Tag: Portland

“I ship it!”*

Chris’ transfiguration scene done (backhanded compliment from a valued friend over that one), Maya busted out of the hospital – and boy, does that scene need editing! – to a character focus on her as she passes nine days at sea on the way to North America.  Did you know that travel by freighter is about US$100/day?  Pricy, but better than an entertainment-cruise line.  I’d love something like that:  nothing to do but write, drink, and – if she came with me – be with my wife.  Who, as we’ve been married for so long, would not even entertain the idea of what’s below the fold.  *sigh*

As they say at Instapundit, classic reference* in the headline.

I’ve already written the scene after this:  Maya talking to the two Americans on the way back to Portland, Oregon, Former US.  The world of ‘Machine Civilization’ is increasingly complete.  Still, this needs editing with a jackhammer.

Without being too much of voyeur, I need to see the next Act where Chris and Cat stop acting stupid around one another.  I think Anton might take them up to the killing fields of Camp Pendleton, where the Mexican Army killed 100,000+ starving Los Angeles refugees… why take them there?  Exposition, duh.  After that, Maya shows up in town and BANG.

And by BANG, I mean I start on the sequel.  You really think that the powers that be could stop a horror/romance of mine by death?  Will Deonne taught me.  Bring it.

Continue reading ““I ship it!”*” →

A Look Back

For the first time in just over two years, I’m on vacation.  Even that’s qualified, as we’re in Houston/Galveston, but the reason we’re here is my wife’s 6 month post cancer-treatment checkup.  Still, better than central Ohio.

Had I been home, I’d be working on “Henge’s Big Day;” I’m not, so I’m not.  I did, however, see a vignette that I alluded to while writing “Defiant.”  Some skinny-dipping at the PSU pool with my main characters.  Was finally able to type it out, today.

This takes place halfway between Act II and Act III.

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‘Defiant’ – End; One.

An experiment, just to keep me writing.  People I’ve never met, places I’ve not seen – and that I don’t recall – for over thirty years.  And here I am, about 60k words later.

Creativity is occasionally creepy:  where does all this come from?

Anyhoo.  There are still flaws in what’s below.  Someday, after I’ve written Part 2, I’ll get this all cleaned up and ‘novel-ized.’

Played with different ‘voices’ in this one; too much gin to get it all right.  Actually excised a couple of paragraphs:  I was lecturing again.  Thanks, Will!

Let’s do this again.  Soon!

Continue reading “‘Defiant’ – End; One.” →

“When will you make an end?!”

“When it is finished!”

My right brain is no Michelangelo, and my left brain is no Pope Julius II, but that’s how I feel about Act III of ‘Defiant.’  At the expense of my blood pressure, I loaded up on caffiene at the end of my Day Job to hit the ground running once I got home.  A quick, small dinner, then more coffee, with bourbon.  Wrote what’s below.  Next time; next time:  the party at Multnomah Falls.

God help me if it’s in more than one part.  I just type what I see, tanjit!

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Independence Day

Technically, that would be July 2nd, when the Second Continental Congress adopted Virginia’s Resolution for Independence.  It was two days later, on the 4th, that Jefferson’s document, the Declaration, was approved by Congress.  Traditions are funny things:  how they start and evolve.

I’m planning to wrap of the next few episodes of this third segment in no more than a couple of weeks – I hope!  My final illustrations for my children’s book, “Henge’s Big Day!” have come in, and I need to add the text to the body, title to the cover, legal stuff to the legal page… and then self-publish everything.  Since I don’t do squat without a deadline, I’m setting September 30th as my publish date.

So, having mentioned the Declaration, how about Nichole has one, as well?

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Dammit

Wrote most of this a couple of nights ago, but have learned my lesson about posting from bed.  I’m starting to enjoy the rhythm of this third segment:  confusion from the POV of captain Muller versus Nichole’s quiet happiness of three days earlier.  Of course, they’ll start to converge and/or overlap.  Maybe.  I’m looking forwards to what Nichole was thinking when she went all badass on the barbarian steppe leader… who’s not as much a barbarian as we’ve been lead to believe.

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Sandbox

Mine, in other words.  I shan’t apologize for the lack of posting, but I don’t mind explaining.  At the end of the last episode, I thinking I knew what I wanted to do for the next sequence of the story.  The issue was, it’s somewhat unorthodox.  So I froze over the weekend before last.  Monday and Tuesday brought busy day-job days of our bi-annual physical inventory.  Friday, we as a family were off to northern Kentucky for a swim-meet.  We’d also be meeting our good friend, and my girls’ Godfather, that we’d not seen in four years (he’d been living in East Asia; back in the ‘States now).  Between the swimming during the day and the drinking at night, there was no time to write.

I was beginning to freak out about that.

I told my wife last night:  I don’t care what you and girls are doing Monday night, unless the house, dogs, or people are on fire, I’m writing.  What with that “less of an asshole” thing that writing grants me, she was fine with that.

Below is Ep 21.  I’ve seen 22 and 23; if I can convince them to order pizza or something for the next two days, these should come out fairly quickly.

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RE:Boot

Yes:  I’ve been away.  I’ll address that at some later post.  I’m here to write, so write I shall, after a brief preamble.

As you might have guessed from the name of this blog, my stories are in and about what I call Machine Civilization.  Some ideas that I didn’t think were originally, seemed to change over time so that they “fit in” somewhere.  And I’ve come to see that the entirety of the MC world itself changes, as well.  There are obviously parts of the future history that cannot change as they’re part of canon from my two novels, but I’ve noticed fluxuations in the concept.

I would say I’m coming to a point, but I’m not.

Down below, from some months back, I posted the scenes I wrote for the Voltage competition from a story I called “Combination Play.”  I didn’t win the competition – which is fine – but what ticked me off is that no one did!  A cynical person would say that Voltage faked the contest just to shake people down for free stories and character art.  Nonetheless, I’m fond of the characters that I breathed life into, and have thought some more about the story.  Voltage, of course, owns the names, so that will change, and to fit into MC, I will change the location.  So now, I’m going to do something I’ve never done before:  I’m going to start a story at the beginning.  Further, whether you call these ‘chapters’ or ‘episodes,’ I’m going to try to publish 2-3 each week.  They won’t be all from the same “novel,” but they will all take place in my world of Machine Civilization.  “A Writer writes,” and I wasn’t; this will give me the freedom of movement to begin, again.

Enough with me.  Take a look below the fold to meet Nichole.  She’s very young in our home.

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