So, the next step in the Snowflake Method is to take each sentence of the plot paragraph, and create a paragraph from that. I didn’t take that literally. The sentences from the plot paragraph are not reused or somehow stretched, rather the plot aspect reflected in the sentence is revealed in more detail. I don’t know if this is what the Method intends, but it seemed logical to me.

So my extended plot synopsis looks like this:

Becca Kim, a special warfare operator with NATO’s Advanced Tactics Action Company, coaxes Alex Scott, ex-black ops agent and now part of the secretive Drift cadre, to join her in finding Boyle, Scott’s friend and her mentor. Boyle has been linked to the death of a mysterious operative known only as the Bedouin. Kim and Scott encounter the siblings Jack and Sarah, who are also seeking Boyle, but who are secretly planning to kill him in retaliation for the murder of the Bedouin. After a close call with a black ops hunter team, Kim realizes that word is out that she has gone rogue, and worse, that she is connected with TANGLIBLE STREAM and the murder of the Bedouin.

Finding Boyle, the team learns that TANGIBLE STREAM is black ops team to eliminate paranormal threats. Unfortunately, Boyle’s team uncovered an attempt to start a hot war between Western and Chinese intelligence agencies, possibly to remove their paranormal assets. Now Kim’s team has been targeted as part of the TANGIBLE STREAM “conspiracy,” and may have a kill order. But Boyle has leads and connections that lead the team to the eastern European nation of Turveria.

Preparing to enter Turveria, the team is intercepted by a special operations group led by agents out of the CIA’s ESPer unit, Narcissus. Kim and Boyle’s information persuades Narcissus to rethink their information on TANGIBLE STREAM. An attack by an assassination team leads the Narcissus team to join with Kim’s team in an assault on the villain’s lair in Turveria.

The Narcissus parapsyche is able to cover the action of the team, and Kim and her comrades secretly infiltrate Turveria and are able to locate the ultimate villain. Known only as St. Martin, he is a parapsyche of remarkable power, supported by the dictator of Turveria. The team is able to eliminate St. Martin’s threat–leaving him apparently braindead . . . apparently. On the verge of being captured by the Turverian army, the team is rescued by an unexpected ally, and an international incident is avoided.

Also, as this reveals, there is a character that hasn’t been outlined yet, and that’s Boyle. He’s important to the plot, so I figured I better get that done too.

The character’s name: Boyle

Summary of the character’s storyline: Caught in the middle of a conspiracy to eradicate the intelligence community’s paranormal assets, Boyle finds himself blamed for the death of the shadowy figure known as the Bedouin, and he must find the real murderer to clear his name.

The character’s motivation: Believing that he has failed his TANGIBLE STREAM unit, Boyle needs to protect his team from what he sees as the consequences of his actions.

The character’s goal: Boyle must find the real murderer of the Bedouin and gain evidence in order to clear himself of the charge.

The character’s conflict: Boyle is being hunted by agents of t he real murderer as well as elements of the intelligence community intent on sanctioning him, permanently.

The character’s epiphany: Boyle realizes that while threats may be posed on a government level, it tends to boil down to a person with an agenda, and to understand the actors is to understand the situation.

Contacting Becca Kim, Boyle is able to connect with her team and reveal that he has uncovered a conspiracy to heat up the cold war between the Western and Chinese intelligence communities. This puts Kim and her team in danger. He brings them into his confidence, and with their help, tracks the parapsyche threat to Turveria.

I’ve mentioned before that finding a plot is never a problem for me, only putting it into practice. Here’s an example.

I was watching a special on James Brown, and there was some comment on the traumas of his early life. It made me wonder about extraordinary people, and how trauma may drive them to achieve. My greatest fear is the loss of my daughter. From this, I wondered about a man of great potential who wastes that potential until he loses his daughter.

From that came an idea about a run-of-the-mill sorcerer who could be supreme, but only the motivation to find his lost daughter provides the discipline to learn how to master his gifts.

