Category: Second Bridge

Oath Breakers

I’m credibly informed they do not keep your breath fresh.

Less than 36 hours after my declaration that “I’m not writing anything new this year!”… I saw something.

No, I’m not writing anything new in November  (he dessemulates); I’m far too busy for the Book Fair of the 17th and the release of “F&R” three weeks later!

But.  I saw the cover of my next book.  It’s bright to dark as you look right to left.  You see the sides of four older teenagers:  machine Henge, with her purple hair & gold eyes looks at her intended, human Gary with love. He returns that look, while back to back with his sister Faustina, with her dark hair & glittering turquoise eyes, as she looks to the figure in shadow on the cover’s left, tempting her to evil.

This is going to be seriously awesome. I’ve explored a little of this in my ‘Second Bridge’ and ‘Worlds Without End’ writing exercises, even noting at the time that Faustina needs her own novel…

That time is soon.

https://machciv.com/category/worlds-without-end/

https://machciv.com/category/second-bridge/

The Second Bridge, Coda, pt5 (end)

Short?  Sure it is.  Abrupt?  I don’t think so.  Lampshade hung?  I thought I did, both in the main story and this coda.

Consider:  the “short” story of ‘The Second Bridge’ came in at 11.4k words.  This “little” bonus ending is 4900 words.  Sometimes, no matter how interesting these people are, I need to walk away for other projects.

To wit:  my copyeditor has returned the 2nd edition of ‘Echoes of Family Lost.’  This weekend shall be spent implementing those changes.  I tell you:  no matter how you might prize your storytelling, when an editor hands back a manuscript – that you thought was fine – essentially bleeding red ink… it’s an incredibly humbling experience.

Thanks, everyone, for reading about Henge and her families.  I hope you love them all as much as I do.  After this weekend’s editing, we’ll be off again!

Continue reading “The Second Bridge, Coda, pt5 (end)” →

The Second Bridge, Coda, pt4

Question:  is there anyone, besides me, stupid enough to think that I would wrap things up tonight?  I really planned and wanted to.  It’s all in my head!  But it’s already 1.5L bottle of wine o’clock and tomorrow’s DayJob promises to be awful.

Part Five is it!  I swear!  Even if I have to wait three days and make it 10k words long!

Continue reading “The Second Bridge, Coda, pt4” →

The Second Bridge, Coda, pt3

Ate dinner.  Put down 800 words.  No one else here.  Why the heck not keep going? So:  1200.

I’ll be wrapping all this up – well, sorta – in part 4.  Gary figures out what he wants to do with his life and we flick back to ‘present time’ with Lauren and Henge riding home after fishing.  I learned something very surprising about present-time Henge today!

Continue reading “The Second Bridge, Coda, pt3” →

The Second Bridge, Coda, pt2

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.

Continue reading “The Second Bridge, Coda, pt2” →

The Second Bridge, Coda, pt1

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.

Continue reading “The Second Bridge, Coda, pt1” →

Apocryphal Henge

When she was young, she never smiled like this. Now that she’s older and has changed states, I wanted to pass this along.  Made by Tracy Michallow of StarArtWorks.  She and her husband are quite talented; please give them a visit!

I’ve paddled about my future history and have so far not come up with where I’m going next.  I have to have an answer tomorrow, or I’ll die.  And, what the hell am I supposed to rename “Defiant”?!

Continue reading “Apocryphal Henge” →

The Second Bridge, pt.11

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?!

Continue reading “The Second Bridge, pt.11” →

The Second Bridge, pt.10

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.

Continue reading “The Second Bridge, pt.10” →