Or, at least it will be for me in 6 more hours lol. I'm hoping with it pouring out it will dissuade the nuts with the M-80's and guns from celebrating too much. I doubt it will, but at least they'll might get wet!
Anyway...
I'm staring longingly at my newest acquisition, I used the Amazon gift cards I got for Christmas (plus a lot more money than I'd like to admit out of my own pocket) to finally buy my 3D printer! I've tabled trying to buy a house in favor of the printer to some people's dismay. >:D
It arrived today, (Fedex said it was coming next week! GRR, oh who am I kidding! I'm glad it's here!) I just found it on my front stoop an hour ago! Which is scary, I've been home all afternoon and it's been sitting out there! Fortunately no one stole it!
It is an XYZ Da Vinci Pro 1.0. I thought I'd get my toe wet with something plug and play over the Folgertech FT-5 I really wanted and drooled over. This way I can spend more time writing over fussing over the printer. :) I cleared out the elliptical out of the game room yesterday, The Salvation Army picked it up and I now have room to set up a table with the printer. I'm excited to play with it once I get it debugged, calibrated and such.
I've got a ton of stuff I want to try from Thingyverse.com and other sites, plus some of my own creations. The betas know I've been keen to make the Federation (and other universe) ships and characters for instance! (Bismark desktop model? Jethro in armor in uniform? Hmm) Plus I've got other projects in mind. (insert rubbing hands and evil laugh here!)
I understand the brat pack have been eager for me to get one too, they are into cosplay and doo-dads. They have to wait in line though... and supply their own plastic. :)
In other news, I'm going to split my next book The First Terran Interstellar War into a duology. The first book is now titled Desperate Defense. The second has a working title of Waking the Sleeping Giant. I've split the original treatment into the 2 books and I've been plugging in some of my notes from my phone into both manuscripts over the past couple of days. I'm shooting for short books this go around, 250-300 pages max! (Why do I feel people rolling their eyes at me??) I want to see if I can get one or both of them into print. That is going to be tricky since DD is already 30 pages, and WSG is 28 pages and I haven't even started...
BTW, that's 8 1/2 by 11 pages, not the Kindle pages.
The plan is that I am going to write the books 1 after another next month now that I'm back into the Founding time period and mindset. Hopefully since they are shorter they'll go faster. The gang is back to school Wednesday so I can finally get back to writing then! (In other words I'm going to spend the next couple days pulling my hair, I mean, playing with the printer!)
But, all that is for later. For now, Have a safe and happy holiday folks! Don't drink and drive!
Edit: Here are my first prints:
The big L is a spool holder. The little tabs under it are to level the bed and to guide the filament. Under that was my first test print, the keychain. Under that is a hole patch kit to fill the square holes in the printer. They are neat, 2 of them you can use as holders. On it's right is the first part of a fan mod. The holders are almost finished printing now.
On the upper left you'll notice a jingly ball. I had to print it, the little wench keeps losing them! I've been buying packages of 7 to get 2 stupid yellow balls. Cats are supposed to be colorblind but try telling her that! I've got red and blue balls that she wont touch. (picky spoiled minx!) Give her a yellow one and she'll play soccer with it for 2-3 minutes then it is gone under something, she flops down to try to fish it out, and when she can't she starts bugging me for another.
It is fun playing fetch with her... when she wants to bring it back! Well, fun when I'm not trying to write! She tackles my feet when I don't stop to get up, cross the room, pick the ball up,(since she is female and perverse and likes to drop it out of reach half the time!) and then toss the thing. (now you know why I had Jethro put up with her doppelgänger!)
Unfortunately the manufacturer of the original ball changed to other colors and she can't stand them. So, what's a guy to do but print is own and pull the stupid bells out and swap them?
Geesh what we do to keep felines entertained!
Anyway, the Christmas lights are down, the town scenes is next on the agenda for tomorrow, and I didn't get splattered with hot grease in the face this time from the meatloaf tonight so I'm happy. Time to shut down, vegg with my ice cream and play fetch with the little minx!
Like a kid in a Candy Shoppe ... lol ... Guys, it seems like we going have to work to keep him on point for the first six months of the years or at least until we get Court Martial and TGS.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely! If you've been to Thingyverse you know how nuts someone can get! Wow!
DeleteIt took all day but I got the printer up, calibrated, hooked up to the wifi, and I've finished 3 prints including a keychain test print. I'm working my way through a list of stuff I need to print to improve the printer's quality and speed. I'm also tinkering with the speed now to improve that. I sped it up to 45mm/s from 30mm/s with this print, my biggest yet. (a spool holder)
Once I get the hang of prints and how to get them going I can work on other things and let it print with just periodic check ins to make sure it's not making a mess. So far so good though.