I had the idea that it would be in a faux-Roman setting around the fall of the Republic. This is likely predicated (as were my Brude and Drust short stories) on the series Rome from HBO. At first, I toyed with the idea of setting it in an Oriental setting, but what actually drew me off from that was the names. I don’t like most fantasy names, and using Chinese or Korean names would be as alien. Roman names are different, but there is a connection with most North American readers that make them more familiar.

By this time, I was on my way home. I had a 6 hour drive, so lots of time to think about the setting in between conversations with my wife and providing entertainment for my daughter. This was the time when the setting became much more fully fleshed out. It was during the drive that I decided to go with a Roman rather than Oriental setting.

I considered setting the story in our world, but slightly altered. I was considering having it set in the 10th century, but with an existent Eastern and Western Empires–Rome and Byzantium still under the pretence of being one Empire but with two competing Emperors. I was going to remove both Christianity and Islam, making the competing religions based on mystery cults, like the the Mithras cult and the cult of Isis. As usual, my desire to render historical details accurately made that a daunting task, so I decided to use a false Rome and Byzantium.

The Brude and Drust short stories are set in the Aeolean Empire, and I thought of reusing that. The major problem would be the levels of magic–the Aeolean Empire has magic, but it is subtle and much less prevalent than I envisioned for this new story.

I already had another short story and a novel outline for a further faux-Roman story (maybe I need to examine my fondness for faux-Rome as a setting), centred on a female centurion and a mad Emperor’s quest for the secret to eternal life. I decided that this would work in that setting as well. While the female centurion idea was Roman Empire by way of Mali, I wanted this one to be much closer to the actual Rome.

That led to an amalgam of the female centurion’s setting and a new one. This Empire was based on Alba Longa, the Etruscan city founded by Julus, a son of Aeneas, rather than Rome. I had discovered Alba Longa and Julus earlier while doing unrelated research, and it fit rather nicely into this.

From the Oriental setting, I kept an idea regarding a group of master wizards who acted as the legates of the emperor. These are the Celestial Generals, and each is based on one of the 12 zodiac animals, except the Dragon, which is embodied in the Imperator (the emperor of Alba). These Celestial Generals have access to the Dragon’s Breath (a nod to Excalibur there) through the Imperator, and this sets them above any other wizard.

I decided on the name of Lucius Agrippa for my protagonist. Lucius comes from Lucius Vorenus on HBO’s Rome, and Agrippa was Caesar Augustus’ great general and friend (who also appears in Rome). Lucius was a magus with exceptional raw talent but no training or control. The death of his wife and loss of his daughter drove him to become The Hound, one of the 11 Celestial Generals.

The plot would be around Lucius finally unravelling the death of his wife and the disappearance of his daughter. It is seen through the eyes of the female centurion–”Grief”–and her legionnaires, all identified by nicknames such as Quill, Scab, and Bleeder. Lucius will find a way to circumvent the Imperator and directly access the Dragon’s Breath, leading to a showdown with the individual responsible for Lucius’ trauma–an individual being protected by the Imperator.

I had thought the first chapter would recount Lucius’ discovery of the tragedy. I then realized that wouldn’t work. It would have ended up as two, maybe three chapters to tell as I envisioned it. I realized that’s not where the story begins, it begins when Lucius puts his machinations in motion, when he is finally certain the Imperator lied to him about his wife and daughter. That’s where the story starts, so that’s where the novel needs to start. The background would be dispersed through the story in small bites, discovered as the point-of-view characters discover it–those being primarily Grief and Quill.

A lot of the thinking was about the setting, because the plot pretty much came to me in about an hour. The character’s name took some time to decide upon, but the character himself–his trauma and what it has led to–came almost fully formed to mind. Now I don’t have a full fledged outline, but I have a strong set of ideas and a general direction in mind. It wouldn’t take long to flesh out.

The writing of it, though, there’s the rub!

Anyone willing to give me an advance to get this thing on paper?

Via a press release from www.goldtheseries.com:

Just in time for the holiday break, Episode 1: When a Star Falls is live at www.goldtheseries.com:

It’s just over five weeks until the World Goblins & Gold Championship. Two years have passed since the Prologue, and the American team has won two more Silver medals under Jonathan’s leadership. This year, however, Jon, nursing an injury gained during the semi-finals, clashes with his wife and his agent as he learns a piece of devastating news. Meanwhile, Richard exercises his newfound power, and the rest of the American team must scramble to adjust to new leadership.

