And now, having been given a glimpse of the beginning of ‘Crosses & Doublecrosses,’ and now the end of it, you might understand why I really never wanted to write the 60k words in between. Awful people.
Easter Egg in the Open: give me five LIKES and I’ll post the coda.
One week of Lent left! What to write about now?
I remember taking a class on Shakespeare in my Junior year in high school. I’d imagine that in most schools, these days, dead white males such as him are not even taught anymore. The only memory I have was a class discussion having to do with the sonnets. I’ve no idea what it was, but this little cute pixy at my right spoke up in favor of what’d I’d said. I’d never noticed her before, but when you’re seventeen and suddenly look over to a cute, bright, smiling face inches from yours… memories are funny things.
Tomorrow? ExComm. Awful people doing awful things.
One coin with two sides
Love and Death spin in the air
Careful how it’s caught
*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.
Continue reading “MachCiv Dreams – “W’Ai’de Awake 4” (end)*”
Not knowing much, well, anything, about international copyrights, this could best be called fanfiction. The main character here, Nike, plays a not-insignificant role in my forthcoming novel, Defiant.
This story takes place in a world created by Yoshitoshi ABe nearly twenty years ago. It yielded an anime that – while dated – is one of the most powerful and compelling stories I’ve ever experienced. For a non-Christian, ABe had an amazingly Catholic vision.
And yes: I do know who’s in the cocoon.
Yeah, it’s not the best title, but it captures what these are: micro (micro, tanjit! no 18k light novels!) stories from my world of Machine Civilization. It keep me writing and sane, at least one of which is a good thing.
Below the fold is after “Cursed Hearts.” A friend of Cat’s begins to get her life back together, just to see that interrupted. Spoilers.
From a few in-person, including my wife, but mostly via email. Why almost no one ever leaves comments here, I don’t know.
There was much unhappiness how I wrapped up Defiant Act 2.5: at the pool with Joe’s diagnosis. If I were to distill is all down, I guess “casually tossing out a main character!” would be the flak I caught.
Yeah. I did. Because this was never meant to be a coherent novel, but a nine-month long writing exercise, the break from Acts 2 and 3 was huge. 2.5 was meant to be a bridge; but, it seems that like the Lewis & Clarke, it was a bridge too far. The anchor issue is that Joe MUST have cancer and go to Japan for treatment: he’s on the boat back to Portland with Maya in “Cursed Hearts.”
Is it the hyper-sexualized environment of the pool, and the emotional whiplash after, when Nichole5 realizes her First Friend is sick? A human girl would have no idea about his illness and banged him then and there. Nichole5 chose to shatter the moment for everyone in face of what she sees as a medical emergency.
Perhaps I went too far, too fast. I’ll give some thought as to how I might re-write this. Suggestions welcome, as I see nothing, right now.
Defiant began life as a writing exercise. What if, I thought, during NaNoWriMo – which I am not formally taking part – I made a writing exercise of my writing exercise? My slovenly, lay-about, unemployed wife suggested that she study some training manuals while I write each night.
“Fine. Forty five minutes.”
“Why that?”
“Ten to immerse, thirty to write, five imbedded to tactical edit on the fly.”
“Okay.”
We started Monday. Not being an idiot, I’ve built in a 3-day lag for the blog, for RealLife(TM) events. Dailies, these will be shorter than my typical additions. I enjoy the exercise.
