So. I have a website. Yeah -who doesn't? I've started several websites in the past -started, but not continued, and not finished, definitely not finished. So, why am I putting up a site now? Let's see...could be because I want to share my work with others?....or maybe I want attention?...recognition?....fame?... glory?....maybe I'm getting tired of emailing my stories to my friends and want to see if anyone will read my stuff if I don't force them to?.....--all good answers; and all have some truth in them. But I would have to say the main contributing factor this time has to be that I am unemployed and my car is fubar and I have nothing else to do but write and play with my site (even I have limits to how much free and dirty pictures I can take -sure the first few months were a blast, but then I started craving a job, then I started looking for a job, then I couldn't find a job, then I was broken down in a turning lane -and now here we are.)
So. I have a site. And now I'm really starting to get into the whole 'self-promotion' thing. "WOOHOO, Lookit ME!!! YAY!" I used to be afraid of a having a site like this. A site where I post MY work for the whole world to see (oh gee! you think they'll drop by!?) I was always afraid someone might steal my work and claim it as their own. And then I realized just what I was thinking..."steal my work?? steal MY work?!?" haha, woo, yeah -funny. If someone was going to plagiarize, then why not go ahead and steal from someone good? So I feel secure now that no one will be vamping my material (of course, paranoia doesn't just go away, so I am taking ludicrously difficult measures to safe-guard against theft) -but all in all, I'm secure enough that I am willing to let people use my stuff if they are polite enough to ask, and give any credit to those deserving. Hopefully I deserve some someday.
A lot of stuff has happened in my life. I could spend the rest of my life relating experiences I've had -this is not to say that I've had that interesting of a life, but merely to call up a point. Point being: Time moves ever foreward. (yes, yes -there's more) See, if I spent my life relating my past, more time would be given over to the past. It's a losing battle, catching Time. So I'm not going to go about getting you all up-to-date on my personal history. This is a Fiction page after all, not a biography. If something comes up to trigger a notable memory, I will share it with you. Otherwise, I'll stick to recent experiences.
That being said, I want say that I am in the Army Reserves. No, I'm not about to rant about Bin Laden. If I started on that tangent I'd be an old man when I left this post. (if you want to know how i feel about that issue go to EHOWA and know that Patriotism is not dead) What I am going to say is; If it ever goes hot and heavy, and I find myself in the trenches, the list of people I'd want there with me, watching my back, is a very short list. At the top of that list is my good friend Lee (and just to put that in perspective for you; he beats out a fully resurrected, and very pissed off Patton -and if you don't know who Patton was, i pity you). Having said that, I want to congratulate Lee on his recent engagement: Congratulations Lee and Wendy, I wish you all the very best, may your pains by minor, your pleasures grand, your love eternally strong, your children healthy, and your future ever bright. (conditions: as long as Lee can still come out and play, and i get to spoil the offspring of your union -i'm good at it, ask my niece, or better yet, ask my sister...hehe).
If you want to see the couple you can check them out on Wendy's website , or jump straight to the pictures showing the two together .
---Note the name on the obelisk; though we may fight Death, he gets us all in the end.
Well I finished Chapter One and posted it. It didn't end then way I originally saw it, and that kind of surprised me. I mean, shouldn't I be the first to know? I had planned to have dinner interrupted by some unwanted guests, but then I had the idea for the Vista Room and I wanted to go ahead and use it. I couldn't see a reason to have them go to the Vista in any other relevant fashion. And going to the Vista immediately after the coming attack doesn't fit in with what's about to happen during the attack (oops, did i just give away the sneak attack? oh well, too late to backspace now.....hehehe). Also, I felt compelled to actually acknowledge the existence of the remaining crew members, so I tossed that in there as well. I really did intend to put some action into Chapter One, but it turns out to be little more than a meet-and-greet session. I could have fattened Chapter One enough to begin the attack, but the end of the attack pretty much closes Chapter Two at this point, and I don't want Chapter Two to only be a small blurb. So, I left a mini-cliffhanger in Chapter One which will segway into Chapter Two --Which I will begin posting very soon. Until then:
-- "Here's hoping you don't, become a robot *CLANG*CLANG*
--Whoops, too late!"
Ok, so I have FleshBurner up now. Yay. As I mentioned, FleshBurner, along with the other pre-existing serials was in bad shape. It would be embarrassing if I had actually used my full ability on it (that's not bragging, it's just alluding to the fact that I've written my name with more skill than is displayed in FleshBurner) but even as lousy as it was, it had a certain simplistic element that I really liked (I'm sure most would agree it still has a simplistic element). It kind of loses that charm when it's fleshed out.
Another thing I did was to write it in third-person, whereas, it had been first. This was a tough decision. The reason they were short and fun was because they were told -maybe remembered- by Tyler. Now instead of a hero relating his exploits, you get stuck with me telling you about some guy I made up. So, yay, I have a new imaginary friend. (Just to tell you how tough it was to decide, I actually wrote the first couple of paragraphs in first and third -I had two wordpads and a notepad open, comparing) But in the end it is the right choice because I really stink in first-person -ask anyone who's met me in real life, I can talk all day about someone else's actions, but I can't relate my own life as easily (so writing in first would put me in the position of trying to relate my own fictitious actions, which would just be ridiculously difficult.
