Rather pleased with how all of this turned out. There are still some things which might need addressing but real life is like that, too: loose ends are a way of life.
Was seriously “in the groove” yesterday and got down about 2500 words of “Culture Shock,” my next short. Hoping to wrap that one up today.
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Continue reading “Berserker, (pt4; end)”There are about 1200 words left in this story but there was no even break. So, this one is a little shorter and the conclusion tomorrow will be a little longer. Such happens.
I finally have two days off in a row from DayJob; I swear those people do not know what “part-time employee” means. I also now have two more short ideas to round out my next collection. Oh, yes… it will be called “Imperial Entanglements.” That title is, of course, borrowed from somewhere else. I invite guesses.
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Continue reading “Berserker, (pt3)”I admit I do not write personal fight scenes well. I can see them in my head but run, jump, jap, parry, gouge… I don’t know what to type in or leave out. Tactical or strategic battles? Read my Crusade Trilogy; I do those well, even if they take days to weeks or research to get correct. Six years ago, when Daughter #2 was still at home, I’d borrow her for her Shorin-Ryu karate training to understand some of the motions of hand-to-hand contact (“If you knock Dad out, no dinner!”).
So, we get what’s below. I do not think I botch it too bad. There are two points much more important than the action: one, Aurie knows she’s no superhero; she’s a little girl. Two, I want her and the readers to become aware of her rising bloodlust. That, to my mind, is something insanely dangerous for a demi-human to have.
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Continue reading “Berserker, (pt2)”I need at least one or two short stories to fill out a second collection for publication. In “Regent,” which had the working title of “Colour” as I explored it here on my blog, there was a moment when demi-human princess Aurelia Hartmann killed twenty-seven men, pirates. She started with her rifle, then pistol, then knife, then teeth and hands. She seemed to revel in it.
Later in that story, talking with her grandparents at their place, we learn she has done this at least once before, and is somewhat uncomfortable if not embarrassed about that old memory. I wondered, when was the first (only? I don’t know) time this happened? How old was she? What were the circumstances?
And thus this short story was born.
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Continue reading “Berserker (pt1)”On the first hand, this short story raw is complete
On the second hand, I ended it in such a way to pick it back up again, later.
On the gripping hand, I’m going to bet this pisses a lot of people off.
Working on another short. Not sure when I’ll have enough to start posting it.
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Continue reading “Tamera (pt9; end?)”Overhead imagery in central China is terrible. Street View doesn’t exist. No surprise, of course.
For the technically minded, information about EAST is here. Otherwise, I wrap all of this up *cough cough* tomorrow.
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Continue reading “Tamera (pt8)”I realize this is kind of bare-bones, even for me, but a short story collection, to my mind, presupposes a certain knowledge on the reader’s part of the world they are entering. Saying that, I’ll still probably add a paragraph about exactly why they need a flux point prior to publication. This blog is, after all, supposed to be a proving ground for raw ideas.
Should be two more entries after this one. I have a suspicion there is much seething in my readership.
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Continue reading “Tamera (pt7)”This is about halfway through. I think I just got to an ending which shall be along in a few days. That makes these 4300 words about 15 pages in a 6″ x 9″ book. I’ll have to start pulling these shorts together to see how much material I have right now. I need at least one more story – most likely young Aurie in her Sisterhood, the first time she went into Berserker Mode, and probably nearly killed a human – or perhaps two.
I’m beginning to think that Four Roses bourbon presupposes me to cliffhanger endings.
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Continue reading “Tamera (pt6)”Working title will be the MC’s name. No guarantees when I finally add it to a collection. This at least gives me a Category and Tag.
I’ve mentioned in my published works that China is in a bad way right now. Their neo-colonial experiment in Africa was bleeding them and when the US and EU disintegrated, there went their customer base. They are in the modern version of the Era of Warring States, regional powers of all-against-all. That has allowed both the Russians and Japanese to continued their build up of power on earth and above it with little to no interference. Thus, my thought is, rather than an air assault legionary battle group dropping into Hefei, it might instead by one of the imperial family with a boat-load of money. “Nice fusion reactor you have there; shame if something happened to it.”
“It’s sometimes easier to bribe armies rather than fight them.” Sidney Reilly to Boris Savinkov.
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Continue reading “Tamera (short story, pt3)”There are going to be A LOT of people packed into this story. I’m off DayJob tomorrow but my priority shall be getting the “Regent” MS to my copyeditor and a series of descriptions of what I think might work on a cover to my designer. Once all that is finished, I’ll turn back to what’s happening with this poor kid.
The sequences are shorter as this is supposed to be a short story, right?
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Continue reading “Still no Title”
machciv 