Category: children

MachCiv Dreams – Empire’s Agent (pt5)

There was no way to end this today.  Maybe, just maybe, tomorrow.  Is this turning into another book?

Easter draws near and thus the end of these Lenten writing exercises.  I’ll continue them in some form, but even this evening – on a Friday, for eff’s sake! – my wife launches into a Spring honeydew list of this, that, and ten other tanjed things!  If the yard needs that much work then I’ll just sow it with salt!

Anyway.  Who wouldn’t mind a walk in the twilight with an engaging, attractive stranger?  Yes:  the both of them.

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MachCiv Dreams – Empire’s Agent (pt3)

I wrote the first two lines.  I walked away and sulked for over an hour.  My wife had to tend to her mother’s illness so I chatted with Daughter #2 about being stuck and feeling sick for it.

“Tell me the characters.”  I described Arpad and Rauch; on the way to find Lily.  A character based on Daughter #2.

“Where are they?”  I guess Arpad is at a hotel.  Rauch leaves as this is not a novel.

“When is it?” I thought she meant in the future.  She meant during the day.  “So the guy goes to dinner or something.”

Brilliant!  This is brought to you by her.

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Moar Haiku

As the end of Lent draws near, I’m not planning on abandoning daily writing and posting.  I guess like finally going to a gym and sticking with it for over a month it becomes a habit that feels good.  But I am going to restructure things.  This weekend is an example of that.

I’m still so tired from my day-job that I do need a little time to stare at the walls.  So whether they’re haiku or iambic pentameter, weekends will be fluff.  In the background, I’m still writing:  I put down 498 words just now on what will likely be another 3-4 day micro-story.  It’s an unpleasant character doing unpleasant things but I do believe in pushing myself.

The reedit of T4L & EFL continues.  I’m planning on creating my 99designs.com project for a new T4L cover tomorrow (early-bird warning to any illustrators who follow me!) and I need to format – and RENAME – ‘Defiant’ into 6″ x 9″ w/chapters format.  Boring!  But it must be done.

Here’s a poem.  Below the fold is a tiny personal message.

Spending all my time

In the world inside my mind

You’re older; soon gone!

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MachCiv Dreams – “W’Ai’de Awake 4” (end)*

*As in:  I think this is the end of this little story.  There are some odd notions drifting around the back of my mind and I kinda want to see if I can write them down.  I know, I know… another tanjed cliffhanger.  I’m a terrible person.  If you really want to know what happened to Pavel, I know a place to find out.

But first, let’s have an argument at the office.

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MachCiv Dreams – “W’Ai’de Awake” 3

Apologies for going dark yesterday:  while a personal and Lenten challenge to lay down at least 500 words each day, my wife and daughter #2 were kind enough to pass their headcolds onto me.  That, plus coming down off another long RealLife (TM) work-week rendered me useless on Saturday.

Oh, yes, this:  from the files of ‘no such things as coincidences,’ the family in the pew in front of us at Mass this morning had a son & daughter in their early teens.  From the little smiles when they whispered to each other and the completely unselfconscious physical contact they shared, I could not help but grin, imagining I was sitting behind Gary and Faustina.  Good kids!

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MachCiv Dreams: “W’Ai’de Awake” 2

It’s a lousy pun, but it’s mine.  So there.

It looks as if were going to be learning about Ai’s first interactions with her father.  That also means her interactions with humans in general.  Honestly, I’m a bit curious, myself.  Must be why I decided to come back to it.

I had to go ask my older teenaged daughter what you call those long strands of hair in front of your ears.  It’s good to have experts to draw upon when writing!

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MachCivDreams: “W’Ai’de Awake”

I do not know if I’ll continue with this or not; if I do, I’ll have to retcon a title.  That’s fine.

At wit’s end, after trying to catch up on Winter season’s anime, my wife and I trudged upstairs from our pellet stove-warmed basement.  The best things about best friends is that they tell you the truth.

“If there was one thing you really wanted to know about my world, Machine Civilization, what would it be?”

This was  not a shot in the dark.  She’d read the end of WWE this morning and knew I was at loose ends.

“How were they made?  Ai, and everyone else?” She asked.

Well, hot diggity damn.

There are things that, as a creator, you DO NOT DO:  explain jokes, explain magic tricks, explain creation.

So much for #3.

Nope:  I refuse to be drawn into a technical discussion about coding AI’s.  But, you know what I like?  My regular readers do:  I adore my character’s conversations!  In my first trad novel, The Fourth Law, Ai, at her friend Lily’s question, briefly touched on her awakening.  Okay.  What was that like?

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MCD – Worlds Without End (end)*

*See what I did there?

Yesterday’s impression – and I don’t do impressions – was correct:  the eighth installment was a good place to stop.  However, I’d already written most of this last, and did not want it to go to waste.  I’ve even seen a little beyond it, one of the dangers of writing, but Gary & Henge’s micro-story is at a close.  For now.  The coda, below, features Faustina, who, sooner than later, will have her own book.

What’s – or rather – who’s next in my Machine Civilization Dreams series…?

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MCD – Worlds Without End 6

I guess I could subtitle this one, On the Beach.  Henge and Gary get a visit from a friend they’ve not seen in almost a year.  And she’s bringing big news; news that’s fraught with emotion for our couple.

I see at least two more entries for this storyline.  Will I see more?  Should I move  on?  The world wonders.

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MCD – Worlds Without End 5

Mmmm… stir-fried southwest chicken for burritos!  Spanish rice… refried beans!  Things I don’t eat on my low-carb lifestyle.  If I drank less, I could eat worse…

Not happening.

Besides what’s on the table, Gary recalls the taste of his Intended and what is perhaps a bitter taste of his future…?

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