Pops is already complaining about the light bill. But he said he can't smell the plastic which is great. The noise is barely audible on the other end of the house from the living room, so that's good too.
Right now the write schedule is Desperate Defense, it's sequel, then Court Martial. If all goes as planned I'll get into CM by March or so.
I am sure that will be fine but as one of your fans I wish the CM would be here by the end of the month. :) But then again I read very very fast ( Battlefield Earth by L Ron Hubbard I can read in about 8 hours depending on interruptions or again depending on interruptions the entire Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan in a week). Who knows you may be able to start selling limited amounts of stuff from your books to your fans.
DeleteLol
DeleteYeah, I devour books too. I read Battlefield Earth in 10 hours and that was with interruptions. I had a mondo headache afterward though!
It'd be a trip to sell stuff. Or just putting stuff up on Thingyverse for people to download and print on their own.
I've had my first failure, I tried to print a figure and it came out as a mess twice. I learned the hard way about needing supports.
I also tried to put a jingle bell into that ball I printed only to discover that ABS is brittle. It broke on me. I'm going to try again and do what some people recommended, pause the print, drop the jingle in, then let it continue. :)
Oh, also, rafts are a pain in the rump to get rid of!
Oh for those of you who don't know what we are talking about, Battlefield Earth is what about a million, million five word count Chris? Each book in the Wheel of Time is at least 600k word count and usually more and there are over 13 books in that series.
DeleteOut of curiosity is court martial the following book in the Horatio Logan series?
ReplyDeleteHi Mat! Long time no talk to!
DeleteYes, Court Martial is HL2. It is 3rd in the cue for this year behind Desperate Defense and Waking the Sleeping Giant.
Duncan: Yup, I knew that.
Sitrep: Desperate Defense is up to 72 pages and I just started. I've been struggling to get just 1 chapter done though, I'm still skipping around, though today it's been between the first 3 chapters. Chapter 1 has split once and might split again since it is already 10 pages again. I've got 2 scenes left in it I think.
I've been having teething issues with the printer. I ran through the supplied filament today. Just printing jingly balls for Red has been a pain in the posteirior! It took 7 tries to get another to print half way decent with a jingle inside!
I got a shipment of yellow PLA in Monday, but instead I used the gray ABS I got in just as my trial ABS ran out today. (literally showed up as the print was finishing!) More teething issues commenced but I hopefully have things ironed out. It is printing the last part of an automaton I plan to use as a reference for a project I've dreamed of doing for 32+ years. I'll try to post a pic or video when I get it all assembled. It's around 100 parts I think. Nope, 91 total. Wow. And I had a couple of do-overs too.
Well you know work, the new house, 2 seven month old orange cats,and reading all the books I can to not go crazy.i hope the book pirates are kept in check. I have a few questions about the wiki I tried to go there about a week ago from the link in the book and it said page not found. Otherwise I am waiting to see if other questions about the books are filled in as you go.
DeleteHey,
DeleteYou've got 2 orange furballs? I do too. Plus the fat brown one! :)
So far so good with the pirates.
Wiki:
http://federation-datanet.wikia.com/wiki/Federation_AI_Historical_Datanet_Wiki
Contact Duncan, Jory, or Ransom. They are managing the wiki. You can also check out the FB fan group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/582559128466667/
I'm worried about going bald now. I've been loosing hair on top for a while, the piracy hasn't helped, but I thought I was over it. Now this printer came into my life. I was ready to tear all my hair out today. I'm learning all sorts of fun new swear words as I deal with 1 thing after another. Right now the printer is collecting dust since the filament broke off inside the hot end and I can't get it out. GRR.
Oh, DD sitrep: Slow progress it seems. (yes the printer is distracting me) I've gotten to 100 pages and 3 chapters done. I'm a bit worried that this'll turn into another big book. I was shooting for 250-300 pages, honest! I am!
I would say shoot for 300-350 for the first book and 250-300 for the second. After all the first may require more details with the tauron (?) Introduction
DeleteArgth! Who mentioned them??
DeleteSo far DD is 131 pages. I'm hoping it will top out at 300. I'd like to see Giant hit 300. I know there is going to be a lot more happening there though.
I've got chapters 1-11 done of DD. I've got big chunks of act II ready, I just need to plug in names and touch a few things up to finish off more chapters. But I'm taking tomorrow off. (family day, but I'm playing with a printed project and other stuff)
BTW: Wayne (one of the betas) is working on his own book now. Please encourage him on FB and such when you get the chance. :)
Oh! A request: Anyone who has read Cornerstone (or the other books) please post a review. It helps me a little by giving me a boost. Thank you.
You mentioned them in previous books. if they are involved maybe this book would have been better to bring out before the Shelby Logan sub series. Just a observation
DeleteHi Chris,
ReplyDeleteWhen can we expect a book in the main story line?
