Now we get a look at the other side of the hill. Fussy is obviously up to something and we’ll have to see just how diplomatic Johnston can be once he arrives. Telling that he goes to his boss’ father for advice rather than the current president of the GSS.
Updates may take a hit as there are unwelcome RealWorld matters I’ll need to see to. Even so, I’d like to think I’ll have this story complete within a week.
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Continue reading “Annexation (3/4?)”Fusion comes in at 4400 words and shall be a part of my next collection. Looking at the scrap of paper I made before Christmas, there were seven ideas on it. One was folded into Martian Wonderland and another here. As of this typing, no one in my head has given me the slightest idea as to what to do, next.
With Ash Wednesday, perhaps that’s why: I need a small break. No, of course I’ll not give up writing for Lent – that would kill me – but a little pause right now might be in order. My liver certainly thinks so.
As has so often happened before, be it music or images, the image at the end has been behind my eyes for much of this. I had no idea who she was; my oldest daughter explained it to me. Hope to see everyone no later than a week from today with a new story.
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Continue reading “Fusion (5/5 – End)”Something I thought of a few days ago is how much time I spend on the greater Hartmann clan. My future history, after all, is called Machine Civilization. I’m going to keep this story focused on Thinking Machines, even if it is being told by a human.
In that regard, we get a little expo on Tay, then back to Dorina. I just set myself two of their days to get this resolved, so I think I’m on track for getting this complete in five parts.
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Continue reading “Fusion (3/5)”The last story of my second collection is entitled Broken Child. Lem is a three-year-old boy and the son of Roland, who is the son of Gary, Empress Faustina’s brother, and Skylar. Roland is demi-human and Sky an albino. It seems there was just enough genetic stress to trigger something very similar to Batten Disease in the boy. Fortunately, they have very clever friends, including Dorina, a Thinking Machine from tribe Tohsaka and the smartest person on earth. She diagnoses Lem and says he can only be cured at an equipotential flux point of a fusion reaction. With only one such reactor left on earth, in former China, Fussy’s fourteen-year-old daughter, Ildi, demi-human, is dispatched to negotiate. Things happen, and days later, Dorina tries to effect her magic. But, something is awry and matters do not go as planned. That’s where things open, below.
I picked part one of five out of the air as, again, I want this to be a SHORT story, not a novella. That means things have to happen fast, no matter what I may want to say. This story will be tech-heavy with reactors, genetics, etc. There will also be a large amount of politics, as we’ll see when Ildi starts talking.
Nurse Practitioner Tamera Keynes has been affiliated with the Hartmanns since Fussy was in her late teens. Fussy did not want too many of her family in the rump state of Chu at one time, so put her in charge. The story will be from her POV.
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Continue reading “Fusion (1/5)”My wife, some months back, expressed an interest to know more about Henge. I’ve mentioned here before that what I saw was sort of an Arwen/Elessar moment: Gary was dead and Henge gave up her life. I did not want to have my next collection in on that note, so I’ve brought her into the picture here, showing a glimpse of what a completely different form of life can do.
I’m almost finished with part 6/5 (yea, me), and am trying to condense what brought all of this to a head, while still sounding reasonable. Yes, reasonable people don’t don suicide vests but fanaticism does strange things to the mind. Ultimately, there is either a person or central committee behind this carnage. Driven by hate, sure, but a cold, rational hate to plan and execute something like this.
In Berserker and Regent, we have seen what Aurie can physically do when she thinks her friends are threatened. I think internal matters of the imperium are going to get worse before they get better.
Happy weekend, all.
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Continue reading “Succession (5/5)”“When stuck or in doubt, blow shit up; kill people,” said an old friend of mine, Columbus’ best graphic artist. And that is where we are.
It’s interesting that whereas Ivan said there were two more, there are, as you’ll see, more than that. That’s how cells work: cut off from one another with only the bare information to get done whatever a central committee wants done.
Hindsight being 20/20, I think there will be six parts. The next deals with immediate aftermath of the terrorist attack – Aurie’s mom, Henge, gets a chance to literally shine. Part 6/5 will be several hours, perhaps a day, later, when the Hartmanns try to piece together what happen, and more importantly, why.
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Continue reading “Succession (4/5)”First short of the next collection complete (barring copyediting, of course). I’m rather please for how I wrapped it up, keeping with the religious and life-affirming themes of my works (barring all those people Fussy and Aurie have killed, of course; that’s war, not murder – a critical distinction).
My future history is called Machine Civilization, but there are times where it’s all humans, or sometimes humans and demis. I’m glad I was able to get tribe Toshsaka back into the fray. Many no longer have any relationship with physicals at all. Nice to see Thaad, eldest Thinking Machine on Earth, is still about.
I don’t think it’s prurient to mention Colour’s post-coital response. I recall a million years ago, BC (before children), when my wife was overseas on assignment in the Far East for a mere six months. I made sure she couldn’t walk much the next day; funny thing was, with those muscles out of use, I couldn’t much either.
Trying to piece my way through a second story. Having people talk to themselves, by themselves, is not really engaging to the reader, so, like an orb, I am pondering things.
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Continue reading “Colour of Maine (3/3)”Good place to pause, going into a weekend. There’s a bit more, but I’m not sure if it will be in Part 5 or the Epilogue. I’ll have to see where it best fits.
You have to admire the subtlety of what is being done to Allie. The Great Powers of the Polar Alliance cannot trust one another with the full ramifications of the discoveries she made, so it became a matter of “it’s your problem now! Good luck!”
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Continue reading ““The Fallen” 5/14″Thirteen days to go. Churning out about 1200 words per day (had to deck the damn tree yesterday; humbug). As you can see from the end of this segment, things are about to get very politically dangerous: a mention of the Jap spaceforce – as large as the Rus and imperium, combined (imaging me writing that on Pearl Harbor Day) followed by the elephant in the room; that is, the device behind the waterfall in the cavern. This is rather like the penultimate scene in “The Good, the Bad, the Ugly”: who shoots first?
As I have broken through my 50k word ceiling for this story, it’s a matter of wrapping it up and editing the crap out of it. That should leave me five months to write two more. I think at least one will be another collection but with a novella at its core. I’d like to write about the sorely neglected Habsburg Empire, but will do what I’m told.
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Continue reading ““The Fallen” 5/13″Interesting that, while I once had a character refer to a much younger Empress Faustina as “a tremendous bitch,” it seems that Aurie and Annie are right up there, too. Perhaps it is the years of stress of autocracy which lends to callous behavior? Or, does a person need a callous soul to accept the burden of rule?
I’m excited to see what the years have done with Reina. I’d best write that, now. I bet Allie looks cute with a band-aid over her nose after that fall. In the mean time, I need to look up the name of the Jap emperor; that was two books ago and I’ve forgotten. Sucks to get old.
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Continue reading ““The Fallen” 5/12″
machciv 