Writing

4 comments on "What am I doing, you didn’t ask? Well, let me tell you …"

I am readying Chapter Nineteen of The Panic Pure for posting. It’s all hospital, coping, love-love feelings, and h/c.

I’ve been writing on Tuesday Night, which is set in an AU of theĀ Heroes & Villains universe. I’ll be giving you all a taste of Part Three of Tuesday Night. Final manuscript should be around 40k, if not more. Enjoy.

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Title: Tuesday Night
Genre: superhero, mm
Excerpt length: 5000
Character: Sunfire

EXCERPT —

Being on call had never felt like torture before, but he couldn’t help wishing he could at least leave for the night. The thought of going home to his own place appealed, where Tony and Henry were waiting for him. Instead he lounged in the common room playing first-person shooters and wishing some action would start happening.

At least if he was kicking criminal ass he could tell himself his time wasn’t being wasted. Plus there was something cathartic about punching supervillains. Instead he was hanging out in the Lair waiting for something exciting to happen. It was frustrating.

There was the clatter of footsteps and Powergirl came in with their two new trial recruits, Saint Kloude and WarSong. They still had that faintly shocked look about them, that “I must be dreaming” expression of newbie superheroes everywhere.

“Hey Sunfire, can you do me a favor and take these guys out on a patrol?”

Seth was tempted to say No, but he could feel the walls closing in on him and the idea of getting out for a while really did appeal. He tossed his controller on the coffee table and stood, stretching his arms over his head. “Yeah sure, why not? Come on noobs, gear up and let’s get out of here.”

Continue Reading What am I doing, you didn’t ask? Well, let me tell you …
All Systems Red at Amazon
5 comments on "Shorts and Squares: Jagged Blade"

Shorts and Squares: Jagged Blade – Shorts and Squares: Jagged Blade was supposed to be out on the 14th, but I went back to fiddling with it and screwed it up. There’s a reason I don’t give hard self-pub release days. I’m terrible at being able to let it go.

The Jagged Blade mix so far:

  1. Heroes & Villains: Black Friday [square]
  2. I Saw An Execution Once [short]
  3. Forgot the Can Opener [short]
  4. Clyde [short]
  5. Inquisitor Jang: The Wilding [square]
  6. Bird of Paradise [square]
  7. Slipping Through the Cracks: Normal Again [square]
  8. Patient of Interest [short]
  9. A Cuckoo In the Nest [square]
  10. Altredes: One [serial novel]

I’ve taken out a couple of stories, added one, and yet I still feel as if there’s something missing. Some key element that will tie things together.

I’d rather hold off a few days or weeks and make something I love versus rushing. (I’ve already got a few that I’m reworking. I don’t want this to be another one.)

– I have been building up my universe. I’ve been writing notes on all the different events taking place to make the Worlds develop as they do. I’ve written brief outlines for a bunch of stories already.

Of Blood => The aliens attacking are the Hex. They are led by a rebel MaretHex (Lord) that fled exile to take over a primitive world. He has his thousands of followers and their ships. They conquer Earth.

The human resistance keeps fighting against the occupiers even while society moves on. Vampires and Others decide that to save their world they’ll have to reveal themselves to the humans. They join the war to reclaim Earth.

The battle commences and it is bloody and violent.

Uramichi Oniisan 01 at Amazon
0 comments on "Crime, punishment, writing"

I watch The Daily Show and The Colbert Report and they really get me to start thinking.

Like I never really thought about it before, but the amount of people being sent to prison every year is more than just private prisons gathering money for the Capitalist Overlords. It’s also a way to rip away the rights of minorities. Someone gets locked in prison for a stupid reason, and instead of receiving probation and a fine, they get locked away in a horrible place.

It takes away a man’s humanity and brings more chance that they’ll commit a crime again. To lock someone up with no rehabilitation program in place is ridiculous; it would be like grounding a kid, and not following up with a talk or a punishment. Just “Go to your room and stay there,” but with brutal murderers and rapists and all around criminal minded individuals in the surrounding rooms. And at the same time it takes away their right to vote.

