This are the steps to take when writing a fantasy novel. Well the steps I’m taking when writing a fantasy novel. I hope it helps anybody else who wants to give it a shot.

Fantasy Novel Checklist

___ Draw A Map.Include Interesting Places of Note that Could Possibly Be Used in Story

___ Draw Inhabitants Of People or Races on Map

___ Develop Creatures and Eco System for World, Record in World Building Notebook

___ Place Creatures of Importance on Map, Indicate Rest in World Building Notebook

___ Develop Language For Each Race as Needed in Current Book, Record in Culture Notebook

___ Develop Culture For Each Race as Needed in Current Book, Record in Culture Notebook

___ Develop the History of the Interesting Places of Note. Record in World Building Notebook

___ Develop Characters as Needed in Current Book, Record in Character Notebook

___ Develop Plot, Using Ideas From Past Check Points, Record in Plot Notebook and Cards

___ Begin Writing Book

___ Go Back to Any Check Point and Add Details as they are Needed While Writing Book

There is a lot more to each check point. Like in culture, you have to develop home life, community, religion, government. Each one of those will have different things related like architecture, clothing, magic, science, folk lore, music.

Characters are going to have many questions aside from physical attributes and habits. You need to go into past life, future plans, present problems. What do they need now, and how are they getting it. What are the things they have done they don’t want others to know about. How will they react if people do know, etc.

There is a lot to this list, but I break it down in an order that will help me move ahead and get the book finished. I placed it in a certain order for a reason.

I find that if I don’t have a map, I don’t have a place to start. I then find I need to place people on the maps, and creatures and other important places of note. I don’t know anything about the people or the creatures, or the places, but I know I will know when I start researching the languages of the people, and the culture, and developing the ecosystem, and the creatures. I have to do it in order.

Once that is done, I can then go and create characters based on their culture. Once I learn about the people I will then work on my plot. Usually if I’m not sure what I need for a plot, it will start developing as I learn about the characters.

If I have a plot already, I can work the people to fit into it. But usually, so far anyways, the plot comes after I develop the people.

Now you write.

While your writing, you will find there are things you need to know about. So then go back and research it as you write. Don’t try to research everything at once, because half of it you won’t even use. If you try to research everything, you will never get to writing. Just research enough to get the book started. Then research as you need the info.

Hopes this helps.

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Here I am, once again, trying to write.

I always start up, I always quit. I want to really finish this time. I want to enter the published world, and be a writer by profession, and keep up the spirit to do so.

I have big plans. I’m taking the Indie Publishing Route. Many of the big authors have moved this way, despite their large paying contracts from large publishing companies.

Why? Because with the new methods of Print On Demand publishing, and the ebook markets exploding, you can now publish your own work, with little cost. And if you are a really good writer, your work will be read, and you will be rewarded.

Unlike the old Legacy Publishing days- the term for traditional publishing- where you relied on an editor to tell you if you were good. You were subject to an editors personal opinion, not the opinion of the potential readers.

So now, you publish yourself. If you are good, you will do good. If your writing is bad, you won’t. But you also won’t loose thousands of dollars self publishing either, if you are bad.

As a self publisher, I will have my own publishing company name, and business. I hope to really make it out there and do good, maybe taking on other writers works under my publishing name. But that is in the future. Right now I just need to get some books out, some stories, and work on my craft.

To my success… this time.

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What a year it has been. Reflecting on everything that has happened really makes me think about the busy lives we all live.

This year started off with lots of snow and lots of work. Many of the soldiers in my shop prepared for a tour in Afghanistan, so we were swamped with work with so many people off the floor on training.

Multiple exercises and the floods in Manitoba took many soldiers away from home for over nine months straight, and with all that man power gone, well, the mass amounts of broken vehicles coming from exercises and the operations had us working over time.

But eventually things calmed down. Then I got married in the summer to a wonderful woman. The wedding was wonderful. Many friends and family showed up. We got so many gifts we had to move into a bigger apartment. I would like to put out a thanks right now to everyone who supported us at the wedding and helped us get started with our life.

Shortly before the wedding, at the bachelor party, we were paint balling and I went for a slide and caught a stick, bending my ankle under me. This resulted in a broken ankle. I really didn’t want to wear my big moon boot – given to me by the doctors – while walking down the isle, so I wrapped my ankle up real tight and stuffed my swollen ankle into my parade boots. Everyone was surprised I was walking as well as I did. I did limp a lot and by the end of the night by ankle had swollen up a lot more.