Episode 1 is available at www.goldtheseries.com in Standard Definition (default), High Definition, and in downloadable format, suitable for use with iPods, iPhones, etc. You can also subscribe to the GOLD episodes in Apple’s iTunes store by searching for GOLD the Series in the iTunes store or by clicking on the “Subscribe in iTunes” button at www.goldtheseries.com.

This past month has been wonderful for us here at GOLD. We’ve gotten so many positive reviews and comments about the Prologue, it has been a little bit overwhelming. We want to thank everyone who watched the Prologue, and who said such amazing things about us. We’re extremely grateful for your support and kind words. A few highlights we wanna share:

“It’s like…a really geeky version of ‘The Office’.” (Escapist Forum Comment)

“This is one of the best pieces of subtle comedy I’ve seen on the web.” (Escapist Forum Comment)

“Over all there’s an impressively (dare I say it) Altman-esque atmosphere of casual and fresh conversation. And it works…” (Tilzy.TV)

“…the characters are endearing and genuine…” (Tubefilter)

“The dialog, production values and acting are all top-notch…” (Escapist Magazine)

As always, you can watch and re-watch GOLD to your heart’s content (we encourage it), share it with friends, and generally go wild with it. If you’ve got a blog, feel free to embed the video on your site, too. Share the shiny elvish love.

That’s all for now. Keep checking goldtheseries.com for news and updates, and visit our friends and sponsors who have links and ads on our site. And, thanks for supporting GOLD.

I’ll bet a lot of you, like me, enjoyed the old Green Hornet TV series. I’ve been excited about the possibility of a big screen incarnation, especially when I heard that Stephen Chow was attached, not just to play Kato, but to direct.

That ain’t happenin’.

Mr. Chow is still going to play the part of Kato, and this will likely mean the character of Kato will overshadow the lead, much as it did in the TV series. I wonder about the “creative differences” cited. It couldn’t be too bad if he is still interested in starring in the vehicle.

I do kind of wonder at Seth Rogan as the Green Hornet, but Michael Keaton did Batman, so I’ll withhold judgement.

Now, who’s going to step up to the plate and give us a Green Hornet we can love?

Thanks to Accidental Rob for pointing to this. And now I am F#%KING PUMPED for this movie. Hurry the f#$k up with this!

myspace.com/x-menorigins

Is there anyone as yet unaware that the Terminator: Salvation trailer is up? No? Okay, just checking.

I remember loving Terminator when I saw it on video. I was immediately hooked. I became a John Cameron junkie, watching everything he put out . . . until Titanic. In any case, I saw Terminator 2: Judgement Day in the theatre, twice. Terminator 3? Didn’t bother. And no one can blame that one on Mr. Cameron. I saw the tail end of the movie on TV when I was in Korea this year, and apparently I wasn’t missing out on anything. The TV show (Sarah Connor Chronicles)? We don’t have cable or rabbit ears or anything, so if it ain’t on DVD or Hulu, I haven’t seen it. And even if we had a TV, I wasn’t all aquiver to watch it.

But this trailer, this is something I wish I could see in the theatre. Maybe I can get my cousin in to help my wife for a day and I can sneak off to see this. Yes, based on the trailer, I am already making my plans to check this out.

Absolutely. Aquiver.

Clive Own in a new action movie? Count me in. It’s got Naomi Watts, which–while perhaps not in the Monica Bellucci category, oh Monica–is definitely an asset. It’s from the director of Run Lola, Run–a good sign–but the writer doesn’t have any credits I can find. That doesn’t mean anything, but knowing previous work can at least manage expectations.

This looks like it could be good. Granted, I don’t see movies in the theatre since my daughter’s birth, but I’ll be waiting with bated breath for the DVDs.

