I guess I could subtitle this one, On the Beach. Henge and Gary get a visit from a friend they’ve not seen in almost a year. And she’s bringing big news; news that’s fraught with emotion for our couple.
I see at least two more entries for this storyline. Will I see more? Should I move on? The world wonders.
Mmmm… stir-fried southwest chicken for burritos! Spanish rice… refried beans! Things I don’t eat on my low-carb lifestyle. If I drank less, I could eat worse…
Not happening.
Besides what’s on the table, Gary recalls the taste of his Intended and what is perhaps a bitter taste of his future…?
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!
This is a little longer, but I wanted it shut down this weekend. That, of course, is not the same as “over.” Few stories are ever over.
The construction of this is a bit different as I’ve made a change to my storytelling.
This was fun; perhaps too much fun, though. What next?
Over 7200 total words. A writing exercise, he said. Not that long, he said. Good Lord; the plot hasn’t even shown up yet!
I laughed when they showed me the incident with Tommy!
Took a mental heath day and not because it was 70F in central Ohio. There were two times, yesterday at work, when I had to stop and sit on the floor in the pharmacy to rest; I didn’t trust myself to sit on a chair. I’d had that wonderful writing jag all weekend but as a result I was having a hard time distinguishing this world from RealLife(TM). If you think that sounds hackneyed or stupid, you’re not a writer.
So what do I do with time away from work? Go back to the ‘Factory, of course. At 51, it’s not called ‘being self-destructive,’ it’s called ‘being aware of what little time is left.’
Rounding out Akaiame’s ensemble. Although, apparently she’s going shopping tomorrow. Now that will be a challenge to write: some of my clothes are thirty years old…
I really like this story. It’s wonderfully… comfortable. That will change, of course, in time. Akaiame is on the second-tallest building for a reason…
I realized that in serializing this story, I have begun to leave each post on a cliff-hanger. Very bad form: if that becomes a habit, my novels will suffer to the point of death.
So, this time, in our flashback, we flashback further, then flash-forward. Hey: it’s Valentine’s Day: I should be flashing somebody!
Aside: this ‘little’ sub writing exercise is already north of 2300 words… what did I say about 1500…? I so need to get these folks out of town! I wonder if the cocoon in Abandoned Factory has hatched…
machciv 