So there you have it. The page can now Officially be called a Science Fiction and Fantasy (and Rambling) site.
--"Simultaneous events don't happen, We are isolated temporally."
Woohoo! I made some banners for my site. I'm actually pretty happy with the way they turned out. The best part is, I had no idea what I was doing. I didn't even go into it thinking, 'Hmm, now let's try making a Red Giant.' Nope. not at all. That Red Giant, with the ship flying into it, was originally the ship itself. I kept screwing it up, though. So I started playing around with the different effects in Adobe Photoshop and I swirled the horrible ship I had draw out of existence. I looked at the swirled shape and thought, 'hey bet that would make a cool place to have a ship do a nose-dive into,' (hehe, i love the old 'black ship into the sun thing' -if you don't know what i'm talking about, read some Douglas Adams, darnit! and i mean now! stop reading this and get your sorry butt to a bookstore!)
Er, sorry about the tangent. Ok, (and anyone reading this should have completed their Adams assignment) so basically, I goofed around in Adobe and made some banners by accident. So yay again. And tonight I'll start on Chapter Two -I may or may not post the first part tonight, depends on what time it is when I finish.
--Everyone thank Ricardo for the Adobe Photoshop.
--"I'd do anything for you, anything that you want me to -it's just gonna take a little more money..."
Ok, so I haven't started Chapter Two yet. Why? because I was filled with the holiday spirit and felt compelled to cook up a little piece for the season - It's on the main page. I didn't really spend a lot of time on it, in fact I made it up as I went along (but isn't that what i do anyway? no. i generally have a starting point and a goal and all the key points all the characters and important things planned out in advance, and then all i have to do when i actually write it is to patch these elements together and fill in a few details and patch a few holes ---but i made this up on the fly).
So Chapter Two will start tomorrow. I should be able to post the first part before I go to sleep.
--"But I can't help from feeling jealous, each time she climbs on his knee.... oh why must she climb on his knee?..."
Ok, apparently I lied. Chapter Two will not start tonight. It seems I got talked into going to a party or something, which will probably suck. So Chapter Two will begin tomorrow afternoon/night. That is all...
--"...I got ecstasy, but I need some company..you got that mystery..lord I need a helping hand..."
So the 'party' turned out to not be that bad -all I'm going to say about it, is that we wound up eating at IHOP with a couple of strippers at around 6am. (any night that ends like that can't be all bad)
So I started Chapter Two last night and I didn't like it. So I started it over and it turned out better, but not great. I was going to add some more to it tonight, but I had forgotten about the Marx Brothers Marathon , which, by law, I have to watch. (if you can call three films a night a marathon --mini-series-marathon, perhaps?)
Well anyway, Chapter Two has begun -and will continue until I decide to start Chapter Three...so rejoice, for free low-grade fiction lives!
--"...so what can I do......to get me to you......"
New in Chapter Two -Jude gets angry! yay! Well not that angry. But a little angry. So I wrote some more Chapter Two tonight and even went so far as to begin to explain the eye-hands (hand-eyes?) of the Taronii/Taronu (I still haven't gotten that straight. Taronu is suppose to be the whole, the name of the cult they belong to. Taronii is more like a plural of individual members -like mice, meeces, and mouses --feel free to substitute mooses/moosi/or multi-moose-- but I drop case and take up tense, or something). But Chapter Two is starting to go somewhere (that interlude with Tokk and Sharpe --the Vicks/Biggs and Wedge of the Space Opera world <universe/multi-verse?>-- did have a point, in case you missed it, aside from letting you know that the other crew members aboard the Aesir actually do exist).
I have another idea for a serial Sci-Fi to sort of compliment the FleshBurner series (in a non-related sort of way), but Lee told me to finish up the Space Opera first. (he knows I have a habit of getting sidetracked and not finishing what I start) Seems he wants a complete Space Opera before I start a new project and forget about it. (so at least somebody is interested in what's going on. yay!)
Oh, and you can blame Jude's anger (he wasn't originally suppose to be angry) on the fact that I ran out of my number one writing aid. Yep, that's right, I'm all out of pure-grade heroin...........(a joke! I swear, Mom, just a joke!)
--"Give me, a kiss to build a dream on, and my imagination, will thrive upon that kiss -Sweetheart, I ask no more than this, a kiss to build a dream on......"
I put some more Chapter Two up tonight/this morning, and I'm darn happy with it. I hadn't even planned on writing any tonight, but I got to playing around with some ideas and the two new scenes just fell off my fingers (I can call them scenes, right?). I threw in the 'Tokk block' (as I like to think of it) to give a little more....not depth, but....existence to the background characters (supporting cast plays just as big a role as the main players. they may not say or do much, but somebody has to do the things you don't really care about, otherwise you'd have Jude too busy piloting the ship, for instance, to get out and have experiences. and that would just be boring ---Chapter Three: Jude pilots the ship for two months, sounds too boring to save--- Besides, the relationships we have with other people make us what we are -even if you've never met anyone that I have, you are still seeing the result of their influence on me, to greater or lesser extents).
