As I warned, sorry to end on such a downer. Then again, IRL I am ill again and don’t feel like a happy ending at all.
Sometimes we write the stories we’re told to. I’ll try for something lighter, next time.
Continue reading “Nazca, 6, End”Tag: death
New Pai, 12
Yes, it’s been three weeks. Standard excuses for the first two: couldn’t see the ending, DayJob… The third excuse was a surprise: in my dotage I’ve suddenly developed a shellsfish allergy, so the scallops over butter noodles from Friday/Saturday before last attempted to kill me. My wife wanted to take me to the hospital but I was a mule and said no. Even so, bedridden for three days, with no food, then barely moving for two with a little toast. At one point when my wife came home from work, she said, “You like like you aged a year in a day.” Thanks, Honey.
But, just like falling off your horse’s bicycle, you get back on something. In fact, I realized one glaring and one minor issue from Part 11: glaring, that did they go off and leave the body behind? Are you kidding me? Minor, that I wanted Pai to clarify to Graf just how latently dangerous he might be. While I have rewritten that in the MS, I didn’t really see a reason to repost everything here, as these are supposed to be raws to make me think, anyway.
Having said all that, let’s get into the Epilogue. Luce finds out you do not piss off the matriarch of an entirely new race, and we catch a glimpse of Graf’s talent.
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Continue reading “New Pai, 12”PAI, 24
Going into the weekend, more snow expected here. My little centurion sent me a pic of her in a tank top with a parrot on her shoulder. Effing kids.
This closes out the San Diego arc. I don’t anticipate Redding to be all that long. I would like these kids to have some time off, so I guess they’ll have to get Alix and the children from Wilmington to his family home. I’ve a few ideas about that, too. Nothing is static. After a kind of family get-together, the next main part of the MS will open with Pai’s new android body. Upgrades!
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Continue reading “PAI, 24”PAI, 23
Almost finished with this. Hard. Hard for her, hard for me. And Graf, my putative main character, has no idea what is going on.
People who say “violence never solves anything” have never used or been on the receiving and of violence.
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Continue reading “PAI, 23”PAI, 20-21
I titled it this way as this scene only really works in toto, thus, I recapituate post #20 from a few days ago to get poor Pai out of this horrible situation. I’ve also made some editing changes. My God, her mother is ruthless.
Gordon was brought to consciousness by Chris Denno in Cursed Hearts. Because he was so young, he did not understand humans or synths and made a series of errors resulting in a bloodbath. It seems he never recovered from that.
I need a drink.
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Continue reading “PAI, 20-21”PGA, 13 (and pause)
A rare Saturday update, but for a reason. At the post title indicates, I’m taking a break from this manuscript. I mean, 31k words and the plot has barely shown up? I need to let them talk to me, possibly for a few months. In the meantime, as I have mentioned, an informal writers’ group, birthed at Imaginarium, has entrusted me with putting together an anthology that I plan to have out by the end of the year. That is a lot of reading and editing or others’ works, which is not something I have done before. However, I shan’t let them down. So, this potentially emerging religious war goes on the shelf for a bit.
Until then, as you see in the selection below, it occurred to me that nobody ever really has gotten sick in my books, barring Lem’s brief neurological disorder (which incidentally led to the modified angelic body of Ildi). Blown up, sure, but not even the sniffles, that I recall. I’ve been sick twice over the summer and thought, why not? Interesting in that it is entirely possible Pai has never been around a sick human before; a no-brainer for Aurie’s dad and brother, both doctors, but why would a Thinking Machine have cause to visit a sick ward? I know both Earth and Mars take strong precautions to prevent cross-contaminations and outbreaks, but this seems very new to her.
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Continue reading “PGA, 13 (and pause)”PGA, 12
Well, now. This is not what I thought I would be seeing. Do I hope that this novel turns into some huge, interplanetary jihad/crusade? Sure, that would be kinda cool. Did I expect cute little Pai to do what happens here? Even given her family, no, I did not. This has me almost at a standstill; not written for two days, three if you count today. I really am at a loss.
I sort of see the simple representation of Ildi as a throwback to an ichthys image. A shorthand for one follower to signal to another.
Special thanks to Pink Floyd and Bob Geldof. Wish I knew how to format lines in WordPress.
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Continue reading “PGA, 12”Iter, 4/4, end
Ugh. Helping to move Daughter #2’s stuff to her new house. In 87F/90% humidity. I’m too old for that.
Decided to conclude this one, so it is just a tiny bit longer. Having always been content to just be as her man’s side, Min gets a little surprise from Fussy at the conclusion of Les’ funeral. And then there is the interplay with Reina. Aurie gets in first, to make sure that most dangerous of Thinking Machines does not do anything stupid. Min was, after all, once her.
For the next week, I need to flog Matters of Life and Death to where I can hand it off to my copyeditor. And, I need to ponder the eleven stories and decide what I’d like to see on the front and back covers so my designer can get started. Everyone have a good weekend.
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Continue reading “Iter, 4/4, end”Iter, 3/x
It was a 17-hour drive, augmented by my GI tract bug. DIdn’t get home until 2347. I’m recovering today but very glad to have the day off. In fact, after this update, I’m laying down for at least rest if not a nap
“A walk in the woods,” is an old military metaphor for a failed commander to use his sidearm to blow his brains out to try to expiate his failure. Thankfully, this is just a walk between two cousins, more human than human, who are groping their way to an understanding and acceptance what their loss.
I do like how Aurie – she’s so down-to-earth in private! – immediately recognized where Min’s grief was leading her. And put a stop to it, instantly. That meeting with Reina has me a little worried, though. She’ll likely work on Min’s mind in the exactly opposite way.
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Continue reading “Iter, 3/x”Iter, 2/x
This really is an emotional trainwreck for me. But necessary for Min to have some kind of closure to what she has suffered. I’ve been with my wife for 35 years, much of that we were off at our jobs, or traveling separately… Imagine being with someone every day for one hundred years. And now that someone is gone. The second to last line here is critical: machine does not mean emotionless; in fact, given their speed of thought, I suspect some of them are much more emotional than humans. For Min, that goes all the way back to the end of part three of Obligations of Rank, where she drops into Les’ lap and starts kissing him, to thank him for her asylum.
While I’ve mostly completed Iter (it should be five segments, I think), the end needs work. Tomorrow will be a 15-hour drive, so part three will not be until Thursday.
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Continue reading “Iter, 2/x”
machciv 