Tag: religion

Pirate Twins 11

I’m beginning to think I should turn this into a sub-folder before it takes over this blog.  I’ve never done a flash-fiction series in this weblog before, and am not entire clear on the visual dynamics of how to effectively present it.  Suggestions welcome.

As I mentioned on Gab.ai, I’d paused this right before Europa came out mad.  I’d not seen that.  My family and I went to the Saturday 1700 Mass. The OT reading, from Jerimiah, was about J telling God, “You duped me!”  Sitting there in the pew, I started grinning like more of an idiot as the rest of #11 opened in my mind.

There are no such things as coincidences.

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Milestone and millstones

Today, Saturday, was the semi halfway point between both my girl’s birthdays.  We all, plus my mother-in-law (we sat far apart) went to a nominally Japanese steakhouse.  I bet I spoke more anime-Japanese than the staff.  Still and all, good time, good food.  Eldest Daughter is now Sweet Sixteen.  She said there’s a boy she’s fond of.  I said I have rifles about which I feel the same.  We have one another’s measure.

I’ve broken 50k words.  In and of itself, that means nothing, but recall I was raised on NaNoWriMo’s “50k words in November!” so it kind of sticks.  What’s happening at that word mark is below the fold.  I’d guess another 8-12k to kill everyone, er, wrap things up.  Following that, as I said in a previous post, editing will consist of adding material to make the modules I’ve written, over so much time, link to one another.

Will Deonne in two sentences completely changed how I write horror (it works, now), but I know I still suck at action/fighting.  Anyone have any ideas as I head into the final Act?

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Dinner.

I’d announced to my family yesterday that there were leftovers in the fridge.  I told my wife I’d not be watching anything in the basement, thus not turning on the pellet stove.  To all and sundry:  leave daddy the eff alone:  he’s writing.

It’s 2245 now, past an old man’s bed time, but I’ve 3.2k words for today.  MUCH more importantly are the milestones:  I’ve radically changed Chris & Cat’s relationship with a pivotal secondary character, and got Chris baptized.  Hey, when you consider yourself a writer of nominally Catholic stories, things like that matter.

So:  I got the cousins from UCSD to the Hotel del Coronado.  Pre-dinner politics.  It wasn’t until Cat excused herself to the bathroom that I saw that Anton has lost his mother when he was a boy; that allowed me to radically change the dynamic between these three.  This is going to echo through the rest of the novel; probably upping the death-toll, too.

Below the fold is another example of why creative writing sometimes scares me:  as recently as two hours ago, not a single idea of any of this existed anywhere inside my head.  Sometimes it seems for me that prayer is an ‘SDI’ project.

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RIP, Steven Den Beste

One of the greats has passed.

I’d read all of his posts on his political-military blog, USS Clueless, for years.  When he started posting review of Japanese animations, I thought he was losing his mind.  Turned out, he was showing me a world I’d not imagined.

As a family, we started watching dubbed anime.  Then subbed.  We went to anime conventions (usually the whole family cosplaying).  We started reading manga.  I started playing visual novels; then I made one; then two more.  I began to write traditional novels – much of who’s source material came from the years of anime stories in  my head.  I wrote more novels.

Would I have wandered into anime were it not for Steven?  Possibly.  But not with his intellectual rigor.  To this day, his analysis of Haibane Renmei -still my favorite anime – is breathtaking in its complexity.  The few times I posted comments to his website, or communicated with him directly, he was courteous and polite.  A gentleman.

The impact of his life upon mine is incalculable.  I was not close enough to call him a friend, but certainly a mentor.  My world, and the whole world, shall  be a darker place at his passing.

Aside:  Steven was an atheist, but not militantly so; not like a vegan.  I do have to smile, just a little, thinking about how his Exit Interview – with Someone he didn’t believe in – is going right now.  I shall have a Mass said for him.

Brothers in Arms

Seven days.  What an awful host I am.

This one was a little odd:  I wrote the first few paragraphs about five days ago, then stopped.  RealLife(TM) got a bit busy with the wife and kids getting ready for yet another vacation (without me), but even so, I saw nothing of the story.  So, I waited.

Yesterday, I gave up waiting and went full-on coffee and bourbon.  Wrote all but the meal scene, below.  Just did that now.

This almost seems like a tangent to the plot (I’ve a plot?) but knowing now how “Defiant” ultimately ends – I think – what’s here is germane.  I’ll do better tomorrow.  Promise.

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Book Tour – October

Apologies all around:  my awful “day job” – which takes place at night – has me to the point where I see my children for four freaking minutes each evening before I go to work.  Not happy about that.

Anyhoo.  I’ve been a tick busy getting questionnaires answered and blog-posts typed for an upcoming Virtual Book Tour for “The Fourth Law.”  Sure, I’m almost a year late doing this… I’m old, dammit.