After our nice wedding and reception, we settled down into our new home in September. In October I left for CFB Cold Lake. There I received OJT training on Aircraft Maintenance Support Equipment (AMSE). I also got to work out in a shop by the bombing range. We were told we could not do P.T outside due to bears.

A Buddy of mine went hunting and got his first buck. The Antlers were scored at 405 points. Apparently the record is 415! Not bad for his first deer. We were quite impressed. He gave me a few pounds of meat. He got about 80lbs of his buck. I have skinned a few dear now, and I know the average is about 30lbs to 40lbs of meat. Nice job!

Up in Cold Lake, my buddies and I also experienced a very sad time. As we came back to base from the weekend – me driving home on the weekends to see the wife our buddy “Z” pulled us into his room. I first saw a bunch of crime scene tape on “HB’s” door. I assumed he was going to talk to us about a bunch of shit the boys got into. But the news was far worse. On November 13th, 2011, HB passed away, resulting from suicide.

We all took it pretty hard. The worst part, trying to understand why. Nobody really will know why, we only can come up with our own theories to make sense of it. The next couple of weeks were tough. I staff really helped us get through it though. We had a really nice memorial service for him, and a bunch of guys were sent to Ontario to be Pallbearers.

The beginning of December saw us back in Edmonton. We are now getting ready for the Christmas Holidays where we will have 3 weeks off. We had our Soldiers Dinner on the 8th, and were lucky enough to get the following Friday off, leading in this weekend. Now I have one more week at work, then I get the next 3 weeks off.

I hope you all had a good year.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

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On November 13th 2011, Craftsman Matthew Hunter-Brown passed away. I met this amazing person sometime in September, but never really got to know him until the beginning of October when HB – as I came to know him – and some other Craftsman, including myself, where sent up to CFB Cold Lake on a OJT rotation to practice our skills as Vehicle Technicians.

Over the next month and a half I came to know HB as a joyful fellow. He made us laugh with his witty comments, and lightened our day when he would walk into the shop early in the morning with a smile on his face. The rest of us would stare at the guy with disbelief at how he could be so happy in the morning.

HB was truly a friend to us all. Not having him around on the shop floor really puts a damper in the day, and brings a realization that life is fragile and we should not take it lightly.

Rest in Peace HB wherever you are. I hope you can party it up until your friends join you.

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My dog Bear was hit by a car. Actually probably about a month ago. I have just been busy getting married and have not posted much on the site lately. More on the marriage later.

I became Bear’s owner when I was about eleven years old. I made sure I paid five bucks for him so he would be my dog only. Truth was he was very much part of the Callahan family and all took good care of him.

We got him off my Uncle Dwayne after his German Shepherd and Australian Shepherd had pups together. Bear grew up to have all the colors of a German Shepherd, but the fluffy fur, height, and tail of an Australian Shepherd.

Bear was a very kind dog. He would never hurt anything and actually could be found sleeping with the cats curled next to him.

He also had a problem with pissing on everything. I saw him piss on our cat Mufasa. The cat did not take to kindly to that and swatted his wiener, sending bear yelping back to the house. He pissed on a neighbor that stopped by to talk to my parents. He kicked bear, and we weren’t upset one bit.

The best one, he walked up to a newborn baby calf and pissed on its head. The mother cow was pretty upset and chased him down and ran him over.

Bear loved chasing sticks. I could throw a stick into the water and Bear would swim it and get it every time. Almost to the point of drowning so  I would have to stop throwing the stick because Bear did not know when to stop.

Bear was a great dog. He was a pup at heart until the day he died. He was eleven years old when he died, and we think he might have been crossing the road to go off and die anyways because he was starting to hurt real bad in his old age. Maybe he even jumped in front of the vehicle. Some animals will do that when they want to die.

Either way, I will miss the old boy, and Baby Bear – as I called him – will always be in my heart.

Cheers Bear

bear

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So before I even start this post, I already know I’m going to get flamed. Somebody is going to have an issue with what I’m going to say, and challenge my opinion.

Well really, I don’t care. If you have your opinion, you can share it, in the comments, but don’t expect me to argue with you and respond back. This is my opinion, and I’m laying it out here for all to see. Take it as is, and don’t expect me to respond back to any flames.

