Category: Catholicism

Empire’s Agent, pt.(7)

Back on track.  I re-re-read what I’d re-read yesterday.  I’m just a middle-aged hack, but FFS, that was awful!  Was I really drunk enough to write that?

I didn’t even bother editing it:  deleted.  Let’s try again.  Sure:  dashing Arpad is something of a player; nothing at all wrong with that.  Has he a history?  Well, lookie here…!

[Personal aside:  thought about this all morning.  Left phone upstairs in pharmacy while I went to eat lunch in ground floor cafeteria.  Rather than troll news sites, I spent the next forty-ish minutes thinking about this story.  Bits.  Pieces.  Glimpses.  Pic…

What?  Oh:  “picnic.”  My imagination opened like a carpet.  Arpad owes Lily a lunch at her hospital, but after that… they’re going to go on a little date… how, why, where… don’t bother me:  I’m writing!]

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The Second Bridge, pt.2

At 1800, my wife was at the far end of the dining table looking at dishwashers on her phone.  She thinks we need a new one; I think she needs to do a better job rinsing dishes before she puts them in.

Anyway.

At that time, I was staring off, wondering what to write.  I kinda/sorta knew Gary was due for an appearance, but I really didn’t –

And then, in an instant, I did.  Everything below the fold was there in my eyes.  Creative writing is so… strange!

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The Second Bridge, pt.1

After last night I knew I had to get back to writing or I’d die.  Considered various ideas throughout the workday.  Just after 1700, when I was cleaning the isolation hood, the roar of its motor must have mixed with the chemicals in the Cavicide wipes to let me see something.  Not a lot of detail but certainly a week’s or more worth of story.  I’d been thinking about Faustina, however by lunch I’d come to know I didn’t know her well enough to tell her story.

For Gary and Henge, though, I’d already laid down two big markers:  one in “Echoes of Family Lost” and another in ‘Worlds Without End.’  I’ll be picking them up now.  This is, I think, going to be a great deal of fun!

This may seem shorter than usual, but when you only need to write dialog, as in a play, it tends to keep your word count down.

PS  I came up with the title after writing all this.  It derives from something Ai said late in “The Fourth Law.”  In doing so, I may have been given a glimpse of Faustina’s story.  Apologies to Cornelius Ryan in advance.

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MCD – Worlds Without End 8

Writing this, I thought at the time is was the last installment.  Late last night, more drunk than normal, I saw a little more about Faustina.  Looking at what my then-self wrote, I’m not entirely thrilled with it.  After I post this, I’m going to see if they allow me to ‘soften’ what I wrote.

She’s still going to be fundamentally good, but what eight year-old, who can move effortlessly between the machine’s home and ours wouldn’t end up a little disturbed or drunk on power?  Anyway:  plan on the curtain coming down on WWE on or about installment #10.

Let’s wrap up the Pope’s visit!

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MCD – Worlds Without End 7

Gary may think that Henge has learned a little subtlety from her father, but when it comes to getting what she wants… maybe not.  In the fallout of the wedding of their friend Susie, Henge unearths a problem and wants it fixed.  Now.  By an expert.  So here’s installment seven that, along with eight, has a special guest!

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MCD – Worlds Without End 3

A cracked open door about the culture in Knoxville, some ten plus years after the Breakup.  And more Faustina.

I have to be careful here, too.  I’m already interested in who Faustina is and what her relationship with MC is.  I’ve only known her for three days but I bet I could build a novel around her.

I just might!

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MCD – Worlds Without End 2

Not too much… really just wrapping up Gary’s day I started awhile ago.  The ‘problem’ is what I saw next:  just as I feared, I’m sorely tempted to start talking about the Hartmann’s and how life has changed in Knoxville over the past ten years.

Deep breaths:  let’s try to stay focused on our happy couple…

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MCD – Worlds Without End 1

This is going to be based on an idea I had almost three weeks ago.  You don’t have to go back and read it – in fact, I’d rather you didn’t, as a better, edited, version is in a blockquote below the fold.

Henge (“hen-geh”) first made an appearance toward the end of The Fourth Law.  I was playing with the idea of how AIs could make children; not just copies of themselves, but children, and she showed up.  In the last scene of my second novel, Echoes of Family Lost, Henge meets Gary when everyone is taking some well deserved R&R on her beach.  They make some connexion I still don’t understand and announce to both Families, human and machine, that they’re getting married.

The trick for me is to not get sidetracked on what’s happened politically and/or socially in the intervening ten years.  I’m going to have to say something, obviously, but I’ll try to confine myself to culture.  What I want to accomplish here is a love story between two very different people, who are united by their deep orthodox Catholic faith.

Let’s go!

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MCD – Abandoned Factory 1

Just finished editing what I wrote last night; very glad I waited as it was a mess.  Just as I did with my Pine Bluff short, I’m going to extend this story a little.  I won’t insult anyone this time by claiming that it’ll likely be “only 1200-1500 words!”  I’ve learned my lesson.  It will be what it will be.

Although I’m calling this Part One, the real start is here; I’ll edit that post and call it ‘Part 0.’

I’m honestly curious as to where this one will go!

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