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.
Tag: friendship
Coming Back to Life
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.
- Would it be ready for Ohayocon? “It?” Wait & see, below the fold.
- With our family finances in tatters, I can neither afford a line-editor nor a book cover for Defiant.
- My wife silently badgers me to make my next writing project about her father’s oral history. I want to do that; I’m committed to it. But it’s not fun! That’s work! I want to SEE more of my friends and family in Machine Civilization!
- Day-job is becoming more and more oppressive, leading to my reaxion of coming home and immediately climbing into the bottle. Very bad form.
- All combining into the past six weeks: not writing a tanjed thing. And, borderline psychotic as a result of it. Hell, today, at day-job, I had to use scissors to cut out some QR barcodes. My right hand shook badly enough that Friend Tracy asked if something was wrong….
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!
Feed.Back
From a few in-person, including my wife, but mostly via email. Why almost no one ever leaves comments here, I don’t know.
There was much unhappiness how I wrapped up Defiant Act 2.5: at the pool with Joe’s diagnosis. If I were to distill is all down, I guess “casually tossing out a main character!” would be the flak I caught.
Yeah. I did. Because this was never meant to be a coherent novel, but a nine-month long writing exercise, the break from Acts 2 and 3 was huge. 2.5 was meant to be a bridge; but, it seems that like the Lewis & Clarke, it was a bridge too far. The anchor issue is that Joe MUST have cancer and go to Japan for treatment: he’s on the boat back to Portland with Maya in “Cursed Hearts.”
Is it the hyper-sexualized environment of the pool, and the emotional whiplash after, when Nichole5 realizes her First Friend is sick? A human girl would have no idea about his illness and banged him then and there. Nichole5 chose to shatter the moment for everyone in face of what she sees as a medical emergency.
Perhaps I went too far, too fast. I’ll give some thought as to how I might re-write this. Suggestions welcome, as I see nothing, right now.
Tears, sweat, blood
To cite Arkada of Glass Reflections: ladies, gentlemen, and others, I present to you the final installment of Act 2.5 of “Defiant.” Yes, you read that right: the writing component is complete. Editing and ret-conning the four parts of this 18-month, 85.5k writing exercise into a proper novel will begin.
And therein lies your chance, you followers of this blog and those that have wandered in via my sole social media presence on Gab.ai: if you so desire, you can d/l and read the entire story between now and Saturday, for free. It’s very, very rough, but you’ll get what you pay for. Come Saturday, whenever I wake up, I’ll be pulling the entire ‘free webnovel’ down as I begin to turn it into a commercial novel. As always, I’ll do the first-pass editing myself. Second and copyediting – and a cover – are as yet an unknown; after the layabout wife and the Dog With the Golden Nose, it’s all ramen and Taco Bell salsa packets here. My sole, possible, hard-deadline, is January 26th, when I might have another Creative Writing panel at Ohayocon. If I do, I’d like to say, “since my last panel, I’ve published two books… what did you do?” Keeps the snarkers from snarking.
Anyway, there’s just over thirty five hundred fricking words below the fold! Open a bottle of wine or make a pot of coffee, the one right next to that bottle of bourbon, sit back, and, please, see what I’ve seen… and have fun!
AM or PM?
“Meet me at eight!”
Who hasn’t been there at some moment of their life? In this case, Nichole and Joe go back to Portland, a diversion to Zom’s, some other characters show up… for dinner…
Oh my God, they leave the battlezone at dawn! That has them back into the City around 0800! What the hell am I supposed to do for the next nine to ten hours?!
“Code: Tiger”
Yes, it’s been a-while. I’m a lousy writer and terrible person. For those you not out on a date with your current or future spouse, here’s a treat: 3600 words of a battle just about to start. Being Veterans/Remembrance Day, I have Nichole look around at one point, recalling the living so that she will be able to recall the dead, fighting to save their homes and families.
When I write the battle at L&C bridge – which should go quickly, I’m not one for battle scenes – there’s a moment with Nichole and Joe at the end of it, then back to the City. At that point, I’ve all the raw material, about 80k words, complete, and just need to edit it into a coherent novel. By Christmas.
If any hot strawberry-blonde girls want to gift me US$500 for the 99designs.com cover for this book, I’ll use your image, if you do. Otherwise, I’m having to sell a kidney.
“Oh my God! We’re Supposed to Start a War!”
Said Prince John to his brothers and Queen Eleanor, around 1185 in Chinon Castle.
I feel the same way. From my last post, I knew I’d seen enough to move things forward; not all in one day: my notes point toward about 11k words of story. But, time to get going!
So why do I have Teresa kissing Nichole outside the Miller Library? WTF does this have to do with the Cannibal Army storming the Lewis & Clark Bridge? Where’s the killing? Where’s the nerve gas? SRSLY?
If nothing else, I’ve SEEN when the breathless messenger comes rushing into the room where N and the Mayor are having their very guarded conversation, announcing the loss of the bridge to the Enemy. That’ll get things rolling! N has some funny, but pointed, things to say about how/why Japan lost the Pacific War, starting with Guadalcanal, and how that impacts His Honor’s response.
Bleeding Jesus, but I need an Editor!
Continue reading ““Oh my God! We’re Supposed to Start a War!””
“When in doubt…
…start blowing stuff up.” I realized Wednesday, after a small psychotic incident (when you wake up wondering if you’ve had a stroke, the rest of your day will not unfold well), that cutting myself off from creative works was turning into a very bad idea. After scaring the hell out of my boss with my borderline behavior, I excused myself at 1300 and went home to stare off my deck into my backyard.
After an hour of that, I got a notepad & pen and began. Nothing detailed, just trying to SEE. Made about a page and a half while my aggregates slowly coalesced into normalcy. In downtime on Friday, did some checking and realized the nuke plant NNW of Portland, from my childhood memory, was out: the progs have obliterated all trace of it. But, there is a bridge, about a mile north… about 3/4 page of notes.
Today, half of #fam was at swim meet, so more waiting to SEE. Finally got it: a wrap to the Cannibal Army from Act I, as well as exposition of local politics, more friend Mackenzie, and how Joe actually falls for Nichole. Literally: from an exploding bridge blanketed by nerve gas.
No story below the fold, but I did want to share my notes; they’re 1;4 and 2;3 in the pics, so don’t get confused. I’ve made a gallon of my super-concentrated tea for tomorrow and am going to bed early. Hoping for much friendship, politics, and mayhem, tomorrow!
An Immodest Proposal
When I began writing what I’d seen, the last little section about what Nichole just proposed to Teresa was nowhere there. Princess? Really? I’m worried that if I follow that, it would turn Defiant into an 120,000 word book. Perhaps I should consider making yet another MachCiv novel? Sheesh. Coming home from the food store today, I was thinking of taking a break from it all and turning the script of a proposed graphic novel – an over-the-top rated X graphic novel – into a little writing exercise. You know: just how Pirate Twins was an 5000 word writing exercise… at over 20k…
Anyway, following on Nichole’s and Teresa’s meeting at the PSU Miller Library, they start talking.
Work-Vet-Library
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.
machciv 