I am not Chris but this is my thought on his thought process. I believe that he thinks that everything but maybe the Jethro series to be one giant series that is broken down in to smaller chunks to make it easier to follow. To me that is what his books are written as. Not as separate series that just happen to take place in the same universe but One Giant overarching story that is broken into 4 timeperiod series to make it more manageable. Of course all of this is my opinion and Chris reserves the right to change all of this so take it with a grain (or two but not too much) of salt.
DeleteDuncan, there is a new enemy afoot...it is not the pirates or piracy...it is the 3D printer distracting Chris from telling us more of the CH universe...including stories about Jethro and family...your mission is to kill it! LOL
DeleteLOL
DeleteDon't tell Duncan and the other betas, but I just finished (just now) the first act of DD. 10 days for 1 act. Not bad. :)
The printer isn't as bad a distraction as you think it is. Okay, it is one, but not too too bad.
Anyway, Main storyline... um... That would be The Gathering Storm. That is currently book 4 in this year's to do list. It is right behind Court Martial.
So:
Desperate Defense
Waking the Sleeping Giant
Court Martial
The Gathering Storm
Sparks -or- We the People (I'm not sure which yet)
Multiverse 3 (or another short story book.)
Plus working on the wiki and other projects.
You mean we are not even supposed to check the blog?
DeleteAnd DKH all I have are low level gremlins available. The higher level ones and the sabotage ones are on other missions. Besides do we want to cause too many problems with the printer? Chris might stop writing for days trying to fix the printer.
True, dat! I can see him going off line with an obsession to fix it...and then where would my next fix come? I wonder if it is too early to beg for next year to have a J6? LOL
DeleteOof, hitting close to home there DKH! It's been that kind of day again!
DeleteLOL, well perhaps a distracting down a path of J6 and thoughts of J and family? nudge nudge...LOL
DeleteLol.
DeleteSorry DKH, Jethro will pop up here and there (he made a cameo in Cornerstone!) but J6 isn't on the schedule for a while. I promised other people I'd get caught up in other stuff plus finally get a start on the Xeno war.
Hi
DeleteWhat do you mean - get a start on the Xeno war?
Hi Sergiu,
DeleteI broke the Engineer universe into 4 time periods. The Founding, the Xeno War, The Wandering Engineer, and the New Federation.
I had planned to write them in parallel, 1 book in each time period at a time. That didn't work out as planned.
The Xeno war books was set up as a trilogy, Sparks, Inferno, and Embers, with a couple short story anthology books. Now I'm not sure how I'm going to handle it.
The good news is, I'm slowly working my way through the Founding books. I currently have 5 books left in that time period including The First Terran Interstellar War duology.
Which reminds me, sitrep: I am in Act III of DD, I am 4-6 chapters away from completion, right in the middle of the first climax actually. And yes, my printer has been a distraction today. (I got very little done since it broke again.)
sigh.......I suppose I can make do with a few Cameos of J...loved the cornerstone story...that was totally cute! loved it
ReplyDeleteThanks, I wanted something light and fun. I'm debating on another cameo in an upcoming book, or maybe a mention. I'm not sure yet.
Deleteawesome! Perhaps his kittens get into mischief trouble with their mom, who blames him for their mischief..and he torn between being proud of his kittens for their ingenuity and angry for misbehaving? (in other words a dad) LOL
DeleteLOL maybe. I like that idea.
DeleteSitrep: I finished the rough draft of DD today. I'm going to start work on the cover tomorrow... and get caught up on my To-do list. (if Baby lets me, he's being a loveable butthead right now!)
YAY..
Deleteokay Duncan I guess we can really pull back the contract hit on his 3D printer...you can call the Gremlins off....
my fur kid ate my internet cord to the router...sigh
Unfortunately I can't call them off yet. They are incommunicado until they return to base. I can however hold off on sending the execute order. But they are also under ROEs that say they can take independent action if the situation morphs too much. Even if I could signal them to RTB they would ignore said summons. It might even cause them to execute. Sorry Chris I hope your Gremlin defenses are running. The ones I sent out should RTB in a couple of months.
DeleteLMAO
Deletegood operators, good orders...LOL
DeleteHey! I actually love the idea of the 3D printed models for some of our favorite hero's and ships. Did you ever design any in a cad program? I have a printer and would love to try printing them or even designing some!
ReplyDeleteHi Askeans,
DeleteI've been a 3D modeler and CG artist for 20 years now. I use 3D models for all of my covers. Lately many haven't been mine.
Exporting models and trying to print them is on my to-do list. (I'd love to do Jethro in armor! Or the ships!) Unfortunately I made those models or bought them with CG in mind, not STL so there is a lot of cleaning, scaling, rebuilding, and repair work to be done.