From IMDB: “In The International, an edge-of-your-seat action thriller, Interpol Agent Louis Salinger (Clive Owen) and Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Eleanor Whitman (Naomi Watts) are determined to bring to justice one of the world’s most powerful banks. Uncovering illegal activities including money laundering, arms trading, and the destabilization of governments, Salinger and Whitman’s investigation takes them from Berlin to Milan to New York and to Istanbul. Finding themselves in a high-stakes chase across the globe, their relentless tenacity puts their own lives at risk as the bank will stop at nothing – even murder – to continue financing terror and war.”

Seems that ABC is bringing the comics Fables to TV. Fables is a DC comic about which I have heard (via the Monarch Comics Briefing) many cool things, but is not one I follow. Of course, I follow so few comics right now, that’s not surprising.

It’s actually interesting how many comics have become TV programs. I mean other than the “big names” (of which now only Smallville really remains, but I remember Lois and Clark, the Flash, Birds of Prey, among others) there have been attempts at more “indie” titles like Witchblade and Painkiller Jane.

Given the success comic book movies have had, it only makes sense TV gets in on the trend. Further, with the success of Heroes, it seems like a no-brainer that TV execs will start looking for the next big thing.

We shall see.

From CCP and EVE Online:

Greetings from CCP.

Every year we are amazed at the experience of Fanfest. For our staff, it is a cathartic chance to meet face-to-face in with fans in celebration of a shared love, EVE Online.

This year proved no different. Hundreds of fans traveled to Reykjavik, Iceland for the 5th Annual Party At the Top of the World.

Here’s a quick rundown of major announcements made at Fanfest 2008.

–In defiance of our traditional Winter/Summer expansion schedule, we announced the acceleration of our production schedule to bring the next major expansion to you on March 10th. A few hints at its contents were made including wormholes, exploration, modular ships, epic mission arcs, a new focus on the new player experience and Tech 3 items.
–We announced a distribution deal with Atari (yes, that Atari!) to bring the next major expansion to retail stores in a boxed form in early March. The CEO of Atari, David Gardner, provided a special address to attendees about the deal. This is big news for a 5 year-strong MMO which has grown to these heights over time using just digital distribution.

We also provided a full, hands-on demo of a “vertical slice” of our Walking in Stations project, where pilots can leave their
spaceships and interact as full-bodied avatars in stations. A few parts of the planned design were revealed, including a fully-playable mini-game and the experience of walking around in the captain’s quarters, the promenade and a bar.

As fans of our fans, EVE developers let go a bit and presaged the future of EVE during major talks like the “World Domination” Keynote as well as intimate conversations with individual players throughout the show.

While Fanfest was a huge success, it wasn’t the only November News.

I’ve already told you all a fair amount about our ninth free expansion, EVE Online: Quantum Rise, which went live on the 11th. Server and hardware changes with StacklessIO and EVE64 have pushed us into unbelievable single-system battles (of over 800 players) and almost completely killed latency issues in all major market hubs.

The Council Of Stellar Management held their second elections and the results are in.  Check out the second iteration of EVE’s democratically-elected player council here: myeve.eve-online.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid=606 ( http://myeve.eve-online.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid=606 )

Other important assets to explore:

–Videos from Fanfest allow you to live it vicariously through EVE TV’s eyes.  They are housed here: myeve.eve-online.com/download/videos/?type=7 ( http://myeve.eve-online.com/download/videos/?type=7%3c/li )
–The Quantum Rise teaser and trailer videos are here: myeve.eve-online.com/download/videos/?type=2 ( http://myeve.eve-online.com/download/videos/?type=2%3c/li )
–Finally, for all other EVE Online assets, our Electronic Press Kit houses more screenshots (for Walking in Stations), more videos (including a short informative video about our partnership with Microsoft) and more information than you can possibly imagine.  Ask me for access to this always-up-to-date asset for the press.

How many of you out there fondly remember the “Witch Mountain” series of movies from Disney? Well, they’re coming back, and frankly the trailer looks pretty interesting. I doubt I’ll go and see this, but if my daughter and daughter-to-be were teens, I’d likely be looking forward to taking them.

It’s got the Rock/Dwayne Johnson in it, which I consider a good thing. I consider him watchable, even in sub-par offerings, and I enjoyed him in the Scorpion King.

You can see the trailer on YouTube and there is, of course, an official site.