Getting Near the End

So I finally wrote The End on the bottom of my rough draft of my next book last night. I’ll spend the next week putting a polish on it. Since about two-thirds to three-quarters of it is already polished (some of it highly so) I’m not anticipating any more trouble… except with a good title, which so far eludes me. I’m hoping a good phrase will stick out for me as I’m working through the text.

In other news, I watched the final episode of the new Cosmos series last night. It was glorious, it was gorgeous…

…and then I was reminded of how much I still loved the original better when there was a lengthy excerpt from the original, narrated by the late Carl Sagan near the conclusion of the episode. He was so eloquent, so thoughtful, a very poet of science. Neil deGrasse Tyson is a fabulous communicator, a brilliant man, and is one of my favorite celebrities (scientists? Celebrity scientists? Is that even a thing?). Anyway, I love what he did with the show, but the new Cosmos will never replace the old in my heart. And it comes down to the writing: Sagan’s stunning power with prose and yes, his delivery.

I had a bout of insomnia last night (you’d think I’d sleep easier with the rough draft finally complete, but my brain had other ideas). I woke up and read more of the Solomon Kane material from Savage Worlds. I think my initial evaluation may have been a little harsh. Yes, many of the scenarios are “track the monster to its lair” but these are interesting encounters, and from the material included it’s easy to beef them up. I already see how to use two of them as solo adventures to get some of my three players up to speed with the system and the feel before introducing them to the campaign.

As I said earlier, it’s not possible to run the plot point campaign “out of the box” as easily as it is with 50 Fathoms, and I’m not that keen on the conclusion to the plot point campaign or its connecting threads, if truth be told, but there’s so much other great material that’s really evocative of the source fiction that in the end I’m quite pleased. I’ll come up with my own links and my own “master villains.”

So in short, two thumbs up. It’s not EXACTLY what I wanted, but it’s inspiring and well done, and with the supplemental material from the other Kane books I think I’m in good shape.