Randal with one L

I read a lot of LitRPG fiction. I find it entertaining to see how a writer might justify things like leveling up, finding powerful gear, or using a skill as opposed to being skilled. The genre is young, but one thing I think it is missing is to flip the script. What if a more traditional attempt at fiction was really just the narrative of a bunch of people sitting around a kitchen table playing a pen and paper RPG.

You might say hey that sounds a lot like Critical Role and you wouldn’t be far from the truth. But instead of writing fiction from a tabletop game, I thought it would be fun to write the tabletop game from the fiction.

Thus was born a little side project, At the Kitchen Table, which I will occasionally add a new chapter to when writers block prevents me from writing other things.

Warning: The people presented in these stories are real, but the events are not. All of the victims have given their permission. The vernacular and foibles of these people might be a little insensitive since it is set in 1995 and stars a bunch of high school guys sitting around a table. You have been warned!

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/28486/side-stories-from-a-dyson-sphere/chapter/426210/at-the-kitchen-table-january-1995

If you folks like it, leave me a note and maybe I’ll do another chapter.

So quite a bit of news this week, and the promised bonus from last week’s post.

First off the Kindle price for Etiquette of Aeons has been reduced to $0.99 on Amazon, and the book is now available on Kindle Unlimited!

I would like to thank everyone who has purchased the book to date, I really do appreciate your support and belief in me.

In other news, I have sent off the first nine-plus chapters of the EoA sequel for a developmental edit, and a whole bunch of old content that may or may not get rewritten is also off for review. Within a couple of weeks I should have a much better idea of how much more needs to be written. As should be unsurprising at this point, I have blown past my previous self-imposed October/November deadline, but I do promise I will publish the sequel when “It’s Done”.

As many of you already know I am an avid fan and player of the Magic: The Gathering card game. This led to one of our local Austin podcasts asking if I wanted to pitch my book on one of their broadcasts as their featured local artist of the week. Never one to turn down an offered soapbox I gladly agreed. Imagine to my surprise what was meant to be a five minute blurb turned into a full forty-five minute discussion on the book as well as a deep-dive into one of my favorite decks. The podcast should be available within the next few days here:
https://soundcloud.com/sfpmtg

I would like to thank Morgan Booksh for the invite to talk about Etiquette of Aeons and MTG, and I look forward to future deep-dives into weird and fun decks.

I would also like to thank Commander Social, another local Austin MTG podcast, for a shoutout on a recent live stream. Thank you Zack and Ryan, and I apologize for that brutal Blast Zone that was inflicted upon Zack. Check out Commander Social here:
https://www.facebook.com/commandersocial/

Lastly I will be posting a side story, more of a “What If…” companion to the first two chapters of Etiquette of Aeons. I will be publishing this and other side stories like it, on RoyalRoad.com, an excellent online publishing platform for people who love Science-Fiction and LitRPG. As soon as the it goes live there I will post the link!

So, it has been a few months since I last made a blog posting, and I figured everyone deserves an update.

Book Two is still in the works, some significant rewriting was needed from the earliest manuscripts. That combined with several AAA video games I have been waiting on for ages and things are not yet in any form that could be considered publishable.

I am sorry that I missed the October deadline I set for myself earlier this year. It is going to be a bit longer of a wait, but the next book will be better because of it.

Now for a promise. I wrote a short little side story that somewhat involves Etiquette of Aeons. I will give it a few more proof reads and post it on the blog next week.

Lastly a challenge! Give me a chapter by chapter soundtrack for Etiquette of Aeons, or even an generic one that you would want to listen to that would enhance the novel.

Go!

It just occurred to me:

In the TV Movie “The Day of the Doctor” the 10th Doctor marries Queen Elizabeth the First.

Then in “The Crown”, the 11th Doctor marries Queen Elizabeth the Second.

MIND BLOWN!

I promised last week to give an update on the status of the sequel to Etiquette of Aeons and so here we go.

First, I need to give some back story on how I got to this point. Originally EoA was just the first part of a much longer narrative. Clocking in at well over a hundred and fifty thousand words it was something of a mess and overly long. After a few of my beta readers commented on the length and lack of character development I went back and rewrote the first part with added content. The chapters Juxtaposition, Inner Space, Fragments, and Utopia came from that rewrite. As I think those are the best chapters of the book I’m happy things turned out the way they did.

This left me with almost a hundred thousand words of written material that did not make EoA. Now this is some rough material that doesn’t always connect well with the rewrites in the first novel so it is not as simple as just cleaning it up and sending it to the editor.

It is requiring me to do a complete rewrite with the need to write some new content as well. The story is shifting a little, but my hope is that I can keep it under a hundred thousand words by the time I am done.

I have the first six chapters through rewrite and am working through the rest, but it is slow going as I do have a day job. My target is to have the major writing done by the end of August and have editing done by mid-October. If all goes well that will put the release for the sequel sometime toward the end of October or early November. I may not head this self-imposed deadline, but I will make every effort to get it out by then.

There is the update! Now for news!

I will have more physical copies in early next week. If anyone missed out at RTX or wanted me to sign one and send it then send me a message.

Signed copies will be $15 each including shipping.

Lastly, as a reward for reading all of this I would like a few volunteers who have read EoA to beta read the next book to let me know what is working and what is not. Reply to the post and I will get in touch with you. I only need a few, so please do not be offended if you do not get selected.

RTX is over and I think I may have recovered.

As a new author and almost completely unknown I had no idea what to expect when trying to sell my novel at one of the largest fan conventions in the United States.

What I found was an amazing group of devoted people representing all races, genders, and interests. I was never short of people to talk to or interesting things to see, in fact some of the stuff was beyond fantastical.

For example: On Friday I saw a T-Rex, riding a dragon, while wearing a wedding dress.

I wish I had taken more pictures.

With the help of my wife, Jennifer, and hype-man Zackery Taylor, I managed to sell through the entire box of fifty books. Overall this made a pretty healthy dent into recouping the costs of publishing. The result gives me hope and motivation to do at least one, possibly two, book signings here in Austin as well. I will also look into additional conventions to attend. If anyone has experience with this type of thing, please send me a message.

I will have a post about the status of the sequel later this week, and as always, I need more reviews on Amazon. So if you have read the book please leave me a review. Even if you hated it, the honest feedback will do wonders to ensure future writing improves.

On a final note, it is no secret I love the YouTube channel “How it should have Ended.” I was lucky enough to get to meet the creators at RTX and they awesomely agreed to sing with me! If you don’t get the joke, go check out their channel and it will quickly become apparent.

#RTXAustin
#HISHE

Thanks to the generous donation of booth space by Mothership Books and Games it appears that I will be at RTX this weekend at the Austin Convention Center.

I will be at the Tabletop Booth all day on Friday with books in tow.

If for some miraculous reason I run out of books then here is the link to the Amazon page: Etiquette of Aeons

I will eventually be starting a mailing list once I figure out the technology stuff, and if you would like to be included feel free to shoot me an email at: randal.k.brasher@gmail.com

First a book and now a blog…

What is this world coming if an introvert like myself need express the inner workings of their mind. I have never had much trouble giving my opinion on things and even have somewhat of a reputation for being, as my son put it, a walking Wikipedia.

So here we go, a first blog post. Yay!

I make no promises, at least at this point, to keep this updated beyond information on my books. If something happens to slip into this forum about politics, philosophy, cats, Lego, or gaming then I wish to apologize in advance.

Sometimes we all need a place to vent, and winning arguments on Facebook has started to get old.