I never paused to consider what the voting thing could mean. That it might be a plot to take away the rights of less privileged citizens. Having people imprisoned for ridiculous reasons not only lines peoples’ pockets, but it takes away the voice of the people. And when I look at it that way, I get a suspicious feeling about the rising number of people being sentenced to prison every year.

link: Cracked’s take on prison – http://www.cracked.com/article_20775_7-horrifying-things-you-didnt-want-to-know-about-prison.html

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I’mma write a story that focuses on crime, punishment, and the overshadowing effect of the elite. I mean, that’s basically the backbone of my State Rule stories. A whole system of government that seems so harsh and overbearing that it’s outrageous to see, but it had to come around from somewhere.

Paradigm Shift is a State Rule story, but the world was decimated by zombies and plague. It’s not a solid representation of the World I’m building, so I don’t bring it into consideration.

My other State Rule stories, however, involve histories that mirror our own situation. Capitalism and the free market decimate the world, and individuals form together in new groups centered around the rights of the people. That’s where the Families come from. Members are not all related to each other, though some people are born into a Family like the Altredes, the Lothams, etc.

There were all kinds of unfair happenstances that led into State Rule societies, and now I’m considering how our prison system works helped bring about the world I’m building.

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Seriously, if you want to make up stories, keep your eyes and ears open. Your brain will take things in, and even without you noticing it, stories will build themselves in your subconscious.

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Check me out at Kimichee: Free Reads.

Heroes & Villains at Amazon
0 comments on "Cold Spaghetti and NaNoWriMo: The Perfect Combination"

Ugh, it’s the middle of the night and I got up and ate a big bowl of cold spaghetti. Now my stomach is feeling all roly-poly “I think I’m going to be sick”-oly. I’m starting to feel tired again and I’ll go back to bed in a moment, but until then I’ve been planning out my NaNoWriMo.

I know, right? It’s practically the middle of the month and I’m just starting my story. But it’s actually the third story that I’ve started for NaNo, but it’s the only one I don’t think I’m going to discard. Those other ones left me feeling doubtful, this one makes me feel hopeful. It’s called “Freeform Jazz” because I’m not-so secretly a weirdo.

The rough start:

Jazz – real name: James Leopold. He was nicknamed Jazz because that’s what his parents were listening to when he was conceived. It’s a horrifying story he really didn’t want to know about, but it wasn’t something he could forget. Not when they insisted on listening to jazz music every year around his birthday and got all moon-eyed toward each other. It was disgusting.

But you never have to worry about it again, he thought. You’re never going to catch them being all kissy faced and sweaty-rumpled. You’re never going to see them ever again.

“Are you all right, son? Is there someone I can call?”

Jazz blinked and looked at the man that had stopped next to his perch on the stone planter. “What?”

There was infinite patience in the brown eyes that looked at him, a sad understanding that made Jazz want to slap the guy just because he could. “Would you like me to call someone for you?” the man asked.

“Why?” Jazz asked, cocking his head.

“Because you’re crying.”

The man pointed and Jazz realized that it was true. Tears were streaming down his cheeks and he hadn’t even noticed them start. He scrubbed at his face with his sleeve and thought that he was supposed to be embarrassed. Really, he was just tired. Exhausted in a way that made even breathing seem too hard to take.

“I’m … I’m all right,” he said. “You don’t have to call anyone. I’ll be fine.”

The man didn’t look like he believed him, but gave him a nod anyway before heading toward the stone steps. He had a black cane that went with the limp in his left leg. Jazz wondered what had happened to him.

Maybe you just met the real life John Watson, he thought. A smile tugged at his lips, but it didn’t last long. Not when he couldn’t seem to stop the helpless tears that kept escaping his eyes as he tried not to think about his parents. His tragically dead parents.

Jazz mopped at his face and forced himself to his feet when what he really wanted to do was hug his knees to his chest and just break down. But how lame would that be? A nineteen year old weeping in front of the public library because he didn’t know what else to do.

He hated feeling so helpless.

Don’t tell anyone at Wattpad, but I’ve decided that it’s the origin story of GlenDal (from Heroes & Villains). Everyone knows I’m a big Sailor Moon fan, plus there’s that song from AMVHell 5: “If I were a girl, even just for a day, I’d roll out of bed in the morning and wonder what just happened to me.” The story is practically writing itself. I even came up with a little Barbie joke that I’m going to throw in.

I am really excited about NaNoWriMo. I hope you are too ^_^