This is taking on a life of its own. Just as most of my stories do. I’m not letting myself get dragged into a discussion of biomechanics for pt3, so I’ll deal with that as quickly as I can. Especially as I’ve heard Gary’s last words in the last scene. I must return to the 2nd edition of Echoes of Family Lost and the copy-edit of The Saga of Nichole5.
I also must keep writing each day. Tricky, that.
I was just tooling around the keyboard, kinda thinking I’d write a story about Faustina. I wrote two paragraphs. Two days went by. Nothing. I looked at the third paragraph.
“I can turn this into a glimpse both into what happened after Henge was made, as well as a tinier glimpse eighteen months into her future.”
And…
“Who’s Lauren?”
I deleted the first two paragraphs and tried again.
“Hasten slowly.” Twenty quatloos – and a free, signed copy of the second edition of “The Fourth Law” to the first person who identifies who is best known for that quote: hasten slowly.
It begins to come out that while they are total strangers, Arpad and Lily do know quite a bit about one another. And it seems they both like what they’ve discovered. Lily’s past is still a splinter in her mind; I know that there are things as bad in his. He’s old enough that his father could have been in the AVO, and so despised. Hell, maybe he’s Orban’s love child?… we’ll see!
It’s lunch time and the sun’s warm!
PS And yes, that’s Lily’s silhouette in the center in black. Cute girl.
Nasty outbreak of DayJob, today: my boss’s dotted-line boss was in for the annual audit. I did my best to stay invisible. In that time, I was able to see far beyond what I’ve written here. But, it was a 10-hour day, so: rest.
I have to tell this from Arpad’s POV because I didn’t understand just how – even with Ai’s family – how alone Lily is as she approaches thirty years old. I’m not cutting her parts out, but limiting them for poignancy.
Wow. All this in five hours. Sorry, folks, I’m taking tomorrow off or else I’m dead.
I’m hoping to see something that takes me off in a new direxion tomorrow. 11k words here is, I think, enough. I am SO HAPPY things ended up where they are. Sure: I can go full Will Deonne and have Henge’s nanomaterials disassociate her into a drift of sand on the floor, but I don’t think I will.
Sweet Jesus: what will their children be like?!
Funny that I’ve yet to reach the plot point that made me laugh out loud while driving to work yesterday. Perhaps tomorrow. Whether 500 or 5000 words, I need to create a permanent or temporary close to this story: the professional edit and new cover for my first novel “The Fourth Law” are complete and I need those uploaded to Createspace. The cover is the easy part. The text body has to go from Word to pdf, wherein I edit and move, then request a physical proof for review. I’ve done this three times already, but at about once every nine months I drink too much to recall the details.
Below the fold, I’d had some conversations recently with some in the medical field about challenges that might be faced by new-made humans.
Shorter, as I culled out the mirrored conversation from the side of the Machines: Dorina, Henge, Ai, Shandor, Barnabas taking control of the reactors and manifestation chamber. If I ever turn this into a novel I’ll put it back in. Still and all, a taut little scene, I think!
Much better now. My wife made the astute observation: “this is going to kill you.”
Of course it will! But I rather die in a weltering of my stories than a drugged plant in front of the teevee, shoveling cheesy-puffs into my mouth.
Below, originally from my second novel, Echoes of Family Lost, are two now very old friends talking shop.
Saw much while at work today: project manager Chinon’s surprise when Dorina tells him she’ll be running things at Chise’s brief restart; Shandor’s possible betrayal (and thus Thaad’s possible reaxion); Pius XIII on his knees in his office in the Vatican, praying; a certain door to a certain chamber opening… as the thin rug of reality that gets torn out from under Leslie…
So I saw that. But I’m very tired and do not want to screw it all up for everyone. Please, grant me a night for them to let me dream their details. Confused? You won’t be after tomorrow’s episode of The Second Bridge.
PS You really, really think there are such things as coincidences? This showed up, today, of all days!
Going from Dayjob to this is once again exhausting me. I really would like to see this story to its close, but I might need to go quiet and rest for a day or two. We’ll see. Thanks for everyone’s tacit encouragement.
machciv 