The Story of Writing a Storybook will be a very long running feature in which I tell you about the writing of my Storybook. I intend for this to be a large book, so this will run for quite some time. I shall post how ideas came to my head, my search for publishing whenever that comes to pass, my intentions for the storybook, as well as the occasional tidbit from the book itself. Enjoy!

Hello! And welcome to the first edition of The Story of Writing a Storybook. In this edition I shall explain how this idea came about, and the general direction I am going with the book. At the end, I will even share (an incredibly rough, as well as short) tidbit of my first story, Tulbuk.

I shall start by telling you how this idea came about. I was sitting around one day (as I commonly do), thinking about how much I absolutely adored being told stories as a child, and how much I loved the idea of a father sitting around, telling his son or daughter an epic tale from a long gone Kingdom. I realized, however, like my father, not everyone has the mind for coming up with a story on the spot for their son or daughter.

My intention, then, was to make a book for my son or daughter (whenever I may have one in the distant future) that is full of epic adventures of an old, fantasy Kingdom, and the stories of how this magical, and sometimes brutal land came about. The more I thought about it, the more I realized, I’d love to share my stories when they’re all finished, so now it’s evolved into more of a public venture, rather than a personal endevour.

However, my whole intention with this is still to give this book someday to my child, so that they may give the book to their child, and so on, so that they may envision a magical adventure throughout the ages, one that is not the typical Cinderella or the Black and White Knight affair. While great stories, they feel a bit played out to me.

I intend on making this a true book, not just a small picture book for children, but rather, a book for adults to read to their children. Of course, there will still be some pictures, but for the most part, I would like children to use their imaginations, something that seems to be disappearing more and more quickly these days. It eventually should be 300-700 pages (depending on how much I wish to put in it/if I wish to make volumes), and (I hope) to cost around 20-30 dollars, yet be durable enough to have forever.

Now, many things I wish to hold close to my chest, as I want this to book to feel ‘magical’ to everyone that gets their hands on it whenever that should be (quite some time from now), but I will share a few bulletin points with you all.

-Cost 20-30 dollars, durable, can last for multiple generations.

-Will be the story of a Kingdom, from the beginning of time, to a magic infused Industrial Revolution.

-Will be told from the perspective of multiple characters, but primarily being told from a generic storybook point of view.

-Will have something called ‘The Three Epics’, three tales of powerful characters throughout the lands history.

-Will be for children ages 0-12 (and beyond, hopefully, as I intend to not make it exclusively childish), with the age range going up and the pictures going down as the land ages.

-Will have a guide for parents for what age range is appropriate based on the different Ages throughout the lands history (which will each have a unique name, from Creation to Industrial and everywhere in between).

And that, is all I am willing to share at this point in time ;) Expect for it to take quite some time to write, and don’t expect regular updates for quite some time. This is more an early preview for the future of my obscure life.

Now, I’d like to share the first, rough draft bit of my first story: The story of creation, and Tolbuk (name currently being juggled between Tulbuk, Tallbuk, and many others). The lonely Elk/sun who is desperate for the perfect friend. Enjoy!

“Before there was Earth beneath your feet, and air before your eyes, and water in the skies, lakes and oceans,  there was Tolbuk. Tolbuk sat in emptiness, learning from the stars. He studied them for all his years, looking at the many fine lights that inhabited the Universe. However, Tolbuk grew lonely, as unlike all the lights in the sky, he had no one to be friends with. For many years, he drifted in darkness, looking for a friend of his own, someone to be a companion with.”

All works within here are the sole work of Space Wolf: A Legacy, and should not be considered the work of any other parties nor should any other party be responsible for it’s content. I do not authorize anyone to duplicate, copy, rework, steal, share (except when linked to this particular blog and no other), or make their own in any way, shape or form under any circumstances, ever. In short, it’s mine! Hands off! :)

Minecraft: A Legacy will be a periodic piece I do about the now so famous Minecraft. It is based around my world, ‘The Beast’, which is named after my main castle. It shall chronicle the events of the land, and the main things I am building at that time. I primarily play on peaceful, as I am a builder at heart, so expect mostly chronicles of exploration and building. Enjoy!

May 26th, 2011: A Legacy

Today, I took a break from the Witcher 2 to play a bit of Minecraft. Now, this was originally just to check up on my world that I have so neglected over the past month or so. However, once I delved in, like always I got hooked. The sadness I had over abandoning Witcher 2 dissipated quite quickly after I began to mine my quarry.

