Writing blog now set up

I have created a writing blog for information or discussion about my book “Warrior”. Here is a link to TheWarChronicles.wordpress.com.

Warrior now available on Amazon.com

My first fantasy novel, “Warrior: The War Chronicles: Book I” is now on Amazon.com. Here is the blurb I wrote to describe the book:

The Testing Time has arrived. The world is falling into darkness. Lirak, a young forest-dwelling stone-chipper has become a pawn in the eternal battle of the Gods. Born of an outsider mother, feared by superstitious villagers, distrusted and resented by his own brother, Lirak must fight back an invading army while learning how to control the destructive powers that boil inside him. Lirak’s path from simple stone-age villager to heroic warrior is only the first part of a much longer and more dangerous journey.

And here’s the final cover and map:

Happy New Year!

I don’t know what this new year will bring. Laid off and trying to start a new career as a writer might mean more or less for this blog. Hard to say. One thing is for certain, I’ll be busy.

Second dice tray

So I gave the first dice tray I made to Waddling Dragon who sometimes comments here, and is the GM of one of my currently active games. I already had planned to make a second, and I don’t need two… Plus I want to see if I can make making these easier and more consistent. Here’s the second result:

I think I like the first one better in just the warmth of the wood and the red seems more “casinoesque”. But I am pleased with this one for the most part. It was easier to make the second one, I wasted less materials and time. I also used actual wood stain, but I think I’ll go with a lighter stain if I make more of these. In terms of use, it seems a bit “cleaner” than the first one. I have a lot fewer touch-ups to try to clean up errors than I did on the first one.

Finished riverboat

Here’s the finished full-size riverboat, with some miniatures on it for scale.

Stained and painted sailing ship

OK, I’m done messing around with this thing. I made a lot of errors in assembling, staining and painting it. I might buy another one to do it right. This only cost $5, so it’s not a big deal. It didn’t come out horrible, but I ruined the sails by not taking them off to stain the ship. Oh well, I tried to make it look like they were soiled and patched, but it is what it is:

Here is how it was before painting/staining:

With miniatures:

Oriental ship

This was a much more involved process than making the other ship. I’m glad I bought the simple ship model to learn how to get these sorts of kits to work without breaking things. It’s actually sort of nerve-wracking making these things. Still, came out OK. Not sure if I’m going to stain and/or paint or not.

Here are the two ships side-by-side:

Sailing Ship with rigging and sails

Yeah, it’s a cheap kit, it listed for $5 as I recall and I had a coupon for a full purchase discount, so it was probably $4 or so. And it came out like this with only half-hearted effort on my part.

Improved cheap dice tray

Here is a slightly improved version of the dice tray. I put some foam underneath the felt, and put felt on the inner sides. That greatly reduces the noise, and makes it look sort of Vegasy. 🙂

Cheap pirate ship

I still have the ropes, sails and beams to put on this thing, but it’s coming along pretty nicely for an investment of around $4. Bought this a Michaels. The kit is normally $5.99 but we used some coupon to get the price even lower. It’s actually pretty easy to put together. I think it would make a decent game aid, but it’s not really designed for game play. The lower decks are not accessible, for one thing. And once the ropes and sails are installed, it probably won’t be playable at all. Still, pretty cool. I might stain it too.