Bhagwan @ Large

It has begun…

This morning, my employer En Masse Entertainment announced sign-ups for Beta tests on our new game, TERA. It’s been a crazy, eventful two years of my life to bring the game to this, and I though I might recap some of my online events in a post.

In early 2010, I was engaged as a Story Consultant, and did a lot of quick writing bits in addition to working on plots and questlines. In a way, it was very similar to the work I did on AION, but the “feel” of the work was a lot different for me. I was more involved, more a part of the creative process, and I think it shows in my work. Here’s some short fiction from that period you may enjoy.

Vekas, the Wicked Tree

The High Elves

An Aman Among Men

The next few links relate to an interview my Senior Producer Brian Knox and I did with ZAM, an online games news source. I just found out they’ve named TERA one of the most important games of 2012, and now so can you

Part 1
Part 2

But the interviews didn’t stop there. This next link is to a podcast I did with our lead writer Dave Noonan, and writer Stacey Janssen. Both of them worked on AION in similar capacities, but I have the great privilege to call them both friends and colleagues in other parts of my life. Dave is a fellow Wizards of the Coast/TSR Alumnus, all three of us worked on the Internet Review of Science Fiction, and Stacey (whom we call Frank around the office) is the Managing Editor of Shimmer

Bow Down to US

Another interview, this time with MMORPG.com

Post-PAX Q&A

Next up, more short fiction that landed at MMORPG.com again. I particularly liked this one, but one of the commenters thinks it was translated from Korean. Go Figure.

Dancing with Demons

Hot on the heels of thaat story, another interview, this time with terafans.com

As regards the Mystic

And here’s a piece I wrote with fellow WoTC alum Brian Campbell that took a while to find the right place. As it turns out, its with our freinds at MMORPG.com once more

Gods of TERA

In December of 2010, I transitioned from a full-time writer to my current position as a Game Analyst. Here’s some essays on the game we’ve put up since then

Redefining the party

And just in case you were wondering what it is a Game Analyst does,

Meet the TERA team : Game Testers

So that’s it up through Jan of 2012. I’ll leave this page live so I can update it should more online goodness come out. And remember that link waaay at the top of the page? You should totally click on it.

Out the Door

The biggest, and most effective tool in separating amateur and professional writers is the submissions process. Historically, it involved typing (or causing to be typed) query letters, manuscripts, securing postage for both legs of the trip, and then months of waiting for hypothetical response most likely to be a rejection letter.

I have done all these things. I have agonized over novel summaries, outlines, formatting, postage, and my own quite inadequate handwriting on the envelope itself. I have checked the email every day for a year, waiting to see a letter justifying my efforts.

Tonight, I submitted three short stories within 20 minutes of one another, using exactly the same technology I needed to write them. I researched paying markets, guidelines, did final edits, and then sent my digital children out into the ether in hopes of success. I used previous rejection letters to narrow my attacks on the editors’ sensibilities, and my own opinions on what those pieces were supposed to say, and what they actually convey tot eh hypothetical reader.

In short, I wrote. I haven’t done that in some time, other than quick story treatments and brainstorming. This fall’s convention circuit has re-instilled in me my biggest failing as a writer.

Apathy.

It is so blindingly easy to send work out into the world, there is no excuse for my stable of stories not to be circulating at all times. If they are not being submitted, clearly there is something wrong with either them, or with me.

And I think they’re pretty good.

So tomorrow, I’ll be selecting more homes for more pieces. I’ll be collecting feedback on other stories in preparation for other submissions, and maybe I’ll even dip into the brown notebook for another piece of low-hanging fruit.

Or, and this is crazy talk here, I could continue work on the two novels also not being submitted right now.

Occupying Apathy is not a way to end the tyranny of procrastination. It’s time to move on, move out, and move up in the world.

It’s time to write.