My quarry started as me wanting to clear out some sand as the area was quite… ugly, in the middle of my beautiful snow/temperate biome mix. However, once I started digging, I found that I had a good basis to begin some mass mining. It’s been good to me, as most of what I build is with cobblestone, so I’ve been able to build massive structures while enjoying the company of my beautiful quarry, which now has a glass top so I can quickly convert it into a grand hall for a fortress eventually. Today, I built a pyramid on top of it with some sort of invisible sun dial, which I’m quite proud of. Over time, I’ll share pictures with you all, whoever that may be.

The other side, on the snow biome, there is the ‘Kingdom’ or ‘building’ area. This is where my castle, ‘The Beast’, was and is being built. This area also holds my church, which is just there to replicate a medieval Kingdom feel, and is the first of the permanent structures there. They both have towers, about the same height, with The Beast’s tower having flaming Netherack on the top to give it an ominous glow. You enter The Beast through an Iron Door, which leads to a windy hallway. Past this hallway is the Grand Hall, which I’m still attempting to figure out how to build a table that would be fitting of a King. It will come to me eventually. In this Grand Hall are two fire places to your left and right as you enter, as well as a grand emblem in the floor. There are also some pictures, and 3 doors leading to the other parts of the castle.

The door on the right wall leads to my quarters, or bedroom. These quarters hold a double bed, a fireplace, a work station, a beautiful carpet, and a few gigantic pictures. If you were to go straight when in the Grand Hall, and take the door on the right, you would enter the Study, Library, or Lounge, any of these names will do. There is a custom couch there, lovely carpeted floors, a few paintings, a few book shelves, and a door. This room is significantly shorter than the rest of the castle, but it is intended, as it is meant to feel more cozy. The door I spoke of in the study is one of two metal doors that lead to the tower. This tower I already spoke of earlier, so I will merely tell you that it has stairs leading to the top, 1x2 windows, and has a hole to the basement.

This basement holds a few things, probably more in the future. For one, it holds an obsidian mine, which is done through putting lava into a 1x8x1 hole, and having a whole helluvalot of water in another 2x8x40 hole. You take a bucket of water from one hole, throw it on the lava, and bam, Obsidian. This Obsidian will be used for a bunker later on, but before that, it was used to make my Nether Portal. My Nether Portal requires do as such to get to: Enter the castle through an Iron Door, enter the tower through an Iron Door in the Grand Hall, go down a ladder to the Obsidian mine, go down another Ladder to what will some day be an Obsidian prison and bunker, go behind the ladder, into a hallway, through another Iron Door, down a ladder, and there you are. Excessive? Sure. Fun to get to? Absolutely. Of course, now that this is public knowledge, I feel as if it suddenly was a moot point. Hm… Ah well.

Now, separating the Kingdom and the Quarry, is a giant wall. This wall is incomplete, and not nearly as tall as I wish it to be, nor as long. It will some day divide the continent in two. Until then, it is about 25 blocks tall, and covers about 1/4th of a continent. At what is currently the end of the wall, is an encasing, which I call ‘The Temple of 1,000 Lights’. In reality, there are about 40, but ‘The Temple of About 40 Lights’ is much, much less appealing from a fantasy standpoint. Much better from a comedic standpoint, I will admit, but I digress. This hall, and one that I shall make identical of it, will be the only way to pass the wall when all is said and done. My nickname for it is ‘The Customs Office’.

In it is an imaginary store that you hand in your previous goods, and accept the goods of your new land, whether that is the Quarry, or, the Kingdom. The store is on the Quarry side, and is in the smaller of the two tunnels leading in. The other tunnel is much longer, and much wider, and leads to the Kingdom. It is meant to be a much more grand experience, as the Kingdom is where you go for luxury, and to fight, where as the Quarry is where you go to work. There is, of course, The Temple, which has an open top with lights leading towards the opening in the roof. There is no exit into the courtyard outside, and is meant to be a very linear, controlled experience.

Well, today wasn’t much about my experience playing the game lately, but more of a lead up to what I have done in the past. Expect a more details on my building process, as well as images of my land on the next Minecraft: A Legacy. Until then… Enjoy!

What I’m Playing will be a periodically posted feature about the games I’m playing this day, week, month or other period of time. I may give a bit of insight in a game I enjoyed, promote a game that is less than well known, or talk about a game that is so bad, it’s worth talking about. Enjoy!

