Category: Crosses & Doublecrosses

Euphoria

I wrote much of this last night on bottle #2.  After Mass this morning and a few household chores I returned to it.  It stank.  Deleted and re-wrote the second half of the dream sequence then was surprised that it was Dorina on the phone and not Thaad.  These machines are like kudzu:  cropping up everywhere you least expect them.

The next day Sylvia has her first full day at her office job.  I know you guys CANNOT WAIT for that dramatic installment…  And for the person who sent me the question:  no, she and Jones do not have a relationship.  I think.

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Hide and Seek

We start to learn a little more about the man who built ExComm:  Clive Barrett.  My mental model for him is a cross between Felicks Dzerzhinsky and James Jesus Angleton.  NOT a healthy combination!

I had planned a slightly surreal soliliquy by Barrett about what-all he’s trying to accomplish with ExComm but it simply would not fit:  the man is too much a monster and the words didn’t work in his mouth.  I’ve already about 800 words after this scene and once I see Sylvia back to her flat I think things are going to take a turn for the surreal.  That’s fine; I have never gone fully surreal and I like to push my own limits with each new book.

But for now, here’s Sylvia talking FTF with her boss.  Cheerio.

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Unknown Knowns

Had today off.  Saw a little of the political dynamic of Sylvia and the OKC politician.  The fact that Ninon, one of the three machines that has never spoken to humans just spoke up made my fingers twitch so much I could barely type.

PS  My use of “Look homeward, angel” is from Milton’s Lycidas.  I’d no idea that Tom Wolfe, whom I admire, used it for a book title.  Another moment when the intarwebs steer you to a place you do not want to be; and, if you don’t prepossess the knowledge, you are led to something wrong.

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A Punitive Lesson

My characters are almost always on the move:  going hither and yon.  Is that because I’m a rather sedentary person?  I’m usually sitting to read, write, or watch an anime or movie.  When I was young, even into college, I enjoyed going for drives, just to see what was over the next hill.

When did I lose that?  And why?

Below the fold, Sylvia gets a summons and receives some startling news.  I’m wondering when the plot will show up…

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A New Republic

As what’s left of the US celebrates so-called Independence Day (Virginia’s motion on independence was approved on July 2nd; the Declaration was adopted by Congress on July 4th) I spend my time alone writing about the Breakup and the new Republic of Texas.  And the horrible steps being taking to make sure that new state survives its difficult birth.

Below the fold, I practice a style of writing called “letter writing.”  Very popular in the late 19th Century and mildly successful in the 20th.  Colleen McCoullough made great use of it in the first two books of her Masters of Rome series, which sold about a billion copies.  Who am I to argue with what works?

I suspect WordPress formatting will bugger this up to a large degree, but I’ll do what I can.  Happy Declaration Adoption Day!

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Grasping the Nettle of Power

Fam was at the zoo today with the relatives from Hungary.  I’m off DayJob so started writing on the deck around 1100.  At 1330 had to come in as it was just too hot outside.  Still too cheap to turn the AC on, though!

Productive noontime:  about 2k words the close of Part One.  Tempted then tortured (so to speak), Sylvia makes her choice.  I wonder where it will lead?  I may write a bit more this evening but right now I need to review some materials for the book cover of “Worlds Without End.”  For Part Two I really need to get into the letter-writing/journal-entry thing to cover ground fast… it’s just not something I’ve done so I keep falling back into these dialogs that have driven all of my stories.  Dang.

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Resurrecting the Past

I am all in:  I am going to complete the idea I had years ago called “Crosses and Doublecrosses.”  The original would have been an espionage/police procedural of over 500 pages.  I cannot stay there so long nor write it down.  This will be a novella in three acts about the temptation of the hotshot NYC lawyer Sylvia Fernandez.

I’m planning on much exposition about the background of Machine Civilization and what happens to her via the “letter” trope that authors such as C. McCullough used to such effectiveness in her early ‘Masters of Rome’ series.

I always wanted to do something different for each of my books.  This is.  Here we go.

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