So here it goes.

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So yesterday my fiance and I where getting some pizza and wings. We were sitting in the waiting area on the couches and reading some papers on the coffee table.

I started reading an article written by a gay guy. His article was talking about how he went to university and is so fed up with the other gay people making a fuss about how badly they are treated and how they are not respected and all that. He thinks otherwise and now believes the gay community is just causing problems with a society that has pretty much accepted them.

His article is not about what I’m going to go on about. But in his article he mentions about how he and his partner and kid live in Seattle and have a pretty good life.

That is what struck me. He, his partner, and “kid”.

My issue is the kid. I don’t bother gay people, gay people don’t bother me. I even have friends that are gay. I don’t think being gay is right, but this is a free country, and they can do what ever they want, I’m not going to cause a problem over it. I still respect them. I’m just not gay, and have no idea what it is like to be gay.

What bothers me is two gay people raising a kid. I know this issue has been brought up in government assemblies around North America. It seems now that some of the states actually allow gay couples to adopt.

But the thing that bothers me is gay people have been fighting for their “Natural Right” to be gay. Okay, they win, they can be gay because it is “Natural” and a chemical in their brain which makes them gay, apparently.

I’m not sure I actually buy the chemical part, either way I don’t care why their gay. They can make choices about themselves, that is fine. The point is they fought for their Natural Right, and to be married.

Okay, thats fine. But I don’t care what anybody says. A kid being raised by two gay people is not natural, and not right. There is no chemical to blame for this. Two guys, or two chicks, can’t naturally have a baby, so why should they be allowed to adopt a baby. That is not natural.

The kid is not of his adopted gay parents blood. Chances are he will have no chemical in him to make him more inclined to be gay. Growing up he will most likely want to meet a girl, but he was raised in a house hold that does not really promote it. This will cause confusion in his mind.

Then at school, the same argument comes up all the time. He will be teased because his parents are gay.

People can be gay, but no matter what anybody says, it is still the second choice nature intended. A child should be raised the natural way, and then can choose for himself later if he wants to be gay or not.

Some people would argue that being raised by just a woman, or just a man, is about the same as a gay couple. But it is not.

A single mother still raises the child the best she can, and still instills the original natural plan in the child. The child grows up knowing she has a father somewhere and that one day she will find a man to love.

Growing up with two gay parents instills in the child confusion. “Where is my father?” “Why do I have two fathers?” “Where is my mother?” “Do I have a mother?”

There is confusion. Gay people can be gay, I don’t think they should raise children.

If nature intended two people to be gay, then nature also intended them to be without kids.

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So for four non-consecutive days, I have been repairing this old 1952 Farmall Super H. My buddy Terry worked on it with my for the first two days, then my buddy Tim helped me on the last two days.

Me and Terry are both Canadian Forces Vehicle Techs and my buddy Tim is a Canadian Forces Combat Engineer.

We found this tractor at the old dairy farm I worked at before joining the military. I went down for a visit to the old farm when my old boss mentioned he picked up some antique tractors and wondered if I would be interested in fixing them up. For something to do you know, if I got bored. It seemed like a fun project, so I decided to take it up.

I asked my buddy Terry if he would be interested in working on it with me. It is always more fun to have somebody to work with I find. And he has been a mechanic longer then me, so it was nice to have him help when things got complicated.

When we first started working on the tractor, we found that it had compression. It had no spark, leaks in the input seal to the transmission, the coolant system had multiple leaks as well. Rudy wanted the tractor to be 12 volt, instead of 6 so he had to take the generator in to be converted. The electrical was a mess and needed lots of new wires installed, plus some of the wiring was not hooked up correctly according to the manual.

Terry hooked up the wiring pre-new generator. I hooked it up post-new generator. Most of the wiring was correct accept for a few things regarding the fuse box. Lighting to fuse box cable, and start switch to fuse box cable were not hooked up correctly, and there was an extra wire off the amp gauge to the fuse box that didn’t even belong. I do not blame Terry, as I expect he just replaced wire with new wire and put wires back where he found them. I had to use the wiring schematics to figure out the new generator and these few hick-ups, but after a couple hours everything was hooked up correctly and works great now.

