Edgewhen

I'm Jason. I write the Edgewhen series of fantasy adventure novels as Jason A. Holt. I'll be posting cover art, weird stuff I learn during research, and snippets from stuff I'm working on. Avatar by Vladimír Satran. Dragon-cloud background by Kristina Gehrmann.

[maulthots]

I let out a very soft gasp

[somewhatstacey]

#‘its experiences’ did you mean: #poe dameron awake at 4AM singing BB-8 songs he makes up as he goes #poe dameron running back into a firefight to save a disabled BB-8 from certain destruction (sustaining a shoulder wound) #poe dameron speaking in binary even though BB-8 tells him he sounds absurdly stupid #poe dameron sewing a little hole into all his tents so that BB-8 can charge next to him while he sleeps even when they’re on recon missions #poe dameron referring to BB-8 as ‘my friend’ and making sure his programming equips him to fully understand what that means #poe dameron always asking BB-8 to do what he needs instead of ordering it #poe dameron rewriting the astromech default programming that would force BB-8 to call him master #poe dameron rebuilding BB-8 by hand himself whenever BB-8 gets damaged #and keeping his hard drive and his audio sensors live so he can reassure BB-8 as he goes that it’s all going fine #IS THAT WHAT YOU MEANT BY ‘EXPERIENCES' #DID YOU MEAN ‘POE DAMERON' #because that’s what BB-8 would mean #‘strong loyalty subprogram’ is one way to put it #‘loves poe dameron right back’ is another (via @gyzym )

HOW VERY DARE

[hungrylikethewolfie]

It strikes me, thinking about this, that self-preservation protocols strong enough to make a droid “skittish and easily frightened” are not exactly the most sensible things to program if the droid is being used in large part to help fly a rebel fighter plane.  Surely, when selecting a droid for this purpose, you’d want one a bit more unflappable, a bit more willing to face danger.  Which leads me to believe that there are only two really reasonable conclusions.  Either:

a) Poe loved and believed in this round little droid so much that he ignored all of the above, secure in his faith that BB-8 would rise to the occasion; or

b) he was the one who added those self-preservation protocols to a standard model, because he didn’t want BB-8 getting hurt if he wasn’t around.

[alwaysaprille]

This actually reads as if BB-8 has developed humanoid feelings. I.E., a human will avoid doing dangerous things as a matter of self-preservation, but if someone they love is in danger or needs assistance a human will try to help their loved one by any means necessary, in spite of the fear. 

So basically BB-8 is hardwired to protect itself but will willingly put itself in danger for Poe because he loves him. 

I love this. 

[edgewhen]

About 30 years ago, I read how they were hooking up an artificial intelligence to a drone to see if it could learn to fly combat missions. They sent it out on its first mission and fed it data that simulated enemy fighters. The drone calculated it could get hurt doing this and it returned to base.

[edgewhen]

New covers are live!

https://www.amazon.com/Edgewhen-5-Book-Series/dp/B07BFBDRYR/

Thanks to James at GoOnWrite.com for the cover upgrades and to Kristina Gehrmann at kristinagehrmann.com for the illustrations.

[edgewhen]

New covers coming soon!

Illustration by Kristina Gehrmann at KristinaGehrmann.com.

Cover design by James at GoOnWrite.com.

[seananmcguire]

So I've been writing a novel I really adore, and someone told me that it reminded them a lot of Every Heart a Doorway, which at the time I was not aware of (I still haven't read it because free time is a lie, but I read Indexing and haven't shut up about it since), and now I suppose I'm having a crisis about accidentally plagarizing someone else's concept. Do you have any advice?

You can’t copyright an idea.

A boy with messy black hair and glasses discovers that magic is real and also owls like him.  Is his name Harry or Tim?

You can’t copyright an idea.

A boy climbs over a wall a girl rides away on the wind a boy plays the wrong board game is his name Elliot or Tristan, is her name September or Dorothy, is his name Barney or Alan?

You can’t copyright an idea.

You can get close enough that people will accuse you of stealing elements of your work: that can’t be helped.  But Anne Rice doesn’t own vampires, Michael Crichton doesn’t own dinosaurs, J.K. Rowling doesn’t own wizards, and I don’t own portals to other worlds.  I promise.

[edgewhen]

This happens to me when I'm reading Patty Briggs. "Man, I totally stole that idea from Patty." Except, my book was in print before I read her book, so I didn't really steal it from her at all.

