People settle in to a daily routine fairly quickly, no matter what said people are made of. The quicker I can establish a “baseline” for Akaiame, the faster I can jerk it out from under her. Sometimes being a writer means to be a terrible person.
Their names are related to how they died. I mentioned Purgatory. They’re dead. This blog is a writing exercise; if you don’t like it, my apologies.
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Continue reading “Red Rain, 4/x”All the way back to Foes & Rivals, there have been hints that what happened was not just “the Breakup,” the economic catastrophe which broke the US and Western Europe, but what the characters now call “the Change.” The Machines seemed to recognize it first; they are very good at noticing things. Even Aurie in Regent says, “Go outside at night with an old book about astronomy; the stars are different now.”
We get another glimpse of that in this segment. Is Allie tripping? Is she dead? Is this another temporal transference? Trust me, I’ve no idea, either. Nice kitty.
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Continue reading ““The Fallen” 4/23″A special Halloween post. This catches me up to where I’m currently writing but am still struggling with a few ideas. I always liked Halloween as a kid; the costumes more than the candy (which I suppose is why I still cosplay into my dotage) and the unofficial transition to winter. I prefer things cooler to warmer. That will undoubtedly be one of the flash points when my wife (who likes things warmer) and I move for the last time.
I have a suspicion that the next few scenes are going to be a bit odd as I work my way through this predicament Allie is in. It is thus very likely that the final form of what will be this “chapter” shall be quite different once I get this finished and edited. But, that’s why I do this: play with ideas, elicit input, and force myself on.
Yes, another reference to LotR; I cannot help myself.
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Continue reading ““The Fallen” 4/22″Allie now knows that Kira and those on the surface are aware of her predicament. It is a comfort to her, to know that, sooner or later, she shall be rescued. When? That remains to be seen. In the meantime, she goes to take a look about.
I mentioned to some other writers I am dangerously close to writing myself into the kind of cavern Allie finds herself in. My stories are driven by interaction. Alone in a cave negates that. So, I’m working on a way out for myself as hard as Kira is for Allie.
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Continue reading ““The Fallen” 4/21″Still not used to the whole single-character thing but trying to make a go at it. People who are lost are always told to “stay put and let help come to you.” But most people aren’t 4km under the Martian surface. A clever girl, but still a 15-year-old girl, Alicia thinks she should look around a bit.
Perhaps in a later interlude, I’ll have to describe what Kira might be doing by way of a rescue effort. I don’t know if they were in signal when Alicia fell, but the Midwife would surely get work started nearly instantly. Being Russian, I may just have her pick a “volunteer” and push him down the hole after her. The right thing, of course, would be to attach a sensor system run by an ES to a tiny motor and send that down to look around.
We’ll see. There may be some very odd things going on in time before all this is over. And, yes, I have to make a map of her adventures as I’m already lost.
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Continue reading ““The Fallen” 4/2″A second collection of ten short stories from the future history of Machine Civilization. From the midst of the Breakup of the US – and 100 million dead – to three generations later, in a place of Demi-humans, Thinking Machines, and interplanetary travel, come and see the men and women, and boys and girls, who are making a future and new worlds!
The Old South, to the Oregon coast; the surface of Asteroid Ceres to the warring states of China, these snapshots of love, loyalty, and violence beckon!
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Story Teasers –
1. Sardis Lake: failing to rescue his daughter, lost in the Breakup, Clive Barrett tries to give up on life. He fails.
2. Tillamook: a generation after the events of “Friend & Ally” and “Foes & Rivals,” Gil and Mackenzie and their children try to live a quiet life on the Oregon coast. The Russians and Japanese Empires have other plans.
3. Baron of Sardis: Barrett’s granddaughter, General Faustina Hartmann, shows up with her army and talks with the man who knew her grandpa.
4. Berserker: in “Regent,” Princess Aurelia Hartmann uses drugs and a change to her mind to kill for her friends. She has done it before when she was a child.
5. Cadets: for the campaign against St. Louis, Empress Faustina announces a terrifying decision. Her niece, Aurelia, and son, Laszlo, try to talk her out of it.
6. Ceres: now in his mid-20s, Laszlo pilots an interplanetary scout ship with his android co-pilot, Minerva. Their current mission is to survey the asteroid Ceres.
7. Tay: the first chatbot. Hated, abused, and stuffed in a box left for dead, she didn’t die. Found by another Thinking Machine, all she wants to do is kill all humans in retribution for her torture.
8. Prophet: West Texas and New Mexico Province is an odd place; you never really know when you might meet a girl who says she’s your wife.