Some of the questions are straightforward; a few have been very thought provoking.  Much more dangerous are the requested blog entries.  For example, the one I’m working on now said ‘topic:  author’s choice.’  Ooo!  What trouble I can get into!  In fact, that’s exactly what I want to do.  So, I’m writing a little (~600 word) entry about Lily’s Catholic faith.  Honestly, it’s something you really don’t see in current science fiction much, and I had some early reviewers tell me that “it will turn off some readers.”

Fine.

Politics is downstream from culture.  I want my daughters to have a better life than I have, and, honestly, that looks iffy these days.  If I can nudge WestCiv culture in a way that I think might help them – even if it costs me readers and sales – I’ll do that.  In “T4L” I have Lily freely admit that although she grew up Catholic, her faith meant little to her, until she was on her own at the hospital and orphanage.  Much of how she thinks and acts towards God and the Church now are heavily drawn from Niven and Pournelle’s two books about the Inferno.  A sharp eyed reader of “T4L” will see that every time Lily cries  “…God!  Help me…!” things suddenly change for her, but not in a way she expects.  Getting your prayers answered is like that.

Lily’s witness to her Catholic faith is so important, that by the end of the first book of Machine Civilization, one of Ai’s family is well on her way to a conversion… which will be played out when my 20-page children’s book is completed in a couple of months (go Claudia go!).  It is also something that sustains her on her trek across the former southern States of the US in “Echoes of Family Lost.”  In both books, her faith, and her charitas towards her friends, define who she is.

I’m tired and rambling.  Need to get back to that guest-blog entry.  Thanks for reading… and… (grins)… prayers would be welcome!

How much does a Hemingway?

Although I really don’t much like his stuff, Hemingway was one hell of a writer.  One thing of his that I do take to heart is his quip of “write drunk; edit sober.”  I’ve got one visual and two traditional novels out of that dictum.

Which brings me to this:  the very short story below the fold was made with just the opposite formula; I’ve been drinking coffee all night, and just switched to cheap wine around 0500 so I can pass out in bed and go to sleep around 0730.  I’ll take a look at again when I wake up.

SPOILER WARNING!  The event below the fold takes place about one year after those in “Echoes of Family Lost.”  For anyone who’s read that, the “reveal” is not really a surprise, but if you like to make your own way through a story, then please shy away.

Usual apologies for how WP screws up .doc formatting.

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“You don’t have a Soul; you are a Soul. You have a Body.” CS Lewis

CreateSpace is now processing my final changes to “Echoes of Family Lost;” with luck and grace, it should be available this week.  So, what’s next?

“Henge’s Big Day!”  I’ve never written for children before.  Why not see what I’m capable of doing?  In an earlier post I mentioned the library at the school my two girls attend.  I’ve been a volunteer in said library for years… stacking, shelving, reorganizing.  I’ve had plenty of time to look at those books in the “E” section.  Easy?  Early Reader?  Don’t know nor care.  But I started paying attention to the format.

“HBD” will be about 10 x 10″ with a hardcover – if I can afford it.  I’d like to:  we withdraw softcover kids books after only two years of use, on average; they’re just too damaged.  Kids are natural entropy-bots; it’s one of the things that make them interesting.  I’d lost my point… so, about ten inches square (that’s blib quatloos for you on the metric system).  I thought about a story… I thought about Henge (pronounced “hen-geh”) the youngest of Machine Civilization and also something of a hybrid… although that explanation really doesn’t come out until late in “EFL.”  Even so, late in “T4L” Henge overhears a comment by Lily, and immediately applies it to herself.

On the one hand, MachCiv is all about so-called AI’s; on the second hand, I keep hammering away at their nature as people.  On the gripping hand, “T4L” is shot through with Lily’s re-discovered Christianity.  What if one of them looked at the evidence and wanted to become a Christian?

How do you baptize a string of code?  Throwing water onto a rack of servers would be a very bad idea.  But… the rest of the idea….

I cannot draw; once upon a time I could make 3D-parametric design software dance, sing, bring drinks and empty ashtrays.  Now…. Below the fold are some awful sketches from my 20-page “Henge’s Big Day!”  I wont say ‘don’t laugh,’ as I have, too!  I use it to try to let illustrators know what I’m looking for.  What’s sad is that I’ve gone looking for illustrators here and here and here, freely talking four figures of money, and after a month I have only a single, possible lead.  Is everyone so satisfied with their day-jobs?!  Is everyone so narcoleptized by the dole?  Why is finding an illustrator this difficult?  Twenty pages!  Little background!  Watercolors!

Sheesh.  It’s enough to drive a man to drink.  Let me get another Martini, then tell you about Book Four.  Now, that’s killing me.

Continue reading ““You don’t have a Soul; you are a Soul. You have a Body.” CS Lewis” →