Today, I’m playing Witcher 2. This is among the most addictive RPGs I’ve played in a long while, and to me, is what Dragon Age 2 should have been if they wanted to go down the action RPG road. I’m still on Chapter 1, but this is because there is so much to do in even this small little section of the game. I may write a review or a play by play about it later, but for now, I just wanted to share how dammed addicting this game is.

I also just got done marathoning Terraria, which is another game that I can’t give enough praise to. The community seems to be a bit younger and more… Pathetic, I think the right word is, than that of Minecraft, but as an RPG, it blows Minecraft out of the water. The worlds are, however, far too small, and the loot tables not large enough to provide a consistent RPG experience, and the building not entertaining enough to provide a rival to Minecraft, so it does seem to hit its fun ceiling a bit earlier than that of something like Minecraft. If you go into it as an RPG experience rather than a rival to Minecraft, it has incredible replay value. Enough about that though, game has had enough publicity lately online.

Now, I also purchased Sanctum, Section 8: Prejudice, Depths of Peril and Drakensang: River of Time, so expect me to talk about that after I am done running in circles and gawking at the beauty of Witcher 2 in a few months.

So, that’s what I’m playing today. See you next time!

In this post, I shall describe to you all what it is I, and by extension, you, are doing here. I don’t expect much from this, beyond being able to record my mostly useless thoughts, and update people on my attempt to get a life: I will fail at this goal, but I shall update on the latest attempts and eventual failures as they come and very quickly go. Now, without further ado, I will give a more than likely horribly formatted list of topics that I shall talk about regularly, and then, a bit about me personally at the end. Enjoy! Oh, and these aren’t in any particular order, but if it came to my head first, assume that it is more important to me, as things escape from my skull on a fairly regular basis.

Interests and Subjects

-Video games. More specifically, role-playing games, space simulators, strategy games, and games that involve monotonous tasks for days on end. Also, the occasional third person shooter, but that can many times fall under role-playing game in my eyes.

-Writing. Now, I understand that primarily this whole ‘blog thingy’ is based around writing, but I shall update folks on my attempt to write a story book/fantasy book I have been working on. It is not very good, but I may share some tidbits here and there.

-3D Modelling. I’ve been working on this a bit lately, and have only discovered the joys of it recently, so do not expect anything spectacular. However, I hope to share my progression here, although I am quite fickle so large projects will not be common.

-Online interactions. This is a bit hard to explain, but I’ll attempt. I intend to share a bit of the comedic arguments, discussions, and general tomfoolery many of my online friends and I have with each other. It will make sense when you see it, I suppose. I will be changing names, just so my anonymity remains intact for as long as humanly possible.

-Other hobbies and interests. This includes computer building, books I am reading (or attempting to read), my dog, electronics of all sorts, traveling, as well as the occasional tidbit about politics, history, music, and things that make me feel all warm and fuzzy. I reserve the right to talk about anything though, so don’t be surprised when I start talking about leg hair or the noise trees make in the middle of March or some such madness.

Now that is all over, I shall share with you a small bit about myself. I’d like you all to learn about me as we go, but I’ll give you a basis. I am male, if that was not evident, I live in New England, but tend to use some spelling and language from Old England. I have not yet figured out why I do this, but I hope you all forgive me when I do use such classy words as ‘daft’ or brilliant spellings like ‘colour’. I am not working currently, which means I have a lot of time to do worthless endeavors like play a ton of games, write useless tidbits, and generally be worthless to society as a whole. I can be a bit rough on myself, but it’s all in good fun most of the time. That sounded dirty, I now realize, but it is not what I intended at all, I promise you. I also am not the greatest speller. I tend to make stupid mistakes, either from tiredness or just plain stupidity. I was home schooled, and was allowed a pretty loose chain as far as what I had to study, so I tended to drift more towards history, rather than spelling and math and the like. Everything has spell check luckily, so I shouldn’t make too many mistakes, but if that sort of thing annoys you, you have been warned.

Now, I’d like to say one last thing about myself: I am a fairly typical lad. Most of what I say will be regurgitated trash that you have heard before, and very awful, poorly executed humour that you probably will not enjoy in the least. I will attempt to hide this as best I can, but it may prove difficult, as blogs truly do bring out the most obnoxious, self centered behaviour in all of us. For that, I truly hope you all understand, and enjoy the parts that are hopefully entertaining, or very rarely insightful.

Now, I hope you all enjoy what I have to talk about, and if I can figure out how to allow comments, I will. If not, well… Enjoy reading in silence. Good day to you all!