Works" page.  Before you click the link though, you should be made aware that these are unfinished products (though they're close).  The first is a short story titled tMail.  Its a little sci-fi number with my own spin on zombies, time traveling emails and a surprise little twist at the end.  The second is titled 3 Chains and contains the instructions for a neat little print and play game I am currently designing.  3 Chains allows players to return to Awakenings and play as one of six characters from Awakenings.  Trapped in a temporal distortion, they struggle to gain control of the 3 Chains of Gold and ascend into the heavens.  3 Chains is currently in the play testing portion of production, so like everything in the Hidden Works page, it could change. 

Enjoy!

~AJ O'Connell