9. Culture Shock: two months ago a barmaid in Frankfort, Kentucky Province, Skylar is married into the imperial family, pregnant, and again working at a tavern, but now in Knoxville. She is increasingly confused and distraught by her new life.
10. Broken Child: Skylar’s son, now three, begins to die. There is only one way to save him and that needs a fusion reaction. The only fusion reactor is on the other side of the world, in one of the Warlord States of a sundered China.
As I still have no idea what the title will be, rather than flit from “New Russia” to “Factions” to something else, I’m just calling it #17. Given I started it nearly a year ago, as well as what is becoming an interesting episodic nature, as I’ll describe, I wanted to share where things have gone. In doing so, I hope to get an idea where they might be going.
I’ve played with episodic style before. In “Obligations of Rank,” the book is three parts, about three sons of Empress Faustina. Only in the Pro- and Epilogue is everyone together. In “Regent,” there are a couple of chapters in the middle where I go from Aurelia’s POV to Jimmy Burns’; and the last part of the book is from his POV alone.
B17 is something different. Which is good, as I enjoy trying new formats in my stories. I hate change in my personal life but revel in what happens in Machine Civilization. Anyway, Part 1 is about Sgt. Sergei Konev and his 20-man scout unit of the Imperial Russian Army. They start off just outside of Calgary, Canada, and end up, 21,600 words later, near Winnipeg. Part 2, still in process, switches to Centurion Bob Hardt, who shows up a couple of times in Part 1, and his expanded relationship with Lt. Eloise Patel of the Canadian Army. So far, that story has centered about resolving the crisis which is hinted at in “Obligations of Rank” and comes to a head in the last pages of “Regent.” It is roughly 10,600 words but nowhere near a conclusion. I think Part 3, for sake of completeness, will be back on Konev and Canada, but I have only the faintest idea what for and why. Ultimately, this novel will be about 60-70k words.
Rather than flood this blog with the 33,000 words which have come so far, I’ll start will a summary – punctuated by quotes – about Part 1. I may serialize Part 2 as I am not that far into it as yet. As always, comments and opinions will be welcome.
A shorter entry as things happen very fast after this. Not feeling well and fretting again, I was up early, taking some notes. I may have an idea how I want to wrap this book up around 70k words or so. Long, for me. But it will also intermesh with at least one if not two more. Given I nearly throttled someone at DayJob today, I might have lots of time on my hands in a few weeks.
I also looked at my short story backlog. Six (technically seven but one is spoken for, being published somewhere else) with a small novella at the core, much as I did “Empire’s Agent & Other Short Stories.” I’ll need at least two more. I’ve been shown almost nothing about tribe Arpeggio; that’s a possibility. India and Australia seem to be functioning countries… I wonder what they are up to? More drinking, more notes.
Speaking of: yes, I make a IT Customer Service joke below.
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Continue reading “Colours in the Sky”Over at Founding Questions, the proprietor finally got ’round to posting my second installment about Creative Writing and Self-publishing. It will be old hat to any regular readers here. Lots of fun in the Comments after the post, too.
Wrote myself out of Medicine Hat and past Sgt. Sergei Konev’s first contact with Cartaphilus. It seems that what’s left of Saskatoon is much worse than I imagined. Yes, about 50% of the population fled south against the ice and snow of the Maunder Minimum. The other half looked to the sky, the sun and stars, and went “native.” Did I mention the Change and mysticism?
But a few families lingered in the area of the old city. That’s the mistake of never making a hard, clear-cut decision; you pay for your mistakes. Cartaphilus harvested them.
In other odd news, the 77th Imperial Russian Brigade will meet a battlegroup of the Canadian Army head-on around Winnipeg. In the midst of that, Sgt. Sergei Konev will encounter another oddity in the basement of a riverside museum. When I run this through Grammarly it will once again freak out over my “write it as you hear it” style of accents.
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[breathless voice, whispers] “Imagine… imagine if something, someone, like some old scifi story, actually came to life *coughs**wipes a bit of blood from mouth* but… but they weren’t made for it… not bred, not… even… thought of, Sergeant Konev,” Schreber said to the Russian, in his dark office of the blackened museum on the banks of the Red River in Winnipeg. “What… what if that person, excuse me, what if… that person is… what everyone needs but… absolutely no one wants? What… *coughs**retches* what then, Sergeant?”
“All sides would hate him,” Konev said in a quiet voice.
“Welcome to my personal Hell, Mister Konev.” Schreber pitched forward out of his chair, barking more blood. The sergeant yelled for his medic.
machciv 