New Pai, 13

Interestingly, this underminds my entire arc for these two books. If Luce is banished from the DMZ, then one leg of my “religious war over the Fusions” is knocked out. Oh well, this is what I was shown to write, so I’ll work it out one way or another.

I think I’ll gloss the entire trial scene, esp as everything will be happening behind the scenes, anyway. Also, I know there is some significance to Luce’s reluctance to give up her staff and coat, but I don’t yet know what it is. Generally, a staff indicates authority and a coat or robe much the same (“I’m wealthy enough to keep warm”). How this novel wraps up, that is, the very last scene of the epilogue, will be a little odd, even for me.

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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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New Pai, 11

Once you read the segment, below, you will realize why this took me several days. This is “the big reveal,” as they say in the biz. And, it’s just the reveal, the ramifications of the, I assume, God-given gift that has been hinted about Graf has incalculable ramifications. Which I shall try to deal with in what shall be the epilogue to this novel.

Yes, you read that correctly. Just before Mass last Sunday, when I normally listen for ideas for the story, I realized that this, like Friend & Ally/Foes & Rivals, will be a pair of books. All 55-58k (I’m not finished here, yet) words will be the first. The second will be the massive interplanetary fallout of this religious war about to start. I found that so jarring to the relative quiet and peace of Graf and Pai’s story so far that I simply could not see it all being under one cover. So, two books.

There will be a few more segments of New Pai, posted here. That will form the Epilogue of the first book, paving the transition for the chaos to come. Like most great wars, it will start because of a misunderstanding. Lovely to be writing something horrible with spring around the corner. Writers take the good with the bad. More very soon.

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New Pai, 10

This is not going where I originally thought. You would think that making trouble with people who are predisposed to like you is a stupid move, but there have been times when demis have acted, to me, erratically. I’m beginning to wonder if there is some kind of mental stress Fusions suffer from, as a new, genetically mixed race.

This will be a tough one to write my way through. Was is especially disturbing is that I saw what Luce does when I was at church on Sunday. It’s an important enough plot point to be gifted to me, but I am at a loss, right now. Hope to start figuring it out tomorrow for a Friday post.

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New Pai, 9

With the announcement of the anthology yesterday, I didn’t want to throw more material at my blog. So, here is the conclusion of the “quiet time” at Graf’s family farm and the introduction of Pai’s new form. It sounds as if things are already getting a little dicey, here and there.

Graf’s father, perhaps recalling his wife’s accidental death, makes the salient point that “nowhere is really safe.” Pai rejoins with, essentially, “we must try.” Both are legitimate arguements, one from fatalism and one from hope. You’d have thought a human and Machine would have taken the other’s side, but with his son married, his daughter about to, and two grandkids in the yard, Mister Winstead is perhaps mentally on life’s back 40. Pai, essentially immortal, sees worlds without end before her; if not always with Graf, then she can certainly be Auntie for generations to come.

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PAI, 28

This ends both the Redding arc as well as the entire tour of Graf and Pai to look into veneration of not just Ildi but now also some of her decendents. We also get more from Pai about why Graf might be important. I’d like to explore that futher in the next section

Which should be rather bucolic, back on his family farm and the surrounding area. I’ve had Alix and the kids off-screen for too long and so foresee a big family gathering while in the background, people such as Aurie and Reina consider their next moves. And Pai gets a makeover.

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PAI, 27

Following hard on Pai’s reveal of her mother, Luce backpedals as quickly as she can. The goddess talk is also quickly drawn down. After running the Russian Empire for just over a hundred years, there’s no way a demi or Fusion could not know who Reina is.

But obviously having an inflated opinion of herself, Luce goes right back to poke the bear by flirting with Graf. We close with yet another mic drop about my main character.

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PAI, 25

With the San Diego arc now safely behind us, I went on a 4000-word tear this weekend, esp after Mass, when I was gifted the last few scenes. So, we find our characters a few hundred miles north in a town which anchors the DMZ between the Russians and Mexicans, policed by legionaries following a treaty forced on them by a Texan, Kali. God’s agent.

But immediately, they realized things are amiss. Graf and Pai try to play “nice” but are overtaken by events. Well, they are overtaken by someone. This is a 4-way political mess. I just hope there’s no killing in this arc.

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Fusion (5/5 – End)

Fusion comes in at 4400 words and shall be a part of my next collection. Looking at the scrap of paper I made before Christmas, there were seven ideas on it. One was folded into Martian Wonderland and another here. As of this typing, no one in my head has given me the slightest idea as to what to do, next.

With Ash Wednesday, perhaps that’s why: I need a small break. No, of course I’ll not give up writing for Lent – that would kill me – but a little pause right now might be in order. My liver certainly thinks so.

As has so often happened before, be it music or images, the image at the end has been behind my eyes for much of this. I had no idea who she was; my oldest daughter explained it to me. Hope to see everyone no later than a week from today with a new story.

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Fusion (4/5)

Once again a longer segment going into the weekend. The dogs had me up at 0330 and in that half-asleep stage I saw the final part of this short story. It may be a little anti-climatic, as is my wont when it comes to exciting events, but it will wrap things up nicely. I’ll be introducing an new lifeform. As if my stories needed another.

This was – and is – a fun little story. Writing shorts makes for focus and discipline. I’ve known people who talk about their 300k MS they’ve been working on for five years…and I wonder: what the hell is wrong with you? Tell your story and move on to another.

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