Author: Clayton Barnett

Former engineer, current husband and father, layabout Pharmacy Technician, aspiring writer.

Independence Day

Technically, that would be July 2nd, when the Second Continental Congress adopted Virginia’s Resolution for Independence.  It was two days later, on the 4th, that Jefferson’s document, the Declaration, was approved by Congress.  Traditions are funny things:  how they start and evolve.

I’m planning to wrap of the next few episodes of this third segment in no more than a couple of weeks – I hope!  My final illustrations for my children’s book, “Henge’s Big Day!” have come in, and I need to add the text to the body, title to the cover, legal stuff to the legal page… and then self-publish everything.  Since I don’t do squat without a deadline, I’m setting September 30th as my publish date.

So, having mentioned the Declaration, how about Nichole has one, as well?

Continue reading “Independence Day” →

Dammit

Wrote most of this a couple of nights ago, but have learned my lesson about posting from bed.  I’m starting to enjoy the rhythm of this third segment:  confusion from the POV of captain Muller versus Nichole’s quiet happiness of three days earlier.  Of course, they’ll start to converge and/or overlap.  Maybe.  I’m looking forwards to what Nichole was thinking when she went all badass on the barbarian steppe leader… who’s not as much a barbarian as we’ve been lead to believe.

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Sandbox

Mine, in other words.  I shan’t apologize for the lack of posting, but I don’t mind explaining.  At the end of the last episode, I thinking I knew what I wanted to do for the next sequence of the story.  The issue was, it’s somewhat unorthodox.  So I froze over the weekend before last.  Monday and Tuesday brought busy day-job days of our bi-annual physical inventory.  Friday, we as a family were off to northern Kentucky for a swim-meet.  We’d also be meeting our good friend, and my girls’ Godfather, that we’d not seen in four years (he’d been living in East Asia; back in the ‘States now).  Between the swimming during the day and the drinking at night, there was no time to write.

I was beginning to freak out about that.

I told my wife last night:  I don’t care what you and girls are doing Monday night, unless the house, dogs, or people are on fire, I’m writing.  What with that “less of an asshole” thing that writing grants me, she was fine with that.

Below is Ep 21.  I’ve seen 22 and 23; if I can convince them to order pizza or something for the next two days, these should come out fairly quickly.

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“Back in the saddle…

…again.”  Literally in a literary sense.  I ‘saw’ this beginning of the next part of the story a week ago, but was busy with RealLife(TM).  When I finally sat down and did some research, I realized that rather than in the SSE of the Willamette Valley, this part of the story is going up the Columbia River, following the hydroelectric dams:  given what the protagonist is, makes sense, right?  Wish I knew that five days ago!

I’m making a few leaps, and would really appreciate comments good or ill as to what I’m doing.  Don’t get me wrong, I like the ‘likes’ and ‘now following’ I get, but without written feedback, I can only hope I – and Nichole and the rest – are on the right path.

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Coffee and alcohol

Back when we used to give presentations about how to make visual novels, a question that often came up was “what motivates you to write?”  My glib, but honest, answer, was the title of this post.

Since being diagnosed with hypertension and placed onto Metoprolol, coffee has been rare in my life.  But, at a mild impasse in “Defiant,” it was time to reach for the big guns:  a cup of Café Busto with a shot of rye whiskey.  About five minutes later, I ‘saw’ the answer I needed.  I quick glance and Bing Images to make sure I got the description correct, and I typed what I saw, below the fold.  I’ve seen Ep 18, too, but those steaks aren’t going to cook themselves.  Perhaps tomorrow!

[EDIT:  for some reason, WordPress ate several of my sentences.  I think it has to do with my use of these:  <>.  They’re back in now, in red.

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“All of Gaul is divided into three parts…”

Is the impression I’m getting when I let stories sit too long and I have to break them up.  I’ve seen part three:  the dinner and flashback, but thought why not go ahead and post this, part 2.  Might die in my sleep, after all.

I’m already thinking about the possibility of a spinoff, where Teresa has her own story.  It’s just a question of time.  (And money; give me a few grand, and trust me, she gets her own story!)

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