This not the short I originally saw. After last night’s tragic news, I wanted to a little more about the West’s current attempt at suicide. But, there’s still hope. Hope, much like Evil, can often be found in the most unlikely places.
Thanks, everyone, for reading this story. I think I’ll try to make ‘Defiant’ into a proper novel, but I’m taking the rest of this weekend off.
Left DayJob an hour early. When my boss asked why, I told her: I’m ending the Cold War. She really should know better than to speak to me.
There’s still a short coda I want to write, as this has been the oddest writing exercise in my life. It began as just another escapade into Machine Civilization. That mold broke very quickly, becoming an allegory of the Cold War, something only oldsters like me recall.
Old? Very: Tuesday was the 25th Anniversary of my better half and I. Either her standards are very low, or I’m much better in bed than I realize. Likely the former.
Once I write the coda – tomorrow – this will end up being about 18-19k words. Who publishes ‘historical allegories’, these days?
Thanks, everyone, for reading!
Continue reading “Pirate Twins 14, The Bridge at Andau, Reprised”
This was, originally, two posts: I really wanted to get up and ahead one in case an outbreak of RealLife (TM) prevented me from finishing this no later than Friday.
But, it just didn’t work. It was awful. So I moved a couple of things and smoothed the transition (but I bet y’all can still see where it is) and am posting it. Your win, my loss. Sorta.
Towards the end of this, I had to make a trip to the toilet. I saw a new character from my old past. That just pushed this to #20 episodes. Shoot me.
I’m beginning to think I should turn this into a sub-folder before it takes over this blog. I’ve never done a flash-fiction series in this weblog before, and am not entire clear on the visual dynamics of how to effectively present it. Suggestions welcome.
As I mentioned on Gab.ai, I’d paused this right before Europa came out mad. I’d not seen that. My family and I went to the Saturday 1700 Mass. The OT reading, from Jerimiah, was about J telling God, “You duped me!” Sitting there in the pew, I started grinning like more of an idiot as the rest of #11 opened in my mind.
There are no such things as coincidences.
Was originally going to stop this whole thing at #10. Momentum and the gathering thereof. So, maybe #15. This is a little shorter, as there’s not that much talking in it: Logres and Europa get some together-time and use their mouths for something else. If you’re below the age of twelve, this segment has icky-mushy stuff in it. You’ve been warned.
It’s the weekend, so I think I’ll get another drink and go ahead and write #11.
Thanks be to God, I’m able to write again. My wife made bag-in-the-skillet dinner, a minor victory for her, freeing up an hour for me. Don’t mistake: I enjoy making dinner for my family – for the same reason I enjoyed being a design engineer or enjoy writing: the creativity. But when HAVE to write… well, other writers understand. Last night I was a basket-case: alien to myself.
Anyway. Who’s up for a road trip to Lubeck?
Learning to stop myself when I know the next dialog sequence between the characters. That allows me 24 hours to play with the beginning of the next section. Thus: I saw the first ten lines between Logres and Libby yesterday. I know what they talk about when the cross the Channel tonight. As to what happens next, I’ll know before I sit back down to write in 23 hours.
Sneaky, old, clever, and lazy works for me.
Skipped dinner to knock this out. I’ll grab some cheese before bed. I introduce three new characters in 1200 words. I hope that violates MANY guides to Proper Writing. Not sure where this is going tomorrow night, but I’m pretty sure busty, bossy Libby will be in it!
One of the things about getting back on track is getting back to work: writing. Usually talking FTF with Friend Will is enough to keep me going for about four weeks; we’ll see how this goes after Matsuricon.
Like a tiny version of “Defiant,” Pirate Twins was always no more than a little writing exercise. I’ve, honestly, been surprised by the feedback about “when are you finishing it?!” I know my other ‘big’ project is writing Act 2.5 of “Defiant” then editing that into another novel, but if I do that, PT is dead for months.
As a +/- 1k daily project, I was able to lay down about 900 today. I’d actually more, but quickly realized that was part 7, so: tomorrow.
It’s good to be back and writing.