Whenever I worry about what people are going to think, I just remind myself that all the good ideas were thought up by Homer. That doesn't stop anyone else from writing, so I don't let it stop me.

[edgewhen]

When I'm not writing novels, I work in the board game industry. Here's an article on one of the first rulebooks I ever translated:

The Trucker's Guide to the Galaxy on BoardGameGeek

[thehardkandy]

*yelling into the abyss*

It’s already late but I want to finish this book but I had to restart my computer because it was doing the dumb thing where it get no sound when I plug my headphones in and now windows wants to update

[edgewhen]

1. Right click on the little speaker icon in the task bar.

2. Select "Playback Devices".

3. You get a window called "Sound". The rest of these steps are in that window.

4. Right click on the speakers, which Windows thinks are getting all the sound.

5. Select "Disable".

6. Check headphones. Sound should be in them now.

7. Right click on speakers again and select "Enable".

8. AAAAH My disabled speakers disappeared. I can't do step seven. I'm doomed!!!!

9. Sorry. Right click on empty space where the speakers used to be. Select "Show Disabled Devices". Now do step seven.

...

But yelling into the abyss is also appropriate.

[sapphoesie]

Writing Tip

because I see this everywhere and most people don’t know about it. The hyphen(-), the en-dash(–) and the em-dash(—) are three completely different things with completely different uses. If you write fanfiction, it’s likely that your readers won’t care, but if you want to submit a manuscript for publishing, you need to know the difference. 

The hyphen (-) is the basic symbol you find on your keyboard, and it’s meant to only be used for hyphenated words (well-being, two-thirds). 

The en-dash (–) is a slightly longer dash. It’s usually the width of an uppercase N, hence the name. You can find it by looking through the ‘insert symbol’ option in MS word or many word processors, and it is meant to be used to show a particular distance, or for intervals (May–August, 1900–1916, pages 12–22)

The em-dash (—) is what people most commonly use, but they refer to it as a hyphen. It’s the longest dash, about the size of an uppercase letter M, and you can either find it through the list of symbols in your word processor, or some word processors actually automatically transform two hyphens (–) into an em-dash  (—). It is meant to be used as a break in the sentence, in a place where a comma, semicolon or colon would normally be used or as a break in dialogue. (Her niece—the daughter of her oldest sister—is the one over there.) 

*All three types of dashes are normally meant to be used without any spaces on either side of the dash. 

[edgewhen]

We're still at the stage where most editors expect a double-hyphen in a manuscript, and some will specify it, so always check the guidelines.

The distinction between en-dash and em-dash is typographical, not grammatical, by which I mean it's something a typesetter should care about very much, but a fiction writer just has a dash and it's up to the typesetter to implement it.

I use an em-dash with no spaces in a printed book (which is Chicago style) but for an ebook, I use an en-dash with spaces (which is AP style). The reason is that some ereaders and browsers will interpret "word—word" as one long word. They won't break the line in the middle of it, and then the text ends up looking stupid. The spaces make "word – word" easier for the machine to typeset. Also, the en-dash looks better in a narrow column (it doesn't stick out too much) which is probably why newspapers implemented their dashes that way.

Even so, all of the original post is good advice.

[trash-bandico]

So I DMed  for the first time.

Everyone got to fight a giant cupcake spider in a castle run be a cursed David Bowie.

[edgewhen]

This seems like a reasonable premise for an adventure.

[kingofattolia]

sleep scale

12+ hours: hell yes. decadence has a name and it is ME. the dream. im marrying  my bed you’re invited to the wedding. i might feel groggy and angry for the rest of the day when i actually do get up but WORTH IT. 

12+ hours (ALTERNATE): i am deeply clinically depressed and approximately three (3) inches from death at any given moment

11-10 hours: ideal. im functioning at perfect 100% capacity my body and mind are a well oiled machine. im ready to knock out all my errands and chores in under an hour, work a full day and then study that language im trying to learn

9 hours: good! i could have slept longer, but getting up was no great horrifying trauma either

8-7 hours: the “””””medically recommended amount””””” for adults, but in reality more like a “fine, i GUESS” amount. normal mild levels of angst at having to get out of bed

6 hours: silent unceasing internal groaning for at least the first hour after waking. dont expect any kind of quality conversation for the first 2 or so hours. ive got a Less Than Medically Recommended Amount Of Sleep, that means im a martyr right???