The 12 volt lights Rudy has are not the correct ones and so we need to find the correct lights for this tractor. According to the book, the whole light and housing assembly is replaced when the lights are replaced, but it will be pretty hard to come across those housing now. So we need to find the right light, and replace it in the housing then repair that. But that is minor.

The Transmission was filled to the top with water. We drained the transmission and replaced it with clean oil after replacing the input transmission seal. We also replaced the coolant hoses and took care of the leaks. The air filter is one of those wet filters that are filled with engine oil. The air goes through the oil and that is what picks up any debris. We cleaned that filter system and replace. Rudy had the carb rebuilt before we got to the tractor.

As for the spark, we just needed a wire connected to the grounding switch, as well as new spark plugs which we had to gap properly. We cleaned the gas tank as well with var-sol and had to clean out the mounting hole threads, as well as clean the fuel jar and replace the inline fuel filter.

We reconnected the jack shaft from the clutch shaft to the input shaft into the transmission. We drained and replaced the hydraulic sump oil, and replaced the main hydraulic hose from the pump to the valves. It was cracking bad and when I took it off it crumbled.

All in all the project went pretty smooth. It was my first real old restoration project. We got the hood and front cover back on. Rudy said in the summer he will take it and get the it painted professionally.

Here are some videos of us test driving the tractor after we got it running. Hope you enjoy.

Oh and here are a bunch of pictures as well:

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I just bought myself a new phone. It is the HTC Desire. So my first challenge to myself is to be able to successfully type out and post a whole blog post.

So here it goes.

***************************************

I was driving home from work with my buddy Willy when a conversation we were having caused me to ask myself this question: When did I realize I was a patriotic Canadian?

U can check out Willy’s blog here

As a young boy I grew up in an American aware family. My dad is American. Most of my family is American. I wanted to be American. The day I realized I wanted to be Canadian was a day that changed my life.

The actual day I realized I was patriotic I can’t remember the date but I do know what helped me find the love for my country.

My buddy Warren and I were playing with our little plastic soldiers. I always played the Americans, Warren the Germans. But this time he wanted to be the good guys. So we switched.

The game was going good for me. I knocked down most of his men. But he had a little force in reserve hidden in his little cabin. I was about to finish him off when he called out his reserves. He pulled out his light green soldiers and set them up.

He looked at me and said, “Cuyler you beat the yanks, but there is no way your beating the Canadian Peace Keepers.”

And he beat me.

From that time on when I played the good guys, all my soldiers were Canadian Peace Keepers. I’m not sure why that moment I found the love for my country. I was always into army stuff, and I had failed to look into my own countries history it had created for itself in that area.

My friend Warren actually, without knowing it, opened me up to a whole new area to explore. From that point on I stopped focusing on America. I became a proud Canadian and joined the Canadian Military which I’m proud and honored to be a part of.

I Am Canadian.

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Here is another Insta-Scene for anyone interested. I hope you enjoy.

*****************************************************
Insta-Scene: Industry Badlands
Dirty, dirty. Pollution billowed in the distance from smoke stacks, tall as sky scrapers. No green survived the parasitical human beings as they made money. A strong race, for even though no green existed, they still did.

Adopting the world as the rock it became, the humans covered the world in metal extracted from the earth itself and nearby dead planets such as mars, mercury, and the asteroid belts of the gas giants. Why metal? Some say it was a fashion dilemma. Though who were they trying to prove, contact with outer space races still has not been achieved.

But metal it is. Maybe it offers better protection from space now that the atmosphere is so thin asteroids pelt the earth without burning up first. But without the ozone, would not the earth burn up, especially covered in metal?

Humans are resourceful, and they chose to cover their world in metal, for reasons that still are unclear to the less uneducated of the race. Considering most people don’t even know the world was once green, and have just grown up in a metal world, it probably isn’t a big deal any more.

The metal world works. The factories pump out the oxygen, and clean the dirty water. The dirt is so toxic nothing grows, and walking outside when it rains will surely burn the skin bad enough to disfigure even the toughest. The world is all controlled by the corporations. They control food, oxygen, water, shelter. The basic needs of people to just survived is now controlled.

Don’t piss of the corporations. They only have to pull one plug, and death will surely come. What happens when a human dies. Well, a ceremony like usual. The more money the family has, the bigger the funeral. Then the body is composted to create clean dirt. The dirt is then moved to one of the fields. The fields reside inside skyscrapers. Hundreds of stories of computer managed crops. Human eye has not even set foot in a field of barley for nearly five hundred years now. What goes on inside those buildings?

