Blog of Monica Valentinelli, Writer & Content Consultant

Posted on April 15, 2008 - by Monica Valentinelli

Here’s What I’m Writing and Working On, How About You?

There are some exciting things in the pipe for me; I can’t say anything about my day job, but I’d like to share with you some of the creative and non-creative projects I’m working on to enhance my knowledge and continue writing.

Programming

One of the areas that I’m a little “weak” on is understanding anything beyond HTML on a deep level. While I can do the basics of recognizing different types of code, I don’t know how to create CSS files or use Javascript and Flash. So I’ve got a stack of recommended books sitting next to me and I’m going to start small and play around. One of the things I’m going to do is set up a “sandbox” blog to play around with different types of code through the WordPress free version. I’m pretty stoked about it, because this is something that will enhance my skills and I can try playing around with new things to better understand web development.

Game Design

I’ve been heavy into paranoia lately — and I wish I was joking! Finished writing a project that will be released at GenCon: Indy in August of this year. This project is entitled, Exquisite Replicas and is the darkest thing I’ve ever written. There was a time when I was a lot younger when I couldn’t read the stuff I’ve written; this is one of those pieces. The character I created had to be broken from the things she’d witnesses; I did not write her as a “sane” character. In order to make the important pieces of the setting readable, I threw in alternate forms of media like letters, podcast transcripts, posters, post-it notes, maps, etc. This was pretty exciting from the standpoint that I was able to provide art direction for this particular contribution.

In addition to that, I do have another “hard scifi” project that’s been on the back burner. Yeah, I’ll have to get that done at some point but I have other pressing deadlines with guaranteed publication dates.

Novella, Novel, and Fiction

In addition to revising a short piece of fiction for a Halloween anthology, I’m writing a novella that is loosely inspired by my secret love: exploratory or theoretical science. No, no…I don’t have the patience to get a PhD; I’m strictly a geek who loves to read Stephen Hawking at times.

I’m also doing quite a bit of historical research into Alchemy whenever I can for my Violet War Books. The novel is coming along swimmingly; it’s always the first chapter that gives me the hardest time.

Tell Me About Your Work

What are you working on? Anything fun and exciting? Anything I can help promote?