I know, I know: another girl. At least this one is human.
We meet Skylar – and Roland – in Part Two of “Obligations of Rank.” They’d been dating for about a month. Roland’s cousin Robert sort of gives them a push to get on with it. They do.
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Continue reading “Culture Shock, (pt.1)”Rather pleased with how all of this turned out. There are still some things which might need addressing but real life is like that, too: loose ends are a way of life.
Was seriously “in the groove” yesterday and got down about 2500 words of “Culture Shock,” my next short. Hoping to wrap that one up today.
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Continue reading “Berserker, (pt4; end)”There are about 1200 words left in this story but there was no even break. So, this one is a little shorter and the conclusion tomorrow will be a little longer. Such happens.
I finally have two days off in a row from DayJob; I swear those people do not know what “part-time employee” means. I also now have two more short ideas to round out my next collection. Oh, yes… it will be called “Imperial Entanglements.” That title is, of course, borrowed from somewhere else. I invite guesses.
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Continue reading “Berserker, (pt3)”I admit I do not write personal fight scenes well. I can see them in my head but run, jump, jap, parry, gouge… I don’t know what to type in or leave out. Tactical or strategic battles? Read my Crusade Trilogy; I do those well, even if they take days to weeks or research to get correct. Six years ago, when Daughter #2 was still at home, I’d borrow her for her Shorin-Ryu karate training to understand some of the motions of hand-to-hand contact (“If you knock Dad out, no dinner!”).
So, we get what’s below. I do not think I botch it too bad. There are two points much more important than the action: one, Aurie knows she’s no superhero; she’s a little girl. Two, I want her and the readers to become aware of her rising bloodlust. That, to my mind, is something insanely dangerous for a demi-human to have.
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Continue reading “Berserker, (pt2)”I need at least one or two short stories to fill out a second collection for publication. In “Regent,” which had the working title of “Colour” as I explored it here on my blog, there was a moment when demi-human princess Aurelia Hartmann killed twenty-seven men, pirates. She started with her rifle, then pistol, then knife, then teeth and hands. She seemed to revel in it.
Later in that story, talking with her grandparents at their place, we learn she has done this at least once before, and is somewhat uncomfortable if not embarrassed about that old memory. I wondered, when was the first (only? I don’t know) time this happened? How old was she? What were the circumstances?
And thus this short story was born.
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Continue reading “Berserker (pt1)”There are going to be A LOT of people packed into this story. I’m off DayJob tomorrow but my priority shall be getting the “Regent” MS to my copyeditor and a series of descriptions of what I think might work on a cover to my designer. Once all that is finished, I’ll turn back to what’s happening with this poor kid.
The sequences are shorter as this is supposed to be a short story, right?
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Continue reading “Still no Title”With “Regent” shortly off to my copyeditor and cover designer, I have two more projects. First, the completion of “New Russia,” what I abandoned about 13k words in back in spring. Second it to put together at least two more short stories for a second collection. To the latter end… Monday at 0630, letting the dogs out, I saw about the first half of what’s below. The second half came after six hours of nothing in my head. And, per usual, I’m about 500 words ahead as I don’t know how the politics of this will shake out.
So here we have a sick little boy. The trick for me, the writer, is that there are three people in this story, the Doctors Hartmann, and Dorina of tribe Tohsaka, who are vastly smarter than I am. It is tricky to write when you have people like that looking over your shoulder. And I don’t even have a working title yet.
And with open tabs about Batten Disease and the EAST reactor in China, my Feeb file likely was just reactivated
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Continue reading “New Short Story in the works”Jimmy realizes he needs to take stock of where he is and where he might be going. Sometimes, the best way to do that is what we used to call “benchmarking,” that is, look at another’s example.
I may have to do another Saturday post as things are about to have the “Weird” knob turned up to “11.”
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Continue reading “Colours of Introspection”This is a little “exposition-y,” but a reader will need to know a bit more about Robert and his relations. I suspect that, being a “normie,” Robert takes things a bit more seriously than his gifted brothers and sisters. And as a brand-new imperial family who are, as Aurie admitted, “making things up as they go,” and in a hard neighborhood, it would take a certain hardness of mind and spirit to stay sane and effective.
Having written the next, Ticonderoga, scene last night, I realized this morning I’m going to have to re-write it. Things such as that come with the job. Much easier on a laptop than with pen on paper, though.
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Continue reading “Champlain Colours”Okay, worked my way around the address. Not exactly “head-hopping” but I admit to fudging it a little. Remember: being a fiction write means you tell stories; you are a liar. Sometime you have to lie to yourself and your readers.
After being shamed by Colour, is looks as if Aurie is going all in and now willing to provoke a war with Canada. They outnumber the imperium by at least 3:1 if not more. Then again, the imperium is the only nation in history to use a fusion weapon in anger. It might be easier for them to pretend Jimmy Burns never existed and have him pushed across the border into Maine.
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Continue reading “Colourful Language”
machciv 