Humanity has been taken out of the human race. People live in their little metal homes, watching corporate television. What is on television? Mostly propaganda. The corporations are all powerful. Listen to the corporations. If you don’t listen to the corporations, the corporate police will show up and arrest you. What happens in corporate prison. Nobody knows. The humans are so brainwashed, they never revolt, they never cause trouble. The human prisons are empty, so whatever would happen doesn’t.

Does this not seem like a dream world? No crime, no worries. Everything is taken care of. What do humans do for work though if the corporations have everything managed robotically. The smartest continue to develop smarter technology. The dumbest are breeders. The middle brainers manage their own private shops exchanging money between each other, or join the human military, or police forces. But nothing that is sold by the non-corporates is necessary.

Non-corporates can not sell water, oxygen, shelter, or food. They can sell unnecessary items like bikes, scooters, guns, Armour, cigarettes, booze, something that is wanted, but not needed. It keeps the monies flowing so the corporates have buyers of their basic necessities.

What happens if a human can not afford the necessities of life? Well then, they are homeless, poor, and they live on the streets begging for help, but nobody helps. Why does nobody help? Because beggars living on the streets inside the corporate run metal structures use up the necessary resources of life. They breathe air for free, they receive free food, they get free water, of course they only get this stuff if it is handed to them.

But the corporates made it very clear they would not be used as such. Everyone pays no matter the situation, and if not, the plug is pulled. So the reality, there are no beggars. They are taken away, and nobody cares, cause nobody sees, or nobody speaks up at least.

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I remember growing up Grandpa Kisch has been in my life for most of it. He married my Grandma around the time I was four if I remember correctly. One of the most prominent memories of Grandpa Kisch is his dogs. He always has had a small long haired dog as long as I have known him. I can’t remember the first dog, but I remember their second one Kelly.

I remember riding my bike on our first farm. I had training wheels on it, because I don’t think I actually learned to ride a two wheeled bike until my cousin Lloyed showed me in Taylor, B.C. But I was riding my training bike up and down our drive way and Grandpa Kisch was out there with me watching me. His little dog ran in front of me and I ran right over it. I was so scared Grandpa would be mad, but he wasn’t. He checked out his dog and made sure she was alright, and told me to get back on the bike and keep practicing.

I remember on our second farm when I was older Grandma and Grandpa came to visit. I can’t remember one time when Grandpa Kisch ever didn’t complain about Fort. St. John Mud. “It’s always muddy, always, this black disgusting mud is always here when I come to visit.” He said that all the time.

I remember he always corrected my speech. I would always say “Grandpa do you know.”
He would say, “If I knew you wouldn’t be telling me. Stop saying ‘Do you know?’.”

Grandpa loved wood working. He built each of us kids a memory chest. I have it to this day and it is stuffed full of things I would like to take out one day when I’m older and look at. He had a very fancy wood working shop in Ferintosh, Ab where he spent lots of time building beautiful pieces of wood work.

Grandpa also loved his flowers. I remember pulling up to their Bed and Breakfast in Ferintosh and the drive way had flowers all along it and down the middle. He had a beautiful stone fountain they built. He really loved creating things of beauty. He even helped us build our rock fountain at our second farm in Fort St. John.

One funny memory I remember is Grandpa loved his bird feeders. He would sit out on a bench and watch the birds and would often fall asleep. I was out tossing pine cones into the air and trying to catch them. One of the pine cones I missed and it fell on Grandpa’s bald head. It startled him so much he got up yelling and swinging his arms around. I was so scared and tried to hide behind a tree, but Grandpa came over and said “Was that you Cuyler?”
I said, “It was an accident Grandpa.”
“Be more careful next time, and stop tossing the pine cones in the air, your scaring the birds.” Then he brought me to sit on the bench with him and he started telling me what type of birds there were in the feeders. Then he scared off a squirrel which he said made him mad because they ate all the bird feed and scared off the birds.

Grandpa was a loving man who loved beautiful things. He made great Chili which to this day I still think is the best Chili in the world. I will miss him but I’m not sad about his death. I know he had a great fulfilling life and accomplished much. I’m glad he came into my life when I was a young boy.

I love you Grandpa. I’ll miss you. Rest In Peace old friend.

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