5 hours: pretty unpleasant. feels gross. expect a moderate crash during the late afternoon. this is the first number that is considered worthy of entry in a college student sleep-measuring contest. altho if you try to enter with 5 hrs dead-eyed hordes will instantly materialize from the bushes and one-up you “5 hours??? HAHA SWEET SUMMER CHILD. I HAVENT SLEPT IN 3 YEARS”

4 hours: a Very Poor Decision. deep seated, incoherent rage upon waking that persists up to several hours. consume large amounts of your stimulant of choice, but you’ll still feel like a cave troll. constant aftertaste of chemicals and regret

3 hours: half awake half walking in some astral plane haunted by the wails of the newly-dead. children and animals fear the emptiness in your vacant eyes. a very respectable entry to any sleep-measuring contest. you’ll still get beaten by the “2 hour” and “all nighter” people, but everyone knows this is Bad

2 hours: you can get up, but only by rending your soul from your physical body in a paroxysm of agony, since it will refuse to leave the bed. you are now soulless and will feel absolutely zero emotion until sometime in the late afternoon/early evening when your soul returns and ALL the emotions will hit at once, leaving you alternately sobbing or creepily hyena laughing

1 hour: you fool. you imbecile. your hubris and weakness has brought you to this point. they are coming. you cannot escape. why didnt you just stay awake. why didnt you just pull the all-nighter. the strength of your no-sleep headache threatens to stab through your skull like an ice pick. all you can taste is blood. they are comi

0 hours: THIS ACTUALLY ISNT AS BAD. HAHA I’M NOT EVEN THAT TIRED! WATCH ME DOWN 15 MOUNTAIN DEWS IN 15 MINUTES. I CAN FEEL MY HEART BEATING IN MY EARS ISNT THAT WEIRD. WHAT DO YOU MEAN MY EYES ARE BLOODSHOT AND I CANT FOCUS, IM COMPLETELY NORMAL RIGHT NOW. GUYS I CAN HEAR COLORS.

[strawberry-milktea]

@my–darling–dear

[edgewhen]

So one time I was living near Chicago and planning to fly to Europe in a week. Since I wanted to avoid jet lag on my vacation, I decided to adjust my sleep cycle before I left. Every day I got up an hour earlier and went to bed an hour earlier. I was pretty sure this would work, because it was winter, and even when I went to bed at 5:00, it was already pretty dark.

It was kind of fun getting up at 3:00 am, eating lunch at breakfast time, eating supper at lunch time. It was easy to go to bed as soon as it got dark. BUT I WENT CRAZY!

I didn't realize I was crazy until I was in the bookstore and a woman made eye contact with me, became very alarmed, and pulled her child away from the path of my zombie-like steps. I decided that going crazy before my vacation probably wasn't a good idea, and I went back to a normal sleep cycle.

[psliterary-deactivated20190419]

[thebookishdragon]

“The first draft is as bad as the book is ever going to be.”

[tavrosian-disaster]

Anyone else ever get that writer feel when you are SUPER into writing something and then you either hit a scene or character where you have NO IDEA what to write and you end up losing ALL INTEREST in even touching that story for MONTHS?

[edgewhen]

The times when I'm SUPER into writing something are very rare. If they come, it's usually after I've been writing for a while. When I hit a scene that I can't figure out how to write, I write [some scene introducing Cousin Myrtle should go here] and then continue on to the good parts.

[probablybadrpgideas]

When making your Mutants and Masterminds characters, spend your 150 points on 150 incredibly specific immunities (Horseshoe crabs, dubstep, one specific hammer, attacks preceded by “you overcooked my salmon”, the Probably Bad RPG Idea admins…)

[edgewhen]

whelk bites, meatless Mondays, pastrami sandwiches that "smell a little off", ...

[edgewhen]

It's an ebook!

[yourplayersaidwhat]

“You dodge the apocalyptic explosion.”

[edgewhen]

Nice roll. Keep that die.

[edgewhen]

At one point when I was reading this to my kids, the eight-year-old asked, "Is that really in Galaxy Trucker, or did you make that up?" I tried to explain to him that everything I made up is now really in Galaxy Trucker.

I don't think he quite believes that his daddy can write canon.

[edgewhen]

My first role-playing game.

The photo is for my interview at Wes Platt's Join The Saga: Otherview.

[edgewhen]

When that guy said a pun is the lowest form of wit, was that because they hadn't invented fart jokes yet?