“Coming Back to Life”

Yes, it’s a Pink Floyd reference. As many know, I’ve been silent here for months, and that’s all on me. When I published my twentieth book, it was as if a switch was thrown in my mind: “you’re finished.” I wasn’t, of course. Irrational Pai is after all called the “first book of the Civil Wars,” implying several more. It’s just I didn’t care. And, there was a thousand last-minute things to do before selling a property in June; I’ve been sick on and off since last November – although I did give up hard alcohol at the start of July.

My reboot, as it were, came on Thursday evening at Imaginarium. I had commited myself and my fellow writers, the Lemurs, to five short stories based around the theme of “Underground.” Physically? Politically? Didn’t matter: stick to the theme, just as we did last year with our Cartaphilus theme. So, I hammered something out in just under three hours. It sucked, of course – we’re going for speed, not grace – but has since been flogged into something nigh-well respectable.

Further, it was enough to get past the reboot screen and keep going. I was asked to participate in another anthology, this one with the theme of “Captured!” In order to keep things close to me, I did what I did at Imaginarium: I wrote about something related to the coming Civil Wars (note the plural) in my future history. Selfish? Sure, but it works. And, it worked well enough I just finished the raw MS of another story.

It’s good to be back. My apologies for my absence. I shall begin posting segments later this afternoon. Deus vult.

PGI, 14 (resumption)

I’m comfortable enough with where the anthology is to get back to work. This, for all contented porpoises, will be Part Three of the novel. I not only introduce the character everyone has been talking about, but here and the next few segments get off into weeds about what is a new race and what might be some of the implications of that. Very interesting.

Kinda funny that it opens with Graf recovering from his flu. Last week I was sick for four days, with the third giving me a very high fever, chills, and shakes so bad my wife had to help me to the bathroom. All one week after my flu shot. Gotta love Big Pharma. I’m sending Elon a precis for a startup making crosses; there are going to be a lot of people hanging from them shortly.

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Iter, 1/x

This will be the 11th and last addition to my 19th book, another short story collexion. It, unfortunately, again deals with death. And how the spouse of that person deals with their death. I again apologize for all these depressing stories, and will try to do something much more fun and entertaining, next.

All demi-humans have longer lifespans. Those who have lived in close physical proximity (which Laszlo has not) to Henge Hartmann even more so. But they still die and are smart enough to not deny that and thus can make plans for it. As an android, Minerva (please be polite when reading and pronounce it in your head correctly: mee-nur-wa) is effectively immortal. As a Model 12, she has living skin, which she feeds via something like a TPN every three days, which was replaced about fifty years ago.

Iter will be wall-to-wall grief and politics. If that’s not your thing, I’ll be back, later. Otherwise, here we go…

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Red Rain, 11/11, End

Welp, not where I thought it would go, but there it is. And, better for a lazy writer like me, it didn’t really “end” as we don’t know what happens one second later. However, all in all, it was an interesting exercise in allegory, even if heavy handed in a few places.

I’m already starting on my next and final project for my third collection. It will be much shorter than this but at least four times as depressing. I need to make book #20 into some kind of fun novel. There are millions of stories out there in hundreds of my characters; I just need to listen. Thanks, everyone, for reading along.

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Red Rain, 10/11

I’ve finished, but the last segment will need to be flogged a little bit more. In RealLife, still on semi-vacation, everyone else went out on the lake while I wrote, edited, and sent emails for the Lemur Throne Anthology, which I plan to publish on Christmas Day 2024. That’s fine; I don’t really like bodies of water and the sun turns me into a seeping blister.

Believe it or not, these last two parts, as Akky scales Building Three, was from an old memory of Bruce Lee’s Game of Death, and his fights to the top. There is nothing as remotely interesting here, but I take what inspiration I’m allowed to see.

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Red Rain, 8/x

A lot going on in this segment. Akky is true to herself in two ways: she recognizes she loves Nike and also that she’s willing to try anything to leave the Land Inside the Walls.

Following the mysterious conversation she has at the end, here, we start on something of a rollercoaster ride toward the end of her story. To quote Han Solo, “I’ve a very bad feeling about this.”

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Red Rain, 7/x

Last weekend was Imaginarium. It went very well and I need to write something about it. That will probably be in 1-2 poasts. In the mean time, I wanted to get this story back on rails as I’ve now a very good idea where it concludes.

Following her encounter with little Silver, Akky gets a tiny glimpse into her and her brother’s backstory. It stirs her own memories just enough to make her contrarian, if not deadly, nature, come to the surface.

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Red Rain, 6/x

What an astonishingly poor RealLife early morning. I woke up around 0200, confused; didn’t even know where I was. Fortunately recognized my wife and started asking: where are we? what’s the time? are our daughters here? Needless to say, she thought I was having a stroke, flicked the light on, and did a FAST check, which was negative. I was able to barely go back to sleep, but woke up when people were talking and playing music on our front street. Again, wife sits up; “there’s no one out there.” A somewhat rough few hours later, I texted DayJob I was in no condition to be dispensing meds and that I’d come in tomorrow. Personally? I think I did have a small brain bleed. Oh, well: getting old.

More importantly, Nike flirts a little with Akaiame, as he knows she likes him. The idea of the priests is re-introduced, followed by a non-specific warning about the Wall around this place. Two days later, she has an encounter with a Little Broken, who says something which causes her to have a breakdown.

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Red Rain, 5/x

Busy day, Saturday. Helped Daughter #1 get a car to replace the one she totaled the Wednesday before; while that was going on, Daughter #2 texts she’s at the airport and ready to be picked up. So, I was bouncing around everywhere. Did anything else happen Saturday?

With Akaiame, we learn a little more about the Broken and the town of humans. Several other things are mentioned but remain a mystery for right now. As this will be a busy week for me in the RealWorld, I imagine these segments will pause for the coming weekend.

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