A cracked open door about the culture in Knoxville, some ten plus years after the Breakup. And more Faustina.
I have to be careful here, too. I’m already interested in who Faustina is and what her relationship with MC is. I’ve only known her for three days but I bet I could build a novel around her.
I just might!
Not too much… really just wrapping up Gary’s day I started awhile ago. The ‘problem’ is what I saw next: just as I feared, I’m sorely tempted to start talking about the Hartmann’s and how life has changed in Knoxville over the past ten years.
Deep breaths: let’s try to stay focused on our happy couple…
This is going to be based on an idea I had almost three weeks ago. You don’t have to go back and read it – in fact, I’d rather you didn’t, as a better, edited, version is in a blockquote below the fold.
Henge (“hen-geh”) first made an appearance toward the end of The Fourth Law. I was playing with the idea of how AIs could make children; not just copies of themselves, but children, and she showed up. In the last scene of my second novel, Echoes of Family Lost, Henge meets Gary when everyone is taking some well deserved R&R on her beach. They make some connexion I still don’t understand and announce to both Families, human and machine, that they’re getting married.
The trick for me is to not get sidetracked on what’s happened politically and/or socially in the intervening ten years. I’m going to have to say something, obviously, but I’ll try to confine myself to culture. What I want to accomplish here is a love story between two very different people, who are united by their deep orthodox Catholic faith.
Let’s go!
I suspected this would happen: my small writing exercise would trigger something that goes on longer. I’m hoping – hoping! – that this is only going to be 1000-1200 words, total. That’s all I’ve seen as yet.
This, originally, was a scene from my second novel, Echoes of Family Lost. However, because of my writing style (start in the middle, use flashbacks for details) this just didn’t fit. And worse, it allowed me to start writing exposition rather than dialog. It’s a failing of mine but at least I know it’s there.
The gist of this is that Lily Barrett, her friend Fausta, and their guide, Orloff, are on their way from the Republic of Texas towards East Tennessee, to find someone very important to her. The badlands of post-Breakup America are a rough place, but charitas may be found in unexpected places.
See? That’s me, talking again. I’ll shut up now.
Going back to leap forward: from the end of “Echoes of Family Lost”, when a certain character declares his love for another (are there not Spoiler Tags in WordPress?), we find ourselves ten years in the future, on the beach, but around the dinner table just a few minutes before.
I’ve never had much use for “the Holidays.” I am asocial and dislike the dark of winter. Even as an orthodox Catholic, Christmas is just a matter of “meh” for me. And this year, things preyed on my mind.
Yes. Yes there is: in abandoning writing, I’ve abandoned myself. I’m dying; at a rather astonishing rate. I do not want this: I’ve glimpses: Gary & Henge, older, trying to talk out where and what to do with their love for one another. Nichole5 stands with Togame atop the New Tokyo Tower, with its Reactionless Thruster crown, talking about off-world colonies. Editing Pirate Twins into a light-novel-with-pictures or a graphic novel…
I’ve so much to do, and I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired. Lent and lighter evenings are upon me; I’m not one to “give up” as I’ve so little. Instead, I shall take on: my father-in-law’s history, Machine Civilization’s new stories, things I cannot imagine.
Clear the decks: I’m engaging my enemy!
…
Apropos of this, below the fold is the utterly astounding artwork of Matt Michallow of StarArtWorks. He, through me, the guy wearing his art, owned Ohayocon, the largest animecon of central Ohio, two weeks ago. Over 350 pictures taken!
Made some revision to the end of my last post, when I was blindingly drunk. I’m now, of course – it’s Saturday night – but at least I’m older not to write!
Local politics. I’ve no stomach for it, but Nichole has to have this out with the Mayor. Fret not: like all of Defiant, I cannot keep myself from killing people. This overlaps a tiny bit, to my last post, because I saw the wrong things.
There’s much more I’ve seen that what opens below the fold, but having left work at 1730 to go home and change and get the right credit card, followed by a drive to Columbus to get sick Dog #1, back home, dinner (thanks to Daughter #1 for making curry!), a brief discussion of racial socio-economics with my girls – red-pilling them, in other words – I finally sit down at my laptop…
God, I’m tired. The rest of the cat-and-mouse conversation between Nichole and Teresa soon; tomorrow, I hope. It’s fun.
This took a turn for the somber I didn’t anticipate. Fallout from RealLife, I guess. There was more Nichole was going to say, but it was obvious I had to let Teresa have her say.
What a day.
This not the short I originally saw. After last night’s tragic news, I wanted to a little more about the West’s current attempt at suicide. But, there’s still hope. Hope, much like Evil, can often be found in the most unlikely places.
Thanks, everyone, for reading this story. I think I’ll try to make ‘Defiant’ into a proper novel, but I’m taking the rest of this weekend off.
machciv 