And then I finished the tiny 'Tokk block' and was hungry for more. I just had to write out what was happening in the Vista (oh sure, I know what's going to eventually happen, but I'm just as curious as you are in the details that lead up to that end point). And so, I'm just as curious, or probably more curious, in what's going to happen next.
All in all, I'm very happy with the way the new additions to Chapter Two turned out. I tried to put a lighter mood on the whole thing, as this has been a somewhat serious story. But come on, you/I can't take it too seriously. I mean, these are fake people experiencing fictious events in an online story. I'm not out to make a statement. I'm not trying to change the world. I just want people to be entertained. I hope whoever might be reading this enjoyed the Chapter Two additions as much as I did. (is it legal to be your own biggest fan?)
--"Cars break down, and people break down, and others things break down too..."
So I did my writing and updating early tonight. I need to catch up on my webcomics, and I didn't want to be up all night. I added some more to Chapter Two and have started reworking Shadow Trap (the next issue in the FleshBurner series) but I won't post Shadow Trap until it is finished.
I actually don't have much to say tonight, odd really. Let's see, got my writing and posting done by midnight, catch up on webcomics, and remember to take that trash out -that's it, I haven't forgotten anythin.....oops, got to go take the trash out, The Garbageman Cometh on the Morrow, and all that...........
Notice how tonight's additions are getting smaller and smaller? Could it be I'm getting ready to unleash a massive addition that will shock and amaze you (shock and amaze as in: 'i'm shocked that this new addition is so large! i'm amazed the he could actually write more than three paragraphs at a time!)
Also notice that there is possibly a hint of a clue at a supposed indication of an inkling of a notion of a suggestion of a suspicion of the trace of a whisper of a connotated implication of an overtone of an undertone of an insinuation of an adumbrated and foreshadowed prefigure of deeper feelings, than those of friendship, expressed by Ama towards Jude? (sorry about that up there, i said i had nothing to write tonight -but i do own a thesaurus ----how many other words mean, thesaurus?---- also, nothing about a deeper relationship between Jude and Ama is set in stone. just set in my brain as the way it seems to me <my brain is too different than stone!> btw, I am actually adding this and the paragragh above at 0215hrs, 21DEC01)
--"It hurts don't it, fools on parade.....words that we couldn't say....."
I didn't do any formal writing tonight. I mainly just planned out the next section grouping. I did this for three reasons. (a) the next section/s will probably turn out to be quite large and chock full of information. I want to make sure I can pull them off as planned. (b) tomorrow has been planned out for me in advance, seeing as how Christmas is near and all (Happy B-day, Big J! and remember: your dad kicks a** <location joke --you had to be there>), and apparently the plan has me waking up a full two to three hours earlier than I generally prefer to (we're talking before noon, people!). mostly i'll just be eating at a couple of different houses and sitting around (not) talking to people that I only see on Big J's Holiday (It's a family Tradition!! --insert feigned excited squeals of glee). And (c) i'm lazy...er, strike that. what i meant to say is: And (c) i'm getting reacquainted with the Dean. no, not John Wayne -that was the Duke. the Dean of SF. the man who set standards that no one else could match. Master of Speculative Fiction, Robert A. Heinlein. (he is generally thrown in with us unworthy Sci-Fi writers, but he himself didn't believe that his work <after 1959> was classed as such. ---personally, i think he defies classification. it didn't matter that most of his stories take place in the future, surrounded by technology that is best classified as Science Fiction. he wrote about people. people and their experiences and actions.---)
So instead of my usual song quote, I leave you with a quote by one of his characters from a book that was later made into the lamest movie adapted from a novel, of ALL TIME!!! (don't get me started. i can and will go on and on and on and on about this subject -i might possibly start a website on the subject at some later date <not the novel-to-movie subject, the THIS-PARTICULAR-BUTCHERING-OF-A-NOVEL-TO-MAKE-A-LAME-A**-MOVIE subject>)::
Rico in Starship Troopers
So I haven't updated the site in a couple of days -but it happened to be the Holidays, and I've just been so tired from all the running around and eating. And now my niece is here and I'm having more fun watching movies with her than locking myself in my room and writing. Besides, my heat went out and it's freezing in here (it's hard to write when your legs won't stop shaking because your feet are encased in ice.) I will attempt to locate a mythical 'space-heater' tomorrow (why are they called "space-heaters"? what else would they heat? .....time?) and try to get some additional electric blankets.
I did put up a new banner on the index page (made with help from my niece). And I've done everything short of actually writing the next installment of Chapter Two (it's completely planned out).
He Wore Red will be taken down as soon as I put up the new Chapter Two scenes so read it now if you haven't already (like you would actually be reading this, if all you were interested in was Space Opera).
It's cold, I am now going to go crawl into my GI cocoon and go to sleep.
--"I like people, they're the ones who can't stand...."